Is the concept of "Sustainable Development" a lie?
DiscussionsSustainability
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1MaureenRoy
November 23, 2015: Here's an essay which claims that the concept of Sustainable Development is completely bogus:
http://www.fairobserver.com/more/environment/sustainable-development-is-a-lie-90...
Do you agree or disagree, and if so, why?
http://www.fairobserver.com/more/environment/sustainable-development-is-a-lie-90...
Do you agree or disagree, and if so, why?
22wonderY
Well, let's start with a definition from International Istitute for Sustainable Development:
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:
•the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
•the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs."
All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a system—a system that connects space; and a system that connects time."
I see nothing wrong in that formulation.
The essayist, Derrick Jensen, is probably responding to the co-opting of the term by various interested parties like the World Bank.
Problem is, those entities who make economic decisions about resource use might be tempted to turn the phrase into a meaningless buzzword to justify whatever actions profit themselves.
Let's face it, humanity uses up resources and lays waste. But we don't have to. I read a lot about permaculture, but it might be the industrial designer, William McDonough, author of Cradle to Cradle and The Upcycle, who points out that the natural world is all about abundance, not scarcity. If we can model our use of resources to allow them to flow through various stages, instead of the one use and then it's a disposal problem model, we might be on to something better.
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:
•the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
•the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs."
All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a system—a system that connects space; and a system that connects time."
I see nothing wrong in that formulation.
The essayist, Derrick Jensen, is probably responding to the co-opting of the term by various interested parties like the World Bank.
Problem is, those entities who make economic decisions about resource use might be tempted to turn the phrase into a meaningless buzzword to justify whatever actions profit themselves.
Let's face it, humanity uses up resources and lays waste. But we don't have to. I read a lot about permaculture, but it might be the industrial designer, William McDonough, author of Cradle to Cradle and The Upcycle, who points out that the natural world is all about abundance, not scarcity. If we can model our use of resources to allow them to flow through various stages, instead of the one use and then it's a disposal problem model, we might be on to something better.
3margd
August 8 is Earth Overshoot Day 2016, when we will have used up more resources than we can regenerate this year...
How does Canada rank?
Canada has the fourth highest ecological footprint per person, after only Luxembourg, Australia and the United States.
If everyone on Earth lived as Canadians do, it would take 4.7 Earths to sustain global consumption.
Canada has the 12th highest total ecological footprint.
The carbon footprint makes up 61% of Canada's overall ecological footprint.
Canada is so rich in resources, however, that it takes only half the country's resources to sustain the national population.
Canada has the 6th highest total biocapacity and the the 4th highest biocapacity per capita.
Canada has the 2nd highest overall fishing biocapacity, and the highest fishing biocapacity per capita, despite the near total collapse in 1997 of the Newfoundland cod population and the troubles highlighted this week with forage fish...
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/cnw/release.html?rkey=20160804C3955&...
How does Canada rank?
Canada has the fourth highest ecological footprint per person, after only Luxembourg, Australia and the United States.
If everyone on Earth lived as Canadians do, it would take 4.7 Earths to sustain global consumption.
Canada has the 12th highest total ecological footprint.
The carbon footprint makes up 61% of Canada's overall ecological footprint.
Canada is so rich in resources, however, that it takes only half the country's resources to sustain the national population.
Canada has the 6th highest total biocapacity and the the 4th highest biocapacity per capita.
Canada has the 2nd highest overall fishing biocapacity, and the highest fishing biocapacity per capita, despite the near total collapse in 1997 of the Newfoundland cod population and the troubles highlighted this week with forage fish...
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/cnw/release.html?rkey=20160804C3955&...
