Monday, March 31, 2008

To Al Gore - Addendum to my prior letter: "Perfect example as to why you are Inconveniently WRONG!"

"But it's clear that many aren't ready to give up their disposals."

See this article Al.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88382453&ft=1&f=1001

Here is a PERFECT example of how HUMAN NATURE will get in the way of
any progress on the environment, if one takes your position...it will
take far too long to change our behaviors to keep the effects of human
produced climate change from accelerating...

1. Raleigh has an antiquated sewerage system. It gets blocked by
grease and blows up. No one wants to pay to replace it (2000+ miles
of sewer pipe getting old...)
2. The city council abolished new garbage disposals from new
construction to attempt to stem the other "stuff" from getting into
the flow.
3. A reasonable request also was made to those who already have
disposals, to quit using them.
4. Some reacted "as though a SWAT team was on their roof, coming to
confiscate their disposals"...
5. The residents of Raleigh, used to throwing everything down the
kitchen sink, even when confronted with a very pricey alternative
(replacing the sewer system!), will not easily change their ways...

The Raleigh experience serves as an example of precisely what I mentioned:

Human nature however is too self serving for even a small population
of humans to sustainably manage their existence.

There is only one moral way to voluntarily reduce human population,
and that is for each of us to decide not to have offspring!

VHEMTly yours, Frish

www.vhemt.org

SUMMARY OF [The Brights] April 2008 BULLETIN "LA BRIGHTS are mentioned"!

Hi all, thanks for taking a minute to relax and enjoy life for a
change. I believe our next luncheon is April 13. No Foolin'!

I snipped pieces of the Bright's April Bulletin, and I do hope you
subscribe...see bottom of note for subscription info if you care to do
so...

It is nice to see our efforts recognized by The Brights Central,
thanks Paul and Mynga...

Also, an interesting bit of knowledge gained about how to sign our
letters to the editors.

Great work all, thanks for being a Bright!

Frish sez: I always have trouble with the pluralization, so this is
helpful to fellow writers:
===================
Peter Papesch (Boston, USA) sent in his point of view the matter:

"'BRIGHTS' (plural) is the collective term for us. Identifying myself
as 'A BRIGHT' is both grammatically and conceptually correct.
Furthermore, since the movement was conceived in the English-speaking
realm, I would urge all fellow Brights to retain the English term with
its double meaning rather than face the hurdles of translating the
double meaning into any other language. The very characteristic of the
double meaning adds significance to the term, and thus to the
movement."
=====================

Frish sez: Bright's Local Constituency I believe is our LA Brights
Official Title. By the way, members, we had a merry band of 2
participants so I really enjoyed writing the line in the press release
- "All participants agreed:"...but...here is something slightly more
serious...

Our group only serves us to the extent that our members have common
interests and sometimes behaviors, like showing up...and, while this
was our first volunteer effort (and I was out of town!), we'll see if
"the group" really is serious about community outreach as more
opportunities arise. Many thanks to Armel and John for being there,
let's do another soon (I think something is scheduled, see you there!)

BRIGHTS BLC IS VOLUNTEERING IN COMMUNITY

[March 28, 2008] For Immediate Release: "Los Angeles BRIGHTS support
nature at Daniel Webster Middle School Educational Garden"
---------------
On March 22, 2008, The Los Angeles BRIGHTS turned out to plant, weed,
tend and otherwise nurture The Daniel Webster Garden. Located at
Daniel Webster Middle School (LAUSD) the garden was established to
teach children who grow up in an urban setting more about the
environment.

The LA BRIGHTS charter includes volunteer efforts, doing good for the
community and supporting BRIGHT goals. See http://www.the-brights.net

Recognizing the need for more knowledge about nature, LA BRIGHT and
school teacher John Taylor wasn't solely altruistic in his volunteer
effort. "Sure, happy to help here, but I'm bringing what I learned
back to my own school, to initiate the effort there!"

All participants agreed: It feels good to help others. The LA BRIGHTS
will be performing more acts of volunteerism in support of the
naturalistic worldview.
---------------
This type of action serves as a model for other Brights Local
Constituencies that meet in person. The LA Brights not only focus on
the community; they also take the extra steps to ensure that their
volunteer efforts gain wider notice. See:
http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200803/1206753243.html

========================================
REFERENCE GUIDE TO BRIGHTS INFORMATION

BRIGHTS FORUM (TALK ON TOPICS OF INTEREST)
http://the-brights.net/forums

CONTACTING PERSONNEL
http://www.the-brights.net/reference_guide.html

INFORMATION BULLETINS:
All Bulletins, including this one, may be found via the link in the
right column of the home page at www.the-brights.net

You can unsubscribe from Bulletin mailings via this URL:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/496/unsubscribe.jsp

SPONSORSHIP ACTION
To advance the civic aims and principles of the movement.
http://the-brights.net/action/support/

Bright Regards from Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell
Co-Directors of The Brights' Net
the-brights@the-brights.net
--
Cheers,

Frish "Fearless Leader" L.A. Brights
http://www.nonshoppingchannel.blogspot.com

My letter to Al Gore: Why You are Inconveniently WRONG!

Al: First, and foremost, I totally agree with "The Inconvenient
Truth", great meeting you at the book signing...You are wrong not in
the direction or the degree of your argument, but in it's intended
function, changing human behavior.

On 60 Minutes, you suggest, and I paraphrase: "People can change, it
is not hopeless".

However, if everyone, tomorrow, did everything you suggest, how much
difference would it make to the environment?

Sure, less than today or what it would have been otherwise...however,
that isn't going to make enough of a difference...even if we all did
everything right, tomorrow and forever!

First, not everyone is going to "get it" tomorrow.

Second, it will take some (way too long) time for things to change
once enough people do "get it" (and are willing to act accordingly).

Third, you "can't legislate morality" and you cannot "create culture"
(a culture of continuous diminution of human environmental impact)
with a slide show, ad campaign, trained evangelizing presenters, etc.

Until the power of capitalism (far and away the greatest driver of
climatic change by humans) is turned to preserving the biosphere
instead of overcoming it we have no chance of survival.

And, until people make the right choices, though being informed, so
that the market forces will drive the capitalistic machine, that
cannot happen, (regardless of your nice try with the slide show, to
attempt to counteract this impediment...).

The inevitability of the collapse, and the incredibly increasing
population means only one thing...to minimize the murderous effects
due to climate change the fewer people around to be done away with by
those changes the better!

Al, your way (changing human behavior in our use of technology) is too
slow...and MANY MORE PEOPLE will suffer because of it.

If we were few, the world's systems could withstand or tolerate
us...and we could stand a chance of managing our impacts.

Human nature however is too self serving for even a small population
of humans to sustainably manage their existence

"Manage the environment" is an interesting goal, since we don't know
enough about the environment we've already wrecked to know how to fix
it so it would operate in a way we could sustain!

There is only one moral way to voluntarily reduce human population,
and that is for each of us to decide not to have offspring!

NO ONE should have children so that we reduce human suffering, and
allow the continued existence of much of the life on the planet...

If I recall, Tipper was into labeling recordings of song lyrics for
"moral" reasons.

Love to hear you both harmonizing about how having no children is the
only hope for LIFE ITSELF.

VHEMTly yours, Frish

www.vhemt.org