Dr. Glen Barry: Too Many Humans; Not Enough Biosphere

Radio interview with Dr. Glen Barry on overpopulation by 95bFM in New Zealand.

Dr Glen Barry, environmental advocate and scientist, says 'Earth's biosphere is collapsing and dying as human industrial growth overwhelms ecosystems and abruptly changes climate.'

95bFM reporter George Freeman crossed to Dr Barry in Wisconsin to discuss the issue of global overpopulation, the future implications of a growing population and whether we can get out of this mess.

Dr. Glen Barry Recalls Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in College

"God Has Told Me I’m Chosen To Cut Taxes and Stop Killing Babies." - Governor Scott Walker

Dr. Glen Barry heavily quoted in major national news article in the The New Republic regarding Scott Walker's electoral race-bating: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118145/scott-walkers-toxic-racial-politics

I Too Have a Dream: That Life on Earth Shall Not Perish, But Rather Thrive Forever

As a species we can do better if we believe in the human family, ourselves and Earth. There are alternatives to passively sitting by as climate abruptly changes, ecosystems collapse, and authoritarianism rises, destroying naturally evolved ecosystems and their life. A pathway exists to global ecological sustainability, yet it requires shared sacrifice and courage, and we may have to fight. What if we came together to pursue human advancement without destroying the biosphere and actively opposed those in our way? We choose ecocide and death by not choosing to stand for Earth and all life. A global revolution is coming that will sustain the environment and ensure basic needs are met for all, while embracing truth and justice as the basis for shared governance, ecological sustainability, and economic well-being.

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” – Krishnamurti

“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” – Plato

“Big old trees in large, connected, ecologically intact old-growth forests make the world go round.” – Dr. Glen Barry

The world has gone dramatically wrong as she is ravaged by ecosystem collapse, abject poverty, grotesque inequity, militant nationalism, and resurgent authoritarianism. Overpopulation combined with inequitable overconsumption, leading to a state of permawar, in particular are root causes destroying natural ecosystems and threatening collapse of our one shared biosphere. Either the human family learns to share, simplifies our way of living, and takes any and all truthful actions to end the current state of global ecocide; or else we collapse into nothingness.

There are alternatives to ecosystem collapse and authoritarian rule, including taking mass collective action to do together what must be done for survival of our ecosystem habitat and universal well-being. Economic inequity – 300 people holding as much wealth as billions – is obscene. The rich are going to learn to share, and stop amassing wealth by liquidating Earth’s ecosystem commons, or there is going to be a global revolution. Those guilty of climate denial and other crimes against ecology will face a reckoning soon, if their unchallenged misbehavior doesn’t kill us all first.

Now is the time for moral and political courage as together we limit abrupt climate change; and stop and reverse ecosystem collapse and rising tyranny. I anticipate that we are near an inflection point, where increased awareness is meeting clearly observable accelerating socioeconomic-ecological deterioration, allowing for a brief window of opportunity to save being through embrace of knowledge-based policies that will deliver long-term global ecological sustainability. Nations will be downsized, as local sovereignty to live well within bioregions is actualized.

We have to be ready with viable agro-ecological, restoration ecology, transition communities, renewable energy, and other solutions to implement as ecosystem, economic, and social collapse becomes more evident. And speaking academically, at the right time, under the right circumstances, where we hold the strategic edge, a concerted global effort of clandestine sabotage and swarming of the sources of ecocidal threats may be necessary. By doing nothing as society and ecology unravel, we have chosen to quit, dooming ourselves, our planet, kindred species, and our loved ones to a hell on Earth, followed by grisly death and the possible end of being.

A DREAM FOR OUR TIME

I too have a dream, shared by many, that life on Earth shall not perish, but rather will thrive forever. I dream that all human beings and kindred species will be valued, loved, and revered. I dream we all may quickly learn to see our oneness with fellow humans, kindred species, and with the living biosphere. I dream this motivates us to come together and act swiftly and fearlessly to protect Earth.

I dream that tanks and armaments are once and for all beaten into ploughshares in service to community-based agro-ecology. And that the human family comes together to return to the land to protect and restore ecosystems, weaning ourselves from fossil fuels, allowing being to continue indefinitely.

My dream envisions a world of artisans, craftsmen and women, and agriculturalists, who create something of value through their hands and minds in partnership with a living Earth. I dream that the Jeffersonian vision of decentralized and autonomous agrarian democracy is fully realized in our time.

