An Epidemic of Extinctions: Decimation of Life on Earth
The world’s species are declining at a rate “unprecedented since the extinction of the dinosaurs”, a census of the animal kingdom has revealed. The Living Planet Index out today shows the devastating impact of humanity as biodiversity has plummeted by almost a third in the 35 years to 2005.
The report, produced by WWF, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Global Footprint Network, says land species have declined by 25 per cent, marine life by 28 per cent, and freshwater species by 29 per cent.
Jonathan Loh, editor of the report, said that such a sharp fall was “completely unprecedented in terms of human history”. “You’d have to go back to the extinction of the dinosaurs to see a decline as rapid as this,” he added. “In terms of human lifespan we may be seeing things change relatively slowly, but in terms of the world’s history this is very rapid.”
And “rapid” is putting it mildly. Scientists say the current extinction rate is now up to 10,000 times faster than what has historically been recorded as normal.
As nations meet for the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, these alarming figures will cast a shadow over government pledges to make a “significant” reduction in biodiversity loss by 2010. In fact, the report’s authors say that global inaction has already made such a goal totally unattainable.
“It’s very damning for the governments that are party to the convention that they are not able to meet the target they set for themselves,” said Mr Loh. “The talk doesn’t get translated into action. We are failing, and the consequences will be devastating.”
Tracking nearly 4,000 species between 1970 and 2005, the team has not only revealed the destruction of the Earth’s wildlife, but also pointed the finger at the perpetrators of this devastation.
Ben Collen, extinctions researcher at ZSL, said: “Between 1960 and 2000, the human population of the world has doubled. Yet during the same period, the animal populations have declined by 30 per cent. It’s beyond doubt that this decline has been caused by humans.”
The study picked out five reasons for species decline, all of which can be traced back to human behaviour: climate change, pollution, the destruction of animals’ natural habitat, the spread of invasive species, and the overexploitation of species. At a time when America has finally added the polar bear to the endangered species list, it is emerging that the scale of species destruction reaches far beyond the headline animals. But as in the case of the polar bear, mankind’s behaviour needs to be radically changed in order to stop this pillaging of the Earth’s biodiversity.
The Yangtze river dolphin is a case in point. Scientists believe it is extinct, as successive searches for the freshwater mammal have proved fruitless. There are many reasons for its rapid path to extinction: collisions with boats, habitat loss and pollution. These factors all point back to one perpetrator: mankind.
Aside from tackling global emissions, the report recommended two ways that species decline could be combated - by avoiding the destruction of animals’ natural habitat by overdevelopment or cultivation; and in avoiding the over-farming or fishing of individual species.
The implications of such drastic reductions in biodiversity are already having an impact on human life. “Reduced biodiversity means millions of people face a future where food supplies are more vulnerable to pests and disease and where water is in irregular or short supply,” said James Leape, director general of WWF.
“No one can escape the impact of biodiversity loss because reduced global diversity translates quite clearly into fewer new medicines, greater vulnerability to natural disasters and greater effects from global warming. The industrialised world needs to be supporting the global effort to achieve these targets, not just in their own territories where a lot of biodiversity has already been lost, but also globally.”
© 2008 The Independent
Even though this report identifies human overpopulation as a significant factor in the loss of biodiversity, what specific recommendation is glaringly absent in the report? And why?
There’s no question that we should choose adoption over further biological procreation. Guys, get snipped (a vasectomy). We need to reduce the population humanely and let the Earth recover immediately.
If this story doesn’t lead to mass suicide, something is truly wrong with our species.
So much for the humans as custodians/managers of Nature.
Humans are the global pest/vermin. Realizing this and ditching the supremacy myth (which infects both theistic religions and secular ones) would help.
BTW–the word “humanely” is an example of the supremacy myth–because it implies to be compassionate is to be human, and yet to be wicked is to be inhuman(non human). But the greatest acts of cruelty and sadism are committed by only one species. Dogs have perished in fires trying to save cats, cats have made friends with mice, even wild species have been filmed and documented engaging in what can easily be called altruistic acts–but they dont match that with acts of extreme barbarism, unlike humans.
So to be inhumane should be to be compassionate, and to be humane should be to be cruel.
Simple stuff.
It’s unlikely that awareness and concern can be raised to the appropriate level to actually improve the situation, and even if it was, it’s simply not convenient, economical or profitable for people, corporations, or governments to support efforts to conserve these species. Cost, profit, and efficiency are all that matter in capitalist markets — to the decimation and destruction of anything standing in the way. Economists might call this a “tragedy of the commons” but it is far graver than that.
The best solution to this problem is a plague or pandemic to reduce the number of humans on the planet by 70% or greater so that nature can recover.
There is nothing else that anyone reading this forum could propose that has any realistic chance of ever being adopted globally by all people, companies, and government to save these species. Oh, you might save a few here or a few there, through some program or other, but overall decimation of habitats and species would continue.
I think the humans must die. 70% or more of them. Now some might think this is crazy — but I would just think of it as natural selection in action — and it would solve many more problems than just this one.
Don’t agree ? Then don’t attack me, post an alternative proposal that would actually work.
“Between 1960 and 2000, the human population of the world has doubled. Yet during the same period, the animal populations have declined by 30 per cent. It’s beyond doubt that this decline has been caused by humans.”
“If this story doesn’t lead to mass suicide, something is truly wrong with our species.”
The underlying assumption is that we must drastically cut human numbers. The facts are that we must enact a program of awakening. In a matter of days, we could be on the rebound. How?
Remove the blinders that define present day human corporate military society and the lie that it rests upon: humans are dominators, hunters, omnivore/carnivore.
The ecological fact of the matter is that humans are herbivores! This simple fact (and its behavioral embrace) would free up untold lands for habitat recovery.
Do you realize that 1/50th as much land is required for a practicing human herbivore diet as is required for a person practicing a Western style meatarian diet?
We do not need to prune human numbers. WE NEED TO END the fundamental iggnorance that supports human ecological insanity!
http”//allinharmony.org
“When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores.”
William C. Roberts, M.D., editor, American Journal of Cardiology
STOP THE WAR MACHINE THAT IS GEARING UP FOR MASS HUMAN GENOCIDE! Choose the path of understanding! Killing anyone is absolutely unnecessary and as it turns out, not even supported by human ecological nature.
The planet will support us all quite well, but first we have to respect its laws of interaction for our own species.
rtb: The “elite” plan is to provide the equivalent of a targetted plague or pandemic. Unfortunately, their may be a certain amount of unplanned fallout.
Empower women and girls to have control over their own reproductive health and the birth rate will drop below replacement levels. I agree it is human overpopulation that threatens the planet and everything on it but think there’s another way to achieve reduction. First end the Bush gag rule and fully fund UN population efforts. Celebrate people who remain childless - not those who have 18 children!
Meanwhile all the other environmental causes can still be supported.
We do not need to prune human numbers. WE NEED TO END the fundamental IGNORANCE that supports human ecological insanity!
http://allinharmony.org
correction for mistakes in previous comment
Individuals are sufficent to stop species losses.
Individuals armed with understanding will make the choices that will arrest species losses and every other calamity brought about by our ecological insanity.
Governments are not required. The internet itself is sufficient. Spread the word. Save yourselves and all others!
Today is a good day to save a planet! It’s easy and it is in your hands.
http://allinharmony.org
There has been a lost of the local everything.
I think people who move their families about in a range greater than a few hundred miles don’t see themselves as the “natives” of the new area they live and settle in. They can be blinded by the concentration of material goods available to them that do not originate in their region or have a religion that does not address the local history, fawn and flora of their current residence. Or they just don’t understand how their local resources relate to their lives. We are living during what I call the Tipping Point Era. The tipping point will not occur on some designated day but will happen in what will seem like a day to the geological time line of the planet. There are so many solutions and there are so many people in need of these solutions. I can only see a combination of traditional consumption habits, out of place religious beliefs and a basic lack of ecological knowledge as the major road block to what could at least be a slowing of the decline of our current life support systems on the planet.
“rtb: The “elite” plan is to provide the equivalent of a targetted plague or pandemic. Unfortunately, their may be a certain amount of unplanned fallout.”
This is true but the war machine will continue to play a huge role as well as all the police state surveillance and control structures. Sad, very sad. Because these measures will not only not achieve the desired result, they will accomplish more of the same… a more complete cessation of the natural order that was designed to support life.
Embrace your natural ecology (humans are herbivores)… and let the dictates of nature be once again respected by the human family.
“… but the war machine will continue to play a huge role …”
Unquestionably. Even unnatural “elite” plagues require carriers and vectors.
We are so toast.
BTW, my wife & I chose years ago to have no children due to the overpopulation issue. We live in a net-zero energy home and have a very low carbon footprint. We are vegetarians and do everything we can to live lightly on the planet.
Humanity has not evolved quick enough to keep up with its own technology. It’s our profligate use of fossil fuels that has enabled the population explosion and led to most of the ills we face today.
