Ray wrote :

<snip>
>I also think that it is directly contra to what I see as the inherent nature
>of ecopsychology, the study of human-nature-relations; the search for some
>kind of harmonious relationship among Mother Nature's children, including
>among her human off-spring.
<snip>

My ISP had a hardware failure and lost a whole bunch of my e-mail,gone forever,
so I did not receive whatever post you were replying to here Ray ( 
and anybody's
guess what else beside...) but yes, I endorse the search, and the wish for, the
harmonious relationship you speak of...a fine and noble aspiration.

But let's face it, it ain't going to happen, is it ? The prisons in 
this country are filled
(mostly) with inadequate, damaged, unhappy people, casualties from the least
auspicious backgrounds, many with mental and emotional illnesses 
caused by the very
conditions they have had to live in, who are locked away for petty 
thefts, smoking pot,
and other relatively minor activities. The poorest at the bottom of 
the social hierarchy
get persecuted whilst the people who are the REAL threat, who are the 
REAL criminals,
the one's who are putting everyone's whole future in jeopardy never 
get caught for
their crimes. Indeed, we don't even have any laws and frameworks for 
making them
take responsibility for their crimes. The people I speak of are the 
politicians, scientists,
technologists, and corporate executives who have pushed the technology that is
trashing the planet - e.g. those wonderful folk who gave us e.g. DDT, 
PCBs, CFCs, and
the rest,- and now, (see below) this lovely new word that we all need to learn,
trifluoromethylsulphur pentafluoride

These folks  - chemists, industrialists, policy makers - should be hunted down
and arrested and locked away just like war criminals, because the 
results of their
irresponsible tinkerings are crimes against the whole planet, crimes 
against all
people and all living things...and yet we have no international legal 
mechanisms
for forcing any such individuals to take responsibility for the 
idiotic and reckless
decisions they make. Quite the opposite, in fact, because we have big business
spending billions to make sure that they can continue the pollution 
and destruction,
and labelling anybody who complains about the idiocy as luddites and 
ecoterrorists.

And if people resist, then force is used against them ( as, for 
example, the Bolivians,
see snippet below, who complained when they have now to pay 
exorbitantly for water )
When their survival is threatened, people quite rightly people get 
angry and fight back.
There's no way the pressures are going to slacken off to allow any 
harmonious future,
is there, because the global population is doubling, the 
multinationals have to keep
on growing and exploiting all resources until they run out, and 
there's no way we
can stop mad scientists trying out their latest gizmos to see what happens...

We didn't learn the lesson when Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring 
forty years ago,
and there's no sign that I can see that we are going to learn it...as 
I said the other
day, the technosphere is destroying the biosphere, the biosphere is collapsing,
and nobody seems to have a clue as to what to do about it....so we 
just carry on
making it worse, making it happen faster...<big sigh>

C.L.

>
>April 10, 2000 -- U.S. and European      
>researchers have discovered a
>greenhouse gas with frightful            
>characteristics -- it is 18,000 to
>22,200 times more powerful than          
>carbon dioxide, and it has an
>atmospheric life estimated at 3,500      
>years.                                  
>                                                                         
>Ole John Nielsen of the Chemical
>Institute at Copenhagen University
>presented the findings at a recent          
>conference on greenhouse gases          
>hosted by the Society of Danish          
>Engineers' chemistry group. A paper     
>has been submitted to the journal
>Science.
>                                                                          
>The gas, SF5CF3 -- or                    
>trifluoromethylsulphur pentafluoride
>  -- lurks in the atmosphere between 5
>and 20 miles above the Earth's
>surface. It was first noted in an       
>analysis of stratospheric air
>samples as an unexpected reading
>close to SF6, or sulphur                
>hexafluoride, a more common              
>industrial gas.                        
>Like SF6, SF5CF3 is a gas that can
>absorb heat radiating from the
>Earth's surface, what scientists
>call greenhouse gases.
>
>Traces of SF5CF3 and SF6 were also
>found in deep snow in remarkably
>similar concentrations. SF6
>concentrations have been measured
>for a number of years, leading the
>researchers to conclude that the
>concentration of SF5CF3 has grown
>from almost nothing in the late
>1960s to 0.12 parts per trillion --
>10 to power of 12 -- in 1999.
>
>Tim Wallington of the Ford Motor
>Company's chemical laboratories, one
>of the researchers, says, "... We
>don't know where SF5CF3 comes from,
>which is worrying. But it must be
>connected with human activity."
>They think the new greenhouse gas
>may be a by-product of the
>manufacture or decomposition of SF6,
>an electrical insulator in
>transformers and similar
>high-voltage electrical equipment.
>It may derive from CF4, which is
>released in aluminum production.
>
>Most of the important greenhouse
>gases -- carbon dioxide, methane and
>nitrous oxide -- occur naturally.
>While we're pumping more of them
>into the atmosphere, there are
>natural processes that can remove
>them, allowing the atmosphere to
>regain its natural balance," says
>Vincent Gauci of the department of
>earth sciences and the Center for
>Ecology and Hydrology at Britain's
>Open University.
>
>  "However, this new molecule is
>unnatural and seems to be extremely
>stable, so the atmosphere has a hard
>time breaking it down. While it
>doesn't seem to be having much of an
>effect right now, the fact that it
>has such a long lifetime means that
>unless its production is prevented
>it will continue to accumulate and
>so may have a larger effect in the
>future," Gauci says.
>
>The researchers come from the Ford
>  Motor Company, Germany's Max Planck
>  Institute and J. W. Goethe
>  University, the British universities
>  of Reading and East Anglia, the CNRS
>  Laboratoire de Glaciologie et
>  Geophysique de l'Environment in
>  France, and the British Antarctic
>Survey.