4MaureenRoy
It turns out that the manufacture of glass appears to be using up the world's sand. I will think a long time before I buy any more "screen" devices. Here's that link on glass manufacturing:
http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2015/03/making-glass_8.html
http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2015/03/making-glass_8.html
5John5918
Living as I do in Africa I would say that there is absolutely no doubt that we need development in many parts of the world - health, education, food security, etc. And of course I would agree that it needs to be sustainable. What it looks like I don't know. It's not sustainable for the whole world to live wastefully like Europe and north America, but neither is it sustainable for a very large number of people to continue living in varying degrees of poverty. Neither is it sustainable for the huge gap to remain between the two. So not developing is not a choice which is open to us. But hand in hand with sustainable development has to go a reduction of the wasteful standards in the so-called developed world.
62wonderY
A short description of an older (well, 2000) but good book on the subject:
Before the twentieth century, streets and bodies stank, but trash was nearly nonexistent. With goods and money scarce, almost everything was reused. Strasser paints a vivid picture of an America where scavenger pigs roamed the streets, swill children collected kitchen garbage, and itinerant peddlers traded manufactured goods for rags and bones. Over the last hundred years, however, Americans have become hooked on convenience, disposability, fashion, and constant technological change-the rise of mass consumption has led to waste on a previously unimaginable scale.
Lively and colorful, Waste and Want recaptures a hidden part of our social history, vividly illustrating that what counts as trash depends on who's counting, and that what we throw away defines us as much as what we keep.
Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash by Susan Strasser
There are some valuable lessons we could adopt from this past.
Before the twentieth century, streets and bodies stank, but trash was nearly nonexistent. With goods and money scarce, almost everything was reused. Strasser paints a vivid picture of an America where scavenger pigs roamed the streets, swill children collected kitchen garbage, and itinerant peddlers traded manufactured goods for rags and bones. Over the last hundred years, however, Americans have become hooked on convenience, disposability, fashion, and constant technological change-the rise of mass consumption has led to waste on a previously unimaginable scale.
Lively and colorful, Waste and Want recaptures a hidden part of our social history, vividly illustrating that what counts as trash depends on who's counting, and that what we throw away defines us as much as what we keep.
Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash by Susan Strasser
There are some valuable lessons we could adopt from this past.
7southernbooklady
>6 2wonderY: Over the last hundred years, however, Americans have become hooked on convenience, disposability, fashion, and constant technological change-the rise of mass consumption has led to waste on a previously unimaginable scale.
Also vaccinations, hygiene, (relatively) accessible medical care, and the relative surety that a treatable disease will not kill your children before the age of five.
Also vaccinations, hygiene, (relatively) accessible medical care, and the relative surety that a treatable disease will not kill your children before the age of five.
82wonderY
>7 southernbooklady: Yes, I know. I'm not advocating returning to the past; but there are some models that are well worth adapting for a sustainable future.
9southernbooklady
True enough. Also, Americans, especially, often go overboard in the other direction -- seeking to make their environment so "clean" that they ironically become more susceptible to things that can make them sick. Also not a sustainable way to live in the long run.
102wonderY
Yes, I'm in the middle of Let Them Eat Dirt, and a more hard science approach that disagrees with that specific, but is in harmony with the general concern, Missing Microbes.
11MaureenRoy
From 2002, more testimony on the co-option of the term "sustainable development."
https://www.democracynow.org/2002/9/9/sustainable_development_is_dead_earth_summ...
https://www.democracynow.org/2002/9/9/sustainable_development_is_dead_earth_summ...
12PossMan
>6 2wonderY:: As a youngster in 1950s Ramsbottom, a small town in Lancashire textile industry country, I remember what we called the "rag and bone man" with his horse and cart who took all sorts of rubbish although I don't remember getting anything in return. And a horse and cart from the local farm brought milk in churns for filling your own receptacles. In the 1970s in Westonbirt got milk brought to us in bottles at some unearthly hour in the pre-dawn.
132wonderY
>12 PossMan: I can smell that misty dawn air. For a summer in the 70s, I got up at 4AM to milk 400 cows.
