Stanford’s Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere has an open letter to the leaders of the world and is asking for signatures.
This is one of those times I wish I had legions of followers like PZ Myers or George Takei. This is important. We can complain about government or taxes or even basic human rights for a long time. But it won’t mean a damn thing unless we stop trying to destroy the planet. By destroy, I mean “make effectively uninhabitable for humans”. I don’t even think humanity is capable of Death Star like destruction of the planets yet.
By providing the information required below, I indicate that I agree that concerted efforts must begin immediately to halt climate disruption, extinctions, ecosystem degradation, environmental contamination, and to humanely stop human population growth and over-consumption where they now prevail. I agree that the best scientific evidence available indicates that if we do not take action to immediately reverse these dangerous environmental trends, our world and the world of our children will be substantially degraded with respect to what we have today.
The focus of the document is on five areas.
Climate Disruption
We have to admit to the basic facts. Humans are radically changing the environment at rates never before seen in the history of the planet. Between domesticating cows with their methane farts and cars, HVAC, and electrical needs, we are altering the climate faster than organisms and Earth systems can effectively deal with. Temperatures are rising with record numbers of record high temperatures. Sea level is beginning to rise. The basic chemistry of the ocean is beginning to change due to carbon dioxide build up in the atmosphere.
Extinctions
Humans kill things. We are exceptionally good at killing things. From rhinos and lions to birds and even ourselves… it seems like that’s the one thing we, as a species are really good at.
Loss of Ecosystem Diversity
Diverse ecosystems are more stable. They resist change more effectively. They are healthier. When we eliminate organisms from an ecosystem, we are making it more unstable… even if the organisms annoy us. Eliminating predators sounds good on paper. But without population controls, prey species over-populate causing more ecosystem damage and then crash.
Pollution
Humans are polluters. We waste huge amounts of resources and convert resources into products and waste. Even if there was no global warming, it would still be worth moving away from fossil fuels just to combat waste. One of my professors is an expert on Southeast Texas rivers ecosystems. In the 1960s, the major rivers in SE Texas were effectively dead. Pollution in them was so concentrated that ships would travel upstream and just sit in the water for a day in order to kill barnacles on the hull. Now, through anti-pollution measures, these rivers are full of life.
Human population
We, as a species, are not sustainable. We consume too much and don’t return things to the ecosystems. What’s worse is that everyone wants a high standard of living. There are more cell phones in Africa than in the United States of the European Union. It’s just not sustainable. It’s getting better though. Smartphones are great. In Africa, for example, they take the place of the computer, phone, camera, gaming system, calendar, and note pad. In one small device. That’s good.
But the human population is rising. It’s effectively impossible to estimate the carrying capacity of the Earth for humans. There’s this thing we do called technology and it can radically alter carrying capacity calculations. But the population growth of the planet as a whole is slowing. Fewer people is better than more people. And just by providing birth control and family planning, we might be able to put the human population growth into the negatives and reduce the strain we put on the planet.
Hope
There is plenty of hope though. We can do this. We can reduce our pollution. We can greatly reduce extinctions. We can lower the direct human impacts on biodiversity. We can do all of these things.
If we have the will and strength to do it.
The people making these decisions, though, they might not know we can do it. They might have the opinion of ‘Screw you, I got mine”. They might really not care about the planet. Which just highlights the problem with our education systems.
Anyway, let’s say something. And do something. If you can’t get Energy Star appliances or a LEEDS house or an electric car, find a environmental charity that you can support and do so. And take a minute to sign this letter.
