Don't Save the Whales
One of the problems with many environmental movements is they've put things the wrong way. "Save the whales." "Save the rainforest." "Save the Earth."
That's wrong. It's not about saving the Earth. Earth will be around after us, barring some kind of uniquely destructive world-cracking weapon that would have to be orders of magnitude stronger than the strongest nuke, and barring some kind of technological nanotech singularity whence we convert the entire planet into microscopic computing machines.
It's not about saving the Earth. It's about saving US. Humans. Civlization. Our civilization grew in certain conditions. But in doing so it's been helping to change those conditions. The climate is changing, which can and will screw up weather patterns worldwide. And is. Rain patterns change and suddenly what was farmland is scrubland, while monsoons and floods hit cities. Hurricanes and typhoons will show up more, because with more energy, the whole system of climate gets more unstable at the extremes. But the subtle changes to farmland and others are worse, they'll drive people out of where they lived and into new places.
Then there's overfishing and monoculture crops, where disease or collapse of stocks can hit a big chunk of the food supply. Then there's clean water. And many other resources, but food and water are the base of survival.
It's not about saving the planet. It's about making the way we live sustainable, which means we can keep doing it. That should be the point. Not just photogenic animals and landscapes that opponents can ridicule as "tree huggers", because it's in their short-term profit to do so. And they figure if they have enough money, they can ride out the chaos. It's really hard to convince someone of something when their job depends on them ignoring it.
Don't save the planet. Save the people.
That's wrong. It's not about saving the Earth. Earth will be around after us, barring some kind of uniquely destructive world-cracking weapon that would have to be orders of magnitude stronger than the strongest nuke, and barring some kind of technological nanotech singularity whence we convert the entire planet into microscopic computing machines.
It's not about saving the Earth. It's about saving US. Humans. Civlization. Our civilization grew in certain conditions. But in doing so it's been helping to change those conditions. The climate is changing, which can and will screw up weather patterns worldwide. And is. Rain patterns change and suddenly what was farmland is scrubland, while monsoons and floods hit cities. Hurricanes and typhoons will show up more, because with more energy, the whole system of climate gets more unstable at the extremes. But the subtle changes to farmland and others are worse, they'll drive people out of where they lived and into new places.
Then there's overfishing and monoculture crops, where disease or collapse of stocks can hit a big chunk of the food supply. Then there's clean water. And many other resources, but food and water are the base of survival.
It's not about saving the planet. It's about making the way we live sustainable, which means we can keep doing it. That should be the point. Not just photogenic animals and landscapes that opponents can ridicule as "tree huggers", because it's in their short-term profit to do so. And they figure if they have enough money, they can ride out the chaos. It's really hard to convince someone of something when their job depends on them ignoring it.
Don't save the planet. Save the people.