ME and Ophelia

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THE ANTHROPOCENE EPOCH -
We have become the globe's principal force

Note this great report from the BBC. It's a wake up call to the world and, in a nutshell, says the challenge we face is about the growing recognition that, as the human race, we stand or fall together.

Planet under pressure is a six-part BBC News Online series looking at some of the most pressing environmental issues facing the human race today. Excerpt:

"Scientists now say we are in a new stage of the Earth's history, the Anthropocene Epoch, when we ourselves have become the globe's principal force.

But several eminent scientists are concerned that we have become too successful - that the unprecedented human pressure on the Earth's ecosystems threatens our future as a species.

We confront problems more intractable than any previous generation, some of them at the moment apparently insoluble.

The challenge we face is not about feeling guilty for our consumption or virtuous for being "green" - it is about the growing recognition that, as the human race, we stand or fall together.

Ingenuity and technology continue to offer hope of a better world. But they can promise only so much.

You do not need ingenuity and technology to save the roughly 30,000 under-fives who die daily from hunger or easily preventable diseases.

And facing up to the planet's pressure points is about their survival, and ours."
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See Independent UK report dated October 3 Greenpeace Protest Exposes Threat of Nuclear Terror. Imagine the planning and logistics involved in moving enough nuclear material to make 15,000 bombs - the stealth, secrecy and expense.

I'm still reeling from the news [via MD love title of post] that the U.S. lifted sanctions against Pakistan and then offered to sell eighteen F-16s to Pakistan as part of a first installment. (Note, Pakistan is a non-permanent member of the 15-member U.N. Security Council and was one of the members which did not back the Darfur resolutions, despite urging of council.}

Seems too many men are getting up to dark things around the world. Anything that can't be done in the light, can't be much good. At least we have Greenpeace keeping an eye on things. Although what good comes of knowing about such things is beyond me. Our voices are unheard and feelings ignored whether we live in a democracy or not.

It's no wonder extremism and fundamentalism are growing. Millions of ordinary folk see the planet being ruined and their voices go unheard. What else can they do but embrace a religion that provides comfort, meaning and direction to life and the hereafter.