It's odd...

[J.R.]

I am an environmentalist and conservationist, and my friends and co-workers here in the midwest call me a "tree hugger".

I am just as environmentally aware under water, but none of my new scuba friends want to call me a "reef hugger"...

Maybe they haven't gotten the memo yet... just a guess...

 

[maged_mmh]

Maybe they haven't gotten the memo yet... just a guess...

they don't have to wait; it is posted in the bulletin board!

 

[psychocabbage]

I find that most of the divers I have met are like you.. I am not one of them.

So perhaps you are not "labeled" because you are amoung your peers..


I will still call you a green tree hugger.. as I drive my big V8 at excessive speeds to do my dives..

 

[N2Baja]

Are you one of these guys?

YouTube - Emotional Hippies - Crying Over Dead Trees

 

[captain]

Tree huggers can't see the forest because they are too close to the trees

 

[JDMerk]

How about one of these guys...?

Sea shepherd nut jobs

I think I would have skipped the flashbangs and went straight to the 12ga...call them pirates when the Coast Guard shows up.

 

[TMHeimer]

I agree Ed. Too many things taken to extremes these days. Sometimes the real important things just aren't what's "in", so they go unnoticed. That's the world today.

 

[sabbath999]

Those guys aren't whale huggers... they are whaler muggers...

 

[C0N3RY]

Man believes they're the end of creation. Man believes the Earth was created for them and that we're ment to rule it. But just like aerodynamics, there is a law about how people ought to live. It is called the law of limited competition; The law of life. Man is not exempt from this law, although we truly believe we are. The law roughly states that an organism may compete to it's best ability, but it may not go beyond that. There are a few things that man does that other creatures do not. 1. We kill off competitors of our food source. 2. We deny competitors access to food. 3. We destroy competitors' food sources to make room for our own. Just like gravity, this is a law that is in effect. Our culture is essentially a glider pushed off a cliff that does not abide by the laws of aerodynamics . What we're currently experiencing is a freefall, just like the glider, but soon enough we'll crash on the rocks below. The Mayans, Anasazi, and Hohokam have all proven this law and if we don't change our ways the law will punish us. We'll eventually conquer the world as we've set out to do and as it lays bleeding at our feet we'll realize what we've done. Nonrenewable resources are being thrown out the window. And soon enough Earth won't be able to sustain life of any kind. This mostly all results from the agricultural revolution sometime around 8000 B.C. When the gods, God, or whoever tells us that it is our turn to go hungry and the lions turn to eat, we pull out our storage of food and smite them, saying "we will not go hungry" hence we grow without limit resulting in our skyrocketing population. We've have pulled ourselves out of this predator-prey ecology cycle. Most odd, we have enough food to sustain more than is on the Earth yet many go hungry. But as more people enter this world, more space is plowed for food, more resources are wasted. People ask why you never see evolution in you're lifetime. This is because man has pulled himself out of the evolutionary process. We don't have a need for evolution because we have thousands of acres of food to fall back on everytime the going gets tough. This has then created a decrease in diversity which ultimately weakens the ecological system. If a castrophe occurs and no one is immune to it, we all die and no one is left to repopulate the world. This combination of death, immunity and rebirth is core for the theory of evolution but it does not apply to man because of man's ability to smite, grow without limit, and fall back on food supply which breaks this law of life. Ultimately we've taken our lives out of the hand's of the gods and have put an end to creation. So unless we take from the world what we need and leave the rest alone; compete with organisms rather than wage war, then no matter whether you're a tree hugger or promote off-shore drilling, imminent death is upon us as we've only slightly stalled our freefall crash. [Compared to the life of the Earth so far, Humans (3 mya or so) or rather "civilized" humans (10,000 ya or so) haven't been around that long.]

Irrelevant? Perhaps, but I thought it could be mentioned. Since we are all Scuba divers, I believe we're all quite close to nature. I think it's a rightful group of people to begin to make a change to what we've been doing to "our" world. I hope some take note of what I'm trying to say and other's that don't I'd appreciate it if my opinion is respected. Controversy and debate is fine, I'd just rather not be flamed.

 

[J.R.]

There are a few things that man does that other creatures do not. 1. We kill off competitors of our food source. 2. We deny competitors access to food. 3. We destroy competitors' food sources to make room for our own.

Disagree...

Man employs the most efficient hunting techniques (ie, greatest yield for the lowest work) possible to feather his own nest. This is NOT unique to the animal world... even though the scale to which it is practiced, advertised and marketed and the range of 'tools' we employ to achieve this end *is*.

The interesting thing about this though is that man is a self correcting problem... as with deer herds who overpopulate a particular environment... disease, predation (self??) and other "natural forces" will eventually come into play to make some corrections to the equation.

We are a 'different balance'... born of nature to do what we do. I don't know if it's a better balance or not... just different and *different* is not unique in the history of living things. Nobody knows where it will end up... maybe we get smarter and survive (we change ourselves in some ways that may or may not be a platable concept by today's standards)... or we die. Nature really doesn't care either way...

Very Darwinian...

... but I think what most people REALLY object to is not our predation of the world around us per se because I really don't see anybody but a very small few actually living a true 'back to the land' lifestyle... we still cling to our cities... or high-end hobbies... our internet... (... all of which has to be supported by excessive demands on the environment)... and shake our fingers at those who represent a threat to OUR interests by being better predators than we are. What we worry about more is that THEY will get all the goodies and WE will be cursed with THEIR leftovers...