Starting Stopping

This weekend I had some lovely conversations with friends about a lot of things from peak oil to family relationships to overconsumption and overconsumption of pot. And all in the bright sunshine of a spring day.

But it was a nighttime conversation with a certain Brentor X, the man who gave me my handle, that really blew me away. He had just finished reading a book by Jared Diamond called The Third Chimpanzee. Obviously it had left an impression. Though Diamond may not have said it directly (perhaps it's time for me to read this book) this books seems to be all about civilization. How the rise of agriculture and empires has led us to this point in history and why we are destroying the planet by dominating literally every square inch of the earth with farmland and cities and towns and "managed forests" and roads. With civilized humans taking up all this room there is no room for other creatures.

This was the line that really touched me (and I'm paraphrasing now that it has been a few days): "All the things humans are trying to do to help save species and 'protect' the planet are pointless unless we stop growing our populations and our economies".

That really says it all.

Of course once you realize this, that next step of stopping growing becomes the big challenge. How do you fight against 10,000 years of myths and stories and change the course of your species when very few people even give any thought to our collective impact on the earth? I'm happy to say that Brentor X and his partner are making a start by stopping at two children. What a conscious choice!