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| At the Golden Gate. San Francisco. April 2018. |
- A shattering collapse of civilisation is a “near certainty” in the next few decades due to humanity’s continuing destruction of the natural world that sustains all life on Earth, according to biologist Prof Paul Ehrlich ... “Population growth, along with over-consumption per capita, is driving civilisation over the edge: billions of people are now hungry or micronutrient malnourished, and climate disruption is killing people.” -- Damian Carrington, Paul Ehrlich: 'Collapse of civilisation is a near certainty within decades,' Guardian, 3/22/18
- About half of all plants and animals in 35 of the world's most biodiverse places are at risk of extinction due to climate change, a new report claims. "Hotter days, longer periods of drought, and more intense storms are becoming the new normal, and species around the world are already feeling the effects," said Nikhil Advani, lead specialist for climate, communities and wildlife at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) ... -- Global warming puts nearly half of species in key places at risk, CNN, 3/14/18
- In 2016, he warned that climate change was the gravest threat facing humanity ... In July 2017, Hawking told the BBC that Trump’s climate policies could permanently destroy the Earth’s livable climate. “We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible,” he explained. “Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of 250º” Celsius (482°F). -- Joseph Romm, Stephen Hawking’s dire warning about what Trump’s policies will do to the Earth, Think Progress, 3/14/18
- More than 5 billion people could suffer water shortages by 2050 due to climate change, increased demand and polluted supplies, according to a UN report on the state of the world’s water. The comprehensive annual study warns of conflict and civilisational threats unless actions are taken to reduce the stress on rivers, lakes, aquifers, wetlands and reservoirs ... -- Jonathan Watts, Water shortages could affect 5bn people by 2050, UN report warns, Guardian, 3/19/
As Noam Chomsky has said over and over again since early on in the 2016 election cycle, "the Republican Party is the most dangerous organization in the history of the world."
- “It’s a threat to the country,” William Ruckelshaus, whom President Richard Nixon appointed in 1970 to lead the newly-created EPA, told HuffPost in a wide-ranging interview ... "They certainly are killing everything,” he added, noting that President Donald Trump’s assault on climate change policies would be a cornerstone of his legacy ... Last week, three former EPA administrators told HuffPost it could take decades for the next agency chief to restore the staffing, reputation and regulatory muscle lost under Pruitt." -- Alexander C. Kaufman, EPA Chief Under Nixon And Reagan: GOP’s Climate Denial Is ‘Killing Everything,' Huffington Post, 1/27/18
Remember, crimes against nature = crimes against humanity.
Remember, resistance = rEvolution.
Here are some defining principles from Earth Democracy, a vital text by the great Vandana Shiva:
- All species, peoples, and cultures have intrinsic worth.
- The earth community is a democracy of all life.
- Diversity in nature and culture must be defended.
- All beings have a natural right to sustenance.
- Earth democracy is based on living economies (that is, living ecological systems) and economic democracy.
- Earth democracy is based on local economies: economies that provide direct subsistence from nature rather than from extractive global markets.
- Earth democracy is a participatory democracy in which people have knowledge and power to influence actions that effect their lives and livelihood.
- The human cultures of an earth democracy promote peace and create free spaces for the practice of different faiths and identifies.
- Cultures in an earth democracy are life nourishing.
- Earth democracy globalizes peace, care and compassion.
