Deep Ecology and Ecofeminism.
The only reason I bring it up is because the paper was combining two very different subjects that can either have really great outcomes, or really disasterous ones. I’m talking about ecology and philosophy and for this particular post I’ll be looking at two especially horrible outcomes of these two subjects merging. The first being deep ecology and the second being ecofeminism.
I’ll start with deep ecology. In my naïve year of being a very hardcore and new environmentalist who actually cried at the thought of a tree being cut down, I could probably be pinned as a deep ecologist. However, now I see the stupidity in this, and how deep ecology is really… almost like the cult of environmentalism. Deep ecology speaks to take the boundaries down between humans and nature making everything whole.
Basically there are two core values that guide the deep ecology praxis.
The first is self-realization. The environmentally conscious person in this case extends their self to include the environment and the world as a whole. It’s basically releasing ones self from a narrow, individual view to a larger view as ones self as the environment. Once a person has placed their own self to include the environment, the purpose is that it is then harder to destroy, take advantage of, or reduce the productivity of the environment.
Ecocentrism is the second value; the ethical stance that everything in nature possesses inherent or intrinsic worth and/or value. A deep ecologist would argue that the opposing anthropocentric views are granting people a privileged status – much like the denial of a heliocentric universe.
Deep ecologists ask us to simply live in harmony with nature, to be aware of our consumeristic choices by living off simply what we need, not what we want. They ask for the undoable – and that is the nonsensical solution of a paradigm shift where our entire world a) stops reproducing until we have a much lower population, b) stops technological advancements that come into conflict with the environment and c) reduces our lifestyle to the most minimal standard of living possible… just to name a few things.
Mexico taking a lead role in global warming fight.
MEXICO CITY - As it does with other developing nations, the Kyoto Protocol leaves Mexico off the hook to curb greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
But Mexican leaders are starting to concede that they can no longer overlook that their nation contributes to the causes and suffers the pain of climate change.
The belching factories and sea of auto traffic generate carbon emissions visible in the brown haze blanketing this megalopolis. Meanwhile, officials worry that warmer temperatures have left Mexico vulnerable to natural disasters, such as landslides, droughts and more potent hurricanes.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon won international praise when he rolled out the country's first national blueprint for reducing carbon emissions last week. For now, Mexico is avoiding tough tasks, such as confronting the powerful state-run energy sector, in favor of more palatable ideas, such as planting trees in deforested areas.
Mexico's initiative comes after the Group of Eight leading industrial nations, meeting in Germany last week, debated whether larger developing nations should join the followup to Kyoto. The U.S. is touting a plan, aimed squarely at China, that would incorporate emerging economies.
With developing nations responsible for 73 percent of emissions growth between 2000 and 2004, Mexican officials say they hope to illustrate that these countries can voluntarily attack global warming without jeopardizing their fragile economies.
Russia eyes 700-million-euro Kyoto windfall.
Russia’s electricity monopoly United Energy Systems hopes to attract investment worth 700 million euros under the Kyoto Protocol to combat global warming, CEO Anatoly Chubais said on Thursday.
But he also issued a warning to consumers that they would have to foot the bill for technology needed to limit emissions within Russia, where electricity production has been booming.
‘Our aim is to attract no less than 700 million euros (934 million dollars) on account of the Kyoto protocol,’ Chubais told a conference on Friday on his company’s environmental policy.
But the company, whose subsidiaries account for 25 percent of Russia’s carbon dioxide output, will need far more financing to keep its emissions from growing, he warned.
‘To seriously put the question of ecology on Russia’s agenda, we must seriously put forward the question of its price for the population and for industry.’
‘Nothing is free. Ecology costs money.... And the consumer always pays’ either directly or through taxes, he said.
The protocol’s mechanisms allow companies in the West to invest in carbon emission reductions in foreign companies to offset part of their own carbon output.
Russia hopes to attract major investment to reduce carbon emissions due to the potential to reduce output from its inefficient industry and the fact that the economic collapse of the early 1990s made Russia’s Kyoto targets more achievable.
Bird-like behemoth joins pantheon of dinosaurs.
Never mind Sesame Street. One of the world's most renowned fossil hunters has discovered the original Big Bird -- a partly-feathered but flightless dinosaur that weighed about 3,100 pounds and was nearly 26 feet long.
Gigantoraptor erlianensis, discovered in China's Inner Mongolia, is the largest bird-like dinosaur ever found, capable of going eyeball to eyeball with the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex, according to researchers. It haunted the Late Cretaceous period some 70 million years ago.
Scientists worldwide were stunned by the size of the beast, the largest new dinosaur dug up in years and the first true behemoth of the bird-like dinosaurs. Such creatures were usually much smaller, topping out at 90 pounds.
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