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Nature_and_Environment.114
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{Nature_and_Environment.114.1}: Glen Marks {wotan} Tue, 26 Nov 2019 10:00:11 CST (2 lines)

"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/26/782586224/greenhouse-gas-emissions-
are-still-rising-u-n-report-says"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.2}: Glen Marks {wotan} Tue, 26 Nov 2019 10:00:46 CST (2 lines)

"http://newcafe.org/motet/bin/motet.cgi?show+-uPlGEO+-
ilad+Science+281+-25-"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.3}: Glen Marks {wotan} Tue, 26 Nov 2019 19:36:58 CST (2 lines)

"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-climate-procrastination-has-
put-the-planet-in-peril"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.4}: Glen Marks {wotan} Wed, 11 Dec 2019 10:28:34 CST (1 line)

"https://phys.org/news/2019-12-greenland-ice-losses-faster.html"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.5}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Thu, 12 Dec 2019 17:04:46 CST (118 lines)

Over thirty years ago I fell in love with the natural world and used
my passing intellectual ability to construct an understanding of the
on-going human relationship with it. What I discovered was that unlike
other species, homo sapiens had no fixed niche. (A niche is a given
energetic space and defined relationship with the rest of life in a
given ecosystem.)

Through its expanding technology and accumulative cleverness the
species increases its ability to amass a greater percentage of the
energy of a given ecosystem. Other species have a marginal ability to
either genetically introduce innovation or sporadically develop
limited tools. But this develops over a period of time in which the
rest of life in ecosystems tends to mutually adapt.

The phrase I used to describe this process was Progressive Technos.
The human species is a tribal animal armed with Progressive Technos.

Why did I find this of the utmost significance?

Because as a tribal animal living in the here and now, the various
tribes and the species as a whole will almost always use its
accumulated understanding and tools (Progressive Technos) in the
interest of expanding its power and influence. In competition with
other tribes, those that do not seize upon power will tend to die off.
(And yes, the tool kit for war making is but one aspect of Progressive
Technos.)

Progressive Technos allows niche invasion which means that more and
more of the energy of life in a given ecosystem is given over to human
expansion. The space for the other forms of life contracts and this
brings forth an exponential increase in human numbers, the modern day
mass extinction crisis, the radical heating of the planet (global
warming) threatening all macroscopic life on Earth, and the depletion
of all so-called natural resources that fuels the on-going expansion.

Progressive Technos means Human Tribal Power and it will be held unto
zealously as a way for tribes to survive in the coming breakdown of
civilization. Thus the race to the natural world's extinction crisis
will be exacerbated by the continuation of the human species armed
with Progressive Technos. This includes the expanding means of nuclear
destruction and poisonous chemical products that humans are unleashing
all over the natural world.

A young human child is brought into existence with the genetic
unconscious physical adaptations primed to enter the world. How is it
that it joins with its tribal members in an almost complete state of
unconsciousness as to the collective arc of annihilation its species
is driving toward?

For a few years I struggled to find a solution to the problem. Can
mankind find a way out of its ultimate destruction?

To understand this I had to look at the evolution of the species and
how it radically expanded its numbers and power through Progressive
Technos.

Human tribal power is brought forth by both the genetic and the
socially conditioned power that is necessary for the tribe to survive.
When tribes are facing scarcity or engaged in conflict, powerful
emotions arise priming the individual to connect with others to
overcome difficulty. The language and conceptual tools to convey
instructions to others became a critical component of the species
success and a large brain evolved. With this conceptual ability and
primitive tools the human species expanded its numbers and range. From
the previous deep bonding and nomadic connection to the rest of the
natural world, a human-centered world developed. This became almost
entirely focused on farming, the fortress of the city, the tools of
warfare and extracting more resources from the natural world. The deep
bonding that a young child was to undergo was increasingly human
centered and divorced from experiencing the rest of the natural world.
The conceptual focus upon the natural world was that of a larder for
immediate human consumption though the use of social technique and
physical tools (Progressive Technos). The harm done and the
diminishment of the rest of the natural world did not tend to arise in
awareness in the trance of the human success in expanding its numbers
and power over nature.

Bonding represents our connection to existence. Through my inquiry and
growing love and caring about the natural world I had temporarily
bonded to the rest of the natural world. In the process I had
temporarily broken this human-centered trance.

So breaking the Trance appeared to be the key to solving the dilemma.

I then developed the Seven Earth/Self Principles which are ways that
individuals can bond with the health of the natural world, bond with
the particular ecosystem they live inside of, and bond with the
ecological health of planet Earth. The bonding principles represent
the four basic ways of experiencing the mystery of reality – (1 –
body), (2 – feeling-relation), (3 – story-mind) and (4 – spirit).

