Make peace with the climate, ecology, and
each other
The global ecological system collapses and dies as human
growth overruns natural ecosystems and climate. Our best hope is to
declare peace with the natural world – starting with climate and
old-growth forests – coming together as peace-makers of the rainbow for
truth, love, justice, equity, and ecology.
Only a declaration of climate peace based upon protecting
and restoring natural ecosystems including the atmosphere can save us
now… Making peace with ecology will allow our descendants to live
forever, rather than suffer and die miserably in ecologically
apocalyptic wastelands. — Dr. Glen Barry
Earth Meanders deep ecology essays by Dr. Glen Barry
Ending Ecocide and Genocide
Humanity has waged war against the natural world for millennia,
intensifying with the industrial revolution, culminating with 9/11
terror and resulting perma-war, and threatening now to collapse the
biosphere. Centuries ago an epic wave of ecological terror swept from
Northern Europe as the industrial revolution and colonialism put a price
on everything, liquidating natural ecosystems for illusory consumption
by some, based upon false claims of advancement. Fleeting creature
comforts for a few generations for some have come at the expense of
apocalyptic war waged upon our ecological habitats and all that is
different than ourselves.
In the name of god and country, indigenous cultures ensconced within
the loving embrace of natural ecosystems, living materially simple but
ecologically rich lives, were labeled savages and brutally murdered in
waves of ecocide and genocide. Millions of year old natural ecosystems
were systematically dismantled, and their vibrant life forms mercilessly
slaughtered, to be used as resources to fuel the fires of industry.
Anything that could burn, including timeless carbon stores of ancestral
life meant to remain sequestered, were set ablaze to fuel our insatiable
urges.
Indigenous people will lead the way to
climate peace
Multi-pronged wars upon nature proclaimed as god’s will, and thus
destined to be waged by exceptional nations, have utterly devastated
naturally evolved ecosystems, the current climate equilibrium,
non-Western cultures, and the sum total of life known as the biosphere. A
constant state of conflict with nature and all people with heritages
other than that of European settlers has left the world in an
overpopulated, biologically tawdry and diminished condition, poised upon
utter and complete ecological ruin. The end of being is nigh, yet hope
inherent in ecology and peace remains.
Declaring Climate Peace
It is time to declare and make a lasting peace with the natural world
– starting with climate and intact ecosystems such as old-growth
forests, and encompassing all Earth’s life, including other peoples.
Each of us must seek to minimize biological, ecological, and cultural
conflict in order to allow Earth to rest, recuperate, and recover.
Only a declaration of climate peace based upon protecting and
restoring natural ecosystems including the atmosphere can save us now.
Old-growth forests must be protected and restored
to limit abrupt climate change
Why does Bill McKibben’s recent sensationalist appeal for a “War
on Climate” make no mention, not even one, of ecology or ecosystems?
While understanding Mr. McKibben is trying to call for a rapid societal
response at a massive scale to an urgent existential threat, perhaps a
better analogy would be demobilizing to make climate peace by cutting emissions and reforesting, as declarations of war often only make things worse.
It is irresponsible and contrary to established
ecological science for Mr. McKibben to promote a war on climate focused
solely upon techno-optimist industrial solutions. First and foremost,
climate change is an ecological issue… I, for one, am much less
perturbed that Bill occasionally uses plastic bags for his groceries,
than that he apparently has little understanding of the ecological
systems that maintain a livable Earth. — Dr. Glen Barry
Earth Meanders, Deep ecology essays by Dr. Glen Barry
Climate policies matter. We have very few chances to get it right
before abrupt climate change and related environmental and social issues
collapse the biosphere. Yet the solutions being put forth by the
leading climate activists—including Bill McKibben, Al Gore, Leonardo
DiCaprio, Naomi Klein, and Michael Brune—are woefully inadequate. In
fact, their lack of ecological focus is dangerous and wrong, and
virtually ensures failure in limiting global warming to an acceptable
level.
In a recent New Republic essay entitled “A World at War”,
Mr. McKibben states “We’re under attack from climate change—and our
only hope is to mobilize like we did in WWII.” The colorful essay
correctly notes the urgency of a dramatic, urgent, and large-scale
response to the threats posed by climate change. Yet we are led to
falsely believe that a war-like industrial retooling to produce
massively more solar panels and wind turbines more quickly will prove
adequate to solve climate change. At best this is meaningless jingoism,
at its worst it dangerously misdiagnoses climate change’s causes, and
does not propose ecologically sufficient climate change solutions.
