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Birds Are Vanishing from North America

nytimes.com

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Re: Birds Are Vanishing from North America

#121

Post by Donald »

tgarv wrote: post #103
amatecha wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would never use the phrase "ideal state", but rather "natural state". Though, even that is not quite accurate as humans are naturally-occurring too, but the things we do (and do to the planet) are not quite so "natural". While thinking that "the planet is worse off because of humans" is a judgement, I think it's not unreasonable to assert that innocent life forms all over the world suffer by our actions (more than…

I was actually wondering recently if there has ever been a huge spike in, say, a new species of algae or something, that caused a large change in the atmosphere. I know that what we're doing as a species isn't "natural", and we know better and could avoid it if we really wanted to, but it still had me thinking about what kinds of things the planet has gone through before that would have been alarming at the time if s…

Species are created on geologic timescales. Human activity is, in comparison, instantaneously destroying biological diversity. Evolution simply doesn't have enough time to adapt species to the sort of exponential changes we're seeing in their environments.

Re: Birds Are Vanishing from North America

#122

Post by vpmpaul »

monktastic1 wrote: post #36

This apparently isn't a popular opinion, but: this world is precious. I would even go so far as to say miraculous . Until we wake up to this fact, we will continue to ennui ourselves and this world into oblivion. It's hard to prove (or even study), but I believe this is the root cause of all the other tragedies. It is not something we will merely engineer our way out of. We don't like religion (or in many cases, even…

>psychedelics

Every "epiphany" that someone has told me they had while on psychedelics has been something that easily could have been come up with a bit of quite time and thought.

I have never heard a single story that blew me away or offered anything but mundane "insights" that easily could be gotten other ways.

Its time for the "psychedelics" people to come clean and just admit they are simply getting high.

Re: Birds Are Vanishing from North America

#123

Post by lacampbell »

coliveira wrote: post #106
Feuilles_Mortes wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Engineering solutions to combat or circumvent Climate Change is our ONLY way forward. I think that this perspective ignores the environmental problems inherent in a capitalist mode of production, and in fact plays into them. I think that a political revolution could be imminent, and I would urge those concerned about the future of life on this planet to consider alternative modes of economics.

Capitalism is based on infinite growth (economists even laugh at people like Malthus who proposed otherwise) and on fungibility of values (money is green no matter where from). This basically leads to a necessity of destroying nature for the sake of realizing economic growth. We need at least start to take seriously the fact that, the way capitalist economy is conducted, there is no way forward to save the environmen…

By that logic, capitalism leads to a necessity of murdering your business rivals for the sake of realizing growth.

Re: Birds Are Vanishing from North America

#124

Post by zaroth »

monktastic1 wrote: post #36

This apparently isn't a popular opinion, but: this world is precious. I would even go so far as to say miraculous . Until we wake up to this fact, we will continue to ennui ourselves and this world into oblivion. It's hard to prove (or even study), but I believe this is the root cause of all the other tragedies. It is not something we will merely engineer our way out of. We don't like religion (or in many cases, even…

> we will continue to ennui ourselves...

I’m trying to recall which post from yesterday used this word which we probably both read.

But FYI I believe the word is merely a noun; one cannot ennui oneself.

Re: Birds Are Vanishing from North America

#125

Post by monktastic1 »

the_af wrote: post #110
monktastic1 wrote: post #36

This apparently isn't a popular opinion, but: this world is precious. I would even go so far as to say miraculous . Until we wake up to this fact, we will continue to ennui ourselves and this world into oblivion. It's hard to prove (or even study), but I believe this is the root cause of all the other tragedies. It is not something we will merely engineer our way out of. We don't like religion (or in many cases, even…

I agree with you that the world is precious. I also agree with someone else in this comments section that quotes someone saying the world and the life within is precious regardless of what we can extract from it. However, this puzzles me: > Psychedelics seem like one promising avenue. Perhaps they will help give us the inspiration to fill in this tragic blindspot. Why? What do psychedelics have to do with anything? I…

> I'm not about to try psychedelics either, and still I'm filled with awe at the world

Wonderful! Psychedelics may not be relevant to your path.

For some, "magic" mushrooms (for example) a first glimpse, or a reminder, that this place is "magical" in a way that most of us curiously overlook constantly. That epiphany can have a lasting effect on a person.

Re: Birds Are Vanishing from North America

#126

Post by abathur »

throwaway66920 wrote: post #64
pastor_elm wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What are the chances that we will get our act together or be able to engineer ourselves out of all of these problems? Engineering is what got us into this problem. Foolish to hope it can get us out.

Rowing the boat got us out this far, it would be foolish to think that rowing the boat could get us back /s

We didn't have to understand the systems and their feedback loops to break them.

Re: Birds Are Vanishing from North America

#127

Post by thebooktocome »

panzagl wrote: post #81
jjuhl wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not. There are too many humans on the planet. Reducing the number would lead to a more sustainable situation. That's just basic logic.

You first.

I'm very gay so it's pretty easy for me not to have children.

Done.

Re: Birds Are Vanishing from North America

#128

Post by rmrm »

vpmpaul wrote: post #122
monktastic1 wrote: post #36

This apparently isn't a popular opinion, but: this world is precious. I would even go so far as to say miraculous . Until we wake up to this fact, we will continue to ennui ourselves and this world into oblivion. It's hard to prove (or even study), but I believe this is the root cause of all the other tragedies. It is not something we will merely engineer our way out of. We don't like religion (or in many cases, even…

>psychedelics Every "epiphany" that someone has told me they had while on psychedelics has been something that easily could have been come up with a bit of quite time and thought. I have never heard a single story that blew me away or offered anything but mundane "insights" that easily could be gotten other ways. Its time for the "psychedelics" people to come clean and just admit they are simply getting high.

They are profound to the experiencer precisely because they are experienced. They are seen and felt in an entirely absorbing manner.

Re: Birds Are Vanishing from North America

#129

Post by mirimir »

monktastic1 wrote: post #36

This apparently isn't a popular opinion, but: this world is precious. I would even go so far as to say miraculous . Until we wake up to this fact, we will continue to ennui ourselves and this world into oblivion. It's hard to prove (or even study), but I believe this is the root cause of all the other tragedies. It is not something we will merely engineer our way out of. We don't like religion (or in many cases, even…

I agree with the sentiment. But I wouldn't use the term "miraculous" because that generally comes with the baggage of a creator.

I'd rather say that ~random variation plus selection is gobsmackingly impressive. But the results aren't as perfect as you might expect stuff that's designed and created to be. They're amazing, but not elegant.

Re: Birds Are Vanishing from North America

#130

Post by mikelyons »

monktastic1 wrote: post #36

This apparently isn't a popular opinion, but: this world is precious. I would even go so far as to say miraculous . Until we wake up to this fact, we will continue to ennui ourselves and this world into oblivion. It's hard to prove (or even study), but I believe this is the root cause of all the other tragedies. It is not something we will merely engineer our way out of. We don't like religion (or in many cases, even…

There are some teachers who have actually figured out what needs to happen, but everyone's identity will backlash hard against it: https://www.youtube.com/user/ActualizedOrg/videos

What would our behavior look like if everyone realized that the point of their life was to work to improve the level and quality of their awareness and consciousness to the point that they also realize the point of their life is to become infinitely loving and utterly selfless? (The hard part is that everything you think you are has to die, you can see why dogmatic/skeptic will resist)

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