I dream for the wisdom to see all human life is sacred, and together we only do as well as those that are worst off. Today’s economic inequity is obscene. Desperate poverty means life remains brutal and short for many (including other species). The task of our times is to extend self-actualized, secure life to others without destroying ecosystems and collapsing the biosphere.

And I dream that we have the intelligence, and compassion, to ask the hard questions and do what must be done. How has "development" - destroying ecosystems, killing non-human life, exploiting others - become the meaning of life? What ever became of aspirations for real human advancement in justice, rights and duties, equity, truth and wisdom, love and peace, ending war, and ecological sustainability? Why is it easier to imagine and acquiesce to the end of the world than to conceive and implement significant change in how our society is organized?

Together we are hurtling through space on a living Earth, which our cumulative greedy, violent, destructive ways are destroying. It is time for a reality check – a close examination and adherence to the bottom-line truths required for continued well-being and even existence.

I dream that self-evident truths are recognized, embraced, and acted upon. We are one human family, there is no god, we are entirely dependent upon ecosystems for life - and they are being wantonly destroyed.

In my dream governments respond to the cascade of science and self-evident truths that ecology, justice, and fairness are perishing.  Yet if governments fail to cut emissions and protect ecosystems based upon ecological science and self-evident biosphere decline, they will have abdicated, and it will be up to people power to save ecological being.

In that case, my dream is that based upon the knowledge and wisdom of many, autonomous Earth warriors will arise committed to acting decisively – individually and in small groups through acts of resistance, and together en masse swarming upon the destroyers of being – to embrace Earth’s salvation. I dream that a large system of collaborators will rise to support them.

And I am not the only one thinking these thoughts. It is time for courageous freethinkers to come together and undertake personal acts of clandestine resistance and participate in sufficient mass action to avert global ecosystem collapse and achieve a state of greater equity, justice, and sustainability. That is what development means, a real advancement in well-being for all sentient creatures, as together we live in a way that all can enjoy without destroying the biosphere.

THERE IS NO ECONOMY (OR JOBS) ON A DEAD PLANET

The global environment is collapsing and dying as human industrial growth overruns the natural ecosystems that make Earth habitable.  Earth's land, air, water and oceans are being utterly ravaged by industrial growth. Earth's carrying capacity has been exceeded.

Economics is a subsystem of natural ecosystems; thus, without ecology there can be no jobs. Infinite growth at the expense of finite natural ecosystems is impossible. Together the human family rejects endless material growth and embraces a steady state economy, or the biosphere will collapse.

The movement for global ecological sustainability is profoundly difficult as it is not about expanding rights but rather is primarily concerned with fulfilling duties. It is going to be difficult to help people understand that for their well-being and even survival they are going to have to live with fewer material items. But there is potential to achieve so much more in terms of knowledge, experience, human interaction, and lasting employment on a living Earth that goes on and on forever.

Profound inequity, eco-collapse, persistent injustice, ignorance and permawar are sicknesses which mar human potential and well-being. Inequities in economics, justice and rights are unacceptable and are going to end one way or another. We are not demanding equality, just basic fairness – that all who work are able to provide for their families, and that those who work hard are rewarded more, but not exorbitantly at the expense of the well-being of other people and species.

There are many who are unable to work and some who would rather partake in creative enterprises while living simply. A universal basic income would eliminate desperate dead-end poverty, maximize individual liberty, and allow society to focus upon ecological sustainability. A guaranteed basic income that meets everyone’s frugal needs for shelter and food can replace all other social service payments, shrinking nanny government and reducing taxes. Ensuring basic human needs are met, indeed all species’ needs, is central to global ecological sustainability.

GREEN LIBERTY: A BETTER WAY OF LIFE EXISTS

As water becomes scarce, climate changes abruptly, oceans become dead zones, and there are consequently fewer jobs; authoritarianism is rising. The fruits of recent centuries' human advancement - largely ending slavery, the uneven spread of human rights, greater women's equality, comfort and ease for many – are at risk as ecosystems collapse. Nanny government, corporatist fascism, religious zealots, and human ignorance are rising and preying upon Earth and our and all life's well-being. This rise of authoritarian corporatism and the police state threatens the Earth’s, humanity’s and all life’s future. The ruling class is stealing freedoms to allow their final devouring of the ecosystem commons.

