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Environmentalism
Ultimately environmentalism without population reduction
equals "wise use." Wise use is, of course, the term coined by the
anti-environmentalists. Pretty amusing isn't it? Simple too. Let's write that
mathematically.
(E - Pr) =
Wu
Having analyzed the situation from a balanced perspective
using reason instead of values, Buddycom tells the big picture truth about
ecology which will please neither the right nor the left for different reasons.
Having waited and watched humanity for several decades, the only thing we've
seen changing thus far is the rate of destruction which continues to
accelerate, and the degree to which humans feel good about perfunctory
politically correct pollyanna or are simply in denial.
So, the only thing left to do is to just get used to it.
Practice this. Raise both shoulders a little and say, "Oh,
well."
See there. Don't you feel just a little bit better
already?
Level one.
In the next fifteen years people will
discover that certain curves may go in interesting directions. Curves for
various things may go up as well as down. Consideration of peripheral effect,
species extinction, toxic waste and pollution, will yield to consideration of
root cause, the numbers of Homo sapiens. The next fifteen years will
make unavoidably obvious to all members of humankind that although they have
cared tangentially and superficially for biodiversity and its benefits,
they will care much more concretely about preserving their own lives.
Biodiversity is the inevitable and permanent loser in this global turf battle.
Who gives a hoot about habitat? People may question the exclusionary principle
of "human ecology" and begin to consider the inverted V-curve as pertaining to
that special species, Homo sapiens. As the goal posts get moved further
and further towards anthropocentrism, individual inclinations to preserve
biodiversity, having been laudable once upon a time, have become moot at
best, ridiculous when anthropocentric cost benefit ratios are applied.
Developed and developing nations will continue to change their topography
replacing most of the remaining fragments of their natural ecosystems with
patchwork quilt patterns of human development charcteristic of Europe. Canada
will have come close to completing the cutting of the second fifty per cent of
its forests which are home to three quarters of Canada's species of plants and
animals. America will increase its loss of farmland to development from the
present 3,000 acres per day. Forests will continue to burn. Coral reefs will
continue to decay.
Levels two and three.
Grain stocks will continue to drop
from the current all time low of just a 48 day supply to even more perilously
low levels; prices, scarcity, and hunger will increase. Fish stocks upon which
one sixth of humanity depends for its primary source of protein, will continue
to decline to the point at which we will continue to try vainly to recreate the
first trophic level while depleting the third and second of four trophic
levels. Water supplies will continue to become perilously scarce to the point
of exhaustion due to industrial use, desertification and salination. Average
temperatures of the earth at various locations will continue to increase along
with increases in the average concentration of carbon dioxide in the lower
atmosphere to levels exceeding 400 ppm. The climate patterns will be changed
with damaging effects to agriculture and life which will be irreversible in the
short term. And the potential for massive global wars will increase
dramatically. We do not like being thought of as alarmists. We will not find
satisfaction in saying we told you so. Then again maybe satisfaction is where
you find it. We wish people to wake up and make adjustments now, before
any more ground is lost. This means bring the population down nowin both
the rich and the poor countries, starting today. It would be an event of very
low probability but, even if the world populace were accurately informed and
came to accept a correct assesment of our collective situation, today, at this
very moment and began to form new values and behaviors, the sheer inertia of
our population will still propel the world population upwards towards a
completely unstable and unsustainable ten billion. Africa, with half its
population under 15 years of age will double its population in fifteen years;
Haiti can not sustain its present population of seven million but, will double
that to fourteen million in eighteen years. And then there's India, Pakistan,
Indonesia, and China. And oil?
Level four.
Much depends upon how well a collapse is
orchestrated and controlled. So far it seems to be going according to a
relentlessly predictable pattern. We would use the word plan but, it has been
pointed out by Vigdor Schreibman, of
FINS, that usage of that word in this context would be in poor taste. Religious
leaders and governmental institutions won't even lift a finger let alone
acknowledge these scientific and demographic realities. As they define and
interpret their belief systems at present, it would not be in their long term
best interests. If there were a realization of apocolyptic prophesy, however,
an industrialized, and clearly definable coalition stands to be the major if
not the sole beneficiary. Depending on which side of the fence you find
yourself as well as how high you stand on your socioeconomic totem pole, you
may or may not want to think that one through. Acceptance of the status quo for
persons who do think it through depends largely upon how chances of personally
surviving a self fulfilled apocalyptic prophesy are viewed. Then again who
knows, maybe the most important factor is IQ? Or age?
Quite the opposite of what may be expected or hoped for by
some, there are forces knowingly and with full intention not only working
against population reduction but, rather, resolutely dedicated to raising the
consumptive and productive capacity of the large and unsustainable world
population level. They are not only obstinately in denial of the concept of
limits and its significance for resources and technology, they proactively
obfuscate issues which would help others to appreciate its meaning. People are
almost comical in their vehement denial of reality. Almost comical that is
because they make life so unnecessarily difficult. Truth is thus very
entertaining because it is indeed stranger than fiction. And it can be orders
of magnitude more dangerous. But hey, nobody likes a Gloomy Gus, right? So,
just raise your shoulders a little and repeat, "Oh,well."
There's pollyanna aplenty and one might wonder why serious
efforts had to wait till the top of the ninth inning. It's now been three
decades since the founding of the ZPG organization. At the very beginning of
the twentyfirst century the human snowball has reached immense and absurdly
unstoppable proportions.
Eco Buddy says, "Who really gives a hoot about habitat,
anyway?"
Are current ecological considerations too little, too late?
Or the first step is the beginning of a thousand mile journey? Well heck, you
can decide for yourself.
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