[pct-l] [OT] Too Many People

Mon Feb 4 17:04:56 CST 2008

I read an extremely interesting book on this topic, “Tending the Wild” by M.
Kat Anderson.  The truth is for tens of thousands of years, native
populations tended the landscape of California.  People were part of nature,
actually the caretakers that controlled and tended it, and made it
bountiful.  The description of the book says it all:

“John Muir was an early proponent of a view we still hold today--that much
of California was pristine, untouched wilderness before the arrival of
Europeans. But as this groundbreaking book demonstrates, what Muir was
really seeing when he admired the grand vistas of Yosemite and the gold and
purple flowers carpeting the Central Valley were the fertile gardens of the
Sierra Miwok and Valley Yokuts Indians, modified and made productive by
centuries of harvesting, tilling, sowing, pruning, and burning . . . Tending
the Wild is an unparalleled examination of Native American knowledge and
uses of California's natural resources that reshapes our understanding of
native cultures and shows how we might begin to use their knowledge in our
own conservation efforts . . . The complex picture that emerges from this
and other historical source material dispels the hunter-gatherer stereotype
long perpetuated in anthropological and historical literature. We come to
see California's indigenous people as active agents of environmental change
and stewardship. Tending the Wild persuasively argues that this traditional
ecological knowledge is essential if we are to successfully meet the
challenge of living sustainably.” 

The book is truly fascinating, and it’s interesting to know that almost
every square mile of our state was cared for in some way by the native
tribes.  What was most stunning and chillingly detailed in this book is how
swiftly the unparalleled abundance of our state was compromised and
destroyed once the settlers came west and exploited it.

M. Kat Anderson, according to her Amazon bio, is “a Lecturer in the
Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis;
Associate Ecologist at the Agricultural Experimental Station at the
University of California, Davis; and a faculty member in the Graduate Group
in Ecology at the University of California, Davis. She is coeditor, with T.
C. Blackburn, of Before the Wilderness: Native Californians as Environmental
Managers (1993) and coeditor, with Henry T. Lewis, of Forgotten Fires:
Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness by Omer C. Stewart (2002).”

L-Rod

   _____  

From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net]
On Behalf Of Craig Stanton
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 2:10 PM
To: PCT
Subject: [pct-l] [OT] Too Many People

No. Our current style of existence may be extremely detrimental to the
planet has a whole, but that doesn't mean that people can't coexist in
balance with the planet. Cavemen didn't deforest the place all that much,
and I doubt they did too much to the atmosphere, until they discovered fire
I guess. Animals eat each other, we can't make them all be herbivores, then
they'd be accused of killing the plants.

The planet will go on happily without us, but it can go on happily with us
if we just made the effort. Like leaving the bears alone and eschewing cars
for 6 months at a time, for example :-)

On 4/02/2008, at 11:00 AM, robo hiker wrote:

humans by their mere exsistance are destroying the earth, each
other,animals, and it's atmosphere. no?

   _____  

Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 13:11:07 -0800
From: HYPERLINK "mailto:gailpl2003 at yahoo.com"gailpl2003 at yahoo.com
Subject: RE: [pct-l] Too Many People
To: HYPERLINK "mailto:robohiker at hotmail.com"robohiker at hotmail.com; HYPERLINK
"mailto:pct-l at backcountry.net"pct-l at backcountry.net

I view this as a harsh and unfair statement, which surprises me, as I
usually agree with robo's posts.  Humans, animals, earth, we are all
one......mental, physical, spiritual.....comprised of the same organic
compounds, all connected, etc.......cancer is an aberration, DNA gone wild.
So while some humans may be compared to "cancer cells"  (I'm not naming
names), this is a sweeping generalization and unworthy of robo's usually
intelligent posts.

Wheeew

robo hiker <HYPERLINK "mailto:robohiker at hotmail.com"robohiker at hotmail.com>
wrote: 

no matter how healthy and enlightened
people are to earth as cancer is to the body just a different scale

   _____  

Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 11:00:41 -0700
From: HYPERLINK "mailto:gkesselr at whidbey.com"gkesselr at whidbey.com
To: HYPERLINK "mailto:robohiker at hotmail.com"robohiker at hotmail.com
CC: HYPERLINK "mailto:hiker97 at aol.com"hiker97 at aol.com; HYPERLINK
"mailto:gailpl2003 at yahoo.com"gailpl2003 at yahoo.com; HYPERLINK
"mailto:craigstanton at mac.com"craigstanton at mac.com; HYPERLINK
"mailto:pct-l at backcountry.net"pct-l at backcountry.net; HYPERLINK
"mailto:lizmares at cox.net"lizmares at cox.net; HYPERLINK
"mailto:carolwbruno at yahoo.com"carolwbruno at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Too Many People

sick people are to earth as cancer is to the body.

healthy enlightened people are to the earth as probiotics are to the body.

robo hiker wrote: 

people are to earth as cancer is to the body just a different scale

   _____  

Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 06:26:30 -0800
From: HYPERLINK "mailto:hiker97 at aol.com"hiker97 at aol.com
To: HYPERLINK "mailto:gailpl2003 at yahoo.com"gailpl2003 at yahoo.com; HYPERLINK
"mailto:craigstanton at mac.com"craigstanton at mac.com; HYPERLINK
"mailto:pct-l at backcountry.net"pct-l at backcountry.net
CC: HYPERLINK "mailto:lizmares at cox.net"lizmares at cox.net; HYPERLINK
"mailto:carolwbruno at yahoo.com"carolwbruno at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Too Many People

Wheeeeew writes: Actually, I was thinking the same thing about people.  If
you spread them out in their natural habitat, instead of stacking them all
on top of each other in the non-sustainable, over-populated, heavily
polluted cities, I doubt there'd be enough "natural habitat" to sustain us.
So who wants to volunteer to go first???  Sorry folks, there's just too many
of us.  Open season.......!!!!!

-----------------------------------------

Switchback replies: I hope you are not thinking of starting with Trail
Pirates.  I know a lot of hikers who would do that, but I figure you are my
pal and would not.  Say, I heard one time that there are more deer, bears,
and trees in the continental US than there were when the colonist came over
here from the old world. 

I think I could buy the first two, but I don't know about trees.  I think
this might be true in the Sierras, since we control fires and trees have
taken over so many of the old open areas/meadows.  When they compare current
pictures of different areas to the pictures of 100 years ago, trees are like
weeds.  I noticed this too in AZ going up for the 12,633 foot Mt. Humphrey
expedition.  Driving up to the parking lot, I noticed how the trees looked
like weeds growing near the road.  Sad how we screw things up for our human
standards instead of Mother Nature's.

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---->MexiCan----> 2008 

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