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The Forum > Article Comments > Environmental ethics - a world record for misplaced concern > Comments

Environmental ethics - a world record for misplaced concern : Comments

By Mirko Bagaric, published 15/2/2007

In the time it takes to read this article 30 people in the developing world will die. In the same time, the sea-levels won’t rise a milli-fraction.

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Amazing.
The Greens have no real power and yet they somehow have to be responsible for addressing and even fixing a multitude of problems before they can even begin to be taken seriously.

There is no such thing as a collective "green" voice.
There are millions of individual people on this planet who to one degree or another have some kind of sympathy with some, most, or all of "green" ideas.

In my opinion the "greens" are the only people who are asking REAL questions. They may or may not have any answers.

Meanwhile the capitalist world death machine with its drive to total power and control IS grinding everything to rubble!

How do you even begin to stop a machine that has such seemingly unstoppable momentum?

One of my favourite books which explained the origins & consequences of the capitalist death machine is The Pentagon of Power by Lewis Mumford published in 1972. Meanwhile in the 35 years since ALL the negative tendencies and outcomes that Mumford warned us about that book have manifested. Have you read the "news"?
Posted by Ho Hum, Thursday, 15 February 2007 8:49:36 AM
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A quote from my favourite "philosopher".

"The human world has become a kind of insane sporting event, at which people threaten one another and carry on in an insane manner---something like the gladiatorial contests in ancient Rome. It is madness. And TV (ESPECIALLY FOX "NEWS" - my addition) generates and plays to that insanity.The human world of nowtime is a lunatic asylum, a soap opera of benighted psychotics.
That absurd soap opera actually controls the destiny and experience of the total world of human beings---and that benighted world drama is, in its root-disposition, totally indifferent to human life, and the world altogether.

And that life of competitive conflict has already negatively affected even the natural systems of the Earth---and it is causing, and will continue to cause terrible suffering everywhere.
Posted by Ho Hum, Thursday, 15 February 2007 9:02:35 AM
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Ho Hum makes a good point that at least environmentalists care a little about future generations. Why pick greenies out, when many others care only about what they can get today?

What is the plan, Dr. Bagaric? 0.7% of Australia's GDP is about $6billion. How and where should it be spent? Will just sending food to Africa sort out all the problems? Build roads? Build schools? infrastructure? They have all been tried.

Even Bono and Bob Geldof are on the case and haven't had much success.
Posted by ericc, Thursday, 15 February 2007 9:22:04 AM
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"capitalist world death machine"? What planet are you on?
Posted by jeremy29, Thursday, 15 February 2007 9:23:31 AM
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I’m a passionate supporter of The Make Poverty History movement. I struggle every day with the fact that we live in a world where a child dies from poverty every 3 seconds, while I sit comfortably in my middle-class world of want and excess.

However, this in no way takes away from a need to take environmental issues very seriously. Why? Because when sea levels rise and climates change, it will be poverty stricken people in developing countries that suffer first and by far the most.

Mirko is right; the human race is overwhelmingly self-interested. When world wide crops start to fail, will we equally share our reduced amount with the third world, or will we hoard it for ourselves? We all know the answer to that.

Ending poverty can and must be a world wide priority, but if we don’t take drastic steps to curb global warming, the plight of developing nations is going to slip from critical to fatal very quickly.
Posted by BradA, Thursday, 15 February 2007 9:31:35 AM
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What about the by-products of self interest. It doesn't always lead to death. Does it?
Posted by vivy, Thursday, 15 February 2007 9:39:08 AM
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