[at-l] An Inconvenient Truth / Extinction II

[Dust]

Since y'all liked it so much the first time, I'll let you
hear it again (but with fewer typos.)

Carol Donaldson <carol1944 at brmemc.net> wrote:       

"I see the problem as conspicuous  consumption rather than 
as population growth.  How can I be happy when I know that 
a  relative (of the human race) living in the Sudan is 
starving to death?  So  I make a donation to a relief 
agency."

That's the worst thing you could possibly do.  While the 
problem may be conspicuous (ravenous) consumption, the last 
thing we need is billions of new conspicuous consumers.  
As soon as Third World residents get their bellies full, 
they want new cars and a U.S. lifestyle.  Think the 
enviroment is stressed now? 

The projections are for 9 billion humans on the Earth by 
2050, but I don't think we'll have even 6 billion in 100 
years, and certainly not in 200.  Currently about 2/3 of 
the Earth's major ecosystems are in collapse, and the 
species extinction rate has recently accelerated to 1,000 
times the historical average.  

Many scientists agree that the Earth is undergoing its 
sixth mass extinction event  Will we be one of the species 
to fall off the chart?  Perhaps not altogether, but our 
numbers will be wacked down real good.

The problem is that humans no longer inhabit an ecological 
niche.  A species develops a niche by finding and living 
within sustainable boundaries with other species.  Niches
allow a sustainable environment.  

We may have had a niche as hunters and gatherers, but with 
the advent of the agricultural revolution we went 
from niche dwellers to niche takers.  Then with the 
industrial revolution we became resource plunderers and
niche eliminators on a  massive scale.   

As a result, humans today are like an invasive, lethal  
virus on the face of the earth, pushing the other species 
out of existence and theatening the host organism's 
biosphere.  This will not last much longer.  Not much 
longer at all.


   
 



Ryan Brooks <ryan at hack.net> wrote: Felix J wrote:
> Ryan Brooks wrote:
>
>   
>> Wow,  the insights from this thread are keeping me up at night.  Let's 
>> drop it,
>>  
>>
>>     
>
> Which thread, Ryan? Which thread? 
The upcoming one about Israel.

-Ryan
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