Infrastructure boom threatens world's last wildernesses | Environment | The Guardian
It's hard to be optimistic after reading this.
It's hard to be optimistic after reading this.
Road building one of your biggest problems
- Thread starter rainforests1
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I consider myself realistic more than anything. When I'm proven right and humanity suffers greatly in the future, you can just say I'm correct rather than optimistic or pessimistic.
Oh, I'll be long dead before the long list of the things you find it hard to be optimistic about have happened/not happened, so I won't be saying anything.
It's just not very productive, either for one's own life or for the world one inhabits, to have such a negative outlook and not even try to do anything positive.
I'd have to know your age. Overpopulation will be years down the road, but issues like Peak Oil and income inequality could have a serious effect by the end of the decade. By not having any children, I'm doing something very positive.
ledboots
Peace
Unless your child was the one who discovered free renewable energy.
I'm sixty.
Not having children isn't "doing something" - it's refraining from doing something. Actively doing something positive, even if it's an uphill battle and the effect is small in the universal scheme of things, makes for a happier individual, and the cumulative effect of many people each doing their small thing does have a noticeable effect.
The happiest people are those who DO, not those who sit back and criticize/moan/despair. Armchair criticism is without effect, other than to make the critic miserable.
I'm not sure what one person can do at this point regarding overpopulation, resource depletion, debt, income inequality, and some of the other problems going on today. I'd argue a pessimist may be better prepared for the day when civilization collapses much more than the optimists will. There's some chance a pessimist will learn how to become self-reliant, while the chances of a happy optimist becoming self-reliant are very small. You could save a life or two in the process.
It's all a dream at this point.
I don't think that equating pessimism with self reliance holds water. In fact, I suspect the opposite is true, because a more optimistic outlook leads people to do things, and the more one does, the more one learns and the more self reliant one becomes. Self reliance, in turn, breeds self confidence, which again translates into doing things, rather than just being an armchair critic. It's a growth spiral, whereas pessimism is a downward spiral.
And again, it's not what one* person can do; it's a matter of what many individuals, who are all trying, can do.
*Although many people do indeed do significant things, all by themselves.
If I remember correctly, in the past you've mentioned that you do volunteer work. That's great, and I'm sure has more of an effect than you realize. Acts of compassion have a ripple effect.
And again, it's not what one* person can do; it's a matter of what many individuals, who are all trying, can do.
*Although many people do indeed do significant things, all by themselves.
If I remember correctly, in the past you've mentioned that you do volunteer work. That's great, and I'm sure has more of an effect than you realize. Acts of compassion have a ripple effect.
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A lot of "one persons" can get things done.
That is what I keep pointing out when some omni tries to explain to me why it is pointless that I, as a single person, stop to consume animal products.
That is what I keep pointing out when some omni tries to explain to me why it is pointless that I, as a single person, stop to consume animal products.
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