Terrestrial Ecosystem Loss and Biosphere Collapse

By Dr. Glen Barry
Independent Political Ecology Scientist
glen.barry@gmail.com

Excerpt of manuscript accepted for publication mid-2014 by Management of Environmental Quality

Abstract

 Planetary boundary science defines key thresholds in the Earth System's biogeochemical conditions that precede ecosystem collapse and threaten human well-being. Terrestrial ecosystems enter into the nine originally defined planetary boundaries only indirectly, through boundaries such as biodiversity and land use. This study proposes a measurable terrestrial ecosystem boundary to answer the question: what extent of landscapes, bioregions, continents, and the global Earth System must remain as connected and intact core ecological areas and agro-ecological buffers t sustain local and regional ecosystem services as well as the biosphere commons? Two preeminent considerations are connectivity of large ecosystem patches, enabling them to persist as the matrix for the landscape, and critical collapse of the dominant large habitat patch – or "percolating cluster" – into smaller, more isolated habitats, amid a matrix of human development. This transition, found to occur at about 40% habitat loss in landscapes and bioregions, is likely to be similar at continental and global scales.

A new planetary boundary threshold is proposed based on ecology’s percolation theory: that across scales 60% of terrestrial ecosystems must remain, setting the boundary at 66% as a precaution, to maintain key biogeochemical processes that sustain the biosphere and for ecosystems to remain the context for human endeavors. Strict protection is proposed for 44% of global land, 22% as agro-ecological buffers, and 33% as zones of sustainable human use.

Because humanity is now the major force shaping the biosphere, up to 50% of Earth's land surface has already been cleared of natural ecosystems; thus the biosphere may already have lost its global percolating cluster. If so, with diminished connectivity, the global ecological system is now composed of islands of nature within a sea of humanity, meaning critical water, climate, soil, and other ecosystems processes are at risk. This observation suggests that to sustain the biosphere it is urgent to protect remaining large, relatively intact terrestrial ecosystems, especially old-growth and primary forests. This will require accelerating current approaches such as biosphere reserves, and taking up new polices such as a carbon tax to fund protection and restoration of natural and agro-ecological terrestrial ecosystems. To ensure global ecological sustainability, it will be necessary to reconnect matrices of intact ecosystems across scales, so that globally the biosphere and its constituent ecological processes and patterns can percolate back to connected nature as the context to all life. Otherwise, it is hypothesized the global biosphere may collapse and the Earth System perish.

Introduction to Planetary Boundaries

From Malthus (1798), through Aldo Leopold's land ethic (1949), to The Limits to Growth (Meadows et al. 1972), the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), and finally current planetary boundary and global change science (Rockström et al. 2009a, 2009b) runs a strand of concern about human growth's impacts upon Earth's biophysical systems – terrestrial ecosystems in particular – and about requirements for global ecological sustainability, while avoiding biosphere collapse. Our biosphere is composed of Earth's thin mantle of life present at, and just above and below, the Earth's surface. Some have indicated that human impacts upon the biosphere are analogous to a large, uncontrolled experiment, which threatens its collapse (Trevors et al. 2010). Little is known regarding what collapse of the biosphere would look like, how long it would take, what are its ecosystem and spatial patterns, and whether it is reversible or survivable. But it is becoming more widely recognized that Earth's ecosystem services depend fundamentally upon holistic, well-functioning natural systems (Cornell 2009).

Accelerating human pressures on the Earth System are exceeding numerous local, regional, and global thresholds, with abrupt and possibly irreversible impacts upon the planet's life-support functions (UNEP 2012). Planetary boundaries provide a framework to study these phenomena, by defining a "safe operating space for humanity with respect to the Earth System" (Rockström et al. 2009a). Planetary boundary studies seek to set control variable values that are a safe distance from thresholds of key biophysical processes governing the planet's self-regulation to maintain conditions conducive to life (Rockström et al. 2009b). This builds upon landmark efforts by Meadows et al. (1972) to first define global limits to growth. Their prediction that key resource scarcities would emerge has proven remarkably accurate (Turner 2008), albeit delayed – but not avoided – through the advent of computer technology. Ecological and economic warnings since at least Malthus have called attention to economies' dependence upon natural resources. The observation that near-exponential growth of human population and economic activity cannot be sustained, far from being disproven, is more valid than ever (Brown et al. 2011). Those who deny limits to growth are unaware of biological realities (Vitousek 1986).

The initial planetary boundary exercise identified nine global-scale processes, including climate change, rate of biodiversity loss (terrestrial and marine), nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, ozone depletion, ocean acidification, freshwater, land use change, chemical pollution, and atmospheric aerosol loading (Figure 1). Preliminary safe planetary thresholds were established for seven of these, and three – rate of biodiversity loss, climate change, and the nitrogen cycle – were found to have already surpassed such a threshold (Rockström et al. 2009a). Many such changes occur in a nonlinear, abrupt manner; others are more incremental and subtle. Yet both types of change threaten the viability of contemporary human societies by diminishing or destroying ecological life-support systems. If one or more of these boundaries are crossed, it could be "deleterious or even catastrophic" as nonlinear, abrupt environmental change occurs at the continental to planetary scale (Rockström et al. 2009b).

Here an ecologically rich revision to the planetary boundary framework is proposed – in the tradition of political ecology, not ignoring politics – to set the threshold of how many intact terrestrial ecosystems are required to sustain the biosphere. It is not possible to carry out controlled experiments upon our one biosphere to know at what point collapse occurs. We are thus left with observational studies and synthesis papers regarding what is known about ecosystem collapse at other scales. This paper first reviews what is known about biodiversity and old-growth forest loss, abrupt climate change, and ecosystem collapse as ecological systems are diminished at lesser scales. Next, the critical phase shift seen as landscapes percolate from nature surrounding humanity, to small reserves surrounded by human works, is presented as analogous to outcomes for the biosphere, whose terrestrial ecosystems are after all simply a large-scale landscape.

