<snip>

Heaven forbid! You don't mean spreading earth's diversity of consumer
products do you? Electric toenail clippers, etc. Recently a report was
published stating that the number of consumer products now exceeds all the
species diversity there is on earth. Well this may be a good thing but it
indicates an obssession for things.

Incidentally Karen Warren says that ecofeminists do not support up - down,
or hierarchical, thinking. I would contend that we "are upside down and in
the reverse position (Francine -unknown last name, 1983)." I am an
onto-egalitarian or strive to be.

john
>
>Actually, I think it's very important as far as environmental ethics is
>concerned. Read the final chapters of _A Moment on the Earth_ (a basically
>crappy book). Easterbrook contends that soon we'll be flying all over the
>universe spreading Earth's diversity to other planets. This is sort of a
>cosmic Manifest Destiny; some higher being has elected Humans to rule the
>universe.
>
>I think that any sort of thinking which gives us the idea that we are
>"other" than just another inhabitant of Earth has potential harm. It gives
>you an out for all sorts of things. Such as go ahead and pollute here, we'll
>clean up our act when we get to Mars.
>
>The other branch was actually voiced by James Watt, the Secretary of
>Interior under Reagan. He, and others, felt that Earth was "given" to man by
>God and we needed to use it as quickly as possible so that when the rapture
>or millenium came, we could show God that we had used his gifts. I'm *not*
>making this up!
>
>I think that a very basic and psychological acceptance of being tied to
>Earth is necessary for a practical environmental ethic.
>
>It's also an interesting biological question. I was just reading that
>astronauts suffer significant and permanent bone loss with even just a few
>weeks in space.
>
>How come no one said anything about my dog? I thought that would provoke
>someone.
>
>Steven J. Bissell
>http://www.du.edu/~sbissell
>http://www.responsivemanagement.com
>Our human ecology is that of a rare species of mammal
>in a social, omnivorous niche. Our demography is one of
>a slow-breeding, large, intelligent primate.
>To shatter our population structure, to become abundant
>in the way of rodents, not only destroys our ecological
>relations with the rest of nature, it sets the stage
>for our mass insanity.
> Paul Shepard
>
>
>
        



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