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Sparing vs Sharing: The Great Debate Over How to Protect Nature
Sparing vs Sharing: The Great Debate Over How to Protect Nature What is the best way to save nature – to cordon off areas for parks and open space or to integrate conservation measures on working lands? Recent research makes a case for each of these approaches and has reignited a long-standing debate among scientists […]
Rush to Mine Electric Vehicle Battery Elements Threatens People and Ecosystems
Rush to Mine Electric Vehicle Battery Elements Threatens People and Ecosystems A creuseur, or digger, climbs through a copper and cobalt mine in Kawama, Democratic Republic of Congo, on June 8, 2016.MICHAEL ROBINSON CHAVEZ / THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES / TRUTHOUT Much of the excitement over the Inflation Reduction Act, which became law […]
Planetary Gas Chamber not “Climate Change”
Planetary Gas Chamber not “Climate Change” We have been aware that burning fossil fuels would alter, destabilise and warm the atmosphere since at least 1847 and the narrative has been controlled since shortly thereafter. Had we described the phenomenon as creating what it is, a “Planetary Gas Chamber” for most, if not all complex life on the […]
Living bioregionally, now
Living bioregionally, now Given the climate and other environmental stresses being experienced by ecosystems all over the world, a major rethink is taking place regarding alternative forms of governance, more adept at both preventing and mitigating these crises. One compelling idea being put forward is that of bioregional forms of governance, which start from the […]
Population explosion to destroy 11% of remaining ecosystems and biodiversity
Population explosion to destroy 11% of remaining ecosystems and biodiversity Preface. According to a recent paper in Nature Sustainability (Williams et al 2020), we are on the verge of destroying 11% of earth’s remaining ecosystems by 2050 to grow more food. We already are using 75% of Earth’s land. What a species! Reminds me of the […]
Reindigenizing the Anthropocene
Reindigenizing the Anthropocene This essay is a response to “Redefining the Anthropocene,” by Erik Molvar, which was published on Counterpunch on May 13, 2021. I recommend that it be read first. First let me first stress that I am not calling out Molvar personally or even specifically here. As a staunch opponent of livestock grazing […]
‘A Garage Sale for the Last Old Growth’
‘A Garage Sale for the Last Old Growth’ As BC’s watchdog slams the province’s own logging agency for wrecking ecosystems, advocates demand action. A special report. Brenda Sayers on the stump of one of BC’s once-largest Douglas firs, felled as part of a BC Timber Sales-auctioned clearcut. The tree was three metres in diameter and […]
Transforming life on our home planet, perennially
Transforming life on our home planet, perennially Ed. note: This piece is the first contribution in the new book The Perennial Turn: Contemporary Essays from the Field, ed. by Bill Vitek and published as a free ebook by New Perennials Publishing. For those who are willing to face the multiple, cascading crises that humans have created, […]
Dear David Attenborough, beautiful Netflix documentary. But your ‘solutions’ destroy nature even more
Dear David Attenborough, beautiful Netflix documentary. But your ‘solutions’ destroy nature even more Dear Sir David Attenborough, I recently saw your new film, A Life on Our Planet – a beautiful, harrowing documentary about the global decline of our natural ecosystems. It’s a bitter pill with a sweet dessert: a possible way out of this mess. I […]
The Coming Financial Crisis of 2021
The Coming Financial Crisis of 2021 Economist Steve Keen issues new warning Economist Steve Keen predicts that even if the covid-19 health crisis subsides next year, a brewing financial crisis on par with the 2008 Great Recession is in the making. He sees the pandemic as having delivered an “unprecedented shock” to the global economy, […]
Scientists’ warning to humanity on insect extinctions
Scientists’ warning to humanity on insect extinctions Preface. Below are excerpts from Cardoso, P., et al. 2020. Scientists’ warning to humanity on insect extinctions. Biological Conservation. *** Highlights: We are pushing many ecosystems beyond recovery, resulting in insect extinctions. Causes are habitat loss, pollution, invasives, climate change, and over exploitation. We lose biomass, diversity, unique histories, functions, […]
How Low Flows Due to Irrigation are Destroying Oregon’s Deschutes River
How Low Flows Due to Irrigation are Destroying Oregon’s Deschutes River The majority of water removed from the Deschutes is used to grow irrigated pasture and hay for livestock not crops consumed directly by humans. Photo by George Wuerthner The recent article “Low Flows On Deschutes” highlights why irrigation is a significant threat to our […]
Nurturing vital diversity & resilience: Scaling out, rather than scaling-up!
Nurturing vital diversity & resilience: Scaling out, rather than scaling-up! There is an unfortunate knee-jerk response programmed into many people in leadership positions to want to ask: “How do we scale it up?” every time they hear a seemingly good idea. To a larger or lesser extent, many of the people who have this response have contracted […]