From: Jim Shultz
>>        The Democracy Center
>>        [log in to unmask]
>>
>>  Dear Friends:
>>      Just a few hours ago Bolivia was declared under martial law.
>>  People are being arrested, the army is occupying the streets, human
>>  rights offices are being invaded by government agents, radio stations
>>  are being closed by the military and huge sections of the city have
>>  had their electrical power cut (I had to leave home to find a computer
>>  that was still charged to write this).
>>
>>      The situation is grave and we need help to get the story out.
>>  Please share the brief article below as far and wide as you can with
>>  anyone who will publish or broadcast it.  My own media list is in
>>  a computer which I can't access. For the time being I can still be
>>  reached at 591-4-290-725.  I will try to send updates as the situation
>>  allows.  Please do not worry for our safety, my family and I are
>>  fine and keeping well away from the violence.  IF YOU RESPOND, PLEASE
>>  RESPOND TO THE EMAIL BELOW, NOT THE RETURN ON THIS ONE.
>>
>>
>>  BOLIVIA UNDER MARTIAL LAW
>>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>      As of 10 am Saturday morning Bolivia was declared under martial law
by
>>  President Hugo Banzer.  The drastic move comes at the end of a week of
>>  protests, general strikes, and transportation blockages that have left
>>  major areas of the country at a virtual standstill.  It also follows, by
>>  just hours, the surprise announcement by state officials yesterday
>>  afternoon that the government would concede to the protests' main
demands,
>>  to break a widely-despised contract under which the city of Cochabamba's
>>  public water system was sold off to foreign investors last year.  The
>>  concession was quickly reversed by the national government, and the local
>>  governor resigned, explaining that he didn't want to take responsibility
>>  for bloodshed that might result.
>>
>>      Banzer, who ruled Bolivia as a dictator from 1971-78, has taken an
>>  action that suspends almost all civil rights, disallows gatherings of
more
>>  than four people and puts severe limits on freedom of the press.  One
>>  after another, local radio stations have been taken over by military
>>  forces or forced off the air.  Reporters have been arrested The
>>  neighborhood where most of the city's broadcast antennas are located had
>>  its power shut off at approximately noon local time. Through the night
>>  police searched homes for members of the widely- backed water protests,
>>  arresting as many as twenty.  The local police chief has been instated by
>>  the President as governor of the state.  Blockades erected by farmers in
>>  rural areas continue across the country, cutting off some cities from
food
>>  and transportation. Large crowds of angry residents, many armed with
>>  sticks and rocks are massing on the city's center where confrontations
>>  with military and police are escalating.
>>
>>  Tom Kruse
>>  Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia
>>  TelFax: (591-4) 248242, 500849
>>  TelCel: 017-22253
>>  Email: [log in to unmask]
>
>--
>Peter Fitting tel 416-531-8593
>73 Delaware Ave fax 416-531-4157
>Toronto M6H 2S9    CANADA e-mail [log in to unmask]
>




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