Marty,
Last night I spent some time in a hot spring with
several environmental activists. I think the group
was called "Global Outreach" or something like that.
Anyway, my conclusion after an hour of discussion
is that in fact, the tree huggers are right. The
problem is though, the last time we had true tree
huggers was 2,000 years ago with Druids and other
Pagans that worshiped groves of trees. I would like
to think that we could live within minimal impact like
those people did, live in small communities, and give
offerings to the Gods of the lakes and trees and such.
However, in those days the human race was perhaps less
than 100 million people. Humans had an impact on the
environment, but for the most part it wasn't really
too horrendous, save for perhaps the extinction of
many unusual animals like mammoths and sloths which
made for good eats for early Americans.
However, you must fast forward to now: Homo sapiens is
now over 6 Billion strong, and growing larger every
day. Those humans want cars, houses, toilets that flush,
and yummy things on their plates like shrimp, salmon,
t-bones, etc. You (and all your granola munching friends)
are completely missing the point that without modern
agriculture, fossil energy sources, dams, clearcuts,
and nuclear power plants, the human race would starve
to death. We are indeed, stuck between a rock and a
hard place. There are no easy solutions. But I can tell
you (and whoever else might read this) that before we even
begin to worry about the caribou in ANWR, you dam well
better start thinking about how we can slow down, and
eventually reduce the human birth rate.
-John |
