….seems 70% of the world’s animals are gone (source:World Wildlife Fund). The population of all animals is now only 30% of what it was in the 1970’s. That is depressing and sad. I generally prefer animals to humans and most insects – altho insects, reptiles and all are included in the term ‘animal’. NOT humans tho. Earthpedia and generally all scientists include everything except humans and plants as animals. Well, Protists aren’t animals, either. They are bacteria and such. But you get the point.
“What’s the point?”
Clearly viruses and humans are the only things still expanding and all flora and all fauna are dying off. The cited cause of all that biodiversity loss is habitat degradation (pollution, deforestation, ocean poisoning, etc). Five hundred species have gone extinct in the past ten years. The writing is being deeply etched onto the tombstone.
I am not going to go all ‘woe is us’ on you. Too late for that. Ya can’t bring back the extinct. What’s gone is gone. I suppose some nerdy cloning expert in the tradition of Jurassic Park might bring back something using DNA found in amber but, really, whose gonna go to any great expense to bring back a shrew or a tiny minnow? Where’s the profit in that?
So, we are headed for the Sixth Great Extinction. And many of the really rich will expire along with the growing impoverished. They will leave behind great gobs of money for their litter and the offspring will carry on in that great tradition of……whatever greed is. Eventually, they will own the desert and all the viruses and all the insects. And the story will very much resemble Frank Herbert’s novel, Dune.
The Earth is Dune.
“Geez, Dave! That’s bleak. Can’t ya write something nice?”
Yes! Yes, I can. But first I write about what is on my mind. And, while Dune is not really on my mind, the foundations of the novel are. Warring factions, drugs, cognitive enhancement…..it all just seems eerily pre-destined. Predicted by Herbert. That’s all I am saying. We, the current denizens of this beautiful planet, will not suffer the desertification, the Trumpification, the greed so rampant. We will still see deer and birds, rats and squirrels, Orcas and more and more and more jelly-fish before we die. We will expire in a greatly diminished Garden of Eden but a garden nevertheless.
It’s OK for us.
But doesn’t it make you wonder how you spent your life? I mean, most of you (us) are good people. We went along to get along. We didn’t know. We were just born and we learned what we were taught. We are not guilty of what this mess has become. Are we?
I dunno.
But I do know this: we did not get here consciously. Our genes, our culture, our so-called education, our religion, our government and our media have all shaped us to the point that we do not know what is right or wrong anymore.
Small case in point: on another island the citizens are all gathering and fussing and fuming and mostly virtue signalling as they oppose this and protest that. They are NIMBY writ large. They want to save the whales and hug the trees and recycle and all that. Great. So do I. But, but, but….70% of the flora and fauna are already gone. Are they really saving the world? Or are they just knee-jerking PC-ness? Either way, I am not judging or condemning. I am just saying that we came a bit too late to the protest, guys. You are closing the barn door after the horses, cows and 500 other species have bolted. It just may be too late.
“Yikes! So now what?”
Standard joke: “Bend over as far as you can and kiss your butt goodbye”. Zat what I am gonna do? I dunno. I tend to think that we go down swingin’, ya know? Fight that destiny. Speak up. Say it all out loud.
“Say what?”
Well, we can start with, “Ya know, this system isn’t quite working. I think we should change it. I mean, fundamentally change it. Political reform is not enough. Recycling is not enough. Capitalism ain’t working….we gotta switch horse in mid-stream because the horse we are on cannot swim. Time to get on the bus, Gus, get a new plan, Stan. Somehow we gotta get ourselves free.”
Oh, and one more thing….don’t try to become a leader to try and save the world. Fuggedabout that. Waste of time now. Just get the hell out and take your chances on your own and/or a small community. If you meet like-minded people, that’s great. But don’t count on peeps. Most are still brainwashed. They mostly just want to have meetings and sit on committees until TEOTWAWKI hits the fan.
Y’all have to get out and do it.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Bang ON JD.
That’s why We are here. One can’t really lead. Too much canceling to be avoided. And I can’t follow ‘them’. When so much of the World is fighting over whether they should fight the Russians OR whether a man can birth a baby its time for this David to bug out and try to make it on Our own. Too many folk are silent and/or insane. So here We are. We’ll do our best and make Our stand HERE. Home.
I wish You all the Best. Always.šš
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You, too.
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“shaped us to the point that we do not know what is right or wrong anymore.” ?????…..I have known the difference between right and wrong since I was 6 or so. I never lost or forgot what is right. Im sure that this statement is a misprint or you have bumped your head, even most of the “wrongers” still know but have decided not to care. Perhaps that is what you meant to say.
Just saying!!
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No. I am just repeating what so much media is saying. NYT, Salon, New Yorker. Others. They are saying people no longer know what to believe. Their moral compass is spinning. Not you, of course. You are a rock. But consider Republicans in the US or even the average Russian…not a clue. Imagine a Haitian, a Chinese, a North Korean. Hell, imagine a Canuck reading about China who then converses with his Chinese friend….totally opposing views…who’s right?
Mind you, I did hurt my back and I also bumped my head…
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I’m in Owen Bay awaiting the fuel barge, perhaps a few crab would help your back? I will put a trap down.
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Imagine that, you finally decide to get out….to find yourself on the “wrong” island. I would prefer Read Island to be honest. I like people, but I also like my privacy. No need for a lot of discussions if I ever end up on an island.