NOT EVEN ONCE does Bill’s essay calling for a war on climate mention
the biological and ecological aspects of our climate change conundrum.
In fact, the words ecology, ecosystem, and even environment are not
used. How is it that the climate movement’s perceived Martin Luther King
type transformational figure has the science and policy behind climate
change so dangerously wrong?
Natural ecosystem loss as a cause, and positive-feedback fed result,
of abrupt climate change is once again given short shrift, and
protecting and enhancing the natural environment is amazingly completely
ignored once again by Mr. McKibben as an element of climate solutions.
Instead we are left with war metaphors and further industrial
development as a dangerously incomplete climate policy prescription.
What the hell Bill? Where is your understanding of ecology, and your
embrace of widespread and connected natural ecosystems as a crucial
element of any climate change solution?
Mr. McKibben, climate change is not Hitler, and waging war will not
solve it. Climate change results not only from billions of pistons
burning fossil fuels, it is also caused by billions of conscious
decisions to destroy the naturally evolved world – one tree, or patch of
ground, at a time – which through vegetation’s cycling of water,
energy, and carbon have sustained a habitable Earth for eons. Of course
at some level Bill you must realize this, but why not speak, write, and
advocate for protecting and restoring natural ecosystems as a keystone
climate change response?
Permaculture forest gardens intermixed with
regenerating old-growth key to stabilizing
carbon cycle
Maintaining natural stores of carbon and the natural carbon cycle
between these repositories is of primary importance in limiting abrupt
climate change and ensuring it doesn’t become run-away. Mr. McKibben’s
vision of a war-like industrial mobilization is myopic and entirely
ignores the re-greening of land and waters that must occur. We could end
fossil fuel emissions rapidly, and still drown in historical emissions,
if there are not ways to remove what has already been emitted from the
atmosphere (we are at over 400 parts per million of carbon and Bill’s
group’s name 350.org acknowledges we have surpassed the safe limit). How
else but through natural processes associated with plant growth will
global ecological balance be restored?
The simple ecological truth is that natural vegetation holds and
cycles carbon in a manner that removes carbon from the atmosphere. We
know much carbon is released when natural vegetation is cleared or
reduced. And that there is tremendous potential to re-vegetate the vast
areas of land that have been cleared of natural ecosystems, as nearly
90% of primary forests have been cleared or dramatically diminished
through fragmentation. All remaining old-growth forests must be
protected not only as carbon stores, but also for sources of seed and
genetic variability for the coming era of ecosystem restoration and
climate adaptation, and aided to expand and reconnect. Along with
secondary forests undergoing succession into old-growth status,
inter-mixed with organic permaculture and forest gardens, expanded
natural forest ecosystems have dramatic potential to store carbon and
perhaps more importantly keep it cycling.
Given how many natural terrestrial ecosystems have been lost, it is
vital to avoiding willful ecocide that we stop logging ancient
old-growth forests, allowing them to recover and expand.
I assert with absolute certainty as a trained ecologist after a lifetime of study and nurturing of ecological intuition that there is no possible solution to climate change that does not include large natural forests covering the majority of Earth’s land mass.
So why is Mr. McKibben and 350.org not calling for an immediate end to old-growth logging and massive program to restore native forest ecosystems along with all those solar and wind factories? In what can only be called willful negligence, essentially the entire climate change glitterati including Mr. McKibben refuses to publicly support in a major way protecting and restoring old-growth forests as part of the climate change solution, despite being called upon to do so by myself and others for over a decade.
Why could this possibly be? Is it ignorance? Is the climate movement’s leadership out of their element? Does a Journalism degree from Harvard qualify someone to craft planetary ecological solutions? Why is it that the largest, most well-funded voices on climate are not only a journalist by training; but the others are an accountant, a philosopher, a politician, and an actor. Why are none of the leading climate spokespersons who are espousing climate policies trained in ecological science?
Is it possible that, however well intentioned, a climate change movement led by those without ecological training are missing the crucial link between functioning natural ecosystems and a functioning climate and biosphere? And that possibly their sense of hubris and self-importance leads them to miss this crucial universal truth that natural vegetation and an operational climate are tightly coupled and intricately dependent upon each other?
Could the Earth System be a living organism dependent upon natural ecosystems to cycle carbon and Bill, Leo, Mike, Naomi and Al wouldn’t know it?
