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Sci Tech    H3'ed 7/23/13

Ecocide Is Not Development. Love and Ecology Are the Answer.

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."--Krishnamurti 

"Truth matters. Freedom matters. Justice matters. Ecology matters. Peace matters. Knowledge matters. We should all try to matter by serving such ideals."--Dr. Glen Barry


Earth is alive, just like the biological patterns found in cells, species, individual organisms, and ecosystems--only at a different scale. It can therefore also die like other living systems, if boundary conditions for health are exceeded.

Today, the biosphere, Earth's thin mantle of life, is collapsing and dying, as ecosystems and climate are being murdered by human industrial growth. Such madness, called "development," is hailed as the goal for society when in fact it is ecocide, the destruction of the natural environment. It can only end in utter social, economic, and ecological collapse. Human industrial development is destroying the natural ecosystems necessary to maintain a habitable Earth.

The burning of fossil fuels and clearing of natural ecosystems are leading the way to industrial ecocide. These practices are the furthest things possible from genuine "development"--from any contribution to meaningful and lasting human advancement. Human industrial growth is overrunning our global ecological system, ravaging ecosystems upon which all life depends. Runaway human growth systematically strips our habitats of life-giving species and ecosystems, and then fouls and poisons whatever remains.

The problem with climate change and ecosystem loss is that it leads us to believe we have time to correct things, when in fact the biosphere is already well into collapse. The evidence is pouring in that climate change, biodiversity extinction, and terrestrial ecosystem loss already exceed thresholds beyond which processes leading to the collapse of the biosphere are triggered. Humanity is already in a mid-death swoon, pulling down the biosphere as it annihilates itself, kindred species, and shared habitat. Mankind itself is a disease on the planet, consuming life-giving habitats and treating nature as a resource to liquidate and consume, after which there can only be collapse and mass death.

Humanity's wild careening toward the apocalyptic collapse of the global ecosystem is caused by, and is causing, the rise of new fascist and violent governments. The global environment and freedom are collapsing and dying in tandem, as the industrial growth machine liquidates ecosystems in a doomed attempt to keep up with the material demands of a burgeoning population and the overconsumption of ruling elites. To maintain the mirage of advancement in the midst of ecosystem liquidation, governments strip away liberties and impose fascism, obstructing the social change necessary to sustain the environment.

Peace is not simply the absence of conflict, while people are enslaved and needlessly die at their own hand. True peace is rights, equity, justice, jobs, and ecological sustainability, for which people must sometimes fight. Only a prudent, well-considered revolutionary change of governance that is minimally violent or nonviolent can stop our Big Nanny corporatist government from continuing to raze the Earth over a few decades more of irrational ecocide.

Continued exponential industrial growth at the expense of ecosystems is impossible. The human family must either embrace a steady-state, no-growth economy, or face environmental collapse. 

That there is something terribly wrong with our present environmental practices is made all the more evident by the fact that even the nature protectors are part of the problem. Greenpeace, Sierra Club, WWF, and third-rate NGOs continue to help log old-growth forest by promoting the Forest Stewardship Council and REDD+ old-growth forest ecocide. Such foundation-fed greenwashers are oblivious to the findings of science that such consumption is never ecologically sustainable, kills species and ecosystems, threatens local livelihoods, and collapses the climate and biosphere. They only care for power, money, and prestige, like the rest of the industrial growth machine that is destroying the very matrix of our being.

Technology will never replace ecosystems, and the biosphere cannot be engineered, as it is simply too complex and unpredictable. Such techno-optimism is more of the hubristic, ecocidal disease that got us in this mess of collapsing ecosystems in the first place. Ecosystems--their protection and restoration--are our only hope. To the extent that appropriate technology can assist--fine. But, nearly always, its unintended consequences cause the very ecological and social problems we seek to overcome.

Either the human family comes together now to protect and restore old-growth forests and end fossil fuel burning, or else our one shared biosphere collapses, and life ends. Perhaps some dandelions and rats can hold on for a while, but complex life will be lost, as will the conditions for re-evolution if global boundary conditions for habitability have been exceeded. To survive and thrive, the human family must immediately focus on protecting and restoring ecosystems, reducing human population, increasing equity and justice, cutting emissions, growing food ecologically, and loving all life and one another.

Ecology is the meaning of life. Truth, justice, equity and sustainability are the ideals by which ecological health is maintained. As a species, we change and evolve, or we die, perhaps taking down the biosphere and all life with us. A sustainable, decent human future depends on going back to the land, putting a halt to the destruction, and dedicating ourselves to the nurture of ecosystems and one another. True and lasting community advancement and well-being, with local and global ecological sustainability, depend critically on our doing so. Love and ecology-- served by truth and knowledge--are the answer.

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Dr. Glen Barry is an internationally recognized environmental advocate, scientist, writer and technology expert. He is well-known within the environmental community as a leading global ecological visionary, public intellectual, and environmental (more...)
 
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