[Terrapreta] Lester Brown

[jim mason]

On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 4:02 PM, Greg and April
<gregandapril at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
> You know, sometimes I really get the funny feeling that allot of the gloom
> and doom folks just don't want problems solved, by ways other than just
> exactly how they think it should be done and no more --- so they can prove
> how right they are.


the human mind seems to have an equal attraction to scenarios of
apocalypse as it does to scenarios of salvation.   our millenarian
imagination has long been a critical component of our general
religious imagination.  it seems to have a similar connecting to the
larger cosmos and general assignment of clear causation that underlies
most religious thinking.  humans would much more have certainty and
know it to be disaster, than to not know and be left "unplaced" in the
world.

separating our current "scientific" end times thinking from our
general propensity for "religious" end times scenarios, i find very
challenging.  the end of the world has been and continues to be
announced with regularity.  so far the predictive accuracy is about
0:1,000,000.

that does not mean the current end times scenario is not real.  but i
do think there is an equal overlay of general millenarian sentiments
to the basic physical/scientific realities.  i have yet to figure out
how to separate them in the current case.

like most millenarianisms, this one will likley lead to a mix of good
behavior improvements, as well as extreme nihilistic actions.  i have
no idea what the nihilistic ones will be.  the good ones, even if
motivated by millenarian error, in this case all seem to be highly
desired.

maybe global warming will be an end times scenario that generates more
of the good effects of religion than the bad.

j




On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 4:02 PM, Greg and April
<gregandapril at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
> You know, sometimes I really get the funny feeling that allot of the gloom
> and doom folks just don't want problems solved, by ways other than just
> exactly how they think it should be done and no more --- so they can prove
> how right they are.
>
> Does anyone else ever get that feeling?
>
>
> Greg H.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Douglas Clayton
> To: Terra Preta
> Sent: Monday, February 25, 2008 13:05
> Subject: [Terrapreta] Lester Brown
>
> Last night I attended a lecture by Lester Brown of the Earth Policy
> Institute and World Watch. I counted 500+ in attendance. It was all the
> major doom and gloom we are familiar with. World Watch Institute has now
> taken the stand that we MUST reduce CO2 by 80% by 2020 "to save
> civilization".
> http://www.lexgwac.org/LesterBrown2.html
>
> Lester Brown's latest book is just out, Plan B 3.0, Mobilizing to Save
> Civilization.
>
> In the Q&A I managed to wave my arm vigorously enough to get a chance to ask
> him what he thought of the the "technology" we on this list are so enthused
> about. Another person pitched in a few words about the Terra Preta as most
> of the crowd was confused and clueless (interesting as this was a very
> environmentally aware and activist crowd--- by a show of hands more then
> half were members of the Union of Concerned Scientists. He seemed minimally
> familiar with the concepts and his reservations were economic, not sure
> whether our schemes would prove to be an economically viable method of
> sequestering carbon.
>
> I would suggest that we all attempt to contact Lester Brown, World Watch and
> Earth Policy Institutes and bring them up to speed.
>
> Doug
>
> Douglas Clayton
> 50 Bullard Road
> Jaffrey, NH 03452
> H. 603-532-7321
> W. 603-532-1120
> Fax. 603-532-4581
>
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-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jim mason
website: www.whatiamupto.com
current project: mechabolic (http://www.mechabolic.org)
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