[pct-l] ANWR drilling - BLOCKED!

[Bighummel at aol.com (Bighummel@aol.com)]

So well said.  EVERYTHING that we own, touch, wear, have in our bodies, 
mouths, hair, on our fingers, on our feet, in our eyes, under our butts, on the 
floor, on the walls, in your car, on your roof, etc., etc., comes directly or 
indirectly from the EARTH.  This is a fact of life.  Right now THE ONLY thing in 
your environment that does not, is simply the light coming in the window or 
down from the sky from the sun.  We are an extractive society.  All of the 
extractive industries are considered evil;  mining, logging, oil, farming, 
ranching; yet the products that we derive from them are considered to be good; food, 
clothing, homes, cars, gasoline, natural gas, roofing, wall materials, frames 
for photos, computers, phones, etc., etc.  

I agree with you, Donna; our quest for the outdoors / wilderness is a quest 
for the counter-consumption.  

Greg



"I go to the home place.  In time of rain I will wear the mist rising from 
the river.  In the long dry I will wear the dust of the earth.  I will sing and 
dance to celebrate the spirit in all things - life rising from the ashes, the 
living feeding upon the dead, the eternal cycles.  I will help the plant and 
animal people repopulate the shores and teach the new people to know them.  I 
am old, Molok, in decay.  I am food for the new ones to root in, and someday 
they will talk to birds.  They too will hear spirits in the boulders and the 
river and the trees.  Someday they will listen."
                                                - - Maria in ?River of Red 
Gold? Naida West




Donna writes:
That seems to be the sad legacy of humanity all over the world. The oceans
are depleted to feed the masses, the rainforests and forests everywhere cut
down for shelter and heating fuel, the earth drained of its oil so we can
drive our cars.  And, as much as we hate all that, we as humans are a part
of that to this very day.

To truly live without taking the earth's resources is something that few, if
any, of us can claim. The electricity I'm using this moment is likely the
result of a wild river being dammed somewhere, the chair and desk I'm using
home I live in are made of wood, and in a short while I'll get in my car and
drive to work. Hardly anything I use hasn't been taken from the earth in
some way.  I don't like this truth, but I am a part of the problem.  We all
are.  

I harbor the belief that the reason we love to return to the wilderness (and
passionately desire to keep wild areas) is the counter-consumption desire
and need to be a part of nature, to be connected and immersed in it, rather
than be a part of its destruction.  For during that time, we walk softly and
leave no trace.  

Then we get into some kind of vehicle at the end of the trail and it all
starts over again.  

I think I need to have my coffee (picked in some South American country,
sailed over by oil slick producing, garbage dumping shipping tankers, and
delivered to my store by massive gas-guzzling trucks, and packaged in
something that will wind up in a land fill).  Sigh.

L-Rod