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TechnoratiA powerful novel's vision of a dystopian future shines a cold light on the dreadful consequences of our universal apathy
A few weeks ago I read what I believe is the most important environmental book ever written. It is not Silent Spring, Small Is Beautiful or even Walden. It contains no graphs, no tables, no facts, figures, warnings, predictions or even arguments. Nor does it carry a single dreary sentence, which, sadly, distinguishes it from most environmental literature. It is a novel, first published a year ago, and it will change the way you see the world.
Cormac McCarthy's book The Road considers what would happen if the world lost its biosphere, and the only living creatures were humans, hunting for food among the dead wood and soot. Some years before the action begins, the protagonist hears the last birds passing over, "their half-muted crankings miles above where they circled the earth as senselessly as insects trooping the rim of a bowl". McCarthy makes no claim that this is likely to occur, but merely speculates about the consequences.
All pre-existing social codes soon collapse and are replaced with organized butchery, then chaotic, blundering horror. What else are the survivors to do? The only remaining resource is human. It is hard to see how this could happen during humanity's time on earth, even by means of the nuclear winter McCarthy proposes. But his thought experiment exposes the one terrible fact to which our technological hubris blinds us: our dependence on biological production remains absolute. Civilization is just a russeting on the skin of the biosphere, never immune from being rubbed against the sleeve of environmental change. Six weeks after finishing The Road, I remain haunted by it.
So when I read the UN's new report on the state of the planet over the weekend, my mind kept snagging on a handful of figures. There were some bright spots - lead has been removed from petrol almost everywhere and sulphur emissions have been reduced in most rich nations - and plenty of gloom. But the issue that stopped me was production.
Crop production has improved over the past 20 years (from 1.8 tons per hectare in the 1980s to 2.5 tons today), but it has not kept up with population. "World cereal production per person peaked in the 1980s, and has since slowly decreased". There will be roughly 9 billion people by 2050: feeding them and meeting the millennium development goal on hunger [halving the proportion of hungry people] would require a doubling of world food production. Unless we cut waste, overeating, biofuels and the consumption of meat, total demand for cereal crops could rise to three times the current level.
There are two limiting factors. One, mentioned only in passing in the report, is phosphate: it is not clear where future reserves might lie. The more immediate problem is water. "Meeting the millennium development goal on hunger will require doubling of water use by crops by 2050." Where will it come from? "Water scarcity is already acute in many regions, and farming already takes the lion's share of water withdrawn from streams and groundwater." Ten per cent of the world's major rivers no longer reach the sea all year round.
Buried on page 148, I found this statement. "If present trends continue, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity by 2025, and two-thirds of the world population could be subject to water stress." Wastage and deforestation are partly to blame, but the biggest cause of the coming droughts is climate change. Rainfall will decline most in the places in greatest need of water. So how, unless we engineer a sudden decline in carbon emissions, are we going to feed the world? How, in many countries, will we prevent the social collapse that failure will cause?
The stone drops into the pond and a second later it is smooth again. You will turn the page and carry on with your life. Last week we learned that climate change could eliminate half the world's species; that 25 primate species are already slipping into extinction; that biological repositories of carbon are beginning to release it, decades ahead of schedule. But everyone is watching and waiting for everyone else to move. The unspoken universal thought is this: "If it were really so serious, surely someone would do something?"
On Saturday, for some light relief from the UN report (who says that environmentalists don't know how to make whoopee?), I went to a meeting of roads protesters in Birmingham. They had come from all over the country, and between them they were contesting 18 new schemes: a fraction of the road projects the British government is now planning. The improvements to the climate change bill that Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, announced yesterday were welcome. But in every major energy sector - aviation, transport, power generation, house building, coal mining, oil exploration - the government is promoting policies that will increase emissions. How will it make the 60% cut that the bill enforces?
No one knows, but the probable answer is contained in the bill's great get-out clause: carbon trading. If the government can't achieve a 60% cut in the UK, it will pay other countries to do it on our behalf. But trading works only if the total global reduction we are trying to achieve is a small one. To prevent runaway climate change, we must cut the greater part -- possibly almost all -- of the world's current emissions. Most of the nations with which the UK will trade will have to make major cuts of their own, on top of those they sell to us. Before long we will have to buy our credits from Mars and Jupiter. The only certain means of preventing runaway climate change is to cut emissions here and now.
Who will persuade us to act? However strong the opposition parties' policies appear to be, they cannot be sustained unless the voters move behind them. We won't be prompted by the media. The BBC drops Planet Relief for fear of breaching its impartiality guidelines: heaven forbid that it should come out against mass death. But it broadcasts a program - Top Gear - that puts a match to its guidelines every week, and now looks about as pertinent as the Black and White Minstrel Show.
The schedules are crammed with shows urging us to travel further, drive faster, build bigger, buy more, yet none of them are deemed to offend the rules, which really means that they don't offend the interests of business or the pampered sensibilities of the Aga class. The media, driven by fear and advertising, are hopelessly biased towards the consumer economy and against the biosphere.
It seems to me that we are already pushing other people ahead of us down The Road. As the biosphere shrinks, McCarthy describes the collapse of the protagonist's core beliefs. I sense that this might be happening already: that a hardening of interests, a shutting down of concern, is taking place among the people of the rich world. If this is true, we do not need to wait for the forests to burn or food supplies to shrivel before we decide that civilization is in trouble.
George Monbiot is the author of the best selling books The Age of Consent: a manifesto for a new world order and Captive State: the corporate takeover of Britain. He writes a weekly column for the Guardian newspaper. Monbiot.com
© 2007 The Guardian
52 Comments so far
Show AllI would argue that we're well on our way. Who would have believed ten years ago that most candidates for for the office of President of the United States (not to mention U.S. Attorney General) would openly support the use of torture, or that most Americans--or American media at least-would agree with them?
Threaten our oil economy and we turn in to some mean SOBs, imagine what happens when our food and water are at stake.
Yes..go vegan.
When food shortages occur due to climate change and skyrocketing fossil fuel input prices, it is likely that meat will be the first thing to go missing from supermarket shelves. Your pets and your neighbors' pets may start to look very tasty unless you deal with you meat addiction now.
Start growing your own food if you haven't started already.
Also, stop using flush toilets if possible. Drought, no doubt, will become more prevalent, and how can one justify using drinking water to flush a valuable resource down the drain. Check out the Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins.
Some of the following represents my opinions in relation to this article and the few posts I've seen in response to it. The rest is just stuff I felt like sharing with anyone who's interested enough to read it:
1. God will not save us. [Read "God Is Not Great," and throw in "A Short History of Progress" for good measure.]
2. We've known or should have known about the consequences of our unbridled breeding and consumption for many decades now. [Read "Silent Spring," "Moment in the Sun," and "The Population Bomb" for starters. These books were written between 40 and 50 years ago, folks.]
3. I haven't read "The Road" yet, but I intend to partly because I'm always looking for a brilliantly written read that's also accessible (i.e., something I can read in bed without my dictionary handy). That said, I see a ray of light (a flaw?) in the storyline, as described in the article. Like it or not, we are animals, and our species is a part of the biosphere; hence, if the biosphere is gone, so are we. If we're able to survive (even by eating each other), then it follows that other species will also survive.
4. FYI, I decided long ago not to procreate; not only do I not want to add to the burgeoning population, but I also don't want to have to worry about what's going to become of my kids as civilization declines. I'm also a vegan who works at home full-time by virtue of my PC. My husband and I have started growing our own food, but we have a long way to go before we're able to feed ourselves. I could list a hundred ways that we conserve and recycle and reconstitute and repurpose stuff to avoid buying more, but I could also list a hundred improvements we still need to make. Nobody's perfect; we just have to work at making incremental improvements as best we can. We're stuck in many ways because of the way our civilization is configured, but each of us can make *some* changes to forestall the collapse of the biosphere. For example, giving up meat is something anyone can do--even if he or she has to shop at the local big-box superstore, right?
AddYourVoice
I wish i could afford to stop buying food from places like walmart! And how can anyone avoid buying chinese imports and dong all the other things on that list? Yeah it's nice if you are some rich young yuppy who can afford to buy expensive foods and expensive american made products. also, who can afford to just pick up and move so that they can be closer to work? in the chicagoland area that is the big problem... people cant afford to live where they work! some people travel hours to get to work. so i like all your ideas but, who can really do that?
I believe that most problems are solved by the people. I believe our job should be to create a sufficient level of concern in the population that they choose to act.
While the scientists and politicians argue over whether or man is causing climate change, the climate is changing. We, the people, need to estimate the likely effects of climate change, and figure out how to handle those consequences.
