MTV Math

I didn't expect much from the MTV Video Music Awards, and my expectations were met. I think the low point was when Al Gore came out and actually lectured the audience. That's Entertainment!

At one point* he said MTV polls showed how important viewers thought the environment was--and the audience cheered. So they were cheering their awareness?

He then repeated the line he can't know for sure--that we must act soon. Perhaps we can wait a while. Perhaps it's too late. Perhaps there's nothing we can do. Perhaps nothing need be done. Perhaps there's no good move to make at present. We just don't know.

Weirder still was Queen Latifah's introduction for Gore. She noted it took 10,000 generations to get to one billion humans and only a few more to get to six billion (soon nine billion). What's your point, Queen? The reason it took us so long to get to a billion is nature used to be far more dangerous to humans, but with a lot of work we were able to tame it enough to make the world house and feed billions better than it did the smaller populations of earlier eras. This is a good thing.

It's not as if those 10,000 generations were trying to live in balance with nature. Rather, nature was slapping them down. Their lack of control over the environment made life hard. If they knew what we know, they could have gone from ten to ten billion in a hundred generations.

*All discussion of the show is based on personal recollection.