The Environment, Nature, Wilderness, etc

by asleif_dufansdottir 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  asleif_dufansdottir

  As I'm leaving in a bit to go have drinks with Paul Ehrlich (those of you who've heard of him, yes, that Paul Ehrlich - Steven is so excited!), I've been trying brush up a bit on his writings, research, etc, and I was just wondering...

  The main thing that attracted us to the JWs was the promise that the earth would be restored and that all the damage done to it would be corrected. We've always been environmentalists, but environmentalists that wanted to base their views on good solid research.

  Were a lot of you attracted mainly by the hope that the earth's problems would be 'fixed'?

  What, if any, is your hope now about such things as overpopulation, environmental damage, biodiversity, etc?
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  Gretchen956

  The EPA just made a ruling that local water districts can route excess sewage due to storm run-off, around the regular process and mix with treated water and be released into the eco-system. Just one more thing in a long series of chips being taken out of protecting the environment for our children. First arsenic now sewage. I wonder how long before those diseases that come with drinking contaminated water are on the rise?

  I actually think that one of the problems with the dubs is that they think they don't have to do anything with the earth now because it will be fixed later. I can't tell you how many times we were cautioned from the stage how wrong it would be to work in your yard when you could be out in service. However, there are other mainstream religions that are equally insensitive since they believe that they will be raptured off anyway it doesn't really matter what happens to the earth.

  Personally I have a lot of anxiety lately about the whole matter. Just driving around you can see all the garbage that used to be picked up. No more. I went back to my old home-town in Montana and its just about all logged out, that is where the fires haven't taken the forest from years of mismanagement. It's probably just as well seeing as how the lumber industry over there folded into bankruptcy taking what was left of a pitiful few jobs.

  It's sad, very sad. And I wonder, as I recycle and reuse and buy green, whether any of it makes a difference in the end. I used to think so.

  Gretchen
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  asleif_dufansdottir

  Personally I have a lot of anxiety lately about the whole matter.

  I know. I think one of the things that makes me disgusted about the whole mess, is how some politicians will get up and outright lie, saying that 'there's not really a problem with the environment, it's all just alarmists and 'the radical left.'"
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  Xena

  Well I think you would have to live in a plastic bubble not to realize there are some environmental issues...but to be honest I've been out of the dubs for 3 years now and haven't even begun to wrap my mind around what to do to make the world a better place. I'm still getting past the concept that God isn't just gonna fix it for me.

  I do try and teach my daughter to be more environmentally conscious because lets face it she had a lot more time to come to grips with it than I do, lol I know I have a very defeatist attidude...I'm working on it..baby steps
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  Country Girl

  I try to do my part. I am very sensitive on these issues. I do not put toxic chemicals onto my land, nor do I allow my spouse to do so. I treat my garden and yard with organic materials, and use natural biological controls in my garden. I try to use all natural housecleaning products such as citrus and simple green. I try to plant native plants, and use water-conservation techniques.

  I donate to foundations that raise awareness of responsible land stewardship, conservation, and rescuing and caring for wild animals. I bought two small acres on top of a beautiful hill in Texas, with 3 old Live Oak trees that are over 200 years old. At least I know they won't be cut down. I don't live there. In fact, I do nothing with it. I just let it be. I want it to be a refuge for the animals on the hill where they won't be driven out.

  I have fought through letter-writing, phone calls, etc. a smelter plant going up in my area that could possibly drain my well; a waste water treatment plant that would dump treated effluent into the pristine river that is my neighbor; and extreme logging. I know that I can't change it, but I can try. In Texas, the money mongers always win out over the little guy -- but at least I know I am trying to make a difference.

  My hope is that when (not if, but when) these legislative capitalists' children start dying of toxic environmental pollution, then they may stand up and change their tune. Until then, all I can do is do my little part and pray!

  CG
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  Carmel

  Earth first slogan by redneck christians! "Earth, log it first and then move on to the next planet!"

  caveman
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  grows1

  I remember that lunatic- he's one of the chicken little's running around in the 70's screaming about too many people on the earth and everyone had to stop having kids (except himself, of course, being of the self elected elite he allowed himself to have 5 or 6 kids if I remember correctly); about the new coming ice age caused by humans(in the 70's the newest econazi craze was the new ice age, when that didn't happen they started on global warming); about running out of energy by the early 90's (ask him what his energy prediction is this week);about running out of food (that was before the Green Revolution). As a modern day prophet he ranks right up there with the WTBTS-100% wrong 100% of the time.
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  asleif_dufansdottir

  Ah, we've found one of the ones who think the environmental problems are made up by doomsayers, have we?