It’s hard to accept that we will be the cause of our own demise, while taking many other life forms along with us. How utterly stupid and unnecessary.
Besides religions that prohibit birth control in order to rule our bodies as well as our minds, the US mantra of growth as the solution to everything also implies global population growth to provide ever cheaper labor.
SocratesNV — Likewise. My husband and I decided: no children (I tied my tubes at 22). Vegetarian. A small highly insulated solar-paneled house. Xeriscaped, except for our food garden. We make do with one car (oh, how terrible to be poor Americans, right?) and it’s a small economy model. But we are only two among the vast landscape of SUV-loving, meat-gorging, lawn-and-pool-loving Americans. The average American eats 275 pounds of meat per year, which means that somewhere somebody is eating our meat and your meat too.
The instinct to procreate wins out over the use of the intellect in most people, even people of intelligence. Given that we sit atop the food chain, nothing preys on us so there’s nothing to stop our growth. Even in Third World countries, with malaria and polio and other horrible diseases such as AIDS and dengue fever and ebola, the death rate hardly cuts into the formidable birth rate. Life breeds more intensely when threatened. Even people sickened by parasites and insufficient food can still reproduce, and they do. And there are no checks in the Western societies, where having children is seen as a right, not a privilege. A big mistake, in my opinion. But then I think we should be shooting for very few children of very high quality, and not for bumper crops that get little attention beyond the fact that they exist (as in being 1 of 18, e.g.).
A quantum shift in humanity’s thought process is going to happen soon given all the “energy” that is building up. With each day we come closer to a precipitous climax. This seems obviously evident. Many systems are out of balance, but a new balance will be achieved (with or without humanity).
Many can envison a future that is so much better. A future based on learning from the past. A future that is truly equitable and where humanity recognizes we are only part of the “tree of life”. Because this future can be envisioned, I’d argue that such a future is possible. Sadly, at the present time, such a future seems unlikely, but who knows. With quantum changes what was once believed impossible can become reality and this can happen in the blink of an eye. I’d rather try to be the change I want to happen than contribute to self-fulfilling dismal prophesizing. Nobody knows the future for sure.
I think there is plenty to go around and the earth can easily support the current human population if we learn how to fit in. On the other hand, if we continue to cause other species to go extinct, then so too will be our fate because we our connected with these other species and we need them more than they need us.
Peace,
Ken
buffalo ken — thank you !
the paradigm shift is always available to us, but to access it we must disengage from what seems to be happening . . .
unlearning is the hardest part, but also the most rewarding . . .
‘reality’ is a holodimensional construct playing now in the theater of physicality,
to change the scenery, change the awareness with which you perceive it . . .
This article affirms what has become quite apparent over the years. I remember the passage of the ESA, and thought at that time that perhaps there was still a chance at reversing some of the damage, but even that effort was simply based on utilitarian self-interest arguments. Unless we can radically change the way we understand ourselves as part of, not separate and better than, a planet that includes other living beings who experience life in ways that are unique but differenct than our own, then we are doomed.
The escalation of human caused destruction over the past few decades has doomed so many other animals, and the discussion still focuses on “resources.” We must extract oil because it is a more important resource than polar bears, for example. This kind of thinking is what has done us in. It is not just that this is “short-sighted.” It is grounded in wrong understanding of the planet, one that elevates our own species above and separate from all others.
“Given that we sit atop the food chain, nothing preys on us so there’s nothing to stop our growth.”
This is simply a major fallacy of our very ecologically fallacious culture. There is NO ‘top’ to the food chain!
In fact, evolutionary tendency is from carnivorous to omnivorous where we see some plant eating capabilities, to exclusive plant eating capabilities and then further specialization (such as the bovine specialized stomach) adding an ability to digest much more commonly available foodstuffs, grasses.
If one looks with an accurate ecological lens, one sees that ecology itself moves towards dietary specializations that can support great herds, meaning larger and larger population numbers… and it turns out, these greater numbers are necessary to a number of other specialized ecological functions including soil conditioning.
The assumptions regarding human behavior and our place in the evolutionary history of the earth’s biosphere (that are so often repeated) are simply wrong. I do not care if these are assumed and repeated by professors of environmental science, they are still absolutely wrong and born of culturally induced assumption and not accurate science based upon an acquaintance with nature.
Humans are herbivores: http://www.goveg.com/naturalhumandiet_physiology.asp
Furthermore, had all of us not been reared in a elitist dominator culture, we would NEVER have thought to fish! Over-fishing depends to the notion that fish is an appropriate food for humans, which it is not! And has only been promulgated by cultures and vestiges of vanquished cultures that taught an errant hierarchical model for social organization, the purpose of which was fundamentally to justify rule by an elite class supported by a violence-enabled class, the warrior cult.
So, ALL meat-eating and the myths that support it (in human societies around the world), stem from the ‘corporate/military’ (temple-based) model for society.
Is it any wonder that we have adopted a (completely non-scientific) cultural fallacy such as ‘top of the food chain’?
The door out of the insanity (killing spree) is to decide to participate (ecologically speaking), because our attempts to dominate nature are being answered with a ‘no thank you’ from the rest of life.
Many years ago I stopped using pesticides and herbicides on my place. Now the garden is only organic and the seeds are saved from year to year. I also began a small feeding program for birds and other animals. It began with plants found growing locally that were indigenous to this area. I also created wildlife habitat at the edges of woods and fields. I have consistently improved these efforts over the years. Today I have a thriving community of indigenous plants and animals. Birds that had disappeared are now back, such as the red headed woodpecker and others. New species that I had not seen in the area before are showing up as well such as the scarlet tanger. My experience suggests that done consistently, islands of prepared habitat and consistent feeding can reverse some of the negative effects causing extinctions. The bees are back strong this year as well, feeding on the indigenous trees and plants that I provided. Individually we can do something about this.
It is not impossible to get humans to limit reproduction. I lived in Singapore, a small city state of around 3 million population, in the 70s, when they instituted a whole series of programs designed to make their nation prosperous and sustainable. As a model on a small scale for the world, their approach, and its successes, should be studied by those looking at how our world might address the population challenge.
Their new government recognize early on that, as a small nation with limited land or resources, they would have to establish a ‘voluntary’ commitment to limit population growth if they were to have any chance of prospering in the long term. Using a combination of societal education and government policy to establish the idea that two children was fine, and that more was bad for the country’s future prosperity and viability, they quickly succeeded in gaining almost complete acceptance for this seemingly impossible proposition. Policies included making education, medical care, and other social supports for child raising free (for the first two children). However, if a third child was added to the family, the family would be responsible for all costs of raising the child, and would not find a place in child care facilities or in local schools for that child. Very quickly, both in their acceptance of the context that population growth would harm the country’s prosperity in the long run, and the policies making it costly and troublesome for raising and educating additional children, it became accepted in Singapore that two was the right number. I did not find anyone I met while there who thought it anything but a reasonable and necessary part of their contribution to building a sustainable future. We should be so smart!
While this is only a tiny slice of our world, they have demonstrated that this can work. It was on the basis of Singapore’s success that China has attempted to reduce population by instituting their restriction to one child (a more difficult challenge that has seem some serious human rights abuses). We humans are rational creatures, and our best reason should be appealed to in this time of resource shortages, species extinctions and environmental devastation. Whether we conclude that the right number is one (to bring about population reduction) or two ( to maintain the population), we need to begin figuring out what combination of education and policies can make everyone accept what is right for our long term prosperity and sustainability. Without a self-conscious effort to educate ourselves about this crisis, and then calling on our governments to institute policies that support our conclusions, we are headed for a terrible collapse caused by the unthinking fecundity of our species and our irrational commitment to our right of choice in this matter. If not, we will also be on the list of extinct species we are now causing.
Corporate interests
Earnings targets
Quarterly earnings
Growth
Productivity
GDP
Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBtT9NfWtbE
The problem lies in the pseudo-science of economics. The standard of living of human beings is governed by production and production is governed by the laws of thermodynamics. Consideration of these laws makes it necessary to consider all production as joint-production creating both pollution and objects of manufacture. We take the objects of manufacture as “profits,” and leave to nature all the pollution. The decline of the animal kingdom is the first casualty.
Unless economics is altogether re-written, abolishing the delusional concept of profit, political actions necessary to save the planet cannot come about. Compromise is out of the question, nature is insensible to image and “spin.”
If carbon emissions are not halted immediately so that atmospheric precipitation and botanical respiration can cut worldwide atmospheric carbon by 10%, the planet will die.
All of Earth is now one, big Mayan civilization. And we know how well that turned out…
“IF this story doesn’t lead to mass suicide, something is truly wrong with our species.”
BEEKEEPER OPENS THE, BLOGs.
So very interesting instead of putting that energy into trying to help with the necessary steps to sop climate change and global warming the man gives up!. What that means for most of you out there is: stop looking at your 401k and use it for selfless work for the globe. This is the immediate response of so many. Instead it should be a call to activism to stop the madman in the Whitehouse and his cohorts like McCain.
