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Humans May Have Loaded the Bases, but Nature Bats Last
Humanity is facing a challenge unlike any we've ever had to confront. We are in an unprecedented period of change. Exponential growth is causing an already huge human population to double in shorter and shorter time periods.
When I was born in 1936, just over two billion people lived on the planet. It's astounding that the population has increased more then threefold within my lifetime. That staggering growth has been accompanied by even steeper increases in technological innovation, consumption, and a global economy that exploits the entire planet as a source of raw materials and a dumping ground for toxic emissions and waste.
We have become a new kind of biological force that is altering the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the planet on a geological scale. Indeed, Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen has suggested that the current geologic period should be called the Anthropocene Epoch to reflect our new status as a global force -- and a lot of scientists agree.
As noted in a recent Economist article, "Welcome to the Anthropocene," we are altering the Earth's carbon cycle, which leads to climate change, and we have sped up by more than 150 percent the nitrogen cycle, which has led to acid rain, ozone depletion, and coastal dead zones, among other impacts. We have also replaced wilderness with farms and cities, which has had a huge impact on biodiversity.
On top of that, according to the Economist, a "single engineering project, the Syncrude mine in the Athabasca tar sands, involves moving 30 billion tonnes of earth -- twice the amount of sediment that flows down all the rivers in the world in a year." As for those global sediment flows, the article goes on to point out that they have been cut by nearly a fifth, eroding the Earth's deltas "faster than they can be replenished," thanks to the almost 50,000 large dams built in the world over the past half-century.
We now occupy every continent and are exploring every nook and cranny of the Earth for new resources. The collective ecological impact of humanity far exceeds the planet's capacity to sustain us at this level of activity indefinitely. Studies suggest it now takes 1.3 years for nature to restore what humanity removes of its renewable resources in a year, and this deficit spending has been going on since the 1980s.
For the first time in human history, we have to respond as a single species to crises of our own making. Until now, this kind of unified effort only happened in science fiction when space aliens invaded Earth. In those stories, world leaders overcame human divisions to work together against the common enemy.
Now, as comic strip character Pogo said in the '70s (appropriately, on a poster created for Earth Day): "We have met the enemy and he is us." Humans have long been able to affect the environment, but never before on such a scale. In the past, even people with primitive tools and weapons had impacts on local flora and fauna, as Tim Flannery outlined in The Future Eaters, and Jared Diamond described in Collapse. Diminishing resources forced people to come to grips with the need to sustain their resources or to move in search of new opportunities.
The only way to come to grips with the crises and find solutions is to understand that we are biological creatures, with an absolute need for clean air, clean water, clean food and soil, clean energy, and biodiversity. Capitalism, communism, democracy, free enterprise, corporations, economies, and markets do not alter those basic needs. After all, those are human constructs, not forces of nature. Similarly, the borders we throw up around our property, cities, states, and countries mean nothing to nature.
All the hopes that meetings such as the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and the climate conferences in Kyoto in 1997, Copenhagen in 2009, and Cancun in 2010 would help us resolve major ecological challenges will be dashed as long as we continue to put economic and political considerations above our most fundamental biological, social, and spiritual needs. We humans may be heavy hitters, but we must remember that nature bats last.
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96 Comments so far
Show AllMeh, it's no big difference. Unless you travel to the Bush.
What happened to the Mayans?
Overpopulated their area?
Drought?
Epidemic?
No evience of a mass extintion there. But they rather suddenly disappeared.
Excellent comments by all, but I still have to mention one thing about David Suzuki. I wrote to David Suzuki 30 years ago asking him why he doesn't run for political office? To my surprise, he responded. He said that if he entered politics or if he just threw his weight behind ANY political party, he would then lose all credibility. He must at least appear 'removed' from the political debate or else Canada's publicly funded, national broadcasting service (CBC) would have no choice but to drop him from their programming. Corporate Canada (and corporate America) have been looking for an excuse to silence him for years. To survive this, he has had to appear apolitical even though he has always held strong political viewpoints. It's a high wire act that few of us could have performed with such aplomb as David Suzuki.
