Now HERE's a refreshing item to find!
--it's SO rare to see someone actually addressing the
core of the problem!)
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 08:19:21 -0600 Reprinted by permission.
EARTH MEANDERS
Viva la Earth Revolution! A Sustainable Future by All Means Necessary
By Dr. Glen Barry, http://www.environmentalsustainability.info/
January 30, 2005
We know what is required for global environmental sustainability, what
is
lacking is political will. In the face of continued stonewalling and
green washing by the Earth liquidating industrial growth machine,
lovers
and protectors of the Earth and her humanity should not so quickly
dismiss
the possibility of an Earth Revolution - peaceful or otherwise -
sufficient to ensure global ecological sustainability.
Gasping Earth
I am constantly amazed at people that afford the natural world -
plants,
animals and the Earth itself - little or no worth. Modern humans have
lost sight of the web of life and our place within, and because of such
willful ignorance the Earth and her humanity's survival is threatened.
We
should all be aware of the environmental problems that face the Earth
and
thus our and our children's survival. Threats to the Earth are more
complex than if we pollute we will get global warming - what we are
witnessing is the demise of the global ecological system.
The world's environmental crises include forest and other habitat
destruction which causes loss of biological diversity and ecosystems;
water and oceanic overuse and degradation; climate and other global
changes; and a deadly cocktail of persistent toxics. Each global
environmental malady is but a different aspect of the Earth's ecosystem
decline and collapse in total, brought on by humanity's fecundity,
avarice and stupidity.
The Earth's perilous condition is exacerbated by the tragic state of
humanity. Global inequities in wealth, terrorism and militarism, and an
absence of social justice, both cause, and are caused, by environmental
decline. Western civilization such as it is - including its economic,
religious and social systems - has not and will not prove adequate to
sustainably provide for most of the Earth's inhabitants for much
longer.
The Earth is dying because of the way you and I live. This essay shall
try to identify key ecological requirements for global ecological
sustainability, turning later to the political ecology of the matter.
I close with a perfunctory examination of conditions under which a
violent "Earth Revolution" may be justified.
Global Ecological Sustainability
Here I wish to investigate in broad strokes elements of an environmental
policy adequate to achieve global ecological sustainability. The human
family must embark upon the most ambitious project in history - an
"Earth Revolution" - in order to again achieve a combination of natural
ecosystems and human endeavors adequate to sustain themselves and
each
other. As humanity has already overshot the carrying capacity of the
Earth, global ecological sustainability will only be achieved by
Entering an age of ecological restoration which stops further destruction
and Helps natural habitats to expand and become healthier.
Environmentalist and pro-...'growth'.... people have a fundamentally
different
View of the world. Anyone with half an ecological wit can see imminent
Limits to growth do exist, however delayed due to technology.
Desertification, water-borne disease and climate change clearly indicate
there are too many people that in sum total are consuming too much.
Lifestyles of affluent countries are going to need to be simplified and
made
more efficient to reduce their impact. But this does not obviate the fact
that the Earth now has many more humans than can be supported well.
My best estimate is that there will need to be a reduction in
Population to around one billion - the exact amount to be calibrated as
Requirements for global ecological sustainability continue to emerge. This
can best be achieved through immediate global incentives to have fewer
children -
including tax relief, and preferential access to education and other
benefits. With an average of one child per couple (though in practice
some may have none and others as many as two), this could be achieved
in several generations.
We must learn to love and respect the land. Most people will need to
Be living symbiotically with the land. Science suggests 50% of land area
will need to be maintained as "global ecological reserves" - zoned as
areas of strict protection, natural conservation management, tribal
lands and other community-based conservation development schemes
(eco-forestry, eco-tourism, gardening and plant raising, restoration). This
will require massive continental level rebuilding efforts; as whole roads,
towns and other human artifacts are removed from large and connected
areas deemed necessary to maintain ecosystems and non-human
species.
Cities will need to be re-thought and transformed. On the simplest
level, this means pedestrian and ecological needs will surpass those
of cars and their roads. New urbanism and bioregionalism inform us that
humans can live, work, play and socialize in ways appropriate and
sustainable for
their local environments. The next technological revolution will focus
upon what is necessary for human continuity. Business will be required
to not only end pollution and environmental damage, but to pursue
economic
activities that are ecologically restorative.
Access to water must be enshrined as a basic human right. Those that
Have gained access to large amounts of water through historical accident
Will lose their "rights". In particular irrigated agriculture from fossil
water stores to support inflated populations will become a thing of the
past. It will no longer be deemed socially acceptable to use lakes and
rivers as dumping grounds for waste. Riparian zones and key watersheds
will need to be removed from human use.
