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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 6:15am | IP Logged | 1
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LINKGeorge Carlin said much the same thing, decades ago. LINK2
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Robbie Parry
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Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 6:21am | IP Logged | 2
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It's a bleak view, but he's right.
It irks me how some seem to think that we'll just move to another planet if this one becomes unsustainable.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 6:25am | IP Logged | 3
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I go back to the old model of Earth's history compressed into a single calendar year. By that measure, humans arrived at one second before midnight on December 31st. We are but a blip, and far from being the pinnacle of creation, we are more closely akin to yet another natural disaster.
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Conrad Teves
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Joined: 28 January 2014
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 7:55am | IP Logged | 4
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The Cosmic Calendar model does for our scale in time what Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" monologue does for our scale in space. Together, we can hopefully shed some of our hubris about our importance in the Universe, and maybe gain some perspective on the scale of our peril. I concede this is aspirational, since there isn't a lot of evidence there is much public consciousness of it.
Pale Blue Dot ends with a broad suggestion that maybe we ought to be nicer to each other and not bust up our house. He may have ended with an opinion, but I see no part of his argument that isn't factually accurate.
And yet Carlin's "we're goin' away" quip seems to me more and more likely every day.
It amazes me: 13.8 billion years of stellar evolution, stellar death and rebirth, planet formation, and life emerging, evolving, and fighting its way up against a dangerous and indifferent Universe. We may not be "important" in the sense we have some great social status within the Cosmos, but that we exist at all is a triumph of dizzying magnitude. We have a literally cosmic heritage, and yet (turns on news) this is how we choose to act...
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 9:02am | IP Logged | 5
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Everything fell apart because we assumed we were the most important things on the planet, and everything else was subservient to us. And then we invented religions to prove it.
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Robbie Parry
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 9:56am | IP Logged | 6
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I don't want my default state to be "bash religion", but when I was a mailroom assistant, I worked with an evangelical who told me environmental concerns didn't bother him - as G*d would handle it all.
I suspect there may be a few who think like that.
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Andrew Bitner
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Joined: 01 June 2004
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 10:35am | IP Logged | 7
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Robbie, I'm gloomily certain that many if not most evangelicals belief precisely that.
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Charles Valderrama
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Joined: 16 April 2004
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 10:53am | IP Logged | 8
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George's argument is on point. Was also watching WALL-E over the weekend with my kids. The film's environmental concerns sent a strong message to them I hope.
-C!
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Ed Aycock
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Joined: 05 May 2004
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 11:50am | IP Logged | 9
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George's argument is on point. Was also watching WALL-E over the weekend with my kids. The film's environmental concerns sent a strong message to them I hope.
************************************************************ ***************
While simultaneously turning them into "Hello, Dolly!" fans.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | 10
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George's argument is on point. Was also watching WALL-E over the weekend with my kids. The film's environmental concerns sent a strong message to them I hope.••• The "message" of WALL-E seemed to be that it was okay to wreck the Earth, cuz humans could just leave, and come back when it had healed itself.
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Michael Penn
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 1:43pm | IP Logged | 11
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We're definitely an odd species of animal to whom the slogan "Save The Planet" apparently resonates more than "Save Ourselves."
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Charles Valderrama
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 3:48pm | IP Logged | 12
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The "message" of WALL-E seemed to be that it was okay to wreck the Earth, cuz humans could just leave, and come back when it had healed itself.
*****
Well, the film attempted to showcase the disastrous effects humans inflicted on the Earth's environment and it ended with humans getting a second chance to do right by the planet.... at least that's how I explained it to my kids! (They're too young for the harsher truth!)
-C!
Edited by Charles Valderrama on 23 April 2018 at 3:50pm
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