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[permaculture] It IS a population issue, Not a tech issue
- From: "Lance Bermudez" <becnal@hotpop.com>
- To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: [permaculture] It IS a population issue, Not a tech issue
- Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2003 22:31:58 +0200
Our species does not need technology to ensure our durability
on this planet. Humanity has existed for millions of years. Our
population explosion has been going on for only ten thousand years old,
contemporaneously with Civilization in the Near East.
People need to eat. And to satisfy that one basic need,
humanity is eating the planet alive. The oceans are being emptied.
Land is being cleared for agriculture. These are not technology issues.
These are basic food and water issues.
If someone saw a guy repeatedly stabbing himself with a small
knife, one would naturally suggest to him that what he was doing was harmful to
his health. It would be insane for him to reply, "You are obviously not
considering that a breakthrough blood clotting factor may be invented any day
now." We don't need a breakthrough, we need to live in accordance with the
laws of Ecology.
The following is an excerpt from a speech entitled The New
Renaissance, by Daniel Quinn. I beg you all to read the whole speech,
which can be found here: http://www.geocities.com/becnalrio/newrenaissance.htm
"During your lifetime, the people
of our culture are going to figure out how to live sustainably on this
planet--or they're not. Either way, it's certainly going to be extraordinary. If
they figure out how to live sustainably here, then humanity will be able to see
something it can't see right now: a future that extends into the indefinite
future. If they don't figure this out, then I'm afraid the human race is
going to take its place among the species that we're driving into extinction
here every day--as many as 200--every day.
It's obvious that it costs a lot
of money and energy to produce all the food we need to maintain our population
at six billion. But there is an additional, hidden cost that has to be counted
in life forms. Put plainly, in order to maintain the biomass that is tied
up in the six billion of us, we have to gobble up 200 species a day--in addition
to all the food we produce in the ordinary way. We need the biomass of those 200
species to maintain this biomass, the biomass that is in us. And
when we've gobbled up those species, they're gone. Extinct. Vanished
forever.
In other words, maintaining a population of six billion humans costs the world 200 species a day. If this were something that was going to stop next week or next month, that would be okay. But the unfortunate fact is that it's not. It's something that's going to go on happening every day, day after day after day--and that's what makes it unsustainable, by definition. That kind of cataclysmic destruction cannot be sustained." Again, please read the entire speech. It isn't very long, and I find it a good read. http://www.geocities.com/becnalrio/newrenaissance.htm Lance ~~~
"I need so much time for doing nothing that I have no time for
work."
http://www.geocities.com/becnalrio |
-
Re: [permaculture] Viridian Principles Response Part Two,
dwayne, 07/05/2003
- [permaculture] It IS a population issue, Not a tech issue, Lance Bermudez, 07/06/2003
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