Radical change is necessary in Washington to begin with!
I was checking out my favorite, and one of the most power environmental statements ever made- “Whatever befalls the earth- befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life- he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”- Chief Seattle.
Funny thing is… there seems to be an enormous propaganda campaign to discredit this statement… claiming that it was written by a ‘hollywood screenwriter’ and not Chief Seattle and therefor isn’t true. Frankly, I could care less. It’s still one of the most powerful pro-environmental statements of all time. And that’s why they want to blast it.
The internet is awash in ‘research’ trying to discredit the statement. But the most telling single webpage is the Snopes deconstruction attack. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/seattle.asp
When you look at their ’sources’ at the bottom of the page… you can see what they have is attacks by The Seattle Times, New York Times, Newsweek, San Diego Tribune, and the Sunday Telegraph- most all from within the same 1 year period.
Checking the sources further… the one that really pops out is the San Diego Tribune, owned by Copley Press:
(from wikipedia)
“Allegations of collaboration with CIA and FBI”
In the late 1970s, reports began surfacing in the American media that the Copley Press was being used as a front by the Central Intelligence Agency. Reporters Joe Trento and Dave Roman claimed that James S. Copley, who served as publisher until 1973, had cooperated with the CIA since its founding in 1947. They also reported that a subsidiary division, Copley News Service, was used in Latin America by the CIA as a front. Further, they said that reporters at the Copley-owned San Diego Union and Evening News spied on antiwar protesters for the FBI. They alleged that at the height of these operations, at least two dozen Copley employees were simultaneously working for the CIA. James S. Copley was also accused of involvement in the CIA-funded Inter-American Press Association.[3][4][5][6]”
Well.. the other sources I don’t think I need to describe them much here… they are all Warmongers who either played powerful rolls in bringing the Bushes to power, or in duping the country into war.
So obviously… Mr. Big Mili-Oily-Tary-Monopoly doesn’t like Chief Seattle’s passionate environmental speech and has used his CIA goons to trash the most powerful statement of environmental harmony ever.
My solution to the environmental problem and extinctions- first we must blast the Propagandists and show their true colors. It wont be easy… since they have monopolized the media.
extract from ‘a world without us’ by alan weisman: ‘worldwide, every four days human population rises by 1 million’. since we can’t really grasp such numbers, they’ll wax out of control until they crash, as has happened to every other species that got too big for this box’
i could add more, but this paragraph nails our problem in a nutshell………and i for one, cannot see us doing anything about this scenario before we crash. it’s too far out of control to control……….
Latest and best book on extinctions of the human kind……
“Under a Green Sky” by Peter Ward
It is well worth the read. We’re already pretty much underway with the feedbacks. Biodiversity decline is just one of the ways to tell where we are going.
Technology is not the answer nor is great leadership.
At a point nearer than we think rationing will begin.
First water, then fossil fuels resulting in electricity rationing. Plan to live as we have made the Iraqi’s live.
2 hours a day, going to the well, and walking everywhere. Welcome to Bushworld.
All of you posting population facts are simply talking out of your arses!
It is not known whether the optimum number of humans (ecologically speaking) is none, 10 billion, 5 billion, 100 million, or 20 billion.
Until humanity decides to address its ecological nature and act accordingly, human wisdom remains an unrealized possibility. And without ecological understanding, data (including human population figures) is simply data, non-contextualized and presently useless!
Every person here speaking to population concerns has failed to address the social organizations that are dictating how populations aggregate. And that is why we cannot speak reliably to numbers.
For instance, what if there are 100 million rabbits in the Americas? Would that be significant? Why?
Now, do you think it matters whether they are ALL living in research facilities and being fed corporate produced foodstuffs or whether they are living in parks and other more natural places?
Humanity MUST first rediscover its place in nature. And like the rest of nature, by integration, we will discover what our population numbers can (even should) be… even broken down on a region by region basis.
Let’s add another fact (and there are many). Did you know that meat-eaters have puberty up to four or more years earlier than those practicing their ecologically defined exclusive plant-based diet?
Do you remember that the Chinese ‘overpopulated’ not because of natural interest in children but because of Mao’s programs that insisted upon it? Ever consider how important this precursor to the present slave culture was?
Singapore? That is another discussion. I do not agree that such a police state with wide-spread slavery should be a model for anything… Sheesh!
Frankly, that is the point! You have NO models. And the closest ones are the ones under greatest attack, the indigenous communities in places like the South American rainforest.
Years ago, before all the violence erupted, I visited Sri Lanka. There were lots of people… and trees so heavy with fruit it was amazing… coconuts, bananas, etc.
At night we snuck out of our room (there were guards at the door since my husband at the time was a visiting VIP), and went for a walk on the beach… and stumbled upon many who had made their beds in the sand… the same people who would sit on the expansive verandas and play chess and drink tea during the day… people were friendly, tolerant, educated and living in a lush environment where anyone could pick what they needed to eat.
Maybe you don’t want to sleep in the sand but they would have had a veranda too had it not been that even this place in those days was an elitist state organized for a privileged class… but, vestiges of what could have been were still evident… I am certain that today, much of that has been lost. And the eradication of lush habitats for all animals, including humans is an ancient program for extending and maintaining control.
Today the program is approaching total control over the most basic necessities of life…including total control of all crops (and water) and the eradication of everything (edible) that is not under corporate control.
FAKEDEMOCRACY
GOOD POST BUT ITS MEDIA CONTROL:
The Unseen Lies: Journalism As Propaganda
by John Pilger
“As the new corporations began taking over the press, something called “professional journalism” was invented. To attract big advertisers, the new corporate press had to appear respectable, pillars of the establishment-objective, impartial, balanced. The first schools of journalism were set up, and a mythology of liberal neutrality was spun around the professional journalist. The right to freedom of expression was associated with the new media and with the great corporations, and the whole thing was, as Robert McChesney put it so well, “entirely bogus”.
For what the public did not know was that in order to be professional, journalists had to ensure that news and opinion were dominated by official sources, and that has not changed. Go through the New York Times on any day, and check the sources of the main political stories-domestic and foreign-you’ll find they’re dominated by government and other established interests. That is the essence of professional journalism. I am not suggesting that independent journalism was or is excluded, but it is more likely to be an honorable exception. Think of the role Judith Miller played in the New York Times in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Yes, her work became a scandal, but only after it played a powerful role in promoting an invasion based on lies. Yet, Miller’s parroting of official sources and vested interests was not all that different from the work of many famous Times reporters, such as the celebrated W.H. Lawrence, who helped cover up the true effects of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August, 1945. “No Radioactivity in Hiroshima Ruin,” was the headline on his report, and it was false.”
I read with interest the comments above. We all know what many are saying is true, those who have watched for years the developing oligarchic plutocracy of the USA. The United States is a right wing fascist country preaching freedoms while using every conceivable method, historically used by all dictatorships regardless of stripe to repress the self-determination of different peoples.
Unless the United States cleans its own house and joins the rest of the world to resolves differences globally there will be no way to deal with the threat of climate change which requires global cooperation.
The United States is looked upon by the rest of the world as the problem and not anywhere close to a solution. All fear the USA, including its own people. This is a recipe for global disaster, which continues unabated by the two party control of congress and exacerbated by the elements of global disunity that occupies the present White House.
As above we see the reflection of people’s voices that reflect a large cross section of Americans, those still able to think for themselves without media or corporate brainwashing. It is a sad day for the world that looks toward America for true change, since there is no hope on the immediate horizon and the list of candidates is slim. If we look at those who truly think differently we see - since they ultimately reflect the will of the people- the odds for true change is rather slim. Simply look at the percentages for Kucinich, Ron Paul and Obama, that is when the media allows them to speak.
The public rarely enjoins the true issues or do the politicians the reasons are clear. Special interests and “free enterprise” capitalism it is what this country has devised as worth living and dying for. The basis for the consumer ideology is energy in association with an auto-centered economy closes the circle. It uses the media to direct the public flow of the so-called truth and we have a perfect example of it in this political campaign. It is why Exxon Mobile is out of control and the public is given platitudes rather than help.
The media is out of control this election has shown us just how far it has gone to dumb-down the public. The recent move by ABC to remove candidates from the debates who voiced radical dissent was outrageous. Media is determining the fate of the country and the world by being mouthpiece for special interests and the government and silencing dissent by marginalization.
Media censure is unheard, the FCC should rule for the public good but like the EPA its teeth are continually drawn. The media has no right to exclude any politician who is running for office as happened recently with the ABC debate. The only exclusion under the rules used by ABC should apply to a candidate not sitting in public office. The license of ABC would be lifted if the rules were changed but the congress, with the exception of a few, pushes for more media conglomeration supported by special interests. I hope that someone picks up on this thought. We have seen the obsession by FOX and CNN, particularly, in the form of Wolf Blitzer and the FOX rabid journalists/news readers, constantly referring to the Rev. Wright controversy to the exclusion of important issues.