The remainder of the paper synthesizes these findings regarding ecosystem loss and thresholds in loss of ecosystem connectivity into a rationale for recognition of a 10^th planetary boundary in regard to terrestrial ecosystem loss. It is suggested that some two-thirds of Earth’s land surface should be protected totally (44%) or partially (another 22%) to avoid biosphere collapse. Given current best estimates are that approximately one-half of Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems have already been lost, the discussion centers around biocentric policy measures required to protect and restore terrestrial ecosystem connectivity in order to maintain global ecological sustainability.

Figure 1: Proposing a Terrestrial Ecosystem Loss Planetary Boundary. Currently nine planetary systems are recognized as providing a safe operating space for humanity, as long as boundaries are not exceeded. It is thought three systems (denoted with +) have already surpassed their boundaries. This paper proposes a Terrestrial Ecosystem boundary of 66% ecosystem land cover (44% as intact natural ecosystems and 22% as agro-ecological buffers) to avoid biosphere collapse. Best estimates are that about 50% of terrestrial ecosystems have been lost; thus this boundary has been surpassed too, albeit full impacts may not yet be realized due to time lags (adapted from Rockström et al. 2009a).

Coming Soon: the rest of this journal article as published mid-2014, including these headings:

Biodiversity and Old-Growth Forest Loss, Abrupt Climate Change, and Ecosystem Collapse
Percolation Theory and Landscape Connectivity
Terrestrial Ecosystem Loss as a Planetary Boundary
Biocentric Discussion on Achieving Global Ecological Sustainability

References

Allen, T. F. H. and Hoekstra, T. W. (1992), Toward a unified ecology: complexity in ecological systems, Columbia University Press, New York.

Andren, H. (1994), “Effects of habitat fragmentation on birds and mammals in landscapes with different proportions of suitable habitat: a review”, Oikos, 355-366.

Barnosky, A. D., Hadly, E. A., Bascompte, J., Berlow, E. L., Brown, J. H., Fortelius, M., … & Smith, A. B. (2012), “Approaching a state shift in Earth's biosphere”, Nature, 486(7401), 52-58.

Barnosky, A. D., Matzke, N., Tomiya, S., Wogan, G. O., Swartz, B., Quental, T. B., … & Ferrer, E. A. (2011), “Has the Earth's sixth mass extinction already arrived?” Nature, 471(7336), 51-57.

Barry, G. R., Rooney, T. P., Ventura, S. I., & Waller, D. M. (2001), “Evaluation of biodiversity value based on wildness: a study of the western Northwoods, Upper Great Lakes, USA”, Natural Areas Journal, 21: 229-242.

Bascompte, J., & Sole, R. V. (1996), “Habitat fragmentation and extinction thresholds in spatially explicit models”, Journal of Animal Ecology, 465-473.

Bellard, C., Bertelsmeier, C., Leadley, P., Thuiller, W., & Courchamp, F. (2012), “Impacts of climate change on the future of biodiversity”, Ecology Letters.

Biermann, F. (2012), “Planetary boundaries and earth system governance: exploring the links”, Ecological Economics, 81, 4-9.

Bhagwat, S. A., Nogué, S., & Willis, K. J. (2012), “Resilience of an ancient tropical forest landscape to 7500 years of environmental change”, Biological Conservation, 153, 108-117.

Biggs, R., Carpenter, S. R., & Brock, W. A. (2009), “Turning back from the brink: Detecting an impending regime shift in time to avert it”, Proceedings of the National academy of Sciences, 106(3), 826-831.

Bonan, G. B. (2008), “Forests and climate change: forcings, feedbacks, and the climate benefits of forests”, Science, 320(5882), 1444-1449.

Breshears, D. D., López-Hoffman, L., & Graumlich, L. J. (2011). “When ecosystem services crash: preparing for big, fast, patchy climate change”, AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 40(3), 256-263.

Brodie, J., Post, E., & Laurance, W. F. (2012), “Climate change and tropical biodiversity: a new focus”, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 27(3), 145–150.

Brown, J. H., Burnside, W. R., Davidson, A. D., Delong, J. R., Dunn, W. C., Hamilton, M. J., … & Zuo, W. (2011), “Energetic limits to economic growth”, BioScience, 61(1), 19-26.

Brovkin, V., Raddatz, T., Reick, C. H., Claussen, M., & Gayler, V. (2009), “Global biogeophysical interactions between forest and climate”, Geophysical Research Letters, 36(7), L07405.

Brundtland, G., Ehrlich, P., Goldemberg, J., Hansen, J., Lovins, A., Likens, G., … & International Union for the Conservation of Nature (2012) “Environment and Development Challenges: The Imperative to Act”, Blue Planet Laureates.

Bryant, D., Nielsen, D., & Tangley, L. (1997), Last frontier forests: Ecosystems and economies on the edge, World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.

Bryant, R. L. and Bailey, S. (1997), Third World Political Ecology, Psychology Press.

Butler, R. A., & Laurance, W. F. (2008), “New strategies for conserving tropical forests”, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 23(9), 469-472.

Cairns, J. (2010), “Threats to the biosphere: eight interactive global crises”, Journal of Cosmology, 8, 1906-1915.

Carpenter, S. R., Cole, J. J., Pace, M. L., Batt, R., Brock, W. A., Cline, T., ... & Weidel, B. (2011), “Early warnings of regime shifts: a whole-ecosystem experiment”, Science, 332(6033), 1079-1082.

Chapin III, F. S., Randerson, J. T., McGuire, A. D., Foley, J. A., & Field, C. B. (2008), “Changing feedbacks in the climate-biosphere system”, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 6(6), 313-320.

Choat, B., Jansen, S., Brodribb, T. J., Cochard, H., Delzon, S., Bhaskar, R., … & Zanne, A. E. (2012), “Global convergence in the vulnerability of forests to drought”, Nature, 491, (7426) , 752–755.

Cornell, S. (2012), “On the System Properties of the Planetary Boundaries”, Ecology and Society, 17(1), r2.

Cox, P. M., Betts, R. A., Collins, M., Harris, P. P., Huntingford, C., & Jones, C. D. (2004), “Amazonian forest dieback under climate-carbon cycle projections for the 21st century”, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 78(1), 137-156.

Crutzen, P. J. (2002), “Geology of mankind”, Nature, 415(6867), 23-23.