People living at sea level and near the coast will experience increasing damage from the water. Millions will have to relocate. Malaria will migrate further north and further south. Millions who have not experienced malaria will be exposed to it. Zones of fertile zoil will migrate as well.
Resource depletion and environmental damage are realities.
Many believe that Peak Oil is a reality and that we will need to dedicate massive global resources to move the global economy away from petroleum.
People respond to taxation. Perhaps its time to tax those things which cause resource depletion, climate change, environmental damage.
Perhaps we need a tax on more than two children. If you want to have more than two children please do, but you'll have to pay the tax. Perhaps we need to eliminate all tax breaks related to having additional children. Perhaps we need a comprehensive SALES tax. If you want to be a shoppaholic, please do, but you'll have to pay the tax. Perhaps we need a $1.00 or $2.00 tax on each gallon of gasoline. If you want to drive everywhere, please do, but you'll have to pay the tax.
Move away from the coast now.
Sell your car and buy a bike now.
Move closer to work so you can ride a bike to work.
Adk your apartment complex to put in a community garden.
Use farmer's markets instead of grocery stores.
Never shop at Wal-Mart again.
Quit buying Chinese imports.
Start a buisness and hire American workers.
The list is endless. But do these things TODAY!
Last fall, I read "The Road" and I mused that maybe McCarthy's setting of a post-apocalyptic world was a meataphor for the contemporary world. You know, like we've traveled so far down the wrong road already we've become prehistoric in our values: protecting only our own immediate survival interests and killing all threats to it.
William Kennedy wrote in his reveiw that the little boy delivered by his father to a safe refuge at the novel's conclusion was a messianic symbol, and perhaps civilization would get another chance.
I don't know, but nature regulates its systems towards states of equilibrium, and it doesn't require the existence of humans to do so. We better start saving our own asses, but maybe we're too stupid to accomplish that for the general population. I think a small group of supersmart people with monetary and political resources may survive, but most of us will only experience a dehumanizing condition of strife before we perish.
indeepshiitake October 30th, 2007 9:14 pm,
No one is asking you to embrace the messenger, neale donald walsch. Ego or not, his message is clear and credible. Throughout history, messengers, prophets and and seers have been discredited for their human lapses of character: gandhi, King Jr., Mother Theresa, yet, what they accomplished through their service and commitment to their passion for human kindness is the stuff of legend. If I had children, I could only wish them to be as dedicated and devoted to service as these. I have personally known many such persons whose lives were less than perfect, but whose contribution to humankind set a standard few will ever reach. They set the standard, and hope to be exceeded, just as Jesus did in saying, "These and greater will ye do." I'm sure there are those of his time who will say he had a spiritual ego. So what? He is known more for his works of kindness and love than his ego trips.
peace,
st john
Instead of "The Road", just read Weisman's "The World Without Us".
Then Google VHEMT
"Why does God let this happen?"
God does not let it happen because there is no God.
Anyone remember a movement back in the 70's about stopping population growth?
If we are truly different from "the animals" then we would limit our growth to suit the planet. Which means cutting back the population through sterilization. But of course we are not any better than "the animals" and we will not do that because we are biologically driven to reproduce and we will not stop until we cannot reproduce. We are like a huge algea bloom. Or like yeast in a bottle of wine as Kurt Vonnegut said. We eat sugar and shit alcohol until we die in our own waste.
The native americans and aborigines of Australia all had the right idea. I guess that's why their civilizations lasted for tens of thousands of years. Right up until the mutant white man and his greed took over the earth.
There is no solution to this current problem. We have set the course. Start teaching your children about living with nature and living their lives with consideration of their descendents in mind. Perhaps a new civilization will learn from our mistakes.
As George Carlin once said (I'm paraphrasing), "The Earth isn't in trouble... WE'RE in trouble. Someday the Earth will shake us off like an elephant does when it has a bad case of fleas."
Sagan may have been right. Rich Venezuelans are buying Hummers against all reason.
Why on earth should we care about this? We'll just hop into our Lincoln Navigators and motor on down to McDonald's and WalMart and get whatever we need. The market, the invisible hand of the Almighty, will take care of everything!
Go Vegan!
