Brian and all,People talk about economy as if it was a living entity. "the
economy is fragile"... " we must revive the economy", etc. It is all a
mirage.Economy, economics, economic growth, is artificial. It is a mirage. It
is something we made up. It is not real. Yet, we are more respectful of the
economy than we are of the planet we live on.The current "world crisis" is also
a mirage. It is a crisis generated by greedy banks and investors, those that
traded with "futures" and money that did not exist, and at the end, it has
impacted the pockets of the many hard-working people, which will have to pay
the mistakes of a few, with real money.The true crisis, the ones I'm really
scared about, are yet to come. When drinking water becomes scarce, when basic
crops (wheat, rice, etc) become scarce due to a significant reduction of
pollinating honey-bees, major disease on the now almost clonal crops, or both;
when ocean acidification (due to global climate change) begins to impact the
marine food web, and I could go on and on.These are the true crisis. The
systematic shut-down of our life-support system.it is a possible future, unless
we stop thinking of ourselves as the center of the universe, and start looking
beyond our navels into the wide world. The day we understand it is not "us" and
"the environment". That "we" are an insignificant part of the environment. That
day, we will learn to live sustainably.I hope the day arrives, but for now, I
doubt it will.Sarah Sarah Frias-Torres, Ph.D.
Marine Conservation Biologist
Ocean Research & Conservation Association
1420 Seaway Drive, 2nd Floor
Fort Pierce, Florida 34949 USA
www.oceanrecon.org
