The Biosphere & Our Impact On Future Generations, Other Species, & Ecosystems

Moraine Lake, Banff National Park

It is time to care for our Sacred Earth  Mother.

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The Biosphere & Our Impact On Future Generations, 

Other Species, & Ecosystems

 by Navneet Gupta

Part of the Problem (Barriers to some of the solutions outlined below):1. Apathy 2. Ignorance 3. People who get paid to look the other way 4. The current paradigm based on short-term profits, politics, and power over the long-term health of people and the planet 5. Institutions will try and preserve the problem for which they are the solution – Shirky 6. Corporate owned mass media 7. A dysfunctional education system 8. Not enough people helping to bring truth to power (Little dissent, while conformity is the norm) 9. Abject poverty forces people to have more children to support the family. There standard of living needs to be brought up to a reasonable level. This is often referred to as the 'demographic transition'. The west through its demographic transition during its industrial revolution – A bad example for the rest of the world. Just simply can't afford to spread our unsustainable model around the world like a cancer 10. Our natural environment is just not considered when making decisions. Instead they are viewed as externalities. Short-term profits and political expediency remain the driving forces. 11. Global problems require global solidarity and solutions since air and water transcend political boundaries (Often referred to as the tragedy of the commons)

Political Structure:  Politicians make decisions based on the next election (short-sighted), while  following the lead of the private sector which makes decisions based on the next  economic quarter (even shorter).  Many worked for industry before they came to  power, or as lobbyist afterwards.... 

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I think the American people should see that the corporations abandoned them  long ago. “That people will have to build their own economies and rebuild  democracy as a living democracy. The corporations belong to no land, no country,  no people. They have no loyalty to anything apart from… their profits. And the  profits today are on an unimaginable scale; it has become illegitimate, criminal  profit –profits extracted at the cost of life.” – Vandana Shiva

Additional Consequences: According to the UN Environment Programme, the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the "natural" or "background" rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago. We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. If current levels [of destruction] go on we will reach a tipping point...

We are spreading our unsustainable way of life all over the planet like a cancer. The "Cumulative" Effect Over Time (not just climate change) Species Extinction (i.e. bees, frogs, coral reef, critical algae ..), Drought, Forest Fires, Desertification, Soil Erosion, Loss of Habitat, The Poisoning of Lakes, Rivers & Groundwater, Deforestation, Urban Sprawl, Mass Waste, Pollution (Air Quality, Water Quality, Contaminated Land), Dead Zones, Food & Water Shortages, Future Wars over Water (Not Just Oil), Environmental Refugees, Eutrophication, Flooding, Ocean Acidification and Death, Oil spills, Loss of Land, A Decline in Human Health, Unsustainable Development, Over Fishing, The Loss in Green Space in General, Extreme Weather Events i.e. Hurricanes, & Heat waves, Industrial ‘Accidents’ (Crimes i.e. Bhopal, Exxon, BP, The Tar Sands, Chevron, Imperial Oil, Shell, Chernobyl, Monsanto, Enbridge, Keystone, Northern Gateway, Arctic Drilling, Mining, Resource Extraction, Most Industrial processes, &on & on). The result, Social, Economic, & Ecological Decay for Present & Future Generations…

Other Potential Solutions:  We require a complete rethink of our notion of progress, materialism, & unsustainable economic growth at the cost of everything else. A shift in this unsustainable paradigm would help future generations meet their needs. Need to prioritize the long-term health of people and the planet over the short-term interests of profits, politics, and power. (i.e. a descent life for future generations, social, economic, and ecological).

For the full article, please go here:  The Biosphere & Our Impact On Future Generations, Other Species, & Ecosystems (Problem & Potential Solutions: Please Share)

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“...the care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope.” 

― Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays