Why Environmentalism?

Maybe I am a limousine-liberal.....

After all, the Earth is just a rock in space.

Yes. I don't want to preserve our environment for some mystical reason or because I believe in a Gaian soul, but because we live here.

And humanity will probably manage to hang on to dear life, more or less like cockroaches or viruses, even on a piece of empty rock floating through space. So, it's not merely survival that I am talking about, either.

I simply happen to prefer living on a blue & green planet with whales and dolphins, glaciers and ice-caps, the Gulf Stream, seasons, different climate zones, tropical rain forests and all that stuff. Maybe VR will replace all of that one day - Remember the Matrix? Remember William Gibson? - but until then, I enjoy the very selfish pleasure of simply looking at things.

And while the stars and nebulae are amazing as well, I would rather have diversity for my tired old eyes. And that, actually, is a very big reason why I will take my daughter sailing to far-away places. Every island resembles every other island more and more every year. People even begin to talk about the same TV programs everywhere and diversity is harder and harder to find.

It may be hard to believe, but even in the short time that I have been traveling around, so many interesting things have been lost already that people who haven't seen the difference for themselves just can't appreciate what has been lost. There used to be hundreds of dolphins accompanying boats all the time, now there are maybe three to five. Where coral reefs were alive and flourishing, teeming with all kinds of fish, we find most of the fish gone and the coral dead or dying. I don't even want to talk about Brazil....

But here, look for yourself what is there now. http://www.pbase.com/mayonick/2003&page=all
It will be gone in no time, you may be sure of that.

"A human being is part of a whole, called by us the “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." -- Albert Einstein

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