Being good steward of the earth and caring about people should not be mutually exclusive. This is what scares me when I read quotes like this one by John Davis, editor of Earth First! "Human beings, as a species, have no more value than slugs.” That just flies in the face of everything I believe about the value of people. Clearly we're witnessing a collision of worldviews in our time.
Here are some quotes by well-known people who have been leaders of the Green movement. If you take their pronouncements to heart, it scares me that there may be people who might actually be cheering the loss of life taking place as a result of our current pandemic.
“I suspect that eradicating smallpox was wrong. It played an important part in balancing ecosystems.” — John Davis, editor of Earth First! Journal
"The crippling human cover spread over the living layer of the Earth must forcibly be made lighter: breathing holes must be punctured in this blanket and the ecological footprint of man brushed away. Forms of boastful consumption must violently be crushed, the natality of the species violently controlled, and the number of those already born violently reduced — by any means possible." — Pentti Linkola, Can Life Prevail?: A Revolutionary Approach to the Environmental Crisis. page 170
"Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental."
--Dave Forman, founder of Earth First
“We have wished, we ecofreaks, for a disaster or for a social change to come and bomb us into the Stone Age, where we might live like Indians in our valley, with our localism, our appropriate technology, our gardens, our homemade religion-guilt-free at last!”
--Stewart Brand (writing in the Whole Earth Catalogue)
“The extinction of the human species may not only be inevitable but a good thing… This is not to say that the rise of human civilization is insignificant, but there is no way of showing that it will be much help to the world in the long run.” --Economist editorial
“Human happiness, and certainly human fecundity, is not as important as a wild and healthy planet… Some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along.”
—David Graber, biologist, National Park Service
Is COVID-19 anything like your "right virus" Mr. Graber? If you did not say this, I will remove it.
Here's another quote that seems especially disconcerting, in light of these present times.
“If I were reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to Earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels.”--Prince Phillip, World Wildlife Fund
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I'm curious if these people have any regrets about such ridiculous assertions?
What do you think?
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Related Links
Earth Day: The Anti-Industrial Revolution
Speaking For Themselves
Could These Be Lines from Avengers Infinity War Part 2?
Shared on my FB page.
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