At the moment most people are still
totally unaware of the mass extinction crisis.
But that is actually a hopeful sign!
Why hopeful?
It is hopeful because it means that humanity
has not yet awakened to its situation! If it IS awakened,
tremendous resources of wisdom and energy can be activated extremely
quickly to do what is necessary.
How do we know that such a rapid activation can happen?
We know it because human cultures have demonstrated countless
times their ability to leap instantly into action when they
become aware of danger (for example World War II, or the recent
response to September 11).
Our central problem right now is that people are not yet
aware!
So the first thing we can all do is communicate the information
about the crisis as widely as possible. SPREAD THE WORD! Organize
a discussion group, a teach-in, an email campaign, a mass movement!
The anti-war movement of the 60's did this-- and the Vietnam war was of
absolutely no significance compared to the crisis we are facing today.
But act quickly!
The situation is extremely urgent, and we don't have much time before
it will be too late.
In order to make this easier for you to do, I have now registered
the easy-to-remember domain name "massextinction.net"
-- anyone who types "www.massextinction.net" into their
browser will automatically be taken to the "Mass Extinction
Underway" home page.
[WEBMASTERS PLEASE NOTE: if you wish
to LINK to "Mass Extinction Underway," please use the
original, long URL (www.well.com/user/davidu/extinction.html)--
that is the address that the search engines have in their catalogues,
and linking to that URL will help maintain the high ranking of
this site.]
The second step is to educate ourselves. The most authoritative,
comprehensive, readable, and up-to-date book on the mass extinction
crisis is The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson, the
renowned Harvard biologist and two-time Pulitzer prize winner
who is considered to be the world's foremost expert on natural
history. You can order it from amazon.com here:
The third step is to join with others in collective action.
Find the organizations that are closest to you and connect! Here
is all the information you need:
There are amazing people already dedicating their lives to
saving the earth, but they cannot succeed by themselves-- HELP
THEM!
Finally, demand that our governments at every level immediately
raise the extinction crisis to the top of their agendas. Contact
your representatives, change the way you vote, engage in non-violent
civil disobedience. Humanity is in danger, the planet is in danger,
life itself is in danger. BE BRAVE!!!
If space aliens came down and began
to systematically dismantle the ecological infrastructure of
our planet, if they began to destroy species by the thousands,
to change the climate, to inject dioxin into mother's milk, to
pump hormones into rivers, to turn the seas into dead zones,
what would we do?
DO IT!
-- from Cafe Utne interview with Derrick
Jensen (slightly revised) --