Blitzer’s bias is clear. He is quick to use every possible negative he can against Obama from the Flag Pin to anything else he could get his mouth around. His support for Clinton has been clear and inappropriate, for CNN to call itself”fair and balanced” news network is ridiculous. I quote Mr. Nichols: ” The media pretense of being a fly on the wall has often been preposterous. In the real world of politics — where power brokers and manipulators proceed with the cynical axiom that perception is reality — the fly on the wall is the wall. The political press corps is not observing reality as much as redefining it while obstructing outlooks and constraining public perceptions.”
As usual, few are able to see the stampede of the public sheep created by media. I support the change that Obama represents! He is intelligent and wants America once again to be looked upon as a great nation that it could still be and once was. The present “lack of experience” cry of Clinton is preposterous. Could anyone having been near the White house as long as Bush and done as badly for the USA? There is experience! However, even with the discovery of a job approval rating at about 28% the conservative media does not criticize. The rating of the American people speaks volumes about Bush’s experience. No one could have been as bad as the Bush team! There is experience!
A flight from entrenched American politics is necessary . . .it has ruined this country and made greed the single value of importance. The young people once again embrace hope as a result of the Obama campaign. The Hillary political group and the entrenched political machines have virtually destroyed America. They represent the exclusive money and power clubs so disappointed by Obama’s’ win in NC. Hillary believed in and ran to defend and keep this form of government is America regardless of the consequences.
Clinton recently morphed to the Obama populist message, it was called, “finding her voice” while at the beginning of her stump showing the, Madeline Albright, bomb the children image. Can anyone truly think that change is unnecessary? I guess not since all the politicos have adopted this message including McCain? The mistakes that Obama may make as president cannot be greater than those of the past seven years. It is also necessary to give him a democratic congress to make certain that the programs that Americans want can be enacted.
Mr. Gore Vidal, has pointedly criticized mainstream media as one of the major problems, and what is wrong with the USA. The corporate media conglomerates control the message and that message is perversely distorted and panders to its advertising portfolio! Wolf Blitzer is one of the glaring examples of this criticism and shows clearly those distorted ideas with his reporting, which is nothing more than partially factual opinion dictated by his bosses.
Wolf Blitzer is a person who has no right to shape public opinion far from being the “fly on the wall” he espouses to be. We must remember flies morph from maggots. He displays ignorance as a virtue for the entire world to see, an example of what is considered, by many in America to be news reporting. If Blitzer were billed as a CNN commentator, at least the public would not be hoodwinked to believe his reporting to be the truth, while it is his lack of concern for accuracy, rectitude and fairness that replaces his style of news is simply opinion. His love of his bosses “dream team concept”, to somehow get the Clintons near the Whitehouse, if not in it is clear for all of us to see.
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The people of the USA have been so ill informed as to what “change” would really do and mean to this country, as well as, the change in leadership necessary, they have forgotten that no one could be worse than George Bush . . . No one, not even a dogcatcher, at least the dog catcher has compassion for
Animals!
The future leaders, Obama or McCain, should discuss the problems America and the world faces in the coming election directly. The problem of public ignorance of the issues caused by the media is serious. In the heat of elections the media panders to the voter ignorance it has itself created. The emphasis, as we see on nightly, so-called news, is constant repetition of candidate’s miscues. The result of the media sensationalism becomes, the wrong problem and the wrong message at a crucial time in world history. The emphasis should be instead on having the politicians address a credible platform of ideas based on the global climate change issues and American problems in association with global interaction in the world at this time is critical. Obama knows this!
There is not enough time left for civilization to focus on rubbish. The energy and environmental issues for example or food and health care are the problems the media should be focusing upon. But to use the Rev, Wright issue for one week, to try and hurt the candidacy of Obama is a travesty. The issues most pressing are once again avoided, those really important issues that must be put before the public and congress; the environment, continued funding of Iraq, energy issues, education, health care and so many others not dealt with, all impacting upon the economy, makes the failure of public dialog outrageous and dangerous! Moreover, the costs of addressing these issues could come from the wars end!
The issue of this election will impact on the environment, economy and the future of the USA as no others. Still, if more than 50% of eligible voters cast their votes it will be a miracle, as a result of regressive US election laws and media obfuscation. It is compulsory for everyone to vote in Australia it should be so in the USA as well. Few of the candidates are really talking about the major points, even those who are the most erudite. The environment in association with the economy or health care and elections reform, to name some, are kept out of public dialog as a result of the nonsense punditry hours on end. The world looks at America and its “star struck reality” in wonderment.
The political discussion rests on the complete lack of talking points in isolation, such as, Clinton’s health package or the nonsense gasoline tax rebate and it’s cost, rather than what is really at stake with energy issues, human survival. The candidates for the US presidency rarely talk about the complete interrelated package of the issues combined. Obama alludes to this deficiency in the media and public issues that are talking points. When he asks for this to occur it lands on deaf ears because the media and special interests do not want this to occur.
The media reduces the public debate to its most simplistic level with pundits arguing about one inconsequential issue or another rather than the truly important issues of our time. The American people are kept from hearing and understanding the relationship of the entire package of issues, which a true leader must address and deal with for the very survival of America in the world within a global economy. The costs for the war would pay for every single need from health care to American infrastructure repair and education, as well as the alleviation of world hunger and energy research, this is what’s truly at stake.
Instead, the pundits hired by media for their simplistic nature, deals with Rev.Wright and American Flag lapel pins instead.
The media keeps the public dumbed down for obvious reasons –they represent the moneyed people who do not want the public to truly engage in moving radically toward change. It dos not matter that these related issues will affect their very lives and their future. In fact keep the population not able to move at all because their means of survival is being stripped. The old adage “if you want to keep em quiet keep um hungry” with an LBJ accent applies
The issues of climate change, energy issues and the global economy, not only American economy, is the dynamic we see played out with the mortgage crisis created by the “free market” system. All the above issues with people losing their homes as a result of Wall Street manipulation are tied to the above economic fundamental problems. The global economy is the first and major issue, which affects all other issues and is completely related to the economic changes, which must take place.
The media board rooms instruct their so-called journalists (news/opinion readers) to stay clear of those subjects that would attack advertising, consumption, tied together in the media collusion with special interests to maintain the consumer system killing the world. Media directors, in collusion with government and special interests do not want the changes that would result in the decline of their hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.
All environmental problems are in one way or another associated with the Western world’s consumption based lifestyle led by the USA. These issues are affected by consumer advertising much of it coming from the millions spent on false advertising of irrelevant product and campaign advertising. The media should be dealing with true American and global issues in this campaign affecting the very basis of the so-called American Dream, fast becoming the global nightmare. This is what the next president of the USA must address!
itsaNaziworldorder: Thanks for the information about humans as natural herbivores. I was skeptical at first, but am convinced. It certainly makes sense given all of the health problems associated with eating dead animal flesh.
Fakedemocracy: Does it really matter whether Chief Seattle said it or not? The truth of an argument doesn’t depend on who says it. It’s beautiful and true, and that should be enough.
All: I don’t believe that humans can change their behavior soon enough to save themselves and the other inhabitants of our planet. I don’t believe that we will suddenly wise up and realize our behavior must change. Where in human history is there evidence of such an awakening? Change will come when there is no alternative. We’ll start using less petroleum when we can’t afford to binge on it any longer. We’ll stop eating meat when it’s unaffordable. So many problems in human history might have been resolved if people understood how the compounding on a mass scale of apparently innocent individual behavior spelled doom. But it simply hasn’t happend that way–yet. What hope is there that it will happen now? Climate change is a fact that we will have to adjust to. Those with fewer resources to adjust to it will suffer the most. The wealthy will find ways to insulate themselves from the worst of it. Meanwhile, I will work on voluntarily reducing my environmental footprint, but with the knowledge that it probably won’t do any good. Can anyone PLEASE convince me that things will go differently?
“Can anyone PLEASE convince me that things will go differently?”
I’m working on it… and the more you work on it, the better you will get at being able (and positioned) to turn the tide… believe it or not, each person is potentially the one that can precipitate a landslide of change… we are aided by the fact that our change is mandated (and supported) by nature and so much easier to accomplish than not making the change.
Don’t despair, gird yourself for the last mile and run like your life (and mine) depends upon it! Failure is Not an option!
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”
But, this is a race so just plant your feet and head out… what you will need to learn will be apparent as you make the approach (or so I have always counseled myself in times of greatest despair and darkness).
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
Edmund J Burke
So absent political actions what have you done personally and consistently around your own home to reverse this decline?
Life on Earth would thrive without man.
“You’d have to go back to the extinction of the dinosaurs to see a decline as rapid as this - Jonathan Loh
Not mentioned in the article, but perhaps y’all know, is that the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event was 65 million years ago.
