Say nothing and I will abuse your precious silence ten times! Say anything and I will abuse your one statement with ten more! You say nothing, IPBES says "75%: terrestrial environment “severely altered” to date by human actions (marine environments 66%)" You say something, IPBES says "Tens to hundreds of times: the extent to which the current rate of global species extinction is higher compared to average over the last 10 million years, and the rate is accelerating." You say nothing, IPBES says ">85%: of wetlands present in 1700 had been lost by 2000 – loss of wetlands is currently three times faster, in percentage terms, than forest loss." You say something, IPBES says "Up to 1 million: species threatened with extinction, many within decades" You say nothing, IPBES says ">500,000 (+/-9%): share of the world’s estimated 5.9 million terrestrial species with insufficient habitat for long term survival without habitat restoration." You say something, IPBES says ">40%: amphibian species threatened with extinction." You say something, IPBES says "Almost 33%: reef forming corals, sharks and shark relatives, and >33% marine mammals threatened with extinction." You say something, IPBES says "At least 680: vertebrate species driven to extinction by human actions since the 16th century" You say something, IPBES says "33%: marine fish stocks in 2015 being harvested at unsustainable levels; 60% are maximally sustainably fished; 7% are underfished" You say nothing, then IPBES should speak for you: https://www.ipbes.net/news/Media-Release-Global-Assessment#_By_the_Numbers https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5988821-Summary-for-Policymakers-IPB... You say that you agree with the principle of co-dependent origination. The full summary discusses co-dependent origination in the first line item A1: "Nature underpins all dimensions of human health and contributes to non-material aspects of quality of life--inspiration and learning, physical and psychological experiences, and supporting identities--that are central to quality of life and cultural integrity, even if their aggregated value is difficult to quantify". And of course, implicitly, we can not act as good stewards for the environment without good knowledge, mentality, culture, etc... Sadly, the exponential trends are not what they used to be. X = Material Nature, Y = Buddha Nature. No Material Nature, No Buddha Nature. When World War II ended, Man Gong took a petal from mugunghwa (Hibiscus syriacus), and wrote a calligraphy saying "The whole world is a single flower". That was a nice moment in time, but now we must ask another question: Is our world-flower doomed to the same fate as Viola cryana, to be driven by abuse and exploitation, to the edge of Shunyata all too soon? --Brad On Thu, May 9, 2019 at 4:27 AM Andres Valloud <avalloud@smalltalk.comcastbiz.net> wrote:

There is no distinction without motive, and no motive without contents being seen to differ in value.