[Terrapreta] OFF TOPIC - Some number adjustments to come?

[MFH]

>From Richard Preston's book "The Hot Zone' about viruses like Ebola and
Marburg, written in 1992 before GW became a major topic:

 

"In a sense, the earth is mounting an immune response against the human
species. It is beginning to react to the human parasite, the flooding
infection of people, the dead spots of concrete all over the planet, the
cancerous rot outs in Europe, Japan and the USA, thick with replicating
primates, the colonies enlarging and spreading and threatening to shock the
biosphere with mass extensions. Perhaps the biosphere doesn't 'like' the
idea of 5 billion humans (now 6.6). Or it could be said that the extreme
amplification of the human race, which has occurred in the last 100 years,
has suddenly produced a large quantity of meat, which is sitting everywhere
in the biosphere and may not be able to defend itself against a life form
that may want to consume it. Nature has interesting ways of balancing
itself. The rainforest has its own defences. The earth's immune system, so
to speak, is seeing the presence of the human species, and is starting to
kick in. The earth is attempting to rid itself of an infection by the human
parasite. Perhaps AIDS is the first step in a natural process of clearance."

 

Max H

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /attachments/20080524/31d2ebfc/attachment.html