A new study in the journal _Nature_ demonstrates scientifically what those with
ecological intuition may have known for some time: that the state of the land
has major impacts upon climate. In the United States the growth of cities and
agriculture in particular has been a major component of changing climate. This
study indicates that together agriculture and other land use changes have had a
significantly greater impact upon climate than was previously thought. Given
that the global ecological system is composed of ecological subsystems that
constantly interact, share energy and materials; this is hardly a surprise.

Terrestrial and atmospheric ecosystems are tightly coupled. The global
ecological system upon which we are utterly dependent is greater than the sum
of its parts - though the failure of any one part has the potential to send the
whole system careening into collapse. The danger with both land degradation
and climate change lies in the potential for sudden and irreversible cataclysmic
shifts in state as thresholds in the degree of human caused impacts are
surpassed. It is highly unlikely that significant progress will be made in
conserving either forests or climate without moving forward simultaneously with
the other.

This is why Forests.org is committed to maintaining, free of charge, the World's
largest and most used forest conservation (http://forests.org/) and climate
(http://www.climateark.org) portals. The efforts are predicated upon the well
established truth that the Earth has reached the point whereby human caused
land degradation and air pollution threatens the Planet and all its occupants.
The inevitable fate of any species that destroys its environment is extinction.
In the case of humanity, global ecosystem collapse will seem slow and be
painful, but death of our species is inevitable with current trends. Continue to
ignore the environment and it will go away - taking us with it.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

All life depends upon plants. Without large and intact natural habitats - full of
native, evolving plant species hierarchically arrayed into communities,
landscapes and bioregions - life on Earth would little resemble its current state.
Plants have developed in tandem with the birds and the bees (and the ants -
see below - and most every animal species). In the most fundamental manner,
plants give us life. Thus, Plants are Holy, and deserving of the utmost
admiration, awe and respect.

The fact humanity does not know the number of species on the Earth to the
nearest order of magnitude is unforgivable. In particular, lack of resources and
attention given to basic plant taxonomy seriously threatens efforts to achieve
equitable, just and sustainable community development, as well as plant
conservation and protection.

Human societies - and all aspects of our sustenance, knowledge, art,
economies, and other endeavors - are utterly dependent upon plants and their
ecological patterns and processes. Deforestation, habitat fragmentation, exotic
species and over harvesting threaten plants, local and global ecological
sustainability, and thus your and my very being.

It is critical that humanity immediately embark upon a well-funded crash
program to complete a worldwide biodiversity inventory, counting and
classifying every living species. However, this is not enough. Rigorous and
ambitious conservation programs that seek to maintain viable populations of as
many plant and animal species as possible, as well as their emergent
community structures and ecosystem services, must be pursued simultaneously
and with great resolve.

Plant conservation is urgent and fundamental to determining the fate of
humanity, the Earth and ALL its creatures. There is no greater service to
humanity, or the Earth, than to know and conserve Plants. I call upon you
personally to take all measures required to study, cultivate, conserve, restore
and protect the Earth's plants.

With and For the Plants,
g.b.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Word is that the President Bush is 'hurt' by environmental decisions. Not nearly
as bad as the environment has been hurt by his regressive and ecocidal policies.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

A recent examination of the Earth's "vital signs" reveals alarming environmental
decline, poverty and disease largely as a result of humanity's environmentally
destructive activities. Despite promises by rich countries to finance biodiversity
conservation and other environmental programs, global ecological sustainability
and social stability is threatened as never before. Below are three reports on
the extent to which humanity has desecrated the Earth's life-giving natural
systems, and the utter and unforgivable failure to pursue policies adequate to
address global ecological meltdown.

Human health and economy are completely and utterly dependent upon the
planet's ecosystems; such as rainforests and other ecosystems which provide
water, contribute to soil formation, regulate climate and filter air. Despite
widely known scientific certainty of the ecological nature of being, virtually no
progress has been made towards global environmental sustainability. The
World's affluent are primarily responsible for the Planet's current ecological
crisis: having consumed disproportionately and destructively for centuries, and
refusing to address surging human suffering and environmental decline as long
as their coffers remain full.

Consumption choices of the rich, environmentally destructive human activities,
ineffective management and burgeoning pollution - combined with a lack of
political will and money - means the World's species and cumulative ecosystem
processes continue to be disrupted and destroyed. The ecological fabric of
being is fraying - indeed being ripped apart - for short term economic well
being of a relative few.

Dr. Raven of the Missouri Botanical Garden, delivering the annual Darwin
lecture, made clear "we are using the Earth's productive systems at an
unsustainable rate." Raven notes industrialized nations have not risen to the
challenge of creating just, equitable and sustainable societies. Further, if
everyone lived at their standard, it would take another two planets to support
the Earth's population. His policy prescriptions are simple and demanding: "a
stable population, a globally sustainable consumption level, and acceptance of
social justice as the norm for development."

