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Sunday, May 26, 2019 11:54:44 PM
Tearex, Wilson’s Law (and Carlin’s Rant)
Ooi, what is your position in the global warming debate?
By Andrew C. Revkin July 11, 2008 11:25 am July 11, 2008 11:25 am
The biologist and writer Edward O. Wilson spent a couple of hours at The New York Times on Thursday. Over lunch with a batch of editors and writers, he excitedly described the genesis of the online Encyclopedia of Life, a long-held dream of his. He mused on the halting courtship he’s nurtured between religion and science since writing “The Creation.”
Then he mentioned a working hypothesis related to preserving the Earth and saving ourselves from a spiral into a greatly diminished future. He unabashedly calls it “Wilson’s Law.” This is how it goes, and it’s a warning to environmentalists and others focused on avoiding losses as humans head toward a population of 9 billion in the next several decades, exerting an ever greater influence over the sheath of life enriching lands and seas.
Most environmental debate of late, he said, has focused on protecting the physical environment – the climate, water supplies, air quality. But in the meantime the planet’s veneer of living things, he said, has been up-ended in countless ways whose consequences we can only guess, particularly given how little is known about the living world.
His concern? While the fight for progress on daunting issues like curbing greenhouse gases grinds on, the battle could be lost if Earth’s last rich nodes of biological bounty dwindle and blink out in the meantime.
His law? “If you save the living environment, the biodiversity that we have left, you will also automatically save the physical environment, too,” he said. The restorative and balancing influences of functioning ecosystems are potent and vital. But, Dr. Wilson added, “If you only save the physical environment, you will ultimately lose both.” (A very different take on saving species follows, as well, from the late comedian George Carlin.)
[...to end...]
Rather than asking how much nature is enough, he’s lamenting how a species that hasn’t even remotely figured out how to manage its own affairs can think it’s capable of managing planet Earth.
Thoughts?
Comments are no longer being accepted.
JD July 11, 2008 · 11:57 am
“Rather than asking how much nature is enough, he’s lamenting how a species that hasn’t even remotely figured out how to manage its own affairs can think it’s capable of managing planet Earth. Thoughts?”
You can’t learn without trying. Sure, we’ll make mistakes, but not making the attempt is a guarantee of failure.
His other point quoted here is better – species go extinct normally, that’s how nature works. However, the rate is going through the roof. Given that we will fail to save every species, our making the attempt might keep the extinction rate down in the normal range, if we are lucky.
With links - https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/wilsons-law-and-carlins-rant/
See also:
...George Carlin - American BuIIsh!t 2008
Noted: Carlin says, in that one, 'Tell the truth. Don't bullshit.'
With another - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=108582641
[On "Trump's planned pardoning of accused war criminals"]
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=149041491
Retired Lt. Gen criticizes Trump's North Korea tweet
SE Cupp Unfiltered
Retired Lt. Gen Mark Hertling criticizes President Trump for saying he doesn't find North Korea's missile tests disturbing while on a visit to Japan.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=149041512
Ooi, what is your position in the global warming debate?
By Andrew C. Revkin July 11, 2008 11:25 am July 11, 2008 11:25 am
The biologist and writer Edward O. Wilson spent a couple of hours at The New York Times on Thursday. Over lunch with a batch of editors and writers, he excitedly described the genesis of the online Encyclopedia of Life, a long-held dream of his. He mused on the halting courtship he’s nurtured between religion and science since writing “The Creation.”
Then he mentioned a working hypothesis related to preserving the Earth and saving ourselves from a spiral into a greatly diminished future. He unabashedly calls it “Wilson’s Law.” This is how it goes, and it’s a warning to environmentalists and others focused on avoiding losses as humans head toward a population of 9 billion in the next several decades, exerting an ever greater influence over the sheath of life enriching lands and seas.
Most environmental debate of late, he said, has focused on protecting the physical environment – the climate, water supplies, air quality. But in the meantime the planet’s veneer of living things, he said, has been up-ended in countless ways whose consequences we can only guess, particularly given how little is known about the living world.
His concern? While the fight for progress on daunting issues like curbing greenhouse gases grinds on, the battle could be lost if Earth’s last rich nodes of biological bounty dwindle and blink out in the meantime.
His law? “If you save the living environment, the biodiversity that we have left, you will also automatically save the physical environment, too,” he said. The restorative and balancing influences of functioning ecosystems are potent and vital. But, Dr. Wilson added, “If you only save the physical environment, you will ultimately lose both.” (A very different take on saving species follows, as well, from the late comedian George Carlin.)
[...to end...]
Rather than asking how much nature is enough, he’s lamenting how a species that hasn’t even remotely figured out how to manage its own affairs can think it’s capable of managing planet Earth.
Thoughts?
Comments are no longer being accepted.
JD July 11, 2008 · 11:57 am
“Rather than asking how much nature is enough, he’s lamenting how a species that hasn’t even remotely figured out how to manage its own affairs can think it’s capable of managing planet Earth. Thoughts?”
You can’t learn without trying. Sure, we’ll make mistakes, but not making the attempt is a guarantee of failure.
His other point quoted here is better – species go extinct normally, that’s how nature works. However, the rate is going through the roof. Given that we will fail to save every species, our making the attempt might keep the extinction rate down in the normal range, if we are lucky.
With links - https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/wilsons-law-and-carlins-rant/
See also:
...George Carlin - American BuIIsh!t 2008
Noted: Carlin says, in that one, 'Tell the truth. Don't bullshit.'
With another - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=108582641
[On "Trump's planned pardoning of accused war criminals"]
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=149041491
Retired Lt. Gen criticizes Trump's North Korea tweet
SE Cupp Unfiltered
Retired Lt. Gen Mark Hertling criticizes President Trump for saying he doesn't find North Korea's missile tests disturbing while on a visit to Japan.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=149041512
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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