And Now for a Completely Different Perspective

One of the things we all wonder at some point in our lives is "What Lasts"? Most things don't.

Mountains used to last until the advent of mountain top removal by the ever-rapacious coal companies.

Books never lasted too long, but that may change now that Google is digitizing them all and making them searchable and free to all on the internet.

And, of course, a great deal of CHANGE lasts.

Change.

We forget about change, or if we notice it, we tend to put it in negative tems.

Things are more expensive now than they used to be.

The music is worse.

No one has manners anymore.

Everything is so fast and so shallow.

I am guilty of such negative thinking.

When it comes to population, for example, I tend to focus on the number of people added in my lifetime and in the lifetime I have left.

When I think of habitat issues, I tend to focus on the forests and fields I have known that are now subdivisions and parking lots.

I forget that more land is under protection now than ever before.

I forget that by almost any index, human misery is less now than it was 20 years ago, or 40 years ago, or 60 years ago.

With that notion in mind, click on these two links to watch this amazingly well-done presentation by Hans Rosling that will do nothing less than change the way you see the world:

• Link One: >> http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92
  


• Link Two: >> http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/140
  Watch this one to the very end, for the smash-up finale.
  
  

And, for the record, I "bet the planet" a few years ago that things will get better for humans. For wild places and wildlife, however, I am still not so sure.

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