Guest guest Posted July 15, 2006 Report Share Posted July 15, 2006 > Thus I would not consider trying to convince you that, say, your > belief that > civilization = bad constitutes a belief (and one shared by very few > others) I must say, though, that this is an interesting insight (civilization=bad) and one that I have thought about in the past, although I may not have thought about it in that simple a phrase. I have realized that it is civilization that has grown like cancer on the planet (have you seen satellite photos?) It is civilization that paves over paradise and manipulates the environment to suit it's desires. Other animals (in nature) may manipulate the environment (making nests, boring holes, etc.), but not to the extent that humans do/have. It has also occurred to me that this may be a result of having manipulated our " food " . (People who are more knowledgeable, feel free to jump in here.) Once we discovered weapons and tools, as well as fire (cooking) and began getting away from our " natural " foods, we began (or continued on a greater scale) migrating to all " corners " of the planet and began a path towards overpopulating the planet and damaging the very planet that sustains us. If we had continued eating all raw foods, would we be in this mess that we are now? Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 15, 2006 Report Share Posted July 15, 2006 Hi Jeff, Well, I for one am grateful for the fact that I have a house, books, computers, musical instruments and other fun stuff. And technology has made it possible for many fine raw foods to be delivered to my local store. It is interesting that most people who think civilization is a curse cannot bring themselves to give up their cars, computers, houses, etc. I think it's good to question established " wisdom, " whether it's that meat is good for you, HIV=AIDS, we are in the midst of a population explosion, or whatever. That doesn't mean that the alternative theories are necessarily correct either, but keeping an open mind gets eventually gets us closer to the truth, IMO. For instance, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that the earth is not overpopulated at all, and that in the not too distant future, when the world's population peaks at 7.5 to 9 billion, we may be having a discussion about the problem of underpopulation. This is based on close examination of current birth rates, which have been falling worldwide for some time. Type " overpopulation myth " into Google and you will find a lot written about this. In the long run, I don't see humans as having much overall impact on the earth. We have been here an infinitesimal fraction of the age of the earth, and we will be gone long before the earth is. Far from being a " cancer, " the earth may remember us, if at all, as an itch it had for a fraction of a second back when it was the equivalent of a human 2-year-old. Mark If these two Hong Kong children, Stephanie and Shan Shan, had been born a just few miles north of Kowloon Island, in mainland China, they would very possibly have become victims of the Asian gendercide of abortion. There are now 6 billion people on Earth. The planet's population will most likely continue to climb until 2050, when it will peak at 9 billion. Other predictions have the world's population peaking at 7.5 billion in 2040. In either case, it will then go into a sharp decline. The world may soon be facing an under-population crisis -- a prospect that has all but escaped media scrutiny. _____ RawSeattle [RawSeattle ] On Behalf Of Jeff Rogers Saturday, July 15, 2006 7:03 AM RawSeattle Re: [RawSeattle] Civilization=bad (was Philosophy, etc.) > Thus I would not consider trying to convince you that, say, your > belief that > civilization = bad constitutes a belief (and one shared by very few > others) I must say, though, that this is an interesting insight (civilization=bad) and one that I have thought about in the past, although I may not have thought about it in that simple a phrase. I have realized that it is civilization that has grown like cancer on the planet (have you seen satellite photos?) It is civilization that paves over paradise and manipulates the environment to suit it's desires. Other animals (in nature) may manipulate the environment (making nests, boring holes, etc.), but not to the extent that humans do/have. It has also occurred to me that this may be a result of having manipulated our " food " . (People who are more knowledgeable, feel free to jump in here.) Once we discovered weapons and tools, as well as fire (cooking) and began getting away from our " natural " foods, we began (or continued on a greater scale) migrating to all " corners " of the planet and began a path towards overpopulating the planet and damaging the very planet that sustains us. If we had continued eating all raw foods, would we be in this mess that we are now? Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 15, 2006 Report Share Posted July 15, 2006 Mark, Good points. > For instance, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that the > earth is > not overpopulated at all The way I'm looking at it is we are overpopulated given the way that we are using (abusing) and treating the planet. I realize that if, instead of contributing to polluting and wasting the planet's resources, we were using resources efficiently, then the planet could probably support a much larger population. > The world may soon be facing an under-population crisis Is there such a thing? I suspect that the world would survive just fine without any humans! Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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