It is possible that the climate change leadership’s funding sources have an interest in continued destruction of natural ecosystems. 350.org is primarily funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, also a long-time funder of “sustainable old-growth forest logging”, the same pile of ill-gotten fossil fuel money that has long funded the lie put forth by the Forest Stewardship Council and other logging apologists that old-growth forests can and should be logged sustainably. Two decades ago it looked like primary forest logging was waning and would end, then along came a false solution based upon bad science, and we now have questionably sustainable old-growth forest toilet paper and lawn furniture. We know it is good because the Rockefeller funded stamp of approval says so.
We have known for over 100 years, since John Muir’s prescient preservationist warnings, reinforced by modern science, that logging old-growth forests can never be done sustainably. Contemporary planetary boundary science makes clear more natural forest ecosystems have been lost than the biosphere can bear. My own research indicates that at 66% loss of natural ecosystems, the global biosphere percolates and loses critical connectivity required to sustain terrestrial ecosystems and thus the biosphere.
Climate change could be solved tomorrow and soil erosion, ecosystem loss, nitrogen and phosphorous deposition, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, emergent disease, toxic synergies, mass extinction, ocean decline, water scarcity, over-population, inequity, perma-war, and any number of other of social environmental issues could still decimate and perhaps end humanity. Climate change is a symptom of deeper maladies which will not be addressed in isolation.
There are many elements of sufficient climate policy other than natural ecosystems given short thrift by a techno-optimist vision overly focused upon industrial production of renewable energy. Some can happen right away with the same urgency as ramping up renewable energy. What of energy conservation? Reduced meat diets based upon local organic production? Foregoing personal automobiles and flying less? Others are more long-term but must start immediately and be maintained if there is any hope for global ecological sustainability. What of reducing inequity to ensure all of humanity’s basic needs are met? Having fewer children? And perhaps most importantly, working to demobilize standing armies as has occurred throughout history except in the last 100 years.
A focus upon vilifying the fossil fuel industry, a product that virtually every global citizen depends, even the climate glitterati, will only get you so far. At some point, only calls for sacrifice, equity, and justice will get the job done. Yet climate leaders such as Leo DiCaprio won’t even give up their profligate emissions for leisure on private jets and yachts. On an over-populated, inequitable world that has already overshot ecological limits, it is wrong and dangerous to suggest we can continue conspicuously overconsuming electricity generated through industrial scale renewable energy. It is irresponsible to suggest a war on climate focused solely upon techno-optimist industrial solutions.
The gross inadequacy of calling for a declaration of war on climate goes further. People are murdered in war, Bill, in large numbers, ruthlessly and wantonly. The jettisoning of moral and ethical standards implicit in war jargon enables a war on drugs to target the poor and minorities, as the war on terror justifies remote control murder, including of American citizens without due process. And we know drugs have won, and militant nationalism breeds terror. “Wars” declared on behalf of policies have seldom if ever been effective.
A much richer vision of urgent resolve would be to call for climate change demobilization and waging of climate peace. History is replete with examples of ending war and the beating of guns into plowshares as an opportunity to redirect societal resources. How many solar panels and windmills could be crafted from nearly $2 trillion in global military spending a year, if the world returned to its pre-911 course of establishing international laws and reducing military expenditures?
Let me make it clear. Bill McKibben is a hero who has done much for the climate change movement. But he and 350.org are not the only, most qualified, or longest serving players. And sometimes, such as with their abject resistance to addressing natural ecosystem loss as a keystone response to climate change, they are simply plain wrong.
Tragically, both 350.org and other foundation-fed climate bureaucracies like the Sierra Club make little effort to engage with their critics. This is not the first time they have been challenged to address natural ecosystem destruction as root cause of climate change, and embrace policies of protecting and restoring terrestrial ecosystems including old-growth forests as a keystone policy response. Despite being asked numerous times to clarify 350.org’s position on old-growth forest logging, they choose to remain silent.
Bill and company, from their position of power, privilege, and prestige, have chosen to stonewall and directed their surrogates to vilify critics. When challenged, those feeding themselves from the trough of public money meant to solve climate change have refused to engage in a healthy debate, or even respond to critics, which could lead to a more diverse and sufficient climate change movement. Many of their supporters, and funders, portray asking questions regarding 350.org’s ecology-free climate pronouncements as somehow betraying the movement, rather than ensuring correct and sufficient science-based climate actions are identified and implemented in all haste.
Is this the type of climate change movement we want and need?
Recently Bill wrote in the New York Times of the outrage that right-wing fossil fuel representatives were following him, observing his lifestyle. It is time for Bill to man up, and recognize as a public figure, scrutiny of his public and private actions are justified. He has been tasked with crafting personal and societal climate change responses that are sufficient to avoid global ecological collapse. I, for one, am much less perturbed that Bill occasionally uses plastic bags for his groceries, than that he apparently has little understanding of the ecological systems that maintain a livable Earth.