Dale, V. H., Joyce, L. A., McNulty, S., Neilson, R. P., Ayres, M. P., Flannigan, M. D., … & Michael Wotton, B. (2001), “Climate change and forest disturbances”, BioScience, 51(9), 723-734.

Dalgaard, T., Hutchings, N. J., & Porter, J. R. (2003), “Agroecology, scaling and interdisciplinarity”, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 100(1), 39-51.

Daly, H. E. (2005), “Economics in a full world”, Scientific American, 293(3), 100-107.

Diamond, M. (1984), “Historic extinctions: A Rosetta stone for understanding prehistoric extinctions”, in Martin, P. and Klein, R. (Eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ, 824-862.

Dobson, A., Ralls, K., Foster, M., Soulé, M. E., Simberloff, D., Doak, D., ... & Johns, D. (1999), “Corridors: Reconnecting Fragmented Landscapes”, in Soulé, M. E., and Terborgh, J. (eds.), Continental Conservation: Scientific Foundations of Regional Reserve Networks, Island Press, Washington, D.C.

Drake, J. M., & Griffen, B. D. (2010), “Early warning signals of extinction in deteriorating environments”, Nature, 467(7314), 456-459.

Ehrlich, P. and Ehrlich, A. (1981), Extinction: the causes and consequences of the disappearance of species, Random House, New York.

Ellis, E. C. (2010), “Anthropogenic transformation of the terrestrial biosphere”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 369(1938), 1010-1035.

Ericksen, P. J., Ingram, J. S., & Liverman, D. M. (2009), “Food security and global environmental change: emerging challenges”, Environmental Science & Policy, 12(4), 373-377.

Estes, J. A., Terborgh, J., Brashares, J. S., Power, M. E., Berger, J., Bond, W. J., … & Wardle, D. A. (2011), “Trophic downgrading of planet earth”, Science, 333(6040), 301-306.

Foley, J. A., Ramankutty, N., Brauman, K. A., Cassidy, E. S., Gerber, J. S., Johnston, M., … & Zaks, D. P. (2011), “Solutions for a cultivated planet”, Nature, 478(7369), 337-342.

Foley, J. A., DeFries, R., Asner, G. P., Barford, C., Bonan, G., Carpenter, S. R., … & Snyder, P. K. (2005), “Global consequences of land use”, Science, 309(5734), 570-574.

Folke, C., Jansson, Å., Rockström, J., Olsson, P., Carpenter, S. R., Chapin, F. S., … & Westley, F. (2011), “Reconnecting to the biosphere”, AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 1-20.

Folke, C., Carpenter, S., Walker, B., Scheffer, M., Elmqvist, T., Gunderson, L., & Holling, C. S. (2004), “Regime shifts, resilience, and biodiversity in ecosystem management”, Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 557-581.

Francis, C., Lieblein, G., Gliessman, S., Breland, T. A., Creamer, N., Harwood, R., … & Poincelot, R. (2003), “Agroecology: the ecology of food systems”, Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, 22(3), 99-118.

Galaz, V., Biermann, F., Crona, B., Loorbach, D., Folke, C., Olsson, P., … & Reischl, G. (2012), “‘Planetary boundaries’—exploring the challenges for global environmental governance,” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability.

Gibson, L., Lee, T. M., Koh, L. P., Brook, B. W., Gardner, T. A., Barlow, J., … & Sodhi, N. S. (2011), “Primary forests are irreplaceable for sustaining tropical biodiversity”, Nature, 478(7369), 378-381.

Gustafson, E. J., & Parker, G. R. (1992), “Relationships between landcover proportion and indices of landscape spatial pattern”, Landscape Ecology, 7(2), 101-110.

Haberl, H., Erb, K. H., Krausmann, F., Gaube, V., Bondeau, A., Plutzar, C., … & Fischer-Kowalski, M. (2007), “Quantifying and mapping the human appropriation of net primary production in earth's terrestrial ecosystems”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(31), 12942-12947.

Hannah, L., Midgley, G., Andelman, S., Araújo, M., Hughes, G., Martinez-Meyer, E., … & Williams, P. (2007), “Protected area needs in a changing climate”, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 5(3), 131-138.

Hansen, J., Sato, M., & Ruedy, R. (2012), “Perception of climate change”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 2415-2423.

Hansen, J., & Sato, M. (2011), “Paleoclimate Implications for Human-Made Climate Change”, Proceedings of Milutin Milankovitch 130th Anniversary Symposium.

Hansen, J., Sato, M., Kharecha, P., Beerling, D., Masson-Delmotte, V., Pagani, M., … & Zachos, J. C. (2008), “Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?” Open Atmospheric Science Journal, 2, 217.

Hastings, A., & Wysham, D. B. (2010), “Regime shifts in ecological systems can occur with no warning”, Ecology Letters, 13(4), 464-472.

Hargis, C. D., Bissonette, J. A., & David, J. L. (1998), “The behavior of landscape metrics commonly used in the study of habitat fragmentation”, Landscape Ecology, 13(3), 167-186.

Heyder, U., Schaphoff, S., Gerten, D., & Lucht, W. (2011), “Risk of severe climate change impact on the terrestrial biosphere”, Environmental Research Letters, 6(3), 034036.

International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007). Climate Change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.

Janzen, D. H. (1986), “The eternal external threat”, in M. E. Soulé (ed.), Conservation biology. The science of scarcity and diversity. Sinauer, Northampton, Mass.

Jones, T., Bamford, A. J., Ferrol-Schulte, D., Hieronimo, P., McWilliam, N., and Rovero, F. (2012), “Vanishing wildlife corridors and options for restoration: a case study from Tanzania”, Tropical Conservation Science, Vol. 5(4):463-474.

Kareiva, P., and Marvier, M. (2003), “Conserving Biodiversity Coldspots, Recent calls to direct conservation funding to the world's biodiversity hotspots may be bad investment advice”, American Scientist, 91(4), 344-351.

Kondrat'ev, K. Y., Losev, K. S., Ananicheva, M. D., & Chesnokova, I. V. (2001), “Elementary structural units of the biosphere and landscapes”, in Doklady Biological Sciences (Vol. 380, No. 1, pp. 448-449), MAIK Nauka/Interperiodica.

