I have diabetes too, God won’t change this, nor will he step in for the tree’s /=

you’re tree tale was touching, the fact that you worry about your diabetes is too.

The only way to fix it, is for us to do something, “all it takes for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing”, watching governments have mutli million dollar meetings about the problem instead of fixing it.

Human race will keep on screwing it up and complaining, wanting to claim benefits and health and dental etc etc, too lazy to put in a hard days work and care about the environment, the people around them etc

sorry to rant, but I agree with you ^_

Crossed out sections should be read like placed between brackets instead of crossed out…

Sorry about that…

I believe this consumption ralley which is one of the causes of global warming is really an aspect of the human race itself rather than caused by one or more countries in particular.

It’s the selfish human self which is never satisfied and always wants more and to, eventually, reach further than God.

Being aware of this pattern has nothing to do with giving up ourselves – in its essence it’s just being aware of this instinct… and letting loose… without thinking about economical or maybe even social consequences… world leaders should speak out in favour of the entire human race instead of planning not even implementing short term solutions… but I know this will be wishful thinking forever…

I think when you say ‘we,’ you mean the human race, but the problem isn’t the human race, it’s Americans (and to a lesser extent, Chinese). Are you really confused as to why post-consumerist America can’t be more like pre-Columbian America? I doubt that. American identity is built around consumption and destruction. To give those up would be to give up ourselves, and I just can’t see Americans doing that—the self is almost a deity in our culture. Besides, most Americans would say that living as if there is no tomorrow is living out our remaining time as best we can. Dying may not have to be panicked, but neither does it have to be surrender (we might say).

I think you and I are equally pessimistic about what is happening. Just trying to be a little more pleasant on the site. It’s strange to think that we have discovered that the planet is not at the center of the universe, that we revolve around the sun, and that we are made up of miniscule particles that render us abstract, and we seem to be able to accept these things, but we still haven’t seriously engaged the idea that we are not the highest form of creature on the planet, or that our extinction is as possible and as likely as any other creature’s.

I don’t think there is anything we can do about what is happening. The only thing we can do something about is our own attitude and philosophy. So many people talk of warlords and barbarians, in the Road Warrior tradition, as the inevitable face we will present when our end comes. But why? Whole civilizations in the Americas chose to disappear into obscurity when they discovered that their effect on the land was destroying their culture, and they didn’t end up with this attitude of greed and violence; why must we? If there is nothing we can do about the end our civilization, why not just accept it then and live out our remaining time the best we can, with respect for one another and love of the planet upon which we were born? Dying doesn’t have to be a rash and panicked thing.

I remember reading something by McKibben in the late nineties (maybe Hope, Human and Wild but maybe something else) in which he basically said we had to voluntarily turn the clock back in terms of our technology and the global character of our lives. The image he painted was of people using solar cells and growing their own food and riding horses. I knew then that if that was our only hope, we were doomed, because people (and more importantly my (U.S.) government) would never voluntarily do any such thing. Never. We’re simply not capable of that kind of vision and sacrifice, at least not without a concrete catastrophe and truly legendary leadership (and global warming provides very few of the first and the likelihood of the latter in this culture seems almost nil).

I don’t know if we can do anything about it, if we can accept that everything is going to collapse and change and end. Human beings may very well survive (we’re a hardy, adaptable, and mobile species) but as barbarians only, savages concerned only for survival. I want to say that these people wouldn’t be what I think of as human, but the fact is, we’re only marginally more than that for all are veneer of sophistication. What frightens me most of all is how easy it would be to recognize these animals we are about to become as ourselves.

God, I think I’m even more pessimistic than you. Sorry about that.