Biodiversity, Habitat

Environmentalism

Limits to Survival

The Master Plan

Press Releases
from Worldwatch

Ecology, habitat, species extinction, biodiversity? Are these important?
Actually, as a practical matter, almost everybody ignores these fundamentals.It really doesn't seem to matter what you say about ecology if you aren't a scientist. If you are a scientist you're so far out of it that nobody listens either. Those pesky scientists have spent the last century and more explaining in exquisite detail. But ecologists have talked to themselves and the few concerned individuals who've taken a sincere interest have talked to themselves as well.

Peter Raven, President of the International Botanical Congress at its 16th worldwide conference, August 2, 1999 announced:
"We are predicting the extinction of about two-thirds of all bird, mammal, butterfly and plant species by the end of the next century, based on current trends." In other words, we humans are causing a mass extinction of species greater than the extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. This is a very big deal, folks - if loss of 2/3rds of these species doesn't qualify as a major ecological collapse, we don't know what does. This should be front-page, red banner headline news, but it's not. The UN and every country around the world should be calling for emergency conferences, but they're not.
The Biodiversity Crisis, Peter Raven, Washington University
Earth in the Balance, Peter Raven, Washington University

Paul's fan page

Worldwatch press releases:
worldwatch.org/alerts/indexnr.html
Earth Policy Institute
earth-policy.org

Is Worldwatch becoming mainstream?
Let's hope so. Lester Brown started Worldwatch in 1974. That's a long time ago.
There are encouraging signs. A four member panel of CIA researchers from the Bush Center for Intelligence, on a two part ABC NightLine series broadcast in January, 2001, listened as Sandra Postel, a Worldwatch researcher, and author of Pillars of Sand, presented evidence to back their assertion that water will be a significant source of future wars.Worldwatch has hosted a multipart series for CNN.
In Japan, Lester Brown has co-hosted many program series broadcast on NHK, beginning from 1998, in which he has presented a condensed form of the information which has been made available by Worldwatch during the last decade.Could humans finally be listening?
Let's hope so.

"the human species will experience the unfolding of an entire geological epoch in less than one lifetime. . . . The potential damage to life and property along coastal areas is likely to be unprecedented in human history... If we continue to ignore the Entropy Law and its role in defining the broad context in which our physical world unfolds, then we shall do so at the risk of our own (lives)." Jeremy Rifkin, ENTROPY: Into the Greenhouse World

Sounds horrible doesn't it? Imagine that. An entire geological epoch unfolding not just a part of a geological epoch, but an entire one. Maybe you could start an epoch refolding society. Put Pandora back in the box. Put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Millions of humans switch on expensive PCs. Ipso facto, they fancy themselves technological wizards. How many of you know the second and third laws of thermodynamics? How many know what that has to do with ecology? How many know what entropy is or what it has to do with ecology? In recent years Gallup performed a poll which showed that only 40% of adult Americans surveyed could distinguish between an atom and a molecule.*
Beam me up Scotty.

*Only 1 in 50,000 could identify a chiral carbon in an organic molecule, but that's more understandable...Here's an easy one. Pick the chiral carbons in this pair of enantiomers. Then name the compound which has one chlorine, four carbons and nine hydrogens.

Place cursor over image to check your answer.

"If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes."

"A suitable total for the number of citizens cannot be fixed without considering the land..."

"If it is peace of mind and comfort you want then believe, however, if you are devoted to truth then inquire."

"Democracy cannot survive overpopulation."

"Modern agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food".

"...no matter how complex or affluent, human societies are nothing but subsystems of the biosphere, the Earth's thin veneer of life, which is ultimately run by bacteria, fungi and green plants."

"Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."

"There are now more human babies born each day-- about 350,000-- than there are individuals left in all the great ape species combined, including gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans."

"If they don't understand the severity of the problem, they won't understand the severity of the solution. Overpopulation must be dealt with."

"About half the modern world doesn't have the same basic amenities the ancient Romans took for granted."

"Human population growth is the most pressing environmental problem facing the U.S. and the world."

"there is no environmentalist more foolish than one who refuses to confront the fact that uncontrolled human population growth is the No. 1 cause of the world's increasing environmental problems."

"Intensification of production to feed an increased population leads to a still greater increase in population."

“Population growth is the primary source of environmental damage.”

"The rich require an abundant supply of the poor."

Jonathan Weiner

"If the people will lead, the leaders will follow." - Dr. David Suzuki
We wonder how big of an, "If," that is David.
davidsuzuki.org

ALBERT EINSTEIN:
"A human being is part of the Whole...He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest...a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security."

JONAS SALK:
"Matter at each level of complexity appears to consist of two interdependent, nonidentical elements in dynamic interaction and in integral relation to each other. It appears that an interacting, dynamic, asymmetrical binary relationship is the fundamental module of order in the cosmos. I have the impression that the interactions in these dynmamic asymmetrical binary systems underlie all phenomena in nature...The most fundamental phenomena in the universe is relationship. It then becomes possible to recognize the underlying unity in all the diversity of the phenomena of life."