Yes, careless people come from all sorts of backgrounds. I went to Queens once. They say Paris looks best in the rain, London looks best in the sunshine. My opinion is that Queens looks best in the rear view mirror.
quote:Plastic soda rings, “baggies,” styrofoam particles and plastic pellets are often mistaken by sea turtles as authentic food. Turtles also eat jellyfish and often mistake plastic bottles for jellyfish. Clogging their intestines, and missing out on vital nutrients, the turtles starve to death. Seabirds undergo a similar ordeal, mistaking the pellets for fish eggs, small crab and other prey, sometimes even feeding the pellets to their young. Despite the fact that only 0.05% of plastic pieces from surface waters are pellets, they comprise about 70% of the plastic eaten by seabirds. These small plastic particles have been found in the stomachs of 63 of the world’s approximately 250 species of seabirds.
Wildlife is not the only area to suffer from the effects of marine debris. Plastic bags are the leading external cause of marine engine damage in Massachusetts. Other plastic items foul propellers and interfere with fishing tackle.
Now, if you are an Old Timey religious sort and feel you have the right to do whatever you feel to animals because you have some sort of dominion over them, the harm doesn’t stop there. Plastic photodegrades over time, breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces. It is also a sponge for toxins like PCBs and DDT. Marine life ingest these into their systems, and people in turn eat the marine life. The effects of these toxins can be disastrous on humans as well. The effects on cancer rates, early puberty, early menopause and many more recently observed trends in human populations are only now starting to be understood.
In the end, one careless person who doesn’t care causes little harm on the broader scale. Lots of careless people who don’t care cause a good deal of harm, and what goes around comes around. Karma is not a religious doctrine. It is an observable law of nature. The harm cause to other living things finds it’s way back to you in one way or another.
Sunny Swanblack will be happy to know that same sex unions have not as yet been linked
harming marine life, although abusive heterosexual relationships lead the way as a causal factor in psychological and physical harm to women and children. They significantly outpace same sex unions as a contributing enabler to domestic violence.
Your friend
Sufjon
Q: What did the fish say when he swam face-on into a concrete wall???
A: “DAM!!!”
Sorry, couldn’t resist
God Bless and ICXC NIKA.
Once you have evolved to a human, you are a human, although there is cause and effect for everything you do. You simply learn from your mistakes over time, but we are talking about very long time frames. You may not be aware that you are learning, but we are. Specifically, it may appear outwardly that the lesson in a given experience is lost on the person who doesn’t notice. On some level you notice and you react. You grow, you take steps back and you grow again.
Sufjon, I am a Catholic who gives assent to the teachings of Christ regarding being good stewards of the earth.
Could you cite your source, please, Sufjon?
Well, thank you, friend!
No, it harms the marine life, remember my what about the fish question?
In your ethos, Sunny, if I discern, with my heart, my intution, and all the other variables you believe are required to make a moral decision, and decide that this is what god is telling me to do, how can you tell me that it’s wrong?
I have a very good friend who is into all things New Age. She tries crystals, aromatherapy, Jungian pyschology, channelling etc, to no avail. She still feels anxious and depressed.
I appreciate your thoughtful response. There are things you’ve written which I agree with. However, one of the problems I see, or differences, rather, between Hinduism and Catholicism, is that the need to put things into the water is a part of Hindu rituals, but it is not a part of Catholic ritual. It’s good that when Hindus’ realize that we here in the U.S. have a problem with putting all that stuff in the water on the beach, most do make an effort to stop it. Catholicism, on the other hand, does not worship nature, and therefore does not have to include it in it’s rituals. We care about nature as a part of God’s creation. Unlike certain pagan beliefs, which teach that the world is evil (not saying that Hinduism neccessarily believes this), we Catholics do not believe that the world is evil. We care about it. And as PRmerger has stated, we, as Catholics are called upon to be good stewards of the earth. The pope has addressed this himself in the last few years.
And that is no doubt because of money and space. Burials are expensive and space is limited. However, now there is a movement to have “green” burials, where the body is not inbalmed and the casket is easily degradable into the earth. Maybe this practice will put an end to Catholic cremations.
I’ve never heard of “green” burials, but I think I like the idea. If it will help to put a stop to cremations, that’s a good thing. Yes, the traditional type of burial is expensive.
those types of burials will depend on the local water table. Most municipalities would consider rotting bodies to be a source of water contamination. It’s one of the reasons body burial in our area requires a vault. As for Catholic cremation, it is allowed but scattering ashes is not.
well they are becoming popular in the Northwest where I live. I don’t know much about the water table issue. Here is a website about green burials.greenburials.org/FAQ.htm