Editor:
Have you ever considered the sanctimonious aggression of thinking we can save the planet?
The late George Carlin, comedian, had a keen sense of perspective who could see the irony in the eco-saving mantra, so he included an intriguing satire of it in his act which was a big hit even with the younger college crowd.
His stand-up act went something like this...
“The arrogance of thinking we can save the Planet”.
- The planet has been here for some 4.5 billion years.
- We have only been engaged in heavy industry for about 200 years.
- And we have the conceit to think that somehow we are a threat?
- The planet has been through all kinds of things a lot worse than us humans.
It’s been through:
- billions of years of bombardment with comets, asteroids and meteors
- continental drift, plate tectonics creating mountain ranges
- volcanoes, volcanic ash
- earthquakes, tidal waves
- sun spots, solar flares, cosmic rays
- magnetic reversal of the polls, magnetic storms
- worldwide floods, hurricanes, tornadoes
- worldwide wild-fires
- recurring ice age cycles, global warming, global cooling
- landslides, erosion, glacial till.
And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference?
The planet is fine, it isn’t going anywhere, we are!
The planet will be here for a long long time after we are gone. It will heal and cleans itself because that’s what it does, it’s a self-correcting system.
R.I.P. George C.
You could add a few things to his bags and cans, like extracting, transporting some minerals and oil or cutting some renewable trees, etc. is going to make a difference?
Roland Seguin, Langley