Engineering the Earth to death
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Posted on April 1, 2008
Filed Under Justice, Global warming/Climate change, Deep ecology, Ecological hope, Consumer culture, Population growth, Earth spirituality
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
When we speak about ecology, we speak of relationships. Over and over again we need to say this until we really ‘get it.’
We humans are not over and above Nature; we are not masters of Nature, much less the universe. We are not at the top of a totem pole with everything beneath at our beck and call, there to serve us, to provide for us a higher and higher standard of living.
Our command of Nature is destroying the Earth’s ecosystems, showing just how much we are not in charge. 
What brought this reflection to mind were two stories in today’s papers, both revealing the dysfunction that lies at the roots of our Western rational destructive approach to Nature – our engineering of it as if we can make it bend to our will, get out of our way if we want it to, submit to our desires, even our needs.
One is something we in the U.S. can and must do something about. The Bush administration has just changed the rules on wetlands to allow developers to destroy more of them – if they agree to invest in wetlands somewhere else.
Say what?! Is a wetland just something that can be moved from here to there, as if the fact that it exists HERE isn’t precisely the point, that Nature did this for a reason as part of a functioning ecosystem? While I’m all for trying to restore wetlands, doing it by destroying them at the point where Nature created them seems foolhardy to me. It is also arrogant, another indication of our belief that development and profit-making trumps Nature on the list of our priorities — to our peril.
One of the reasons we are losing aquifers at accelerating rates and seeing more local flooding in suburban and exurban areas is precisely because we have allowed developers to pave over wetlands, natural draining systems for the waters that fall from the sky. 
They are also crucial filters for everything that flows into the ground with the water, helping to keep our rivers and streams vital for fish and other wildlife. 
Wetlands support abundant and diverse life, and their destruction is one of the ingredients of the “sixth great extinction” already underway all across our planet.
Here’s the other story that jumped off the page, this time from the NY Times editorial page, and this time from the other side of the world. In Chile, the government is about to embark on the destruction of one of the most magnificent places on the planet – three huge hydrological dams in Patagonia. This is sin against the Earth. This is violence against life.
It is also a throwback to an era many thought had passed – the era of big dams that destroy vast areas of natural wonder, break down ecosystems, displace populations, and end up in environmental ruin – all this in the search for more energy for our booming energy-hungry populations.
Rather this destruction than using our ingenuity to create a new way of life on the planet, or as the Passionist priest and noted ‘geologian’, Fr. Thomas Berry once wrote, to “reinvent the human presence on the planet.”
Here is where I find hope today – in the NY Times editorial board being concerned enough to make this a feature of today’s paper, and to put their concerns in these terms:
Building large-scale hydroelectric dams is an old-world way of obtaining energy. It is too late in the environmental life of this planet to accept such ecologically destructive energy solutions or the model of unfettered growth they are meant to fuel.
Now this battle has been going on for a while, as you can see from this article, Debating the course of Chile’s rivers, back in August 2006, and this one from Chile’s Patagonia Times. What’s clear is that this is not about people so much as mining and other industrial interests that would like to take advantage of Patagonia’s hydrological energy potential.
One can only hope the folks win out, the Earth-lovers and environmentalists and local residents who truly care about Patagonia.
Folks, we have got to find another way to do this, to provide for the energy needs of people without destroying the planet’s ecosystems. We have got to find another way to provide what humans beings need for life without destroying the future possibilities of human beings having what they need for life – by destroying the ecosystems that hold us, support us, nurture us.
So many are not getting this — without these ecosystems, we do not exist.
Technorati Tags: new EPA rules on wetlands, dams in patagonia, masters of nature, earth’s ecosystems, thomas berry, reinvent the human presence on the planet
Photo credits:
Bucks County, PA, suburban sprawl, David Hanauer, David’s Photographic Tour of Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Marsh wetlands, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Natural Communities of Wisconsin, emergent marsh
Pasqua River and dam protest, Patagonia Times, July 22, 2007
Comments
3 Responses to “Engineering the Earth to death”
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I have read an article in the TIME April7, 2008 on “The Clean Energy Scam” by Michael Grunnwald. It clearly mrntions the harm we do to ourselves and also to the nature and environment just for the sake of our comforts and convinience. Of course these are materialistic aspects only. As you have expressed if such trends continue the earth is doomed. The life on this earth may have to face drastic changes in the environment and climate altogether damaging the ecosystem totally. I am not sure how many people are concerned about this drastic changes including all the countries. What I feel is everybody should raise to the occasion and reduce the extra spending of the fuel and also ac’s or adopt for the natural long term power usages atleast temporarily. Where there is will there is way and also when the existance is it self at stake, the needs of the people should take better innovations which are less energy consuming and also reducing the global warming gases @ also try for alternative waste utilization techniques. All these type works demands an interdisciplinary type of people, those who can tackle multidisciplinary subjects with ease.
