Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Reprint of "Ecocide Overshadows Nuclear War

I just found a copy of this at my dragonofcompassion.com website which is an archival website I have for longer things I write or important things I find along the way. Especially with Trump at the helm with him surrounded by corporate people whose interests financially go against believing in Global Warming and Ecocide made me realize it was time to share this with you all once again.

This is where I found it:

dragonofcompassion - archive4

This page is a continuation of intuitivefred888. I was able to load sept, oct. and november 2007 into the intuitivefred888 page. So, I decided to name the next one ...

Monday, December 31, 2007

Ecocide Overshadows Nuclear War?

 
Ecocide Overshadows Nuclear War? My wife gave me the book "Collapse" by Jared Diamond which is a New York Times Best Seller in the Non-fiction category. I'd like to quote from page 7 and then page 6 of the book.

Begin quote page 7 near top of page, "The risk of such collapses today is now a matter of increasing concern:indeed, collapses have already materialized for Somalia,Rwanda, and some other Third World countries. Many people fear ecocide has now come to overshadow nuclear war and emerging diseases as a threat to global civilization. The environmental problems facing us today include the same eight that undermined past societies, plus four new ones:human-caused climate change, buildup of toxic chemicals in the environment, energy shortages, and full human utilization of the Earth's photosynthetic capacity. Most of these 12 threats, it is claimed, will become globally critical within the next few decades:either we solve the problems by then or the problems will undermine not just Somalia but also First World Societies." end quote.

The first 8 causes of collapse of societies and cultures are given in the next quote on page 6 near the top, begin quote, "The processes through which past societies have undermined themselves by damaging their environments fall into eight categories, whose relative importance differs from case to case:deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses), water management problems, overhunting, overfishing, effects of introduced species on native species, human population growth, and increased percapita impact of people." end quote.

I visited a friend who has a master's degree from UCLA about 1 month ago. He was reading this book and I asked him about it. After that, I decided it would be useful to read this book as well.

I would like to read a comment by Business Week about this book,"A magisterial effort packed with insight and written with clarity and enthusiasm. It's also the deal of the year--the equivalent of a college course by an engaging, brilliant professor, all for the price of a book."

The more people who understand the process of collapse of a civilization as the ecosystem collapses, the more likely that at least the educated people of the earth can try to popularize their ideas so the common people can understand the effects of what they are doing every day do to their future and the future of their children. Through education comes personal responsibility. I don't really believe that governments can really solve the problems now facing all life on earth. But I also believe that with useful information humans can begin to find ways to solve the problems of the imminent ecological collapse of our Earth Civilization during the next few decades or centuries depending entirely upon what 6 billion people do individually. Without each person on earth taking personal responsibility there will eventually be no ecosystem for any life on earth except for maybe a few bacteria and insects like cockroaches.

Charlie Wilson's War 2

 
Charlie Wilson's War 2. I wrote another article about Charlie Wilson and who he was and is so this is why this article is 2. I went to see the Movie yesterday. It was interesting to me that the average age of the viewing audience which was full up was about 50. So it was mostly viewed by people who actually lived through the 1980's as an adult. Last night I was somewhat horrified to realize that as of 2010, 30 years will have passed since 1980. In 1980 I was 32 years old and newly remarried raising my son from my first marriage and two new stepkids.

The movie did not disappoint me in any way. In fact, it was so well done that I fully expect it to win Golden Globes, Oscars and the like.

It documented Charlie Wilson's life and was played by Tom Hanks who also helped produce the movie. Julia Roberts played the part of the real socialite the "sixth richest woman in Texas" very well who actually got Wilson on the stick about Afghanistan and even arranged his first meeting with then President Zia of Pakistan who caused Wilson to visit his first Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan which caused his crusade to get weapons for the Afghan freedom fighters. Wilson saw the children with hands and arms blown off from mines that looked like toys put in Afghanistan by Soviet soldiers.

I was amazed at just how pragmatic and yet funny the movie was. Both Charlie Wilson and the Texas socialite were such amazing people in the 1980's that it was really wonderful to see people like these again. One doesn't see people like that these days much. Both of them now would be considered just so politically incorrect. However, without people like these two there is no hope for the world. Therefore, the dangers of political correctness should be very obvious to all.

Though he might be underappreciated I still think that the gentleman who played the part of the raucus CIA agent should get an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. I especially like his Zen Story at the end of the movie. It put the last 30 years on earth in political perspective.

No comments: