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	Global Balance Sheet an article by John McConnell - Earth Day Founder Dedicated to the memory of Pope John Paul II Planet Earth has an amazing web of life. A beautiful diversity covers the globe. There are giant redwood trees, beautiful flowers, birds, animals and all the natural resources needed to provide the human family a good life. But the human addiction to war and the failure to take care of Earth has resulted in the danger of an end to the human adventure. Hundreds of billions of dollars go for military programs and devilish weapons of war. Were the money spent for education in peaceful resolution of conflict, there would be no more wars. Where the money goes, decides what the future will bring. On balance, the bad far outweighs the good. Our planet is doomed. To avoid catastrophe, there must be a great awakening. We must convince leaders and laymen that the only hope for a future is to unite in support of a global peace blitz. We must change the global state of mind from Earth Kill to Earth Care. The Earth Trustee agenda of the March Equinox Earth Day points the way. This can appeal to people of every creed and culture. Everyone should find something they can do that will foster "peace, justice, and a sustainable future." Heartfelt prayer -- implemented by action, can provide a new beginning for the whole human family. Many sites now mention and support the Earth Trustee idea and agenda. How can we best provide a framework for reports and action? The problem is there are so many good ideas on Internet -- and the world is still in a terrible state! As I told one zealous web master, "If thousands of web sites about planting trees are posted - and nobody plants any trees, what good is it?" (See discussion page for continuation)		DISCUSSION Question(s) related to this article: What is the relation between the environment and peace?, * * * * * LATEST READER COMMENT: One way to understand the relation between environment and peace is to turn the question on its head and ask what is the relation between the environment and the culture of war.  Here is what I say in my book The History of the Culture of War : The exploitation of the culture of war involves not only exploitation of people, but also exploitation of the environment. In recent years everyone has become more aware of the dangers of environmental pollution, with special attention to carbon emissions which have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and resulted in global warming. This is also related to the loss of the world's forests which redress the problem by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Insufficient attention has been paid, however, to the great environmental destruction and pollution caused by military activity. Historically, military-related activity has been one of the primary causes of deforestation. This was already evident in ancient times as described above in the case of Greece and Rome. More recently, the British Empire was a major destroyer of forests, as described for India in an article by Budholai (available on the Internet) : "The early days of British rule in India were days of plunder of natural resources. . ...more.
This report was posted on May 5, 2005.