We hope things go well for you and that favorable circumstances permit you to respond with a second round of comments to the outstanding questions posted in this blog.

Thanks,

Steve

I would like to support the efforts of Dr. Rapley, and Dr. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, through a plea for the immediate consideration of unexpected scientific evidence regarding human population dynamics and human population numbers to be examined by MEMBERS of the DISCIPLINARY ASSOCIATIONS NETWORK FOR SUSTAINABILITY, the FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE, the FACING THE FUTURE organization, the AAAS FORUM FOR INNOVATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, the GLOBAL MARSHALL PLAN and the CLUB OF ROME.

Thanks,

Steve

http://www.okananter.com/wordpress/?p=21

Always,

Steve

You’re a poet.

Your eyes are working just as intended.
You are of sound mind.
You can think for yourself.
You have demonstrated an adequate capacity for experience.
You are not a complete idiot.
You are going sane.

Please do not lose confidence in yourself, because your eyes are showing you some new and apparently unforeseen things about the human species and the world we inhabit…..things many brothers and sisters among us, the ‘many too many’ who are embedded in the predominant culture, are not yet seeing.

Imagine for a moment that you have awakened early this very morning just before dawn. Recall the quality of darkness just before dawn. You cannot see anything. Almost everyone else you know or have ever known is not stirring; they remain asleep.

With the coming of dawn the world begins to become visible. You see things you have seen every day of your life. But on this morning, for the first time, everything about the familiar landscape is somehow unexpectedly different. Once those who are asleep awaken, they will also see that which is completely unanticipated in the unchanged landscape.

But, at least until this good morning, they remain asleep.

Sincerely,

Steve

Consider this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Missile_Defense

While I am considering writing a guest column for GIM, on the need for an international / global peace movement; one which should be associated with the environmental movement, I can’t help thinking that, again, I am nothing but a useless utopist who’s guided by equally useless humanitarian ideals.

The fact is: the people and institutions who are in power on this planet do not worry about any such ideals. According to their way of thinking, it is only natural that the Earth should be fixed with plenty of Satelite-and-Computer-based Missile Defence Systems – one for each of the ultra-modern superpowers of this world: China, Russia, USA, and (God forbid) Saudi Arabia or Iran. You know what I mean?

Our current world leaders are all geared at a Serious Space Age, in which Stephen Hawking’s version of the future of mankind is the guiding principle.

- —

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/1609172.stm

Quote: – Hawking’s prediction for the future of mankind, which has provoked criticism in scientific circles, seems itself to have been the product of “bad dreams.”

“I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years unless we spread into space” he recently told a journalist. “There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet.”

- —

So you see: it is easy to keep dreaming on. Like dreaming on about a future organisation of this planet; one that is based on key concepts like peace and understanding, co-operation and care, love and … and … you know: respect and … see: I feel like a complete idiot here … am I sane? …

*a whole lot of sarcastic comments expected*

Love?!

Perhaps the time is drawing nigh for some serious discussion of what we are to do about the human predicament that is presented to humanity by the unbridled growth of the human species and its large-scale business enterprises engulfing the Earth in Century XXI.

Just as a way of beginning to take hold of this distinctly human predicament, I would like to present a scenario to which I welcome responses. It seems that one way to start such a “movement” from problem identification to solutions could be by considering how to address a situation like the one that follows.

Let us consider for a moment that the future of our children is being mortgaged and ultimately put at risk by a relatively small group of powerbrokers who manage the unbridled global political economy as a colossal pyramid scheme. While they recklessly go about their potentially pernicious business, many too many of our elected and appointed leaders maintain their silence about the challenges unrestrained global human production, consumption and propagation present to humanity, even though a calamity is already visible in the offing. By posing as people who are blind and mute, the deafening silence of these bought-and-paid-for leaders serves to fill their pockets and pockets of their benefactors and minions with that which is golden…. for now….. and for a while longer, I suppose.

Could these promoters of endless wealth accumulation and ever expanding business enterprise be adamantly pursuing an unsustainable course to the future, one that no sensible and reasonable human being would ever choose to take?

Would you recommend that we “stay the course” by promoting more business as usual, human overgrowth activities or would you suggest a change in course that eschews unchecked economic globalization?

If change of some sort appears to loom on the horizon, then what changes in course would you recommend?

Sincerely,

Steve

Two terrific comments. Thanks.

This is only a guess; but I believe you might agree with the two following statements.

1. War over resources, natural resource dissipation, grab a beer, order a pizza, don’t worry, don’t stop laughing and ‘party on’ belong together. Virtually everywhere in our predominant global culture we see that these behaviors coalesce in the course of day to day living.

2. Peace, biodiversity enhancement, environmental protection, natural resource preservation, smiling, thinking of the ill fate of others, caring for other people, for life as we know it and for the maintenance of the integrity of Earth are also behaviors that somehow belong together. Unfortunately, we see these behaviors insufficiently expressed in the human world in which we live today.

Who knows, perhaps METANOIA is in the offing.

Always,

Steve