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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (29368)	5/12/2002 11:13:44 PM
From: paul_philp	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

This is a line of thinking that I don't take out for a walk very often but here goes ... The underlying assumption behind the anxiety the ecowhackos hope to stir is this: It is an inherently bad thing if 90% of the human race dies. Don't get me wrong, I am not misanthropic. I do have a very real sense of participating in a very long, dynamic complex process called the evolution of life. I don't hold that human beings have a privileged place in that process. We are every bit an experiment in species design as is algae. Our species is simply the subject of a test designed to discover how language impacts survivability. So far, in the early stages of this experiment, we are doing pretty well, all things considered. However, the lack of access to direct feedback on the impact of resource consumption may turn out to be a weakness. We may adapt to this limitation or we may not. If we don't, then we will over consume and then the species will weaken. If we don't adapt then, perhaps the species will die or mutate. The planet on the other hand will do just fine. Mother Earth has had to heal in the past and proven herself quite resilient. My point is that the environmentalists make a category error. Human population and the utilization of resources is not a moral issue. It is not inherently good or bad if the species adapts or not. It is a practical issue. If we would like the species to thrive than some modifications are likely needed in our understanding of our relationship between ourselves and the planet. Raising a moral stink about a practical problem is part of the (potential) problem. The ecowhackos calm their anxiety about the very real practical problem by taking the righteous position of the victim: We have the answer but nobody will listen to us. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Paul