I worked in print advertising for six years and I have to say I think most people are pretty good at filtering out the ads – your reviews and research posts are *way* more likely to influence my buying habits than the ads that support the blog.

I may be atypical – I’ve always been more a user of pull advertising (when I’m ready to buy something I’ll go looking for it) than of push advertising (Wow! I didn’t even know that existed ! Now I need one!) EXCEPT the kind of word-of-mouth/peer review/peer pressure push that is really, really hard for advertisers to cause.

Don

I was wondering if you happen to have come across info re: a process by which to reclaim oil from plastic. I’m really wary and skeptical, but I talked to a rep from this Japanese company (tsphereenergy dot com — the site is currently under construction) and they claim they can complete the process with no waste because impurities are reduced to carbon compounds that can be used in industrial manufacturing. I’m just not sure I buy it. Well, I don’t buy it (the no waste bit). I just don’t have any evidence to support whether or not I should buy it. Do you know anything?

Anyway, I just love your site, and everything that you do. I’ve made a number of changes myself inspired by things I’ve read about here– so, keep up the good work. You really are changing the world, you know. And you give the rest of us hope.

peace,
kati

That can’t be afforded in the “natural” world where every species must use everything it has available to survive. We, in contrast, have everything provided to us so that all we really need to know is how to get money.

I was in a Whole Foods Market yesterday, the largest one I’ve ever seen. You know how they arrange things down to the last detail to be appealing. Well, there wasn’t a thing there that didn’t look inviting and worth a try. I settled for a cookie and an apple but I’m sure you know the feeling of the place. I also realized there was hardly a thing there that I could come up with on my own. So there I was, Mr. Helpless in Everything Land. And isn’t that our situation in a nutshell?

As for religion, I’m impatient with those who say, “God will provide” because it isn’t God, but the earth that provides and it WON’T provide if we don’t change our ways. We aren’t the benevolent shepherd but more the guy who beat the drum for the oarsmen in the sea-battle sequence in Ben-Hur, raising the pace even as the shackled slaves were dropping from exhaustion.

Misery with poverty, by our standards, was a sustainable way to live for all but the rulers of mankind for thousands of years. Misery can be endured if you know nothing else. I’m sure people used the expression “that’s life!” throughout history. But try taking someone who knows luxury (as all of us do) and ask them to cut back in this way and that with the expectation that things are not going to get more plentiful in the future. Children faced with a similar situation will throw a tantrum. The idea of sacrifice is just not in our working vocabulary as consumers who have spent the future already through credit. To take on a huge credit burden is to say, “I want not only the present but the future as well and I want it now.”

Change will come, no doubt, but I really think it will be past the point where it is an option and I do fear the social upheaval to come.

Gas is now well over $3.50 a gallon. You may know my on-the-road test from my website. Well, I was on the interstate the other day and drove the speed limit as usual. There was absolutely no indication of high gas prices in driving behaviour: cars and light trucks were still lined up speeding in the fast lane and I did not pass. Is everyone going to the emergency room? No. Here is a case where it would be easy to scale back but nobody is doing it, rather they are pushing each other to go faster.

What does this say of voluntary restraint or of people consciously thinking about what they are doing?
It’s as if people are saying, “I choose to be blind and nobody can make me see!”

Clif — I knew you would respond to this post. I agree with everything you said. But want to push it further. You wrote:

“THAT is the key. We do know what we are doing. We are the ONLY species that has a chance (at the moment) of modifying its only behavior on the basis of information that comes to us in a way unavailable to all other life – through the action of science.”

My point is, we know what we’re doing TO A POINT. We are like gods to other creatures in that we can control them and their world. BUT there is a lot we don’t know and probably cannot know. And so, just as we are exponentially more intelligent than cats, in being able to think about the future and see the results of our actions, maybe (and I’m not saying I believe this, it’s just nice to speculate on) there is some exponentially higher intelligence that understands things we never can or will.

It’s not a theory because it can’t be tested. There’s nothing scientific about it. It’s just fun to think about late at night when you’re brain is fried and you feel so, so small. And no, I don’t smoke grass, if that’s what you’re wondering.

:-)

What would happen if dolphins ruled the world? It’s reasonable to think that they would make it a dolphin-centered world as we have made it human centered. They would alter the environment to suit their wants and desires as we have. Of course they don’t have the arms and legs we do so they are “stuck” in the oceans, but only for now. Take away mankind and let evolution have its way and give a few million years there would be another species topping the others as we have.

Does it matter what we do? Beyond ourselves, no. The universe goes on with plenty of creation and destruction and we are only a current instrument in that process. We can make the earth a barren planet devoid of life and it makes no difference at all. Species quite energetically kill other species. Would cats kill all birds if they could? Would they consider what they were doing in the process?

THAT is the key. We do know what we are doing. We are the ONLY species that has a chance (at the moment) of modifying its only behavior on the basis of information that comes to us in a way unavailable to all other life – through the action of science.

We are the god we have always imagined there to be; a Big Person. For all other life on earth we are god in every sense of the word, having total control over the fate of all species, having unquestioned authority to do as we wish with them, capable of monitoring them at any and all times of our choosing.

The root of our problem is that we exempt ourselves from all other life. We think we are different and exceptional in the sense of being able to do exactly what we want while in fact being an integral part of the whole but one that has run wild with the power that we have found ourselves with by the combination of physical characteristics that give us a “leg up” over other animals and plants.

Just like them, given the opportunity, we have grabbed for everything in front of us, just as a plant will overgrow the world until stopped by too little water, heat or sunshine. Competition is what keeps life at bay and we have leapt over all potential competition except ourselves.

The outlook is not good based on what we know of life. If we follow the path that all other life would follow if freed of competition we will devour the world and die back in huge numbers. The devouring, we have already largely accomplished.

Millions of years of the formation and accumulation of liquid carbon that spurts spontaneously from the ground when tapped has now been consumed to a large fraction simply to push heavy metal boxes around with us inside for over a little over 100 years.

Unlike the cats, we do know better but that may not be enough to save us. This isn’t good or bad, other species have come and gone before us, but it is remarkable that we are so closely following in their footsteps in spite of being the “rational” animal.

As I think I have mentioned, there is a theory that intelligent life cannot be found beyond earth in the larger universe because intelligence has a very brief reign due to the tremendous empowerment it gives without the accompanying restraint that is needed for it to survive. Wherever in the universe it has happened, it has been brief due to self-extinction. Based on what I see around me, this is a very persuasive theory.

But, we have to live with ourselves as individuals. I see litter every day and I don’t see anyone picking it up. Still, I pick it up because I want to be at peace with myself. I want to be on the tail of the normal distribution that indicates those who tried to put the finger in the dike.