In closing, I call upon Bill, Leo, Al, Naomi, and Mike to immediately come out against old-growth forest logging and for natural forest ecosystem restoration; and if not, to explicitly and specifically say why. Otherwise each is a legitimate target for protest as they are little more than charlatan demagogues hocking inadequate climate solutions. And I implore the vast climate movement and donors, in crafting sufficient polices to limit abrupt climate change, and the myriad of related environmental crises threatening biosphere collapse, it is time for more ecologically inspired voices to be heard and supported. That is if the big boys (and girl) have left any space or funding in the climate movement for deep ecology.
To sustain a livable environment, all basic human needs must
be met as sufficient steady state stocks of natural capital are
maintained. Guaranteeing a basic income as the greed of the billionaire
class is tamed are keys to avoiding biosphere collapse and the end of
being.
Conspicuous over-consumption by some
as others fester in abject poverty is killing us all as we liquidate our
shared biological inheritance for throw-away consumer crap... This
perilous state of global inequity begs the question how much is enough? -
Dr. Glen Barry
Despite being more aware than many of
the perilous ecological condition of the planet, like most I am drawn
by the siren call of affluenza. The variety of consumer goods and their
marketing are so pervasive that it is hard to not succumb to the
illusion that material items equate with happiness and well-being.
And
while I try hard to weigh the impacts of personal expenditures on the
planet and its life, and whether the purchase of a particular item is
necessary, it is just so damn difficult to resist the desire to meet
everyday whims and consume more, and not feel somehow disadvantaged if
more stuff cannot be had.
My unmet desires for electronics, a new
wardrobe, and travel of course pale in importance to the billions who
struggle to meet basic needs. The fact that one billion people live in
abject poverty on less than $1.50 a day continues to stun me. Given the
networked nature of the world it is very unlikely that a just,
sustainable and livable Earth can long persist with such imbalances.
Being
married to a Papua New Guinean, and having lived in this Pacific
Island’s villages for many years, I understand that exclusion from the
money economy does not mean that existence cannot be rich in community,
experience, leisure and the wealth found in a well tilled garden. It is
important to differentiate between self-sufficiency and dispossession in
those that are materially poor.
But the truth remains that
billions of people’s basic needs for medicine, food, comfort, and a few
select luxuries continue to go unmet; as others slovenly conspicuously
over-consume. Jet set celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio warn us climate
is real as they gallivant around the world with pals in private yachts
and jets spewing emissions for leisure, setting a bad example. Many of
us in the developed world’s middle class live lives of consumption
beyond the kings and queens of yesteryear, yet rarely is our desire for
more satiated.
Earth is a finite place. There are only so many resources to be derived from the harvest of natural ecosystems. As natural capital has and continues to be drawn down by exponentially growing populations all wanting to consume more; a state of ecological overshoot has resulted whereby consumption is occurring at a rate beyond Earth’s ability to regenerate. We have gone from one to seven billion super-consumers in 130 years and we are liquidating Earth’s natural ecosystems to make consumer products that mostly end up in the landfill.
Regional scale ecological depletion is becoming the norm as arable land, fresh water, and clear skies have become scarce. Throughout the world suffering from emergent diseases, hunger, and a state of resource driven perma-war escalates as ecosystems collapse. Soon our one shared biosphere will collapse too if the status quo of inequity, war, and ecocide continue.
This environmental decline often impacts the poor more deeply who depend upon local resources for livelihoods. Yet middle-class opportunities for employment and consumption are also in decline. As I have noted on many occasion, natural ecosystem loss and abrupt climate change threaten to collapse our one shared biosphere in what can only be described as the end of being. Then even the rich will feel the pain of consumption of Earth’s life-support systems.
This perilous state of global inequity begs the question how much is enough?
A few hundred people have half the Earth’s wealth. Historically a CEO of a business would make a few dozen times as much as their workers. Now it is often several hundred times.
In a world that is collapsing into a state of perma-war and abject poverty, can we not pursue any limits at all upon personal wealth? No one is speaking of communism or even socialism here – those that work hard and are smarter deserve to have more. But at what point is it enough? And when do societal requirements for meeting basic human needs, while maintaining a habitable planet for all species, take precedence? We engage with these questions of inequity or we die.
