Guess Who Said This
DISPATCHES FROM MOON OF ALABAMA, BY "B"
This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches from Moon of Alabama
Guess who said this:
Many of us read The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry when we were children and remember what the main character said: “It’s a question of discipline. When you’ve finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet. … It’s very tedious work, but very easy.”
I am sure that we must keep doing this “tedious work” if we want to preserve our common home for future generations. We must tend our planet.
The subject of environmental protection has long become a fixture on the global agenda. But I would address it more broadly to discuss also an important task of abandoning the practice of unrestrained and unlimited consumption – overconsumption – in favour of judicious and reasonable sufficiency, when you do not live just for today but also think about tomorrow.
We often say that nature is extremely vulnerable to human activity. Especially when the use of natural resources is growing to a global dimension. However, humanity is not safe from natural disasters, many of which are the result of anthropogenic interference. By the way, some scientists believe that the recent outbreaks of dangerous diseases are a response to this interference. This is why it is so important to develop harmonious relations between Man and Nature.
No cheating please. Guess. Who said the above?
Please let us know your first guess in the comments.
Posted by b on October 23, 2020 at 17:43 UTC | Permalink
Putin, yesterday: http://en.special.kremlin.ru/catalog/keywords/47/events/64261
Posted by: JC | Oct 23 2020 17:50 utc | 4
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Oct 23 2020 17:46 utc | 1
Yeah. Well, it wasn't Donald Trump - or Joe Biden. Neither of them can string enough words together to make even a comprehensible piece of nonsense.
Posted by: Jams O'Donnell | Oct 23 2020 17:53 utc | 6
Putin, of course, at Valdai.
Putin:"We must tend to our planet."
Trump: "Climate change is a hoax."
Posted by: Cyril | Oct 23 2020 18:07 utc | 12
It must be lonely as the only serious person in the room.
Posted by: gottlieb | Oct 23 2020 18:10 utc | 14
Just read it, and the subsequent speech. Very nice. It's interesting comparing the live version with the official transcript.
Posted by: BillB | Oct 23 2020 18:11 utc | 15
Wow! What a mind blunder! Of course, it was VVP. Too much reading! Ha!! Pepe's article has its own merits. Even more important is this revealing editorial, "How Russophobia Wrought Death of the United States:"
"The surprise election in 2016 of Donald Trump to the White House so disturbed the political class that it was compelled to delegitimize his presidency by alleging that it was due to Russian interference. The relentless and irrational Russophobia to undermine Trump by his domestic political enemies has only transpired to fatally weaken American global power. The political squabbling and infighting has wreaked havoc on the moral authority and legitimacy of American institutions of governance. The legislative government, the presidency, the judiciary, the intelligence apparatus, the legacy media, and so on. Every supposed pillar of American democracy has been eroded over the past four years with alarming speed.
"A big part of this precipitous demise is due to Russophobia: the relentless sowing of doubt and confusion in American institutions, primarily the presidency, with insinuations of Russian interference. In their attempts to delegitimize Trump, his domestic enemies among the U.S. establishment have ended up delegitimizing public esteem of American democracy. How paradoxical! America’s own worst enemy turns out to be itself." [My Emphasis]
I've long maintained that the enemies of the USA and its people are ALL Domestic and have been from the outset. Lots of truth fit into that short essay!
don't know... i like what they say here though "By the way, some scientists believe that the recent outbreaks of dangerous diseases are a response to this interference. This is why it is so important to develop harmonious relations between Man and Nature."
Posted by: james | Oct 23 2020 18:53 utc | 22
Since many people here more up to date than me said Putin, I'm sure it's somehow him. But I'm going with Putin, doing an Al Gore impersonation!
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Oct 23 2020 18:59 utc | 23
In contrast to Putin being nature loving naturalist, the only animals our president Trump ever cared for is himself and his children
Posted by: Kooshy | Oct 23 2020 19:08 utc | 26
The tone sounds like Vladimir Putin in English translation and the timing of B's post suggests he said it during his closing speech at this year's Valdai Club meetings. Putin has always been keen on conservation issues and often spends what free time he has in short camping adventures. The Siberian tiger conservation program is a pet project of his.
The other possibility might be Chinese President Xi Jinping as the ideas of modest consumption or consumption that fulfills a person's needs and of humans living in harmony with nature appear in the speech, and these ideas have been incorporated into recent Chinese government policies. The drive to eradicate poverty not only achieves one goal (fulfilling people's needs) but also helps achieve the other, as impoverished communities are often driven by forces beyond their control into marginal areas where they end up upsetting the ecology and destroying in order to survive. Among other things his also brings exotic pathogens in contact with humans through the disturbance of plant and animal life (insects in particular) and the consumption of bushmeat and its trade.
Significantly in recent years much of the Earth's land surface as measured by satellites that has become greener has been in China and India as a result of large-scale conservation and tree-planting schemes and better use of land. This has sometimes involved relocating entire rural communities in parts of China to areas where they can access services that help to improve their lives. An example might be a community I read about recently that lived on top of a small mountain or plateau where the only access to schools and markets was through a winding series of narrow staircases cut into the mountain's sides. One child did not start going to school until she was 11 years old because her mother was afraid that she'd fall while using the stairs. The local authority later built a bridge connecting the mountain to lower areas, cutting travel time from 3 hours to 1 hour. Recently the entire community agreed to relocate and its old village on top of the mountain is to be preserved and developed as a tourist attraction.
Posted by: Jen | Oct 23 2020 19:23 utc | 28
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"b" is Moon of Alabama's founding (and chief) editor. This site's purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon's Whiskey Bar writings. Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent, open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community. Bernhard )"b") started and still runs the site. Once in a while you will also find posts and art from regular commentators. You can reach the current administrator of this site by emailing Bernhard at MoonofA@aol.com.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Donald Trump
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Oct 23 2020 17:46 utc | 1