This is where we are. This is where we live. The surplus society. Where things run amok.
I went to a presentation yesterday. We both did. It was part favour, part let-us-see-what-happens kind of thing.
Ecological-savy people got together at the Ecology institute and we listened to three presentation, one based on the nature parks, one based on the saltpans of Sečovlje and third one based on endangered species of birds. I will not comment on the delivery of these presentantion, let me just say that apparently, the higher academic rank, the lower the quality of the delivery. But that is just my personal opinion. As anything else that gets posted here.
The stance that these ecologists take is one that I do not understand. Save the planet, for sure, but at what costs and why? Where is the common sense in these people that they want to create some sort of laboratory, where everything works…save for the mankind?
Do not get me wrong, I am not applauding the current energy politics that spin the globe, all I am saying is that they are just too hard core. Imagine if everybody would try to solve their problems the way they would like to see them solved. No question asked, guns ablaze, take no prisoners.
It strikes me as odd that they are actually amazed at how nothing gets done and how they are being ignored by the majority or/and the powers that be.
Here`s my two cents of theory.
Only in our society, irrational claims can and are made. Claims that involve closing down every factory, shutting down every powerplant, barring every road. All for mother nature. All for the all mighty Gaia. Why? Because we live in a surplus society. We have enough food, enough energy and enough resources. Western culture is maxed out on every resource there is and so ecological interest groups can state their claims. And I am not talking about “Recycle trash” and “save the whales”. I am talking about “Close down 25% of Slovenia because there`s nature” and “Natural parks uber alle!” which is something that “normal” societies would never do. Why? Simply because they need the land and the resources. They need to plow the fields, harvest the crop, protect it against pests and weed while our society does not give a shit about it. We live in a plastic bubble and we do not care what others are doing. We don`t even care what we are doing, as long as we get it our way. And that goes for both groups, the enviromentalists and the ones that are destroying the environment.
How to solve this? How to prevent the total destruction of mother Earth and on the other hand still give humans a chance?
It depends on what you mean by giving humans a chance.
We must get rid of the illusion that we somehow have the right to multiply as much as we wish and expect to live a comfortable lifestyle.
Perhaps a billion people can live reasonably decently on this planet without turning it into an ecologically ruined hellhole. But six billion? No way.
OK I was not on the lecture so I don’t know what they talked about exactly. Any chance you remember the names of the lecturers?
But. Two things.
“Ecologists” (the term ecology is not the same as nature conservation) always exaggerate. Why? Because economists always exaggerate!
The solution is the compromise between the both.
And why not make Slovenia a nature park? Nature park doesn’t mean nothing is supposed to be built or changed, it just means things have to be done in a different way. Which, of course, costs money, so we’re back at the economy. But it’s not THAT much more expensive.
And I can totally see Slovenia as some kind of ecological oasis. Ecology tourism could be the answer.
(Cancel the surplus? How?)
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