Oh, I think we have hit on something here. The exclusion of women from the decision-making that occurs in this world. Of course that is changing but its changing slowly.

In another thread I mentioned that when the British arrived on the westcoast, they realized that the center of trade was at the mouth of the Columbia River and that the trade was controlled by women. They wanted beaver and otter pelts but the women were too hard to bargain with. The first thing they did was introduce guns and alcolhol and the matriarchy slowly unraveled. The final blow was, of course, those nasty blankets - some gift. Here, wrap your family in this.

I too, cringe at depictions of the noble savage. I'm glad that the five nations on the east coast were so strong. On the west coast, after the introduction of firearms, the men would set fire to an island, wait in their canoes for the animals to swim away and then shoot them and tow them home. It didn't take long for the destruction of cultural norms.

brucie - It has only been recently that we have realized that we are polluting our planet. We do need a place to dump the garbage, the trick is to eliminate, by law, the toxins that are dumped. Of course that would mean severely limiting the profit margin of many big businesses. Of course their answer is to get the PEOPLE to clean up their act at home by recycling. Sure it helps a little but not nearly enough.

I wonder the same thing about fuel emissions. What good will it do to eliminate gas guzzlers when there is no attempt to do anything about jet fuel and war machinery? Why bother with treatment plants when Cruise Lines dump raw sewage in our waterways? Seems to me the effort will have to be massive and it will have to include measures to control industry and the barons of industry as well.