we're all doooooooooooomed!

[Daz Madrigal]

Confronting the New Misanthropy
The big question today is not whether humans will survive the twenty-first century, but whether our faith in humanity will survive it.

Discussions about the future increasingly tend to focus on whether humans will survive. According to green author and Gaia theorist James Lovelock, 'before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be kept in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable' (1).

More and more books predict there will be an unavoidable global catastrophe; there is James Howard Kunstler's The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, and Eugene Linden's The Winds of Change: Weather and the Destruction of Civilisations. Kunstler's book warns that 'this is a much darker time than 1938, the eve of World War II' (2). In the media there are alarming stories about a mass 'die-off' in the near future and of cities engulfed by rising oceans as a consequence of climate change.

[mathilde]

You read too much, Dazza.

[sandywinder]

I think 'century' is a bit optimistic (or pessimistic) but maybe the end of the millenium.

[Daz Madrigal]

And this Link rubbishes the doom-mongers

www.frankfuredi.com/articles/misanthropy-20060418.shtml

Anxieties about human survival are as old as human history itself. Through catastrophes such as the Deluge or Sodom and Gomorrah, the religious imagination fantasised about the end of the world. More recently, apocalyptic ideas once rooted in magic and theology have been recast as allegedly scientific statements about human destructiveness and irresponsibility. Elbowing aside the mystical St John, Lovelock poses as a prophet-scientist when he states: 'I take my profession seriously, and now I, too, have to bring bad news….' (3) Today, the future of the Earth is said to be jeopardised by human consumption, technological development or by 'man playing God'. And instead of original sin leading to the Fall of Man, we fear the degradation of Nature by an apparently malevolent human species.

All of today's various doomsday scenarios - whether it's the millennium bug, oil depletion, global warming, avian flu or the destruction of biodiversity - emphasise human culpability. Their premise is that the human species is essentially destructive and morally bankrupt. 'With breathtaking insolence', warns Lovelock in his book The Revenge of Gaia, 'humans have taken the stores of carbon that Gaia buried to keep oxygen at its proper level and burnt them'.

Human activity is continually blamed for threatening the Earth's existence. Scare stories about the scale of human destruction appear in the media and are promoted by advocacy groups and politicians. For example...


..thats my intellectual bit done - a quick copy an paste job.

[Daz Madrigal]

mathilde said:

You read too much, Dazza.

I'd be better educated if I did.

..the truth is I just read the first 2 lines and then cut to the chase (always in the last sentence!).

..theres a tip for you, Matty!

[Daz Madrigal]

In actual fact I read remarkably little.

On the other hand I spend ages 'looking'. Mainly looking for lost stuff and music..I'm a good boy really and refuse to lower myself to leching over naked women unlike some members I could mention.

Its the members who lech over members who I worry about..but I'll stop there because I've ruined a vair vair serious thread.

[mathilde]

What ever you do, don't mention the GUS

[Pink Betty]

madrigalman said:

Its the members who lech over members who I worry about..but I'll stop there because I've ruined a vair vair serious thread.

I'll attempt to get it back in the realm of DOOOOOOOOM.

Is the human race worth saving?

[sandywinder]

madrigalman said:

And this Link rubbishes the doom-mongers

www.frankfuredi.com/articles/misanthropy-20060418.shtml

Anxieties about human survival are as old as human history itself. Through catastrophes such as the Deluge or Sodom and Gomorrah, the religious imagination fantasised about the end of the world. More recently, apocalyptic ideas once rooted in magic and theology have been recast as allegedly scientific statements about human destructiveness and irresponsibility. Elbowing aside the mystical St John, Lovelock poses as a prophet-scientist when he states: 'I take my profession seriously, and now I, too, have to bring bad news….' (3) Today, the future of the Earth is said to be jeopardised by human consumption, technological development or by 'man playing God'. And instead of original sin leading to the Fall of Man, we fear the degradation of Nature by an apparently malevolent human species.

All of today's various doomsday scenarios - whether it's the millennium bug, oil depletion, global warming, avian flu or the destruction of biodiversity - emphasise human culpability. Their premise is that the human species is essentially destructive and morally bankrupt. 'With breathtaking insolence', warns Lovelock in his book The Revenge of Gaia, 'humans have taken the stores of carbon that Gaia buried to keep oxygen at its proper level and burnt them'.

