- Anything Else -

...fairly traded of course!

Posted by: Kevin Dempsey ( Canada ) on May 26, 1999 at 19:05:58:

In Reply to: and drink the coffee posted by Nikhil Jaikumar on May 25, 1999 at 17:09:52:

Just to add more to the fire regarding humanity's dependence on the biosphere, or at least on local ecosystems, take a look at pre-colonial African history. For thousands of years prior to colonization, civilization after civilization in Africa "rose to power", dominated for a while, exploited others, warred with others, then declined. Why? Even my war-obsessed history prof conceded that in each and every case it was "resource depletion" that caused the collapse of empires. Many of them were around for far longer than our industrialized culture has been around.

(BTW, since Stuart will likely accuse me of trying to ban meat, I will reassert my opinion that meat should not be outlawed. As one good soul once said when on trial, "Aw Judge, your damn laws. The good people don't need 'em and the bad people don't obey, so what's the use." Stuart has virtually proven this by saying he would rebel. I am of the firm belief that with proper education, the violent trend of meat over-consumption would die off. Having said that, I think it wouldn't hurt to have a few laws forbidding factory farming to speed up the process :-) )

And on the subject of coffee...


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