Not 15,000 years ago during the last climate warming event. Not during any other interglacial period since C-T. This global extinction event is a direct result of man’s influence upon his environment, including climate. Tell that to a climate change denier.
This global extinction event will be a geological event. In millions of years time, geologists will know this time line because it will be expressed in the geology. This time line will be relatively thin, perhaps only a few inches thick, and it will not only show that many/most of Earth species died off in a very short (geologically speaking) period of time, maybe 10,000 years, but it will also be full of exotic radioactive isotopes and organic compounds that do not otherwise exist anywhere else in the geological record.
Hopefully, homo sapiens will be among the extinct.
truth monger wrote: Life on Earth would thrive without man.
This is true, but it will be a different to what lives now, and has lived for millions of years. But frankly, I do not see why life on earth should regress to the level of complexity that existed on the Earth to say the Cambrian, or 400 million years ago.
To: it’sanaziworldorder and others -
Wrong, humans are omnivores, not herbivores. If you don’t believe it google for Neanderthal,food or Cro-magnon,food. They were great hunters and made a lot of clever tools to do it with. Or simply look at the Lescaux caves in France. Plenty of hunting going on there.
It’s true that most primates are herbivores, (although chimpanzees eat termites, which they catch with sticks),
but it’s possible that humans developed further than they did because we ate meat and so provided our brains with protein, essential for a really smart brain.
(Although I won’t insist that we’re really smart -)
Sorry about that -
“So absent political actions what have you done personally and consistently around your own home to reverse this decline?”
Since species loss is directly tied to human resource abuses and destructions, my focus is to explain the underlying fallacies that bind us into the systems whereby we feel powerless to avoid participating in these abuses.
I attack it on many fronts. One obviously is to provide as much understanding to as many people as is possible.
I also use myself as an example, living according to my understanding as best I can given the limitations of my circumstances and make myself open/available to those who surround me; sharing my choices and the reasons for them.
It is an opportunity to have influence that is open to all.
So, my focus is not political but educational. I have prepared a hard hitting leaflet and distributed it at universities. If you would like a copy, let me know, I will email it.
The facts of the leaflet lay bare the fundamental fallacy of our non-ecological society… and it is formulated to be posted in medical centers, parks, libraries, etc.
I have written a number of programs, non-profit and for profit in attempts to make it easier (actually painless and fun) for communities to embrace ecological understanding.
I have written songs with my husband that contribute to ecological understanding. We have painted, and I have designed any number of artifacts to help communicate the ecological reality that is scrubbed from our corporate military worldviews.
I have written over a thousand postings (on Common Dreams and elsewhere) to help others grasp the importance of understanding human ecology.
I have contacted professors in many fields, activists, non-profits, etc.
I let my intuition guide me. Sometimes it wakes me in the night… I write, or draw.. or whatever is demanded… then execute, focus, listen, act… and I do expect to arrive… where we must all arrive… a member of a humanity once again grounded in the most basic fact of its own ecology; humans are herbivores with their very own unique (and wonderful) place in the earthly biosphere.
SocratesNV: “It’s hard to accept that we will be the cause of our own demise, while taking many other life forms along with us. How utterly stupid and unnecessary.”
Sounds like a terrorist/suicide bomber. Maybe if the terrorists can remove enough humans they may save the planet?
“I think there is plenty to go around and the earth can easily support the current human population if we learn how to fit in. On the other hand, if we continue to cause other species to go extinct, then so too will be our fate because we our connected with these other species and we need them more than they need us.”
Excellent point Buffalo Ken, and better than declaring all a lost cause and doing nothing.
The truth is, no one knows the Earth’s real carrying capacity. I think we can safely guesstimate that it can’t support much more of us at the current rate of resource usage and waste. However, bending over and kissing our asses goodbye is a bit premature, IMO.
Thing is, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are peoples who have lived a certain way for many thousands of years, and have done so in a sustainable manner. I think it behooves us to learn from them and stop the insanity of our war on nature.
There is a movement afoot to reintroduce local small farming, micro-farming, back-yard farming. This movement also knows that big is not only NOT better, but rather, big is what ails us. We must get back down to human scale, and there are people out there whom we can learn from. The corporate model and the model of competition in everything - especially food - is a dead end (literally). The time of totalitarian agriculture must end. It is feeding the growth of everything - especially people. If we want human population to stop growing, we must go local or nothing we do short of genocide will stop it. That’s the way nature is.
“Wrong, humans are omnivores, not herbivores.”
“but it’s possible that humans developed further than they did because we ate meat and so provided our brains with protein, essential for a really smart brain.”
ALL life has protein. We do not actually digest animal proteins completely and that contributes to a number of debilitating conditions such as acidification and osteoporosis.
Next, MOST people were primary or exclusive plant eaters up until the advent of refrigeration. So the theory of the ’smart brain’ is completely unsupported by the evidence. Also, there are many reports of elite insanity (those who consumed most of the meat)… and, dementia is also scientifically correlated with meat-eating.
The fact is, we were herbivores (being a member of the monkey family) and we still are: http://youtube.com/watch?v=05zhL1YUd8Q (good comic video by Dan Piraro)
______
The Natural Human Diet
According to biologists and anthropologists who study our anatomy and our evolutionary history, humans are herbivores who are not well suited to eating meat.
Unlike natural carnivores, we are physically and psychologically unable to rip animals limb from limb and eat and digest their raw flesh. Even cooked meat is likely to cause human beings, but not natural carnivores, to suffer from food poisoning, heart disease, and other ailments.
People who pride themselves on being part of the human hunter tradition should take a second look at the story of human evolution. Prehistoric evidence indicates that humans developed hunting skills relatively recently and that most of our short, meat-eating past was spent scavenging and eating almost anything in order to survive; even then, meat was a tiny part of our caloric intake.
Humans lack both the physical characteristics of carnivores and the instinct that drives them to kill animals and devour their raw carcasses. Ask yourself: When you see dead animals on the side of the road, are you tempted to stop for a snack? Does the sight of a dead bird make you salivate? Do you daydream about killing cows with your bare hands and eating them raw? If you answered “no” to all of these questions, congratulations, you’re a normal human herbivore, like it or not. Humans were simply not designed to eat meat.
The above discussion from http://www.goveg.com/naturalhumandiet.asp
ITSANAZIWORLDORDER
perhaps i should have quatified what i meant when i said it’s too far out of control to control. there are far too many people now to educate (and convince) about the benefits of living with the earth and its fauna and flora. trying to get over 6 billion of us to suddenly change our ways overnight is a feat that personally i believe to be unachievable. and that is what it will take to stop the ravaging of our planet. overnight change.
as for the meat eaters reaching puberty four or more years earlier than herbivores, there are recorded incidents in italy of children less than two years old developing genitalia and breasts from being fed canned baby foods that included meat from calves etc.
CYON
i would love to convince you that things will go differently, but we have to face reality. the text of this article suggests that homo sapiens are responsible for the mass extinction currently taking place. and peoples’ ignorance of the insects/animals/birds/fish/plants/trees etc that contribute to our well-being. we have somewhere along the line lost our relationship with nature and now depend far too much on technology. and yes, i am guilty of using that technology by way of this communication. but i maintain a profound link to all other aspects of the natural world. if all we had on this planet by way of technology was the internet and computers to communicate, i think we would be in far better shape than we are now…………..
iammyself,
I agree. Thank you.
While we are undoubtedly losing species at an extremely rapid rate, and while I am as deeply concerned and distressed about the loss of biodiversity as it is possible to be, and while I understand the need to jolt humanity into action, this report is seriously disingenuous. At this point in our knowledge about life on Earth, science can not tell us with reasonable accuracy, even to within an order of magnitude, how many species exist on our planet. Individual trees in tropical rainforests can contain as many as 2000 insect species each, with 80% of those insects unknown to science. The total number of insect species in the world’s tropical rainforests is TOTALLY unknown - and that’s just talking about insects and tropical rainforests. What about microscopic forms of life, what about coral reefs? Before you can talk about the rate at which species are disappearing, you have to know how many species exist to start with, and we are still a LONG, LONG way from that point.
grandma wrote: Wrong, humans are omnivores, not herbivores. If you don’t believe it google for Neanderthal,food or Cro-magnon,food. They were great hunters and made a lot of clever tools to do it with. Or simply look at the Lescaux caves in France. Plenty of hunting going on there.
Valid point, but this does not diminish in any way the fact that man is a herbivore.
So why the cave paintings? Could it be that man enjoyed killing, so much so that like today’s man, he needed a trophy to display? We know that Neanderthals were socially competitive, and the ultimate bragging rights were secured by “bringing home the bacon”.
Actually we all have the luxury of living in a part of the world where there still are animals living around us. And we have the luxury of being able to feel empathy for other creatures.
In the most densely populated parts of the world there is none of that sympathy for animals. There are no pets or companion animals. Even India with it’s sacred cows, treats them abominably. Hindus don’t eat them, they just sell them to Muslims when they are worn out.
