WEEK 49 Nov 25 to December 1st 2002

   THE GARBAGE HEAP OF MODERN LIFE

   As the tanker Prestige is releasing the remaining of its 70000 tons of oil, in spite of government assurances that it would remain at the bottom of the sea, several other tankers are experiencing problems on all the seven seas. One outside the Norwegian coast and one outside China. And these are the bigger cases, the ones we're hearing about in the news. It's well known that all tankers are routinely, voluntarily releasing oil when cleaning their tanks. Spills have become routine.
   Many tankers are outright leaking.
   This is not a new situation, but it is one prevalent. One among several areas of modern enterprise and human existence in general. The question remains: How much can the Earth take? How much can Life on earth take? Many say it has long since reached its breaking point. Pellet like plastic, not breaking down in nature, damaging to living organisms is found virtually everywhere. The proof of human misanthropic use of the globe can be found everywhere, now, from the top of Mount Everest, to the bottom of the sea, from the tropics to the polar regions. There are expanding dead areas, on land, in the ocean where life quite simply has vanished. Everything is dead there. What used to be thriving ecosystems now contain nothing but ghosts and shadows.
   Poison are found everywhere on Earth, and the old, irrational notion that humanity is somehow immune to their own machinations, those poisonous to all other life is dwindling rapidly. Many of those poisons, those human created chemicals are changing life on a genetic level. 1000 new combinations are introduced to the environment every day, and have been since 1940. The increasing level of genetic damage showing ever more clearly is evidently not sufficient ground for a rethinking of current human strategy of living. Instead the solution seems to be more technology, more of what is the problem. There is no sign of anybody taking steps to stop the use of all those chemicals, or even reduce, slow down the speed in which new ones are introduced. If anything the process are speeding up. Nothing is done to halt the progressing march of urban development, slowly but surely covering the planet. The Mega City scenario is the inevitable result of civilization progressing to its ultimate conclusion, but very few seem to have realized this.
   Current human society is killing life, and humanity is thereby killing itself, a tailspin suicide run, as deadly as it is certain.