Just want to say...

Even though there are terrible things happening in the world, I still think our world is beautiful. Or, well, it COULD be beautiful.

Close your eyes and take a moment...

How do you invision our world? What would you like the world to be?

 

Call me dangerously naive and ignorant, but I change my world by the way I perceive it on any given day. If I look for beauty in the world, I find it.

 

The way the world works for us is based solely on how we perceive it. If we perceive it as a living hell, that's how our lives will be. If we perceive it as being wonderful and beautiful, the world will be the beautiful for us and in turn others. I think if more people were positive and happy and excited about our world, it could spread and leave the world more peaceful and positive. Ever smile at someone? Nine times out of ten, they'll smile back. That's got to say something.

 

You are very right DancerAnnie, life is what you make of it. Negativity only breeds more negativity.

 

well, i think life is beautiful, and i think there are a lot of beautiful things in the world....however, i still think our days are numbered. merely having a positive outlook on life isn't going to stop wars, exponential population increase, consumer culture, pollution, ecologically unsound use of resources (heavy mining and deforestation, dangerous farming methods) or natural disasters, all of which are raging and seem to be getting worse and worse as time goes on.

 

True, very true nesta and I agree with you. It would take a major revolution to change things, to cease and/or reduce the damage we have done to the Earth, though it can never fully be repared. Too many have become more and more selfish over the years, not really caring about what impact our actions are having on this planet, or what we will leave behind for our offspring, as well as the future of their offspring and so-forth.

All of us who believe in a change need to make the effort. Every little bit helps.

 

though i dont think the earth will be destroyed (certainly it's possible) i think life will go on, but i tend to view the environment as being an entity in it's own right. we try to escape it and make for ourselves an artificial world, conquering the natural world, but it will find a way to right itself. many forms of life have been destroyed long before humans came here (dinosaurs, for example) yet life has always persevered. i think that something will happen out of our control to either wipe out humanity or at least SEVERELY reduce our numbers. a plague seems very likely to me, as does a war more extensive and destructive than both world wars put together. perhaps this will happen within a decade or two, perhaps after a few centuries. but with the path we're on now, i can't imagine society as we know it surviving for another millenium. i think its far more likely to see near total destruction than total destruction, though. a new dark age, perhaps, wherein humanity tries to wipe the slate clean and start over, with nothing. reverting back to the old ways as a means of survival...who knows?

 

Heh, when I read the title, the lyrics "I really love the...SKILLful way, you beat the other girls to the brides bouquet..." popped into my head.

 

damnit, janet!

 

Oh Brad! I'm MAD!

 

I'm convinced...through the loving and accepting of one another we will begin to love and respect Mother Nature and what she has to offer us. Once we start loving, we can begin healing.

 

lol. i love the world. it's fascinating in all it's good and bad. i find find good arising outta bad all the time. but i also have an almost endless supply of humor.

 

whos to say that one cant find beauty in the terrible things that are happening?

 

i think that people are overly convinced that we're special, that we aren't just animals, and that there is some kind of purpose or ultimate meaning in our existence. not to say that there isn't meaning or purpose, but it cannot be definitively determined. i think that we can hope for this to happen as you describe, but that all of our thousands of years of history, and many thousands more of prehistory, what evidence is available would show that this is, while not an impossibility, an extreme improbability. i see no sign at all of a growing concern over love for each other as dignified sentient beings, let alone love for the other species or love for the earth as a whole. environmentalism, brotherhood, acceptance, conservation are all things that get tremendous lip service from nearly everybody of all walks of life, but there is little to no evidence supporting any kind of actual change of attitude or implementation of these ideals. for example, i am greatly concerned in the abstract about the natural environment, and highly critical of the modern consumer culture, however i refuse, at this point in time, to run off to live in the woods in a minimal impact, more animalistic and natural, earth friendly lifestyle free from garbage, pollution, and so on. we all like to say refusal to do these types of things is because of "our financial/social situation" or because it isn't "practical," but living like a "savage" is the most truly human lifestyle available, the most affordable (free), the most practical, the most environmentally friendly, and the most sensible, if not for ourselves as individuals than for society as a group and the earth as a whole. the REAL reasons we don't shape up our act is because we're scared, or because we simply don't want to. i'm afraid of living without a furnace. i like having an automobile and being able to cover many hundreds of miles in a single day. i like wearing fancy, store-bought clothing, and i would have a very hard time leaving behind society (including all my loved ones) to go live a simpler life. yet we would ALL need to simplify in this manner, though not necessarily to such an extreme, if we really cared to slow or altogether stop the destruction of our home.

