ysmad Green Tip:
Take out a dam
This green tip is inspired by Derrick Jensen, who makes this a theme in his book "Endgame". This green tip clearly gets the rating "Extreme?!", but think about it. What is more extreme - demanding action, even if beyond what you would consider "reasonable", or our current way of living?
Please see blog entry "Is insanity destroying this planet?". See also our "statistics&numbers" page and read the following quotes from the mentioned book: "Wouldn't you consider it obsessive to kill 90 percent of the large fish in the oceans, 90 percent of the native forests, 90 percent of the native peoples? How about all of the passenger pigeons?", "(...) this culture's waste economy is the cause of massive environmental damage and extinction of species." (pages 599, 109 respectively).
Read on the mentioned "statistics&numbers" page that every day, an estimated 100 plant and animal species are lost to deforestation, that Argentina has lost nearly 70 percent of its forests in a century, that 35 percent of all mangroves have been destroyed within the last 20 years, that Caribbean coral reefs are already 80 percent destroyed, that Almost 75 percent of the planet's fisheries have been clasified as either overfished or depleted altogether, finally, that our global footprint now exceeds the world's capacity to regenerate by about 30 per cent.
Now, what is (more) extreme?
Regarding this green tip, it goes without saying that we encourage only legal methods. Go ahead and plea for your case with writing your congressman, encourage a study if your next dam indeed and really and truly harms the environment, convince the benefiting companies and the local economy to consider environmental concerns. In general, invest "lovingkindness" as Derrick Jensen not suggests.
But, polemics aside: as mentioned a couple of times on this site already, I still believe we can change within the boundaries of our system. All we need is a conviction of our "leaders" (e.g. in politics and business) that the current way of living needs to change, quickly and thorougly. Plus your share to make a difference. That's all. Really :)
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