One of the more interesting ideas gaining support across the political spectrum is the idea of replacing virtually all government programs with a guaranteed basic income sufficient to cover basic sustenance to every human being simply for being alive. Thus every human being’s basic human needs for shelter, food, clothing, and medicine would be realized.
Those living on just such a basic income would not live a luxurious life, but abject human suffering would be banished. Huge government bureaucracies could be dismantled. Some could choose to live simple lives as students, artists, and musicians; while other work for extra consumption – but not without limit. And those working harder would have more, but not endless amounts that threaten the environment and others’ ability to persist.
So how much is enough? How about top executives making 40 times the amount of their average employee instead of 400 times, like they used to – if workers make $50,000 this still provides the boss with $2,000,000, more than enough to reward hard work. And every human being could have their average needs met with a basic income. This would be a start.
We have been conditioned since birth to consume at all costs, often haphazardly at the expense of the natural capital that sustains us. It will be very difficult to overcome the lure of mammon yet try we must. If the population can be stabilized and begin to be reduced, there is enough natural wealth for all to live decent lives with basic needs met and a variety of some, but not all, luxuries to match every taste.
Imagine a world where community, experience, regional travel, knowledge, and a life well lived are desired as much as ever more wealth at the expense of others and the Earth. The political will must be found to strongly tax the wealth of the billionaire class to meet the needs of the poor and our shared environment.
There are other ways to live than a hell-bent rush to ecocide.
Until such time as we all in the middle and upper classes learn to live with a bit less, and to share with others, there is virtually no chance of a peaceful, sustainable, and just Earth continuing forever, or even much longer.
The
biosphere is collapsing and dying as natural ecosystem loss, abrupt climate
change, and grotesque inequity have so diminished natural capital that we find
our well-being threatened by reduced material expectations, a state of perma-war, and escalating authoritarian
fascism. Charlatan madman Donald Trump – aka #CreepyDonald – is a deranged,
authoritarian wannabe-tyrant seeking to demagogue environmental collapse; and
whose racist xenophobia, militant violence, and anti-science hate threaten
America’s and the world’s final demise. It is the duty of every fair, decent,
tolerant, freedom loving American to resist the rise of GOP authoritarian
fascism and commit to peaceful, equitable, and ecologically sustainable advancement
for all.
It’s really
quite simple: diminished economic prospects and social cohesion are the direct
result of environmental decline. -- Dr. Glen Barry
Human
industrial growth has dismantled the ecological systems upon which healthy
economies and societies are based.Planetary ecological boundaries required for a habitable Earth have been
surpassed as the human family finds itself in a state of ecological overshoot. Loss
of natural ecosystems and a stable climate are already causing much conflict, suffering,
and reduced opportunity for material advancement. Worsening environmental conditions
threaten our liberty too as demagoguery flourishes.
Over the
past 130 years the human population has grown from one to seven billion people,
many of whom are living highly consumptive lifestyles, as others are mired in numbing
abject poverty. This growth has come at the expense of destroying natural
ecosystems. Massive economic expansion was easy when based upon liquidating
ancient old-growth forests, bottom trawling bountiful oceans, and intensively over-exploiting
soil. Now many of these natural resources are nearly exhausted.
Natural
capital has perilously declined to such an extent that further widespread growth
in material consumption is no longer possible. At least 90% of old growth
forests and stocks of large ocean fish have already been harvested, and 50% of topsoil
has eroded; as natural ecosystems that sustain life are destroyed for
short-term profit. Abrupt climate change already routinely causes severe
deprivation and dislocation.
CONVERGING
GLOBAL CRISES THREATEN BIOSPHERE COLLAPSE
A number of other threats are converging, greatly diminishing the global
condition, and imperiling progress on environmental sustainability. Grotesque
inequity – whereby one billion people live on under $1.50 a day as similar
numbers live opulent lifestyles – is the norm and worsening. As is often the
case during hard times, many are returning to millennia old religious myths that
teach that those who believe differently are bad and should be killed. Remote-control
christian militarism and radical islamic terrorism are rife, as murder in the
name of god is again in vogue.
A state of
perma-war has arisen. Eternal tribal conflicts have been exacerbated by a
scramble to exploit the last bits of natural capital; which incidentally power
the biosphere, providing the ecosystem habitats which make Earth livable. Rather
than thinking freely and coming together for global ecological sustainability
and lasting human advancement, we seek to murder each other in the name of god
and country, as in reality we pursue natural resources at advantageous terms.
These
converging global mega-crises are compounded by outright ignorance and
anti-intellectualism by those that should know better, but rather seek to
enrich themselves based upon the suffering of others.
