-----Original Message-----
From: tom abeles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: fran^don <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: November 26, 1998 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: Caordic change and Greens?
<snip>
>I can not argue with the assessment of the earth, today. Where I have a
>problem is with the "future". Whenever we have gone to "war" be it with
>guns or with science to cure a problem, there has been an "end"- A hill
>we could reach and watch the sun come up on a new day-some hope for the
>future- an opportunity to strech and breath and move forward to.....
>
>What the "green" visions hold is not such a possibility but the idea
>that if we all get behind the movement the human race and the planet can
>survive- humans get to live another day. yes, the air will be clean and
>the fields will be green and the waters blue. But what of the human
>spirit? And there is the rub.
>
>Don says that it is time to stop the metaphysics and get with the
>program. But, what the greens offer is not hope but a plan to get us off
>a "sinking ship" and onto some island, an idyllic one, perhaps, but a
>New Age munchkin land, never-the-less. It's that or destruction
>
<snip>
>
>That is the problem with the "green" movement. It offers only a possible
>vision of some stasis in a "village" if we are "lucky" and megadeath if
>we follow the path we are on.
>
>I think I would rather put my faith in human ingenuity- take the chance
>on humans rather than be caught in some reconstructed vision of the
>past.
It seems to me that over the past few decades a lot of human ingenuity has
been poured into the problem of our deteriorating ecology, and the answer
that human ingenuity is coming up with is that we have to put an end to our
consumeristic society and scale back our population. I don't think this
means denying telephones, bathroom fixtures and other basic amenties to
ourselves or to people in the third world who do not yet have them. (Indeed,
raising the standard of living is demonstrably a surefire method of lowering
the birth rate.) It does mean that we aren't going to put a Mercedes in
every garage.
It is always conceivable that human ingenuity will find some source of
renewable, non-polluting energy (eg., figuring out how to convert solar
power at 95 per cent efficiency) and some way of feeding 7.5 billion people.
However, since the danger is imminent, and since human ingenuity so far is
pointing to scaling back as the best option, I wouldn't want to bet the
planet on some as yet unforeseen solution.
Moreover, I don't see this future as stasis. Once the population has been
scaled back to a level that the earth can carry, living standards should be
at least as good as they are for Western nations today though not
necessarily with the same toys. Plenty of challenges will remain--space
exploration for one.
Victor Milne
FIGHT THE BASTARDS! An anti-neoconservative website
at http://www3.sympatico.ca/pat-vic/pat-vic/
LONESOME ACRES RIDING STABLE
at http://www3.sympatico.ca/pat-vic/
