cb's got me thinking environmentalism. so i guess more criticism! i think that much, anyway, of the environmental movement, has a wrong view of ecosystems or what makes an ecosystem a good ecosystem. so it just can't be in terms of balance, equilibrium, sustainability, stability. there are no static ecosystems or ecosystems in equilibrium. so the ecosystem around my house (yes: it's waldenish! but with a wal-mart pretty close): it's filled to overflowing with the alterations of man. centuries of farming, e.g., structures in various stages of collapse and disappearance. obviously another alcoholic lived here before me: there are hundreds of whiskey bottles in piles all around the woods. there are more invasive than non-invasive species, insofar as i can do a census, and english ivy and sparrows are everywhere. but it is incredibly alive. there are myriads of insects of al kinds, vines growing luxuriantly over everything. a meadow surrounded by berry-briars, all kinds of trees from all over the world: chinese chestnuts for example. the poison ivy is extremely impressive, as if one plant had takn over the whole region. there are layers of birds, from hummers to little peepers, to bluejays, and ascending through kestrels, sharp-shinned and red-shouldered hawks, to turkey vultures. i means 'layers' literally. there are feral cats everywhere; i saw a black one just before dark tonight. also coyotes, deer, bobcats, foxes, squirrels, chipmunks, voles etc etc. the whole place is just deliriously alive. that is a good enough ecosystem for me, and i contribute to it by mowing, throwing my old mops back into the various middens that have sprouted up here over the decades, chainsawing, burning, gardening. i brought my cats and my axe. at any rate, i think that one might see climate change differently just by a full acknowledgement that ecosystems are dynamic, we participants. this would be my standard: is it vital? is it full of life? then you know it doesn't need us to fantasize a return to some never-real pristine condition.