Originally Posted by bahai9

Hmmm. But you didn't say it WAS comical....or humorous....I guess I better keep the 'day job' eh? --Steve--

Originally Posted by bahai9

RunicSage--

I wasn't quite sure where to post this, as there seems to be a couple or three threads converging on this topic.

Your posts are very well thought out. But be patient. The earth is very, very, old, and mankind is very, very, young. And it has only been for a few centuries that some humans have come to the conclusion that the place just can't get along without us. And some actually love what we've done to the place!

But there are very many physical scientists who are very spiritual, and have profound respect for the natural world and are deeply troubled by what our 'enlightenment' is doing.

In 1972, the international comunity gathered in Stockholm for the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment to call attention to the peril the earth was in. A great number of nations established high level commissions to look at the matter, and the environment (eco-sphere) was finally put on an international unified agenda. And the report identified huge knowledge gaps that we needed to fill. This was a great new beginning!

Since that conference, the stresses on the earth have greatly increased! A fourfold increase in the number of humans (the US just crossed the 300 million mark!), and an 18-fold growth in world economic output. But most continued to ignore sustainable environmentally sound practices.

In 1992 there was the 'Earth Summit' in Rio de Janeiro, a world-wide audience in attendance in an attempt to develop Sustainable practices and policies, and again much was accomplished.

Granted, since 'Rio' it seems that most of the world's attention has been focused on conflict, globalization, terrorism, etc., and it might seem that momentum has been lost. But it has not. In 2002, GEO-3 was published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) under the direction of Klaus Topfer, United Nations Under-Secretary General. It was titled GEO-3 because it was the third UNEP GLOBAL Environment Outlook reports, (the GEO-1 in 1997; GEO-2000 in 1997), and served as a briefing report for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) [don't you just love all these gov't initialisms and acronyms?]. The UNEP GEO Project was initiated in response to the environmental reporting requirements of Agenda 21 and to a UNEP Governing Council decision of May 1995 which requested the production of a comprehensive global state of the enironment report.

More than one thousand people and 40 esteemed institutions from around the world collaborated with the UNEP to weave together the findings from the prior gatherings and current statistics available to establish a comprehensive and integrated assessment needed to be discussed at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Now, I know how the US President dissed the gathering, and dismissed the findings. But many of us watched, read, and absorbed everything (within our own limits of course). The analysis of GEO-3 takes into account the widest possible range of social, economic, political, and cultural drivers and root causes (e.g., demographics, production, consumption, poverty, urbanization, industrialization, governance, conflict, globalization of trade, finance, etc).

What I really appreciated most about GEO-3 was its break from the tradition focus on environmental RESOURCES to one which focuses on human concerns (our geo-sphere). The report presents positive policy and action items that must be addressed, and carries with it a 30 year look ahead with practical, real scenarios.

I know this thread is getting long, but I want you to know that some of us are actually working on this. At the state College where I am Director of Facilities, we have established a Sustainable Fisheries program that has re-introduced and effectively re-established historic clam beds along the North Shore of Boston! It is hugely successful! The buildings we build follow LEED certification guidelines, energy managment systems are fully embraced as essential, we purchased an abondoned brownfield industrial site that had once been used by an international corporation which had abused a huge adjacent, sensitive, coastal tidal wetland (which we also purchased) as its dump.

We have successfully reestablished the native plantings and restored the traditional tidal flows, where its ecosystem has already taken a dramatic turnaround and shown huge improvements. We are introducing solar and wind as energy sources (as much to influence and teach our students about the need to focus on our environment as it is to help control our own energy costs), and we have established a Sustainable Development Team made up of Administrators, Students, Faculty, and Staff, headed by a newly created Sustainable Development Manager position to see that all of the College's purchasing and development addresses these critical environmental concerns.

I know this is way too much for this type of forum (and I may get scolded by Arthra for its length ), and I also know that this is not the simple, back to basics approach to the world that you would likely seek. I only offer it as information to you that there are not only physical scientists who live in denial, about the impact of our 'science' on the planet nor are they ignorant about spiritual matters either. There are a great number of physical scientists and mathematicians who share deeply religious beliefs and understandings, and truly have their priorities properly placed (IMHO).

I enjoy and appreciate your posts, my friend, and I suspect that if you were attending my College, I would be seeing a lot of you at these coordinating meetings with the Sustainable team . Keep your posts coming! --Steve--

Originally Posted by Rev. Rex

I definitely believe that intuition plays a key part. Many, but not all, scientists are so wrapped up in empirical data that they can't see or believe anything that cannot be proven over and over and over again using the exact same set of circumstances. I find that tremendously narrow minded, like a horse wearing blinders. Even in hard science, this isn't real good. For instance, we now know that EVERY time there is a solar flare that is aimed at the Earth, there will be Aurora. But there would be an empirical "hole" if we didn't know now that visible light is just a tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum...some of the Aurora are not visible in the narrow part of the spectrum we actually see. But it was still postulated long before we had anything approaching solid information about x-rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet, infrared, radio, or microwave. It took imagination to make that postulation.

I believe, by the way, that imagination may be even better for describing what you are talking about than 'intuition'. That is one problem with non-mathematical language. It is not precise, there aren't enough terms to really describe things adequately, and it is wide open to vastly different interpretations.

Originally Posted by Maheen

I have this theory , the more a human goes towards Technology that is ... TV,cars,computers,phones,DVD etc the further a human gets away from our Creator & the answers we are seeking about our existence . And the more we go towards Nature ...that is , the Sea, rivers ,trees ,mountains ,animals ,
crops ,lakes,forest etc the more we come near to our Creator and the obvious answers .
A majority of People living in the Villages in the third world countries are way happier & healthy then people living in Big modern cities .
Believe me we have everything all Technology and these guys have nothing no gas, no filtered water no electricity ,no big hospitals, yet they are at Peace with themselves ,no sense of worry of the present & future . And they love it and a majority of them do not wish to change this way of life.