begins with these few introductory notes. Like the fact that the rate
of change has reached the point that history can now be written from
living memory rather than dug out of the dust of documentation, which
by now we know, is always biased by group think.

I feel a bit like Gibbon, aware of the vast scale of a project that
may require more years than I have left, but seeing no reason not to
get on with it. Of course, a younger mind would have political
ambitions that would then inject partiality, and moreover, only an
older mind would have seen it all. I am more fortunate than Gibbon in
that I had access to media and composition without needing to pursue a
career in a center of great power, and that further, I had access to
his example as to how to carry out the work.

I've always been on the edge of the Pale peering in, with a rather
more dispassionate view than being in the center of attention with
events circulating around me. I was born while Hitler was gassing up
the tanks for a Sunday drive thru Poland, so I am not a boomer, yet
not so much older that I was not admitted into their company, or the
beds of their women. For which I am still grateful of so much
instruction and enthusiasm.

On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 07:18:35 -0700, Day Brown hughes.net>
wrote:

On Jul 21, 7:18 am, Day Brown hughes.net> wrote:

But first, as for Malthus, he assumed a stable, predictable system. We
dont have that.

On Jul 21, 1:57 pm, Immortalist yahoo.com> wrote:

On Jul 21, 11:55 am, Day Brown hughes.net> wrote:

ECO-PHILOSOPHY VERSUS CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY

A philosophy defines the fundamental assumptions and beliefs upon
which actions are based. Without a philosophy we have no anchor, no
direction, no sense of the meaning of life. If we judge a philosophy
by its results it is apparent that our present empiricist philosophies
are deficient. As the biologist C.H. Waddington lamented towards the
end of his life: most modern philosophers have followed the wrong
trail, instead of following Whitehead and his holistic and organistic
philosophy they followed Russell and his atomist, mathematical
philosophy.

Wicca & neopaganism are forms of the ecophilosophy you mention. But I
dont see these ecological cosmologies expanding fast enuf to provide a
consensus on reducing the mindless unsustainble consumerism before a
critical resource, such as you mention causes crisis.

We all think of oil, but few are aware of all the oil turned into
food. The numbers are hard to evaluate. Agribusiness, like any other
business, does not always report its costs accurately, and new
technologies, like satellite imagery of fields is permitting more
precise use of petrochemicals.

http://ecat.sc.egov.usda.gov/Fuel.aspx suggests that it'd take 3 to
6.5 gallons/acre of diesel/bushel to grow corn in my midwestern area,
36deg N. However we dont yet have an analysis of the long term
effects of the GM varieties and petrochemicals needed for 3 gallons of
'no till'.

The USDA says to expect 150bu/acre, which works out to about 1.38 cups
of diesel per bushel. At 3$/gallon for diesel, about 13 cents worth,
which is diddly. So,,, why has the price of corn in the last 18 months
doubled? The numbers dont add up.

On Jul 21, 10:18 am, Day Brown hughes.net> wrote:

On Jul 22, 5:35 pm, Ed earthlink.net> wrote:

On Jul 22, 5:35 pm, Ed earthlink.net> wrote:

i dont expect everyone to read everything I wrote, and dont always
remember all the pertinant points, but thot I made clear that it came
from the exploitation of the planet. The Golden Age of Greece, and
later that of Rome, had similar exploitation problems. The Parthenon
was built with slave labor.

And as for the non-whites, things were not doing all that well before
the colonial era began. Steven Pinker, "The Blank Slate", LeBlanc
"Constant Battles", and Diamond "Guns, Germs, & Steel" all show how
the whiteman exploited the aggressive instincts of the warrior classes
that had run things when they showed up.