It’s really
quite simple: diminished economic prospects and social cohesion are the direct
result of environmental decline. The expectation in much of the world that each
generation will be materially better off can no longer be sustained by
plundering remaining resource-rich ecosystems. Sadly, such simple and
unquestionable truths are opaque to the many people who have lost their ecology
ethic, and live vacuous lives in pursuit of more stuff, or scramble daily just
to survive.
Our one
shared biosphere is threatened with imminent collapse and death, as together we
are all faced with nothing less than the end of being.
THE RISE AND
FALL OF #CREEPYDONALD
Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist
Against such
a backdrop of ecological, social, and economic decline; innumerable charlatan
demagogues are rising, as is often the case when times are hard. Selling
various brands of snake oil, they promise to make us safe, rich, and great
again; if only they are given absolute power. While tyrannical forms of government
are nothing new, and despite immeasurable human suffering during previous bouts
of authoritarianism, our present condition of environmental scarcity has
created the conditions for fascism’s resurgence.
Madman Donald
Trump is the most obvious example of a deranged authoritarian, demagoguing reduced
expectations brought about by environmental decline. Trump's scapegoating of the
less fortunate, overt nationalism, racism and misogyny, and continuous threats
of violence are classic fascism. Trump’s denial of incontrovertible climate change is ignorant and simply unforgivable charlatanism. His entire demeanor and agenda for America will worsen environmental decline and
social discord. Mocking the disabled, saying he would date his own daughter, demeaning women and minorities, and Trump's supporters' Nazi salutes are downright creepy. Given Trump’s affection for derisive monikers, I have taken to
calling him #CreepyDonald.
#CreepyDonald’s
complete cluelessness regarding the root causes of decline indicate that he is really
interested in absolute power, which once given, may never be able to be
revoked. While concerns over security, jobs, and the deleterious impacts of
uncontrolled mass migration are not without merit, the solutions are highly suspect.
Trump’s agenda wastes time and diverts resources necessary to protect and
restore nature to avoid biosphere collapse. Further division, conflict, and over-development
are not the answer.
Mocking those with disabilities is creepy
In the rise
of #CreepyDonald we are witnessing the fall of America as a free and great nation
(albeit imperfect and always striving for self-improvement). #CreepyDonald’s authoritarian
tyranny is neo-fascism and if he seizes power will result in the fall of tolerant
and decent liberal democracy in America. Nothing less than centuries of social
progress – such as mostly ending slavery and achieving racial and sexual
equality – are threatened by fascism’s return.
No matter
the threat; dark, violent authoritarian fascism of the sort espoused by #CreepyDonald
and the GOP in America, and countless other neo-fascists globally, is never the
answer. #CreepyDonald is unfit, unstable, and unacceptable; and his
anti-science, anti-intellectualism ensures global unsustainability.At this critical juncture in history, Donald
Trump must not be allowed to seize power.
GREEN
LIBERTY IS THE ANSWER
Continuous
expectations that each generation will be better off materially are no longer
possible unless we replenish natural capital through a sustained program of
ecological protection and restoration. Equitable economic advancement depends
upon achieving a steady state economy, as we remain free by firmly rejecting
authoritarian fascism.
Ecologically
sustainable economic advancement requires skill and knowledge, and profound
empathy and sharing with the less fortunate. Building a just, verdant, and
equitable world depends upon returning to the land to grow products and
services of lasting benefit that meet basic needs from creative self-expression
with our minds and bodies.
Humanity
finds itself hurtling through space on a 3.5 billion year old organism – called
Earth by some, Gaia by others – which is collapsing and dying. We will only
survive and thrive by coming together in common purpose to sustain natural
ecosystems, remain free, and more equitably share nature’s bounty. To start
we must #DumpTrump and firmly destroy all other threats to our liberty and
ecology.
The global ecological system is collapsing and dying as
humanity overruns natural ecosystems and the climate. We are entering an
age of unrelenting violence and suffering, prior to biosphere collapse
and the end of being, unless dramatic social change based upon a global
ecology ethic arises quickly.
Humans evolved within a lush and vibrant Eden teaming with life, which
until just a few generations ago provided for natural abundance and the
prospect of perpetual human existence. We are one of many species
utterly dependent upon natural ecosystems for all needs including air,
water, food, and shelter.
The rise of ecological colonialism and the industrial revolution
changed all that, as million year old naturally evolved ecosystems
became fodder to be liquidated and consumed for accumulation of paper
wealth. The disambiguation of buying our needs with money has led us to
deny our ecological nature.
