- A book review: Man Swarm and the Killing of Wildlife
by Dave Foreman
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- Part 2 of 5: 100 years of human progress caused massive
animal extinction rates
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- Could you do without the grizzly bear, leopard, cougar,
deer, elk, hummingbird, Canada goose, fox, prairie dog, bald eagle, trout,
whale, sharks and a vast array of the animal kingdom? Would you like to
see them completely disappear because they are not important?
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- If you do, you may get your wish in the 21st century
as humanity continues its onslaught of wilderness habitat around the world.
As the human mob rockets past 7 billion people on its way to 10 billion,
all plant and animal life on this planet stands in the cross hairs of extinction.
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- Long time environmental activist Dave Foreman wrote a
penetrating and compelling book: Man Swarm and the Killing of Wildlife.
This book cannot be dismissed. It cannot be ignored. It cannot be put
down once started. Foreman shows the unraveling the wild world at the
hands of humanity. But he also presents solutions to save the animals
and ultimately, human beings.
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- The legendary environmentalist John Muir said, "When
you pick up a rock, you realize that it is hitched to everything else in
the universe."
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- That means water, soil, air, wind, sun and fire hitch
themselves to humans, plants and animals. Conversely, we hitch ourselves
to all living creatures and non-living things on this planet. We cannot
get away from it: we remain a part of the web of life.
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- Aldo Leopold said, "There are those who can live
without wild things and there are those who cannot."
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- You have to wonder if all those pill popping and booze
guzzling city slickers suffering from concrete below their feet and glass
and steel in their eyes daily-wouldn't find a bit of wilderness a welcome
respite to the un-natural settings of the cities where most Americans live
in the 21st century.
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- Muir added, "Tell me what you will of the benefactions
of city civilization, of the sweet security of streets-all as part of the
natural up-growth of man towards the high destiny we hear so much of.
I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes
in which pure air is found. If the death exhalations that brood the broad
towns in which we so fondly compact ourselves were made visible, we should
flee as from a plague. All are more or less sick; there is not a perfectly
sane man in all of San Francisco." September 1874.
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- You can imagine the compounding of the emotional, spiritual
and mental sicknesses going on in our major cities today where everyone
suffers compacted living, projects, gridlock, overcrowded schools and highly
stressed people in every sector of life?
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- Foreman exposes all the factors that humans face as we
continue to grow our numbers. "More of our kind means fewer wild
thingsa stabilized human population means hope for wild things. A shrinking
human population means a better world for wild things. And for men and
women and children."
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- He states that he will educate readers to the population
explosion accelerating in the United States and worldwide. He wants you
to understand that it is the main driver for current extinction rates off
the charts. He exposes cornucopians who advocate for endless human population
growth. Finally, he offers solutions.
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- But we better get to them fast! Eminent Harvard biologist
Dr. E.O. Wilson said, "By the end of the century half of all species
will be extinct. Does that matter?"
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- You better understand that it does. Wilson also said,
"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back
to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If
insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos."
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- The artist Schimmel said, "With a planet full of
beings such as ourselves, even the stars aren't safe."
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- Foreman said, "Today's "Six Extinction Session"
has a living scythe with which to mow down life on Earth. One species.
Homo sapiens. Us. Man."
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- The human race broke out of the "Circle of Life"
to become the most destructive species ever encountered on the planet.
No other creature has created 80,000 chemical poisons that undermine all
forms of life. No other species has changed the "ph" of the oceans
in so short a time. No other creature has scavenged the resources in a
blind lust for things.
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- Can the planet balance our poisons to continue supporting
all life?
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- Foreman issues the famous I=PAT equation. "The
impact of any human group on the environment can be usefully viewed as
the product of three different factors. "P" is for population.
"A" stands for affluence or usage of resources. "T"
stands technologies disrupting the natural work of nature.
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- "Unlike most books that have warned of overpopulation,"
said Foreman. "I will spend little time on tales about coming starvation,
breakdown of civilization, running out of oil and wars over dwindling raw
goods. I will center on the most dreadful and unforgivable outcome of
Man's population explosion and that is what we are doing to our fellow
Earthlings."
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- Part 3: Eating up habitat, poisoning oceans, killing
trees
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- Man Swarm and the Killing of Wildlife by Dave Foreman
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- www.ravenseyepress.com
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- Price: $20.00
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- ISBN# 978-0-9816584-7-6
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- www.rewilding.org
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- www.applythebrakes.org
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- www.amazon.com
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