For ourselves, for the animals, for the planet!
manchild wrote:
"it was Carl Sagen who suggested that if we could study technological civilizations thoughout the universe, we would find a common tendency toward self-destruction."
where there is no "self" there cannot be self-destruction. the problem perhaps is that we as individuals have not gone beyond the "self" and found something more profound. technology is not the problem so much as the ever-expanding "self"...wanting to become more and more embedded in materiality and doing so at the expense of others. we have become way too attached to physicality, forging our identities through physicality.
the grim reaper is calling us to a more expanded reality of connectedness.
i've heard from a friend that Neale Donald Walsch has quite the spiritual ego..the title of his book should be a give away...come on, no friggin book has the answers...you can't spread human kindness...it can only manifest on the individual level. i question the whole human kindness thing anyway. some to the "nicest" people in the world will not give a second thought to feasting on animals that have been raised in dreadful confinement systems. there are children raised by abusive parents who are saints and children raised by saintly parents who become rogue.
geoff29: how do you know that the human race isn't some kind of club? there is a difference between experiencing human and being human. some of us here just for the experience. try eating some magic mushrooms to get a taste of true reality.
Why does God let this happen,
God is making it happen, to rid the earth of the terrible plague called man
Pace fertility to mortality. Mortality from natural causes. Mortality past age 75. No replacements for those who die any younger. Simple, obvious. And it strikes at the heart of our biological/sexual nature. And at our tendency to herd up into religions, and to relate to the family tradition. Pregnancy as the rare exception; protected sex for recreation and health. This is no world to bring children into anyway.
I've got my shopping cart and love the taste of flesh...good to go....
I read John Burroughs' "Time and Change" (you can download the whole thing on Google Books). Or get it here: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/tmchg10.txt
Apparently, these questions were all asked almost a century ago -- WWI was followed shortly with the influenza epidemics. God didn't bail the world out then. So why should we expect he/she/it/them/nobody to do so now?
The problem of evil (theodicy), I remain convinced, is a more general problem of suffering (refer to the Buddhists here). The upshot, according to my own explorations, is that there is no answer except the human response. Anything else is sheer rationalization, but does nothing to actually alleviate pain/suffering.
"Why does God let this happen?"
Read "What God Wants" by Neale Donald Walsch or his most recent Conversations With God series. They are not religious...in fact, they are anti-religious and as clear an explanation of what is possible and what may be happening as I have read. The answers are not in political or survivalist solutions, but in the spread of human kindness. We created our problems and we have the solutions, if we are willing.
peace,
st john
indeepshiitake
"i completely dissociate myself with the human race."
Now come back from the edge there shitake!!!! the human race isn't like a "club" that you get to join. even if you are Gandhi or Shiva, maybe, you're a part of this.
"damn, so attached are we to the human body, to human existance, to human identity, and to human relationships etc…"
Ok the human relationships part maybe because you might live in a hut deep in the woods with electricity and the internet, apparently, but, sheeesh, the three others you list here don't seem like options unless you happen to be melting or are maybe a computer simulation, possible I guess.
I just want y'all to know I belong to an organization, top secret, called the Thought Aberration Secret Police (Tasp, perhaps you've heard of us,) and we're patrolling sites like this for any violations. indeep, that's us you hear coming up your walkway!
I'm with RuthK, let's maybe get back to god. . .then we can battle the militant atheists who loom in the dark.
ezeflyer 12:27 pm wrote
"Why does God let this happen?"
God gave us intelligence and a conscience, presumably with the idea that we should use them. Except for a few people who have their eyes open, this is not happening.
Well, don't blame me because i completely dissociate myself with the human race.
i'm looking forward to the spirituality beyond physicality because in those other realms i pull a little more weight.
the physical universe is dominated by souls who are fed by the pleasures of materiality, whereas the less dense realms of spirituality are the domain of those who feed more from the fountain of love.
damn, the problem seems to be removing oneself from the human body without making a bloody stinking mess. of course, if overpopulation is overstressing ecological systems what are we all doing here ranting about sustainability. shouldn't we be somewhere else?
damn, so attached are we to the human body, to human existance, to human identity, and to human relationships etc...
This book will not change a thing. people will just call it good Sci-Fi.
The Book No Room No Room didn't change the world either. Today you can find many things mention in that book came true. Yet still we go along like nothing has happen.
As for the people in this new book acting the way they do. That has always been a given when shortages are around.
