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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elpolvo who wrote (49263)	6/17/2004 9:13:19 AM
From: Suma	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

I think that # 2 would be more to my choosing as I don't think nature operates in a vacuum.. We need to eliminate the environmental things that mess it up: global warming, re-cycling( a must and we do it up here and cart our stuff to the dump.) for a start. Gas guzzling cars. Emissions controls. Have you been to Mexico City ? They have no emissions controls on their cars. One can get a migraine from the exhaust fumes. The trees on mountain tops here are defoliated. Look at what we did with Agent Orange in Vietnam.... Scott Mantz is doing a project digs wells for the people as their water was contaminated..... If left to it's own devices things probably would go along with a balance but I would swing from B to C.... but think involvement is necessary to balance to occur. Yes, Have to get used to your humor. Don't always grasp your meaning but know one thing, it is always good... You are well intended in whatever you do. That's the best.

To: elpolvo who wrote (49263)	6/17/2004 11:27:42 AM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

pick one. after you've chosen your door, you will know your purpose for being here on this thread... and being on earth in this incarnation. Hmmm.. let's see. Is anything in the universe basically evil and dangerous and so evil that it requires human or humanlike-divine intervention to be forcibly re-directed onto its proper course?" Good thing the question wasn't directed to me. But let's give this a try just for the heck of it. Let me offer a personal "short list" of evil things. Croc's Evil Short List: * Orconectes rusticus -- an unusually prolific and inherently aggressive crayfish, once widely distributed by fish bait sellers, and dispersed into creeks across North America by fisherman who dump their bait into the river rather than properly disposing of the nasty little blighters. They rapidly take over and destroy any other crayfish when introduced to a new location. * Aedes albopictus (the Asian tiger mosquito) and Ochlerotatus japonicus -- both introduced species of disease-carrying mosquitoes transported around the world in water trapped in shipments of old tires. Both are capable of dispersing a wide range of diseases such as West Nile, dengue, etc.. * Benacus griseus -- the Eastern Toe-biter Water Beetle. Just because I greatly fear his bite when I walk in his native marshes in my bare feet while doing habitat surveys. Are each of the above evil in themselves? No, probably not. The stupidity of mankind has just made them seem to be so -- The first two on the list for the stupidity behind their dispersal and proliferation... and the last one for my determination to venture into another creature's "home" habitat where I might well be regarded as either a dangerous foe or a tasty bit of flesh worthy of sampling. So, what is mankind's role in the Universe? Should we go around correcting our stupid errors? Do we heroically rip out a few rare plants to "save" them from that new housing development, and move them to a new location, believing we are doing the "right thing" in our efforts to preserve them? Darned if "saving" them from destruction didn't make us all feel good about ourselves. But no. What's that pesky little twinge of uncertainty in the back of our minds? Perhaps we would have done better to have tried to stop that development that ripped through that one of a kind ravine to put up luxury condos? I know! We shall weigh these out on our set of Universal Scales! Here we go. Luxury condos ---- vs ---- a few dozen rare plants in a ravine that took thousands of years to become just that very micro-habitat. $$$$$$ --- vs --- NATURE Now, wasn't that easy? I think we did the right thing, no? Uhm...well.. we would like to think so.... ... as we try (somewhat desperately) to overlook the high probability that these plants won't survive more than a year or two in the "new home" that we've selected for them.... the one that we made by artificially irrigating it and putting up some netting to keep the damned birds and bugs from coming in and scratching up or biting the hell out of everything... the habitat that we had to boot a bunch of other plants out of to make way for our salvaged endangered plants. Getting bloody complicated, isn't it? How do we figure out which of the above is evil? Which shall we eradicate or reform or relocate to stamp out in order to "right" the Balance of the Universe? -croc