Kosoy, N., Brown, P. G., Bosselmann, K., Duraiappah, A., Mackey, B., Martinez-Alier, J., … & Thomson, R. (2012), “Pillars for a flourishing Earth: planetary boundaries, economic growth delusion and green economy”, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 4(1), 74-79.

Kricher, J. (1997), A Neotropical Companion, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.

Kuecker, G. D., & Hall, T. D. (2011), “Resilience and Community in the Age of World-System Collapse”, Nature and Culture, 6(1), 18-40.

Laurance, W. F., Useche, D. C., Rendeiro, J., Kalka, M., Bradshaw, C. J., Sloan, S. P., … & Plumptre, A. (2012), “Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas”, Nature, 489(7415), 290-294.

Laurance, W. F. (2004), “Forest-climate interactions in fragmented tropical landscapes”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 359(1443), 345-352.

Lenton, T. M., Held, H., Kriegler, E., Hall, J. W., Lucht, W., Rahmstorf, S., & Schellnhuber, H. J. (2008), “Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(6), 1786-1793.

Leopold, A. (1949), A Sand County Almanac, Oxford University Press: New York.

Lindenmayer, D. B., Laurance, W. F., & Franklin, J. F. (2012), “Global Decline in Large Old Trees”, Science, 338: 1305-1306.

Lovelock, J. E. (1979), Gaia: A new look at life on Earth, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Luyssaert, S., Schulze, E. D., Börner, A., Knohl, A., Hessenmöller, D., Law, B. E., … & Grace, J. (2008), “Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks”, Nature, 455(7210), 213-215.

Maclean, I. M., & Wilson, R. J. (2011), “Recent ecological responses to climate change support predictions of high extinction risk”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(30), 12337-12342.

Malthus, T. R. (1798), An Essay on the Principle of Population, Prometheus, Amherst, New York.

Malcolm, J. R., Liu, C., Neilson, R. P., Hansen, L., & Hannah, L. E. E. (2006),  “Global warming and extinctions of endemic species from biodiversity hotspots”, Conservation Biology, 20(2), 538-548.

Meadows, D. M., Randeus Jorgen, D. L. III, & William, W. (1972), The Limits to Growth, Universe, New York.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), Ecosystems and human well-being: our human planet: summary for decision-makers, Island Press, (Vol. 5).

Mooney, H., Larigauderie, A., Cesario, M., Elmquist, T., Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Lavorel, S., … & Yahara, T. (2009), “Biodiversity, climate change, and ecosystem services”, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 1(1), 46-54.

Moorcroft, P. R. (2006), “How close are we to a predictive science of the biosphere?” Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 21(7), 400-407.

Nasi, R., & Frost, P. G. (2009), “Sustainable forest management in the tropics: Is everything in order but the patient still dying”, Ecology and Society, 14(2), 40.

Nepstad, D. C., Stickler, C. M., Soares-Filho, B., & Merry, F. (2008), “Interactions among Amazon land use, forests and climate: prospects for a near-term forest tipping point”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363(1498), 1737-1746.

Noss, R. F., Dobson, A. P., Baldwin, R., Beier, P., Davis, C. R., Dellasala, D. A., … & Tabor, G. (2012), “Bolder thinking for conservation”, Conservation Biology, 26(1), 1-4.

Noss, R. F., Dinerstein, E., Gilbert, B., Gilpin, M., Miller, B. J., Terborgh, J., & Trombulak, S. (1999), “Core areas: where nature reigns”, Continental conservation: scientific foundations of regional reserve networks, Island Press, Washington, DC, 99-128.

Noss, R. and Cooperrider, A. (1994), Saving nature's legacy: protecting and restoring biodiversity, Island Press, Washington, D. C.

Noss, R. (1992), “The Wildlands Project: Land conservation strategy”, Wild Earth, Special Issue (1): 10-25.

Obersteiner, M., Böttcher, H., & Yamagata, Y. (2010). Terrestrial ecosystem management for climate change mitigation. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2(4), 271-276.

Olson, D. M., & Dinerstein, E. (2002), “The Global 200: Priority ecoregions for global conservation”, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 199-224.

O'Neill, B. C., Dalton, M., Fuchs, R., Jiang, L., Pachauri, S., & Zigova, K. (2010), “Global demographic trends and future carbon emissions”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(41), 17521-17526.

Pardini, R., de Arruda Bueno, A., Gardner, T. A., Prado, P. I., & Metzger, J. P. (2010). Beyond the fragmentation threshold hypothesis: regime shifts in biodiversity across fragmented landscapes. Plos One, 5(10), e13666.

Peterson, G. (2000), “Political ecology and ecological resilience: An integration of human and ecological dynamics”, Ecological Economics, 35(3), 323-336.

Rahmstorf, S., Cazenave, A., Church, J. A., Hansen, J. E., Keeling, R. F., Parker, D. E., & Somerville, R. C. (2007), “Recent climate observations compared to projections”, Science, 316(5825), 709-709.

Riitters, K. H., & Wickham, J. D. (2012), “Decline of forest interior conditions in the conterminous United States”, Scientific Reports, 2(653), 1-4.

Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, Å., Chapin, F. S., Lambin, E. F., … & Foley, J. A. (2009a), “A safe operating space for humanity”, Nature, 461(7263), 472-475.

Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, Å., Chapin III, F. S., Lambin, E., … & Foley, J. (2009b), “Planetary boundaries: exploring the safe operating space for humanity”, Ecology and Society, 14(2), 32.

Rosenzweig, C., Karoly, D., Vicarelli, M., Neofotis, P., Wu, Q., Casassa, G., … & Imeson, A. (2008), “Attributing physical and biological impacts to anthropogenic climate change”, Nature, 453(7193), 353-357.

Running, S. (2012), “A Measurable Planetary Boundary for the Biosphere”, Science, 337, 1458-1459.

Sasaki, N., & Putz, F. E. (2009), “Critical need for new definitions of ‘forest’ and ‘forest degradation’ in global climate change agreements”, Conservation Letters, 2(5), 226-232.

Scheffer, M., Bascompte, J., Brock, W. A., Brovkin, V., Carpenter, S. R., Dakos, V., … & Sugihara, G. (2009), “Early-warning signals for critical transitions”, Nature, 461(7260), 53-59.

