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It isimportant that we be mindful of the earth, the planet out of which we are bornand by which we are nourished, guided, healed-the planet, however, which wehave abused to a considerable degree in these past two centuries of industrialexploitation. This exploitation has reached such extremes that presently itappears that some hundreds of thousands of species will be extinguished beforethe end of the century.
In our times, human shrewdness has mastered the deep mysteriesof the earth at a level far beyond the capacities of earlier peoples. We canbreak the mountains apart; we can drain the rivers and flood the valleys. Wecan turn the most luxuriant forests into throwaway paper products. We can tear apartthe great grass cover of the western plains and pour toxic chemicals into thesoil until the soil is dead and blows away in the wind. We can pollute the airwith acids, the rivers with sewage(污水), the seas with oil. We caninvent computers capable of processing ten million calculations per second. Andwhy"? To increase the volume and the speed with which we move naturalresources through the consumer economy to the junk pile or the waste heap. Ourmanagerial skills are measured by the competence manifested in acceleratingthis process. If in these activities the physical features of the planet aredamaged, if the environment is made inhospitable for a multitude of living species,then so be it. We are, supposedly, creating a technological wonder world.