Human activity is continually blamed for threatening the Earth's existence. Scare stories about the scale of human destruction appear in the media and are promoted by advocacy groups and politicians. For example...


..thats my intellectual bit done - a quick copy an paste job.

Well it was human activity (CFCs) that caused the hole in the ozone layer. It is human activity that has polluted rivers and oceans.


THE CLUES ARE THERE.

[gus2]

madrigalman said:

In actual fact I read remarkably little.

On the other hand I spend ages 'looking'. Mainly looking for lost stuff and music..I'm a good boy really and refuse to lower myself to leching over naked women unlike some members I could mention.

Its the members who lech over members who I worry about..but I'll stop there because I've ruined a vair vair serious thread.

I doubt wether it will be the last one you've ruined.
Btw if it is I, or me whichever is correct (Mimi I know your there watching for mistakes) that you are refering to I will have you know that I don't lech I savour. There is a difference you know.
I am still waiting for you to return the copy i sent you of Big One's. Do return it by the next post and I hope it is not drooled upon like the last one I sent you.

gus

[Pink Betty]

Jolly good clues they are too Sandy.

This morning they tell us the ozone quilt will be repaired in 60 years time - maybe we can do some things right once we realise the error of our ways?

[gus2]

admin said:

Jolly good clues they are too Sandy.

This morning they tell us the ozone quilt will be repaired in 60 years time - maybe we can do some things right once we realise the error of our ways?

After reading that Las Vegas consumes more energy than Belgium. I think you might try telling GWB instead of sandy.

gus

[Pink Betty]

gus2 said:

admin said:

Jolly good clues they are too Sandy.

This morning they tell us the ozone quilt will be repaired in 60 years time - maybe we can do some things right once we realise the error of our ways?

After reading that Las Vegas consumes more energy than Belgium. I think you might try telling GWB instead of sandy.

gus

Gus, I don't understand your post....little surprise there, I have oft been called all manner of things, stupid being but one of them.

Vegas, the Bush creature and Belgium and Sandy are all well? I hope.

I was just pointing out that this very morning, on the Today program, we, the British public were told that the ozone layer was recovering due to our (human) efforts at banning various chemicals and thing, and that in 60 years time the hole would be healed.

I was trying to make the point that if people listen to the conservationist element, and recycle, slow down on the exploitation of our natural resources, we might not be DOOOOMED, and have a viable future.

( I have no wish to talk to GWB - he is more of a fool than I)

[gus2]

admin said:

gus2 said:

After reading that Las Vegas consumes more energy than Belgium. I think you might try telling GWB instead of sandy.

gus

Gus, I don't understand your post....little surprise there, I have oft been called all manner of things, stupid being but one of them.

Vegas, the Bush creature and Belgium and Sandy are all well? I hope.

I was just pointing out that this very morning, on the Today program, we, the British public were told that the ozone layer was recovering due to our (human) efforts at banning various chemicals and thing, and that in 60 years time the hole would be healed.

I was trying to make the point that if people listen to the conservationist element, and recycle, slow down on the exploitation of our natural resources, we might not be DOOOOMED, and have a viable future.

( I have no wish to talk to GWB - he is more of a fool than I)

Sorry I did not mean to offend I was just trying to say that there is only a snowballs chance in Hell of "mending" the ozone layer ( i did read somewhere that it is already too late) when the likes of the USA use a quarter of the worlds energy recources.
I do not think you are stupid Daz said that ;D anyway stupid is as stupid does. Forest Gump.

gus

[Daz Madrigal]

Clam down everyone.

Why not paint them and earn money like CG in all actuality is far from being anywhere close to silly. None of us would be posting on here if it wasn't for her, and the same could be said for quite a few other places.

When CG started her Artblog she received 40+ positive comments for many of them in the first few weeks. She closed it down because of one or two cheap nasty comments. Personally I think she made a mistake...potshots about being a beachcomber and 'seashell seller' are so wide of the mark as to be laughable and as for selling 'tawdry bits and pieces'..well its pure jealousy that says 'far' more about the people sad enough to seek her out than it does about the artist. Most people would give their eye teeth to do a job that was both creative and enjoyable.

She maybe a tad eccentric - but who isn't - the people who pretend to be 'normal' are anything but. Some of whom I'd actually cross the road to avoid. A few I wouldn't even allow near sharp objects such as pencils - let alone scissors and knives.