ECOLOGICAL HUMANISM:
IS HUMANITY DEFINED BY OPPOSITION TO NATURE?
Joseph Robertson
Of prime importance in attending to ecological sustainability is real and resilient diversity. Science does not yet know how to create ex-nihilo. All materials are derived from natural resources, however microscopic the beginnings. Our power to create and to innovate is only enhanced by diversity....
We did not emerge in a vacuum, and there is no evidence to suggest that humanity's best habitat would be an urban-desertified sphere peppered with wholly artificial agribusiness systems ('dumb' systems, or rather systems so monolithic in design as to serve no larger purpose [a deep economic flaw]). There is no evidence that anything other than the atmosphere whose existence gave rise to ours would support the human species over an extended period of time. [Full essay: Ecological Humanism]
THE CLOUD:
LARGEST KNOWN POLLUTANT PHENOMENON
South Asia is gasping under a two mile thick cloud of toxic pollutants and carcinogens. This mega-smog is caused by industrial and automotive emissions, and is said to be killing half a million people a year. It is so vast that it is altering some of the most powerful, established weather systems on the planet. And its influence is not restricted to South Asia. It is estimated that the cloud is capable of reaching half-way around the globe at any given time, meaning that the Americas may be seeing environmental impact from this unfettered pollution... [Learn More]
LEFT, RIGHT, GREEN
Is ecology, the study of natural systems, informed by a will to protect the environment, strictly a "leftist" issue?
There are political involvements, inroads, backwaters and obstructions, but the issue itself is simply one of logic, sound science, and sustainable economic integrity. It is entrenched opposition to intelligent ecological policy that makes this very basic scientific field into a political hotzone. [Find out more...]
FEEDING THE BEAST:
ARE WE ADDICTED TO FOSSIL FUELS?
Taxpayer money is being used to increase funding for further dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear energy, even as demand among the public shifts to the need for alternative sources of energy...
As a national problem, the situation resembles an addiction, in that expenditure and policy do not follow any rigorous logical pattern designed to promote long-term health, but rather orient themselves toward a single, specific "demand" for consumption, with little regard to peripheral or explicit costs...
In spite of the need, and the growing demand for a shift to smarter, cleaner, renewable resources, there have been efforts to double funding for fossil fuel research and development. HR 4, 107th Congress, was designed to increase such subsidies from an estimated $33 billion to an incredible $62 billion per year. [Learn More]
TIME OUT
Is there a window of opportunity, at the threshold of a global information culture, to halt destruction of vital natural resources, and move toward a more intelligent, integrated, sustainable industry?
Opportunities currently exist for the rapid development and deployment of new technologies to take advantage of sustainable natural processes. The cultivation of these techniques and technologies is largely dependent on the political will of the leaders of wealthy, developed nations to pursue complex, studied solutions, even when polls call for simple, facile policies.
WATER WARS
One of the most dire struggles in the new millennium is the use, distribution, cost and funding of clean, drinkable water. Wars are being fought, weapons are being developed, for the sole purpose of controlling the essential resource of life-sustaining water...
In the war-ravaged Republic of the Congo, as many as 94% of people may be without consistent access to safe drinking water, a figure high enough to pose a serious threat to any sort of political regime, or perhaps an opportunity for further brutality and oppression...
In the case of Bolivia, privatization led to riots, martial law, killings, and ultimately to the cancellation of the project. The nature of these crises is unique to situations in which anti-market forces, in the total absence of responsible civil administration or democratic redress, tamper with the availability of basic necessities, such as food and water... [Learn More]
EASTER ISLAND:
A LESSON IN ECOLOGICAL AWARENESS
The famed and mysterious Easter Island, isolated in the southern Pacific, and detached from the surrounding sway of competing civilizations, saw its own unique culture thrive and then drive itself to the edge of extinction. It is now thought that the thriving market-oriented culture on Easter Island exceeded the "carrying capacity" of the surrounding ecosystem, as its inhabitants competed to achieve material gain over one another. This led to an ecological collapse which left the island far less capable of supporting an extensive human population. [Learn More]
Eco-Economy Updates from the Earth Policy Institute
ALSO FEATURED AT SENTIDO'S "IN THE LOOP"
COAL: U.S. PROMOTES WHILE CANADA & EUROPE MOVE BEYOND
Lester R. Brown
On Monday, November 24, the U.S. Congress abandoned all hope for this year of passing an energy bill laden with subsidies for fossil fuels, including coal. While the White House strongly supports heavy subsidies to expand coal burning, other industrial countries are turning away from this climate-disruptive fuel, including our northern neighbor, Canada. [Keep Reading]
WORLD FACING FOURTH CONSECUTIVE GRAIN HARVEST SHORTFALL
Lester R. Brown
For the first time, the grain harvest has fallen short of consumption four years in a row. In 2000, the shortfall was a modest 16 million tons; in 2001 it was 27 million tons; and in 2002 a record-smashing 96 million tons. In its September 11 crop report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that this year's shrunken harvest of only 1,818 million tons is falling short of estimated consumption of 1,911 million tons by a near-record 93 million tons. (See data) [Keep Reading]
WORLD CREATING FOOD BUBBLE ECONOMY BASED ON UNSUSTAINABLE USE OF WATER
Lester R. Brown
On March 16, 2003, some 10,000 participants will meet in Japan for the third World Water Forum to discuss the world water prospect. Although they will be officially focusing on water scarcity, they will indirectly be focusing on food scarcity because 70 percent of the water we divert from rivers or pump from underground is used for irrigation...
As water use climbs, the world is incurring a vast water deficit... [Keep Reading]
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