The narrative of the modern industrialized economy being a success is a lie of unimaginable proportion. Nature has historically produced 75% of all global GDP (gross domestic product) for free, no longer. If nature dies, we die. Modern society is now consuming itself to keep the facade of "progress" going until the last minute. As the last sand drains from the hourglass, global climate engineering is diminishing what chance there may yet be to salvage any part of Earth's life support systems. The false paradigm of perpetual expansion on a finite planet with finite resources is disintegrating by the day. Any chance we have left at this point rests on exposing and stopping the climate engineering insanity before there is nothing left to save. The article below is an excellent portrayal of what is unfolding with a few important exceptions. The omission of the geoengineering factor (which many authors and publishers are still afraid to face or admit to)., And the mention of carbon credit taxes which are a scam and just another part of the problem. This being said, the article covers many important facts and is well worth the time to read.Make your voice heard in this battle today, tomorrow may be too late.
Dane Wigington
geoengineeringwatch.org
Biosphere Collapse: The Biggest Economic Bubble Ever
Source: Eco Internet, article by Dr. Glen Barry
The global environment collapses as in the pursuit of short-term growth, humanity overruns natural ecosystems including the atmosphere that make Earth habitable. Together we urgently address inequity, climate change, overpopulation and natural ecosystem loss or alone we each face the horrors of economic, social, and ecological collapse.
“Horrendous inequity whereby a few hundred people possess half of Earth’s wealth as more than one billion live on less than $1.50/day is evil incarnate and will kill us all… The human family will only avert biosphere collapse if we choose to live more simply, share more with others, go back to the land, have fewer kids, protect and restore ecosystems, grow more of our own food, end fossil fuels, and embrace social justice and love.” – Dr. Glen Barry
Newspapers are full of disastrous warnings if economic growth does not return to Greece, or if it drops a couple points in China. Rarely in human history have so many been so fundamentally wrong about a matter of such importance as the desirability, and even the possibility, of perpetual economic growth.
The real threat to human well-being is not that there is too little economic growth. Rather, it is that there is too much, and that we have overshot how much growth can occur without collapsing our shared environment.
The industrial growth economy is ravaging natural ecosystems. Stocks of natural capital – including water, soil, old-growth forests, wild fish, etc. – are being pillaged to artificially inflate short-term economic growth numbers.
Modern industrial capitalism’s narrow focus upon GDP growth as a measure of a society’s well-being utterly fails to account for the very real and detrimental costs of liquidating Earth’s natural life-support systems.
Infinite growth on a finite planet is a recipe for disaster. Nothing grows forever and trying inevitably rips apart any system seeking to do so.
Continued ravaging of Earth’s natural ecosystems for short-term growth is the biggest economic bubble ever. Such a short-term, myopic focus upon economic growth can only end in social and ecological collapse.
The Problem
The global ecological system is collapsing and dying. The biosphere – our one shared environment that makes Earth habitable – is having its constituent ecosystems liquidated for resources. Inequitable overconsumption has achieved such momentum that key ecological planetary boundaries have been surpassed, raising the very real possibility of humanity pulling down the biosphere as we collapse.
Far more is at stake than abrupt climate change as natural ecosystem loss, ocean dead zones, freshwater scarcity, soil erosion, nitrogen deposition and many other aspects of ecological decline merge and worsen the others.
This sudden surge of human impact upon the naturally evolved biosphere – as human numbers went from one to seven billion in just over a century – can fairly be characterized as willful ecocide.
Yet this relentless industrial growth continues to be falsely equated with progress. Many are unlikely to respond to warnings of imminent doom from specialists until they are much more uncomfortable and unhappy than they are now. By then it will be too late.
Progress to avoid global biosphere collapse has been impeded by numerous other maladies that plague the human condition including inequity, permawar, disease, abject poverty, and authoritarianism. Horrendous inequity whereby a few hundred people possess half of Earth’s wealth as more than one billion live on less than $1.50/day is evil incarnate and will kill us all.
The Vision
Exponential economic growth on a finite Earth can only end in collapse. Humanity must embrace a steady state economy – whereby the increment of natural capital harvested is replenished annually – or being ends.
The human family will only avert biosphere collapse if we choose to live more simply, share more with others, go back to the land, have fewer kids, protect and restore ecosystems, grow more of our own food, end fossil fuels, and embrace social justice and love.
Large and connected natural ecosystems must remain the context for human society. Human settlements must exist within the limits of their bioregions, linking human being with local ecological constraints.
