Archive for December 28th, 2009

The Vanishing of a Species. Peter Gretener

The Vanishing of a Species. Peter Gretener. 2009. ISBN 9781897093825.  A book many years in the writing , it was only discovered amongst the authors papers after he passed away in 2008.  The author, a seasoned PhD at the U of A in Geology has given “man’s predicament” some serious thought.  His editor commented that it was published without much editing so as to preserve the authors intent. This makes it a dense read, yet it still moves along at quite a pace. Several  takeaways

  1. The clear examples that show we can not ever  expect to bring third
    A long shot of an abandoned MOGADISHU Street k...
    Image via Wikipedia

    world countries  up even to second world standards without worldly bankruptcy, using present  methods.

  2. Our environmental problems are interdisciplinary. This requires interdisciplinary cooperation by academics (who along with the clergy and politicians have been “useless” so far.)
  3. The structure of silos of effort at universities and the “need” for man to serve his own ego and personality, run at odds to the cooperative efforts needed for interdisciplinary work to succeed.. We are born alone and die alone.
  4. Man is a very canny toolmaker, this the “technical” sciences have been brilliant successes, while the social sciences have not lived up to their potential.
  5. I think I will read C.P. Snow again.
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