Seems to me that Holland would have been a much smaller country if they had to put up with the “don’t touch anything” attitude many seem to have developed here.
I’m all for protecting our environment, mind you. The PTBs must eventually get together and decide how much pollution and environmental degredation we must endure before it is too much (many people dying of weird and mysterious illnesses).
There is one simple fact most people miss. We’re here – we pollute. We must necessarily agree on how much, and where before anything meaningful can be done. What has been done so far, while invaluable for future generations, may not be enough for too many more generations in the western world to survive with today’s quality of life.
Interesting point - probably cause for a new thread…
How can we agree what is the ‘right’ amount of pollution? Especially in a political environment that uses the word ‘sustainable’ to refer to sustaining increasing profits every quarter…you know, ‘economic sustainability’.
Think about it, if we wait until people are dying of wierd illnesses and toxic levels of who-knows-what…what does that say about the ability of our environment to absorb our waste, clean it, and give us back food and water free of poison?
I realize this may be a bit of a stretch for some - but there IS a strong economic arguement for maintaining natural systems like peat bogs and mud flats!! Not only do they act as a carbon sink (take carbon out of atmosphere and ‘fix’ it in the peat…which, incidentally will turn into oil/gas if left long enough). Peat bogs also act as an enormous Britta filter! Intertidal mud flats will do the same thing with algae. So what should BC charge Canada (or the UN?) for the use of our natural water filters and ‘carbon credit’??
I have never favoured the “don’t touch it” arguement for its own sake. What we MUST do, is consider VERY carefully the impacts of our actions. That is, if we have come to enjoy breathing unassisted, or drinking water from a tap.
