in service of life
"Fight nice."
~Catherine McCue
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Happiness is a healthy local economy
According to the current consensus, things are not looking very well for the planet. Violent competition over resources such as water and oil, unstable weather, and an equally volatile stock market form the perspective that things are pretty bleak. And I do think the environment is heading into an even much more unstable time. The problems will quickly bury us if we don't get in gear to work together to solve them.
But the most hopeful scenarios for the future also have value, and need to be logically integrated into our decision making. While we are in an apocalyptic time, we are also in a millennial time. Here are some examples of how things simultaneously look both bad and good:
Ecosystem stresses such as unusual cold snaps and heat waves - and conflicts between nations - make it seem the human race has no future at all. On the other hand, the astounding rate at which both retrofitted old ideas and new inventions are being put into production to solve new problems can make one feel pretty optimistic.
Both the increasing frequency of fires - as a result of global warming - and ever more efficient high-tech lumbering are destroying forested areas all over the world (including in Pennsylvania). But the development of electronic communication is making cutting down trees for paper increasingly unnecessary. Though the Hazelwood Homepage is available in both paper and electronic version (hazelwoodhomepage.com), I look forward to the day when enough people have net access that we no longer need the paper edition. The Earth's remaining forest plant and animal life will breathe a collective sigh of relief when the massive unnecessary turning of tree into paper is ended.
The world's militaries are in a renewed arms race which once again threatens the survival of life on Earth. And this time it's with weapons even more potentially lethal than the previous generation of nuclear. But, since the development of the first nuclear weapon some sixty plus years ago, we've managed to restrain ourselves from extincting ourselves. So maybe a growing hesitancy of leaders to use these weapons will reverse this present slide into a possibly LAST world war.
As ecosystems collapse and the services provided by trees and other creatures declines - forcing us to remember that we are a part of the web of life - our capacity to communicate is becoming more important to help needed changes. Now that we can view our own buildings and gardens from space, this ability to be connected with people and other creatures thousands of miles away is a key to dealing with the increasingly unstable weather patterns. Those who manage to grow food despite unstable weather, for instance, can now more easily share information on not only the weather but how to preserve and distribute agricultural products wisely and equitably. As certain foods (such as many species of fish) become less available or even extinct - due both to overfishing and ocean acidification - then we ingenious humans can continue (at the even faster rate made possible via high tech communications) to work together to devise new foods - such as yeasts grown on organic wastes with the help of microbes to take the place of old.
The scientist James Lovelock expects environmental feedback effects to make this century so full of droughts, heat, storms and famine that - like any other species in time of stress, the majority of the world's human population will die off. On the other hand, inventor Ray Kurzweil believes we are in a period of technological advancement so rapid that we will shortly be able to build a virtual paradise on Earth.
Just as this country's unfair international market practices and violent competition for resources is resulting in an unstable marketplace, our violent attempts to enslave nature rather than co-exist harmoniously with other species is making for an increasingly violent environment. But we can always change. We can start by transforming our short-term profitable military industry into the long-term profitability of the green peace industry. Rather than fight over Earth's resources, we can work with others in the world to figure out how to use them more efficiently and cleanly.
======
~Catherine McCue
======
Happiness is a healthy local economy
According to the current consensus, things are not looking very well for the planet. Violent competition over resources such as water and oil, unstable weather, and an equally volatile stock market form the perspective that things are pretty bleak. And I do think the environment is heading into an even much more unstable time. The problems will quickly bury us if we don't get in gear to work together to solve them.
But the most hopeful scenarios for the future also have value, and need to be logically integrated into our decision making. While we are in an apocalyptic time, we are also in a millennial time. Here are some examples of how things simultaneously look both bad and good:
Ecosystem stresses such as unusual cold snaps and heat waves - and conflicts between nations - make it seem the human race has no future at all. On the other hand, the astounding rate at which both retrofitted old ideas and new inventions are being put into production to solve new problems can make one feel pretty optimistic.
Both the increasing frequency of fires - as a result of global warming - and ever more efficient high-tech lumbering are destroying forested areas all over the world (including in Pennsylvania). But the development of electronic communication is making cutting down trees for paper increasingly unnecessary. Though the Hazelwood Homepage is available in both paper and electronic version (hazelwoodhomepage.com), I look forward to the day when enough people have net access that we no longer need the paper edition. The Earth's remaining forest plant and animal life will breathe a collective sigh of relief when the massive unnecessary turning of tree into paper is ended.
The world's militaries are in a renewed arms race which once again threatens the survival of life on Earth. And this time it's with weapons even more potentially lethal than the previous generation of nuclear. But, since the development of the first nuclear weapon some sixty plus years ago, we've managed to restrain ourselves from extincting ourselves. So maybe a growing hesitancy of leaders to use these weapons will reverse this present slide into a possibly LAST world war.
As ecosystems collapse and the services provided by trees and other creatures declines - forcing us to remember that we are a part of the web of life - our capacity to communicate is becoming more important to help needed changes. Now that we can view our own buildings and gardens from space, this ability to be connected with people and other creatures thousands of miles away is a key to dealing with the increasingly unstable weather patterns. Those who manage to grow food despite unstable weather, for instance, can now more easily share information on not only the weather but how to preserve and distribute agricultural products wisely and equitably. As certain foods (such as many species of fish) become less available or even extinct - due both to overfishing and ocean acidification - then we ingenious humans can continue (at the even faster rate made possible via high tech communications) to work together to devise new foods - such as yeasts grown on organic wastes with the help of microbes to take the place of old.
The scientist James Lovelock expects environmental feedback effects to make this century so full of droughts, heat, storms and famine that - like any other species in time of stress, the majority of the world's human population will die off. On the other hand, inventor Ray Kurzweil believes we are in a period of technological advancement so rapid that we will shortly be able to build a virtual paradise on Earth.
Just as this country's unfair international market practices and violent competition for resources is resulting in an unstable marketplace, our violent attempts to enslave nature rather than co-exist harmoniously with other species is making for an increasingly violent environment. But we can always change. We can start by transforming our short-term profitable military industry into the long-term profitability of the green peace industry. Rather than fight over Earth's resources, we can work with others in the world to figure out how to use them more efficiently and cleanly.
======
posted by St. Jim the Composter at 2:38 PM
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