A: “Should I act as though I am alone on a planet of seven billion people?”
B: “I don’t follow. What’s making you ask?”
A: “Well, I was looking at satellite images of the planet, and I stopped on pictures of two regions that should be similar but are very different.”
B: Which two regions?”
A: “Rub’ al Khali and Imperial Valley.”
B: “Rub’…?”
A: “It’s called the Empty Quarter. It is part of the Arabian Peninsula, and it touches several countries, including Yemen. It’s desert, real desert. Lots of sand and little vegetation. Hard-to-find water.”
B: “I can understand calling such a place a desert, but Imperial Valley? Isn’t that where we get lots of food? I’m picturing farms everywhere.”
A: “Yes. There are farms everywhere in the Imperial Valley, but they wouldn’t be there without the efforts of many individuals banding together to make the land arable. Typically, deserts and semiarid regions might be inviting to thrill seekers on ATVs and great places for terrorists to hide from governments, but they are generally not inviting, and they are only rarely the sites of widespread agriculture. We need water to drink and to grow food, so ‘empty quarters,’ such as the Rub’ al Khali don’t support large populations in Third World countries like Yemen. But in the USA where infrastructure is supported by great wealth, the Imperial Valley is a naturally dry area that supports not only a local population, but with its agriculture, many throughout the country. Remarkable.
“The Imperial Valley encompasses 500,000 acres of farms adjacent to The Salton Sea. It lies in the Colorado Desert that is part of the Sonoran Desert. That the Valley is comprised of so much arable land is testimony to work of irrigation engineers and cooperative political units. Not so in the Rub’ al Kahli of Yemen. Torn into small uncooperative sections by rival Bedu tribes and now by terrorist organizations, the Empty Quarter is really empty. The obvious contrast between the developed land of southern California and the desolation in Yemen makes me think of the Imperial Valley as an Empty Quarter filled with water. It also makes me think of the two ways people handle their circumstances.
“Some people prefer organizing, find some way to enter joint ventures or agreements for their mutual benefit. They develop a strategy to reach identifiable goals. Other people merely act in the moment. The two naturally arid landscapes reflect in their current differences the effects of California’s overall organizing and Yemen’s contrasting individual acting. Of course, one could argue that the great wealth present in southern California assured the development of the Valley, but the region was undeveloped for centuries when it was subject to the same kind of social structure that exists today in Yemen’s Rub’ al Khali. There was no large-scale effort to transform the valley before the nineteenth century. And if you say that it was because the technology wasn’t available, I will note that the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians both irrigated their lands. How hard can it be to dig a ditch? If you argue that California is affluent, I will point to the potential affluence of a culture sitting on untapped petroleum reserves on the Arabian Peninsula.
“When you look at both regions from space, you see the obvious contrast. But you don’t have to examine satellite images of Yemen to get the point. From space the Imperial Valley looks like a checkerboard of farms. But that colorful checkerboard of various shades of green stops abruptly at the southern border of California. Apparently, a similar regional strategy doesn’t apply in Mexico.”*
B: “True, I just looked at one of those images of the border. I can see the difference from space. Kind of amazing. If I were an alien from a faraway planet, I would immediately land in the vicinity to see why there was such a contrast in the colors I observed on my way to Earth. But I guess, since I’m one of those seven billion who live here, I can offer a different perspective on the regions. There are arguments that favor individual act over strategy. Numerous analogs occur in warfare. Individual military units and even individuals have changed the course of supposedly well-planned battles. At Gettysburg, for example, the Twentieth Maine with little ammunition charged downhill to turn back a Confederate unit. Call it desperate; call it impetuous; whatever one calls the action, that downhill charge helped the Union defeat the Confederates during that battle in 1863. The charge wasn’t part of a larger strategy, but it worked for the larger cause.
“I think most people resist cooperating when they think their individuality might be subsumed by a large entity. Sometimes people in apartment buildings want to turn up their music if only for a brief time, but that time might be in the middle of the night. Living within any planned system prevents that kind of act. Living alone and acting alone allows it.”
A: “Individual acts do make a difference, but a highly organized group with well-defined roles might be the only way a population headed rapidly from seven billion to eight billion and more can thrive. The planet has numerous untapped resources that can benefit people well beyond local regions. As long as individuals fail to cooperate for the greater good, many of those resources will lie beneath Empty Quarters, not even serving those who encamp atop them.
“Resources require management. Large populations require some organizing. Yet, the problem for all of us as individuals is the one of balancing our personal freedoms and habits with our contemporaries’ needs. What’s our viable alternative? Constant warfare that prevents a regional plan of development? Constant suspicions about those who approach our individual territories? Constant hoarding, and with it, constant wasting? Traveling on camels and living nomadically? Scarcity over abundance in spite of a burgeoning population with the potential for more individuals to cooperate for their mutual benefit and for the benefit of the world at large?”
