Earthday...

Is anybody aware of it?

Earthday /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

Thoughts, expectations, hopes...?

Are we aware of the importance of the subject?

What about the influence of (cultural induced) differences in awareness?

Any rambling /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif is appreciated...

I'm curious as to what other people think about the issue. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif
TIA,

You invited any ramblings on the subject of earthday, ANY RAMBLINGS. So, here are my two cents. I understand the attraction to the idea of saving the earth, or mankind etc. People say that enviromentalism and Christianity are compatible. However, they are NOT COMPATIBLE. The bible actually states that God, who is Jesus Christ, is going to be the greatest polluter and destroyer of the environment the world has ever known. Jesus Christ promised that He would destroy the earth's environment with a series of miracles. God is going to do it Himself. The destruction I'm going to quote below won't be caused by men with God manipulating them like chess pawns, although He does do this as well. The destruction I'm going to quote is caused DIRECTLY by GOD HIMSELF or by HIS ANGELS OR by TWO SPECIAL HUMAN PROPHETS who will come to Jerusalem in the future. Note that God is going to: Destroy every living thing in the ocean, ruin all the freshwater on earth, have His angel stand in the sun and cause the sun to go haywire and burn the men on earth painfully, rain 75 pound hailstones all over the earth, and more stuff that's mentioned below. What damage can a man do to the environment compared to the damage that the God of the bible has promised to do Himself? What will you do to God? Sue Him? Go to war with the Creator of the Universe? Your nuclear missles don't even equal the power output of our sun which is a puny star compared to the other stars out in space. Do you know how many stars are out there? You know how much power they put out with their nuclear reactions. You know the power of the black holes etc. The person or species that goes to war with God will die by God's hand, not by God's peoples' hands. (I take quotes from the bible to make my point. The appropriate verse numbers are listed. It is not the whole chapter. The numbers indicate which versus were skipped.) Here's the proof from the new testament book of Revelation from the bible:

Chapter 8
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

Chapter 11
3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

Chapter 15
1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
........................
7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Chapter 16
1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.(75 pounds each hailstone)


ALSO, MOST PEOPLE DON'T HAVE A COMPLETE PICTURE OF THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS CHRIST. HERE IS THE OTHER SIDE OF JESUS CHRIST WHICH MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW EXISTS. IT IS TAKEN FROM THE BOOKs OF ROMANS and Revelation IN THE NEW TESTAMENT:

Romans Chapter 1: verses
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Revelation Chapter 21 verse 8
8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.


And in case your wonderring, I like what Jesus Christ is going to do. That is because of what I haven't told you yet. Jesus Christ is going to do all this because all the nations are going to put his people to a painful death and torture them worldwide in the near future. I think the Lord's vengeance is VERY BEAUTIFUL and satisfying, of course, as long as I'm safe on His side.

LEDFan,

Well Said! I'm thankful I (we) won't be around for most of the really nasty stuff. Besides, After Christ comes back again, I'm looking forward, much forward, to the "new Earth."

Thanks!
-d-

I've a bit of concern. It seems counterproductive to turn subject matter over too frequently to an opportunity to preach condemnation to the point that it destroys the usefulness of the thread. A commission to proselytize, or to spread the word is serious business recognized by the group that embraces the term 'Christian'. The improper use of the tools given to the workers would do far more damage to the efforts even than absolute silence. Improper interpretation, and expressions of damnation applied improperly not only works against the effort, but places one in a very precarious situation. Even the proper application if it be "a beef steak for those still requiring Pablum" creates a "stumbling block" for which you are held personally responsible.

Applying the book of Revelation literally when even the first verse calls it symbolic is adding to the book in a manner warned against in the same book.

Your efforts may be noble, and your enthusiasm may be strong, but the job you'd like to do requires extreme finesse; or else you'll botch the job.

I like the earth, some of my best friends live there. I don't like to see it or the beings living on it despoiled or destroyed..
However small the changes we make in our lives to live a little more lightly on the planet, to make do with a little less, is fighting the good fight.
Even if what you do, or try to do to make things better, doesn't make an immediate physical change, your efforts will reverberate throughout the collective (un?)conscious of mankind, preparing a path for the change of heart needed to lead us all towards a better tomorrow.

Well said Ted!

B@rt said: Is anybody aware of it?

Yup. I'm giving a lecture on biodiesel at an environment day this weekend in Spirit Lake, Iowa. My daughter is a naturalist there and asked me to be part of the day long event! Lookin' forward to it!

I've spent the last month double checking all of my information on biodiesel, creating a powerpoint presentation and a two-page handout all about biodiesel!

I'm not for polluting the environment. I'm even for cleaning up the mess that man has made. But I have concern for those who are the current voice of environmentalism. I see the Kyoto accord as a form of global socialism through that evil gas we all emit. CO2. And I'm far from alone in that view. So it's a funny irony to me that April 22nd is also Lennon's birthday.

DavidW said: ...I have concern for those who are the current voice of environmentalism.

Such as...??

I would ask you to remember that not all that champion a cause do it for the same reason(s).