Scheffer, M., Carpenter, S., Foley, J. A., Folke, C., & Walker, B. (2001),  “Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems”, Nature, 413(6856), 591-596.

Schlesinger, W. H. (2009), “Planetary boundaries: thresholds risk prolonged degradation”, Nature Reports Climate Change, 112-113.

Schumaker, N. H. (1996), “Using landscape indices to predict habitat connectivity”,  Ecology, 1210-1225.

Sheil, D., & Murdiyarso, D. (2009), “How forests attract rain: an examination of a new hypothesis”, BioScience, 59(4), 341-347.

Soulé, M. E., & Sanjayan, M. A. (1998), “Conservation Targets: Do They Help?” Science, 279(5359), 2060-2061.

Soulé, M. (1991), “Conservation: Tactics for a constant crisis”, Science, 253: 744-750.

Soulé, M. and Terborgh, J. (1999a), “The Policy and Science of Regional Conservation”, Continental Conservation: Scientific Foundations of Regional Reserve Networks, Island Press, Washington, D. C., 1-17.

Soulé, M. E., & Terborgh, J. (1999b). Conserving nature at regional and continental scales—a scientific program for North America. BioScience, 49(10), 809-817.

Soulé, M. E. and Noss, R. (1998), “Rewilding and biodiversity as complementary tools for continental conservation”, Wild Earth, (8(3)): 18-28.

Steffen, W., Persson, Å., Deutsch, L., Zalasiewicz, J., Williams, M., Richardson, K., … & Svedin, U. (2011), “The Anthropocene: From global change to planetary stewardship”, AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 1-23.

Swift, T. L., & Hannon, S. J. (2010), “Critical thresholds associated with habitat loss: a review of the concepts, evidence, and applications”, Biological Reviews, 85(1), 35-53.

Taylor, D. M., & Taylor, G. M. (2007) “The collapse and transformation of our world”, Journal of Futures Studies, 11(3), 29-46.

Terborgh, J. and van Schaik, C. (1997), “Minimizing Species Loss: The Imperative of Protection”, Last stand: Protected areas and the defense of tropical biodiversity, Oxford University Press, New York, 15-33.

Trevors, J. T., Stavros, N., & Saier Jr, M. H. (2010), “The Big Biosphere Experiment” Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, 205, 53-54.

Turner, G. M. (2008), “A comparison of The Limits to Growth with 30 years of reality”, Global Environmental Change, 18(3), 397-411.

United Nations Environment Programme (2012), “Global Environment Outlook 5: Summary for Policy Makers”, United Nations Environment Programme.

United Nations Environment Programme (2002), Global Environment Outlook 3: Past, present and future perspectives, London: 397.

Vieira, S., Trumbore, S., Camargo, P. B., Selhorst, D., Chambers, J. Q., Higuchi, N., & Martinelli, L. A. (2005), “Slow growth rates of Amazonian trees: consequences for carbon cycling” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(51), 18502-18507.

Vitousek, P. M., Mooney, H. A., Lubchenco, J., & Melillo, J. M. (1997), “Human domination of Earth's ecosystems,” Science, 277(5325), 494-499.

Vitousek, P. M., Ehrlich, P. R., Ehrlich, A. H., & Matson, P. A. (1986), “Human appropriation of the products of photosynthesis”, BioScience, 36(6), 368-373.

Walker, P. A. (2005), “Political ecology: where is the ecology”, Progress in Human Geography, 29(1), 73-82.

Walker, B., & Steffen, W. (1997), “An overview of the implications of global change for natural and managed terrestrial ecosystems”, Conservation Ecology, 1(2).

Williams, J. C., & Snyder, S. A. (2005), “Restoring habitat corridors in fragmented landscapes using optimization and percolation models”, Environmental Modeling and Assessment, 10(3), 239-250.

Williams, M. (2003), Deforesting the Earth: From Prehistory to Global Crisis, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

Williams, R. S. (2000), “A modern Earth Narrative: what will be the fate of the biosphere?” Technology in Society, 22(3), 303-339.

Wilson, E. O. (1985), “The biological diversity crisis”, BioScience, 35(11), 700-706.

With, K. A., & Crist, T. O. (1995), “Critical thresholds in species' responses to landscape structure”, Ecology, 76(8), 2446-2459.

Wu, J. (2004), “Effects of changing scale on landscape pattern analysis: scaling relations”, Landscape Ecology, 19(2), 125-138.

Zalasiewicz, J., Williams, M., Haywood, A., Ellis, M., Zalasiewicz, J., Williams, M., ... & Ellis, M. (2011), “The Anthropocene: a new epoch of geological time?” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 369(1938), 835-841.

Zimmerman, B. L., & Kormos, C. F. (2012), “Prospects for sustainable logging in tropical forests”, BioScience, 62(5), 479-487.

God Pollution: Nature Is My Religion, Earth Is My Temple

There are no invisible ghosts in the sky ruling over and judging us. God pollution kills, obscures truth, and slows progress. All we have and need is each other, kindred species, ecosystems, and the biosphere.

By Dr. Glen Barry, EcoInternet

God pollution threatens our existence

On a small planet plagued by a myriad of life-threatening problems, it’s time to choose between truth and myth, superstition and wisdom, life and death. Either you believe in truth, justice, and knowledge, or you let ghosts, spirits, and superstition guide you.

Observable truths are the only basis for the necessary social change to bring about ecological sustainability and equitable justice. As long as we believe in ghosts in the sky more than the ecosystems that nurture us, there is no hope.

There are way too many false prophets, claiming absolute truth and being used for false profits. God pollution has decimated humanity, society, and ecology for millennia. Organized religions’ superstition and belief in ghosts limit the human family’s ability to come together to sustain global ecology.

It is better to live a life based upon doing what is observably right and good, and go to hell, than to waste a life following the edicts of invisible, nonexistent gods.


God Pollution

GOD POLLUTION has decimated humanity, society, and ecology for millennia. Superstition and belief in ghosts hold back human advancement. Belief in mythical, god ghosts in the sky is malarkey, the worst sort of mind pollution ever. Yet such irrational thought has become firmly entrenched in society and the body politic, with tremendous deleterious effects.

