#e.o.wilson

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall.”

— E. O. Wilson

[Poetic Outlaws]

[carolkeiter]

Biodiversity vs. Virtual Reality

Yes, I am opinionated. So don’t take it personally. I just responded to a virtual landscape on a page with this comment. I don’t need a virtual moon dangling in my virtual living room with my virtual body, because I go outside all the time and sleep outside (at times because of being economically challenged or when there are no vacancies) looking at the moon and feeling the air and wind in my…

[educationaldm]

I get paid to teach to improve Intelligence. I try to impart Wisdom for free, all the while trying to model Learning to gain more. Quote in the picture by E.O.Wilson

[moiramportfolio]

EN: My final photography work in high school. (Belgium) IT: Il mio progetto finale di fotografia al liceo. (Belgio) NL: Mijn eindwerk van de middelbare school.

"We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to be humanity." -E.O.Wilson

EN: Here I photographed biodiversity. This is symbolic of a utopia where people, like plants, grow and flourish interchangeably. IT: Qui ho fotografato la biodiversità. È il simbolo di un'utopia in cui le persone, come le piante, crescono e fioriscono in modo intercambiabile. NL: Hier heb ik biodiversiteit gefotografeerd. Dit is symbolisch voor een utopie waar mensen, net zoals planten, door elkaar groeien en bloeien.

EN: Portraits of young people in my environment (school, park). The papers show their personal experiences with prejudice and discrimination based on appearance (ethnicity), descent, religion and/or sexuality.

IT: Ritratti di giovani nel mio ambiente (scuola, parco). Gli elaborati mostrano le loro esperienze personali di pregiudizio e discriminazione basate sull'aspetto (etnia), sulla discendenza, sulla religione e/o sulla sessualità.

NL: Portretten van jongeren in mijn omgeving (school, park). Op de papiertjes staan hun persoonlijke ervaringen met vooroordelen en discriminatie gebaseerd op uiterlijk (etniciteit), afkomst, geloof en/of seksualiteit.

Portrait translations: - In elementary school, I was bullied because of my skin color. - Sometimes I get death threats. - For years I wanted to be like girls around me because I did not conform to Western ideals of beauty. - The principal of my school once said to me that terrorism was part of my culture. - I was called Little Red Riding Hood and laughed at when I wore a red hijab. - It happens so often that I think it's normal.

Ecco le traduzioni di alcune frasi: - Alle elementari sono stata vittima di bullismo per il colore della mia pelle. - A volte ricevo minacce di morte. - Per anni ho voluto essere come le ragazze che mi circondavano perché non ero conforme agli ideali di bellezza occidentali. - Una volta il preside della mia scuola mi disse che il terrorismo faceva parte della mia cultura. - Mi chiamavano Cappuccetto Rosso e mi deridevano quando indossavo un hijab rosso. - Succede così spesso che lo trovo normale.

FULL PORTFOLIO 2021: (some work is left out because I didn't get permission to share)

[occultadama]

Kafka, biophobia and biophilic anxiety metaphors before it was cool.

As previously discussed, post WW2 we got into this terrible habit of projecting our cultural anxiety on to nature via cinema. unfortunately insects bared the brunt of this metaphorical fear in the way of the big bug film boom of the 1950s e.g Them!, The wasp woman, the monster of green hill. This is were Hollywood would exhibit the new nuclear anxiety, distrust of power, scientific acceleration, industrial revolution and fortified capitalist structure in all its cinematic creepy crawly glory.

The films narratives also encouraged a cavalier man to insect hostility (in light of our crippling insect decline) that supported much of the rife and harmful pesticide use post war (such as the widely banned DDT amidst post war food shortages)

Insects as vessel for our fear via entertainment continues to this day. However this phenomena isn't resigned to the post war eras. Kafka demonstrated this clearly in "The Metamorphosis" written in 1912 published in 1915. However his use of it is much more personal, sympathetic and nihilistic. The protagonist Gregor Samsa awakes to find he now inhabits the body of an insect. As discussed in my "Kafka vs Burroughs" post, Kafka uses the characters spontaneous new form to explore our inability to relate to one another on a honest and compassionate level.