14John5918
>8 2wonderY:, >12 PossMan:
I think it's interesting how much of what we are now moving towards is in fact a return to the past, although one probably couldn't market it as such to the modern generations.
I too remember returnable glass bottles for milk, soda and beer. In London they were delivered by electrically-powered vehicles called milk floats, which were charged up the day before at the depot and then delivered the milk at that "unearthly hour in the pre-dawn".
I saw an article in a UK newspaper recently that by a certain date there will be refill stations for plastic water bottles all over the country. When I was growing up there were "water refill stations" everywhere - we called them drinking fountains. I was in Rome last week where I was reminded that they are not a new thing - the ancient Romans had them two thousand years ago. Neither are they new in Sudan, where the well-off traditionally left a clay pot of water outside their home for all-comers to drink from, and by thirty years ago some of them had replaced that with a cold water dispenser. When I walked the Camino in Spain a few years ago I filled my bottle from public drinking fountains along the way.
How did we go so badly astray?
I think it's interesting how much of what we are now moving towards is in fact a return to the past, although one probably couldn't market it as such to the modern generations.
I too remember returnable glass bottles for milk, soda and beer. In London they were delivered by electrically-powered vehicles called milk floats, which were charged up the day before at the depot and then delivered the milk at that "unearthly hour in the pre-dawn".
I saw an article in a UK newspaper recently that by a certain date there will be refill stations for plastic water bottles all over the country. When I was growing up there were "water refill stations" everywhere - we called them drinking fountains. I was in Rome last week where I was reminded that they are not a new thing - the ancient Romans had them two thousand years ago. Neither are they new in Sudan, where the well-off traditionally left a clay pot of water outside their home for all-comers to drink from, and by thirty years ago some of them had replaced that with a cold water dispenser. When I walked the Camino in Spain a few years ago I filled my bottle from public drinking fountains along the way.
How did we go so badly astray?
15PossMan
>14 John5918:: Just going round the country in Scotland and England I've noticed that quite a lot of towns have ornate water fountains set up to commemorate the Jubilee of Q Victoria. But most seem to have fallen into disuse. I used to live in Spain for a short time and remember often seeing cars parked at the roadside with people filling containers from a spring (or washing their cars). You can buy bottled Lanjaron (in the Alpujarras) water but going through the town one evening therewas a crowd of people gathered round a public source.
We probably went astray because plastic was a miracle material, cheap and versatile.
We probably went astray because plastic was a miracle material, cheap and versatile.
16margd
>14 John5918:, 15 Saw a water buggy (truck w numerous taps at diff heights for refilling containers) at events in Ontario last summer: https://utilitieskingston.com/Water/Programs/Buggy
_________________________________________________________________________
At Davos last week, a foundation signed agreement with UN to "focus their joint efforts on stimulating public-private sector engagement with circular economy solutions":
"An outdated, take-make-dispose linear economy is the root cause of some of today’s most challenging problems. The circular economy provides a framework to design an economy that is restorative and regenerative, and creates benefits for society and the environment. I am delighted to work with UN Environment to further our shared goals of scaling up and accelerating this systemic shift at a global level."
- Dame Ellen MacArthur - Founder, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/news/the-ellen-macarthur-foundation-sig...
_________________________________________________________________________
At Davos last week, a foundation signed agreement with UN to "focus their joint efforts on stimulating public-private sector engagement with circular economy solutions":
"An outdated, take-make-dispose linear economy is the root cause of some of today’s most challenging problems. The circular economy provides a framework to design an economy that is restorative and regenerative, and creates benefits for society and the environment. I am delighted to work with UN Environment to further our shared goals of scaling up and accelerating this systemic shift at a global level."
- Dame Ellen MacArthur - Founder, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/news/the-ellen-macarthur-foundation-sig...
