[Vision2020] "No free meal, whatever...?

[Debbie Gray]

Actually, as someone with a master's in environmental science, I 
would say that the environmental movement has done a bang up job 
in educating people on the 'costs' of shared resources in the 
'commons.' Looking at the history of our country, you can see 
that people had the view of natural resources being not only 
free but unlimited. We now know that is not true. There are 
hidden costs to everything in life.

Yes, you may think it was free to have a nice morel meal but... 
did you drive up there on a road? who made the road? why? was it 
on private land or federal land or state land? who pays to 
maintain that? or, conversely, who pays to keep it from being 
clearcut into nothing? At the same time, looking at the tragedy 
of the commons as an example, what if everybody went up to that 
lovely spot, ate a few mushrooms and used a few dried out sticks 
to make a nice campfire? Soon there would be no mushrooms left, 
no meadow left, no dry kindling, etc (see also Africa or other 
places people gather firewood for subsistence but soon have to 
walk miles and miles for wood, water, etc). You can keep going 
further, if you did drive at least part way there who is 
subsidizing our fuel? What were the costs to make your car, 
tires, pollution, etc  etc. How has acid rain been mitigated so 
that it doesn't destroy the forest ecosystem to allow mushrooms 
to grow? Often morels grow in newly burned land, was that land 
you were on recently logged or burned?

You have to think big picture here...

Debbie (geez, i've never been labeled as a capitalist before. my 
parents have referred to me as a f***ing communist before but... 
i think they got over that when they figured out i was not going 
to take over the EPA and close down their farm)

On 17 May 2005 at 11:07, Ted Moffett wrote:

> Debbie et. al.
> 
> Debbie wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Remember, there is no free ride, free meal, whatever =)
> > 
> > Debbie
> 
> "no free meal, whatever...?"
> 
> So who was billed for that huge serving of delicious wonderful
> wild forest mushrooms I ate cooked over a small campfire 
fueled
> by a few dried out tree branches?
> 
> And all along I thought this meal was a gift from the Goddess 
of
> Mother Earth.
> 
> The Capitalists who want to redefine everything in Mother 
Nature
> as a resource they can extract and profit from have been more
> astonishingly successful in their propaganda efforts than I
> thought!
> 
> So to whom and where was the bill sent for my meal that I 
thought
> was "free?"
> 
> Ted Moffett