[Mb-civic] Earth's Fish Disappearing

[Ian]

Max:

Thanks for all this.  Great research.

One comment.  There is one critical error in the way the eco-environmental
movement is sold.  It talks about "destroying the planet," whether by
killing off rain forests, polluting land, water and air, or depleting
natural resources.  However, all of this is a misnomer.

The fact is: you cannot destroy a planet; you can only destroy the planet's
ability to sustain life.  That is, if we depleted every ounce of oil and
natural gas, destroyed every rainforest, polluted every inch of the ground,
every ounce of water and every molecule of air - indeed, even if we had a
full-scale thermonuclear war causing "nuclear winter" - we would only find
OURSELVES extinct.  However, the planet itself would not "die."  It might
take thousands of years - even tens of thousands - but the planet would
eventually restore itself, even to the point of bringing forth "new life."

Indeed, it is sheer arrogance to think that we have the power to destroy a
planet.  No, Earth has been here for about 5 billion years, and will likely
be here for another five billion.  We can wreak as much havoc and damage as
we like - we are only killing OURSELVES.

The planet laughs at our puerile efforts to destroy it, and waits only for
us to be gone so it can live in peace again.

Peace.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cheeseburger" <maxfury at granderiver.net>
To: <mb-civic at islandlists.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2004 12:54 AM
Subject: [Mb-civic] Earth's Fish Disappearing


>
>
> Re:  Earth's Fish Disappearing
>
>
> Ian wrote:
>
>
> ==========
> Max:
>
> You said it!  And for those who want to know "how we got here" vis-a-vis
the
> environment and humankind's rape and plundering of the earth, I highly,
> strongly, extremely recommend Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" - one of the
finest,
> most important books ever written.
> ========
>
>
>
> I haven't read it, but the story line looks great.  Quinn's "Ishmael" won
> the Turner Fellowship award.  The link to his book is at:
>
> http://www.ishmael.com/welcome.cfm
>
> The origins of Ishmael can be found here:
>
> http://www.ishmael.com/Origins/Ishmael/
>
> A small quote from that page is:
>
> "The book opens with a deceptively ordinary personals ad: "Teacher seeks
> pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world." Seeking a direction
> for his life, a young man answers the ad and is startled to find that the
> teacher is a lowland gorilla named Ishmael, a creature uniquely placed to
> vision anew the human story."
>
> "Ishmael's paradigm of history is startlingly different from the one wired
> into our cultural consciousness. For Ishmael, our agricultural revolution
> was not a technological event but a moral one, a rebellion against an
> ethical structure inherent in the community of life since its foundation
> four billion years ago. Having escaped the restraints of this ethical
> structure, humankind made itself a global tyrant, wielding deadly force
> over all other species while lacking the wisdom to make its tyranny a
> beneficial one or even a sustainable one."
>
>
> CheeseNote:  Sounds excellent, if you haven't read it, go explore.  While
> there, you can also read some of the fascinating, and downright nasty,
LOL,
> Publishers' rejection letters rejecting Ishmael before it wound up winning
> the Turner Fellowship Award out of 2,500 other worldwide entries.
>
> If you've ever tried to publish anything, you know why I'm putting up the
> following excerpts from the rejection letters, lol.  A couple of my
> favorite quotes about Ishmael from All-Wise Almighty Publishers
Incorporated:
>
>
> "I have too much to read and too little time to read it in"
>
> "I delight in the debunking of myths"
>
> "I think it would be very difficult, if not downright impossible, to find
a
> publisher for this book"
>
> "Today's audiences have reverted to conservatism to a good degree -- they
> are more interested in practical subjects than esoteric subjects which of
> course reflects directly on sales figures in the publishing marketplace"
>
> "No amount of revision could possibly turn this into a salable manuscript"
>
>
> Oh well, the Turner Fellowship Award and 20 languages it being translated
> into later.....  LOL......
>
>
>
> ======
> Your missive also brings to mind Agent Smith's "sililoquoy" to Morpheus as
> he explains that humans are a "virus": we may be rooting for Morpheus, Neo
> and the "good guys" at that point, but Agent Smith is nevertheless largely
> correct in his position.
>
> Peace.
> ===========
>
>
> If you haven't seen it already, Ian is referring to "The Matrix" movie,
> heh.  Go rent it (the 1st one).  Sit back with some popcorn and explore
> where you really live, lol.....
>
> Yes, Ian, you're right, for all our "good intentions", it appears that we
> are no more than a band of ravenous locusts when it comes to taking care
of
> a limited garden, for which there is nobody else but us to care for it.
>
> Big Business, Big Brother, Big Deals.
>
> Have eaten away at what "environment" is left for almost forever now it
seems.
>
> The clincher being that The Masses across the entire planet cannot rein in
> their Governments to rein in the Business and its endless destructive
> appetite nor irresponsibility toward "The Environment Etc".
>
> "Environmental Impact" will always be a dirty word to them.  Just as it
> always has been.
>
> It's just not as profitable to preserve the very things we need to even
> just exist on Earth as it is to simply ignore anyone and everything but
the
> money coming in at the bank.
>
>  From such greed sprang such terms as "Tree Hugger".
>
> To defame a Conservationist, or Preservationist, or Environmentalist is
the
> most fun those Assholes have had in years.
>
> They're not about to give up such parlour delights anytime in the near
future.
>
> Nor the extra profits that can be made from ignoring running over anything
> that lives.
>
> Machismo in high gear......  "I Am Power Itself".
>
> Such is life.  Ummm, rather, such is death on a planet that once thrived
> with living things.
>
> What's so interesting is that some of us can actually see it coming to an
> Extreme Conjunction in the not so distant future, while the rest of us
tool
> around town licking ice cream and listening to the latest CD without a
care
> in the world.
>
> Somewhere inbetween are people endlessly trying to organize opposition to
> insurmountable odds.
>
> People in all sectors, in all countries, surely laugh when one presents
> them with the possibility of George Orwell's books coming into a reality
> some day.
>
> The only problem with that is that his writings appear not to be simply a
> literary achievement but rather a veritable prediction of things to come,
> among other "literary works".
>
> When "The Resources" *really* start to "decline", such things as "Prison
> Camps" for The Masses are only around the next turn in the road.
>
> There is simply no way that "Big Brother" is going to tolerate their Lip
in
> the face of "extreme adverse conditions".
>
> Kind of like now, but with a twist.........
>
>
>
>
>
> Cheeseburger
>
> - Where has the sparrow gone now that I need its song.
>
> .
>
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