In other countries people eat every blessed thing that walks, crawls, flies or swims. All life is only food. That is it’s only value. So they don’t care, this news is irrelevant to more than two thirds of the people in this world.
I was paddling around in a wetland in India. It was deathly quiet, not a single bird or amphibian, not a splash or ripple. My guide was bemused, how could I expect ducks, people would eat them? People in large parts of the world have just gotten used to animals being gone forever.
There are two problems. One these people do need to eat, so they need access to crop foods sufficient that they don’t have to eat every dam duck in the pond. And they need to know that the duck is important to their local ecology as more than a source of protein. This is about is about education. Big job.
The good news is that people in those crowded parts of the world will probably be the first to come up with socially acceptable reasons for eating human flesh, (there is a sect of mystics in India who filch tidbits off cremation ghats for spiritual reasons - it’s a start)and devise creative ways of cooking to diguise the origin of the mystery meat.
“The good news is that people in those crowded parts of the world will probably be the first to come up with socially acceptable reasons for eating human flesh, (there is a sect of mystics in India who filch tidbits off cremation ghats for spiritual reasons - it’s a start)and devise creative ways of cooking to diguise the origin of the mystery meat.’
Actually, the ’socially acceptable’ way was introduced into India by the Brahmins (who both defined ’socially acceptable’ by virtue of superior acts of violence, and introduced human and animal sacrifice as a confirmation of power and the ‘right to rule’ — just like it was being practiced in all other temple-based societies) who invaded from the North and introduced meat-eating to India!
Furthermore, there are sufficient ‘leaks’ in the system and sufficient evidence to assume that cannibalism is being practiced (just as it was in earlier times) in many places around the world. The temple elite were always cannibals. I see no reason whatsoever to assume that this practice has entirely ended.
All animals die and none know or care why they die. Only we know and care. The loss of species is not important except to us. When humans die off, and they will if species keep disappearing, the earth will go on and recover. It may take along time but none will be there to know or care how long it takes. Don’t worry about the earth, worry about yourself. The earth is not in danger, we are. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee…
WTF
exactly. but where are the bragging points today by ‘bringing home the bacon’ by way of a macdonalds, mediocre, high cholesterol, anitbiotic, steroid, preservative, hormone infected lump of crap? (and you don’t even have to get out of your suv to get it)
“The good news is that people in those crowded parts of the world will probably be the first to come up with socially acceptable reasons for eating human flesh,”
The good news is that even in the most crowded places, people can have a very healthy diet once they are told the truth about their ecological niche without disturbing other animal life.
Preaching the importance of consuming meat to the world’s poor is a terrible crime, to them and to the environments that surround them including the other animals who call these environments home.
This is also true in places like Argentina. We were there not long ago in a part of the Mendoza region. No animals.
It was not due so much to overpopulation (the region is considered under-populated) as to a culture of killing anything that moved. Men were taught to take pleasure in it… once again, as an affirmation of their power. (What vanquished the American buffalo? A. Sport! And the decision to eradicate them!)
Furthermore, the Mendoza region was parched. It is a naturally rich alluvial plain all turned to a desert by the control paradigms of one very ancient society, the Incas. Later conquerors simply continued to use the ecologically destructive systems that they found… and today, what would be one of the most populous bird sanctuaries; is almost silent, except a small protected area.
This is the story over and over again. Elite resource and population control paradigms (and not indigenous societies/populations) are the problem… and the cultural and environmental legacies they leave in their wake.
How many times do we have to hear about the fall of the natural world before we change.
One Planet, One Life is a nonprofit organization working towards educating the general public about the current global-level environmental crisis humanity is causing and exploring ways in which an awakening spirit may change the course of mankind and Planet Earth.
If we are not the only nonprofit working on this issue, we’re definately one of the few… This boggles my mind. Can we be SO dissociated with nature?
www.oneplanetonelife.com
“All animals die and none know or care why they die. Only we know and care.”
Go to a slaughterhouse. Animals cry, they scream and sound like little children, especially the young ones. They are terrified. The pain they suffer is enormous.
“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, no one would eat meat.” Paul McCartney
http://www.meat.org
During the Vietnam War, many people used to say that the Vietnamese did not have the same feelings about death as those of us in Western society. Then the AFSC did a movie to disprove this.
Squirrels scream when their mates die and the mourning is intense. Wolves will travel hundreds of miles to find a mate… and mate for life.
Cows will collapse with heartbreak when their young are taken. I have never met an animal that cared not about its own life and the lives of at least some others. Sometimes they even care about me…
IAMMYSELF
great, but how do we implement your theory/revelations?
coco
We are now educated by parents, peers, media etc that eating meat is the norm, not the anomaly. Killing as a means to establish ones place in a clan has been replaced with salaries, McMansions, Porsches, trophy wives (and husbands!), Gucci, sporting trophies, etc. He who dies with the most toys wins is what western man aspires to.
Solution:
1) Eat only plant foods.
2) Contribute to local sustainability by participating in an effort to grow most (or at least more) of what is consumed close to home and support others who are doing likewise.
3) Learn the facts about human ecology and spend more time in natural places without an ‘agenda’… this is re-connection/listening time. It will change you but pre-conceived notions about ‘what is out there’ and ‘what you should do’ will block personal ecological growth.
4) Learn about the significance of an all plant-based diet on resolving water shortages, soil erosion, species losses, dying oceans, air pollution, disease (and the economics of a diseased society), human mental, emotional, physical and social health and well-being.
5) Try to share what you discover with others so that your personal growth can become part of another’s ecological fast-track.
These measures alone will arrest most of the environmentally destructive paradigms facing the planet including those posed by the top heavy military/corporate control programs.
Then, there are all the things that you will learn in ‘praxis’. Many of us will learn similar things, but unique we are and your personal contributions will be guided by your abilities and those potential of expression in your unique social and physical environment(s).
Finally, our social and political organizations are a direct outgrowth of our disassociation from nature and our own nature, beginning with the introduction of meat-eating to condition children (and desensitize them) for the role of warriors and keepers of the elite order of exclusive privilege (by virtue of violence or the threat of violence).
New social and political forms will arise naturally and spontaneously as we find our way back to ecological consciousness. And these forms will no longer emphasize ‘might is right’ or the ‘competitive imperative’. These forms will be outgrowths of the realistic perception that life is a highly evolved and very complex partnership, and of our co-evolved place within that partnership.
Money, if it persists, will be redefined (Read ‘Smart Money’ http://allinharmony.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=browse&id=388250&pageid=91 ) as will many other things that we currently take for granted.
But, the process can be fun and it can be exciting, and it can feel good… really. It is just knowing what is essential to do and why it is essential… the rest is open to individual and community interpretation… creativity, and fun.
Civilizations collapse. It is what they do. It is when not if and it looks like sooner rather than later.
it is selfish selfish SELFISH to birth kids when we have the opportunity of post-industrialized nations to buy birth control, adopt and get operations…
well, some people are trying to limit these options, unfortunately.
“Civilizations collapse.”
These are not ‘civilizations’ but ‘chaos models’, a definition that the rest of nature can surely substantiate.
And, civilizations do not appear to have fallen so much as migrated after the local region came environmentally undone… surely northern Africa is a good case in point.
And those who sit atop our current ‘chaos order’ clearly have connections to many former empires.
Conclusion, many former Chaos Orders have fused into a global corporate hierarchical structure with numerous military agencies, police agencies, commercial production and distribution agencies, cultural affairs centers, etc under their tactical control…. many of the ‘collapses’ perceived were ‘not exactly’ as perceived.
Military hierarchies are the antithesis of civilized! And that is the basis of this culture, uncivilized and chaos producing in the extreme!
WTF
well i guess the homo sapiens are going to win. but it wasn’t a fair competition was it? (the only saving grace is that homo sapiens won’t win either in the long run.)
SIKWILLY
your website is wonderful. the pictures and content inspiring. how to get it through to the masses?????????????
The notion that humans can destroy the planet is an egotistical assumption. We cannot destroy the planet we can only render it unfit for human habitation. We can and probably will destroy ourselves but the planet will be just fine and will continue it’s orbit around the sun as the the solar system speeds through space at an unbelieveable pace. The earth is gonna be fine. The human race, on the other hand, is in big trouble.
I reccomend Jared Diamond’s ‘Collapse’ highly. We are well on the way. Nitrate Fertilizers create 3 times the natural food…but when Oil becomes too expensive to make fertilizer, what then. Every living flora or fauna on the planet wants to procreate until they are the only thing left. Unfortunately, it seems that humans are the only beings on the planet actually capable. I am 63, I tried to get a vasectomy when I was 20….in those days it was certainly a chore when I finally succeeded at 26. I had such nasty things to say about the human race that the doctor gave up and did what I asked. My attitude has not really changed all that much. About half of ya are a waste of air. Problem is sorting out which half.
