Caitlin Nelson - Assigned Reading

"The great increase in human population began in earnest ten thousand years ago; there are now 3,500,000,000 and there will be about 6,500,000,000 in thirty more years. We have loosed a population epidemic since men ceased to hunt and gather that is the most terrifying phenomenon of the million years of human experience" from The Tender Carnivore pg 26

It is interesting to me that Paul Shepard looks at the human race as an epidemic. When I think of an epidemic I usually think of something that is quickly killing hundreds of people, like the Plague. I can see where Shepard is coming from, but at the same time I think is is incredibly harsh on people. It's almost as if his ideal world would have little or no people on it, he would probably overjoyed if a natural disaster knocked out a few countries. We do destroy, and kill things, and poison the earth, but we do try to save it to - at least some of us do. When I read things by Shepard, I don't like getting the feel that we are a plague upon the earth, as if we are the worst thing that ever happened to it. We're learning, we are trying to become "eco" friendly, whatever that means. Some days I'm pretty convinced that we've started to change the way we treat the earth a little too late, but the important part is to realize that we are trying. And in the United States, it's only practical for things to have adapted the way they have. With the sheer amounts of people that we have, an the knowledge that we have gained in technology, i can see why we live the way we do. You can't expect us to just retreat into shacks in the woods and live happily ever after. Is that what Shepard is doing? I'm sure he wrote his book on a laptop in his nice apartment. I fully support finding ways to improve the world, but at the same time I think we need to be practical about it.