For two centuries humanity has waged an unrelenting war upon nature.
Ecological habitats and their wildlife residents have been slaughtered
incessantly. Entire species have been wiped out, as their members have
been burnt, shot, tortured, and left to starve. Whole ecosystems have
been dismantled to create consumer crap that is quickly thrown away.
Concurrently Western science has learned what indigenous peoples have
long known, that we are but one species in a web of life. That all is
one, intertwined in a miraculous system whereby life creates the
conditions for life. And that as goes nature befalls us. Those in touch
with nature realize ecology is the meaning of life. And that without ecology there can be no economy.
It has become increasingly obvious to experts and astute lay persons
that the ecological fabric of being is fraying. We now know that
ecological boundaries exist, and that the human endeavor has overshot
them. Old-growth forests remain as tawdry remnants, soil has become
lifeless and sterile, oceans are dying, and water and food are scarce
for humanity and kindred species.
Ever expanding human numbers have lost sight of our place within
ecology, and have little knowledge of the natural world. Instead
well-being is defined by mobile apps and expensive play-things that soon
grow old and are discarded. For many life is a vacuous search for
status and stuff, utterly detached from the condition of natural capital
that makes their and all life possible. And for the rest – the large
percentage of people living in abject poverty – life is a squalid
struggle to meet basic needs amidst Disneyfied conspicuous
over-consumption by celebrities and bankers.
Long a war-prone species, humans have concurrent with ecocide
nonetheless undergone remarkable social evolution whereby slavery’s
prohibition, women’s rights, freedom of thought, and representative
democracy – with some progress on racial equality – has largely been
achieved. Nonetheless attempts last century to eliminate war have failed
miserably. Over-populated inequity in an age of resource scarcity –
stoked by grotesquely wasteful over-consumption by the few – fuels a
rise of authoritarian fascism and conflict between the haves,
have-lesses, and have-nots.
Few diagnose the state of perma-war waged by lone terrorists and
drones as the result of environmental decline. Yet the coming anarchy
can be seen all around us, by those who wish to see.
Streams of refugees flee collapsing ecosystems and abrupt climate change. Traditional food stocks from the oceans and forests are virtually exhausted. The act of saving seeds has become a radical act of resistance as all that is natural is commodified, homogenized, and toxified.
All around are well-meaning peoples pursuing pieces of the solution. Organic permaculture, ending fossil fuels, protecting and restoring natural ecosystems, consuming less, and more are occurring. But it is too little too late by orders of magnitude as the sheer inertia of ecocide found in mass conspicuous over-population and consumption prepares its final assault upon the natural world.
Already societies and economies are collapsing, from Syria to Haiti, and including the downturn in economic aspirations for the petty-bourgeoisie. The Earth’s capacity to provide for human well-being is collapsing. Every last natural ecosystem is to be mopped up for chopsticks and the last drop of oil. Not only will your children not have more than you have, they may die in an unimaginably horrendous ecological apocalypse.
Every month without the rise of ecologism, we fall deeper into nothingness, as the signs of sick ecosystems and dysfunctional climate are written off by the ecologically challenged. Soon as the pillages of war and ecocide come to your neighborhood you can expect to know hunger, disease, and the bad kind of anarchy.
Expect to face firsthand the terror of biosphere collapse – where your mothers and daughters are raped, along with your sons sold into the military and other forms of slavery, before they and you die like famished stray dogs on a dead Earth.
The global ecological system is collapsing and dying.
We are a clever species, with opposable thumbs and relatively large brains. Perhaps the Internet community and the sense of the human family it engenders can help us realize there is no god but Earth, that we are one people, and that we are one species of animals amongst many. And that we can choose to return to nature’s fold.
All that is green and natural must be protected in earnest and urgency with all our might or the biological foundation of being ends. Start with growing your food and restoring the land, reject personal cars and large families, and work outward to reconnect your community to its peaceful and healthy bioregion.
Otherwise the hairless ape show all intentions of pulling down the biosphere as we frantically seek more not understanding there is no more to be had. The sky is falling. The end of being looms.
Nothing grows forever. The myth the economy can is destroying the biosphere.
By Dr. Glen Barry
The present human condition is predicated on one of the biggest lies
ever – that the economy can grow indefinitely. In a self-serving logical
contortion, economists in service to the oligarchy measure the
well-being of a society by how fast the economy grows, with little
regard to the state of natural capital, human inequity, the welfare of
ecosystems and other species, or the extent to which people and society
are happy. Natural capital is defined as Earth's stocks of natural
assets including ecosystem services which make all life possible, which
is unmeasured and thus undervalued by indices of economic growth.
