WEEK 13 March 19th to 25th 2001

   HOW HIGH A PRICE?

   The world's largest oil rig sinks outside Brazil with 1.5 million liters of crude oil stored. In another area a ship carrying a cargo of sulfuric acid goes down. Two of an ongoing virtual limitless number of "accidents", attacks on Earth's Life recently. Factories, (man made) chemicals, cars, machines and modern human life in general are constantly attacking minor and major ecological systems, attacking Life on Earth wholesale.
   On the International Botanical Congress two years ago Dr. Jane Lubchenco of Oregon State University presented a report showing that humans have transformed 50 percent of the Earth's surface. The data also revealed 50 dead zones in thw world's coastal areas, major segments of the sea almost devoid of life. Among them deltas outside major rivers, dumping grounds for factories and human waste. One of the biggest being in the Gulf of Mexico below the Mississippi River in USA, where there are countless factories upstream.
   The cumulative effect worldwide is clear: Minor and major ecological systems are increasingly at risk of collapsing. So, what's the price of Life? one may wonder. How high a price must we eventually pay to keep up our current ways? As the number of lifeforms on the planet is dwindling, as more and more humans are getting sick and dying one may ask how far we're willing to let it go, until we call it by its true name:
   Suicide.