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- Newsgroups: talk.environment
- Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!caen!destroyer!ubc-cs!uw-beaver!pauld
- From: pauld@cs.washington.edu (Paul Barton-Davis)
- Subject: Re: PBS Elementary/Secondary Service
- Message-ID: <1992Jul27.172754.3407@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
- Sender: news@beaver.cs.washington.edu (USENET News System)
- Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle
- References: <JMC.92Jul16193457@SAIL.Stanford.EDU> <1992Jul20.143817.21153@beaver.cs.washington.edu> <1992Jul25.075320.11055@ke4zv.uucp>
- Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 17:27:54 GMT
- Lines: 54
-
- In article <1992Jul25.075320.11055@ke4zv.uucp> gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes:
- >From the mastery of fire to the tapping of the atom, man's quest for
- >"enough" energy to modify his environment has been ongoing. As a result,
- >man's lifespan and quality of life have increased from a brutish existance
- >spanning perhaps 30 years, if he survived childbirth, to it's present seventy
- >some odd years of sheltered, air conditioned, well fed, relative comfort.
- >I don't think that's "enough", but it's a damn good start.
-
- If you don't think thats enough, could you perhaps explain one, two or all
- of the three things:
-
- 1) what will be enough ?
- 2) why people who have whatever you imagine to "enough" will
- agree with you ?
- 3) if you don't think that "enough" can be described,
- whether or not you agree that general optimism
- about the future is all that supports the morality
- of a lifestyle predicated on expansion ?
-
- My answers follow:
-
- 1) Enough:
-
- I think that enough could be defined by the amount of
- resources we can extract from ecosystems without affecting the roles
- of their other participants. Clearly, this assumes that there *is* an
- excess capacity in existing (or rather, pre-human) ecosystems, rather
- than these systems being delicately balanced around carrying capacity.
- I don't know if this assumption is true, but would like to know.
-
- 2) Continuation:
-
- I think that only something equivalent to religion can work to
- ensure the long term survival of a meme like "enough". In this
- category, I include science and mythologies, which share with religion
- the capacity to cast simple versions of complex truths into a form
- where (some) people can understand them. If we had a population that
- understood ecology the way they currently understand the Bible, the
- Quran and the Tora, I suspect our behaviour, short and long term,
- would be quite different. This is not because ecology *is* a religion,
- but because the framework of religion, regardless of its content, is
- critical in ensuring the longevity of its ideas. The hard part is to
- avoid the cartoonism that characterizes so many established religions,
- whilst using the form of didactic stories, question-and-answer, and
- clearly stated moral platforms.
-
- 3) n/a
-
- -- paul
- --
- Paul's housebuilding credo:
- Measure it with a micrometer, cut it with a chainsaw, fit it
- with a sledgehammer
-
-