Daniel Quinn writes: “Those 200 species . . . why exactly are they becoming extinct every day? Are they just running out of air or water or space or what? No, those 200 species are becoming extinct because they have something we need. We need their biomass. We need the living stuff they’re made of. We need their biomass in order to maintain our biomass. Here’s how it works. Go down to Brazil, find yourself a hunk of rain forest, and cut it down or burn it down. Now bring in a herd of cows to pasture there. Or plant potatoes or pineapples or lima beans. All the biomass that was formerly tied up in the birds, insects, and mammals living in that hunk of rain forest is now going into cows, potatoes, pineapples, or lima beans–which is to say into food for us. We need to make 200 species extinct every day in order to maintain the biomass of six billion people. It’s not an accident. It’s not an oversight. It’s not a bit of carelessness on our part. In order to maintain our population of six billion, we need the biomass of 200 species a day. We are literally turning 200 species a day into human tissue. (02/01/02)
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Orville and Wilbur Wright were aeronautical scientists and they had to understand aeronautical science to invent the Aeroplane. However, one doesn’t have to be an aeronautical scientist to ride in an airplane, or for that matter even to fly one. UnCommon Sense is based on the synergic sciences. I have devoted many years of study to the synergic sciences, but this book is not written for me. Most humans living today are not scientists and it is not necessary for them to understand science in order to benefit from it. Nor do they need to be synergic scientists in order to act synergically. (02/01/02)
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Theedrich Yeat writes: “None of these elements is by itself a panacea.  But they are components of a survival strategy for a fraction of the world’s current population.  It goes without saying that they can be effective only if used intelligently and not squandered.  That means not wasting them to “altruistically” support those billions who are sinking our lifeboat.  It also means accepting the fact that the developed nations cannot use stopgap “humanitarian” (actually anti-human-species) measures any longer to prevent nature from taking its lethal course.  (Think of the cultural shock this will mean in countries whose populations are too timid to let even mass murderers die.)  Those who claim that “we are all in the same boat” do not realize that this vessel is a lifeboat.” (02/01/02)
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