Killing your neighbor for a loaf of bread? It probably happens many times every year . Gangs roaming and killing people for food? Food and water will be the Platnum and Diamonds of tomorrow,
Nothing new ! Anarchy? You can find that almost everywhere right now.
Hey, I will check out myself soon when things get worse. Those that are left can fight over my bones.Then kill each other off leaving this world to the insects.If we have anything but cockroaches left. Funny way back when i was a kid there were statements about cockroaches inheriting the Earth. It looks like they will.
Reuse and Get Rid Of Those Environmental Blues
genaman
There's a scary level of fatalism emerging in the CommonDreams community. It's all very thrilling to fantasize about "going underground" when the fascists take over, or scrabbling for survival in the urban ruins of post-apocalypse America.
But in doing so, you dis-empower yourself, and contribute to the problem rather than its solution.
I once heard an expert on endangered species describe it this way:
In the next generation, the human population of earth will peak, and then begin to decline. We must imagine the next fifty years as like the narrow neck of a bottle. Our job is to pull as many species (and people, I would add) as we can, through that bottleneck, and into future survival.
So, let's regard these horrific visions of the future without despair and without morbid fascination. They are only possible futures. My future is one in which our descendents refer to our era as "The Hell Century".
Right now is a bad as it's gonna get, because you and I are working for hope and against fear.
hubcap_halo,
not that I disagree with the sentiment, exactly, but are you an authentic prophet with maybe a certificate? are you a visionary? otherwise, no one really knows what will happen next, not you, not anyone mortal, that seems to be the design here. the best I've personally been able to manage is a moderately ok ability to live in the current moment. Ok, because I'm still currently shuffling around.
we can surmise, and from that adjust, but that's it.
unless you're certified by an established organization for prophets or have at least been to their symposiums. In which case, my apologies. . .
Yes George, we are absolutely headed toward what I would call a "biospheric correction" which means that billions of people are going to die because of 1) the horribly polluting, wasteful, violent and unsustainable lifestyle of the industrialized world and 2) environmental stress from overpopulation.
We will soon (by the end of the century) inhabit and hotter world with populations fighting over scarce resources and retreating to Canada, Siberia and even the Artic as the currently temperate lattitudes become uninhabitable.
Biodiversity will be humans, rats, roaches, squirrels and whatever domestic animals we continue to raise. Forget about exotic tucan type animals. That period is coming to an end, for now.
But really it's not that big of a deal. The human race will survive. And hopefully they'll develop a new attitude of stewardship toward the planet rather than plunder.
It's going to be a VERY interesting centuy.
What comes next... is what we leave to our families.
Whatever you'll complain about will seem like the good days to them. We yet pretend we have the time but all we have time for is to delay.
God gave us free will or to paraphrase "What gas guzzling SUV does God drive?" We don't have to pollute like we do but profits now and let somebody else worry about the planet. Been there and been doing that... it's early ...we're late finding out since we didn't want to know till now...that it is already too late.
So we face that...now? Well no ...and what's worse than not facing it's already too late?
Well the fact that it will keep on getting worse year by year. Now that we know do we stop polluting, using coal,oil and et al like we do? Well no...
And worst of all... as it turns out we do it to ourselves rather quite immediately. We feel the effects of what we do ourselves...oddly taht actually surprises a lot of people... They actually are doing it to themselves and not people fifty years from now. That wasn't supposed to happen. Economic inertia is why it's too late...
We can still have a livable if dry and hot planet if we try. If we don't fast enough? It's that bad yes. The pole is melting ... all the science fiction I've ever read would explain that as a very bad sign. Sigh... we don't. Hey...all you people who want to go isolationist and grow your own food stuff... there is like half a tree on my block. The closest patch of soil is a few house plants. If you keep on telling people about the need to grow their own food...and things going to hell ... we are all coming to live with you 'farmer in the dell' types... I say we because I'm bringing the whole block.
Please plant carrots. They are very good for you.
Manchild....So much for civilization....I always considered it overrated. Let's get back to before the "white man" came to civilize the "savages". The indigenous culture..now, there was intelligence.