I am told religion is love. Yet, the crusades, the Inquisition, European colonialism under the cross, slave trades, islamo-fascism, and millennia of religious wars don’t seem to have been so full of love. Those who believe in various flavors of god have been at war for centuries, over who most fanatically believes in their invisible ghost and all-knowing book. Organized religion is organized delusional superstition devoid of fact and real truthful love.

Superstition has been the basis for much evil and ecosystem destruction and will never be the basis for ecological sustainability. Edicts to go forth and multiply, and to subdue nature and nonbelievers, have left a shameful legacy of genocide and ecocide. Even in this age of modernity and glittering technology, religious extremism of every type thrust upon the public sphere continues to be one of the gravest threats facing human well-being, advancement, sustainability, rights, liberty, and free thinking.

The amount of credence and power given to unknowable faith by organized religion – at the expense of observable science and other truths – in governing society is truly shocking. Medieval fairy tale beliefs in invisible ghosts have no place in governance or policy-making. These types of illogical, irrational god myths are largely responsible for many societal problems, including the current state of perma-war, abject poverty, and global ecosystem collapse.

It is time that nonbelievers demand that superstitious people keep their god myths off of our bodies, out of our government, and treading lightly upon Earth – retaining them (if at all) as personal spirituality.  And stop denigrating – and even killing – those who have shrugged off the mental slavery of mindless faith and don’t believe in your threadworn, bloody myths.


Truth and Earth Are Godlike

One can believe in spirit, truth, and life – living in faith and grace – while rejecting absent god myths sold by corrupted and outdated organized religions. The myth of human superiority and the division caused by the belief in multiple “gods” have brought the Earth, her peoples, and all species to their knees.

We must embrace the truths before us that are vital for our survival and well-being. There are no nations, we are one human family, god is a myth, and Earth is alive and dying. And all humans have inalienable rights and sacred duties to live justly and sustainably.

Truth and wisdom matter. Having an opinion – particularly drawn from a book of dubious origins, full of contradictory statements – is not the same as education, knowledge, and wisdom. Much loudly spoken ignorance is the result of superstition, limited experience, and a brainwashed disregard for truth.

Truths exist and are being ignored, for instance: that we need clean water to survive, that land can only support so many people, that we are all one human species, and that there are no invisible ghosts in the sky ruling over us. All we have is each other, kindred species, ecosystems, and the biosphere.

Humanity is one species – separated by national, religious, and class lies, yet utterly dependent upon each other, on kindred species, and on our shared ecosystem habitats for a continued decent existence. If we don’t embrace such ecological truths and abandon superstition as the basis for living our lives, human and all being will end.

Look around you at the trees, animals, sky, and land; this is what there is to observable reality. You already exist in a paradise and don’t have to put off pleasure. Embrace the here and now of ecology that surrounds and nurtures us, to which our bodies return upon death.

God myths are dead and have no place in the movement to sustain ecology. Ecological sustainability – and a just, equitable world – will not come from superstitious zealots for organized religion. No climate, ecological, or social justice answers will come from such medieval, conflicting, and unknowable myths and superstitions.

Sustaining ecology requires a fresh way of thinking that stresses trained intuition, science, wisdom, and love for the human family and all life, while deeply valuing education, observation, and experience of many types. Commit yourself to Earth, truth, knowledge, wisdom, logic, rationality, justice, equity, rights, and duties now in order that humanity, all creatures, and Earth may survive and thrive together.

This rejection of organized religion does not mean one should be blinded to spiritual awe and to ritual that binds us to the Earth and the universe’s mysteries.

Gaia – the Earth System – is godlike and the giver of all life, the mother’s womb from which all life flows, a loving but firm nurturer, that provides as long as her rules (and her children’s duties) are recognized and respected. Gaia is spirituality that matters, because it is based upon truthful observation, not ancient and irrelevant god myths. Worshiping Earth and her life speaks to the challenges of ecocide, collapsing ecosystems, justice and equity, and truthfully sustaining global ecology, her peoples, and all life based upon what is observably evident.

Ecology is the ultimate truth. Without intact natural ecosystems there can be no life. Humanity is destroying natural life for fleeting comfort for some. It cannot last long. Either the human family changes – rejecting god myths for truthful knowledge – or ecology collapses and we all needlessly die in a final apocalypse. The god-freaks’ self-fulfilling prophecy will have come true, but I can assure you the only heaven is the Earth that will have been lost.

Nature is my religion, Earth is my temple.


The Unholy Trinity

Economics, religion, and nationalism are utter nonsense, and their teachings and organizations are destroying the ecological basis of being. Organized religion, nanny government, and authoritarian corporatism together combine to enslave humanity in abusive hierarchical structures, leading to overexploitation and even murder of other people, species, ecosystems, and the Earth for profit, god, and country.

Islamo- and Christo-fascists try to out-crazy each other. Christo-fascists lack none of the craziness of their Islamo-fascist counterparts, and are no less loony and dangerous, equally ready to murder for their false god. Indeed, right-wing nut-job Christians are much the greater threat to Earth and all peoples as they have nukes, money, and power over resources to utterly destroy being. In fact, Earth’s destruction is their goal as they fully expect to leave this tawdry world of their own making and be whisked away to paradise.

There will never be long-term ecological sustainability – or universal justice, equity, and rights – as long as corporatists, churches, nanny governments, and their media hold power. An economic system based upon infinite growth in a finite world can only spectacularly collapse. Despite being brainwashed to worship mythical ghosts and indoctrinated to salute authoritarian power, people have no excuse for ecocide, fascism, or stupidity.

In god’s name much evil is promulgated. Destroying ecosystems for “development” is evil. Standing armies to better wage perma-war are evil. Industrial speculative capitalism that commodifies nature and humanity is evil. Lack of global rights, justice, and equity is evil too. Why are we tolerating evil? Could it be that millennia-long proselytizing by zealots for personal gain has brainedwashed us to call hate love, war peace, and evil god?

The history of god fairy tales is the history of ecocide, injustice, and war. God pollution destroys ecology and all that is natural, decent, and good. Conflicting and militant superstitious myths undermine truth and threaten us all.

