LETTER

Insults are not a debate

 

Apparently, along with being “bird Nazis,” those of us who care enough about the environment to educate ourselves “have too much time on (our) hands,” and need to “get a life.” One letter-writer suggests, using a limited number of examples, that arson is the real danger in Aylmer, and that “someone” (other than he) needs to “research this.” It has been my experience that those who regularly denigrate environmentalists don’t care enough about the issues that they bleat about to actually do anything themselves.

Yes, there are a host of other societal ills that need addressing, as well as people who are actually working to address them, but anyone who has spent time researching social and environmental problems will attest to the fact that, at this point in our “evolution,” none are as important as the very real dangers threatening this planet. All of our relatively facile preoccupations with economics, religion, politics, televised sports, reality shows, fashion - you name it - will collapse without a healthy environment. All of the social ills that these people pretend to care about are rooted in and exacerbated by the same sins - greed, tribalism, apathy, ignorance, lust for power, shortsightedness - as those that degrade the environment.

Unfortunately, there are far too many people who seem to believe that humanity can survive on nothing more than shopping outlets, tract housing and the roads that connect them. While I always enjoy participating in informed debate, I would prefer to argue with those who have taken the time to learn about the subject at hand, rather than stooping to grade-school level insults because they can’t be bothered to educate themselves.

David Desjardins
Aylmer