Taking Action & Two Great Truths
Enough talk, more action needed on the loss of biodiversity. Help compile a list of 100 tasks that G20 governments should undertake to prove their commitment to tackling the biodiversity crisis
Dr. Guillaume Chapron of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences is compiling a list of 100 tasks for the G20 countries to commit to for the Convention of Biological Diversity summit this coming October. In 2002, the same G20 countries had made a pledge to halt the biodiversity loss, but all the targets for 2010 have been failed. In order to prevent another useless summit filled with talk, as was the climate changes talks in Copenhagen last December, Dr. Chapron hopes that having concrete actions that are scientifically indisputable and can be readily committed to can turn this mass extinction around.
ETA:I'm going to second cougarfang's selection of this piece written by ursulav on art and originality.
The point is not necessarily that you create the most brilliant work the world has ever seen, but simply that you create the works that only you can create.
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Originality is not something you get from within. You actually beg, borrow and steal it, generally from other people, frequently motivated by being gnawingly jealous of how much better they are than you.*
If you’re a poet, says Collins, you read all the poets on the shelf and I would extend it to say that if you’re an artist, you look at as much other art as you can cram in your eyeballs and if you’re a writer you read. A lot.
Then you shove every influence into a blender and hit puree.
The point is not that you are the only cook who has ever used these ingredients, it is that nobody has ever combined them quite like you. “What is that?” they say, sampling your stew, “I can’t quite place the flavor…” and of course it’ s the saffron you nicked from Rumi and the splash of brandy from Georgette Heyer and Lovecraft’s cryptic and ill-omened root vegetable and the single perfect quail egg you swiped from one of Basho’s poems. “How original!” they say, right before the laudanum from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle takes effect and then you go through their pockets and drag them out of the room by the heels.
Important lessons to remember. Now I feel like I should go out there and do something creative. Too bad I don't have my sketchbooks with me, guess I'll have to make to do with printer paper.
Dr. Guillaume Chapron of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences is compiling a list of 100 tasks for the G20 countries to commit to for the Convention of Biological Diversity summit this coming October. In 2002, the same G20 countries had made a pledge to halt the biodiversity loss, but all the targets for 2010 have been failed. In order to prevent another useless summit filled with talk, as was the climate changes talks in Copenhagen last December, Dr. Chapron hopes that having concrete actions that are scientifically indisputable and can be readily committed to can turn this mass extinction around.
ETA:I'm going to second cougarfang's selection of this piece written by ursulav on art and originality.
The point is not necessarily that you create the most brilliant work the world has ever seen, but simply that you create the works that only you can create.
...
Originality is not something you get from within. You actually beg, borrow and steal it, generally from other people, frequently motivated by being gnawingly jealous of how much better they are than you.*
If you’re a poet, says Collins, you read all the poets on the shelf and I would extend it to say that if you’re an artist, you look at as much other art as you can cram in your eyeballs and if you’re a writer you read. A lot.
Then you shove every influence into a blender and hit puree.
The point is not that you are the only cook who has ever used these ingredients, it is that nobody has ever combined them quite like you. “What is that?” they say, sampling your stew, “I can’t quite place the flavor…” and of course it’ s the saffron you nicked from Rumi and the splash of brandy from Georgette Heyer and Lovecraft’s cryptic and ill-omened root vegetable and the single perfect quail egg you swiped from one of Basho’s poems. “How original!” they say, right before the laudanum from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle takes effect and then you go through their pockets and drag them out of the room by the heels.
Important lessons to remember. Now I feel like I should go out there and do something creative. Too bad I don't have my sketchbooks with me, guess I'll have to make to do with printer paper.