Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] WAPF Conference in November: Harvey to present all-day track

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Liz <liz@allslash.org>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] WAPF Conference in November: Harvey to present all-day track
  • Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2007 14:35:41 -0400

At 12:34 PM 8/26/2007, you wrote:

Increasingly, we have to recognize the economists dismissing what they
call "externalities" as stark, staring *nuts*! "Externalities" are
defined as such only because we can ignore them temporarily when
generating this quarter's profits. But the truth is that it's in the
"externalities" that we actually *live*. Undercut them with a reckless
and irresponsible economic system and eventually we all go
not-so-merrily down the tubes.


I've been lurking for a while, but wanted to add to this. I read some time back that humankind is the only species able to transport large amounts of energy from one place to another. Primitive humans couldn't make a huge impact on their environments because they had only the locally available energy to work with. As technology improved, the ability to extract energy from one place and use it in another place allowed people to use energy in places where it wasn't abundant, or to use it in much larger quantities than locally available, and thus to affect a local region in ways that had never been possible before.

The whole notion of an "externality" violates physical law. We don't live in an open system where new energy can be extracted ad infinitum and our garbage can be tossed down the nearest black hole.

Liz in SW VA
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page