At 07:27 PM 5/19/97 -0700, you wrote:
> Chris Fincham asks and comments:
>>  without agriculture, what would we eat?  The human race has
>> exploded beyond the capability of this planet to support it without
>modern  agricultural practices.  In our age, urban sprawl has claimed both
>pristine winderness and agricultural land - to the point that only intensive
>farming practices produce suffient food to supply the population.  The
answer is
>not to condemn agriculture, but to take personal responsibility for slowing
>> population growth.

>If we have a Paleo-Style solution for ourselves, how do we bring the
>solution to the billions of other animals sharing this planet?
>Grant
>Who wonders how to return control to nature which would appear to do a
>better job at just about everything "given time".

Isn't that the problem, Grant - that we always devise a "solution for
ourselves"?..a short-term, relatively painless solution that makes us happy
- the only kind of solution that we as humans generally want.  Nature
dictates that when any species overpopulates its environment, the result is
increasing incidence of disease and abberant behaviours:  the human race has
already acheived these things.  If a sufficient portion of the too-numerous
species does not die as a result, starvation will ensure a balance.  Witness
the millions of human who at this moment are starving.  In our arrogance, we
do not wish to acknowledge that we are subject to the same rules as any
other species.  One cannot blame other species which overpopulate - they are
obeying instinct, not making a conscious decision to overtax their resources.

Yet in spite of our ability to reason and to plan, we will not consider
resolving the problems of overpopulation/dwindling resources by ensuring
that fewer of us are born.  We demand the right to reproduce at will...which
is really no more than philosophical justification for selfish
gratification.  We take the easy way out, no matter the consequences to
future generations, to other species, or to this planet.

Chris