tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post5362029766759138409..comments2024-02-29T03:57:00.088-05:00Comments on The Mermaid's Tale: "Save the planet": a meaningless slogan?Anne Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-72121814720850368442014-11-20T18:47:34.214-05:002014-11-20T18:47:34.214-05:00To me, the problem I tried to identify is what we ...To me, the problem I tried to identify is what we mean about the 'problem' and what 'we' would want to do about it. Also, the whole idea is ego- or at least human-centric and the arguments are generally about equity, who will give up what and why and so on. But it's so sloganized that in a sense we don't even know just what we're arguing about.<br /><br />I think the question is something rather selfish: how much are we, ourselves, willing to give up as we pressure others to give things up, for some rather vague long-term idea. Even how much are we willing to give up or change just for the sake of our kids or grand-kids. Beyond that, it becomes abstract idealism of different kinds competing for control of how our societies behave.<br /><br />But I think human life, or life in general, is always facing one form of such questions or another.Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-77221351177129794842014-11-20T15:46:54.476-05:002014-11-20T15:46:54.476-05:00This is a welterweight's punch to the gut--tak...This is a welterweight's punch to the gut--takes the wind right out. This problem seems near intractable.<br /><br />We've two systems driving the planet's trajectory--human and the planet's own machinery. I don't much like calling the latter machinery but it captures a much longer description. The two are out of whack/sync and whether they can or will be rejoined in some new kind of relationship remains problematic since it would require so much of us. I would like nothing better than to be dead wrong on this.<br /><br />I thought the review of Klein's new book was so typical of Elizabeth Kolbert--smart, great writing and ends where one of our best reporters would in myth. But the figures blow one out of the water.<br /><br />John Cheever's novella, "Oh, What a Paradise it Seemed," come to mind.<br /><br />Ed HesslerAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com