A bug's life

In microbiology practical classes, we were taught how to grow bacteria using agar plate – a medium that contains rich nutrients. With the essential nutrients available from their immediate environments, bacteria go into cell division and proliferate, extending their sizes of colonies. The demand for more nutrients increases with the growth.

I always see the world as an agar plate. And we are the bugs, living off the planet’s resources, like they eat away the nutrients, at an exponentially increasing rate. It is not hard to find evidence for our appetite. Everybody is talking about growth. Countries pride themselves for the ability to improve on their GDP. Corporations and companies have growth as their number one mission. Individual strives for a larger paycheck. And growth means consumption. Anybody who wants to argue that fact simply has to consider that no one in the right mind will want to grow bigger just to become poorer, even though in reality they may get hungrier, to know that growth equates higher consumption. Our Earth is a limited resource. If everything is growing and consuming more, what’s left to give?

The Microbiology lesson provided some answers. When the nutrients eventually run dry, growth stops and the harvester dies a hungry death. The more aggressive the growth is, the sooner the death. We can however seek relieve that such grandiose disaster will not happen in our lifetime or even our grandchildren’s. So, let’s continue our good job in seeking growth, improving on capabilities and skills (to continue mining our Mother Earth), so that everyone benefits from everyone else’s effort.