Unlike past movements that sought the expansion of rights, the environmental sustainability movement requires an expansion of duties to Earth, each other, and future generations. The challenge of our time is to remain free as we embrace our duty to protect nature, end fossil fuels, and to justly share. Without large, intact natural ecosystems and an operable climate there can be no life. Knowing this fact, we must be willing to take all actions consistent with our conscience, while taking full responsibility personally for doing so.

The hegemonic powers of America, Europe and China have become evil failed states that wage ecocidal tyranny against the planet, its peoples, and all life for a bit more growth. Endless growth on a finite world is impossible and can only lead to ecological collapse as the biosphere is pulled down. For human and all life’s wellbeing we desperately need another worldview that interprets the cosmos and ecology, and our place within it, differently. There are ways of living besides fossil fuel addiction, glorifying conspicuous consumption, and rushing hell-bent to ecocide.

Other sources of progressive good have become corrupted. The United States government does not own the Internet. It has no right to spy and invade privacy, to limit anyone’s use of the Internet for good causes like ecology and liberty, or to terrorize innocents with drone permawar. Foundation-fed environmental NGO bureaucracies have become profoundly irrelevant, routinely greenwashing ecocide. Only loosely coordinated local action based upon ecological truth and sufficient solutions to maintain the biosphere, ecosystems, and livelihoods can save us now.

A wide body of political and economic theory exists, which is barely sampled in the U.S. and many countries’ politics.  In only one decade bipartisan U.S. leadership and most other democracies have embraced Big Brother–type permawar, ecocide, corporate rule, spying, murder, and fascism. And though we let it happen, whether this state of affairs becomes permanent globally remains in our hands, until it is too late and the biosphere collapses under the fist of uber-fascism.

A well lived life should be all about green liberty - maintaining our environment and all life's well-being - as we remain radically free. Green liberty – a better way of life than the one we are now living – is based upon observable truths, and is a lifestyle committed to truth, justice, equity, and ecology that will last. Green liberty rejects the lies that civilized society requires hierarchies of control and that economic growth is the measure of well-being, instead embracing our oneness and interdependence with the natural world.

To survive, humanity must learn to live together without destroying nature.  We are all one human family with inalienable rights and duties to each other and Earth. Ecological and other truths have no agenda, are not politically affiliated, do not necessarily bring power or prestige, but truths exist and their full consequences will not be denied.

SWARM ECOCIDE

In an age of non-liberal and non-democratic police states, it is hard to imagine and implement a path to full-spectrum sustainability sufficient to avoid such a collapse. If we want to survive, we will prove it by doing what is necessary – I repeat because it is important - acting within the constraints of our individual conscience, while fully bearing personally the responsibility for doing so.

Having an opinion - and speaking it loudly - is not the same as being educated, knowledgeable, wise, and seeking and serving truth. There is much ignorance being spouted based upon superstition and limited experience that is devoid of truth. It is virtually impossible to address the myriad of global crises without a love of truth and will to expose ignorance.

All forceful action to defend Earth must be based upon rigorous, uncompromising examination of the best ecological and social change solutions that exist. Efforts of such magnitude as striking against the sources of ecocide must be free of bias and superstition, while being inclusive of all sources of revealed truth, and through constant reflection seek to ensure acts against injustice and unfairness, are in themselves not unjust and unfair.

Some of the greatest truths of all are that we need clean water to survive, land can only support so many people, we are all one human species, and there are no invisible ghosts in the sky ruling over us.

As the biosphere continues to collapse, it appears increasingly likely that only an Earth revolution can limit abrupt climate change and protect ecosystems. When all well intended entreaties to sovereign power have been ignored, it is time to take collective action. If enough people refused to participate in the ecocidal, inequitable system, it could be shut down at any time. Each of us can choose through individual acts of conscience to obstruct the industrial growth machine, and as our forces grow and our capabilities grow, to swarm and shut down sources of industrial ecocide.

Freedom and ecosystem protection are non-negotiable, and all powers who oppose must be resisted and if necessary deposed. If enough of us got together we could end the current system's corrupt rule, inequity, injustice and ecocide tomorrow. In the face of reactionary counter-revolution, in fact it is likely to involve a long drawn out struggle of clandestine sabotage (that never targets innocents), refusal to cooperate with the ecocidal police state, and building up of alternative just, equitable, and ecological alternatives.

Yet the call of revolutionary ecological struggle beckons.