'The Black Corridor' by Michael Moorcock and Hilary Bailey was written in 1969. It tells a similar cautionary tale, in science-fiction form, of the collapse of society and the environment. The obvious damage to the earth is not highlighted as much as in 'The Road", but the break down of human compassion and morality, and the terrible need of the protagonist to justify his own behaviour is a compelling study. And it was written a long time before this kind of view of a dystopic future was popular, if I may use that term.
global warming is our best friend, our best waker upper. it strikes all classes of people so it's democratic in nature. Rich people's homes get flooded, burned to the ground probably more that that of the poor, New Orleans excepted. And do you think the insurance companies are not aware of the future cost of warming the planet. All our insurance rates are rising due to this. And gas prices, do we even want to go there in order to get it. It's getting close to 100 dollars per barrel and if the US bombs Iran, who knows how high it could get. So be thankful your planet has a fever and is in the process of eliminating a virus which is infecting it. I agree with Maxhemust, it is bigger than most of us can see. We are moving into the age of Aquarius, figuratively and literally and it's no small shift in consciousness. Consider also that in 2012, the Mayan Calendar is coming to an end. And with it the prediction of the coming of the end of time. I got this message many years ago when i gave up my watch and moved to western colorado. on the galactic scale, i read that our planet, which is out on the very far reaches of the Milky Way Spiral Galaxy we live in, is coming out of a long period of being in the shadow of the light and energy coming from the center of our galaxy, one humongous black hole. Our planet is coming back into the light after being in the galactic dark for millenia. And the only thing for certain is that everything is going to change. "The Road" is only one out of infinite possibilities and not the one i am imagining for my/our future. Human beings can do better than this.
or public image ltd:
The product in the packaging
Of multi-layered glam
150 layers of materials
To cover up a sham
Protecting my planet
Wrap it in plastic
This package is product
Perfected eternal
A crap in a cling wrap
I never met yet a prime minister or president
Who told the truth yet
brings to mind song lyrics by Mose Allison--
ever since the world ended
i don't go out quite as much
ever since the world ended
it's a fundamentally better place...
it was Carl Sagen who suggested that if we could study technological civilizations thoughout the universe, we would find a common tendency toward self-destruction.
so much for intelligence--i always considered it overrated
The elephant in the living room is the "consumer economy". No one wants to acknowledge that we need to shift from this...because everyone shivers with the thought of recession/depression/collapse.
On a bright note, we could transform our world economy into a 'real wealth' economy (www.realwealtheconomy.com) and discover a world that works for humans and the planet. Not only would it take recession/depression/collapse out of the equation, it is a great way to live.
The main reason no one has called for all hands on the Global Warming deck is because humans, as a rule, only REACT to emergencies, we do not preemptively solve them - hell, we don't even prepare for the disasters we know are coming. (I'm the only one of my friends who actually has an earthquake kit standing by at all times. They think I'm paranoid. In Los Angeles.)
And the main reason we haven't reacted to the present emergency is because all we keep hearing is "almost." It's "almost" an emergency, time is "almost" up, the tipping point has "almost" been reached, oil has "almost" peaked, our current administration is "almost" completely and totally clinically insane.
Drop the "almost," start reporting catastrophic climate change as a DISASTER WELL IN PROGRESS and humans will start to leap into action hero mode...
As another George [Orwell] wrote: "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever." That's what happens when human concern ends
It's the end of the world, as we've come to know it. The age of pisces, a 2,150 or so year cosmic cycle and another one, Aquarius is beginning. This is NOT astrological prognostication, or even a religious concept, but an astronomical fact.
Half the people are oriented to the worn out, rotten, competitive ways of the passing era - and the other half are oriented to the new, honest, & cooperative ways of Aquarius.
Progressives will get their way. Those who side with the corrupt imperialist bastards are destined to lose the struggle. All will be well. With each passing day, the light comign to this planet increases a little as we move further into Aquarius and out of Pisces.
It's all easier to take/see the this with some understanding.
From Pisces to Aquarius: The precession of the equinoxes
http://www.share-international.org/ARCHIVES/Science-tech/sci_rrPisces2Aq...
http://www.Share-International.org
"Mom's coming round to put it back the way it ought to be."
When I get a cold my body heats up, I cough and sneeze, sweat and puke, my muscles ache but eventually my body eradicates the sickness. Afterwords my body still hurts a little, my nose is chapped and it takes a few days to purge the mucus but overtime my body heals up and it is free of the sickness.
Body warming is real.
ezeflyer 12:27 pm wrote
"Why does God let this happen?"
If god were a bumbling creature with a white beard out of a walt disney movie, perhaps god would answer your question directly, and you could fall asleep all safe and sound. but where would the challenge be? Our choices would be easy ones, we might miss out on self-discovery, etc and so forth.