The beetle protagonist is the only one aware of the bureaucratic idiocy and cruelty that surrounds him. An awakening that is only possible through the lens of an insect. Samsas "Metamorphosis" creates his own bath of cold water and peeling of lifes illusions. He is awakened to how society and his family disregard him as soon as he is deemed "useless".

His change means he steps out of the human order and see it for what it is - cold, callous and senseless. Curiously none of the other characters, even his family, really address the horror of him becoming an insect. Instead they all become impatient and tired of what essentially becomes a disability in the human plain of existence. He never actually mattered but now he has no place.

Samsa also loses the ability to speak but has full understanding of everybody around him. With time his loved ones assume him to be a "dumb dung beetle". This not only displays Kafkas personal anxieties and feelings of inferiority and insignificance (cited by those that knew him and his own diaries) but the wider human inability to aknowledge the intelligence of nature. A frustration explored in depth by E.O.Wilson in "On Human Nature".

The family gradually begin to disregard and shun Samsa which is difficult as a reader as they are all so dependent upon him. Gregor is presented as a honorable man and beetle through out with his love for his family be central to his character.

'These were surely unnecessary worries at the moment. Gregor was still here and would not think of deserting his family."

He acts selflessly and is the only character in the novella who truly cares for matters outside of himself. Samsa, much like nature and specifically insects is unappreciatied and uncredited for all he does for those around him. He was being taken advantage of before his Metamorphosis, in the way of paying of his ungrateful father debts and this only becomes accelerated when he transforms into a beetle. Samsa becomes nature's experience of Biophobia. He is silenced, he is now biologically lower in the hierarchy and can ultimately not offer them as much.

His father shuts Gregor away in a room even injuring him in a doorway and hurling apples at him. This links to Kafka's own well documentated relationship with his abusive father who disapproved of Kafka as he was a sickly child who didn't care for "masculine" pursuits. As Samsas monetary value is lost he becomes more and more neglected in the book. He begins to accept that he is unloved and submits to death.

This story by Kafka to me is a complete masterpiece. He drifts between personal and cultural anxiety masking it in the guise of a beetle. Kafka displays his own biophilia through this and connects the reader to it. Samsa is a tragic hero and it becomes more apparent when he is an insect. We feel for him as he struggles to orientate his new form and are frustrated when it's secondary to the love he has for his selfish family. We love Samsa the beetle and as a reader I was tearful at what he had to endure. This empathy isn't affected by him being a beetle it is infact made more accessible due largely to the helplessness it creates.

This is helped by Gregors strong internal dialogue that seeps with pain. Applying the human experience to a insect vessel is also seen in "The Fly" yet I don't feel either of the film adaptations achieve the level of emotional impact Kafka does. There's a fine and careful balance to be struck with this story element. It's hard to pick apart Kafkas exact ingredients in achieving this. I believe it may be that the book is a direct reflection of himself. He had no intent for this novella to ever be published. We are presented with a unfiltered exploration of all his vulnerability. Its unapologetically sensitive.

In regard to my practical research there are elements that definately need investigation, I just haven't figured which and what they actually are.

[99quotes]

When you get into the whole field of exploring, probably 90 percent of the kinds of organisms, plants, animals and especially microorganisms and tiny invertebrate animals are unknown. Then you realize that we live on a relatively unexplored plan. —E. O. Wilson

[a-void-that-cannot-be-filled]

Fuck dopamine deficiency. Fuck it hard.

[serinesuri]

"We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom. "

-E.O.Wilson

[annijadesign]

6. What does balanced life look like?

Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash

There are multiple articles on healthy social media habits. They list similar things that are quite logical and doable like these ones:

Limit your screen time

Be intentional whit what you want to see on the site and don't get lost

Take longer brakes from social media if you feel depressed or anxious

Don't use screens before bed

Avoid recording every good moment you have and instead live in the present

Surround yourself with positive people avoid anger and conflict

Seems simple right? But this takes so much more strength to do because social media has a lot of power and it's not that simple to ignore.

The sites and apps are designed to keep you there for as long as possible with bottomless scrolling and smart algorithms that know what you like.

They intentionally show more than one thing on the screen so it's easy to get lost for hours when you were just looking for one thing.

You might feel depressed from using too much of social media, but at the same time it's the only thing that makes you lough, so how do you turn it off?

When going to sleep, your brain is overstimulated by all the content that you have seen during the day, that it's hard to fall asleep so you just pick up your phone to pass the time, but end up doing that for 4 hours.