I agree that a lot of people have lost their moral compass, because we are overwhelmekwith false information, so we can’t tell right from wrong
Which does not mean in my opinion that in our close circle, we can not decide forourselves what is right or wrong
But the (social)media is here to stay, also the misinformation. No idea myself how to handle this better or how to apply a better filter. Maybe the only solution is to digitally disconnect (I will keep Netflix to watch some series), but I’ll skip Facebook, Instagram and the likes
I try to keep the remaining animals alive though. I have planted 250 trees, I try to interfere as little as possible in my orchard, I use no pestvides, I have installed beehives, I will plant a few hundred meters of hedgerows. For sure it is a drip on a hotplate, but maybe enough drops might make the difference somehow
I even read yesterday that Greta Thunberg is “promoting” nuclear power plants, there still mght be some common sense and hope after all
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Like DWnolonger wrote above, leading any kind of a number of sane folks who 99% of the time are just thinking about their money, is a futile endeavour (unless you lead with, “How to get more money!). Leading, following, cooperating with a small number of sane people, however, is possible but, to be fair, the ones I know are all so bloody independent they gag when the word cooperation is voiced. At this stage, the loners were the first to hear the rustling in the bushes and they got out. But they did not get out to join up. They just got out. Maybe step two will engender some cooperation but, in the meantime, I think ya hafta go all Grizzly Adams first.
And yes. Absolutely minimize social media. It is a great tool. But so is an M16. And M16’s shoot both ways.
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Sadly, even on these islands where we live Dave, we do our best to contribute to the extinction of some species, and I am not talking about mosquitoes.
We seem to have zero tolerance for predators. Of late, a cougar has made its presence felt in my area. Yes, I am sure it ate my cat this spring and, over the winter, took out her 4 offspring from last spring. It is probably the same one that got some of my neighbours’ chickens and has been in their yard many nights, until recently.
Said neighbour asked if maybe I would come over and shoot the offending critter. That is the standard sentence for cougars and wolves on those islands who have the temerity to act in accord with nature in order to survive – we order the death sentence. I was asked to carry out the sentence because I have better equipment and more experience using it than the neighbour. I’ll give some credit for not wanting a to be responsible for a wounded animal.
Yes, I am a bit miffed that my cat got served up for dinner, but I accept that as part of life here. I was going to go to the neighbour’s yard armed, sure enough. But not with the expected .30-06. I have some .22 long rifle shells loaded with #12 (yes, you read correctly) shot. I think peppering the offender’s hide with a few of those would prove quite discouraging to further visits. If the #12 shot did not meet the sentencing principle of “specific deterrence”, then, I would have had resort to the “step-up” principle and fired the next salvo with .357 handgun rounds loaded with #8 shot. Before I could do that, someone else shot it.
Here in BC, should a cougar dare to show itself close to humans and, sacrĆ© bleu – anywhere in sight of a school – our “conservation” officers will take to the woods with the hounds, tree the first cougar they can find and summarily execute the hapless animal.
Sure, we all care about the world’s animals. As long as they know their place and stick to it.
As an aside, in the years when we kept chickens, never lost one to a cougar or a wolf. They were kept locked up at night. In a coop that was impenetrable, except from bears. They have messed up a couple of apple trees here (forgivable) and never shown much interest in chickens. If chicks were allowed outside before full grown, yes, eagles would get them. Ravens too. But that was avoidable.
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I agree completely. As much as possible we should tolerate the presence and even inconvenience of cougars, bears, wolves and even those bloody and stinky otters. And I, too, deplored the recent shooting of a nearby cougar. What a waste. A criminal act in my opinion. And I even resent killers in uniform being called Conservation officers. Call em what they are: exterminators.
We really do not deserve having dominion over the animals. Soon well have dominion over nothing.
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Again, anonymous not intended. Have to get used to that.
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Yeah, but ya’ gotta’ give those otters credit. They have a perverse sense of humour. They think it great sport to leave load of stinky poop on your mooring lines for you to deal with when time to cast off.
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Human poop isn’t so appeasing either.
I used to maintain office buildings in downtown van.
Bright, clean, loading bays always seemed to be a magnet for the wandering defecators.
I can only imagine what the Hastings st tent city odors are like.
Civic election today.
Hopefully the incompetent , Woke, two faced, hypocrites are bounced out.
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I am dismayed that only 2 of your readers have responded to your most poignant post. Yes, Scott was #3, but wrote only to point out that he had parsed your words to a nicety and drawn the conclusion that you were off your scone.
For my part, I am drawn to the ineluctable conclusion that the conspicuous lack of response is indicative of the apathy that has brought us to the point to which you have drawn attention. Most folks, quite frankly, don’t give a damn. It has not bitten them in the ass, so why care?
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Well until the planet rids itself of about 8.5 billion people.
The extinctions will continue.
Perhaps Putin has a plan after all……
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Totally off subject.
We are currently voting in municipal/civic elections.
Do the OTG folks up on Read Island have a “municipal” election?
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Yes and no. We have a regional district. They have elections. This year the administration decided that our otg community did not warrant a polling station. Result: 90% drop in turnout. Do we care? Not as much as we will when administration encroached. It’s insidious.
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Don’t feel too bad.
Burnaby’s (population 150,000) mayor won by acclimation several weeks ago.
He ran unopposed.
I should have ran against him just to get my “Nonconfidencevote” name in the news.
š
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Polling stations are now closed.
Hopefully Kennedy Stewart gets the boot.
Utterly incompetent.
Arrogant slug.
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I hope for you that this election will change something for the better, but I would not get my hopes up if I were you
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35 mayors in BC were tossed out on their ear.
Lowest voter turnout ever in many districts.
Angry voters voted and apathetic voters stayed home.
Seems about right.
With the choices offered.
And the media ( who make most of their revenue off govt advertising dollars) express their disappointment.
Another Canadian election.
Trudeau take note.
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But like I said above….political reform isn’t enough. That’s just more of the same but with a different logo.
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