JUST SCRAPE OFF THE BURNT PARTS, RIGHT?

Click on the title if you want to hear some great music

 

PHILOSOPHICAL OBSERVATIONS

Friday, September 16, 2011

3:06 PM

If you think the world is flat, or that there is no such thing as global warming, this is the wrong site for you. And this is definitely NOT the article for you.  Because I believe we're destroying our planet. 

There is a plan.  Just like gravity and tides, like orbits and solar systems and black holes.   And this plan is full of if's.  It starts with time.  A beginning and an ending.  Alpha and Omega .  The if's affect the direction the plan takes.  If man continues to take without giving back, we will definitely go in one direction.  There will be no choice.  Life on earth will cease to exist.  It's the embodiment of Newton's third law.  For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Put this in your pipe and smoke it.  If you eat a non-organic apple, you have contributed a link in the chain, from labor, chemicals, contamination, to birth defects, genetic mutation, pollution, and respiratory disease; from health care expenses, more poverty, more starvation, more death, to more global warming, more deterioration of life on this bio-sphere, and on, and on. 

 

We all say, "This ruination will not happen in  MY lifetime.  How selfish is that?!  And it IS happening in your lifetime.  It is now. 

This Photo is entitled 'Chernobyl, 20 years later'.  It's from a website:  MatthewIngram.com

Have you had a chance to see a land reclamation project, over the course of 10, or 20, or 30 years?   Let me tell you, it's awe-inspiring.  It's amazing to see something so purely and totally healthy, and contributing to the salvation of life on earth.  Awe-inspiring.  This was a mine in Alberta, Canada.

Now, I know we must look at things in a much smaller scale, within our own narrow field of vision.  And our own needs and modes of expression,  our means and our capabilities.  We're not lower animals.  We come with concepts, and plans, and phobias, and philias, and neuroses, and pathologies.  It's complicated, I know.  So, start with your own damned self. 

Recycle.  Eat Organic.  Eat local.  Grow your own.  Shut off the lights. 

I will be ranting on this topic some more, you can be sure.

THE GAIA PRINCIPLE (or Enough About You)

(Click on the Title for a music video "We're All Connected)  By Bill Nye, the Science Guy.)

OK.  Following are some philosophical ruminations.  These may be a bit esoteric and heady for some of you dirt-diggers.  But someone has to think about these things!!

The Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.

"The scientific investigation of the Gaia hypothesis focuses on observing how the biosphere and the evolution of life forms contribute to the stability of global temperature, ocean salinity, oxygen in the atmosphere and other factors of habitability in a preferred homeostasis. The Gaia hypothesis was formulated by the chemist James Lovelock and co-developed by the microbiologist Lynn Margulis in the 1970s.  Initially received with hostility by the scientific community, it is now studied in the disciplines of geo-physiology and Earth system science, and some of its principles have been adopted in fields like biogeochemistry and systems ecology. This ecological hypothesis has also inspired analogies and various interpretations in social sciences, politics, and religion under a vague philosophy and movement."

                                           From Wikipedia

The Earth is not a "life-support" system, not a passive vessel that carries its organic cargo.  But the Earth was first, itself derived from ancient star dust. The Earth and its eco-systems are the essential life-giving source of organic life-forms.  I'm pointing out here  that the Earth is above us in the overall scheme of things. The Earth is the "whole" and we are just a "part".  It is incumbent upon us, therefore, to replace our people-centeredness (homo-centrism) with Earth-centeredness (eco-centrism). We must define progress as whatever is conducive to sustainable participation in Earth's ecosystems.  It is incumbent upon us, then, to consider our actions in the garden.  “ What am I  doing to maintain the balance of nature?  What am I  doing that will help, rather than hurt the Earth?  What will be my legacy?”

So, I want to leave you with this Chinese proverb to sum it all up.

Man who eats too many prunes gets good run for his money. 

GARDENBEAR