The world's oceans have long been thought to be too massive to ever be
damaged. Large marine dead zones and dramatic declines in fish and
other marine wildlife have shown this to be false. If oceanic ecosystems
are
to persist and continue providing services upon which civilization
depends, large marine protected areas - some one third or more of their
total
area are going to need to be placed off limits to industrial development.
This will mean an immediate end to industrial fishing/mining of marine
life.
Maintenance of predictable and relatively stable climatic and other
geo-biochemical patterns will require a complete revamping of our
energy infrastructure. Super-Kyoto targets must be established and
implemented that reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions by over
60% by 2050. The best minds and materials must be put into such efforts,
noting that current expenditures are a miniscule percentage of that spent
on the military. Not only do we not know what toxic persistent chemicals
do individually, we have no idea of what they do synergistically. The age
of life destroying engineered chemical compounds will end.
Humanity will need to return to rituals that acknowledge our place within
the cosmos and the Earth. Doctrinaire cults of personality will be
replaced by rituals that acknowledge and celebrate the natural rhythms
whereby life is possible and continues. Life's meaning will come from
knowledge, community and creativity - not from consumption. Our
children's future will be assured only when humanity acknowledges the
Earth is alive, our mother, and the giver of life.
Earth Revolution
Ideally, a peaceful Earth Revolution based upon enlightened
self-interest, a well developed ecological ethic, and good
governance will provide conditions sufficient (above) to ensure
global ecological sustainability, while equitably meeting all of
humanity's basic needs. It is much desired that this occur non-violently.
I implore each of us to pursue every non-violent means possible to get
the human family into sustainability with the Earth, in order that
neither is destroyed.
As an academic exercise I wish to briefly examine when and why a
Violent revolution may be necessary on behalf of the Earth. I do not
mean to suggest that death and mayhem - part of any revolution - is
desirable or imminent; but the Earth's must be protected and healed at
any price. Assuming that other political and social measures have failed, I
Suggest that as a last resort a violent Earth Revolution may be necessary
to save the Earth. Given the precarious state of the Earth and all her
inhabitants, the possibility of a violent Earth Revolution to save the
Earth should not be discarded out of hand.
One way or another, humanity's destruction of the Earth and our habitat
will be remedied. Gaia will either shrug our grubby existence off
through famine, pestilence and war - or we shall enter an age of
restoration
and sustainability - through wise governance or through violent revolution.
Perhaps it is only through murder and mayhem that we can save the
Earth. Would you have fought to stop Hitler or Napoleon? Would you
fight to protect your children's lives? Then why not fight to protect the
Earth? Indeed, doing so IS fighting to protect your children.
If ignorant, self-righteous and superstitious fascists continue to
reign - the true eco-terrorists in their plundering of the Earth's life giving
systems - it may well prove necessary to use violence in defense of the
Earth. In discussing this as an academic exercise, I would suggest
That the sort of mischief that has been carried out in the past by Earth
First and ELF - spiking a tree, destroying a bulldozer - is inadequate. An
Earth Revolution is not about making a statement - it is about results.
I would suggest that to be effective, a violent revolution on behalf of
the Earth must seek to seize power, smash Earth destroying entities,
and transform society along the lines indicated above. Anything less
would
prove inadequate. The industrial triad of fossil fuels, mining and
logging would need to be immediately dismembered, to allow the Earth's
natural regenerative capabilities to recover and accelerate.
Sadly, the best way to avoid such a revolution is exactly as it has always
been throughout history - to make the privileged and powerful cognizant
of the fact that their privilege and power depends upon major societal
change. Given looming ecological constraints imposed by the Earth, it
is not clear that moderate environmental reforms can occur in a manner
that addresses global inequities and is sufficient to reverse ecosystem
decline and loss.
We must try to save the Earth without going to war. However, there is
nothing more instinctual for any creature than maintaining their
species - including fighting for their self-preservation. In the face of
continued stonewalling and green washing by the industrial growth
machine, lovers
and protectors of the Earth and her humanity should not so quickly
dismiss the possibility of an Earth Revolution - peaceful or otherwise -
sufficient to ensure global ecological sustainability.
The Earth must and shall be sustained by all means necessary. Viva la
Earth Revolution!
###
Earth Meanders is a series of personal essays that places questions of
environmental sustainability within the context of other contemporary
issues. Comments can be made, and past writings can be found, at:
a