Enjoying a moment becomes extremely hard when you can imagine the content that this would make and all the great response to it. And it's even more difficult, if all of your friends are recording everything and you are the only one that isn't looking through a screen.

Lastly, in this pandemic, when you basically can't do anything with other people outside your home, social media is the best form of escape and gives the feeling of community... How do you say no to that?

So thes articles with "5 eAsy sTEpS tO hAvE a hEaltHy reLAtioNshIp wITh soCiaL mEdiA" don't work.

The problem lies with the design of our social media and less with the fact that we can't resist it. At the beginning of marketing (see the first post) they asked the same question we need to ask again now:

Is it wrong to give people what they want by removing their defences?

It's not like experts aren't aware of this. There are many people discussing the complicated nature of this problem. You can find many great discussions on a podcast called Your Undivided Attention. In this podcast from the Center for Humane Technology, co-hosts Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin expose how social media’s race for attention manipulates our choices, breaks down truth, and destabilizes our real-world communities.

If you don't want to watch the whole 9,5min interview, then you can watch 4,5min starting at 5:07

Center for Humane Technology also has a list of things to help you be more healthy with your social media use, but it's way more realistic. It offers similar solutions to other articles but with more recources to help you and looks more realisticly at these problems. You can read it here. They basically are taking this problem head on and doing it with a lot of thought and care.

There is progress being made every day with smart tech companies that redefine the way we are using technologies. Experts are constantly fighting to change law and policies to make social media platforms responsible for their impact on people etc.

It seems like we have made a "being" that is the internet and underestimated the power it has. We didn't know how easily we can be manipulated and now we are constantly worried not only for our children, that we know are more susceptible to manipulation that grownups, but also for us, because this "being" has the power to manipulate anyone. And we don't have a way to stop it or even controle it.

We have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and god-like technologies.

\E.O.Wilson, father of socioliology\

When listening to these experts talking, it's wonderful to see how they are still positive and believe that a healthy and productive technology can be achieved. But it always sends cold shivers down my spine when I realise how slow it all is moving, because people don't like change. I see the children growing up with phones basically glued to their faces and know that this new generation will grow up like that and we can only hope that the next one won't.

Right now all we can do is actively fight and resist with the hope that one day we will be able to stop.

I believe that it is our duty to educate ourselves not only as designers, but also as people on this topic and do something about it, because we are simply running out of time.

[franckdoutrery]

Insectes mais pas incultes

Le ciel est plombé, le temps exécrable. À travers la vitre embuée on devine un paysage sombre derrière un rideau de pluie. Tout invite à rester chez soi, bien calé au coin du feu dans un fauteuil bergère à oreilles et accoudoirs. Avec un bon livre. Comme celui de E.O.Wilson sur la vie édifiante des termites. Car le professeur Wilson est un insectologue de première force, certains disent même un entomologiste. C’est dire s’il s’y connaît en fourmis, blattes, papillons, abeilles et autres petites bêtes, avec toutefois une préférence pour les termites. Il en décrit l’organisation sociale en tribus et classes. Il les dessine de face, de profil ou en coupe sagittale. Il sait tout de leur communication articulée, leur vie sexuelle trépidante, leur conscience foncièrement solidaire. Aussi ne comptez pas sur lui pour leur administrer du xylophène ou les nourrir de carton imbibé d’insecticide. Au contraire, il les choie, les protège, leur donne à manger du bois de charpente, des brochures moisies, des livres mis à l’index ou condamnés au pilon. C’est parce qu’elles ont tout pour ressembler à la société humaine. Au point qu’avec leur intelligence collective, elles en constituent peut-être la très lointaine promesse. En effet, ce modeste insecte date d’il y a des centaines de millions d’années, disons d’avant les dinosaures. Qui sait ? sans lui, nous ne serions peut-être pas là.

Chez les termites comme chez les humains, la classe la plus importante est la classe ouvrière. Surtout celle du bâtiment. C’est elle qui construit la termitière, avec ses étages, galeries, carrefours, goulots et loges. Et tout cela sans architecte ni permis de bâtir. Alors que c’est plus compliqué qu’un plan du métro ou une pyramide égyptienne. Mais l’instinct les guide depuis des millénaires. Elles creusent, étançonnent, installent une climatisation, apportent des provisions, transportent les œufs de la reine et besognent jour et nuit sans connaître ni grèves, ni congés payés. Elles sont d’ailleurs asexuées, si bien qu’on hésite à leur appliquer un pronom masculin ou féminin.  

