George Schrader wrote:
>
> Steve
> Over the long haul with out great change in resource consumption its
> doubtful humanity will do any thing but collapse under its own resource
> consumption weight.
[snip]
> Two issues seem most urgent. 1 leveling population expansion and 2 leveling
> resource consumption to sustainable levels.
[snip]
> There is however a glimmer of hope. One specifically that I have been
> clinging to.
>
> Thankfully reaching a sustainable society does not solely rest with in, our
> all getting together and helping each other to this point of equality. Sadly
> mankind has not evolved consciously to act in that behalf yet. Fortunately
> we do have other means at our disposal ones that will not require such
> benevolence.
> There is much that we can do as a society. A greater utilization of
> technological advances can make a huge difference in resource consumption.
> The efficiencies we are capable of are far greater than what we have
> utilized.
>
> Introducing recent technologies into transport alone suggest the ability to
> make wondrous strides toward leveling resource consumption and developing
> the necessary well-being.
[snip]
It still seems to me that the challenge is to *eliminate the
need for transport*. Work at home. Live near where you work.
Individuals can often effect the first item by themselves, if
their employers will only permit it. The second requires
zoning and other manipulations at a higher level of societal
management.
Also, there is a second reason for *eliminating* transportation
as much as possible, which is economic but not merely
economic: The more *people* travel, the more *diseases*
travel. If we stayed home, communicable diseases would
be minimized, thus resulting in further economic savings
and a better quality of life. Since, today, most
travel doesn't really take you anywhere anyway
(Debord's _The Society of the Spectacle_, among many
other sources, makes this point), transportation
is mostly just waste. Even "space travel" -- the
"ultimate frontier" of the imaginatively challenged --
doesn't take you nearly as far away from your
local social milieu as a genuinely transformative
book or other work of art ("peregrinatio in
stabilitate" -- the monastic notion that to undertake
an adventure you do not need to leave your home).
\brad mccormick
--
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA
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