Nor do I think that WE are necessarily the problem. some of us make a big effort to live in better harmony with the natural world every moment of our lives. Trying to be better understanding of the complexities. Trying to deal with those issues in our own life. There is a renegade spirit in human nature apparently that lives in a contrary fashion, perhaps for not knowing any better, or wanting to, or making an effort otherwise, or out of greed, or complacency, or indolence, etc and so forth.
God should generally not be brought into the discussion, but you could accurately blame the problems on god as people left to their own devices seem a somewhat self-destructive species and perhaps it could be argued that we were created that way?
My small community (pop.25,000) is busily building roads as if we could depend on gas burning vehicles forever.
I thought it would stop after 9-11, you know, the day we are told that we were attacked by terrorists using oil money, and everything changed. And yet, for some very strange reason, it continues.
It almost makes you doubt the official 9-11 story. That, plus the suspension of the rules of physics on that one day, the standdown of the biggest military on the planet, and the immediate passage of the Patriot Act and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
If we were really attacked with oil money, wouldn't we have made an effort to stop burning so much oil?
I read "The Road" nearly a year ago and it still haunts me. It's a masterful work and despite it's horrific imagery it has remained a source of inspiration and serves as a reminder of the fragility of this fascinating and beautiful planet.
As a rule, I can't recall when the rich or anyone else was terribly concerned about life forms, the flesh of which they consume everyday as a matter of course. A people so unconcerned about killing and eating billions of animals everyday is hardly going to be worried about a little climate change until it slaps them in the face. Which will probably be sooner then most people expect, since most of the climate change prognostications are conservative in the extreme and fail to take into account interlocking tipping points. McCarthy's The Road is an accurate portrayal of the not too distant future, say 50 years at the most.
lexington,
Re: But where does the growing of your own food register in the lists of 'How to save the planet?'
To which I'll add drying your clothes on a clothesline rather than in a gas or electric dryer. Some communities in the eastern US have even outlawed clotheslines! It seems that we are unwilling to take even the smallest steps toward energy conservation.
Our grandchildren will curse us for our arrogance and thoughtlessness.
Hey, BeForKids,
After thinking about your commeents here, now I'm thinking that I should have saved my hand-grenades instead of using them for fishing, darn!
"the readings of history and anthropology in general give us no reason to believe that societies have built-in self-preservative systems. and therefore we can't say that man will be sensible enough not to destroy himself."
---margaret mead
Don't expect God to save our sorry butts. We are willfully doing these things ourselves, apparently because we collectively need some very hard lessons. Do you suppose that Gaia and her inhabitants at all levels have gone through these destruction/re-creation cycles many times over the billions of years this planet has existed? Are we just a small blip on the big radar screen? I wonder.....
There is a very simple way to at least make a start in preventing this scenario from happening, Grow your own food (or as much of it as you can). However, not many people seem to bothered to try. We can talk all day about carbon footprinting, climate models, CO2 sequestration, but these are abstract concepts to most people. getting your hands dirty and eating what you grow is not abstract in the least. But where does the growing of your own food register in the lists of 'How to save the planet?'
Whilst I cannot guarantee that this is the, one and only, solution; not to try growing food makes as much sense as doctors not washing their hands in a hospital and relying on antibiotics to cure MRSA (oh I forgot doctors don't wash their hands enough....)
So much for Homo sapiens .
Sorry, Grousefeather, but the conservative republicans, having taken all our money, will be the survivors along with their serfs and security guards. Do you think it's any accident that public and private militaries are being trained in urban warfare? The poor will be the first to go. The middle class, what's left of it, obese and sedated, won't know what hit it.
Go watch Brazil and Soylent Green to get a glimpse of the future.
Well, the upside of the world coming to an end is that the conservative republicans will all be dead.
Ah carbon credits...the environmental where is the pea under the cup game. I have too much carbon and you don't have as much so I will pay you to say mine is yours so that I can continue producing the same amount of carbon and you do yours. The accomodating process of delay.
And God isn't allowing this ..we are. He didn't mention the oceans becoming devoid of fish if not toxic. At the World's Fair when I was a boy they had an exhibit which promised the oceans would feed the billions of tomorrow.
We haven't reached those tomorrows and the oceans are depleted today.
Why does God let this happen?