Saturday, April 21, 2007

Gaia

As most will know I care a lot about our planet. I've written a few things on the subject. There was an occasion last weekend during a hazy moment that I realised something about the planet. All living things breathe. All animals breathe oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. Some breath fast and others slowly. Some breathe faster when running and slower when sleeping. We all breathe. But what about the planet? Did anyone consider what the planet is doing? The very source of what keeps us breathing is dying. Our planet breathes too. It breathes through our trees and plants. Did anyone consider that our planet breathes very, very slowly. Breathes carbon dioxide by night and oxygen by day. So while governments do little to conserve the great forests (the lungs of our planet), are very aware that without them, we will suffocate ourselves. But as with everything, we as human beings have all the deniability of a sixty a day chain smoker who thinks smoking doesn't kill.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I seem to recall that cosmologists believe that our own solar system has been consumed and 'reborn' as a result of exploding stars 4 times since the big bang

humans are quite good at inflating their importance in the universe and the current fad of self loathing because of the simple understanding that to exist, a living organism has to consume, is merely proof that we have a somewhat skewed view of our place in the great scheme of things

in not advocating unbridled wastefulness - just that in the end, environmentalism is a man made ideology and, we're just here for the ride in the universe - not steering the ship

Guin (homespun philosoper undergraduate)