There is no god, and god pollution must be resisted if we are to survive. Those who don’t believe superstitious god myths have every right to speak up – at least as much as those promoting a plethora of god myths – as we watch the damage done to ecology, truth, peace, and society by adherence to unknowable fairy tales in an age of science and ecocide.

You can never know my dismay and outrage as society and governments – with innumerable social and ecology crises threatening the very existence of us all – are run by mythical edicts from absent gods rather than by truth, logic, wisdom, and knowledge. There can be no human progress or even survival from ecocide if the bastardized words of mythical ancient carpenters and warlords are all we have to go on.

Militant belief and public proselytizing on behalf of competing invisible gods and other nonsensical fairy tales are stopping humanity from urgently responding to clearly visible deterioration and looming collapse of global ecology and society. Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and Christian fanatics lead mirror-image intolerant, superstitious, and truthless lives based upon false messiahs, failed dogma, a mythical afterlife, religious wars, and other deadly lies that are killing Earth and all life right before our eyes in the here and now.

We need to stop quibbling about whose invisible god is better and focus upon rational solutions to observed decline in the physical reality surrounding and nurturing us, which is collapsing and dying.


Free, Truthful Thinking Will Lead the Way

Our path to future well-being is simple, and rather than waiting for invisible ghosts in the sky to respond to our prayers, it focuses upon expecting more from ourselves. We must learn to rekindle connections to ecosystems, kindred life, each other, and nature, and in so doing to sustain being essentially forever. The power is within each of us to transform ourselves and our shared reality, in the here and now, for the better, based upon what is observably good and true.

Believe in truth and ecology; distrust partisan politics, corporations, organized religion, and the urge for more stuff; and educate and trust in yourself as well. Learn to identify observable threats from antiquated parables. Trust in radical freedom as long as one is not hurting oneself, others, or the Earth. Embrace obvious, scientifically validated truths such as this: together we either stop cutting old-growth forest ecosystems and burning fossil fuels or face final apocalyptic death.

Fairy tales don’t make good ecological policy. Toxic god pollution has a shameful history of killing all with which it comes in contact. Given their scurrilous, predatory, and ecocidal histories, religions including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism offer no basis for justly sustaining ecology. A few green initiatives here and there, after millennia of natural desecration, do not redeem ecocidal faith.

Declare yourself free from religion. Insist that the god-deluded please keep their Abrahamic god mythology to themselves. The key to living a good, truthful life is to think freely, resist indoctrination, unlearn myths and untruths, find your own road, and be about big, truthful ideas larger than yourself. And focus upon loving and defending Earth, the most observable and evident godlike being.

Beliefs in invisible, mythical gods are fundamentally incompatible with achieving a just, truthful, fair, and ecologically sustainable world. Such superstitious fairy tales serve only to lead humans, like lambs, to their unreasoned slaughter.

The issue is the corrosive role of organized religion upon society and ecology, not individual personal faith practiced in the privacy of one’s home. Believe whatever you want personally. But again, I insist that you please keep your god out of government, treading lightly upon Earth, and off of and out of nonbelievers’ bodies. Then all is fine.

I am not sure where we go when we die, yet I am unable and unwilling to accept millennial tales handed down without a shred of evidence to me by those with obvious conflicts of interest. Like fairies, religious belief is comforting and fun to think about for some, yet both are clearly myths. And untruthful myths stop us from focusing upon the here-and-now, observable world before us, which is in great need of reason-based social change.

There is nothing I hate more than being proselytized to by ignorant, small-minded, and superstitious people about ghosts in the sky – whom we can live with, if we follow their dogma. How stupid do you think we are? Geez, get a grip.

If superstitious religious people put half as much thought into caring for the world before our very eyes as they do about a mythical afterlife, everything – particularly global rights, ecology, and fairness – would be much improved.

Mythical gods can’t save ecology, celebrities aren’t able, and the oil oligarchy’s governments won’t. It is up to you and me to save being, based upon a reasoned sense of self-enlightenment. It is time to think freely to solve our problems with an open mind, unfettered by myth, or we are all going to die needlessly as ecology collapses.

Above all else, commit to truth – of all types, particularly Earth truth – as the only just and equitable basis to sustain ecology and universal well-being. Free, truthful thinking enmeshed within ecology’s warm embrace is the answer.

Achieving global ecological sustainability and rights for all living beings will require a sense of rationality and respect for knowledge that is lacking. Throw off indoctrination, mind control, and superstition; and instead THINK FREELY.  And commit to large important ideas like Earth, equity, justice, and other self-evident truths. Together we can make it so. Only then will humanity live forever in an Earthly paradise.

Ecology Is the Meaning of Life

Naturally evolved ecosystems are marvels that make Earth habitable, yet sadly they and all life are threatened

By Dr. Glen Barry, EcoInternet, http://EcoInternet.org/

Miraculous Nature

Ultimately, all humanity and all life have is the biosphere, the thin layer of life just above and below Earth’s surface, composed of ancient, miraculously evolved natural ecosystems. The natural Earth is a marvel – a complex coupling of species within ecosystems, whereby life begets life.

Ecology is far more than the study of life and its environment. The word is used here as a synonym for ecosystems – the vibrant connections that emerge between species across scales, which cumulatively make life on Earth possible.

Nature is far, far more than pretty plants and animals. Ecosystems make Earth habitable, providing water, food, air, shelter, and more – everything that we need and desire to live well. In naturally evolved ecosystems, from genes to individual organisms and species, to ecosystems and everything else in between, each living being present fulfills a niche which sustains itself, its neighbors, and the whole.

All species uniquely express evolutionary brilliance and have a purpose, a reason for being, a right to exist, and are necessary to maintain life’s full potential. From the lowly worm to soaring eagles, to the human race – all naturally evolved life has value and relies upon all the rest. Even seemingly noxious disease organisms and man-eating predators have a role to play in maintaining ecological balance.

The Earth as a whole is a living organism, similar biologically to a cell, plant, animal, or ecosystem. Yet sadly, she is being murdered by industrial human growth at the expense of ecosystems. Past certain planetary boundary conditions, like any life, Earth can die.

