"Nature is an independent power." -- Ursula Franklin

In the wake of the desperate message in this week's IPCC report, I found myself recalling a talk the great Ursula Franklin gave at a conference 33 years ago. Here is an excerpt, the full text is here:

"If I had one wish that could be fulfilled, it would be that the corporate and governmental big shots would understand that we aren’t talking about an “environment”, we are talking about Nature.?We are talking about an independent power.?Why don’t we see that in fact we are not just dealing with a passive environment that one adjusts with parameters like lighting levels and air flows? We are dealing instead with an independent power, and that independent power is retaliating.?Much of that retaliation comes to the defenceless, to our friends in the north, to our children, to people who get sick.?That’s the retaliation that we see.?And if our government gets scared at the prospect of offending Maggie Thatcher or the United States, they better start getting scared at the thought of the retaliation of the independent power of Nature."