The Earth has its own set of rules

[bemildred]

Early in our history it didn't make any difference how we viewed our environment. We could change it, and if we didn't like what we did to it, we could move and natural processes would soon obliterate whatever we had done. Over the years, models of our relationship to the environment have been based on religious views, with the world provided for us to dominate and subdue as described in Genesis, and philosophical views, seeing wisdom and virtue in nature as described by Thoreau.

But by far our most prevalent view of nature derives from a rudimentary human desire for more. This is the basis of the economic model that currently directs our relationships with one another and with our environment. It has produced stupendous human population growth and dramatic, deleterious effects on nature. Recognizing these effects, efforts have been marshaled to change the self-serving economic model with notions of Earth "stewardship," eloquently advanced decades ago by then-Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, and, most recently, to infiltrate the economic model with "ecosystem services" by assigning monetary values to functions performed by the Earth that are beneficial to people.

All of these views are fundamentally and dangerously flawed, because all are anthropocentric. They begin and end with humans. This isn't the way the Earth works.

The Earth has its own set of rules, solidly grounded in laws of physics and chemistry and emergent principles of geology and biology. Unlike our economic model, these are not artificial constructs. They are real, and they govern. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tornadoes, 100-year floods, massive wildfires and disease epidemics are dramatic examples of parts of nature, neither all service nor all harm, creating and destroying, and governed by rules that are indifferent to humans. Our anthropocentric economic model for interacting with the world ignores and is proving to be incompatible with Earth's rules, and is therefore on a direct collision course with them.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mahall2-2010mar02,0,6899831.story

[Jefferson23]

1. "To achieve a more accurate model of our relation to nature,

we need to see ourselves as part of nature, governed by nature (not economics), beholden to nature for ecosystem services and subject to nature's disturbances."

Not in my life time, but I do hope this will be the case for future generations, a much wiser and responsible generation we desperately do need.

Thanks for posting.

[bemildred]

2. My pleasure.

Always nice to see appropriate humility in discussions of human affairs, since it is rare.

[CanonRay]

3. I thought it was all "God's will"

:sarcasm:

[MisterP]

4. we absolutely cannot go on seeing the world as divided into 1) farmland or potential farms,

2) "life support" whose "purpose" is to keep homeostasis or humanity afloat, and 3) forests for timber, palm products, and coffee

furthermore, animal intelligence (scientists deeming dolphins and apes persons of the same "order" as humans, abstract representation in animal paintings, crows coordinating their nut-cracking business with traffic signals) makes it imperative that we consider animals as individual entities, not just faceless components of a greater "species" whose numbers we may have to "manage." http://www.depauw.edu/humanimalia/ is an interesting look, though biased toward cybernetic viewpoints.

all this is on top of previous issues of pollution, soil, "resource" depletion, and we have to deal with these issues with 7 billion people on board, galloping killing and extinction, spreading agriculture, GMOs, deforestation, dying oceans, and a heating planet--quite a corner to paint oneself into (given that the warnings have been around since Carson--well before the Powell Memo, nationalist natalists, Reagan, and the PR apparatus said to not worry and everything will turn out fine)

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, bemildred.:thumbsup:

[bemildred]

6. My pleasure Uncle Joe.

It's so rare to see this sort of rational discussion of our situation, I just had to post it.

[Uncle Joe]

7. I believe this column lays the foundation for the next great enlightenment or awakening.

Peace to you and have a good night.:hi: