Sustainable preservation of mankind

Sustainability: a wonderful concept, but how to handle it? People, there is so much more going on than just the rise of the sea level.

Let’s just spend 254 billion and we no longer have to worry about the CO2 reduction and the 2% temperature increase. This is partially funded by a higher VAT on consumer goods, paid by the food producing companies. So, we keep the sea level from rising and the sustainability goals are saved. If it only were this simple.

The following is even more important: we are destroying ourselves genetically. Think about the horticulturists in the Westland area who were only able to conceive daughters due to the use of disinfectants containing bromine. The number of children we get is already going down because of a decreased fertility; which food products play a part in that? Obesity is a food-related disease for which people can have a genetic disposition. The UK has never seen so many morbidly obese people. And it takes at least 4 generations before the obesity gene has been restored. Aluminium salts in deodorants are washed into the sea. This is also where nanoplastics end up, causing fish to develop different behaviour. Through our food, we get an unwanted amount of waste products back into our system.

It becomes even more different when it has a huge effect on your own family. I have a grandson, he's 4 years old. Clever little man. However, he has to live his life without hands and feet. He doesn't have them. This really shakes your world to its core. A French study focuses on the question of whether glyphosate can be the cause of this deviation; my family used to work with substance for a long time.

The rise of the sea level is something we can handle: some more pumps and adding a metre to the dykes. But we will never be able to fix all those people who are born with a genetic deviation. When we have achieved a sustainable CO2 footprint, but not a sustainable human race, then what have we achieved in the end?

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Herman Bessels is architect BNA at Bessels architekten & ingenieurs B.V.