Without large intact ecosystems, Earth becomes uninhabitable. The vibrant mélange of life found in natural ecosystems is godlike in its all-embracing nurturing. Ecology is the meaning of life.

Ecosystem Collapse

Humankind’s demand for resources and growth overwhelms nature, our steady diminishment of ecosystems abruptly changes climate, and this is collapsing the biosphere. Global ecosystems – water, air, food, forests, oceans, wetlands, and more – are collapsing and dying under the burden of human industrial and population growth.

Human destruction of natural ecosystems and disintegrating climatic integrity are already past critical thresholds. Humanity (meaning each of us) can’t dump filth into air, defecate into water, kill and diminish natural vegetation, plunder oceans, and expect a habitable Earth and decent lives. Abrupt climate change is indicative of much broader decline, both ecological and social – habitat loss, water shortages, inequitable overconsumption, dead oceans, nationalistic injustice, and industrial agriculture – that threatens life itself.

Comforts of modern life for some come at the expense of utterly decimating natural ecosystems required to sustain life; such comforts cannot last. Mass chaos and death are sure to ensue. No one will survive abrupt climate change, ecosystem loss, and biosphere collapse.

Ecosystems are being wantonly liquidated based upon the myth that we can grow forever. Yet we know perpetual exponential economic growth is impossible on a finite planet. Humanity is systematically dismantling Earth’s environmental life support systems, and at most a few more decades of industrial growth will be inevitably followed by ecosystem and biosphere collapse.

The human family is epically failing to protect and restore ecosystems and reduce greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to avert global ecosystem collapse, achieve ecological sustainability, and enjoy universal well-being forever. The brutal manner in which humankind treats Earth, other species, and each other makes a mockery of claims of being civilized. At our worst, we have become out-of-control vermin destroying our own habitat for momentary pleasure.

The human family is in ecological overshoot, having exceeded Earth’s carrying capacity, and is pulling down all species and the biosphere with us, as Earth’s life collapses into nothingness. There is no easy way out, as together we face an end to ecology, and thus life itself.

Sustainability Solutions Exist

Workable solutions to climate change and broad-based environmental decline exist; they include ending fossil fuels, protecting and restoring ecosystems, agro-ecological food production, reducing population and inequity, and establishing a steady state economy. Plainly, however, such a transition is not going to be easy. Solutions to avert global ecosystem collapse will be disruptive. Yet there is no alternative if together humanity is to survive and enjoy well-being within Earth’s ecological boundaries.

Industrial growth at the expense of ecosystems and climate must end as soon as possible. For human and all life’s survival and well-being, intact ecosystems must remain the context for human endeavors. Huge potential exists to further develop organic, permaculture based agro-ecological systems for growing our food. Ultimately, we are all challenged to create something of worth from our hands and minds working on the land, based upon regenerating and nurturing ecosystems, for our daily sustenance.

We each must nurture a sense of enoughness, realizing more isn’t always better, particularly if it undermines our natural habitat, and thus our ability to persist.

It is not too late to embrace an ecology ethic. But the longer we wait, the more limited our options. Despite pernicious trends in ecological decline – and allowing for the possibility of a deep resiliency to the Earth System of which we are unaware – out of love of life, we owe it to Earth, kindred species, and kids everywhere to try everything possible to save being.

Growth in industry, population, consumption, and inequity cannot be maintained. Together we must reach a steady state economy whereby natural capital is replenished, not diminished. Through measures like educating all girls and providing birth control to all, we must urgently pursue reductions in human population, the most basic human impact upon the climate and ecosystems, or the biosphere collapses.

Ignorance and superstition must be banished through education and promoting a love of truth, justice, knowledge, wisdom, and fairness.

For capitalism to have any future and avoid social, ecological, and economic collapse on a dead planet, it must learn to price external costs and environmental risk now, while rejecting its obsession with growth as the ultimate measure of well-being. Otherwise industrial capitalism will have to be replaced soon just so most may survive, let alone thrive.

Alternatives exist that are fair and reward hard work, but sadly we find it easier to consider the end of life on Earth, rather than embrace essential social change.

For human survival and well-being, committing acts of ecocide that destroy ecosystems must somehow be made unacceptable, and this must be enforced. The environment movement must make more of an effort to communicate the complexity of ecological crises, their profound risk, and these and other sufficient solutions – while resolutely rejecting and outing greenwash that legitimates ecocidal activities.

The green movement must also move beyond awareness-raising stunts and build a broad-based movement to seize power and to implement the ecological policies necessary to sustain being.
Only total societal reorganization away from destroying ecosystems and burning fossil fuels can save Earth and humanity. Either humanity finds a way together to implement difficult ecological policies to end fossil fuels, protect ecosystems, and achieve a steady-state economy – or it is the end. No measures except indiscriminate terrorism targeting innocents can be off the table in efforts to together protect ecology.

Hope in Ecosystems

Today free your mind and senses to see ecology everywhere, in everything you do, and the myriad ways it suffers from human hubris, indifference, ignorance, and overuse.

As long as together we still breathe, there is hope we can sustain Earth, but realistically the state of ecosystems and the biosphere is grim and worsening. We must start in haste, today, to build the world that is possible and needed.

Love of other peoples and species, nature, truth, justice, and equity are the only lasting basis of global ecological sustainability and show the only effective way forward to avoid final ecosystem collapse.
For a sustainable, decent future we must go back to the land, stop burning fossil fuels, and nurture ecosystems and one another.

We are one human family with inalienable rights and duties to freedom, work, equity, peace, justice, and sustained ecology. Profound inequity, ecological collapse, persistent injustice, nationalistic perma-war, superstition, and ignorance when faced with truth – all are sicknesses that mar human potential and will prove fatal.

Together the human family either learns to live well together within intact ecosystems and without fossil fuels or faces a period of profound suffering, followed by biosphere collapse and the end of being. Together we could end the current system’s elite rule, inequity, injustice, and gross ecological negligence at any time. Either we act together soon, courageously, on the basis of truthful ecological knowledge, or else each of us alone faces misery and a final apocalyptic global ecological collapse.

Ecology is the meaning of life. Truth, justice, equity, and sustainability are the ideals whereby ecology can be maintained. Let’s make it so.