I think humanity has used our world resources as I tend to use my toothpaste.  When the tube is full, I always make sure i have a full length of toothpaste on the brush.  I don’t think that i’m going to run out.  And for a while it appears as though I’m not going to.  Depletion just doesn’t seem to occur for that initial 1/3 of a tube.  Then i start to notice that it is actually decreasing in volume, but hey, the toothpaste is still half full.  Do i change my use? No, of course not!

Pretty soon i’m down to the last 1/4 of a tube, but think ahh it’s no big deal, i can just go out an buy another tube of toothpaste, so continue using it as i usually do.  But then that fatefull day comes when i squeeze and nothing comes out…at first i panic as I didn’t go out and actually buy another tube as that would have taken foresight on my behalf.  But then upon further inspection i realize “oh hey, if i start from the bottom and squeeze up tightly i still have some left!” So i do that, and from that day on i make sure to use only the tiniest bit of toothpaste in each brush. I take what i would have normally used up in 2 days and make it last for 2 weeks but ultimately it still runs out.

I could have made it last 100 times as long if only i had metered out that amount for the entire tube, but that’s just not how we view things is it?

Fortunately for me i the real final few days i managed to scam a new tube off my dad when i was home…all I can say is that I hope we colonize the moon or mars soon.

And that my friends, is how I’ve simplified our global environmental crisis into one simple toothpaste metaphor.