There Is No Hope
The Earth and Humanity Are Doomed
Earth Meanders, Dr. Glen Barry in his personal capacity
earthmeanders.blogspot.com
October 9, 2005
Recently I have taken some heat from a handful of readers that take exception with a seeming lack of hope in these writings. Let me explain. My work is prefaced upon two imperatives. Speak truthfully about the Earth's condition, diagnosing the situation using the best possible ecological science and ecological intuition. And propose only solutions of a magnitude likely to be sufficient in providing long-term solutions. What some perceive as self-righteous egoism is in fact indignant truth telling.
It is acknowledged that on many occasions these writings portray a serious global environmental crisis as being largely insurmountable given current thinking. And it is possible that my own personal past history as an axe murderer and crack addict (I am mostly better now except for a slight twitch) color my judgment (lol). But seriously, a realistic assessment of the Earth and humanity's situation finds there is no hope if humanity continues on its present course, and bloody little hope unless we pursue and achieve widespread personal and planetary transformations of an unprecedented and unimaginable scale, and soon.
The fact that humanity and the Earth are both critically imperiled has been found by countless studies and thinkers, most of which I have read, from the Club of Rome in the 1970s to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment this year. I have internalized these irrefutable findings and part of my mania - or ecological niche if you prefer - is to emotionally present and respond to the ecological truth that the Earth is in a severe, perhaps unsolvable, crisis. The world was simply not designed to hold ten billion super-predators all consuming at the rate of a fat assed American.
The quest for ecological sustainability will not be served by half measures or sugar coating the truth. The government will not save you. They will not entertain any policy that undermines the power of the elite. So, for example, they propose technical fixes like burying a bit of our carbon to stop climate change. But given accompanying expansion of coal burning, this would prove wholly inadequate to even begin to address climate change.
Most large environmental groups offer chimerical reforms that promise continued over-consumption through better management. The WWFs of the world tell you that logging the few remaining unprotected primary and old-growth forests a bit more carefully will sustain both ancient forests and the global ecosystem. They are wrong. We can not "have our ancient forests and industrially log them too". Ancient forests are lost forever when consumer products are produced by logging critically endangered forest ecosystems for the first time.
For the Earth and humanity to have a chance we must choose to stop ancient forest logging, reduce carbon emissions by 60%, make water conservation a global imperative, place under protection large areas of oceans, dramatically reduce human populations and stop consuming ourselves to death. Failure will lead to massive ecological upheavals, collapsing ecosystems and massive human deaths and suffering.
However unlikely, difficult or unpleasant, these are the truths; this is what is required to save the Earth. Knowing the truth regarding the Earth's pending ecological collapse, feeling and moving through the despair, may lead to personal transformations powerful enough to fuel a bright green revolution that transforms society. This is the only way home.
Granted, without hope we are not going to save the Planet. Similarly, without knowledge and true understanding we are not going to know how. False hope only obscures the truth and impedes progress in achieving transformation in humanity's relationship with the Earth of a magnitude necessary for actually achieving long-term global ecological sustainability.
If the depth of your environmental commitment is recycling and sending a yearly check to an environmental organization for band-aid forest and climate policies doomed to failure, you may want to discontinue your association with my own modest efforts. And if you want to remain unchallenged, essentially putting your head in the sand - please unsubscribe to Earth Meanders at www.ecoearth.info/subscribe/welcome.asp?email=anmlntwk@erols.com or to all lists with which I am associated at ecoearth.info:81/u?id=26185T&n=T&c=F&l=ecological_internet. As my organization Ecological Internet has recently completed several projects, email volumes are going to return to historical levels (each month about two action alerts, and three climate and forest news items each, in addition to two Earth Meanders from myself personally).
I do not want to suggest I am not interested in responding to feedback. In response I have decided to truly separate the personal Earth Meander writings from the more mundane but important work of tracking news, providing information retrieval tools and providing basic analysis done by Ecological Internet. I assure the readership that I never purposefully seek out bad news and am eager to report worthy positive developments, and in fact frequently do. But my acknowledged "fast and furious" and sometimes self-righteous style is me, and my work's fundamental organizing principles of speaking truthfully and seeking sufficient solutions will not change.
Contrary to the title of this essay, in fact there is hope. I have always believed that good trumps evil, that the truth will set you free, and that an informed and active citizenry in touch with the Earth shall overcome. But this does not just happen. It sometimes takes a painful long look in the mirror before necessary changes are identified and their implementation commenced. To those that are truly onboard the ecological sustainability movement, seeking the truth, working through the despair, and committing yourself to the Earth; I suggest that when you look in the mirror you will find the hope you seek. Be the hope. Hope for the Earth will come from an informed, actualized, and mobilized Earth citizenry. Let's make it so.
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