* http://i.imgur.com/Ue1Rntj.jpg
B: “I don’t follow. What’s making you ask?”
A: “Well, I was looking at satellite images of the planet, and I stopped on pictures of two regions that should be similar but are very different.”
B: Which two regions?”
A: “Rub’ al Khali and Imperial Valley.”
B: “Rub’…?”
A: “It’s called the Empty Quarter. It is part of the Arabian Peninsula, and it touches several countries, including Yemen. It’s desert, real desert. Lots of sand and little vegetation. Hard-to-find water.”
B: “I can understand calling such a place a desert, but Imperial Valley? Isn’t that where we get lots of food? I’m picturing farms everywhere.”
A: “Yes. There are farms everywhere in the Imperial Valley, but they wouldn’t be there without the efforts of many individuals banding together to make the land arable. Typically, deserts and semiarid regions might be inviting to thrill seekers on ATVs and great places for terrorists to hide from governments, but they are generally not inviting, and they are only rarely the sites of widespread agriculture. We need water to drink and to grow food, so ‘empty quarters,’ such as the Rub’ al Khali don’t support large populations in Third World countries like Yemen. But in the USA where infrastructure is supported by great wealth, the Imperial Valley is a naturally dry area that supports not only a local population, but with its agriculture, many throughout the country. Remarkable.
“The Imperial Valley encompasses 500,000 acres of farms adjacent to The Salton Sea. It lies in the Colorado Desert that is part of the Sonoran Desert. That the Valley is comprised of so much arable land is testimony to work of irrigation engineers and cooperative political units. Not so in the Rub’ al Kahli of Yemen. Torn into small uncooperative sections by rival Bedu tribes and now by terrorist organizations, the Empty Quarter is really empty. The obvious contrast between the developed land of southern California and the desolation in Yemen makes me think of the Imperial Valley as an Empty Quarter filled with water. It also makes me think of the two ways people handle their circumstances.
“Some people prefer organizing, find some way to enter joint ventures or agreements for their mutual benefit. They develop a strategy to reach identifiable goals. Other people merely act in the moment. The two naturally arid landscapes reflect in their current differences the effects of California’s overall organizing and Yemen’s contrasting individual acting. Of course, one could argue that the great wealth present in southern California assured the development of the Valley, but the region was undeveloped for centuries when it was subject to the same kind of social structure that exists today in Yemen’s Rub’ al Khali. There was no large-scale effort to transform the valley before the nineteenth century. And if you say that it was because the technology wasn’t available, I will note that the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians both irrigated their lands. How hard can it be to dig a ditch? If you argue that California is affluent, I will point to the potential affluence of a culture sitting on untapped petroleum reserves on the Arabian Peninsula.
“When you look at both regions from space, you see the obvious contrast. But you don’t have to examine satellite images of Yemen to get the point. From space the Imperial Valley looks like a checkerboard of farms. But that colorful checkerboard of various shades of green stops abruptly at the southern border of California. Apparently, a similar regional strategy doesn’t apply in Mexico.”*
B: “True, I just looked at one of those images of the border. I can see the difference from space. Kind of amazing. If I were an alien from a faraway planet, I would immediately land in the vicinity to see why there was such a contrast in the colors I observed on my way to Earth. But I guess, since I’m one of those seven billion who live here, I can offer a different perspective on the regions. There are arguments that favor individual act over strategy. Numerous analogs occur in warfare. Individual military units and even individuals have changed the course of supposedly well-planned battles. At Gettysburg, for example, the Twentieth Maine with little ammunition charged downhill to turn back a Confederate unit. Call it desperate; call it impetuous; whatever one calls the action, that downhill charge helped the Union defeat the Confederates during that battle in 1863. The charge wasn’t part of a larger strategy, but it worked for the larger cause.
“I think most people resist cooperating when they think their individuality might be subsumed by a large entity. Sometimes people in apartment buildings want to turn up their music if only for a brief time, but that time might be in the middle of the night. Living within any planned system prevents that kind of act. Living alone and acting alone allows it.”
A: “Individual acts do make a difference, but a highly organized group with well-defined roles might be the only way a population headed rapidly from seven billion to eight billion and more can thrive. The planet has numerous untapped resources that can benefit people well beyond local regions. As long as individuals fail to cooperate for the greater good, many of those resources will lie beneath Empty Quarters, not even serving those who encamp atop them.
“Resources require management. Large populations require some organizing. Yet, the problem for all of us as individuals is the one of balancing our personal freedoms and habits with our contemporaries’ needs. What’s our viable alternative? Constant warfare that prevents a regional plan of development? Constant suspicions about those who approach our individual territories? Constant hoarding, and with it, constant wasting? Traveling on camels and living nomadically? Scarcity over abundance in spite of a burgeoning population with the potential for more individuals to cooperate for their mutual benefit and for the benefit of the world at large?”
* http://i.imgur.com/Ue1Rntj.jpg
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