Religions > Atheism > Re: Overpopulation Is The NUMBER ONE Environmental Problem
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
06 Jun 2006 08:15:36 PM |
| Object: |
Re: Overpopulation Is The NUMBER ONE Environmental Problem |
Roadrunner wrote:
More people equals more pollution. It is as simple as that.
Yet well-financed "environmental groups" continue to object to any effort to
stop the MASSIVE increase in population that will occur in the Senate
Amnesty Bill.
Profile: Herman Daly
Claim to Fame:
Herman E. Daly is currently Professor at the University of Maryland,
School of Public Affairs. From 1988 to 1994 he was Senior Econ-
omist in the Environment Department of the World Bank. Prior to
1988 he was Alumni Professor of Economics at Louisiana State
University, where he taught economics for twenty years. He holds
a B.A. from Rice University and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University.
His books include: Steady-State Economics (1977; 1991); Valuing
the Earth (1993); For the Common Good (1989;1994); and Beyond
Growth (1996). In 1996 he received the Heineken Prize for Environ-
mental Science awarded by the Royal Netherlands Academy of
Arts and Sciences, and the Right Livelihood Award.
Was there a particular experience in your life that led you to your
work?
There were three experiences that combined to lead me in the
direction I took : (1) studying economics under Nicholas Georgescu-
Roegen who tied economics to its biophysical foundations in his
brilliant but ignored book, The Entropy Law and the Economic
Process (2) Teaching economics in Northeast Brazil in the late
1960's where the population explosion was an undeniable reality,
(3) Reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.
What is your greatest source of hope that society can shift to more
responsible patterns of production and consumption and achieve
a sustainable future?
I think "hope" is indeed the right word, as opposed to optimism.
Hope is a religious, existential commitment, the opposite of despair;
optimism is more of a book-maker's odds on the likelihood that your
horse will win. Given these definitions I am not an optimist, but I am
hopeful. I believe our hope lies in repentance and renewal of our
minds, a renewed responsibility for Creation to the Creator. A
better understanding of how Creation works is also important, but
we already know enough to justify very different behavior, and still
have been unwilling to change our ways.
What are the primary obstacles to making these changes?
The big obstacle is that the very notion of "Creation" and "Creator"
are in our modern world view considered superstitious nonsense,
and are also discredited by the same people who are admittedly
most active in urging greater care of the biosphere--namely the
biologists themselves. But the biologists' arguments in the policy
arena, however well informed and well intentioned, are both logic-
ally and emotionally feeble because they are based on a purpose-
less and mechanistic cosmology that in the long run is more con-
ducive to feckless cynicism than service to a purpose higher than
the economist's self destructive goal of growth forever.
If you could wave a magic wand and implement one policy change,
what would it be and why?
No magic bullet, but ecological tax reform--shifting the tax base
from value added (employment of labor and capital) to that to
which value is added, the resource flow from nature (depletion
and pollution)-- seems a good idea and not very radical. In bumper
sticker language, "tax bads, not goods". Also we need limits to the
range of acceptable inequality in the distribution of income and
wealth.
What's your favorite way to sustain yourself personally and keep
balance in your life?
I need a good answer to that!
What is your top book recommendation?
I think the most prophetic book of the century is probably C.S.
Lewis' The Abolition of Man. I have already mentioned Silent
Spring.
..
..
--
.
|
|
| User: "EXXON Stockholders Legally Liable for Global Warming" |
|
| Title: ATTN: David Polewka: Stop Stalling and Report to the Alpo Depopulation Center for Canning. Your "Final Solution" is waiting there for you. |
06 Jun 2006 09:21:13 PM |
|
|
ATTN: David Polewka: Stop Stalling and Report to the Alpo Depopulation
Center for Canning. Your "Final Solution" is waiting there for you.
imbibe@mindsprung.a.leak.com wrote:
Profile: Herman Daly
Forget Daly and report to the Depopulation center. Your presence on
Earth is no longer desired.
ATTN: David Polewka: Stop Stalling and Report to the Alpo Depopulation
Center for Canning. Your "Final Solution" is waiting there for you.
.
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
