What a wonderfully cold yet sunny day we had in Basel this past Sunday. Not one cloud in the sky. Beautiful. So naturally I had plans to go and spend my day within the windowless halls of the Messe Basel. Not at Muba like most people, but at the Natur Messe. I had little prior idea about the Messe, just that it had something to do with nature and sustainable development. So there I was browsing through the booths, getting accosted by association workers and activists trying to make me sign petitions at almost every booth on the ground floor of the Hall. Moving onto the other floor of the exposition I was now being accosted by various sales reps trying to sell their sustainable, natural, bio or vegan products. All in all I think I saw about 20% of booths mainly concerned with information about nature and sustainable development and the science and law behind it (these booths were presented mainly by swiss national parcs and governmental agencies such as the DEZA). But unfortunately the bulk of the exposition was about selling, if not products then selling activist campaigns. I came out of the whole experience a little disappointed I must admit. Maybe I awaited too much, or maybe just something else. Anyhow, I think I ought to have stayed outside, enjoying the beautiful weather by taking a walk in the nature around Basel rather than stay inside getting accosted by sales reps and activists trying to sell me the beautiful nature that, listening to them, only appears to be a relic at best.

I should say, though, that there is no doubt in my mind that we need to continue doing efforts (a lot!) to preserve our environment and become less of a nuisance on the planet. But, I just don’t know that it will do any true good for me to buy ayurvedic sandals or give money to some political/environmental/animal rights NGO, that may or may not be efficient (read up on this topic in our upcoming post on giving efficiently) and may or may not really understand ecology (the science) and use critical thinking and applied rationality (read up on these topics in our upcoming post on critical thinking) rather than follow emotional ecological ideologies. Anyhow, I guess this event was not really my cup of tea, that’s all.