"jeff miller" wrote in message
news:4872a7aa$0$4056




it's really a "tipping point" issue, isn't it? that, and how an
individual's or corporation's conduct impacts and affects the larger
society and our shared environment. for example, if i own 1000 acres of
woodland and farm land, with 100 timber and tillable acres along a stream
that flows down through other's property and that supports brook trout or
cutthroat trout, what are the governmental or community limits on farming
and clear-cut logging that all others accept as reasonable? ...that the
majority would accept as reasonable? ...that a minority of folks would
say is reasonable? ...that i, as the landowner, would accept?

the right to swing one's fist ends where a neighbor's nose begins.

it's frustrating to hear people in my community, including
college-graduates, spout political soundbites that betray their selfish,
narrow-minded interest about energy and environmental issues. most i know
claim to be republican conservatives...jesse helms was their man. many of
these republican farmers don't care about feeding the population. oddly
enough, to a man they care deeply about government programs that will help
them feed their own families. most wouldn't grow a crop if the government
would pay them not to. likewise, they will grow cotton instead of corn or
soybeans, and use a lot of fertilizers and pesticides in the process, if
they can make an extra few grand - wildlife and waterways be damned. we
have done a very poor job of educating folks with all the relevant
data...sadly, i fear most have no interest in it, or in thinking
critically or constructively about it. one only needs to look at the
landscape and society in haiti to recognize the dangers of political,
social, and environmental "tipping point" missteps.


jeff
Joe the Elder writes---well at least you support catch and release--[maybe
because many of your
fish are too small to clean]
I have spend a good part of summer reading works of Wallace Stegner [ so far
14 works of fiction and 21 pieces of nonfiction], most of his works are
concerned with the move to the west---people moving for free land and
looking for the BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN without realizing that you cannot
raise crops without water. Much of his work was concerned with the
distribution of water, dams, irrigation and the problems to follow; enjoy
today PERIOD.
You might enjoy Angle of Repose---his best novel, but be prepared it also
spends much print exposing the problems of ageing. Another good read is his
nonfiction piece "Beyond the Hundredth Meridian:John Wesley Powell and the
Second Opening of the West"
Down here in Wilmington our " leaders" are trying to pay a cement
manufacturing plant to come in and pollute one major part of our Cape Fear
River. Don"t understand why PROGRESS is so confusing!