Measures such as Gross Domestic Product utterly fail to tie increases in
economic output to human and natural well-being. Spending on
militaristic drone attacks and the rich's conspicuous over-consumption
are equated with social expenditures to meet basic human needs.
Clearcutting old-growth forests for toilet paper is of equal worth as
providing homes and food for the poor. Ravaging Earth's last natural
ecosystems for every last drop of oil is deemed economically beneficial
(despite being terribly inefficient as externalities remain unpriced),
while we are told restoring natural ecosystems is unprofitable because
of large discounting of future benefits.
Living as if Earth's nature has no worth other than to be liquidated for
consumption degrades ourselves and ecosystems, and can only end in
utter ruin as first society, then the economy, and finally the biosphere
collapses. It is blatantly obvious that infinite growth on a finite
Earth is impossible. Yet we run our economy with this goal.
Earth is everything. Without ecology there can be no economy.
Economic growth is worshiped as if it were holy and divine, rather than
acknowledging that growth can come at enormous economic, social, and
environmental costs. There is little understanding of ecological
overshoot and the limits to growth, as we seek ever more material
possessions at the expense of all else, systematically degrading not
only our habitat, but also our future resource base and potential for
broad-based community advancement.
Growth appears to be benign and pleasant, iPhones and foreign travel are
intoxicating, yet perpetual economic expansion comes at an unknown
price whose deleterious impacts sneak up upon you. Such is the nature of
exponential growth. The exorbitant costs of an exponentially growing
economy are best illustrated by imagining a pond whereby the extent of
lily-pad coverage doubles in extent every day, on the 30th
day fully covering the water. On which day is the pond half covered?
When is it a 10% covered? We shall return to this question.
By falsely equating exponential growth with societal well-being,
capitalism may well be irredeemable. Its foundational idea of people
coming together in markets to exchange their surplus has been
bastardized to suggest that creating something of worth and selling it
is the same as every manner of speculative financial trickery. Yet for
markets to serve human's and nature's well-being, there are some basic
out-right lies that need to be addressed now.
Firstly, growth cannot fully measure economic well-being; we need a
richer measure that determines the extent to which economic activity is
sustainable and widely beneficial. A much richer measure is the rate of
economic growth per unit of natural capital (drawn down or replenished),
and by the extent to which economic advancement is equitably shared.
Such a truly green economy is said to be at a steady state, whereby both
population and consumption are stable at a sustainable level. How dense
are we to not understand that Earth is everything, and that without
ecology there can be no economy?
Given the current state of ecological overshoot – as terrestrial
ecosystems, climate, water, oceans and biodiversity are collapsing –
achieving a steady state economy would require decades of degrowth and
redistribution of wealth. Urgent measures would have to be taken to
provide incentives that cap both population and disparities in
consumption, even as aggregate draws upon natural capital are reduced to
below replacement levels to allow for decades of ecological renewal.
Life begets life, making Earth livable. — Dr. Glen Barry
Grow your own food as you restore ecology
Not much new land is being made, yet land’s well-being is central to
the well-being of human and all life. On land, in a miraculous act of
biological emergence, plants and animals have naturally evolved and
self-organized to form ecosystems and ultimately the biosphere. Yet
existing land and its ecology have has been treated incautiously and
with great malice for centuries.
Land ensconced in natural vegetation is the living membrane that
encompasses Earth and mediates energy and material flows between air and
water. Naturally evolved terrestrial ecosystems are a majestic miracle,
provider of life, and humanity’s habitat home. Over countless eons
pulsing lifeforms emerge and radiate creating the panoply of a living
Earth.
Life begets life, making Earth livable.
The history of natural land destruction is largely synonymous with
human settlements and agriculture. The disease of ecological colonialism
radiated from Europe, utterly decimating land and its productive
capacity globally. As the myth of a perpetual growth economy has been
universally embraced; about 90% of Earth’s original old-growth forests
have been pillaged, 50% of top soil has been lost, and about half of
global land cover no longer remains in a natural condition.
The global ecological system has percolated from a state of human
settlements enmeshed within a sea of life-giving natural ecosystems, to a
sea of unnatural human endeavors surrounding islands of nature. Such
ecological overshoot is not sustainable and this terrestrial ecosystem loss is collapsing our one shared biosphere.
Rarely has a species gone so rogue and utterly lost their place within the natural world.
