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In Reply to: Re: The system...& polis posted by Farmer on August 23, 2008 at 19:09:24:
"cityfolks who brought the biggest problems into the world"
I am not trying to counter your statement that city folk bring about the biggest problems, but you did remind me of something related.
Back in the 70s and 80s, alarmist environmental activists actually told everyone to use more plastic and less paper or wood products because we were destroying our forests. Of course that was before the recycling industry was developed like it is today (I understand Germany has high sores for this!), and before people discovered these key words: "renewable resource," "bio-degradable" and "recyclable material" So those who took their alarmist advice just ended up messing their surroundings with indestructable waste and garbage that when processed only created poisonous bi-products and more pollution. Having causes is vogue in Celebrity-ville -- just ask people like Angelina Jolie or Richard Gere. So apparently Sheryl Crow was eager for hyping a cause and "accidentally" propagated this outdated idea, telling everybody they should restrict toilet paper usage. (Now didn't that just remind you of TF?) Needless to say her suggestion was poopooed on and flushed.
Then there was also this old 70s idea that cities are the cause of environmental problems, that clustering populations together was what created pollution and waste, over consumption of valuable natural resources. Alarmist environmentalists recommended that we break up the cities, distribute populations more evenly, and have people farm their own food and become self-sufficient. Berg even jumped on the bandwagon, telling us that cites are evil super blobs, that Cain, the evil brother built cities. Boy, did he get it wrong!
Nowadays, many environmentalists have realized that cities are better for the environment than suburban sprawl. Cities are actually the lesser of most evils. Since we can't do much to change the fact that we have large populations, clustering people together creates efficiency, lessens energy consumption, and most importantly, keeps people from messing up the countryside. It's better for wild life conservation, nature in general. Cities use less land per person, so less natural land has to be used for development. And leaving farming to the experts is better all round. Large industrially managed farms actually yield more for less, and are cleaner than medium or small family-run plots. People in cities travel smaller distances and are more likely to use public transportation. Logistics, services, administration, etc -- all the things we need in modern society anyway just impact the environment a whole lot less when centered in cities.
