"The Earth is not dying, it is being killed

[99th_Monkey]

...and the people doing the killing have names and addresses."

~Utah Phillips (RIP)

[villager]

1. And those people are funding the campaigns of "both" political parties...

n/t

[baldguy]

2. There's nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The people are fucked.

There's a difference.

Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. It's been here four and a half billion years - have you ever thought about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years, and we've been here, what? A hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years vs. four and a half billion.

And we have the conceit to think that somehow we're a threat? That somehow we're going to put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that's floating around the Sun? The planet has been through a lot worse than us. All kinds of things a lot worse than us: earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, world wide floods, tidal waves, world wide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages!

And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference?

The planet isn't going anywhere. WE ARE! We're going away. Pack your shit folks, we're going away. And we won't leave much of a trace either, thank God for that! Maybe a little styrofoam - maybe. The planet will be here and we'll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac.

The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance.

[stuntcat]

3. old video

as indestructible as the planet itself is, our species is causing a mass extinction among the rest, and trashing healthy ecosystems that were beautiful by their own right, without us ever intruding.

I liked Carlin but this bit of his changed that for me. People post it over and over everywhere, for years.. making humans feel okay about what's happening?
"Oh it's only our own futures we're raping." ? No, that is not true.

[baldguy]

4. I don't view it that way at all.

This bit isn't meant to be a license to do as we please, or to make us feel good about destroying our habitat. Only morons and Republicans would think of this as permission to continue that destruction. Fuck, if you knew anything about Carlin, you'd know he doesn't do "feel good" bits. Ever. Most often he's satirizing the human condition.

Um... You do know what satire is, don't you?

Anyway, his point is that it's nothing but human-centered arrogance to believe that we're destroying the whole planet when we're really "only" destroying ourselves.

Isn't that enough?

[stuntcat]

5. but we aren't "only" destroying ourselves :(

If we were I could agree with him totally. I'm 41 and I've been watching Carlin with my comedian dad since I was very little.. trust me I understand satire and what he was saying.

I've seen this video many many times for many years. I want to laugh with him (in the ironic way but a laugh still) but I take what we're doing to ALL the rest of the lifeforms on this planet too seriously.

[cali]

6. stupid and ridiculous. the earth is not dying. duh.

It will be here long after homo sapiens make their exit off the stage and it will be supporting life.