ayayai, humans are destroying the whole earth!!

[satirecafe]

yechh, it sickens me how terrible my own species is. even if i'm vegan, pretty much every man-made product is destroying the earth's resources. computers, cell phones, ipods... it really stinks. there are just so many things that can't be avoided. i know this doesn't really have anything to do with veganism, but i needed to let that out.

[Tray]

This is one of the causes of my moments of misanthropy. Nobody cares enought, we continue to dance as the ship is sinking.
There are soo many things that individuals can make but everyone stops when doing something means changing something in the individual's life.
I also hate the concept of sustainable development that most of the people think'll be the solutions to all our problems, thinking that we can be sustainable for the environment without changing our lifestyles and applying it to every person in the planet. That's evidently impossible, and technology isn't going to save us like they claim.
The problem is simple: We're too many and we're too pampered by our actual society

[sugarmouse]

I am very much a misanthropist.Sure ,there are certain humans who enrich my life.but mostly, I dislike us.alot.

[John]

I think that things like computers, cell phones, and iPod-like devices are pretty cool. I'm just old enough to remember life without them. Now, with computers you don't have to keep file cabinets full of countless files and you don't have to sit there with a stupid typewriter, trying your best not to make a typo. You don't have to write a letter to your friend on paper and wait while a truck takes it to a plane, to a train, to a truck, to it's destination.

With cell phones they don't have to build nearly as many pay phones as they used to, although I hope they don't go away entirely. In the third world many people who would not otherwise have any access to telephones now can use phones. Think about what it must be like to live without a phone; how vulnerable you would be--that's how many people in the world live.

Mp3 players save on resources too. I remember when CDs came in enormous boxes that you had to rip apart for minutes just to get to that CD. Now you can get a song without the factory that pressed the CD, without the fuel to get it to the store, without the fuel to get you to the store, and without the packaging.

And as far as Homo sapiens goes, there is within us limitless potential, as we are the most amazing thing ever to exist--at least that I am aware of.

[eve]

These things have their upsides and downsides, but frankly in my view their effect on the environment is miniscule compared with the devastating effect of animal factory farms, plus the deforestations going on in South America, and in S-E Asia, leading to whole villages being inundated with mud slides. There's also the diseases that we don't hear much about in our 'civilised' world that are occurring globally, where TB is still rife, malaria, flu, etc, and overwhelmingly these diseases come about from the close confinement of non-humans.

I'm just reading about Bird Flu by Michael Greger, but actually it is a very well researched book on how human diseases have come about since we have imposed the present terrible treatment of non-humans - not only bird flu and 'mad cow', but meningitis, measles, etc. In fact, satirecafe, as vegans our lifestyle is absolutely the most helpful to the planet, and frankly it doesn't bother me that I use a computer, drive a little car.

[Roxy]

We are destroying the earth, and we all need to take steps to stop putting so much pollution into the Earth's atmosphere......NOW!

[PainterLady]

It's kinda hard to accept this society when a majority of people think it is a conspiracy and that there is no such thing as global warming. It is mind boggling to me.

[Roxy]

Me too! I think many people might be in denial.....because to face the truth would mean they would have to go to the trouble of changing their way of life. It's like what Al Gore said about there being many people in politics holding the issue of global warming at an arm's length. Because if they recognise that it exists, they then have a moral obligation to do something about it. Maybe it's just easier to chuck it in the "too hard" basket. :confused:

[howdawg]

I've been discussing this all night.... Very sad.... :(

[PainterLady]

So many people want to help and change their lifestyles and do everything in their power to live as gentle a life on earth as possible and some people simply don't care.

[Roxy]

Yes, like the lady that sat outside my store this morning for 15 minutes, waiting for us to open....idling her car :rolleyes: That's just f*cking selfish!

[whalespace]

I read Lovelock [Gaia hypothesist] in a newspaper last week. He reckoned a huge rise in global temperatures was pretty well programmed in already. To believe that humans are even capable of stopping it is ridiculous, they need to adapt.
We know that alcohol fuels cars, is carbon neutral [sunshine, sugar, yeast, alcohol, carbon dioxide], and is easier than fractional distillation of crude oil. So although it might be morally wrong to burn fossil fuels, cars could become sustainable. Certain minds need to be changed...those that decide what flows at the pump.
Tokamaks are worth knowing about, if destruction of this biosphere is concerning you. A prototype commercial electricity generator is under construction at Cadarache, France. The boffins feel that their plasma containment is possible. These would bring more than enough power, without producing fissible [nuclear bomb ingredient] material...therefore nobody has an excuse to keep an old fission nuke station.
See the International Thermonuclear Energy Research Project [ITER] for progress on that one.
Of course, the whole situation would be easier if people cared what happened to innocent creatures, but most folk need to feel secure before they consider others.
Ban anxiety.

[howdawg]

Of course, the whole situation would be easier if people cared what happened to innocent creatures, but most folk need to feel secure before they consider others.
Ban anxiety.

I feel the problem is that people feel too secure. The average Joe doesn't go walking around considering the environment, he walks around thinking where he's going to get his next hamburger. The point is not necessarily that we can reverse the damage we have done to the earth, but we DO need to start drastically reducing damage caused. Adapting is not good enough, especially if you have any hopes that in 100 years there will be anything left on this planet that isn't man-made.

[fiamma]

as vegans our lifestyle is absolutely the most helpful to the planet, and frankly it doesn't bother me that I use a computer, drive a little car.

Well put eve, I live as ecologically as I can and there's only so much I can do. I love my car, use it only when strictly necessary, but unfortunately where I live it IS a necessity. Actually the title of this thread makes me want to say "Geez, you don't say!".

[Roxy]

I feel the problem is that people feel too secure. The average Joe doesn't go walking around considering the environment, he walks around thinking where he's going to get his next hamburger. The point is not necessarily that we can reverse the damage we have done to the earth, but we DO need to start drastically reducing damage caused. Adapting is not good enough, especially if you have any hopes that in 100 years there will be anything left on this planet that isn't man-made.

Agreed. I wonder how the 100 million plus people around the world are going to adapt, when they are driven out of their homes, due to the sea levels rising? The thing is, we have the power to stop this happening and we need to.

[PainterLady]

I think people are afraid! Fear turns into Anger and they direct that anger at the people trying to bring the problem to their awareness.
Horrible circle, round and round.

[whalespace]

Agreed. I wonder how the 100 million plus people around the world are going to adapt, when they are driven out of their homes, due to the sea levels rising? The thing is, we have the power to stop this happening and we need to.


Sea levels ARE rising, and millions upon millions of coast dwellers WILL BE moving miles in land competing for space and food in our lifetime. I am not saying "hard cheese",nor "stop thinking about efficiency". Lovelock went on forecasting that billions will die...and humans will need to adapt if the race is to survive. Perhaps everyone will suddenly aquire 12 years of proffessional schooling, and see beyond their survival drives.
I feel I must find ways of convincing influencial minds that there is some kind of benefit in creating and sustaining...I was sure myself but I still feel pressure to conform to short sighted destructive consumption.
Hmmm... invite all finance ministers to a nature worship party.:p

[Roxy]

Of course the human race will need to adapt, if we are to survive.

I'm just hoping that maybe, just maybe, we can pull together and work on not polluting our Earth as much as we have been doing.

I can't just sit back and let the Earth's destruction happen, without putting up some kind of fight. Prevention is mostly certainly better than cure.