Long ago and far away our ancestors lived in paradise. But then that darned woman, Eve, ruined everything for all of us these many thousands of years. The Garden is better than now, better than here.

It is not accidental that many of the world’s great religions were started in desert regions. Visions of lush gardens certainly hold much appeal to people mired in dust and hot winds, bemoaning their withering crops and scrawny goats. To describe the Garden appeals to the same sense that nostalgia does.

And we should discern more circularity in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam than we normally do, for the promises of Heaven are similar to the descriptions of the Garden that we lost. Hinduism is right out front with reincarnation and the endless cycle. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hinduism sprang from the deserts too. And the ideas of Original Sin and redemption can be seen as: “we can recover the Garden if we are redeemed.”

Today conservationists hope to protect and preserve slices of “paradises” for future generations. Global warming threatens to doom the whole planet, including these pieces of paradise. Those of us who look to the future with both hope and foreboding want to preserve the earth’s special places and adopt new courses so we can help to make the earth a little more like heaven, a little less like hell. The people trapped in hell-holes like Darfur and Somalia long for places Better Than Now, Better Than Here.

Unfortunately, Big Economics, Big Politics, and Big Religion are incapable of changing their stances on our population explosion which is accelerating, threatening to carry us further toward Hell and away from the Garden or Heaven. As far as I can tell no tycoon, politician, or churchman will support any moves to limit our population.

So, Mother Nature will ultimately limit our population because we are plundering all resources at an accelerating rate, especially the “renewable” ones like water and air. We’re headed for a huge population crash. So the Garden and Heaven remain a dream, forever unreachable. Better Than Now, Better Than Here? Oh, if it could be so.