I did not see anyone here make the point that man was unnatural. Perhaps I missed that.
Could you tell use who the "some people" are?
I didn't have anybody specifically on this thread in mind, though I think Christine might fit. But this belief is held, if you analyze what they say, by some of the Sea Shepherd people who have been wintering here. They won't say it that way, but it is a necessary consequence of their opinions. And I have run across it in other more radical environmentalists. Ask them something like: Agree or Disagree: atomic war is a natural event. They will flat out disagree. Which that means that some things man does are not natural, which means that man is sometimes not part of nature.
As to being cautious, I support that from a selfish point of view, since I don't want the beauty I share ruined for myself or my progeny. "But as to how quickly nature can adapt to human generated changes, well, look at how quickly bacteria can become resistent to drugs (by the way, an opportunity for new life forms to be created which would not have existed without our intervention), look at how quickly life returned to Cherynoble (sp), look how quickly wildlife has begun to return to Prince William Sound. I think nature is more resilient that we give it credit for being. I still agree with you that I want us going slowly rather and carefully than barging ahead, but as I said before, this is selfish because I like the world the way it is, not because I think there is anything cosmically right about keeping the world as it is. |
