Archives – October, 2008
Rhitu Chatterjee sheds light on a striking aspect of man’s interaction with nature in his article, “Dissociating People from Nature”, which appears in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. The piece focuses on the Soligas, an indigenous group living on the outskirts of the Biligiri Rangaswamy Hills (B.R. Hills) wildlife refuge in southern India since 1972. Prior to that year the group lived directly within the B.R. Hills but they were abruptly evicted after the Indian government “passed the Wildlife Protection Act (WLPA) and declared” the region “a high-priority conservation area”. The move, an effort to protect unique biodiversity from human interference, had unintended consequences that would reshape the ecosystem. (more…)
October 19, 2008
Thich Nhat Hanh eloquently conveys the teaching of the Buddhist faith as they relate to the natural world. Rather than recommending ad hoc initiatives or political action, the Nobel nominated monk urges humanity to recognize the intrinsic link between all beings and objects stating that “we have to discard all distinctions between self and non-self” (256). The earth possesses a finite number of particles that organize themselves in infinite combinations to form structures and species, and humans are but one of these amalgamations. (more…)
October 17, 2008
Many experts estimate there are over two billion Christians in the world, representing roughly one third of the total human population. The perseverance and growth of the religion over the past two millennia is a testament to the unwavering force of the faith. Christianity will never be replaced, but it will inevitably undergo adaptations and reinterpretations to reflect the environmental crises that are afflicting our planet. (more…)
October 17, 2008
In his book, The End of the Wild, Stephen Meyer paints a bleak picture of man’s interaction with the world around him. He describes a burgeoning human population that radically alters the landscape, drives native species to extinction, and leaves behind only those organisms that are particularly suited to living amongst Homo sapiens. The author also contends that our current habitat and species conservation efforts are merely stopgap measures that, while commendable, will be pitifully inadequate in stemming the tide of biodiversity loss. Meyer offers a number of solutions for maintaining some semblance of the natural environment as we now know it, but he sees no hope in preventing the end of the wild. (more…)
October 3, 2008