Jan’s
Comments
(group member since Mar 28, 2014)
Jan’s
comments
from the The Transition Movement group.
Showing 1-20 of 24
Maybe Douglas Adams or E. O. Wilson.
Ted wrote: "...And speaking of random optimisms, there's a story in the Post today reporting record new investments and record increased power output in solar and wind..."Yes, I run across positive stories like that now and then--creative new responses to dilemmas!
I'm not sure if what I read today was an optimism, Ted, but maybe it is in the sense of increasing clarity--always a reason for optimism. I'm speaking of the lead-off piece in the 1/11/16 New Yorker, by Amy Davidson. I expect you probably have read it. Anyway, it made me think of you and this group!http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...
Nothing to it. "Technology" is my middle name, lol.
I enjoyed it. Wasn't as good as Prodigal Summer, but few are.Thinking about the book environmentally just now, it could be like a nightmare scenario, one the reader is glad hasn't really happened. Reading it isn't like a nightmare--I don't mean that--but the hypothetical situation for the species involved. I won't spoil...
Done! :)
You can see my review by going to the group "Bookshelf," scrolling down to this book, and clicking on "activity." Possibly I overrated it at 4 stars, but that's talking about its goodness as a novel, not an environmental treatise. Have any of you other members read it?
I'll try setting up a discussion for the one I've read, Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior, just to see if I can. I did this one other time for another group (and I set up new topics every time I have to get the Goodreads Librarians to correct a typo in a quote, which happens to me all the time!) Let's see, now; name of the book, and put it in the folder called Discussions: Other books....
Ted wrote: "Jan wrote: "Isn't "Dr. and Mr. Barbara...." worse?"Well I can't recall ever seeing that one. It would be surprisingly funny. But it would be more accurate than the one I mentioned, which seems ba..."
Possibly more accurate and fairer across the board, right. But still could be complicated for affected individuals, although okay with you because of your scrupulous sense of fairness.
Isn't "Dr. and Mr. Barbara...." worse?
Ted wrote: "Jan wrote: "Local column from Oct. 8 on garbage disposal.... Thanks for broaching this topic Jan. It is an important one, which is increasingly affecting the budgets of local governments...."My county isn't doing that well but supposedly do sort recycling. I say "supposedly," because in recent years my county is more infamous than famous (corruption trials and the like). Personally we do compost but you and your wife are admirably more ambitious. Every little bit helps is my mantra.
BTW, glad to hear of Mrs. Ted, maybe for the first time. :)
...oops. must correct spelling error....
Ted wrote: "Chapter 13. Shrink and Prosper (Japan)This chapter jumps right into the discussion above (see messages 18, 19, 31-33). Japan’s demographers and economists have been worrying for many years about ..."
Ted et al! Look at this: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/11...
Rob said, "As I have let the book fester in my consciousness I have a few issues with the book. There are many reasons why people who make up societies don't have kids. I would suggest that post modern societies infantilize young adults until their 30's. I have worked in academic libraries for 20 years and it is a noticeable trend across cultures. If women start having babies at 32 they are not going to have time to have a lot of babies. If you leave it to your late 30's you might be lucky to get pregnant."Very true. But this is among the educated "elites"--I mean the upper middle class. After having my two children with no problem in my mid 30s, I had an existential crisis of not knowing what to do next. Tried twice more, no go. It hurts but turned out for the best.
Meanwhile others are having babies very young. Some say it's to get the genes into the next generation when one isn't expecting to live long.
As to the ultra orthodox in Israel, whoever said it was breeding for war, remember--they haven't been serving in the military. Or working.
I haven't read the book, Rob, but I still think it's unlikely a society will phase itself out and depend on immigration entirely. I just doubt it. It seems like a good idea but I don't expect it's the way things work--"things" not being quite as much on the intellectual level as assumed.
I was thinking more in terms of a population or civilization not replacing themselves and so dying out.
Ted wrote, with regard to the second author discussed by Kolbert in that New Yorker article, "...Doom-saying economists (like the author of the second book) are IMHO simply stuck in the same old capitalist mar...."It is too easy to write off people who may disagree with one by a negative characterization and then don't have to think about it any more. Just like people on "the other side" do, for example, climate change deniers. It seems to me that too much of a dualistic good-side, bad-side approach is itself the biggest danger to us. Plus I'm not so sure capitalism is such a bogeyman. In fact that's something I'm studying now and why I'm not doing these reads. Just call me bogged down!
Maybe why there's that terrorist group named "Western Education is Evil."
I once believed there were too many children and I shouldn't have any. Sort of like don't breed dogs because there are too many strays. But I did have two, after all. :) Ideologies surely must have some balance, some give and take. Certain groups aren't going to want to phase themselves out!
