Dec. 1- Enviro

Human activity has changed the world forever. Mastadons will never again wander over America; The tiger will never again rule the jungle. Nor are humans likely to give electricity back to the eels and the air back to the birds.

Much of this change is for the worse. Instead of ever stampeding toward more powerful technologies, humans should have moved forward over eons, never out of hearing of nature's drumbeat, slowly learning the difficult dance of being both humane and civilized.

But our ancestors made other decisions and now the whole world is suffering. Of course many people, safe behind country club walls or safe in some still idyllic corner of the world, don't agree that the whole world is suffering. But whether one looks at the human population, chained to cubicles and pacified with legal drugs, or at the surviving wild-life, everywhere ensnared by the net of human interference, or at technology, creating un-natural life-forms and growing into tumorous nuclear clouds, it is true that the whole world is suffering from the modern disease.

Still, faced with that fact, the environmentally enlightened should not become excessively angry or anxious. The fact is that we are here and have the opportunity to do what we can to help the earth regain its health. Excessive worry about how this effort will turn out will only cause suffering and distraction from our goals. Besides, disease is only the flip-side of health; this is all only part of ebb and flow of the universal tide.

Actually, there is a compensatory gift to being environmentally enlightened in a society still ruled by ignorance and greed. Faced with the enormous problem of preserving life, one sees one's own ignorant and greedy tendencies for what they truly are. The distractions are many: racial and religious prejudice, the desire for physical luxury, the scientific impulse to categorize and control, the hatred that can arise from mis-understood morality, etc., etc. She who truly wants to save the earth should strive to purify herself of all of these things. I assure the reader that I am incredibly far from this goal.

Well, for a brief moment, I'm riding high here in Thailand. I have enough money to live very comfortably for two months. Here are some of my impressions of the bigger picture.
Humans are doing massive damage to the world eco-system. For centuries now, we've been expanding the habitat of our species virtually without regard for the lives of Earth's other plants and animals. Furthermore, our technological prowess gives us access to immense resources, and we use these resources with great flippancy and waste.
We, in the largest sense of the word, use fuel and steel for vacations. We cultivate grain and then strip it of its nutrients and eat it in products like white-bread. We clear vital jungles full of resourceful creatures and use the land to raise sugar, which we eat practically straight in the vile forms of ice-cream and candy. Likewise, we mis-use resources and bog down our higher faculties by drinking too much alcohol. I am particularly guilty of this last offense.
Now, our foolish behavior is approaching a crisis point. I'm no expert on the chemistry of global warming but I do read what experts have to say and it's become crystal clear that our technological activity has greatly affected the chemical composition of the ozone layer. The effects of this can be seen in the melting of the glaciers and even of Greenland, as a new scientific study shows. Other nasty effects include increased rainfall, leading to flooding, and decreased snowfall, which is needed for irrigation, etc.
Given how menacing this phenomenon is, the failure of so many world leaders to take strident action is an indictment not only of their benevolence but of their intelligence. Indeed, global warming is not the only environmental time-bomb the powers that be seem blind to. There's over-population, acid rain, the hole in the ozone layer, and nuclear waste for dessert. Being just an average person, I have no idea how this scenario will play out for the human race.
But it wouldn't be shocking if, after a lot more pollution and a few major disasters, our species got its act together and saved itself.
From my perspective, this isn't okay; As a matter of fact, it would be shameful. The constant expansion and sometimes disgusting behavior of humans has been responsible for the decimation and annhilation of a huge number of plant and animal species. From the Wooly Mammoths and the mastadons