Veteran ‘66-68
ok. has anyone here made the connection that the “elite, illuminati, bilderburg, or CFR” or whathaveyou have an agenda in partnership with the un to REDUCE THE WORLD POPULATION. do you think us americans get to be exempt from mandatory sterilization and euthenization cuz were special? has anyone here made the connection that the WWF is a cover for part of a huge global network working on gaining ultimate control of the masses, wich are a vile people who are ruining everything. they want global cullung of us peasents, AND THEY WILL DO IT IN THE NAME OF SAVING THE EARTH! now, dont get me wrong…i love the earth. i eat organic. im car free. im child free, by choice. ask yourself. are you going to trust some corporation and fascist government to impose more regulations and statistics that says ALL HUMANS ARE NOT PART OF THE EARTH, and its us PEASENTS fault ? why not blame corporate pollution, cuz they are ALLOWED to pollute!! as long as they can pay the fine!! YOUR government says thats OK?!! or religion, cuz God said “go forth and multiply” so our govt ENCOURAGES multiple dependants with TAX CREDITS!! or modern medical science, which ensures all babies survive childbirth, and the populations EXPLODE! come on everyone. we, peasents of the usa, can solve this global crisis ourselvs. we dont need NEO NAZI ELITISTS TO TELL US WERE THE PROBLEM, CUZ THEY WILL ELIMINATE US TO SAVE THE EARTH and they think were too dumb to do it ourselves. AND SOME PEOPLE ARE DUMB AND WONT THINK OF THERE IMpACT ON THE EARTH, BUT. ive been trying to help in my own way, and im standing up for my race. dont let powerful people have the ultimate control of your individuality, and your part on the stage of earth. check out the WWF facts and who they stand for. youll have to dig deep. good luck.
Progressives are frequently accused of being out of touch with reality. When I read the above solutions to the global catastrophe that is us, I note that many suggest we stop having babies, or stop eating meat, or become less greedy, or get in touch with our nurturing side and find our oneness with nature, or throw out the bums in Washington and put Nature Conservancy in charge of the world. These are nice fantasies, but they are also hippie nonsense. They do not take into account the nature of man, for example my neighbor Bruno and his three neanderthal sons. For every gentle one of you that plants a tree or rides a bicycle to work, there are a hundred Brunos taking their kids to the Fish and Game for hunting licenses and trashing the landscape with their ATVs and sending even worse people to Washington. We need to go with the flow.
So here is my solution. Cannibalism. I don’t know why nobody has thought of it, it is so obvious. We are vicious, malicious and delicious. I just watched a dumb Will Smith movie where everybody turned into these man eating hyperzombies, and before you knew it we had all eaten each other and the streets of New York were again full of natural vegetation and gentle wildlife.
It is simple. Gravity is on our side. When we contrive wars we remove the taboo against killing, and our youngsters flock to sign up and join the fun. When the government removes the taboo against torture, we all go shopping for whips and chains. All we have to do is make cannibalism glamorous. Put some great recipes on the internet or in those holiday cookbooks. More ammo, more jumbo freezers, more freezer paper. The carnivores might save the planet after all.
VOXCLAMANTIS
is that you? or are you doing a KEM PATRICK on us?
Vox: You’re a riot. Thanks for the laugh. Your neighbor Bruno sounds like my neighbor Mike (who thankfully only has one neanderthal son) who stores his TWO snowmobiles in my garage because I have no car and his garage is filled with his two SUVs, a boat, and every power tool ever invented. Also, when my house was broken into he, in his macho-guy-guy way (which he probably - and erroneously - thought was flattering to me) promised that he would “protect me” with the guns he keeps in both the house and garage.
Heavy sigh.
“The earth is gonna be fine.”
It’s the biosphere that is of concern, not just to humans but other animals as well…
as one seal said to me,
“You think that the suffering on this planet must end, and you think if destruction of all life is the only way to end it, so be it… but feel now, the miracle of the water on my skin… the miracle… it’s worth saving.” (There was, of course, much more that he said but that is the gist of it:)
It’s not only worth saving, it is only not being saved because most people simply are incapable of realizing that the solution to save it is the solution and that implementing this solution is as easy as baking vegan cherry pie… actually, easier.
“These are nice fantasies, but they are also hippie nonsense. They do not take into account the nature of man, ”
I fear you have entirely missed the point! Cultural products are not necessarily indicative of ‘nature’.
Even Pavlov could tell us that. Where have you been? The issue IS human nature. Discrediting the facts with ridiculous attempts to lessen their import (hippie nonsense) does not in anyway disprove those facts.
A cultural revolution is required. And the substance of it is quite simply stated: mankind co-evolved with nature and must respect its requirements for biosphere continuance.
Specifically, he must eat according to his design which alone will free up most of the land currently under cultivation and return it to ‘wild’ habitat. Had humans consistently respected their herbivore anatomy throughout time, we would not be having discussions about species losses today!
“AND THEY WILL DO IT IN THE NAME OF SAVING THE EARTH!”
You are absolutely right ellydozer. In fact, they ARE doing it.
And you are correct, the WWF is a Nazi funded and founded organization that was formed not to protect habitat but to provide venues for an elite and their wild game hunting appetites.
Interesting how so many of these Nazi organizations have morphed into respected leaders of the ‘progressive’ movement. Makes the cynical wonder where and what they are ‘progressing’ us into.
As I read the many ‘alternative’ articles on the declining environment, I see a decided stampeding towards the ‘obvious’ conclusion… we need another big blow-out genocide… war for everyone… or maybe, just ‘wars without end’…. because, overpopulation is the problem…
Or genocide’s companion idea… control over reproduction with the ‘state’ deciding… who procreates and who does not… and this one is as old as the Greeks. They practiced it for other reasons but the outcome was the same, a small group of oligarchs controlling ALL aspects of individual and community life.
Anyway, all megalomaniacs seem to want the same things… and isn’t it interesting how they ALL seem to think that we should happy under this system because after all, IT IS DEMOCRATIC;(
“Nitrate Fertilizers create 3 times the natural food…but when Oil becomes too expensive to make fertilizer, what then.”
Food shortage is NOT the problem. There is plenty already and there could be so much more at MUCH less cost to the environment!
Our problem is fundamentally perceptual (humans are herbivores who are not naturally competitive, domination-focused carnivores or omnivores) and secondarily organizational (military modeled societies produce ecological chaos and destruction and defeat the human potential to fully enjoy the life experience)!
We are going through a major shift, whether you like it or not, believe it or not, and for a whole host of reasons, the least of which is our innate capacity for destruction and consumption. That is the old model. Humans are going to shift more towards survival mode now as in earlier times as we leave this period of unprecedented progress and affluence. Ironically, for the republican side, the greatest period (in history) by any measure was presided over by Bill (& Hillary) Clinton. That is not to say, they didn’t build on prior progress or successes, republican or democrat. Good people are good people no matter which side. But I could stand Hillary in there at the helm. With her excellent international reputation, she’d repair the prestige of America to the rest of the world pretty damn quick. IMHO.
The answer to my question as to what you have done and are doing to mitigate the decline remains unanswered. Unfortunate.
Individuals can help the planet’s biodiversity by growing our own food, making our yards part of the natural habitat, and generally shifting our exchange/association away from the power centers and toward the local community.
By growing our own food we decrease demand for the capitalist’s monocrops and increase the habitat for wild species. Better to plant the garden with a more diverse array of heirloom or wild species, preferably those indigenous to the region and are less dominant. Avoiding synthetic pesticides is important. Avoiding synthetics in the “built environment” is important too, but the switch to natural materials is too. There’s a whole range of advantages to all of this - the health of the biosphere, societies, and people are all greatly enhanced and this is something that every individual can participate in.
“The answer to my question as to what you have done and are doing to mitigate the decline remains unanswered. Unfortunate.”
To whom are you addressing your question or is it offered to all as a point of reflection?
Personally, I have for years utilized all my resources to do whatever, wherever and with whomever… to increase understanding… I am one in 6 billion.
As only one, it is not MY eating habits that are destroying the planet, and maybe not even a couple of billion other people’s eating habits… but it is some people’s and ALL of those are doing what they are doing because of culturally induced ignorance…
My personal focus is on correcting that ignorance and doing whatever it takes to accomplish this…
Many others here are clearly similarly focused… and education does not have to proceed incrementally… for every person who understands, an entire field of contacts could become ‘affected’ and each in their own ways and the ways available, can potentially spread a transformative understanding.
We could actually awaken tomorrow in a world of self-aware human herbivores… eager to explore the meaning of their new found understanding… tomorrow! It is not only possible, it is essential…
So, that is what I do, spread the understanding that will transform our biosphere interactions. It took decades to acquire… this is the sharing phase but when I was young, I thought the discovery phase was completely impossible… so, the sharing part must be also possible.
And that doing will ultimately accomplish its purpose.
“… truth is the enemy of the state” Goebbels
In this case, the truth is the enemy of the ‘state’ of environmental collapse.
