by Mary W Maxwell, LLB
Now we’ve gone and done t! We have spoiled the Earth. Just in the last two hundred years of human existence the magnificent coherence of life is being dismantled. And for what? A cheaper shirt? A faster download? How can we be so lacking in intelligence or heart?
Edward O Wilson, inventor of the concept biodiversity and an uncompromising conservationist, says there be only one way to proceed (if at all, say I): switch our attention to the protection of the other species. We are one but they are many! Millions of planet and animals whose role in the big picture we don’t even know yet.
In his book Half Earth, Wilson (b 1929) recommends that spaces of land be set aside, here and there, to add up to 50% of all. That is compared to the 15% of earth that now stands as wilderness. In the prologue to Half Earth, he writes: “To strive against odds on behalf of all of life would be humanity at its most noble.”
David Wineberg, in reviewing Half Earth, says:
“The book is a relentless, hardhitting – make that pounding – indictment of our custodianship. We are far worse than negligent; we are malevolent. We think it does no harm to remove a species from its environs – and its role. The way it really works, Wilson says, is there are no species living on the periphery; every species depends on other species or is critical to their survival. Our total disregard of this simple rule causes unpredictable disaster.
“Wilson has been a naturalist all his long life, and it pains him to find things in this state. His [has a] childlike appreciation of the wonder of various species and how they live and contribute so differently. That we lose them daily before we even know how they fit in is criminal to him.”
Wilson, who is surely a prophet, is the biblical Amos of our time. He doesn’t use angry words, but he means it. I propose to help him express the seriousness of the situation – the disaster — by supplying a few excerpts from the Book of Amos:
Chapter 1
6 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes…
8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. 9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath….
10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. 11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD. 12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
Chapter 2
4 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked: 5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? 7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
13 Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts, 14 That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. 15 And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD.
Chapter 4
9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
10 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses….
11 I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Chapter 5
6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live… 8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name.
10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. 11 Ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
16 Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, 17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
21 I hate, I despise your feast days. 22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. 23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Half Earth
Please watch this video. Ed has been my dear friend for 42 years and he is always, always, the same:
Jeremiah 50:11 KJV re modern day symbolic Babylon –
“Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;”
Jeremiah 50:11 Context
8Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks. 9For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain. 10And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the LORD. 11Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls; 12Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. 13Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. 14Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD.
I went to look for “I was glad” and this is what we got:
Sorry Mary, but i can’t see how that cacophony equates with ‘because you were glad……….”
Bit too Hillsongy for me—
Oh really, Diane? Try thissa one:
This is more to the point:
Beautiful thank you berry -needed that
Do you know I used to visit the queen with my grandmother and she -the queen and princess Anne visited the club that she-my grandmother and her brother ran–courtesy of the Home Secretary of the time.
Did you ever attend ceremonies in the cathedral–I did–this footage really jogged my memory. Having some flashbacks-the queen lizzie-my grandmother and vera Lynn all merge.
Diane, I think you meant Princess Margaret, not Princess Anne.
links to topic of previous article- don’t steal children
although not so much government political stealing–rather religious spiritual –in the name of god stealing ???
Ah one and the same: One World Government One World Religion for everyone.
Who is the bloke wearing the fish god ‘Dagon’ hat?
Revelation 13:1
yes of course Margaret -more into the club scene
That bland hillsongy sound resonates just about everything I detest
yes berry not so bland either when you know the history—
reminds me of Billy Graham crusades–evangelicals brethren pentecostals talking in tongues-fire and brimstone sermons men in robes –the brethren–
Amos says –
“…..10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. …………..”
The ‘Jews’ (Judeans) in Jesus time said that they had never been in bondage in Egypt. Therefore they were not Israelites nor Judahites.
John Ch.8, “…….We are Abrahams seed and have never been under bondage to anyone………….I know that you are Abrahams seed, but you seek to kill me because My word has no place in you………….if you were children of Abraham you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a Man who has spoken the Truth to you, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do………..You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you desire to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he may speak the lie, he speaks from his own; for he is a liar and the father of it……….”
Just a reminder of the series In 2017:
“Biodiversity provides stability in water resources, soil fertility, pollution breakdown, nutrient storage, climate stability, and the ability to recover from unpredictable events.
Let’s think about the direct correlation between biodiversity and our survival.”
https://gumshoenews.com/2017/04/16/humanity-in-crisis-part-7-mass-extinction-and-the-death-of-bees/
Dee, you ought to combine all your Humanity in Crisis articles into one run-on piece and make it available at this website.
That will keep you busy Dee. :-)) as if you haven’t got enough to do.
I love you, Ed
In regard to another “local” scientist, the birthday of the late Sir Mark Oliphant was last week. He covered exactly the twentieth century. Born in Adelaide on October 8, 1901 (the oldest of five boys but he outlived them all), died in June 2000.
If you have a high school age child, get him/her to read Stewart Cockburn’s book “Oliphant!.” It is about his years working with Ernst Rutherford, a kiwi, at Cavendish Lab in UK and later at Los Alamos. He came to rue the day he helped make the atomic bomb.
In 1954 he was one of the founders of ANU. Then he was a vice-regal in SA and I can say for sure that, even living in Government House he was not part of “certain things” that we tend to discuss at Gumshoe….
There is room for greatness. There must be persons under the age of 12 today who are waiting to blossom to the full. And may they help us all!
‘Greatness Awaits You’ by Lieutenant Colonel Riccardo Bosi (retired) For what it’s worth, I see this man as the only one in in this country who has all the necessary requirements to clean Canberra of all the present conglomeration of RATBAGS. Cheers , Kevin Woodman.
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