"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."
--Greek proverb
In one of the classes I took many years ago, my professor said that the state of the Earth would be in much better shape if humans lived a lot longer, so that we were forced to think more of the consequences of our actions; or if humans lived much shorter lives, so that we didn't live long enough to do too much damage in our lifetime. Unfortunately, we live long enough to plan and achieve acts of great destruction and short enough that some of us don't care what happens afterwards because they won't be around to suffer through it.
--Greek proverb
In one of the classes I took many years ago, my professor said that the state of the Earth would be in much better shape if humans lived a lot longer, so that we were forced to think more of the consequences of our actions; or if humans lived much shorter lives, so that we didn't live long enough to do too much damage in our lifetime. Unfortunately, we live long enough to plan and achieve acts of great destruction and short enough that some of us don't care what happens afterwards because they won't be around to suffer through it.