In a human-centered world the bonding represents power over the
natural world - not in basic harmony with it. But when the individual
had sufficiently bonded as an Earth/Self entity they were ready to
examine and break the harm of the human-centered Trance. Then they
were primarily moved to be creative symbionts to the health of the
natural world they lived inside of.

But power over the natural world is human power for the tribal
species. Because the Earth/Self Principles do not represent human
tribal power, they will never be seized upon except by a handful of
shamans.

Eventually I became resigned to the inevitable and the last thirty
years have but deepened my understanding of the hellish consequences
of the human savagery on Earth.

In the mean time I discovered that no one was interested in my
understanding (too depressing and not full of hope). So I decided to
shut-up and just to get a job and live within the confines of the on-
going human mess.

As a result, the longer the human realm is destroying the natural
world the more destructive the consequences. The totality of the human
species shows no willingness to abandon its' prime key to success -
Progressive Technos. This suggests that the only hope for the
potential exuberance and resilience of the rest of life on Earth is
the more rapid extinction of the human species.

{Nature_and_Environment.114.6}: Glen Marks {wotan} Thu, 12 Dec 2019 19:17:42 CST (5 lines)

- The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end,
take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are
diminishing our future.

Marya Mannes

{Nature_and_Environment.114.7}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Fri, 13 Dec 2019 18:20:02 CST (3 lines)

The insect apocalypse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CidaOP7PA-o

{Nature_and_Environment.114.8}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Fri, 13 Dec 2019 21:58:06 CST (4 lines)

Dr. William Moomaw - Humanity's Mortality Moment
"https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-
article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biz088/5610806"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl9Z_miGBNw

{Nature_and_Environment.114.9}: Glen Marks {wotan} Sun, 15 Dec 2019 14:56:51 CST (2 lines)

"https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/15/natural-gas-surges-climate-change-
after-carbon-emissions-record-in-2019.html"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.10}: Glen Marks {wotan} Sun, 22 Dec 2019 02:01:24 CST (3 lines)

"https://siouxcityjournal.com/opinion/columnists/commentary-humanity-
is-overwhelming-the-planet/article_e561e65c-885f-5428-9c4f-
71acd18ab504.html"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.11}: Glen Marks {wotan} Sun, 22 Dec 2019 17:15:22 CST (1 line)

"https://www.idsnews.com/article/2019/12/opextinction121119"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.12}: Glen Marks {wotan} Mon, 23 Dec 2019 00:20:20 CST (1 line)

https://redflag.org.au/node/6974

{Nature_and_Environment.114.13}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Tue, 24 Dec 2019 04:37:25 CST (51 lines)

Fifty years ago, an international team of researchers was commissioned
by the Club of Rome to build a computer simulation of exponential
economic and population growth on a finite planet.

In 1971, its findings were first released in Moscow and Rio de
Janeiro, and later published in 1972 under the title The Limits To
Growth. The report concluded:

1.*Given business as usual, i.e., no changes to historical growth
trends, the limits to growth on earth would become evident by 2072,
leading to "sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and
industrial capacity". This includes the following:

-- Global Industrial output per capita reaches a peak around 2008,
followed by a rapid decline
-- Global Food per capita reaches a peak around 2020, followed by a
rapid decline
-- Global Services per capita reaches a peak around 2020, followed by
a rapid decline
-- Global population reaches a peak in 2030, followed by a rapid
decline

2.*Growth trends existing in 1972 could be altered so that
sustainable ecological and economic stability could be achieved.

3.*The sooner the world's people start striving for the second
outcome above, the better the chance of achieving it.

Few reports have generated as much debate, discussion and
disagreement. Though it's hard to argue that its forecasts made back
in the early 1970s have proved eerily accurate over the ensuing
decades.

But most of its warnings have been largely ignored by policymakers
hoping (blindly?) for a rosier future.

Decline is now inevitable.

We’re without any question moving into the remainder of a century
which is going to see, by the end of these decades, a much smaller
population, much lower level of energy and material consumption and so
forth.

Whether we retain equity amongst people and avoid the more violent
forms of conflict remains to be seen. But sustainable development is
no longer an option.

One of the original seventeen researchers involved in The Limits To
Growth study, Dennis Meadows, joins us for the podcast this week.
Fifty years later, what does he foresee ahead?
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBmjIIWPj3w"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.14}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Sun, 29 Dec 2019 22:31:02 CST (26 lines)

Globally, we are ingesting an average of 5 grams of plastic every
week, the equivalent of a credit card, a new study suggests.

This plastic contamination comes from "microplastics" -- particles
smaller than five millimeters -- which are making their way into our
food, drinking water and even the air.

