Some days are beautiful, some days are exceptionally beautiful ...
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Today merited three folders:
Wasp vs. Spider - a life and death struggle between wasp captured by spiderweb and the spiderweb's spider, with dolphin and birds
Woodpeckers - pileated woodpecker, great egret, great blue heron, peacocks on display
The Babies - peacocks, white peacocks, peahens and two adorable baby peafowl
I often wonder what sort of catastrophe it would take to divert humankind's attention away from economic matters to the life & death matter of humankind's global ecological catastrophe. When catastrophes occur humankind's attention is diverted only momentarily and then immediately it is back to business-as-usual.
For example, New Orleans knew for decades that a major hurricane would flood their city. The politicians failed to plan for that eventuality, though, and the city allowed itself to become destroyed and approximately 2000 souls were surrendered to Hurricane Katrina.
If this is how humankind plans for the future in a city precariously close to the Gulf of Mexico, below sea level and where major hurricanes routinely create catastrophes ... how is it at all possible for our species to plan for the global scale catastrophe which is ecological overshoot, resource depletion, pollution, extinction, and global warming?
Humankind has demonstrated so far that our species simply cannot change its ways. The minor sacrifices which politicians are mildly requesting are too much for Americans obsessed with their wealth, consumerism and social status. Then there are a billion poor people who want to become rich American-style hyperconsumers in China and India. No one can ask these poor people to sacrifice their potential for wealth when the American people refuse to sacrifice anything at all.
Undoubtedly the Economics vs. Ecologics catastrophe represents a Catch-22 situation. Humankind simply lacks the capacity to respond effectively to such threats. Humankind entertains way too many delusions about the future to handle the reality of a finite lifestyle on a finite planet.
So the disaster continues and it cannot stop. So the disaster continues until it stops. Tragically. Humankind will go extinct and Nature will recover.
Nature's survival is guaranteed. Humankind's is not.
So it goes ...
David Mathews
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