172wonderY
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/overview/concept
Looking beyond the current take-make-dispose extractive industrial model, a circular economy aims to redefine growth, focusing on positive society-wide benefits. It entails gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, and designing waste out of the system. Underpinned by a transition to renewable energy sources, the circular model builds economic, natural, and social capital. It is based on three principles:
•Design out waste and pollution
•Keep products and materials in use
•Regenerate natural systems
The concept of a circular economy
In a circular economy, economic activity builds and rebuilds overall system health. The concept recognises the importance of the economy needing to work effectively at all scales – for large and small businesses, for organisations and individuals, globally and locally.
Transitioning to a circular economy does not only amount to adjustments aimed at reducing the negative impacts of the linear economy. Rather, it represents a systemic shift that builds long-term resilience, generates business and economic opportunities, and provides environmental and societal benefits.
The model distinguishes between technical and biological cycles. Consumption happens only in biological cycles, where food and biologically-based materials (such as cotton or wood) are designed to feed back into the system through processes like composting and anaerobic digestion. These cycles regenerate living systems, such as soil, which provide renewable resources for the economy. Technical cycles recover and restore products, components, and materials through strategies like reuse, repair, remanufacture or (in the last resort) recycling.
The notion of circularity has deep historical and philosophical origins. The idea of feedback, of cycles in real-world systems, is ancient and has echoes in various schools of philosophy. It enjoyed a revival in industrialised countries after World War II when the advent of computer-based studies of non-linear systems unambiguously revealed the complex, interrelated, and therefore unpredictable nature of the world we live in – more akin to a metabolism than a machine. With current advances, digital technology has the power to support the transition to a circular economy by radically increasing virtualisation, de-materialisation, transparency, and feedback-driven intelligence.
The circular economy model synthesises several major schools of thought. They include the functional service economy (performance economy) of Walter Stahel; the Cradle to Cradle design philosophy of William McDonough and Michael Braungart; biomimicry as articulated by Janine Benyus; the industrial ecology of Reid Lifset and Thomas Graedel; natural capitalism by Amory and Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken; and the blue economy systems approach described by Gunter Pauli.
Looking beyond the current take-make-dispose extractive industrial model, a circular economy aims to redefine growth, focusing on positive society-wide benefits. It entails gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, and designing waste out of the system. Underpinned by a transition to renewable energy sources, the circular model builds economic, natural, and social capital. It is based on three principles:
•Design out waste and pollution
•Keep products and materials in use
•Regenerate natural systems
The concept of a circular economy
In a circular economy, economic activity builds and rebuilds overall system health. The concept recognises the importance of the economy needing to work effectively at all scales – for large and small businesses, for organisations and individuals, globally and locally.
Transitioning to a circular economy does not only amount to adjustments aimed at reducing the negative impacts of the linear economy. Rather, it represents a systemic shift that builds long-term resilience, generates business and economic opportunities, and provides environmental and societal benefits.
The model distinguishes between technical and biological cycles. Consumption happens only in biological cycles, where food and biologically-based materials (such as cotton or wood) are designed to feed back into the system through processes like composting and anaerobic digestion. These cycles regenerate living systems, such as soil, which provide renewable resources for the economy. Technical cycles recover and restore products, components, and materials through strategies like reuse, repair, remanufacture or (in the last resort) recycling.
The notion of circularity has deep historical and philosophical origins. The idea of feedback, of cycles in real-world systems, is ancient and has echoes in various schools of philosophy. It enjoyed a revival in industrialised countries after World War II when the advent of computer-based studies of non-linear systems unambiguously revealed the complex, interrelated, and therefore unpredictable nature of the world we live in – more akin to a metabolism than a machine. With current advances, digital technology has the power to support the transition to a circular economy by radically increasing virtualisation, de-materialisation, transparency, and feedback-driven intelligence.
The circular economy model synthesises several major schools of thought. They include the functional service economy (performance economy) of Walter Stahel; the Cradle to Cradle design philosophy of William McDonough and Michael Braungart; biomimicry as articulated by Janine Benyus; the industrial ecology of Reid Lifset and Thomas Graedel; natural capitalism by Amory and Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken; and the blue economy systems approach described by Gunter Pauli.
