🚀 go-pugleaf

    Well, Mike Vandeman said on 31 May 
    about: Ghost Bears, by R. Edward Grumbine....
 

 MV> Ghost Biologists (Where Are They When You Most Need Them?)
 MV> A review of Ghost Bears -- Exploring the Biodiversity Crisis,
  
 MV> by R. Edward Grumbine
 MV> Mike Vandeman, May 28, 1994

 MV> I am adding this book to my list of Required Reading for the
 MV> Entire Planet, right after "The Ecological Effects of Roads" (Reed
 MV> "Diamondback" Noss) and Confessions of an Eco-Warrior (Dave
 
 MV> Foreman) and beside Making Peace with the Planet (Barry Commoner).
 MV> this case, I end up having to underline almost the whole book! In a
 
   I'll keep my eyes open!  Wildlands!
 
 MV> essentials of conservation biology. "[In] North America ... some
 MV> 500 species [have] gone extinct since the Pilgrims landed in 1620"
 
   37,000 species are driven extinct every year byby humans. - E.O. Wilson.
 
 MV> (p.88).... 99 percent of the grizzlies have been destroyed. There
 MV> are now less than 1,000 left" (p.67).

   20% 0f all species extinct by 2022.  - E.O. Wilson.

 MV> (p.65). The biggest threats to their survival are "road building
 MV> (primarily for logging), livestock grazing, and ... loss of low-
 
   The biggest threat to the environment is the fallacy of the
   growth economy.  It is physically impossible to sustain.
 
 MV>  All of the above Grumbine combines
 MV> in the term "resourcism" -- man's belief that all elements of the
 MV> Earth, living and nonliving, are nothing more than commodities
 MV> rightfully taken, bought, sold, and consumed by him. Under this
 MV> view, the grizzly is simply a danger or annoyance -- it is
 
   Anthrotheism: the religion of Man as omnipotent, as infallible
   Ruler of the World.  The cultist dogmas include worshiping
   consumptionism, of sacrificing Virgin Nature at exponential
   rates even as resources dwindle to the alter of growth, in order 
   to appease the Gods of mathematical and physical reality.  Cult
   doctrine holds that Human ingenuity and intelligence can break
   physical laws and in perpetual motion; that Man is the Great
   Creator of Wealth, Morality, and Purpose.  Earth is his toy
   and his toilet, a Divine and invulnerable Gift.
 
 MV> blocks of habitat to maintain viable populations. ... Logging and
 MV> logging roads are the main cause of fragmentation in the forest"
 MV> (pp.112-3). "Think big, think connected, think whole" (p.62).

   And what is the cause of logging and more logging roads?
   Think bigger.  These are merely symptoms.

 MV> What are the major human obstacles to biodiversity?: the myth
 
   Bankrupt economic theories.  ALL of them.
 
 MV> Don't worry so much about scientific rigor. Most of us don't
 MV> need all of the facts, before we make a decision. Instinct and
 MV> common sense are often sufficient. 
 
   I will have to mull this over.  So far the only solution I can
   envision is a global education in the natural sciences that would
   expose the mindless bankrupt policies for what they are.  It is
   simply organized common sense, something I am not sure Joe Sixpack
   has much of.  The environmental movement needs to leave the rarefied
   atmosphere of Greenies and science in order to reach the voting 
   public.  A fallacy many environmentalists believe in, is that we
   have nothing to sell to Joe Sixpack.  That fallacy comes from the
   vested interest propaganda mills.  We sell reduced crime and 
   individual wealth, -- for a healthy economy is dependant on a 
   healthy environment, not vice versa.
 
 MV>  That information is usually sufficient for those sympathetic
 MV> to our cause; no amount of information is ever sufficient to
 MV> persuade those who are profiting from the status quo: they are
 MV> closed to such "unpleasant" information.

   That is why we need to distance ourselves from the Luddites, and
   sell wealth!  Or do we wish to wring our hands at green meetings 
   preaching sacrifice to the choir?  I'm tired of it.  We need to 
   toss off the stereotypes and look to the logical consequences of 
   our theories.  They may not be all that obvious in our culture
   of the growth fallacy.

 MV> Don't be so pessimistic. Pessimism is no fun! Take, for
 MV> example, "an uneducated citizenry will not disappear tomorrow"
 MV> (p.247). In the age of the Internet (to say nothing of video, the
 MV> xerox machine, and even air mail), extremely rapid worldwide
 MV> education is actually possible! (What is your email address?) "If
 MV> the meeting taught me anything, it was that the biodiversity crisis
 MV> would not be resolved overnight" (p.171). Why emphasize the
 MV> negative?
 
   Bingo!      We have a 99 year plan.   It will not be easy, tho.
 
 MV> was created by humans, so let's simply create the future that we
 MV> want! In August, 1987, I began working to stop highway expansion.
 
   If we attempt to treat the symptoms, we will never win, which
   is not to say hemorrhage control is not important..

 MV> "There aren't really rights and wrongs in ecosystems" (p.182);
 MV> "the issue is ... not a matter of morality" (p.184). Hogwash!
 MV> Morality (ethics, the force of public scorn) is the only possible
 MV> foundation for bioprotection. If facts, science, reason, and
 MV> appeals to self-interest were effective, nobody would smoke. The
 MV> only reason smoking is finally being controlled is that we smoke-
 MV> haters are coming together to focus our combined displeasures. The
 MV> same was done in the '60s with racial prejudice, and is now being
 MV> done with road construction. Resourcists must be made into pariahs.

   True but, I believe that our "combined displeasures" were the result 
   of education and self interest.  The decline of environmentalism 
   since Earth Day one suggests that the warm and fuzzy approach has
   peaked out, and a second prong may be needed.  Of course, this may
   not be in in some people's self image or interest.

   Doug



... Our Earth can support 100 million in lusty luxury forever!!