And that ‘enemy truth’ to our ’state of environmental collapse’ is:
HUMANS ARE HERBIVORES!
rtdrury,
Absolutely correct!
What have i done? Got a vasectomy in my thirties, after two offspring. Drive a ‘71 VW 1600cc type II, when i drive. Leave it parked a lot, and walk/bike to town to buy locally produced groceries as much as possible. Live an extremely frugal lifestyle, by conventional standards. Rarely travel. Participate in local or domestic activities for my recreation.
And still I feel that I am surplus. Can’t help having been born in the U.S.A. The hard reality we ought to face is that there are about ten times as many of us as is sustainable. And although we may be able to provide for another billion or two people, it will overtax the resilient qualities of our habitat. We will be pushing close to the limits, if not overrunning them. And it doesn’t have to be. If we voluntarily alter our traditional ways to adapt to this crisis, we can cause our numbers to decline; and as they do, other beneficial changes should begin to take shape. We probably can’t bring back the species that have gone extinct, but we can begin the healing.
itsaNaziWorldOrder:
Go to www.oneplanetonelife.com and go to the contact page and email me. I would like to talk.
Thanks!
Sik
Doom n Gloom, I’m growing a tree/bush orchard from seed as opposed to clonal propagation. From seed means more genetic diversity but a big risk of inferior genetics, which can mean weaker, less productive plants and lesser tasting food. Nutrition is probably not going to suffer. But there is a way to exploit the positives of both seed and clonal propagation: Start your orchard from seed to gain a genetic shift, plant multiple individuals to get some genetic variety, then get rid of the inferior ones.
The only way it will ever change is when we all say “this is because of me.” Sure, we have been seduced, rewarded, and brainwashed to live the way we live, but now that we know, we must not ignore the overwhelming imperative to change. Once we get to critical mass, then it will come in rapidly.
The funny thing is that what scientific research has proven to be the greatest influence on our behavior (as in choices) is that which we identify as having the least influence: what we perceive most other people like us are doing. Whether we realize it or not, we look around us to those we identify with for clues on how to act– like birds flying in formation. This is why individuals can and will make a difference. I have already seen it happening in my own family. A few of us got started, and now the others (even initial resisters) are coming around.
All animals are earthlings and plants are just as much a part of the food chain then we allow ourselves to believe. We have isolated ourselves from that which is most important, we are all natural organisms bound and ruled by this planet.
The decline in other species will be followed by the decline of the rest until a balance is struck. Human numbers are far to great for this planet to sustain. I now believe that the issues of human infertility were initial warnings of things to come. The carrying capacity of this planet is being strained and soon our numbers will begin to fall when pandemics arrive to begin a devastating correction concerning this planet’s biological systems. We can not live in opposition to, nor ignore, the natural biological systems of our environment.
We are not mature enough to make the necessary changes. We can not even agree on how to prevent global warming and climate change. We sit around in great halls and point fingers at each other while the planet prepares for the extinction of humanity. Near the end we will yield and be humbled. I get a feeling that this is not the first time this has happened.
Remember we are not just on this planet, we are a part of it for all time.
The human population is already well over the carrying capacity of its environment (Earth). Some animal species have evolved mechanisms to ameliorate their having too many individuals relative to the environment’s capacity to support them. In wolf packs only an alpha male and female will reproduce. Coyote females produce fewer young when their numbers are large and more young when the population is small relative to the resources in the environment. The numbers of these animals tend to cluster right at their environment’s carry capacity, never being too far above it or too far below it. Populations of animals that fail to regulate their numbers reach a point where the environmental factors necessary to their survival disappear - their environmental foundation falls away - and their populations crash, usually, in nature, due to starvation and intense competition for food. With human populations add prolonged wars for resources, specifically land and energy for food production. Not a pretty picture.
Shall we do something about this or just keep on reading the obits looking for “Mandkind?”
As they said in Aliens…”Game over man…game over!”
Save the planet, become a cannibal.
As has been previously stated, this is NOT a numbers game (about over-population).
It is an organizational and behavioral crisis and the answer is scripted in our human anatomy (co-evolved to be efficiently supported in the earth’s biosphere).
That is the absolutely necessary first step, to embrace our own physiological and anatomical requirements (herbivore) for personal, social and environmental health.
The dictates of our anatomy will quickly reverse our dire interpretations of the ‘carrying capacity’ of the earth. And it will also balance our numbers, our hormones, energy levels, life spans, etc.
Those who think otherwise really need to look at the statistics regarding meat-eating…
including water consumption and pollution, pesticide dumping, forest destructions, soil erosion, and the volumes of human health data suggesting that meat-eating is the principle cause of many (if not most) cancers and numbers of other conditions such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, autism, etc. …
“A reduction in beef and other meat consumption is the most potent single act you can take to halt the destruction of our environment and preserve our natural resources. Our choices do matter. What’s healthiest for each of us personally is also healthiest for the life support system of our precious, but wounded planet.”
— John Robbins, author of “Diet for a New America”
If you ‘carry your own weight’ meaning assume responsibility for respecting your own ecologically defined anatomy, the earth will not only easily support you, you can become a powerful force helping others transition to ecologically centered and aware behaviors.
20 million buffalo living in NY and eating grain fed beef would tax the carrying capacity of some of the earth… but 20 million buffalo living on the American plains was a wonderful aspect of America’s natural ecology.
Our present idea of human society is no less absurd than the one of the buffalo living in NY also consuming an ecology defeating and unhealthy diet.
Numbers have to have context to be significant, how many in relation to what? And the ‘what’ in this case is behavioral: are these populations behaving according to ecological scripting (their own anatomical and physiological requirements) or in complete contradiction to it?
Again, 1/50th the land is required to feed a practicing human herbivore as is required to feed a western style and unnatural meatarian. How much land could be allowed to return to its wild state without any reduction in our numbers if everyone could understand that we have ALL been deceived (at least those of us in western societies)! We ARE NOT omnivores, we are herbivores!
What if we go one better and grow most of our foods locally? The ecological impacts are significant! Plant a fruit tree, eat responsibly… forget about health insurance…
You see, less people (in present terms) is NOT nearly as important as less functionally (ecologically speaking) ignorant people.
Our meat-eating hierarchical military societies have tricked us all… and we desperately need to throw off these unhealthy and environmentally destructive cultural scripts.
From “The Comparative Anatomy of Eating”, by Milton R. Mills, MD
Facial Muscles
CARNIVORE: Reduced to allow wide mouth gape
HERBIVORE: Well-developed
OMNIVORE: Reduced
HUMAN: Well-developed
Jaw Type
CARNIVORE: Angle not expanded
HERBIVORE: Expanded angle
OMNIVORE: Angle not expanded
HUMAN: Expanded angle
Jaw Joint Location
CARNIVORE: On same plane as molar teeth
HERBIVORE: Above the plane of the molars
OMNIVORE: On same plane as molar teeth
HUMAN: Above the plane of the molars
Jaw Motion
CARNIVORE: Shearing; minimal side-to-side motion
HERBIVORE: No shear; good side-to-side, front-to-back
OMNIVORE: Shearing; minimal side-to-side
HUMAN: No shear; good side-to-side, front-to-back
Major Jaw Muscles
CARNIVORE: Temporalis
HERBIVORE: Masseter and pterygoids
OMNIVORE: Temporalis
HUMAN: Masseter and pterygoids
Mouth Opening vs. Head Size
CARNIVORE: Large
HERBIVORE: Small
OMNIVORE: Large
HUMAN: Small
Teeth: Incisors
CARNIVORE: Short and pointed
HERBIVORE: Broad, flattened and spade shaped
OMNIVORE: Short and pointed
HUMAN: Broad, flattened and spade shaped
Teeth: Canines
CARNIVORE: Long, sharp and curved
HERBIVORE: Dull and short or long (for defense), or none
OMNIVORE: Long, sharp and curved
HUMAN: Short and blunted
Teeth: Molars
CARNIVORE: Sharp, jagged and blade shaped
HERBIVORE: Flattened with cusps vs complex surface
OMNIVORE: Sharp blades and/or flattened
HUMAN: Flattened with nodular cusps
Chewing
CARNIVORE: None; swallows food whole
HERBIVORE: Extensive chewing necessary
OMNIVORE: Swallows food whole and/or simple crushing
HUMAN: Extensive chewing necessary
Saliva
CARNIVORE: No digestive enzymes
HERBIVORE: Carbohydrate digesting enzymes
OMNIVORE: No digestive enzymes
HUMAN: Carbohydrate digesting enzymes
Stomach Type
CARNIVORE: Simple
HERBIVORE: Simple or multiple chambers
OMNIVORE: Simple
HUMAN: Simple
Stomach Acidity
CARNIVORE: Less than or equal to pH 1 with food in stomach
HERBIVORE: pH 4 to 5 with food in stomach
OMNIVORE: Less than or equal to pH 1 with food in stomach
HUMAN: pH 4 to 5 with food in stomach
Stomach Capacity