A major new program to establish a "Global Ecological Reserve" network based
upon the core, buffer corridor model of biosphere reserves is urgently
required. Global ecological sustainability will require strict preservation,
massive habitat restoration, and ecologically sensitive development at many
times current rates of protection and ecologically sustainable management. We
join in calling for serious transfer of resources from North to South to fund
creation of this network. It is estimated that an effective global land and sea
reserve program would cost $45 billion annually, while providing ecosystem
goods and services worth up to $5,200 billion a year. This is a damn good rate
of return on investment - particularly given the alternative is global ecological
Armageddon.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Having battled depression for much of my life - largely caused by pain at
witnessing the demise of the Earth - I find the recent Opinion piece "Juiced on
SUVs and Prozac" particularly clever and insightful. The silliness of SUV ads
which show happy, healthy people driving through luxurious natural settings,
when most SUV owners spend their time in traffic jams going to work or the
mall, is extremely illuminating and funny, while rightly damning the American
nightmare. The juxtaposition of increasingly unmeaningful lifes, the illusion of
happiness and tranquility portrayed by the SUV culture, and the increasing need
to drug ourselves with Prozac just to feel normal rings all too true.

Having just come off of Prozac myself, I am struck by the "emptiness of being"
in this ecocidal age. Thinking of millions of years of evolutionary history and
ecological pattern and process being plundered for the throw away society fills
me with rage - and alas depresses me. Increasingly I work to simplify my life
and find pleasure in the relatively little but real things - nature, family, fruitful
work and hobbies. This keeps me going. At nearly one year without an
automobile and living in a smaller household, I take pride in having escaped the
evil juggernaut of the American consumer society. Living more simply need not
equate with any lack of satisfaction. Nature, time and patience are the three
great physicians (a wise fortune cookie once told me). It is nice to not be
taking happy pills any longer. I can see the world without blinders, dedicate
myself to global ecological sustainability, and start by working to sustain myself
and be ok as the Earth burns.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink

Humans are causing massive bird extinction, a component of the biggest
extinction event in 65 million years. According to Birdlife International, twelve
percent of the Planet's bird species face extinction this century. Habitat loss,
global warming and other human induced phenomena are threatening the
viability of most bird populations, driving many to extinction. It is inconceivable
that birds and most other types of life could be so threatened while human life
remains unaffected.

As go the birds, the plants and the planet will go the humans. Current
planetary biological trends do not portend a long or happy life for the human
family. The ecological fabric of being is being ripped asunder by humans who
wrongly think they are above it all. The task of our time is to individually and
collectively organize, educate, advocate (and if necessary agitate) for global
ecological sustainability. Do so as if your and your children's life depends upon
it. It does.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (1)

President Bush and the Republican party's criminally misleading rhetoric
regarding the need to log forests to save them from fires, and the necessity of
blocking public opinion, has been shown to be bullshit. Contrary to their claims,
the General Accounting Office has found that few projects to reduce wildfire
threats were delayed because of environmental challenges. This is a facist and
dangerous government - twisting scientific and other truths to pursue their
oligarchic, anti-environment and anti-people agenda.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (1)

Reasonable people can quibble regarding when oil supplies will run out. But it
is certain they will - the major uncertainty is whether the World's atmosphere,
land, water and oceans will be so damaged that ecosystem sustainability will be
impossible. The exploration, production, transport, refinining and consumption
of oil is THE underlying cause of looming global ecological armageddon. Our
rainforests, climate, water supplies and oceans have been hammered by
societal addiction to a seemingly wonderous substance that in truth is killing the
Earth. Author Richard Heinberg argues in a new book that "the oil-consumption
party is over". I concur that transitioning the global society to renewable
energy is the challenge of our time. Failure will mean famine, ecological
collapse, war and misery.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

The current outbreak of SARS is indicative of the global ecosystem being out
of whack. It has been known for years that European and Asian domestication
of animals has provided for unprecedented opportunities for cross species
disease mutation. Contemporary China's system of ducks, pigs and chickens
living in close proximity to humans is a major viral breeding ground.

Granted - there are many more traditional diseases such as malaria and
tuberculosis that pose much more immediate threat than emergent diseases
such as SARS and ebola. Nonetheless, as human population grows, ecological
systems are disrupted, and once isolated disease vectors gain access to global
transportation; we can expect major epidemics. In many regards, this is a
natural response of the Earth to over-population of any one organism. Failure to
address cascading ecological collapse of global ecosystems will mean ever
greater likelihood of worldwide pestilence.Ecological sustainability is indeed
a matter of life and death.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

A report published in the journal Conservation Ecology finds that oil and natural
gas, along with logging, is inflicting major damage to Alberta's boreal forest. It
is concluded that Canada's boreal old-growth stands - a globally important
ecosystem that spans a vast area - will be destroyed within decades.

The study - commissioned by a logging company - is the first to address the
collective regional impact of energy development and logging. This
combination threatens most remaining large and relatively intact forest
ecosystems around the World. It concludes wildlife, old-growth and jobs are all
threatened by unsustainable practices and patterns of industrial resource
harvest and use.

Canada's boreal forest wilderness is critically threatened with transformation to
industrial resource producing landscapes. This unprecedented and ongoing
resource boom is causing massive environmental devastation in Canada's
boreal forests. An author of the study states "[t]his is not the wild wilderness of
the north... The attitude that the forest can be all things to all interests is no
longer tenable, if indeed it ever was," the article says. "Although the boreal
forest presents a seemingly endless expanse, it does in fact have limits and
they are now being reached."

This is true for all the Earth's forest, atmospheric, aquatic and marine
ecosystems. The human family must face these ecological constraints before
nature takes care of the current environmental imbalance through starvation,
war and pestilence. One way or another ecological balance will be restored to
the Earth.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)