Nature is a good example. Once a prestigous periodical. Now bows to the Global Warming theory. The 'Detection of human influence on sea-level pressure' article is a good example. Easily debunked here.

My contribution today is wearing some Anne Kalso EarthShoes (actually the "Essential" mid-calf-high boot). Yes, EarthShoes were introduced on the first EarthDay.

Other than that, over the years I've polluted very little personally in my lifestyle in general, and will continue to do that.

(Someone mentioned global warming? If you like SciFi read Fallen Angels by Larry Niven. Good story, excellent "inside jokes" about fandom, and some solid science about "global warming" thrown in ... )

..an interview with kurt Vonnegut;

(Kurt Vonnegut | vonnegut.com
 In November, Kurt Vonnegut turned 80. He published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952 at the age of 29. Since then he has written 13 others, including Slaughterhouse Five, which stands as one of the pre-eminent anti-war novels of the 20th century.)

"You have lived through World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Reagan wars, Desert Storm, the Balkan wars and now this coming war in Iraq. What has changed, and what has remained the same?

... One thing which has not changed is that none of us, no matter what continent or island or ice cap, asked to be born in the first place, and that even somebody as old as I am, which is 80, only just got here. There were already all these games going on when I got here. … An apt motto for any polity anywhere, to put on its state seal or currency or whatever, might be this quotation from the late baseball manager Casey Stengel, who was addressing a team of losing professional athletes: "Can't anybody here play this game?"

My daughter Lily, for an example close to home, who has just turned 20, finds herself—as does George W. Bush, himself a kid—an heir to a shockingly recent history of human slavery, to an AIDS epidemic and to nuclear submarines slumbering on the floors of fjords in Iceland and elsewhere, crews prepared at a moment's notice to turn industrial quantities of men, women and children into radioactive soot and bone meal by means of rockets and H-bomb warheads. And to the choice between liberalism or conservatism and on and on.

What is radically new in 2003 is that my daughter, along with our president and Saddam Hussein and on and on, has inherited technologies whose byproducts, whether in war or peace, are rapidly destroying the whole planet as a breathable, drinkable system for supporting life of any kind. Human beings, past and present, have trashed the joint.

Based on what you've read and seen in the media, what is not being said in the mainstream press about President Bush's policies and the impending war in Iraq?

...That they are nonsense.

My feeling from talking to readers and friends is that many people are beginning to despair. Do you think that we've lost reason to hope?

...I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d'etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka "Christians," and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or "PPs."

To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete's foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley. Read it! PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!

And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick.

What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can't. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody's telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! F*ck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ***!

How have you gotten involved in the anti-war movement? And how would you compare the movement against a war in Iraq with the anti-war movement of the Vietnam era?

...When it became obvious what a dumb and cruel and spiritually and financially and militarily ruinous mistake our war in Vietnam was, every artist worth a damn in this country, every serious writer, painter, stand-up comedian, musician, actor and actress, you name it, came out against the thing. We formed what might be described as a laser beam of protest, with everybody aimed in the same direction, focused and intense. This weapon proved to have the power of a banana-cream pie three feet in diameter when dropped from a stepladder five-feet high.
And so it is with anti-war protests in the present day. Then as now, TV did not like anti-war protesters, nor any other sort of protesters, unless they rioted. Now, as then, on account of TV, the right of citizens to peaceably assemble, and petition their government for a redress of grievances, "ain't worth a pitcher of warm spit," as the saying goes.

As a writer and artist, have you noticed any difference between how the cultural leaders of the past and the cultural leaders of today view their responsibility to society?

...Responsibility to which society? To Nazi Germany? To the Stalinist Soviet Union? What about responsibility to humanity in general? And leaders in what particular cultural activity? I guess you mean the fine arts. I hope you mean the fine arts. ... Anybody practicing the fine art of composing music, no matter how cynical or greedy or scared, still can't help serving all humanity. Music makes practically everybody fonder of life than he or she would be without it. Even military bands, although I am a pacifist, always cheer me up.

But that is the power of ear candy. The creation of such a universal confection for the eye, by means of printed poetry or fiction or history or essays or memoirs and so on, isn't possible. Literature is by definition opinionated. It is bound to provoke the arguments in many quarters, not excluding the hometown or even the family of the author. Any ink-on-paper author can only hope at best to seem responsible to small groups or like-minded people somewhere. He or she might as well have given an interview to the editor of a small-circulation publication.
Maybe we can talk about the responsibilities to their societies of architects and sculptors and painters another time. And I will say this: TV drama, although not yet classified as fine art, has on occasion performed marvelous services for Americans who want us to be less paranoid, to be fairer and more merciful. M.A.S.H. and Law and Order, to name only two shows, have been stunning masterpieces in that regard.

That said, do you have any ideas for a really scary reality TV show?

..."C students from Yale." It would stand your hair on end.

What targets would you consider fair game for a satirist today?

...*ssholes..."




(Joel Bleifuss is the editor of In These Times, where he has worked as a investigative reporter, columnist and editor since 1986. Bleifuss has had more stories on Project Censored's annual list of the "10 Most Censored Stories" than any other journalist. )