Around the world, people ingest an average of around 2,000
microplastic particles a week, according to the study by the
University of Newcastle, in Australia.

2018 study that found twice as much plastic in water in the United
States and India than in European or Indonesian tap water.

A separate study this month found that Americans eat, drink and
breathe between 74,000 and 121,000 microplastic particles each year,
and those who exclusively drink bottled water rather than tap water
can add up to 90,000 plastic particles to their yearly total.

Shellfish is the second biggest source of plastic ingestion, with the
average person consuming as many as 182 microparticles -- 0.5 grams --
from this per week. The report says this is because "shellfish are
eaten whole, including their digestive system, after a life in plastic
polluted seas."
"https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/11/health/microplastics-ingestion-wwf-
study-scn-intl/index.html"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.15}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Mon, 30 Dec 2019 02:41:21 CST (11 lines)

The Climate Crisis is a "Time Bomb" for the World's Groundwater
Reserves
"https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/22/new-study-shows-climate-
crisis-could-mean-time-bomb-worlds-groundwater"

Nearly 1,100 scientists, practitioners and experts in groundwater and
related fields from 92 countries have called on the governments and
non-governmental organizations to "act now" to ensure global
groundwater sustainability.

https://www.groundwaterstatement.org/

{Nature_and_Environment.114.16}: Glen Marks {wotan} Mon, 30 Dec 2019 14:48:10 CST (1 line)

"https://www.livescience.com/earth-changed-forever-in-2019.html"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.17}: Glen Marks {wotan} Tue, 14 Jan 2020 23:50:11 CST (2 lines)

"https://www.sciencealert.com/the-ocean-is-warming-at-a-rate-of-5-
atom-bombs-per-second-says-study"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.18}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Thu, 16 Jan 2020 15:02:16 CST (37 lines)

Trump Dooms the Future by Gutting the National Environmental Policy
Act
by George Ochenski

NEPA requires the government to consider the environmental effects
prior to issuing permits for industries or taking major action by
federal agencies. Importantly, the law also requires the analysis of
environmental impacts to be presented to the public for review and
comment.

Bending, as usual, to unrelenting industry pressure, Congress has
already shamefully exempted any number of projects — such as
clearcutting national forests — from the required environmental
reviews. These measures are intended, as in the case of national
forest “categorical exclusions,” to bolster the timber industry which
has largely cut itself out of a future by logging far beyond the
sustainable levels of forest replacement. In the parlance of the
timber industry, our national forests are not ecosystems in and of
their own right, supporting a vast array of wildlife and producing
clean water for our citizens, but are “100-year gardens” to be whacked
down and “harvested.”

The problem is that industry’s rap, as usual, is a total sham and
there’s no way timber companies are willing to wait a century for the
forests to grow back. Moreover, given the increasing impacts of
climate change, forest regrowth is not guaranteed.

On January 10th, the Trump administration decided to gut NEPAvia
administrative rules changes that will allow virtually unhindered
development, resource extraction and pollution. It’s one thing for the
Trump cultists to support certain policies, tariffs, sanctions and
war-mongering. It’s quite another to allow Trump’s anti-environmental
administration to doom the future by leaving generations to come a
smoldering, polluted and unlivable planet — which is just what gutting
NEPA will do.
"https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/16/trump-dooms-the-future-by-
gutting-the-national-environmental-policy-act/"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.19}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Wed, 22 Jan 2020 01:11:43 CST (15 lines)

During the past 20 years, insecticides applied to U.S. agricultural
landscapes have become significantly more toxic—over 120-fold in some
midwestern states—to honey bees when ingested
Researchers identified rising neonicotinoid seed treatments in corn
and soy as the primary driver of this change.

This toxicity has increased during the same period in which widespread
decline in populations of pollinators and other insects have been
documented.

"This dramatic increase in oral-based toxic load is connected to a
shift toward widespread use of neonicotinoid insecticides, which are
unusually toxic to bees when they are ingested," said researcher
Maggie Douglas.
"https://phys.org/news/2020-01-insecticides-toxic-honey-bees.html?"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.20}: Glen Marks {wotan} Fri, 24 Jan 2020 15:33:47 CST (2 lines)

"https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/1/23/21079028/climate-
change-extinction-nuclear-war-ai-existential-risk-doomsday-clock"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.21}: Glen Marks {wotan} Mon, 03 Feb 2020 23:58:52 CST (2 lines)

"https://grist.org/climate/antarcticas-glaciers-are-melting-so-fast-
you-can-swim-in-them-in-a-speedo/"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.22}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Thu, 06 Feb 2020 22:20:14 CST (71 lines)

Why bumble bees are going extinct in time of 'climate chaos'
by University of Ottawa

"We've known for a while that climate change is related to the growing
extinction risk that animals are facing around the world," first
author Peter Soroye explained. "In this paper, we offer an answer to
the critical questions of how and why that is. We find that species
extinctions across two continents are caused by hotter and more
frequent extremes in temperatures."