Those that are smarter and work harder will still have more, but not grotesquely so. Basic needs of all of humanity, natural ecosystems, and kindred species will be met. The challenge of our time is to quickly embrace these necessities while remaining free, and extending the benefits of an economically secure and free existence to all of Earth’s inhabitants.
Failure in efforts to promote smaller families, end fossil fuels, and to restore natural ecosystems will mean worsening widespread ecological havoc, mass death and the bad sort of anarchy, before humanity and Earth drop into nothingness.
The Transition
A better life than endless consumption of toxic crap that kills ourselves and others is possible. It requires returning to the life-giving envelope of natural ecosystems and valuing experience over stuff. Much is already known regarding proven techniques to live and work more sustainably, educate yourself and start transitioning your family to live more lightly upon Earth.
We each must seek to go back to the land. More of our subsistence will have to come from what we can produce from the land and soil and sun and hard labor. The future of work lies in permaculture, regenerative enterprises, and creative self-expression that nurture learning and human evolution.
The Jeffersonian vision of agrarian democracy requires living full healthy lives upon the land, from the fruit of our own hands and minds, while rejecting authoritarianism and its pernicious hate, bigotry, and scapegoating. We must join with others in our community to re-localize our existences, as we fully embrace the global family.
For capitalism to have any future as we mobilize to avoid biosphere collapse, a global carbon tax that seeks to rapidly phase out fossil fuels, and de-industrialization of all activities that negatively impact the biosphere, will prove essential. Otherwise industrial capitalism will have to swiftly be replaced at any cost.
In America and the world we are already witnessing the rise of authoritarian demagoguery in response to rising scarcity. The charlatan nature of such political thought must be outed as we commit to green liberty and transitioning to socially just ecological sustainability. Together let’s make it so.
Source: Eco Internet, article by Dr. Glen Barry
19 Responses
The Green Revolution was in fact in large part responsible for creating greater longevity and increasing numbers of people in the developing nations that were being helped, by increasing the food supply through petrochemical means, vaccinating them against infectious diseases and allowing them to live longer lives, but it wasn't enough to change reproductive habits because that requires a change in cultural values that would include raising the status of women to allow gender parity. Uneducated and powerless women = "over" population, completely undoing the "good" that the Green Revolution intended. Just more unintended consequences. SOMEthing much too prevalent here on Earth STILL would like to see all of us wimmin remain "barefoot and pregnant–" to me, that's just REALLY sick and we need to work very very hard to re-educate our sons and raise them in a better way than THAT tired old schtick– not sure about that? Look where it's gotten us…
How come it is only the INDIGENOUS peoples on Earth who actually think ahead for "seven generations," and still, nearly everyone else is selfish, lazy and somehow still so very arrogant about staying at the top of the food chain??
I agree with what most of you have said and want to throw out a source of a book written called Natural Capitalism. It was written by Amory and Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken. It examines the current form of capitalism and its flaws and recommends a new form that takes into account the natural resources we are quickly consuming at a rapid rate. I encourage you to read it.
"The White Man needs to dream a new dream."
So say Native Americans.
Hopefully, that's going to prove to be a far less-destructive, and much greater healing dream, than the nightmare we ARE living in right now.
The Vision –
And yet I ask – what are we doing in our own lives right NOW, TODAY that can make a difference in this scenario? Revolutions are formed out of you and me, and how many are sitting around waiting for the next guy in line to resolve all of this?
Drop out of what yields death, and drop in to what gives life. Today – right this very minute: Take a baseball bat to your TV.
FILM: Consumed: Is our Consumer Culture Leading to Disaster?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOKl04TWVsU
Orders of magnitude, unquote. Will (or can) action occur on a scale large enough to put a stop to (or wratchet down) all anthropogenic forms of devastation?
Right here is where it really falls apart: >
"For capitalism to have any future as we mobilize to avoid biosphere collapse, a global carbon tax that seeks to rapidly phase out fossil fuels, and de-industrialization of all activities that negatively impact the biosphere, will prove essential. Otherwise industrial capitalism will have to swiftly be replaced at any cost."
Capitalism is a sort of economic syphilis that has slowly rotted the collective brain, and a carbon tax is about as functional as rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
The situation requires massive de-industrialization for sure. > The End of all military objectives. The End of idiocies like NASA, and related activities. The End of ALL non-essential air travel. The End of land and sea materials transport. The End of all factory farming methods. The END of wasting massive amounts of energy for entertainment purposes.
Man can either make these tough choices, or Nature will trump those we are too stupid to make…
Hello Paul, yes, I agree with you on your points.
