I'm afraid it stops when either the poor earth is totally out of resources and the remainder starves to death or when the next large plague wipes most of us out. We're supposed to be SO clever, but we don't seem to be learning a damned thing, do we?

In ways, we human beings have: progressed, totally regressed, and I suppose in others we are just the same as the day our ancestors slithered/crawled out of the sea. :(

It's such a weird dichotomy. We HAVE learned so much and come so far, and at the same time we WASTE so much and disregard so much. It's scary.

nope, we don't. I'm afraid of the same thing.

I've got no answers for ya, this is the sort of rant I throw out once a week or so in my head. I still remember vividly when I was about 6 years old and I saw a large chunk of pine forest being torn down. I looked at the vacant, treeless, unused-for-years lot on the other side of the road that they could have used instead, and cried.

Long before it became known that Bush was miserable with foreign politics, I was voting against him merely for this issue. Hopefully the issue will become important enough that politicians won't dare stand against improving the environment, some day.

Hmmm... I dunno. I think we can all each make a difference. But that's just me feeling optimistic today, I guess. If you instill a love of nature and natural environments then that's another thing you can do to help. I also believe recycling what we can DOES make a difference.

However, living in a city can get to a person. Seeing rubbish, traffic, pollutions of all sorts just on the trip into work is enough to get anyone down.

I suppose if we all buy a plot of land somewhere and plant trees, that would definately be one way to make a difference, eh? :) Or hell, just plant a tree. :)

*hug* Environmental issues are important, and they're becoming even more front line politics-wise. Don't worry. We won't use up everything. We may be stupid, but we're not COMPLETELY stupid. *thinks* Okay, maybe we are, but I'm hoping not. ;)

I agree that we can all help, but I worry that the little differences we make don't really affect the big picture. If corporations really tried to make a difference, that might help, but it seems most of the time as if progress is a juggernaut that no one can stop...short of crashing into the wall of no return, that is. *hugs back*

Oh oh.. what a topic.

This is part of why I live in Eugene. There are cutting edge environmental activists here. It gets sort of hard to live up to the standards!
I'm listening to books on tape of the sequels to Clan of the Cave Bears. Right now I'm in Shelters of Stone. Listening to the descriptions of how these peoples used their resources is impressive, really. They had a connection so strong to the Mother Earth and our affect on her as humans.

The other day at my friend Chava's house we were having a conversation about how we each thought things would be in the future, when we were younger. Jim said that he thought it would be like Star Trek by 2004, surely. That People would be working together. There would be World Peace... Worlds Peace (plural) and that we'd have all the environmental issues solved, resolved. We'd have cures for many debilitating diseases.
And surely we have the intelligence, technology, and information for these kinds of results! I think we do. It's a matter of application (as opposed to greed.)
But true, we peons do not control the big corporations, and their hold, influence, and control is vast. Could push us all into hopelessness.
But.... being the optimist that I am ( well, um, often anyhow ) I think in terms of that thousandth monkey theory.
You know, if we each do the recycling and as much as we humanly can as often as we can... and if we spend the word in just this grassroots manner... more and more individual respect and awareness and honoring of the Earth and her resources and our handling of them... then someday there will be enough of us taking proper responsibility to shift the balance. At that point, what can the corporations do? Naive? Perhaps.

And maybe we'll be too late with the whole monkey business.

But what else can we do? It really is the sentiment of bettering ourselves individually and radiating that out into our families and communities that counts, rather than the outcome.

We are a blink in the larger scheme of things, the great mystery

thank you for that post and that perspective :)

Oh Lizardek-- If I had a link on my site like you do that says "great writing" this would be its hot link for ever and ever.

I see what you see. I don't understand it either. There is an unbelievable dumbness/stupidity in the human brain despite whatever cognitive reasoning ability we may have. What's worse-- our leaders are even more idiotic and care only about MONEY and how muchMONEY businesses can make them. And at oef the day-- money will not be able to make clean water, fresh air, etc.

you're a sweetie, you are.

I know what you mean, it's all about the money, and it's so scary that it goes on and on and despite some genuine effort by people who care, it just seems to continue in the wrong direction.

whoops-- that was me ~bluepoppy heh

I know what you mean, jellybean. That post just made me want to listen to the Talking Heads song: Nothing but Flowers.