> >I've been reflecting a little bit more about the morality of 
> >despair, especially despair as an emotional response to seemingly 
> >intractable global problems . . . .  It seems to me that on the 
> >whole, environmentalists (and some environmental philosophers) seem 
> >to be a rather uncheery lot.  The standard litany of "a sea of 
> >eco-troubles" does little to dispel environmentalists' 
> >doom-and-gloom reputation, and in some cases actually leads to 
> >environmentalists actually believing that the world is going to hell 
> >in a handbasket.
> >
> >Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't.
> 
> I find your letter quite strange Jim. To take this remark first. 
> Don't you have a position ? Aren't you able
> to make an evaluation ? With all your undoubted learning and broad 

You are assuming that all uncertainty has been removed from life.  Try Las
Vegas, that should clear up that misconception.

> philosophical view, do you find
> yourself still sitting on the fence, " well, maybe this, or maybe 
> that...", doesn't it seem clear to anyone who
> has taken even a superficial glance at history, that there is, for 
> example, always going to be another
> war ? I cannot prove, neither by logic nor statistics nor scientific 
> experiment, that the sun will rise in
> the morning. But it always has, so it is not unreasonable to expect 
> that it will do so again. All I am
> doing with such a supposition is projecting an observed and familiar 
> pattern into the future. Some
> event unforeseen by anyone, may occur. Perhaps there are transparent, 
> invisible asteroids out there,
> and one is due to collide with Earth and destroy all that we know in 
> the next few hours. We cannot be
> certain. But within the periphery of the knowable, we can contemplate 
> what we observe and draw our
> own conclusions. Yes, I do believe we are "going to hell in a 
> handbasket". It's a simple judgement,
> derived from an assessment of all that I have seen and learned during 
> my lifetime. It's my personal
> conclusion. Just as if the house were to catch fire, at some stage, 
> I'd have to make up my mind...
> to stay or to leave...your own position appears indecisive, " maybe 
> this, maybe that..." and " perhaps
> those who say that the house will burn to ashes will be proven 
> correct " ....is that an ethically
> justifiable and responsible position ? Don't you have a duty of care, 
> to err on the side of safety, to
> lead your children out of the burning building ?

Only if hte building is burning.  It is your *opinion* that it is burning,
not an indisputable fact that you have demonstrated with statisics, logic,
or science.

> >  But I'm convinced that despair is an inappropriate moral response 
> >either way.  Declension theories have probably been around for as 
> >long as there have been humans.  For example, in his well-known 
> >book, _Pursuit of the Millenium_, historian Norman Cohn describes 
> >the various European millennarian sects of the Middle Ages, a time 
> >when charismatic "prophets" roamed the land and spread their 
> >apocalyptic messages among the poor.  As Cohn writes, "One can 
> >recognize the paradigm of what was to become and remain the central 
> >fantasy of revolutionary eschatology.  The world is dominated by an 
> >evil, tyrannous power of boundless destructiveness" (21).  These 
> >same themes continue to manifest themselves in modern environmental 
> >discourse, and perhaps it is safe to say that apocalyptic 
> >millenarianism is probably a permanent feature of the human cultural 
> >landscape.
> 
> I agree with you that there have probably been gloom and doom 
> merchants in all soceities since earliest
> times. It does appear to be a human personality trait, and people do 
> seem to find cults that prophesy that
> 'the end is nigh' have some peculiar magnetic attraction which 
> overrides common sense or rational judgement.
> But the case that I put forward - wearing Cassandra's robes, if you 
> like - is not quite the typical pseudo-seer
> crying 'woe' and 'mend your ways', is it, because it is supported by 
> scientifically observed evidence. My case

With regards to the notion of global warming there is evidence that there
is warming and evidence that there is no warming.  It is called a lack of
complete knowledge on the issue.  There is no warming in the troposphere,
but our current theories says there should be.  Clearly there is a problem
with the theory.  The borehole data indicates warming, but not at the same
magnitude as the surface data.  The surface data indicates warming, but
has measurement error that could be impossible to fix.  The ocean temp
data is also problematic.

[bbiiiiigggg snip]

> I have never found either of these approaches to be very helpful in 
> my own experience. I found that
> the oriental martial arts traditions were far more helpful. For 

Ahhh, you might want to consider the term Asian martial arts.  Some might
take offense at the use of the word Oriental.

Steve

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send online invitations with Yahoo! Invites.
http://invites.yahoo.com


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%