Yes, Space Cadet, I think David Suzuki has been performing a balancing act, but I think judging from recent articles and interviews by him, he may be getting tired of the act. I wonder if I can sense a certain sense of urgency or even exasperation in him lately - because for all his work, the world around him has only gotten worse and the society at large has only become more mindless. I think he should start calling a spade a spade. He has been too nice to the people at large, and instead, reserving his condemnation only for corporations and politicians. But corporations and politicians derive at least some of their power from the apathy and mindlessness of the people.
There is enough information and warnings out there. They have been there. And yet people do not seem to care. If the current first-past-the-post system of elections is inadequate, there were opportunities to make some improvements towards proportional representation. And yet people did not care. I have mentioned this example of the referendum on a proportional representation system in British Columbia (where David Suzuki is based) some years ago. The referendum was part of the provincial elections ballot (I think). But since the elections were during hockey season, half the people did not show up to vote. That being the case, why blame the corporations and the politicians alone? Blame the people first - because they clearly don't bother to use even the tools at their command to bring about even small improvements.
>>Space Cadet: "Corporate Canada (and corporate America) have been looking for an excuse to silence him for years."<<
But I have no doubt that the passion and integrity that have been driving Suzuki for all these years would have enabled him to find other ways to do what he has been doing. He is a great human being, above all - to be able to give to a society that wasn't exactly kind to him and his family during WW-II. His scientific background, his upbringing, his extensive interactions with the First Nations people and above all his passion - they all come into play in his work. People who criticize him for minor 'defects' should learn more about this man.
From Wikipedia:
>>A third-generation Japanese-Canadian ("Canadian Sansei"), Suzuki and his family suffered internment in British Columbia during the Second World War from when he was there (1942) until after the war ended. In June 1942, the government sold the Suzuki family's dry-cleaning business, then interned Suzuki, his mother, and two sisters in a camp at Slocan in the British Columbia Interior. His father had been sent to a labour camp in Solsqua two months earlier. Suzuki's sister, Jenny, was born in the internment camp.
After the war, Suzuki's family, like other Japanese Canadian families, was forced to move east of the Rockies. The Suzukis moved to Islington, Leamington, and London, Ontario. Suzuki, in interviews, has many times credited his father for having interested him in and sensitized him to nature.<<
WTF are you talking about? How are the people mindlessly cheering for their "local" sports team victims? They do not bother to show up to vote on a referendum on proportional representation because it was hockey season - how does that make such people victims? And there are people who cannot wait to have their own "local" NHL hockey team, bought and moved from the USA to a Canadian city - how the fuck are these people victims? They are just selfish and stupid, that's all. These are "common people" who cannot take the system seriously, and so they want to get drunk and cheer for a commercial sports team? Why should I take THEM seriously when THEY do not give a damn about the ongoing environmental destruction?
What about the people who have a choice to say no to certain insanities perpetrated by a capitalist system, and yet cannot give up their addictions and wasteful lifestyle? You want to change the system first? Who's going to do that?
I am writing in context - this is an article by David Suzuki, he lives in Canada, and my references to people's apathy are in that context. But I have no doubt that such people can be found elsewhere as well.
Ralph Nader is not some new kid on the block. He has a track record of public service and personal integrity and he can articulate the issues facing the people better than most politicians. And yet, if people choose NOT to do their homework, and instead choose to act like a herd, why should they be considered victims?
Until people have taken the first step and have exhausted all the tools at their command to bring about even small improvements, I do not think they are capable of big revolutions that some people here seem to be dreaming of. Such "revolutions" by those who don't want to take even the slightest responsibility can easily be usurped by power-hungry demagogues and the atrocities of the 20th century could once again be repeated. I have no doubt about that. You are free to dream on, though.
OK, so I join in your pity party blaming the corporations and the politicians and the Israel lobby. And then what?
I knew this nonsense will finally get exposed for what it is. The above comment by you, and the one below (wadosy Jun 2 2011 - 1:38pm) show that basically you have no clue about what you are talking about. You ran out of your ideological talking points.
I see, ok. But then why do you insist on letting the people off the hook completely? Especially those who refuse to heed the warnings? When I blame the people, it is only to challenge and object to the TOTALLY pointless ideological position that seems to insist on changing the system first, while zipping right past the question about WHO is to change the system.
