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Myth:

we have to save the earth.

Frankly, the earth doesn't need to be saved. Nature doesn't give a hoot if human beings are here or not.

The planet has survived cataclysmic and catastrophic changes for millions upon millions of years. Over that time, it is widely believed, 99 percent of all species have come and gone while the planet has remained.

Saving the environment is really about saving our environment - making it safe for ourselves, our children, and the world as we know it.

If more people saw the issue as one of saving themselves, we would probably see increased motivation and commitment to actually do so.

Robert M. Lilienfeld, management consultant and author (b. 1953) and William L. Rathje, archaeologist and author (b. 1945)

Bouquet

Bouquet

Somewhere Archipelago: Episode 1 The Pointing Man

A cruise ship has overturned.

Fortunately a small portion of the passengers made it to shore in life boats.

Unfortunately many more ended up on a raft that got caught on a coral reef. The waters are shark infested (of course), so they cant swim to safety.


The equipment that washed ashore included a telescope.

The survivors on the beach share it around to look at the passengers stranded on the raft.

They can see that parts of the raft are getting thin. Passengers are at risk of plunging into the shark infested waters. Even so, the raft is so crowded with passengers that it's not possible to tell which of them are most at risk, that is, which individuals are standing on the thinnest parts at any given moment.


Also among the equipment that washed ashore with the telescope are tools and engineering equipment.

The engineers and carpenters pace about on then sand, realising the urgency of the situation: they have to make a boat and save as many raft people as possible before too many fall into the treacherous reef.

They rationalise that, as they get closer to the raft, it will become more obvious who needs to be rescued first and who they can return for later

"WAIT!"

says the person who seems to be hogging the telescope.

"There's someone on that raft...with..with ...a..purple hat!. If we concentrate on rescuing him then everything should be alright!"

This, then, was The Pointing Man.