Il en va de même pour les soldats : même si on utilise le masculin pour en parler, ils sont dépourvus de sexe. En revanche, ils possèdent une grosse tête cornée, comme le Minotaure, avec d’énormes mandibules, qui permettent de défendre la colonie en dissuadant ou en éliminant les intrus. Gare aux prédateurs, fourmis ou termites d’autres colonies ! Ils les bousculent, les renversent, les mordent sans pitié ou les aspergent d’un acide toxique. Certains se comportent même en kamikazes : ils transportent sur le dos un produit chimique qu’ils font exploser pour semer la mort tout en se suicidant.

Grâce au professeur Wilson, on apprend que leur société, comme celle des humains, est régie en gros par deux commandements : conserver la vie et la transmettre. C’est à la transmission que servent les termites sexuées. On les reconnaît à leurs ailes, qui leur permettent d’effectuer au printemps le vol nuptial où la femelle est fécondée par le mâle. Lequel ayant accompli sa tâche reproductrice, perd ses ailes en même temps que sa raison d’être. La femelle par contre, qui sera bientôt reine, se met à enfler, son abdomen acquérant en peu de temps cinquante ou soixante fois le volume initial. C’est ce qui la distingue nettement de la reine de l’homo sapiens, laquelle se limite souvent à mettre au monde un seul dauphin, suivi de quelques rejetons éloignés dans l’ordre de succession.

Toute cette vie grouillante et labyrinthique n’est possible que grâce à un système de communication très développé, basé sur des signaux chimiques appelés « phéromones ». Comme les termites sont pour la plupart aveugles et fuient la lumière, elles se sont spécialisées dans l’émission et la réception de substances qui servent notamment à l’identification, l’orientation, l’alerte ou la dissuasion. Si elles avaient la parole, elles auraient des propos tels que : « Bonjour ! Attention ! Ôte-toi de là ! », voire « Je te kiffe ! ». Au lieu de quoi, elles emploient des codes chimiques qui leur servent de passeport, de panneau de signalisation ou de séduction sexuelle.

Néanmoins, pour que la termite vive et se reproduise, il faut qu’elle se nourrisse. Or elle consomme cinq repas par jour, le menu étant fait de cellulose comme entrée, de déchets de bois comme plat de résistance et les mots croisés du journal comme dessert. À l’image de l’homme instruit, elle a une attirance prononcée pour la bibliothèque, à cause des étagères en bois. Si on n’y prend garde, elle s’introduit d’abord dans une planche, puis dans un livre un peu moite qu’elle traverse en diagonale depuis l’avant-propos jusqu’à la table des matières et termine par entamer un gros dictionnaire ou une encyclopédie. C’est ainsi qu’en quelques mois, elle peut faire un sort à la Britannica, allant jusqu’à dévorer les pages qui lui sont consacrées. Il se dit pourtant que sa voracité s’arrête devant l’ouvrage du professeur Wilson, en qui elle reconnaît sans doute un grand frère humain.

[brittanyeburgard]

Friday evening science classics! 📖 💚 E.O.Wilson on the joy of the jungle, la alegría de la selva: “The unsolved mysteries of the rainforest are formless and seductive. They are like unnamed islands hidden in the blank spaces of old maps, like dark shapes glimpsed descending the far wall of a reef into the abyss. They draw us forward and stir strange apprehensions. The unknown and prodigious are drugs to the scientific imagination, stirring insatiable hunger with a single taste. In our hearts we hope we will never discover everything.” #Panama #travel #ExperienceMamoni #jungle #laselva #science #EOWilson #inspiration #botany #plants #nature #naturephotography #naturemakepeoplehappy #naturelovers #naturelove #mystery (at Experience Mamoni)

[automaticvr]

