Saturday, November 03, 2007
inspired by Gandhi
On Friday, because I had to go push papers at my paying job, I missed the opportunity to hear a lecture at the UNU by someone who is inspired by Gandhi.
He particularly likes this quote, as do I: "A technological society has two choices: first, it can wait until catastrophic failures expose systemic deficiencies, distortion and self-deceptions. Secondly, a culture can provide social checks and balances to correct for systemic distortion prior to catastrophic failures."
The inspiree was the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which, even if you're not an environmentalist you may have nonetheless heard of, since the org was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (jointly with Al Gore).
Now I don't usually get "heavy" in this silly blog of mine, because I'm not certain who might be interested in the more serious things that may interest me. But some of the IPCC's recent findings (part of a report coming out in a couple of weeks) are quite scary and I've decided that I'm done tiptoeing around naysayers!
Hitting the big four-oh this year, I realized that I've been personally concerned about the environment for around 20 years now. And I am utterly mystified by people who—still to this day, in the age of already risen global temperatures, increased flooding, emissions thresholds crossed, etc.—do not care in the least. Wake up folks, please wake up.
I'm hoping the upcoming IPCC report will make a big media splash, throwing cold water in the faces of the zillions who deny climate change.
But if you're already awake, why not read two interesting (quite brief) docs on the IPCC's site?
He particularly likes this quote, as do I: "A technological society has two choices: first, it can wait until catastrophic failures expose systemic deficiencies, distortion and self-deceptions. Secondly, a culture can provide social checks and balances to correct for systemic distortion prior to catastrophic failures."
The inspiree was the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which, even if you're not an environmentalist you may have nonetheless heard of, since the org was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (jointly with Al Gore).
Now I don't usually get "heavy" in this silly blog of mine, because I'm not certain who might be interested in the more serious things that may interest me. But some of the IPCC's recent findings (part of a report coming out in a couple of weeks) are quite scary and I've decided that I'm done tiptoeing around naysayers!
Hitting the big four-oh this year, I realized that I've been personally concerned about the environment for around 20 years now. And I am utterly mystified by people who—still to this day, in the age of already risen global temperatures, increased flooding, emissions thresholds crossed, etc.—do not care in the least. Wake up folks, please wake up.
I'm hoping the upcoming IPCC report will make a big media splash, throwing cold water in the faces of the zillions who deny climate change.
But if you're already awake, why not read two interesting (quite brief) docs on the IPCC's site?
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it always makes me happy to have friends who care about the environment just as much as i do (and often even more) - it gives me hope and makes me feel a little less cynical about the state of things. rock on! :)
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