Grinderdust,
Please don't take offense at Mariss' statements. If you must take offense at any statements made here, take offense at mine. You see, Mariss is correct, although it doesn't "feel" that way to you when you look out on those 10 acres of non-recyclable trash, and hop into your Prius for a trip around the block. If every single one of us, alive on this planet today, were to only use our personal vehicles for trips that other people weren't making, or that public transit won't approach, if we were all to only purchase what was absolutely necessary, if we were to stop clear-cutting our rainforests, if we were to stop strip mining, and drilling for oil, and building new subdivisions and luxury condo units, if we only did what has been suggested by every "liberal" media print outlet from Mother Earth News to Mother Jones and all points in between...what would we have? The greatest economic disaster ever known. What would everyone do for a living & how would they collect their wages? Or even their supplies? Would any of this stop the next super-fire from devouring California's expensive summer homes? Would this halt or counteract the "demon" CO2?
While I agree that man is foolish and brazen with his use of technology to "fix" problems that never really existed, I don't think we should chuck it all in the waste bin and redact 10,000 years of history. Do I like the fact that compounds from Teflon are in ALL available drinking sources currently known? Absolutely not. Do I like the fact that triclosan, the ingredient in "anti-bacterial" hand soap is hitching a ride on our DNA, and is impossible to remove from our drinking water? Would I mention it if I did? Do I like the fact that big "agra" managed to lose track of 30 million bushels of genetically modified corn that then made it's way into the human food supply chain? Come on...
I didn't make those decisions. I am not responsible for the actions of others. I will not do penance for others' sins. Be careful with what actions you demand of others, lest the sins of the fathers be visited on the sons. Sound familiar? Religious undertones. You bet. And that is basically the phrase that is being repackaged & bantered about by the neo-greenies as a scare-tactic. Hypocrisy knows no bounds. Were that it did.
You see, 10,000 years ago, when the last ice age was still going on, attempting to recede, and our ancestors lived in clans and caves, we would overhunt an area until we were forced to move on in search of greener pastures. When the Native Americans of ancient times were hunting the bison, they would set fire to the prairie to make the bison stampede off a cliff. While they were busy butchering the dead & dying herd at the bottom of a ravine, that fire was ravaging the prairies, sometimes burning for months. Don't think that man's destructive capabilities are only available to modern man with modern tools. We are a very clever lot who have been "harming" mother earth for a very long time. Earth abides. When she tires of us, she will shrug her shoulders and shake us off. The few humans who survive will have to rethink their ways, or will go extinct like so many other species have. Only we have the ability to learn from our mistakes, through reason. Abandoning reasoning has no benefit for our kind.  |