18John5918
UK Network Rail to install drinking fountains in majority of its train stations this year (Guardian)
Company pledges to introduce free drinking water facilities in many of nation’s busiest stations
As has been said above, a return to the past, when there were free drinking water fountains everywhere, including railway stations.
Company pledges to introduce free drinking water facilities in many of nation’s busiest stations
As has been said above, a return to the past, when there were free drinking water fountains everywhere, including railway stations.
19John5918
I originally posted this 1993 paper in the Catholic Tradition LT group as it is written by a Catholic priest, the late Fr Thomas Berry, but on re-reading it I think it deserves a mention here:
The NEW POLITICAL ALIGNMENT
The NEW POLITICAL ALIGNMENT
20John5918
I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation and we scientists don't know how to do that...
—Gus Speth, US Advisor on climate change and Yale professor
This was sent to me by a colleague without any citation so I haven't been able to check whether it is accurate. But it's a nice sentiment.
22margd
DW News @dwnews | DW News @dwnews | 2:28 AM · May 5, 2023:
Despite the economic slowdown due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Germany has now overreached its sustainable biological limits.
Humanity needs around 1.7 planets to maintain its lifestyle, while Germany needs three.
Overconsumption: Germany needs 3 planets
Stuart Braun | May 4, 2023
On May 4, Germany exhausted its capacity to sustain itself. This "earth overshoot" will be compensated by taking finite resources from poorer countries — and future generations...
https://www.dw.com/en/overconsumption-germany-needs-3-planets/a-65504421
Despite the economic slowdown due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Germany has now overreached its sustainable biological limits.
Humanity needs around 1.7 planets to maintain its lifestyle, while Germany needs three.
Overconsumption: Germany needs 3 planets
Stuart Braun | May 4, 2023
On May 4, Germany exhausted its capacity to sustain itself. This "earth overshoot" will be compensated by taking finite resources from poorer countries — and future generations...
https://www.dw.com/en/overconsumption-germany-needs-3-planets/a-65504421
23SandraArdnas
>22 margd: Is there a link to an actual study this is based on? I find the article utterly uninformative and lacking in any real numbers. Even as a layman, I am certain Germany doesn't need 3 Earths, but 3 Germanys or 3 times its share of its current share on Earth or whatever else 3 times really refers to.
24margd
>23 SandraArdnas: Lotsa numbers like this--I remember being shocked decades ago to learn that the average American's ecological footprint was ~70X that of average Indian...
"...Calculated by international research group Global Footprint Network*, Overshoot Day factors in how much we consume, how efficiently products are made, population size and how much nature can reproduce..."
https://www.dw.com/en/earth-overshoot-day-2022-humanity-has-already-used-its-res...
---------------------------------------------------------------
* https://www.footprintnetwork.org
https://www.footprintnetwork.org/resources/data/
https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en
__________________________________________________
For scientific literature, search for terms like "ecological footprint overshoot" at https://scholar.google.com
"...Calculated by international research group Global Footprint Network*, Overshoot Day factors in how much we consume, how efficiently products are made, population size and how much nature can reproduce..."
https://www.dw.com/en/earth-overshoot-day-2022-humanity-has-already-used-its-res...
---------------------------------------------------------------
* https://www.footprintnetwork.org
https://www.footprintnetwork.org/resources/data/
https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en
__________________________________________________
For scientific literature, search for terms like "ecological footprint overshoot" at https://scholar.google.com
25SandraArdnas
>24 margd: I meant for this specific article. This isn't an area I want to wade through hundreds of papers, just the one that would actually have useful information that should have been in the article, but isn't. Thanks for footprint network link, it does explain general methodology. I also tried the personal calculator, which claims mine is 1.9, which seems excessive given that all I consume is food and electricity in smallish house. Haven't traveled in years and work from home. Recycle everything recyclable. I don't eat for 2 people, haha.
26margd
>25 SandraArdnas: You could ask publisher at https://twitter.com/dwnews
Overshoot-"clock" for a number of countries is mentioned at https://twitter.com/delococo/status/1654192875171659776
(Germany not doing too badly considering a northern, industrial country?)
Data is from https://data.footprintnetwork.org
Overshoot-"clock" for a number of countries is mentioned at https://twitter.com/delococo/status/1654192875171659776
(Germany not doing too badly considering a northern, industrial country?)
Data is from https://data.footprintnetwork.org
27John5918
>25 SandraArdnas:
I was also surprised at how bad my score was, considering that we live completely off grid (harvesting rainwater and solar electricity), our house is built mainly from locally quarried stone, I usually only drive once a week for shopping (although my Land Rover is a thirsty beast), most of what we eat (including meat) is grown and bought very locally, I only make a couple of flights a year, etc. But as with many surveys which are apparently composed in the Global North, I found it very difficult to answer some of the questions adequately and it was pretty much guesswork, as I wanted to add, "Yes, but..." to many of them.
I was also surprised at how bad my score was, considering that we live completely off grid (harvesting rainwater and solar electricity), our house is built mainly from locally quarried stone, I usually only drive once a week for shopping (although my Land Rover is a thirsty beast), most of what we eat (including meat) is grown and bought very locally, I only make a couple of flights a year, etc. But as with many surveys which are apparently composed in the Global North, I found it very difficult to answer some of the questions adequately and it was pretty much guesswork, as I wanted to add, "Yes, but..." to many of them.
28SandraArdnas
>27 John5918: I don't even own a car and use public transport once or twice a week only since I don't need it for daily going to work. The final chart indicates food is the major contributor, but I rarely eat meat, which they consider a major element, so I'm wondering what kind of lifestyle results in net zero or at least close. I'm also surprised there is no question whatsoever about general consumption, how much stuff you buy outside food.
29margd
Love Letter to the Doomers (5,000 words?)
Sue Coulstock | June 6, 2023
...As with every other cult, at the heart of the cult of Western industrial civilisation is the belief that this is the superior and “right” way to live, and that people who question its tenets – particularly its central tenets – are barbarians, heretics, heathens, mentally ill, intellectually inferior or misguided, heartless, morally suspect, difficult, dropouts and just plain wrong...
http://sue.coulstock.id.au/love-letter-to-the-doomers/
-------------------------------------------------
Excerpts read aloud from a tiny house (25:13):
A Rare Love Letter to Doomers, by the Newest Kid on the Doomosphere Block, Sue Coulstock (25:13)
Collapse Chronicles | Jun 11, 2023
For today's warm and fuzzy Chronicle of the Collapse, we hear from Sue Coulstock, one of the rising new stars in the Doomosphere, with her poignant essay titled, "Love Letter to Doomers."...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2061l3j_Aw
Sue Coulstock | June 6, 2023
...As with every other cult, at the heart of the cult of Western industrial civilisation is the belief that this is the superior and “right” way to live, and that people who question its tenets – particularly its central tenets – are barbarians, heretics, heathens, mentally ill, intellectually inferior or misguided, heartless, morally suspect, difficult, dropouts and just plain wrong...
http://sue.coulstock.id.au/love-letter-to-the-doomers/
-------------------------------------------------
Excerpts read aloud from a tiny house (25:13):
A Rare Love Letter to Doomers, by the Newest Kid on the Doomosphere Block, Sue Coulstock (25:13)
Collapse Chronicles | Jun 11, 2023
For today's warm and fuzzy Chronicle of the Collapse, we hear from Sue Coulstock, one of the rising new stars in the Doomosphere, with her poignant essay titled, "Love Letter to Doomers."...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2061l3j_Aw
30margd
I remember pushback on LT when I called humans "a weedy species". In "Homo Ecophagus: A Deep Diagnosis to Save the Earth", Warren Hern argues that we have many similarities to cancer.
Genesis 1:28: "...And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” "
Are humans a cancer on the planet? A physician argues that civilization is truly carcinogenic
Troy Farah / Salon | August 5, 2023
...Dr. Warren Hern, a Colorado-based physician and author of the new book "Homo Ecophagus: A Deep Diagnosis to Save the Earth," argues that human civilization indeed has many similarities with cancer. This isn't a metaphor, but rather a literal diagnosis — and it can be addressed in the same way that an actual cancer diagnosis can be the first step to treatment.
Salon recently spoke with Hern about his new book, which acts partially as a memoir, textbook, dire diagnosis and poetic ode to a disintegrating planet, discussing the implications for such an urgent prognosis, a new name for the human species that reflects our true nature and how we can still fix this crisis...
https://news.yahoo.com/humans-cancer-planet-physician-argues-140001911.html
Genesis 1:28: "...And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” "
Are humans a cancer on the planet? A physician argues that civilization is truly carcinogenic
Troy Farah / Salon | August 5, 2023
...Dr. Warren Hern, a Colorado-based physician and author of the new book "Homo Ecophagus: A Deep Diagnosis to Save the Earth," argues that human civilization indeed has many similarities with cancer. This isn't a metaphor, but rather a literal diagnosis — and it can be addressed in the same way that an actual cancer diagnosis can be the first step to treatment.
Salon recently spoke with Hern about his new book, which acts partially as a memoir, textbook, dire diagnosis and poetic ode to a disintegrating planet, discussing the implications for such an urgent prognosis, a new name for the human species that reflects our true nature and how we can still fix this crisis...
https://news.yahoo.com/humans-cancer-planet-physician-argues-140001911.html
31margd
Extraction of raw materials to rise by 60% by 2060, says UN report
Arthur Neslen | 31 Jan 2024
Exclusive: Report proposes action to reduce overall demand rather than simply increasing ‘green’ production...
...The global extraction of raw materials is expected to increase by 60% by 2060, with calamitous consequences for the climate and the environment, according an unpublished UN analysis seen by the Guardian.
Natural resource extraction has soared by almost 400% since 1970 due to industrialisation, urbanisation and population growth, according to a presentation of the five-yearly UN Global Resource Outlook made to EU ministers last week.
...Under the European Green Deal, EU countries’ material and waste footprints are monitored and logged online. The bloc has not so far moved to legislate for use reduction targets but the issue is expected to be discussed at a meeting of EU environment ministers in June.
...Insiders say privately the EU is the most likely grouping of developed countries to support such a policy {use reduction tagets}, with the US, Japan, Australia and Canada all opposed to a target...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/31/raw-materials-extraction-206...
Arthur Neslen | 31 Jan 2024
Exclusive: Report proposes action to reduce overall demand rather than simply increasing ‘green’ production...
...The global extraction of raw materials is expected to increase by 60% by 2060, with calamitous consequences for the climate and the environment, according an unpublished UN analysis seen by the Guardian.
Natural resource extraction has soared by almost 400% since 1970 due to industrialisation, urbanisation and population growth, according to a presentation of the five-yearly UN Global Resource Outlook made to EU ministers last week.
...Under the European Green Deal, EU countries’ material and waste footprints are monitored and logged online. The bloc has not so far moved to legislate for use reduction targets but the issue is expected to be discussed at a meeting of EU environment ministers in June.
...Insiders say privately the EU is the most likely grouping of developed countries to support such a policy {use reduction tagets}, with the US, Japan, Australia and Canada all opposed to a target...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/31/raw-materials-extraction-206...
32margd
Overshoot quote and cartoon:
https://twitter.com/CollapseSurvive/status/1755214945724047736/photo/1
https://twitter.com/CollapseSurvive/status/1755214945724047736/photo/1
Devenir membre pour poster.