  I am reminded of people who smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a day, drink and drive often, and eat fatty foods, and say, "Those nuts don't know what they're talking about, I haven't died yet from any of those things."

  except himself, of course, being of the self elected elite he allowed himself to have 5 or 6 kids if I remember correctly

  No, he and his wife only have one child, a daughter.
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  grows1

  Here are some of Ehrlich's predictions in the 60's-70's and how they have fared when compared to REAL history.......His Population Bomb began, "The battle to feed all of humanity is over ... hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death." In 1969, Ehrlich added, "By 1985 enough millions will have died to reduce the earth's population to some acceptable level, like 1.5 billion people." The same year, he predicted in an article entitled "Eco-Catastrophe!" that by 1980 the United States would see its life expectancy drop to 42 because of pesticides, and by 1999 its population would drop to 22.6 million. In the mid-seventies, with the release of his The End of Affluence, Ehrlich incorporated drama into his dire prophesies. He envisioned the President dissolving Congress "during the food riots of the 1980s," followed by the United States suffering a nuclear attack for its mass use of insecticides. That's right, Ehrlich thought that the United States would get nuked in retaliation for killing bugs. As good as they were for the rest of us, the 1980s weren't so kind to Prof. Ehrlich. There were no food riots of 1980, Congress stayed in session (though perhaps Reagan should have taken a hint from Ehrlich when the Senate started wondering why we didn't send the Girl Scouts to deal with the Sandinistas), and in general Americans got richer, fatter, and more numerous. As did the rest of the world. According to the Food and Agriculture, the Third World now consumes 27 percent more calories per person per day than it did in 1963. India is now exporting food, and deaths from famine, starvation, and malnutrition are fewer than ever before. .................Like I said as good at prophecy as the WTBTS 100% wrong 100% of the time!!!!! I do stand corrected about his child. He did only have one child.
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  asleif_dufansdottir

  Ehrlich wrote that before the Green Revolution, remember. His conclusions were not necessarily invalid with the information he had at the time. Scientists don't have crystal balls or time machines, and sometimes we're just lucky.

  You think hunger and malnutrition is no longer a problem?

  >India is now exporting food

  Big deal. Many countries export food while people go hungry (or even starve to death). Exports tell you nothing. During the potato famine, Ireland was exporting food to England. Do you personally know people from India? I do. Your statement above would make them very angry.

  http://www.foodfirst.org/media/opeds/2000/4-greenrev.html

  "According to Business Week magazine, "even though Indian granaries are overflowing now," thanks to the success of the Green Revolution in raising wheat and rice yields, "5,000 children die each day of malnutrition. One-third of India's 900 million people are poverty-stricken." Since the poor can't afford to buy what is produced, "the government is left trying to store millions of tons of foods. Some is rotting, and there is concern that rotten grain will find its way to public markets." The article concludes that the Green Revolution may have reduced India's grain imports substantially, but did not have a similar impact on hunger."

  You think that if there had not been much more regulation of the pesticide industry (which happened after environmentalists started yelling about how bad the effects could get) that people wouldn't have died from it? Tell that to the vets who are suffering from exposure to Agent Orange. Tell that to migrant workers who were sickened and killed by exposure to pesticides. Tell that to people in the Third World who are still suffering from exposure to pesticides that are illegal here that U.S. companies still export.

  There is a difference between using a 'worst case scenario' to ty to get people to wake up and be concerned about a potential problem so that it doesn't happen, and saying that you're God's representative on earth and that the world is going to end in such-and-such year so that your organization gets more followers and more power over the lives of its followers.

  People like Ehrlich work to get a problem fixed, and warn of the consequences of not fixing it, and because they are partially successful, their worst predictions don't happen, and you use that against them?? That's crap. As grandma used to say, "attitudes like that just makes my butt tired."

  Do you believe there is currently a hole in the ozone layer? Perhaps we should ask our friends on this board from Australia if there is concern about skin cancer there.

  Do you believe that humanity now lives in such a way that is sustainable into the foreseeable future?