The Cyberspace Jungle

Today, we are bombarded with information. Millions of bits–photos, text, video–stream by us every second we’re on the web. And we’re always on the web. Mobile devices on 3G (and now “4G”) and lightweight laptops able to access nearly ubiquitous WiFi hotspots mean that the modern age is certainly the information age. And the Internet continues to grow riotously; like a tropical rain forest, millions of unique niches exist, but they are inhabited here instead by users and data. And much like a natural ecosystem, the internet is also inextricably interlinked and interdependent: hyperlinks, reference pointers, and social media make the Internet a pseudo-organic entity that has its gaze turned not only outward (towards expansion) but also inward (towards connections). In its own way, the internet is an oddly beautiful thing. The freewheeling, ever-shifting topography of the web means that from second-to-second it’s never quite the same place.

But for all its seductive beauty and facile utility Continue reading

It Might Have Seemed Funny

If you thought you had heard all the most clever jokes in the English language about environmental activists (citizens, scientists and other types) you might want to stay up to date with The Onion.  Activists can say and do things that, on reflection, lead to laughter, wincing or worse.  Perhaps the tendency Raxa Collective is most sensitive to is preachiness: we avoid it at all costs, preferring humor to vinegary sourpuss judgement of others.

If you were to click from humor at The Onion directly onto the page where Merchants Of Despair (click the image to the left) is reviewed and promoted, you might think it is Oniony humor.  But no, it seems to be earnest, determined anti-environmentalism:

Combining riveting tales from history with powerful policy arguments, Merchants of Despair provides scientific refutations to antihumanism’s major pseudo-scientific claims, including its modern tirades against nuclear power, pesticides, population growth, biotech foods, resource depletion, industrial development, and, most recently, fear-mongering about global warming. Merchants of Despair exposes this dangerous agenda and makes the definitive scientific and moral case against it. Continue reading