take a look at this video. i apologize for the inconvience cause becuase i could not upload it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbOXUza9ZeE
was thinking about our collective denial of the environmental crisis we’re creating, when I read a blog post by Nicola-Frank Vachon at The Solemn Monkey. (To understand the title, see the very worthwhile video on the “About me” page.) Besides an artistic essay which led me to confront the thought of our own self-destruction, it featured the video below. From the Species Alliance, I think it’s remarkably persuasive in driving home its point about the huge surge in extinctions we’re seeing today.
Our earth has seen five prior waves of mass extinction, the last one being that which eliminated the dinosaurs. This “sixth extinction,” (pdf) as many scientists now refer to it, is the result of human activity, with causes including climate change and deforestation. Key among the underlying drivers of those causes are, of course, the topics we examine here: human population growth, our growing rates of resource consumption, and the drive for unceasing economic growth.
The video made me wonder if the specter of mass extinction, especially when effectively presented, might be enough to break through some of our denial. I would think many people would sense intuitively that a world with half as many species as we now enjoy would be grimly impoverished. Would it be livable? I hope we don’t have to find out first hand. Does the subject of mass extinction have a unique place in our toolbox of ways to wake people up to the realities of our ecological crisis?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbOXUza9ZeE
was thinking about our collective denial of the environmental crisis we’re creating, when I read a blog post by Nicola-Frank Vachon at The Solemn Monkey. (To understand the title, see the very worthwhile video on the “About me” page.) Besides an artistic essay which led me to confront the thought of our own self-destruction, it featured the video below. From the Species Alliance, I think it’s remarkably persuasive in driving home its point about the huge surge in extinctions we’re seeing today.
Our earth has seen five prior waves of mass extinction, the last one being that which eliminated the dinosaurs. This “sixth extinction,” (pdf) as many scientists now refer to it, is the result of human activity, with causes including climate change and deforestation. Key among the underlying drivers of those causes are, of course, the topics we examine here: human population growth, our growing rates of resource consumption, and the drive for unceasing economic growth.
The video made me wonder if the specter of mass extinction, especially when effectively presented, might be enough to break through some of our denial. I would think many people would sense intuitively that a world with half as many species as we now enjoy would be grimly impoverished. Would it be livable? I hope we don’t have to find out first hand. Does the subject of mass extinction have a unique place in our toolbox of ways to wake people up to the realities of our ecological crisis?
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