I'm using the prefix "eco" to mean both economics and ecology- because the way the current system is set up we can't separate one from the other- and the suffix "cide" to describe the systematic death of both.

Anyway, it recently occurred to me(not sure what took me so long) that our current economic system is not just absurd, abusive and based on a form of magical thinking far more destructive than the garden-variety versions of magical thinking we're accustomed too (religion, faith and even science based), but that it is in fact KILLING US and damn near EVERYTHING else in the process! We're trying to increase our GDP while effectively decreasing our planets ability to produce that which it needs to maintain life. As in all of LIFE, not just human life.

It's just common sense that any economic law ought to have a built in measure of preserving and protecting the integrity of the planet as a whole, otherwise there's nothing left to protect once we 'use' it all up. We, as a species, seem to have implemented this "use it or lose it" paradigm when in fact our USING it is causing us to LOSE it. But we're losing it for several species...animal, plant, bacteria, etc. all in an effort to supposedly improve the lot of our specific species. WTF? And what are we, the supposed ultimate species, to do when when we've effectively USED up every square acreage of naturally occurring- or, to put it another way, 'non-human interference occurring'- fossil fuels (for oil), rain forests (for medicinal and agro-business)), jungle (for medicinal products), wetlands (for housing), prairies (for agro-business and sub-divisions), deserts (salt, lithium-salt and other minerals for energy storage and food), swamps (housing and theme parks, apparently!), rivers (dumping grounds of industrial waste) bays and oceans (over-fishing and more dumping grounds for yet more waste), etc. You get the picture by now.

The BP Gulf Oil Spill , horrendous as it is for OUR PLANET and more immediately for those in the region, is not the fault of just one single entity. Though, admittedly it feels good to pass the buck. But the truth is that without consumer demand for fossil fuels there would be no drilling- whether offshore or deep. Then again, without realistic alternatives, even those of us that want desperately to be free of fossil fuel dependence are left with little to no option out.

The reason I'm posting this here in EH- as opposed to some 'Save the Earth' tribe- is because this isn't an ecology vs. economy issue, or a liberal vs. conservative, Republican vs. Liberal, wealthy vs. poor, city vs. rural or plain old good vs. bad conundrum. WE'RE ALL TO BLAME and all of the talk that politicians and economists and even environmentalists put forth aren't going to change this paradigm. "America", as an entity unto itself,(and the industrialized world as it is) isn't going to suddenly get 'back on track' economically or ecologically because the recession we're experiencing is more than financial. It's not a recession of productivity, but of OVER productivity. As long as we continue to perceive the human economy as the ONLY economy- and not take into consideration the planets economy- then we will continue on a path that not only extinguishes US, but damn near everything else in the process.

I'd like to propose the concept that, for those of you that give a fuck- and even those of you making a buck from our current ECOCIDE- that we stop seeking to live "off the grid" but rather seek ways to dismantle the beast altogether. Granted, I'm using the internet to convey this message and to be honest I don't know what industrialized/technological western society would be like without the ability to virtually communicate with damn near anyone at any time regardless of geographical location...but to the best of our ability it seems that providing for our immediate land bases and communities is a healthy direction.

-K