Arjun Khemani

In the previous post, I started with a bold conjecture. I wrote: The biggest threat to humanity is itself.

This is because I think it’s true if we take absolute accountability for our species.

Climate change is something (maybe) we have accelerated. And it’s because of us that Earth is getting inhospitable. So if the biggest threat to humanity is climate change, it’s actually still us.

But what about things that aren’t in our control like an asteroid charging from space? Well, we’re smart. And we need to be ready even for the unforeseeable.

And we definitely need to learn from our helpless dinosaurs that it’s important to have something to win against deadly asteroids for the survival of our species.

So it’s still on us.

Just like that in rather smaller, individual terms, blame does not work. It’s on you. And you can get sad like the dinosaurs because of something unlucky that struck them or you can build a space program (and a lot of other complex things) and survive the impossible and be happy.

In extreme terms then, humanity is the biggest threat to humanity. If we don’t innovate, if we don’t keep getting smarter, if we don’t have back-ups; then it’s our fault. We are the threat.

Work on what you can work on. Not what seems to be the threat.

We can’t control Nature. But we can control what we allow Nature to do to us.