As Bill McKibben once said: "We often choose to love nature to death."
Bernie
On Nov 10, 2008, at 9:48 AM, Robert Heckendorn wrote:
> I would like to give an example of endangered local habitat and make a
> prediction that I think is relevant to this group and the wild places
> we enjoy. The area around Fort Collins, Colorado is exploding in
> population. Huge additions are being built. The recreation in the
> area is wonderful (I lived there for 12 years). One of the gems is
> the Poudre River Canyon. It is about 50 miles of wonderful rural and
> scenic riparian area. The people of Fort Collins love their river.
>
> Now for my prediction. even though people love the outdoors and love
> their river, when population pressures force the need for more water
> and people have to give up all their lawns and cleaning things and the
> public pool and when it gets down to just crops and drinking water
> they will dam the Poudre river and you can kiss the Poudre River
> canyon goodbye. No one is asking now if there is a problem with
> uncontrolled population growth, they will just take the natural places
> because they have to survive *that day* when it is too late. In a
> choice between your children's survival and nature, nature loses. The
> way to avoid that decision is to consider population today not how we
> accommodate the population when it is too late.
>
> I don't mean this to sound so negative but like high explosives,
> exponential growth needs to be handled with great care and we can't
> just say "Things will work out". Not that anyone has in this very
> nature sensitive group. I just feel compelled by Walt's remarks to
> express my feelings about this seldom mentioned threat to nature.
>
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