Me Too!
Very good observation Paul! Thanks!I thought the same ! i totally agree with you !
Other amazing thing is how we passed from 1 billion to seven billion of people in such a short period of time (in over a century) ,this is the kind of thing a homo-dumbiest would do but not a real homo-sapiens .
But in Portugal (and other countries in Europe)we still hear our politicians saying how the Europe is getting old and how we need new policies to grow the natality/birth numbers ,but our governments are just doing the opposite they say cause they are just drawing /removing the policies to support birth or to raise children .It´s just talk ,they know that immigrants will be forced to leave their countries and bring their children with these (profitable to some) wars in their countries and we are all just numbers to them and total misery seems to be their goal ,miserable salaries that Chanceler Merkl from germany calls being competitive (maybe with China workers ? or what she means?impossible to be competitive with people that live with $1,50/day or people living with €90 cents/hour from vietname coming to work in agriculture in Portugal in terrible conditions)!But not even the modern slavery will save world leaders` fantasy world with infinite resources and economic growth …
i think that these elections campaign speech now about policies encouraging birth (in south of Europe/greece when the problem is young people leaving the countries to work abroad)is just one more contradiction of the misleading official discourse but they say that they need more young people working to pay the pensions of people retired.If we are too many already for the remaining natural resources what sense does it make ?And where are the jobs for the young people? or is this the same kind of logic(lie) they instill in as the need of a infinite economic growth speech all the time when everything is coming to an end ,when our "Global pantry" is getting empty…Lies after lies ,contradictions after contradictions that people seem to not be able to see :
Economic growth and encouraging birth policies (to keep things working such as new jobs ,more trading ,social security and pensions etc.) is the opposite need of a collapsing biosphere ,melting Artic ,scarcity of natural resources and specially of fresh drinkable water (Meanwhile they keep wasting water and contaminating it on drilling/fracking /in nuclear waste ) ,overpopulated world and rising etc …Does this people in Power makes any sense so how people take them so seriously ? Some come to TV saying the world is overpopulated while others talk about the need of more younger populations and new jobs to keep things going or to keep things "working" in the world… till it burst/collapse(?) ,and we all know that all this demagogic speech /lies /contradictions from those in Power are just to keep us busy and to keep things functioning for a short period of time just like they are doing with geoengineering and we can see the same lies, contradictions and absolut denial surrounding this geoengineering issue /discussion.Sorry for the long comment!
Very well said and all true! You left out the TRILLIONS spent on black projects that have absolutely no over sight and that our government has zero control of.
Regards,Larwence
Thanks to all for your support. That means allot to me. There are few web sites in this world that would even be willing to post my "over the top" suggestions.
To sweet Ana's comment about homo-sapiens:
New term:
Humannequins: "Human beings posing as inanimate objects."
– Paul Vonharnish –
On the one hand this fellow says the biosphere is dying, while on the other he implores us (society/mankind etc.) to get back to the land, etc. Really? Contradiction? There is so much armchair visionary fluff in this article, I don't know where to start. I get the feeling this guy doesn't get out much. Nonetheless, there were some key observations, but I agree with Michel B in that the utterly total omission of the devastation geoengineering has brought about within the biosphere renders the entire article impotent. We all understand the concept of "unsustainable economic growth" upon which the entire essay is based. But why, one MUST ask, does Mr. Barry not know about the proverbial "elephant in the room"? Or if he does know, how can he possibly manufacture such essays for public consumption without weaving into his discussion what is arguably the most critical issue of our time? Or does he know but can't (or won't) talk about it?
In any event, the bottom line, I suppose, is that such essays do contribute in their own way to a broader understanding of what society faces as we careen down the slope toward the cliff.
It’s as if the more dire the situation becomes, The more control "they" want. I feel like those in power want something similar to this way of life for humannity(benefit of the doubt maybe), but again to have total control over the whole thing, and any part of the transition be on their terms. If we can complete the momumental task of getting people aware of geoengineering and what it means for them, Hopefully people will realize (inthis lifetime?) that it takes every individual to reconnect with earth in this way, not to rely on the government(or anything else) to "handle" climate change and supplying of food and energy ect. (nearly impossible to break from for me atm) to the majority, giving away their power in the process. I really hope taking on geoengineering is the start of a paradigm shift that many poeple have been waiting to be a part of. Its just near impossible to get people to realize that its not normal for the whole sky to be a haze untill mid day for three days straight, really makes it difficult to point out… And a friend and I were talking, and wondering why/how not more people, in this town or not, that have solar panels that havent noticed much less intake and looked at the sky the obvious gap between the panels and the sun? Is it not noticable simply because they dont know of the possibility? Its just something one would expect someone that uses panels often to know or be curious of (hopefully they have suspicions but just need confirmation)
I thought it was odd when I first heard the rothschilds took a controlling stake in the weather channel. Now it doesn't seem so odd.
