25 October 2009

I SAW NATURE ON TV; IT WAS A REALITY SHOW

Increasingly, inexorably, we have a Truman Show world where, if not Truman's light bulb or Russia's cement falling out of the sky (http://www.universetoday.com/2008/06/19/when-cloud-seeding-goes-wrong-cement-chunk-falls-from-the-sky/) , we see rising CO2 concentrations leading to a global climatic tipping point, disappearing frogs, bleaching corals, and exploding numbers of asthma cases (the latter two conditions thought to be caused by African dust falling in the West Indies)--all reflected in the signifying quote of the book Last Child in the Wilderness: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (quoting an astute fourth-grader): "I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are."

It's also where we can watch some nifty Nature shows (in our asthmatic state) and eat some snacks fried in peanut oil grown on the chemicalized, wind-swept, desertifying lands of West Africa.

No comments: