2015 Review: We are the Asteroid

Posted on January 1, 2016 by GarryRogers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPq9YAg9mfc

GR: Clear explanation of our impact on the Earth’s wildlife.

Extinction is forever

Posted on December 30, 2015 by GarryRogers

“Humanity is continuing to drive species into extinction at a terrifying rate, writes Robert J. Burrowes – not just nameless beetles and midges, but mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and trees. The biggest causes are habitat destruction, pollution and hunting … and unless we stop soon, we too will be among the victims of our ecocidal attack on Earth.” From: www.theecologist.org

Demonstrate for an End to Global Warming

Posted on November 29, 2015 by GarryRogers

Climate-change demonstrations show our leaders that we want them to take steps to stop global warming. We must also ask our leaders to change the human activities that are causing climate change.

We want them to block corporate control over our government and the decisions it makes.
We want them to end international sales of weapons and begin to encourage peace and a focus on life style and resource use.
We want them to discourage unsustainable resource harvests.
We want them to encourage human rights and equality.
We want them to speak out for wild animals and natural ecosystems.
We want them to call for restoring the damaged lands and seas.
And finally, we want them to oppose gender inequality and overpopulation.

Even if we stopped burning fossil fuels today, activities causing climate change would continue. Farming, deforestation, industrial fishing, desertification, construction, and growth of the human population would continue to waste the Earth and release CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

In Brazil, Deforestation Is Up, And So Is The Risk Of Tree Extinction

Posted on November 27, 2015 by GarryRogers

“The rate of deforestation in Brazil has increased by 16 percent over the past year, the country’s Environment Ministry announced.

“Brazil has often declared progress in reducing the rate of deforestation in the Amazon, but the government’s own figures, released Thursday, show the challenges still facing the country.

“Satellite imagery showed that 2,251 square miles were destroyed in Brazil’s Amazon from August 2014 to July 2015, compared with 1,935 square miles destroyed in the same period a year earlier.” From: www.npr.org

GR: More articles on deforestation in Brazil are listed below the “like” button.

Scientists say deforestation may threaten a staggering half of Amazon tree species with extinction

Posted on November 20, 2015 by GarryRogers

“Tropical tree species could be in much bigger trouble than scientists had thought: A new study, which involved collaboration from dozens of researchers, suggests that at least 36 percent and up to 57 percent of all Amazon tree species are likely at risk of extinction, depending on future deforestation rates. If true, this information would raise the number of threatened plant species on Earth by about 22 percent.

“The research, which was published Friday in the journal Science Advances, combined spatial distribution models of the Amazon with both historical and projected data on deforestation to determine the conservation status of more than 15,000 Amazonian tree species, about two-thirds of which the authors considered rare species. The researchers used listing criteria from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which maintains a “red list” of threatened species on Earth, to decide which species should be considered in danger of extinction.” From: www.washingtonpost.com

GR: With the expected growth of our population and demand for meat and other products from forest soils, the threatened extinctions discussed in this article seem virtually inevitable.

Human Population Answers

Posted on October 19, 2015 by GarryRogers

Earth’s Human Population Problem

Click the book to read online.

I learned about human population as mathematical relationships between migration, birth rates, and death rates. As I started my academic career, I continued to use the numbers, the formulas and projections to discuss population. My students learned about population growth, but the numbers didn’t create much excitement. [Click here for current numbers.]

In the years since I began lecturing about population, injuries to Earth’s ecosystems have spread around the planet. We no longer need math to see what will come; it’s visible everywhere. This book, “Over,” illustrates the human impact on nature with a set of magnificent photographs. In sequence, the photographs first show how we are damaging the planet and then they show the beauty that can be ours if we want to fight for it.

The beautifully written essays that accompany the photos discuss the consequences of feeding the 10 billion or more people the United Nations projects will be alive by this century’s end. The authors explain that producing enough food will require conversion of the Earth into a factory farm for humans.

The writers point out that reducing our birth rate will not require any form of coercion. Evidence from developed countries clearly shows that with education and access to birth control, women freely choose to have fewer children.

The chart below shows that the most recent world population projections by the United Nations sets the probable number of people alive in 2100 (the solid red median line) at 11.3 billion. The needs of that many people will crush the life out of the Earth.

The writers do not attempt to describe the future that someone born this year (2015) will face when the year 2100 arrives. Will that elderly person be living on a food-factory planet still dominated by the growth objectives of corporations and countries, or will they be living in a beautiful world they helped save? Will they be unsure of the future? If the Earth has become a human food factory by 2100, will population and artificial food sources continue to rise, or will businesses find new ways to grow and profit from a static supply of workers and consumers?

Answers: Responding to the Population Problem

Click this link to follow the population and immigration news.

For the past 50 years, our leaders have done almost nothing to slow population growth. There have been a few national programs (see the review in Wikipedia), but certainly no real successes. Looking at the photos in the book, the inaction seems irresponsible, an incredible failure. It will take the utmost pressure from all of us to make our governments form strategies to reduce population. I don’t know what we can do about the universal growth imperative of our businesses, but that is a key problem that we must solve. For a first step, I hope you will go to the Global Population Speak Out website and choose one of the ways to help communicate the seriousness of the population problem. You might also wish to check on the population control programs by the Center for Biological Diversity.

Description:

Title: Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot
Authors: Tom Butler, Musimbi Kanyoro, William N. Ryerson, Eileen Crist
Hardcover: 330 pages
Publisher: Goff Books (February 17, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1939621238

Grieving over Growth. Gary Gripp: To a Future Generation

Posted on October 14, 2015 by GarryRogers

BY GARY GRIPP, to a future generation:

“Everything central to our way of life is in the growth mode: the banks, the corporations, all our extractive and service industries, and, not least of all, our population. More people means: more willing buyers of homes, cars, electronic gadgets, and all the trappings of modern life. More jobs, more prosperity, more everything.

“More, more, more. It is in the interest of banks and corporations, as well as businesses large and small, that the market for products continues to grow. More, more, more. Grow, grow, grow.

“On a finite planet with degraded natural systems and diminishing natural resources, this growth imperative, built-in to our systems and into our lives, is an irresistible force coming up against an immovable object. It is us hitting a wall, and doing so at speed. More and more people in my time now see this crash coming.” blog.edsuom.com

GR: Hey grandkids, we just couldn’t help ourselves. (We really couldn’t. To see what it would take for humans to survive on Earth, read Corr Syl the Warrior.)

Nature News Digests

Posted on October 10, 2015 by GarryRogers

Nature News Digests:

World Animal Day Was October 4 | Here are Six Ways to Keep Supporting Animals

Posted on October 5, 2015 by GarryRogers

#Animals, #Extinction

Wishing to increase awareness of endangered species, concerned ecologists declared World Animal Day in 1931. A catastrophic world-wide extinction has taken place since then.