2007 EXCHANGE OF IDEAS BETWEEN FRIENDS (and perhaps timely in 2008)
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Dear B,
In the light of E. O. Wilson’s comments about small creatures and today’s report from the World Conservation Union (IUCN) that more than 41,000 species of animals and plants are now on its ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST, do you think it is too early to consider that the evolutionary success of the human species may not be guaranteed? Perhaps it is not too late to consider how the human species in our time could inadvertently precipitate a “Human Community Collapse” by adamantly insisting upon more unbridled growth of business enterprise and human numbers now overspreading the Earth.
I am concerned that after threatening biodiversity with extinction and the environment with irreversible degradation, and also dissipating the limited resources of Earth, humankind will become an unexpected threat to its own survival.
Sincerely,
Steve
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Hi Steve,
You bring up a very good point, and one that is foremost in the minds of everyone with environmental awareness. The notion of sustainability does not seem to have been infused in equal value to progress made in both the industrial and technological revolutions. When we look closely, it is as if we are but children playing with new toys, not grasping just what they mean nor thinking very far into the future. Anyone who studies simple biology knows that unchecked growth cannot last, that eventually the system that supported whatever it is gets out of balance, and then…well…things change. So at the very least we are looking for sweeping change. How much of it we will see in our short lifespan is uncertain, but what is certain is that even now we are observing first-hand some negative effects of our actions in the past. Nature is very efficient, and certainly will take care of things one way or another. I agree with what you suggest, that we could benefit from applying caution and implementing the enlightened consideration of experts in our approach to the future. Application of knowledge requires official sanction and public policy, which as you know is not so easy to achieve. Hopefully, the brightest minds among us who post their knowledge and recommendations in research & books and who broadcast their views and information on things like TED TALKS will encourage our policy makers to get on the same page, i.e., as stewards of the earth and its abundance rather than exploiters. Ultimately, I have hope, and think a hopeful attitude can have a snowball effect. I’m pretty sure hope is the official stance of this organization, by the way, and why a forum such as this is so encouraging.
Thanks, Steve, for your posts here and elsewhere on our blogs.
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Dear B,
Sometimes it looks to me as if some of our brothers and sisters are so focused on the accumulation of wealth and power, in feathering their own gigantic nests, frequenting exclusive clubs, flying private jets, sailing yachts and visiting exotic hideaways, that the “powers that be” have overlooked the certain requirements necessary for the maintenance of our planetary home, which is soon to become endangered by certain unbridled, distinctly human enterprises now overspreading the Earth.
How do things look to you?
Always,
Steve
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Steve,
I like the idea of everyone coming to see that we are definitely interconnected. Just as the bees and flowering plants need each other, so do we humans need the environment. The sooner we get truly sustainable in our stewardship of the environment, the better. The last 50 years have seen unprecedented wealth and technology, and a few have enjoyed advantages never dreamt of in the past. Hopefully, we will all start doing our part, even the very insulated among us. I’m actually quite optimistic, as I think there is so much positive focus for new energies coming along in young people, and a rededication to creative efforts to make the world a better place in those of us who are older. I certainly can imagine these things building on themselves. It starts right here, wherever we are.
B.
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Dear B,
I share your optimism. With good science as our guide and the adequate use of intelligence and other splendid gifts granted to human beings by God, we can choose to respond ably to the requirements of reality, whatsoever they may be.
Elders like me will hopefully be open to guidance of our young people, as you suggest, and also of the mothers of children, rather than holdfast to the outworn creeds of the children of men among us. The self-proclaimed masters of the universe in my not-so-great generation appear to have lost their way.
On the other hand, we cannot rule out the possibility that I am one of those unfortunate elders about whom I report, who has lost touch with good science, the natural order of living things, and the limitations imposed upon human life by the very nature of the biophysical world we inhabit.
I and my generation can and will do better. Of that I am certain.
Sincerely,
Steve
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ONWARD!
B.
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Dear B,
I believe this is one way to begin. We have to speak of topics that are taboo, just as we do here.
My greatest concern is that the undoing of the human species, and life as we know it, could inadvertently occur as a result of the adamant and relentless maintenance of SILENCE.
Silence is something to be feared. Silence is especially terrifying and potentially ruinous when it is actively employed as a tool for denying good science.
Thank YOU,
Steve
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Steve,
I don’t mean to be flip, but the old saying comes to mind: “The more the merrier!” We can hope more voices will speak up for beneficial uses of our stunning technologies to forge a path to a wise, efficient, and fittingly sustainable paradigm for the future world. There is another saying that comes to mind should we fail to understand what we need to do, and that is, “That way lies madness.” I am so looking forward to the tipping point, where all accept as a given the need to create and live in a balanced world. I know it is coming.
B.
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Dear B,
You make wonderful points. Let me see if I understand you well enough.
Would it be correct to say that we have a choice: either we can choose to accept the knowledge derived from the best available, good science and deploy that knowledge to maintain a sustainable world, one fit for human habitation, or we can fail to do what is necessary by holding fast to an unsustainable paradigm for the future world…and by continuing to defend flawed data derived from politically convenient and economically expedient mad science?
Always,
Steve
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…and having the wisdom to know the difference.
B.
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Dear B,
At least in my humble opinion, THIS IS COMMUNICATION!
Perhaps humanity has global challenges in the offing, challenges that are formidable, even as we begin to take the measure of them.
As we steady our focus on these challenges, it becomes evident that there may be no quick fixes to the problems with which we are presented. Business-as-usual brought us to this moment in human history, but cannot take us to the future we picture for our children.
Contemplate and picture in your mind the business-as-usual activities with which we are familiar. We can see that the unbridled growth of economic activities is overspreading the Earth.
Now for the hard part: questions.
Can the seemingly endless growth and the astonishing success of unregulated human production and consumption activities continue in the same old business-as-usual way and at their current scale on a relatively small, finite planet the size of Earth?
If the Earth is round and has physical limitations, is it reasonable and sensible to consider that there are limits to the unrestricted global growth of human activities on Earth?
Are there no alternatives to untethered economic globalization?
Are there no options to the unchecked per capita consumption of Earth’s limited resources?
Who knows, before long questions like these will become a part of open discussions at international conferences, in governing bodies and spoken of by those in the mass media.
I and my generation are going to do better, much better.
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Steve,
Your questions almost answer themselves and wholly appeal to common sense. I believe that love of humanity, passion for life and a strong will to survive will eventually corral all of us into the same camp, which is good because we must work together to solve our problems. We may be lucky that things are getting so blatantly out of hand, because a cry for better will eventually emerge. Hat’s off to any who can keep their heads while some around us are losing theirs. Like a teenager on a joy ride, flagrant environmental abuses cannot have good results and therefore cannot last that long. The trick will be coming to the tipping point. I believe we are very very close. I hope others will participate in this inspiring conversation. We believe in the exchange of ideas and invites it with these blogs. Thanks so much for participating.
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Dear B,
Thanks to you, D., Al and the great scientists of the IPCC, it does appear more and more people are beginning to awaken, finally, with the coming of each new day, to something that is fresh and unforeseen about the world we inhabit.
I and our dearest colleagues have only become awakened just a matter of days earlier than those who are soon, or else eventually, to be released from their slumber.
Once awake, people are going to be able to see that while nothing about the surface of the Earth has changed, not really; everything about the wondrous landscape is different in unexpected ways.
When many in the human community perceive what you and other leaders are saying and doing, it will be as if they are seeing the world God blesses us to inhabit for the first time, I suppose.
That is going to make a difference.
All the best to you,
Steve
Dear Steve,
Thanks for sharing this wonderful exchange, much like conversations I have had as I started thinking this project into existence, conversations that are becoming increasingly necessary. Don’t want this to sound like book promotion, but these are themes I write about — that we are facing stark choices about the future of this planet, choices that are present, urgent, and can no longer be consigned to future generations.
Like it or not, we, and our children and our children’s children, this and the next generation or two, are the ones that will decide whether or not the story of human evolution continues on this planet, and how much suffering will be involved in either case — in the demise of the species or its salvation.
We have known for decades now that we were coming quickly to the limits of the planet to absorb our overuse and abuse of its natural wonders, from water to soils to energy and more. Current economic growth models are not just unsustainable but impossible. The new economics, which have now become necessary, must begin to match the actual living systems of the planet and be in sync with them.
The Millennim Ecosystem Assessment [http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx] is some of the sobering reading folks ought to look at to understand how close we are to ecosystem breakdowns and the spread of uninhabitable areas across the planet, from the spread of drought, depletion of aquifers, the spread of deserts, depleted ocean fish stocks, and on and on, the list we all know.
I cling to hope in the terms of your colleague B. But I also know that, even if we flipped human behavior today, we cannot save ourselves from a difficult future. It is a matter of how difficult it will be.
When I write here of ’spirituality’ and of ‘hope,’ I mean building the inner resources we will need to get ourselves through the difficult time, preparing the generation coming after us in their interior life as much as their material lives, and believing that we can, as the title of my book suggest, live beyond the ‘end of the world.’
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this blog.
Margaret