An article published in the Sunday, June 9th edition of the San Francisco Chronicle warns readers not to see an "environmental apocalypse" in every environmental problem. The environmental problems we confront, of course, are real and multitudinous, but there is certainly some truth in this opinion piece.
I know that I, personally, need to be careful not to turn every environmental problem into an apocalyptic, end of human civilization prediction. Scale matters, however, and our human relationship to the natural environment has drastically changed since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. For one thing, we live in an era of human-created synthetics, including most recently what could properly be called "synthetic lifeforms."
I know that I, personally, need to be careful not to turn every environmental problem into an apocalyptic, end of human civilization prediction. Scale matters, however, and our human relationship to the natural environment has drastically changed since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. For one thing, we live in an era of human-created synthetics, including most recently what could properly be called "synthetic lifeforms."
Think about that Two Worlds hypothesis. I do think we have a problem on our hands - and one of the main components of the problem is that we think "our hands" can solve the environmental crises that we now confront. Be you a believer or be you not, the cautionary tales of the Book of Revelation do have some relevance.
At least, that is my opinion!
Image Credit:
http://reflexions.ulg.ac.be/cms/c_21636/la-fiscalite-environnementale-en-belgique?part=5
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