Experimenta Make Sense is an exhibition that expresses the disconcerting and delightful world of the digital age. What does it mean to feel in an era of disembodied communication? To think in a world of algorithms and artificial minds? What does it mean to ‘do’ today? Both playful and challenging, this exhibition asks audiences to immerse their senses into a ‘thinking,’ ‘feeling’ and ‘doing’ contemplation of what it is to be human in the age of technological acceleration. Biologist E.O.Wilson believes that “the real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology.” Experimenta Makes Sense presents a program of over 20 leading international and Australian artists who engage directly with this conundrum including Robert Andrew, Keith Armstrong with Luke Lickfold and Matthew Davis, Ella Barclay, Michele Barker and Anna Munster, Briony Barr, Steve Berrick, Antoinette J. Citizen, Adam Donovan and Katrin Hochschuh, Lauren Edmonds, Liz Magic Laser, Jon McCormack, Lucy McRae, Gail Priest, Matthew Gardiner, Jane Gauntlett, Scale Free Network: Briony Barr and Gregory Crocetti, Andrew Styan, Judy Watson, and Katarina Zdjelar.

[mado-science]

A Love Story This book is almost like a love story. It is one of the best books that I have ever red. Go to Amazon

Philosophy and Science Wilson reminds the reader to view our global habitat by taking the long view. Destruction of natural habitats and species may to the most urgent issue of our times. The philosophical discussion of humanity's affinity for nature and the need to safeguard it has been expanded upon in the decades since this books publication, but Wilson's thoughts are still timely. I recommend this book to all that are concerned about conservation, both to witness how Wilson's ideas have permeated current views of habitat conservation and to recommit to preserving nature in these distracting political times. Go to Amazon

For love of ants and other animals This thin little book is very well written and full of the love and wonder E. O. Wilson feels for the natural world which just radiates from his narrative. It is a joy to read not just because it takes readers to Central America, Papua New Guinea, and elsewhere, but also because it makes one think about the value of conservation. It's a call to get us all to think of the world from the tiniest creature, onwards. It is a subtle call to action to protect the incredible planet we inhabit. Go to Amazon

A Man before His Time: Edward O. Wilson This was my start, many years ago. Be sure to read EOW's The Future of Life. If you are into climate change, the environment and a healthy planet and peoples, don't miss Edward O. Wilson. Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. Thank you Dr. Wison, for your gifts to us as a scientist! Go to Amazon

great e o Wilson is legendary for a reason. enough said Go to Amazon

Save all the pieces Extinction is an attack on the planet that gives us life. We should not dismiss the importance of any species until we determine that is not crucial to our own existence. Ed Wilson continues to be one of the most eloquent defenders of the natural world and it's diversity. Go to Amazon

Five Stars I've read many books by E.O.Wilson--Concilience, In Search of Nature, The Creation, and many more--and all are inspiring. Go to Amazon

Typical Ed Wilson As all his work, this is excellent. A wonderful insight to a basic, but often missed human attribute. With Dr. Wilson's years of highly productive work and his outstanding literary ability his books are always a pleasure and highly rewarding. Go to Amazon

Sad Good if you have a lot of time to burn ... So so. Five Stars Five Stars Five Stars Elegant, Poetic Writing Five Stars Good read, fascinating Three Stars

[yafeihuang-blog]

SOME 3D ANIMATION OF INNER SPACE

https://youtu.be/xoNzSVjQBoshttps://youtu.be/iyUoQ70ZmuQ

Part 1 of two animations about type 2 diabetes.

This animation describes the process of inflammation in type 2 diabetes via a unique structure called the inflammasome. Over time, this process damages the pancreas, eventually leading to decreased insulin secretion and inability to control blood glucose levels. Chronic inflammatory 'lifestyle diseases' such as T2D are rapidly increasing in the western world and will pose a huge health burden in future.

Maja Divjak, 2014

https://youtu.be/mDZLiZB0iPY

Body Code is a selection of biomedical animations that explore the human body at the microscopic and molecular scale. Body Code was designed for museum and art gallery exhibition, with the goal of reaching public audiences who do not usually seek out or are exposed to the details of scientific knowledge.

Since inception in 2003, these animations have exhibited in over 30 museums and art galleries around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art (USA), Museum of Design (Germany), Centre Pompidou (France), Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art (China), Art Center Nabi (Korea) and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Australia).

Drew Berry, 2003

https://youtu.be/xoNzSVjQBos

Sunshine Vitamin shows the latest in scientific understanding about how genetic code can be influenced by the body’s exposure to the sun. Vitamin D penetrates deep into a writhing molecular landscape that exists in all of us, and ‘switches on’ surprising processes, like the making of proteins that strengthen our bones.

