Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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<strong>the</strong> spirit <strong>of</strong> connection S 139<br />
derelict stewards, and unworthy <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> appellation Homo sapiens.<br />
We are driving o<strong>the</strong>r species in<strong>to</strong> oblivion and <strong>the</strong> Earth in<strong>to</strong> a<br />
period <strong>of</strong> great and tragic instability. In his opening statement<br />
<strong>the</strong> fox states that: “Humans live beyond <strong>the</strong> limits and laws <strong>of</strong><br />
nature and believe this <strong>to</strong> be <strong>the</strong>ir right. For every St. Francis,<br />
<strong>the</strong>re are tens <strong>of</strong> thousands—no, hundreds <strong>of</strong> thousands—who are<br />
destroyers and killers, believing <strong>the</strong>mselves exempt from <strong>the</strong> laws<br />
<strong>of</strong> community, decency, and courtesy, and millions more who give<br />
no thought <strong>to</strong> such things whatsoever. In fact, <strong>the</strong>y are no more<br />
than rapacious and clever monkeys, but without <strong>the</strong> monkey’s<br />
good judgment.” Laughter erupts in <strong>the</strong> jury box; when it subsides<br />
<strong>the</strong> fox goes on. “Without <strong>the</strong> restraints <strong>of</strong> a small population, an<br />
all-embracing religion, law informed by nature, an ecologically<br />
grounded philosophy, technological incompetence, or even foresight,<br />
said <strong>to</strong> be <strong>the</strong>ir chief glory, humans are doomed, as some <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong>ir own have said, and deserve <strong>the</strong> death sentence before <strong>the</strong>y<br />
take most <strong>of</strong> us with <strong>the</strong>m. We must banish <strong>the</strong>m from <strong>the</strong> Earth<br />
forever, and <strong>the</strong> sooner <strong>the</strong> better. I ask you, in <strong>the</strong> name <strong>of</strong> your<br />
children and your children’s children, <strong>to</strong> sentence humankind <strong>to</strong><br />
death at dawn.” Members <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> jury, excepting <strong>the</strong> cockroaches,<br />
mosqui<strong>to</strong>es, bedbugs, and kudzu, seem <strong>to</strong> mumble <strong>the</strong>ir assent as<br />
if in unison.<br />
The defense has <strong>to</strong> contend with numerous complexities.<br />
Perhaps humans, for all <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir protestations <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> contrary, are<br />
haunted by a collective death wish, as Freud once thought. Perhaps<br />
we really are not so much a rational species as we are exceedingly<br />
clever rationalizers. Again, <strong>the</strong> evidence cannot be lightly<br />
dismissed. The sources <strong>of</strong> irrationality are many, starting with <strong>the</strong><br />
still small voice <strong>of</strong> our genes that moves us <strong>to</strong> do <strong>the</strong>ir bidding<br />
and extending through our ineptitude at seeing patterns and systems<br />
and acting accordingly. Perhaps our evolutionary career has<br />
hard<strong>wire</strong>d us <strong>to</strong> myopic tribal loyalties. Maybe we are just sinful<br />
and fallen, deserving <strong>of</strong> death excepting <strong>the</strong> redeemed, as fundamentalists<br />
would have it. Having multiplied extravagantly and