Yes, there is an impending catastrophe, and I see that the people who **could** do something about it are the "common people" - and that includes me. That is why I refuse to treat them as "victims". But that shouldn't stop me from venting my frustration at their apathy. I may try to do something about it, and maybe already doing something - but that would be outside of this forum, in real life.
First of all, your question is unnecessary because I never advocated saving the system. I only challenge the premise that the current system can be taken down and replaced with something better while treating the very people who have a stake in doing so as powerless victims. And, as an extension, downplaying their mindlessness and apathy as part of their victimhood.
The first step to use whatever power that people have is to STOP wasting it in mindless amusements. So, along with blaming the corporations and the politicians, it would be important to convince as many **individuals** as possible about the wasteful and destructive nature of their lifestyle. If their lifestyle is not destructive, then show them what is destructive, so that they can recognize it in their neighbors and their relatives and coworkers and so on. Either that, or include such people who would insist on a destructive lifestyle in the list of "culprits" along with the capitalists and their corporations.
Corporations always target consumers as "individuals". Why should ideologues treat them as "the masses" with little power (and hence it's the system that should go first; but don't ask who is to change the system!!) and still hope to be more successful?
>>wadosy: "my point is this: nobody's gonna do anything until they have to, and things are not bad enough yet that they have to do anything..."<<
That may be the depressing reality as of now. But things can change.
"blame the people first"?
Of course "the people" (whatever that means) are to blame, along with everyone else. The question is -- what sorts of social systems can we create that may allow us to live in relative harmony with the environment? Attributing equal blame to everyone is indeed the problem with environmentalism as it is currently practiced.
Yet it's not just about morality but utility. Blaming "the human race" is easy. The only thing we know about human nature is that we are very, very adaptable; so we can adapt to a new paradigm.
The "lifestyle" approach is doomed to failure.
Use less Toilet paper. Don't visit zoos or aquatic theme parks. Eat organic.
All great ideas, but the very premise suggests adherence to the capitalist notion of "self-interested individual consumers". Why not shut down the goddamn theme park and set Willy free?
My question is this: WHO is going to change the system? What sort of people will bother to change the system? Only those who see there is something wrong with the system. And those who see there's something wrong with the system and are sufficiently motivated to do something about it will ALSO include lifestyle changes - they will not ridicule them. And WHERE EXACTLY did I mention lifestyle changes?
My question is simple: who is going to change the system?
I am all for shutting down the theme parks and the amusement parks. Not because they are operated by capitalists, but they are destructive to the environment, no matter who runs them. AND they are not essential for a decent, healthy life.
But there's something that can be done other than shut them down: how about a plain, simple boycott? You don't even have to break a sweat. Just say no to the damn thing, and get everyone else to do so as well. That is all.
NO ONE is forcing anyone to go to Disneyland or Las Vegas, and yet millions of people go there. Some, repeatedly. And these are all not the super-rich capitalists.
It seems to me that since these people cannot be persuaded to just say no to certain insanities, it is best to shut down the insanity? How is it different from the war on drugs? Or prohibition? Or the banning of something by a religious fanatic?
I repeat my question: who is going to take down the system?
It's easy to see that the capitalist system is not working and is destructive. And yet lots of people do NOT want to see that or acknowledge that, let alone act on that fact. What are you going to do about these people? They are common people, after all.
Remove the "specific conditions" that are causing the damage? Who is going to do that?
==Suzuki, in interviews, has many times credited his father for having interested him in and sensitized him to nature.==
More than that, David's father was a shelter and rock of self respect for the whole family during their racial internship. This is evident from David's autobiography called =Metamorphosis=, my copy of which David autographed for me in Calgary. As I recall, When David crossed the US border for college education, one of his early acts was to join the NAACP. I've used the same rubber band for 3 decades, holding David's hand written correspondence with me. Thanks, David.
"Atrocity begins with euphemism."
--Ken Adachi, "The Enemy That Never Was".
Trylon
Thanks, Trylon. Just more evidence that this is a GREAT human being. His parents have obviously done a great job by not letting him grow up to be a bitter, cynical human being - something that was so easy and maybe even "natural" for those who went through that kind of an experience. Just as Americans are lucky to have people like Ralph Nader, Canadians are lucky to have David Suzuki. But both peoples have not realized just what it is they are missing out on by not listening to such men.