This animation is part of a WEHI.TV series from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's award-winning biomedical animator Dr Drew Berry, designed to explain complex scientific processes easily to a broad audience.

Sunshine Vitamin was originally created for E.O.Wilson’s Life on Earth interactive textbook of biology, 2014.

Animator: Drew Berry, 2016

[ssabina18-blog]

Research - Biomedical Animator: Drew Berry

Drew Berry : “ I create biomedical animations that combine cinema and science to reveal the microscopic worlds inside our bodies.”   

He works as a biomedical animator at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. 

Some of his work that I liked:

> Prophase cell - “A cell about to undergo mitosis with microtubule spindle assembly and migration.” Drew Berry, 2010

> Spindle pole - Mitotic spindle of a prophase cell. Drew Berry, 2010

> RNA - RNA polymerase enzyme. Drew Berry, 2011

> Apoptosome -  The apoptosome 'Wheel of Death'. Drew Berry, 2005

>  Malaria Lifecycle Part 1: Human Host - “The visualisation reconstructs infection of a human child via mosquito bite, through invasion of cellular tissues including the liver and blood. All features are to scale, including mosquito, blood vessels, human cells and parasite. The visualisation is the first of its kind to present live-behavior models, including the mosquito's bite technique, parasite invasion method, and patterns of blood flow.” Drew Berry, 2008

> “Sunshine Vitamin shows the latest in scientific understanding about how genetic code can be influenced by the body’s exposure to the sun. Vitamin D penetrates deep into a writhing molecular landscape that exists in all of us, and ‘switches on’ surprising processes, like the making of proteins that strengthen our bones.

This animation is part of a WEHI.TV series from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's award-winning biomedical animator Dr Drew Berry, designed to explain complex scientific processes easily to a broad audience.”

Sunshine Vitamin was originally created for E.O.Wilson’s Life on Earth interactive textbook of biology, 2014. Animator: Drew Berry, 2016

> “For White Night Melbourne 2014 the State Library of Victoria's domed reading room was transformed into a vast microscope with a magnifying power of one billion times. At this magnification an infectious virus, which is usually an unimaginably small 30 nano-meters across, becomes enlarged by the dome lens into a giant 30 meter geometric molecular ball hovering overhead. Entering the room the audience becomes enveloped inside the twitchy, brownian world of molecules that writhe across the walls and cling to bookshelves with electrostatic life.

All of the molecular structures have been built to scale at one billion times magnification, using the raw scientific data from X-Ray crystallography.

The artwork examines eight different types of human virus in ultra-high resolution detail. Every two minutes the room switches to a different type of virus, including herpes, influenza, HIV, polio and smallpox. Depending on the type of virus and the way it stores its genetic code, long snaking coils of DNA or its more ancient cousin, RNA, grip and slide across the walls like agitated Chinese dragons.

Mutating the nature of the room into a genetic library, the bookshelves are illuminated with the genome code from each type of virus. The scrolling text is written in with the four letters which encode all life on Earth: G, A, C and T.”

Drew Berry and Franc Tetaz, 2014

Reference: https://www.wehi.edu.au/wehi-tv

[barnabysbibleblog]

THE HAZARDS OF BLIND FAITH

Post #16 In 1982 there was a joint resolution in congress requesting President Reagan to proclaim 1983 as The "Year of the Bible. (Public Law 97-280   Oct. 4, 1982) The people who believe that the Bible is literally true are not worried about global warming, since “The End” is soon upon us.  If they would read the Bible carefully they would see that Jesus clearly states that this “end” and “second coming” was to  happen within HIS generation, not sometime in the vague future. (Matthew 24:34) Most Conservatives deny global warming and human responsibility for it, again playing into the hands of the religious right. A 2002 TIME/CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the Book of Revelation are going to come true. E.O.Wilson (anthropologist), wrote: “Revelation in the New Testament serves as a guidebook for conservative evangelical Protestants. John’s dreams have exercised a profound effect on the way millions of perfectly sane and responsible people view the world. But the images of a baleful Jesus threatening to cleave dissidents with a first century sword  is so far out of line with the rest of the New Testament that it is  ridiculous!”