Dane, take a listen to bob Dylan's album "time out of mind." There have to be about 30 references to what could be construed as climate engineering on the album. "The air is getting hotter / there's a rumbling in the skies." Bob the soothsayer.
I think they are smartdusting every last acre of value they want and are analyzing it to the hilt. Smartdust? Google it. Gizmag had a very technical article on it if you find it that's worth a read. Something about graphene and laser activated smartdust swarms.
I qualify as a layman on this subject so far but it seems like they are conducting geospatial imagery mapping with biological indicators and then they are running all sorts of mind control programs to keep people subjugated. The fbi is flying one of their secret surveillance planes over my city, buffalo, frequently and I can place a good bet they are recording the signatures of everything under their realm…and guess who also probably looks at the data…whoever is running all the geoengineering mind control projects. The fbi has been running these planes a couple days a week and the chemtrailing has been absolutely undeniable lately.
I’m having some success informing people of the issue because it's so blatant but then again I seriously believe there mind control is keeping people completely oblivious. Snafu. Normalcy bias. Who knows.
Good luck to all of you, all of us.
This psychotic gameplan has been in the works for many decades. Absolutely none of it was by chance – it was all quite planned including the 2008 crash and 911. They want to take this country down, to provoke hysteria, to use weapons to eliminate LIFE, and to start over in their new, highly radioactive twisted paradise. It's a sick and disgusting conspiracy of the highest order and none of us will survive it, them included.
It's not the people – the numbers of us. It's what we are doing. The saddest thing of all is knowing we could truly turn this all around if they would only include us, rally us to do the right thing and work with us to make that happen.
So awful knowing this loss of humanity didn't have to be.
Hello Nicole, yes, the power structure is the core of the problem, but the amount of people on the planet is adding to the problem, this is a mathmatical fact. In just over 100 years we have gone from 1 billion to 7.4 billion. This being said, the power elite should be held accountable for the paradigm which they have done everything to create and which is leading to the demise of all life if we do not change direction.
Words matter! Thoughts are unspoken words and words have the impact of dynamite on the human soul. We are taken captive by our words. When we say “I can’t do it”, at that instant we are defeated. When we say, “it’s hopeless”, doubt and despair rise up. When we begin to feel powerless, we become powerless. Whether for good or bad there is power in the words we speak. We are that which is within our heart. Our words not only define us, they have power that changes circumstances. Do not give up, do not compromise life, it is the gift of a loving creator. The end is clear only if we give up… but faith continues to paint a canvas only the determined will see in its finished form.
Natures bounty is the true capital. The key to sustainability is to live off the interest and never touch the capital.
This article is very good, but its discussion warrants that there be subsequent articles written to address the omission of Geoengineering from this first article and also to start discussing and disseminating information on alternative technologies to fossil fuels.
This article would have achieved a fuller impact if Geoengineering had been properly mentioned. The advent of Geoengineering programs allows one to grasp the scale of the disaster and the extent of the powerful in seeking their agenda.
Overpopulation is indeed an issue and nowhere more than in the Third World. What else can you expect them to do when there is no security in old age? They have many children so they may be looked after in their old age.
But its not just how many people walk the earth, it's how we live. We have chugged down "100 million years of fossilised sunlight in 150 years". Man has floated in earth's orbit, yet we have not surpassed the dependence on fossil fuels. This is not a technological issue, it is an economic and political issue. 'Built-in redundancy' is a key feature of many enterprises. Making us a perpetual customer is the aim. Everyone can see the merry-go-round of our work lives and while economies slide into meltdown and failure, we don't quite apply ourselves to solving these issues.
At this point there is not one (official) authority that I can think of to trust. We the People have to save ourselves. We have to use our big brains and really solve these issues. Man is adept at solving problems, but in this case the solutions are mostly already out there. It is the removal of the social, historical, economic and political blocks to implementing them that we must achieve.
But the maintenance and increase of inequity is the aim of the rich. The super rich are the Rothschilds and their direct minions. I believe they are mostly to blame for the current malaise. But everyone else must also take responsibility for not challenging this current paradigm. Which means we must look and act to change it.