The original Pogo expression about we being our own enemy was in 1953, although the expression evolved over 19 years to the form Suzuki quoted, in an Earth Day poster, in fact. Admiral Farragut redux.
The only way to come to grips with the crises and find solutions is to understand that we are spiritual creatures in biological bodies, with an absolute need for spiritual regeneration and to remember that it is the Creator, not the Creation ("nature"), that bats last.
David Suzuki's words say a lot, but with the population being so enamored of the box that rules their lives, I have zero hope for modernized humans to change. There are plenty of enlightened, intelligent, earth-respecting people giving speeches and writing articles, but most of them preach to the choir. In my daily life in an American town, there is so much ignorance, apathy, and arrogance, there is no way these people are trainable. When I talk in the terms mentioned in David's article, the vast majority of people think I'm some kind of alarmist, or tree-hugging weirdo. I have friends from all walks of life, and very few of them sympathize with David's views. They're as convinced things are fine as I'm convinced they're not, and to try harder to convince any of them, makes me a freak in their eyes. How do you reach unreachable people? Capitalism is so entrenched in the Western psyche, we don't even recognize that there ever ARE other ways of looking at the world. Indigenous peoples lived for thousands and thousands of years without destroying the environment with toxic waste. Sure, some collapsed, but we can learn as much from them as we can from the ones that didn't. It seems like Western humans are too stupid to learn we're a part of the cycle of nature.
The evil of this American empire (and Canada's following), has me worried most of all. I'm not a Christian anymore, but I do believe the Bible was accurate in its assessment that the love of money is the root of all evil. I worry that the most money/power is in the hands of the most evil, those who value money above all else. Their media power creates so much ignorance, arrogance, and apathy in the general population that I see very little hope for humanity.
Great post, Doris. Your experience in attempting to speak honestly about the challenging issues (to say the least!) of our day, mirrors my own. I have consoled myself to the fact that some are awakened souls, and thus conscious, whereas the vast majority, still asleep. That means they CAN be awakened. It would help if those of us who cared about life had further-reaching megaphones. And yet there are a great many who would prefer to stay asleep, to go gently into that "Good Night."
Also fine posts from: DURRUTIX, ALCYON, TOM LARSEN & others.
Let's hope there is a Divinity that shapes our ends... and helps us to avoid a direct crash into the ecological abyss.
Find: "Spontaneous Evolution", Baermann and Lipton. And "Blessed Unrest", by Paul Hawken. Read and pass'em around.
20 Years ago, we didn't have Evo...
Thanks. I've read Bruce Lipton's "The Biology of Belief". Although it was different from what I thought it might be (based on the title), it was still a very interesting read. I think it's very important to recognize that people are working on solutions at various levels. With a bit of open mind, there is potential for solidarity across nations and ideologies.
It really does not matter who "bats last".
We humans haven't scored a run against nature for more than 200 years, nature is kicking our butts and it's the bottom of the eighth inning.
It's foolish to play games with nature, it's her ball park and she makes the rules. And no one is going to "adapt" to what is happening in the Arctic region of Earth.
The Arctic climate and weather are the driving force for all weather on the entire planet. We haven't seen the worst yet,,, but we will,,, and "adapting" to the changes that are coming is not possible.
Btw; a rather interesting prediction of our climate scientists for the Atlantic hurricanee season for 2011.
16 named storms __ 9 hurricanes __ 5 intense hurricanes
The average during the years between 1950 and 2000 are:
10 named storms __ 6 hurricanes __ 2 intense hurricanes
And severe tornadoes, drought, heat waves, Pacific typhoons, floods, (record setting) rain, snow, high and low temps.... We ain't seen nutin yet.
It is very difficult for me to write on these matters. The existence of life on earth depends on our collective awakening to a new dream- a dream of compassion for all life and self realization. As with individuals, so with societies- the very causes of suffering- ignorance, anger, greed, hatred, indifference- perhaps these can become the grist mill of our awakening to who we are. Perhaps when we understand at a deep level what we have wrought- and the nightmares that we create- perhaps this realization can help jog our awareness enough to realize the simple truths of our existence- and give birth to a new dream.
Again, this topic Is not easy when you are as “dialed in” as I am. What I have learned however, is that there is very little difference between the suffering we experience in our daily lives- in our relationships for example, and the suffering that pervades society. No difference. It is pure illusion to believe that what happens “outside” is in fact “outside.” There is no outside. If you wish to understand the causes of environmental collapse and devastation- you need look no further than yourself- I need look no further than myself. Or perhaps I should say the illusion of self.
The corporate business form floats the wrong people to the top of the power structure for the wrong reasons.
IF we have the time, and
IF "we" are a species that can make rational group decisions,
that would be a good place to start.
Thom Hartmann and David Korten, among others, have actionable, practical solutions.
Of course, the time is Now. The battery is charged (all the $ at the top). The communications infrastructure is still in place. Most of the people on the planet are well enough to work/create for a common goal.
What does it take to kick start this thing?
"Arab" Spring...? WE NEED A "HUMAN" SPRING ! !
The education of woman has shown to be the most powerful answer to overpopulation.
A Brief History of Agricultural Time
Our farming for over 10,000 years has been responsible for 2/3rds of our excess greenhouse gases. This soil carbon, converted to carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide began a slow stable warming that now accelerates with burning of fossil fuel. The unintended consequence has been the flowering of our civilization. Our science has now realized the consequences and developed a more encompassing wisdom.
Modern Agriculture has evolved in the ability to remove the limitations to plant growth, from burning forest for ash fertilizers, to bison bones, to Guano islands, then in 1913, to crafty Germans figuring out how to suck nitrogen from the air to now with natural gas derived fertilizers. These chemical fertilizers have over come nutrient limits to growth for 100 years.
NPK and the "Green Revolution" in genetics have brought us to where we are, all made possible by basically mining soil carbon stocks. So we have now hit a carbon limit in two distinct ways. The first is continued loss of soil carbon content, the second is fossil carbon energy cost. The present farming system spends ten cents of fossil energy delivering one cent of food energy.
We can not go back, but we can go forward with our newly acquired wisdom. Wise land management, Conservation Agriculture and afforestation can build back our soil carbon, Biochar allows the soil food web to build much more recalcitrant organic carbon, (living biomass & Glomalins) in addition to the carbon in the biochar.
We can rectify the carbon cycle, and beyond that, biochar systems serve the same healing function for the nitrogen and phosphorous cycles, toxicity in soils and sediments and as a feed additive cut the carbon foot print of livestock by 50%.
Recent NATURE STUDY;
Sustainable bio char to mitigate global climate change
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v1/n5/full/ncomms1053.html
My*Heart
Sears with the pain and suffering of mankind's utterly senseless, confrontational follies,
A determined rancor, of petty uselessness, dividing community, relative, family, sibling, spirit and soul,
Stumbling, perpetually falling, upon the dull, repetitive, serrated edge of it's bloody, abusive, egocentric dogma,
My*Heart weeps, silent desperation, for knowing... peace...
************
Corporate & Political infighting will soon be swept aside by necessity as Many natural planetary recovery limits have been exceeded, climate cycle is beyond human control and requires much of the land mankind now inhabits, mass migration to higher ground is inevitable, as are solar events, earthquakes etc. etc. To avoid major pandemics and resource depletion humanity must rapidly depart from their ego, fear based, agenda centric, competitive, methods of conducting their affairs... Developing a cooperative, sustainable, peaceful society, or perish as U*R.
C.H.A.O.S.
Nature will change the system... Mankind's only choice is to adapt or die...
The present pays for past abuse, the future suffers for present action. Positive deeds create peace, negative acts build catastrophe.
As nature removes mans destruction of her environment he calls it natural disaster taking no responsibility 4 his creation of the situation.
The fossil based carbon economy will be temporarily sustained by merging alternative energy into the mix, which shall lead to the development of a hydrogen economy... This will open the technological door to the rise of a pure energy economy...
C.H.A.O.S.
"Time is the seed of the universe" from an Egyptian tomb. We will destroy the earth but she will prevail. And IGNORANCE is our worst enemy.