"We have now entered the world's sixth mass extinction event, the
biggest and most rapid global biodiversity crisis since a meteor ended
the age of the dinosaurs."—Peter Soroye

Massive decline of the most important pollinators on Earth

"Bumble bees are the best pollinators we have in wild landscapes and
the most effective pollinators for crops like tomato, squash, and
berries," Peter Soroye observed. "Our results show that we face a
future with many less bumble bees and much less diversity, both in the
outdoors and on our plates."

The researchers discovered that bumble bees are disappearing at rates
"consistent with a mass extinction."

"If declines continue at this pace, many of these species could vanish
forever within a few decades," Peter Soroye warned.

"We know that this crisis is entirely driven by human activities,"
Peter Soroye said.

The researchers looked at climate change and how it increases the
frequency of really extreme events like heatwaves and droughts,
creating a sort of "climate chaos" which can be dangerous for animals.
Knowing that species all have different tolerances for temperature
(what's too hot for some might not be for others), they developed a
new measurement of temperature.

"We have created a new way to predict local extinctions that tells us,
for each species individually, whether climate change is creating
temperatures that exceed what the bumble bees can handle," Dr. Tim
Newbold explained.

Using data on 66 different bumble bee species across North America and
Europe that have been collected over a 115-year period (1900-2015) to
test their hypothesis and new technique, the researchers were able to
see how bumble bee populations have changed by comparing where bees
are now to where they used to be historically.

"We found that populations were disappearing in areas where the
temperatures had gotten hotter," Peter Soroye said. "Using our new
measurement of climate change, we were able to predict changes both
for individual species and for whole communities of bumble bees with a
surprisingly high accuracy."

This study doesn't end here. In fact, it opens the doors to new
research horizons to track extinction levels for other species like
reptiles, birds and mammals.

"Perhaps the most exciting element is that we developed a method to
predict extinction risk that works very well for bumble bees and could
in theory be applied universally to other organisms," Peter Soroye
indicated. "With a predictive tool like this, we hope to identify
areas where conservation actions would be critical to stopping
declines."

Dr. Kerr said, "Ultimately, we must address climate change itself and
every action we take to reduce emissions will help. The sooner the
better. It is in all our interests to do so, as well as in the
interests of the species with whom we share the world."
https://phys.org/news/2020-02-bumble-bees-extinct-climate-chaos.html?

{Nature_and_Environment.114.23}: Glen Marks {wotan} Wed, 12 Feb 2020 21:29:38 CST (2 lines)

"https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/06/humanity-under-
threat-perfect-storm-crises-study-environment"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.24}: Glen Marks {wotan} Wed, 19 Feb 2020 11:11:24 CST (4 lines)

Coral reefs:

"https://www.theinertia.com/environment/scientists-predict-90-of-
coral-reefs-will-disappear-by-2100/"

{Nature_and_Environment.114.25}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Wed, 26 Feb 2020 00:27:46 CST (39 lines)

>So, what do you think humanity should do now to save our climate?<

Collectively humans are dependent upon economic, political and social
institutions that are in the process of consuming all available
resources and energy that provided niches wherein the eco-diversity of
life could formerly flourish. In the process we are heating up and
poisoning the ecosystems we live inside of. This is all done for the
immediate benefit (progress) of the system we live in. This system is
now reaching its terminal end with the annihilation of the planet.

As the annihilation proceeds the entire array of human institutions
has and will become more aggressively destructive in the attempt to
maintain privilege as usual.

Sane and cool minds will be brushed aside in the struggle to maintain
lifestyles that will now vanish.

Humanity has a tendency to embrace and follow psychopathic leaders in
times of trouble.

So what humanity might do to lessen the catastrophic impact of
ecosystem destruction/climate change and what it is likely and now
doing is worlds apart.

Individual and collective groups will be in competition to grab as
much as they can to maintain life/advantage when ecosystems providing
the basis for life collapse.

In the decade before dissolution individuals can help others
understand then problem.

By the force of the likely ecological collapse the human population
will decimate as will most of life.

We can stop the most heinous annihilation only by collective awareness
and the complete overhaul of institutions: (regenerative agriculture,
socialist sharing of meager resources, worldwide social bonding to the
health of ecosystems and to the health of the ecodiveristy lifeform we
live inside of).

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