BE FOR EARTH AND OTHER TRUTHS

All is one. We are one human family with inalienable rights and duties to freedom, work, equity, peace, justice and sustained ecology. The human family faces ecological, economic and social collapse unless together we work to achieve more equity, sustain ecosystems, pursue social justice, end wars, as we embrace our Gaia given universal rights and duties.

 The only people mad at you for speaking and acting upon the truth are those living a lie. Be on the side of global truth, freedom, fairness, workers, human rights, peace, love and ecological sustainability. And, perhaps above all else, embrace free thinking and defend the right of unfettered self-expression in pursuit of the common good.

Keep speaking and acting upon truth. Choose to live a life of loving service and devotion to Earth, other truths, the human family, and all kindred species. There is nothing like a well lived life in devotion to truth – and the imperative to sustain our one shared Earth using all means necessary is the biggest truth of all.

This US Memorial Day Remember War Is Murder

We must stop glorifying war murders and their perpetrators. Instead we must demobilize globally in order to address the far greater threat of abrupt climate change and ecosystem collapse. Murder has not, nor will it ever, make us free.

War is Murder

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

By Dr. Glen Barry, EcoInternet

This Memorial Day, as America lionizes the bravery and sacrifice of its soldiers, try if you can to step aside from jingoistic nationalism for a moment and think freely. Recall that stripped of ritual and pomp, war is the killing of other human beings for political and economic gain. America has proven particularly adept, by some estimates being at war all but 20 years of its nearly 240-year history.

In war brainwashed young men (and now women) of one tribe hunt down and kill the indoctrinated from another tribe to serve the interests of rich old men. It doesn’t matter which gods or arbitrarily delineated nation are displayed or what rhetoric is used; war is murder. Bodies are cut and blown apart, homes destroyed, families ripped asunder, women raped, and the land, water, and air plundered as the wealthy declare a respite from the laws of humanity to further their own enrichment.

This is not to suggest that humanity never has to fight to stop the march of some madman or to stop some overconsuming nation from wantonly stealing resources. We may yet have to fight to overthrow the oil oligarchy’s hold on our economy and destruction of our biosphere.

But the way we glorify soldiers and war – covering up the brutal nature of war, and the profound suffering it causes – does a sad disservice to those killed, those aggrieved who will start the next war, and those who blindly followed orders. Young, naïve men and women go to war believing falsely that a nation can excuse their acts of murder – and remain forever traumatized as a result.

Read more...

On Overpopulation and Ecosystem Collapse

Earth's biosphere is collapsing and dying as human industrial growth overwhelms ecosystems and abruptly changes climate. Equity, education, condoms, and lower taxes and other incentives to stabilize and then reduce human population are a huge part of the solution.

By Dr. Glen Barry, EcoInternet

Overpopulation

THE FALL

Earth in overshoot;
human growth is killing her;
the end of being.

The global ecological system is collapsing and dying under the cumulative filth of 7 billion people INEQUITABLY devouring their ecosystem habitats. It is impossible to avoid global ecosystem collapse if humanity continues to breed like bunnies; tolerates exorbitant inequality, abject poverty and conspicuous overconsumption; and destroys the ecosystems and climate that – rich or poor – are habitat for all of us. As I have written previously and will write again, the human family either comes together to address converging ecology, rights, and injustice crises – largely brought on by inequitable overpopulation – or faces global ecological collapse and the end of being.

It is not possible to go from 1 to 7 billion people in 135 years – while still growing exponentially – without profound impacts upon natural ecosystems that provide air, water, food and livelihoods. If you don’t understand this, you are uneducated, dumb, and/or indoctrinated; you need to study ecology and get out and see the world. Or go and look at an overgrazed cow pasture and extrapolate. Merging climate, food, water, ocean, soil, justice, poverty, and old-growth forest crises – all which are to some degree caused by inequitable overpopulation – are destroying ecosystems and threaten to pull down our one shared biosphere.

Earth has lost 80% of her old-growth forests, 50% of her soil, 90% of the big fish – and many water, land, and ocean ecosystems, as well as atmospheric stability, as human population has soared more than sevenfold. The human family is living far beyond its means, devouring natural capital principal and ravaging its own ecosystem habitats, which can only end in ecological, social and economic collapse. Earth's carrying capacity has been exceeded, and we must equitably and justly bring down human population and consumption inequity or else face global ecosystem collapse. We can start the necessary social change or an angry Earth will sort it out herself by killing billions; as we possibly pull down the biosphere with us, ending most or even all life, during a prolonged collapse.

Read more ...

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

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