Georgie Blaeser rscj

Since this subject is so vast that it allows of many different approaches, I just want to look at the big picture. The Earth provides us with many supports for all living creatures.

Earth’s Living Systems

1. Purification of air and water
2. mitigation of floods and droughts
3. detoxification and decomposition of waste
4. generation and renewal of soil
5. pollination of crops and natural vegetation
6. control of the vast majority of potential agricultural pests
7. dispersal of seeds and translocation of nutrients
8. maintenance of biodiversity
9. protection from the sun’s harmful ultra-violet rays
10. partial stabilization of the earth’s climate
11. moderation of temperature extremes
12. support of diverse human cultures
13. the provision of aesthetic beauty and intellectual stimulation that lift the human spirit
14. management of sea water salinity
15. control of atmospheric carbon.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report concludes…

Earth’s services in peril

The innumerable benefits provided by the Earth - everything from fresh water and clean air to productive soils, wild fisheries, and genetic resources - have been depleted at an unprecedented rate in the past 50 years, and in many cases humans are living on borrowed time unless they wake up, a group of scientific experts said today.

“Everyone in the world depends on nature and ecosystem services to provide the conditions for a decent, healthy and secure life.”

• Humans depend for their existence far more than they realize on the intricate web of physical and biological systems provided by the Earth - the food and fresh water we need to survive, wood for shelter, and fresh air to breathe.
• More changes have been made to the Earth’s ecosystems in recent decades than at any other time in human history - since 1945, more forests, savannah and grasslands have been converted to agriculture than in the previous two centuries.
• Some of the most critical ecosystem functions are poorly understood or appreciated - the contribution of forests to air quality, wetlands for water filtration and flood control, the health of soils as the basis for our food supply.
• The demand for water by people and industry has doubled since 1960. Underground aquifers are drying up, and sometimes the flow of once-mighty rivers such as the Nile in Africa or Colorado in North America is drained so severely that the river never reaches the sea.
• The speed of global warming is greater than anything seen for at least 10,000 years, making it more difficult for many species to survive and adapt to new conditions.
• About 12 percent of birds, 25 percent of mammals and at least 32 percent of amphibians are threatened with extinction over the next century.
• Increases in food production have kept pace with population growth, but often at the expense of other ecosystem services that form the foundation for more food - depleted soils, over-fished oceans, polluted waters.
• Abrupt changes and “tipping points” may soon be reached in many ecosystems, resulting in catastrophic climatic or biological changes over a very short time with little warning.
• Poverty and degradation of nature may turn into a downward spiral, in which poor communities have fewer options to conserve natural resources, the abuse of land increases and even greater poverty results.
• The impact of ecosystem disruption often falls first and most heavily on the poor, while wealthier economies can afford some engineered solutions that at least temporarily forestall the crisis.
• The study said that three key changes must take place before major change is realistic.
• People must first understand that the services provided by nature are not free and limitless. Local communities must have real influence in how conservation decisions are made, and end up with a fair share of the benefits.
• Better understanding the real economic value of natural systems, and the bottom-line cost of losing them, will help.
• Businesses must also learn that their long-term corporate survival may depend on protection of ecosystems.

The graphic presentation of our Ecological Footprints gives us a visual picture of the crisis that we face.

The Ecological Footprint is a resource management tool that measures how much land and water area a human population requires to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb its wastes under prevailing technology.

In order to live, we consume what nature offers. Every action impacts the planet's ecosystems. This is of little concern as long as human use of resources does not exceed what the Earth can renew.

This graph shows the components of the world's average per person Ecological Footprint.

This graph tracks, in absolute terms, the world's average per person Ecological Footprint and per person biocapacity over a 40-year period.

 The ratio between the world's demand and the world's biocapacity in each year, and how this ratio has changed over time. Expressed in terms of "number of planets," the biocapacity of the Earth is always 1 (represented by the horizontal blue line). This graph shows how humanity has moved from using, in net terms, about half the planet's biocapacity in 1961 to over 1.2 times the biocapacity of the Earth in 2002. The global ecological deficit of 0.2 Earths is equal to the globe's ecological overshoot.

Ken Wilber’s Four Quadrants  -  Evolutionary Curve

Albert Einstein claimed that problems are not solved at the level at which they are created. So how do we face the challenge that lies before us? In my recent reading I have come across Ken Wilber’s Four Quadrants (see above chart) which gives an interesting analysis of the path of evolution and allows us to search for a way forward. He says….

“Spirit manifests always and simultaneously as the four quadrants of the Kosmos. Spirit (at any level) manifests as a self in a community with social and cultural foundations and objective correlates, and thus any higher Self will inextricably involve a wider community existing in a deeper objective state of affairs”.

N. B.  The “Kosmos” contains the cosmos (or physiosphere), the bios (or biosphere), nous (the noosphere), and theos (the theosphere or divine domain).

                                    Rita Carroll rscj
province of Australia – New Zealand