humanity has, for the past several thousand years, been on a continuous path towards our ultimate downfall. unless we change DRASTICALLY and take what would by the majority be considered quite a few tremendous steps backward, society as we know it WILL destroy itself. we have no "suitable" replacement for fossil fuels at this time, yet we refuse to give up our modern transportation, coal and oil powerplants, and so on. nuclear power has not been demonstrated to be any safer or more earth friendly. hydroelectricity may not have the same impact in terms of pollution, but so drastically changing our landscapes is extremely harmful to the delicate ecosystems surrounding natural rivers and streams. wind power isn't practical for the entire world. solar only works to an extent. all of these combined may be suitable, but the energy companies already monopolize the market, and i can't see these alternatives to fossil fuels or nuclear power completely replacing the energy supply by any stretch of the imagination. no time soon, anyway.

as for transportation, we've found that hydrogen is one of the cleanest fuels available, but unfortunately we have no ready-to-tap hydrogen sources in nature, and to produce hydrogen chemically requires more energy than you get from burning the gas in the first place.

and what about all the goods we buy, which directly leads to all the garbage we throw out? the land can only tolerate so much non-biodegradable bullshit, but the flow of garbage is increasing if anything.

no, theres no way to completely stop the destruction of our earth without reverting to simpler ways of life. but that will not happen, merely for our human arrogance and stubbornness, until it is absolutely necessary (until we're on the brink of extinction) if it happens at all....either way, i strongly feel that things will become worse before they get better.

 

in short, everyone is hoping that something will save us (our own inherent goodness, god, a sudden inexplicable change in the attitudes of society as a whole) and no one really, trully wants to make things better through action. if history has taught us anything, though, its that the goodness of humans cannot be relied upon, and god saves no one from peril.

 

we are a very egotistical species. we think only nice things should happen to us.

 

maybe instead of trying to humble ppl they should be told they must step up to the plate and take care of the poor sad world that would be nothing without them. hehe...

we do have the largest impact on the environment and world in general

 

you know, i just await the day rapidly approaching when the big hand of ol' mother nature goes SMACK! the earth is a beautiful thing. she will carry on with or without us. i'm not particularly moved by the "save the earth" campaigns so much as the "there's not going to be any people left if you fucking morons don't wise up" thought.

 

yeah, thats probably true, though i think in the case of total, all out worldwide nuclear warfare, theres a good chance almost all life could possibly be extinguished. except the damn roaches

i dont think this scenario is entirely likely, though its quite possible.

i think its far more likely that overpopulation and the idea of globalization may end up providing JUST the right environment for plagues and nasty warfare to tear through nearly every civilization on earth, and if it doesnt kill us all it will probably wipe out enough to get us back to a sustainable population. if this happens, i hope that people are wise enough to voluntarily give up most of our modern technology and lifestyles and live in a more sensible manner. though as i said earlier, neither i nor almost anyone on this forum is really actually doing anything to change the situation. i'm almost of the opinion that it's foolish to try and prevent some catastrophe like this from occurring.

but yeah, i think you're probably right. its not too likely that earth will be destroyed as a planet or that life will entirely cease to exist. but even though nature has a great ability to adapt and persevere, we may still terribly scar and disfigure much of this world, and life WILL NOT ever return to the way it was before. we've built too much bullshit and killed too many species already for that to happen.

 

yeah, but a comet can kill all life and disfigure the planet, too. it's nature. WE'RE nature. we're just like a pack of over breeding rabbits when all the coyotes have been killed off. yeah, we're supposedly so clever, with our homes and cars and communication skills, but it's all the same stuff you see in nature, just more complicated. there isn't a single thing the human animal does that isn't found somewhere in nature. we're just really cocky about it.