7 Responses to “Seeing the wood for the trees”

1. Steve Salmony on December 24th, 2007 4:30 pm

   AS IN THE DAYS OF THE TOWER OF BABEL……….

   Are we communicating as if we are living in a modern day Tower of Babel? Is our unbelievable failure to communicate reasonably and sensibly about whatsoever is somehow real, and to widely share adequate understandings regarding both how the family of humanity “fits” within the natural order of living things and what are the limitations of the planet we inhabit, in evidence here and now?

   Perhaps the human community is indeed in a serious predicament, but only in part because of the objective biological and physical circumstances defining our distinctly human-driven predicament. The global challenges in the offing are further complicated by our incredible failure to communicate effectively about the potentially pernicious results derived from having recklessly grown a soon to become patently unsustainable, colossal global economy, one that we have artificially designed, conveniently constructed, and unrealistically expanded without regard for the requirements of biophysical reality.

   Could it be that the current gigantic scale and unchecked growth rate of the global economy is unsustainably driving both per human over-consumption and unrestrained human population growth toward the point in human history when the willful, relentless, unregulated growth of consumption, production and propagation of the human species precipitates the collapse of Earth’s ecology, even in these early years of Century XXI?

   Steven Earl Salmony
   AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population, established 2001
   http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/

2. Steve Salmony on January 20th, 2008 2:47 pm

   At least to me, there is something unforunate in what you are reporting because, if you are correct, the power of money on Earth could soon overwhelm the resources of Earth from which all the global economy’s wealth is derived. The Earth’s atmosphere is being degraded, its resources dissipated and its surface denuded by unbridled, rampant economic globalization promoted so adamantly and relentlessly by multinational corporations.

   Before there was ever such a thing as manmade economy, there was God’s Creation. I suppose that after the unbridled, colossal global economy can no longer be sustained by the limited resources and frangible ecosystem services of Earth, there will still be God’s Creation.

   Thanks for talking the talk, so that one day people can walk the walk. When it comes to dealing with the real issues of our world, willful deafness, hysterical blindness and elective mutism mark in our time, due to the momentary dominance of too many misguided wealthy and powerful individuals and their many minions in the mass media and elsewhere.

   In an age when the adage “see no truth, hear no truth, speak no truth” rules, the family of humanity cannot do without people like you and others speaking out loudly and clearly in blogs like this one, Grist, Orion and Dot Earth.

   Always,

   Steve

   Steven Earl Salmony
   AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population, established 2001

3. Steve Salmony on January 26th, 2008 11:10 pm

   Humanity has been warned repeatedly about the threat to humanity, to life as we know it, to the viability of recognizably frangible global ecosystems and to the integrity of Earth and its limited resources that could be posed to humankind by the unbridled growth of absolute global human population numbers. Because we want human beings to be fed and to have jobs so they can feed themselves and their families, the growth of human numbers has lead great thinkers and scientists to regularly remind the human community of the impacts of unregulated human propagation, unrestrained consumption and rampantly expanding production activities in our planetary home.
   Every possible bias, rhetorical device and “spin” appears to have been employed to deny the mounting evidence of the potential for impending ecological calamities and economic disasters from the near exponential growth of human numbers worldwide. Recently, good scientific evidence of climate change, about the way the world works, has been systematically discredited; leading elders of the political economy have consciously conspired to mislead the public by misrepresenting the science and by turning climate science into a “political football” of sorts; ideological groups sponsored by super-rich, large-scale corporate ‘citizens’ have spread uncertainty and confusion in discussions about the nature of the biophysical world in which we live; and controversy has been manufactured where none would have otherwise existed.

   The illusion of meaningful debate has been foisted upon the public by leaders who are evidently intent on “poisoning the well” of public discourse by knowingly and selfishly fostering disinformation campaigns for the purpose of enhancing their own financial interests……..come what may for our children, coming generations, global biodiversity, the environment, and the Earth as a fit place for human habitation.

   The elder guarantors of a good enough future for the children appear to be leading our kids down a “primrose path” along which the children could unexpectedly be confronted with sudden, potentially colossal threats to human and environmental health that appear to be derived from human-driven, converging global challenges such as pernicious impacts of global warming and climate change, pollution of the air, water and land from microscopic particulates and solid waste, and the reckless dissipation of scarce natural resources. All the while, these leading elders remain in denial of the fulminating ecological degradation by willfully declining to acknowledge, much less begin to address, humanity’s emerging, human-induced predicament. One day, perhaps sooner rather than later, our children could have extraordinary difficulties responding ably to that with which they could soon come face to face; that is to say, because their leaders have so adamantly refused to acknowlege God’s great gift of the good science of biological and physical reality, our kids will not even know what “hit” them, much less why it is happening.

   Please note the concerns I am trying to communicate are expressed much better today by Cameron Smith at the following link.

   http://www.thestar.com/Article/297574

   As always, your thoughts are welcome.

   Steven Earl Salmony
   AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population, established 2001

4. Steve Salmony on February 2nd, 2008 2:27 pm

   Without a doubt, we need new thinking and new leadership and, yes, we need both now.

   Hmmm…… ok…… for just a moment let us consider that at least one way to realistically address the challenges posed by global warming and global warming could be by limiting the rate of increase in the unbridled growth of the global economy.

   Perhaps we could follow what we already know from good science, sound reasoning and common sense. We can choose to respond ably and differently, in a more reality-oriented way, to the emergent global challenges looming before humanity, the ones that we can certainly manage because these challenges can be seen so clearly now to be spectacularly induced by the unrestrained global growth of human overconsumption, overproduction and overpopulation activities now threatening to ravage the Earth.

   Of course, it is fair to ask what the family of humanity could choose to do “ably and differently, in a more reality-oriented way.” Here are several ideas that come to mind.

   1. Implement a universal, voluntary, humane program of family planning and health education that teaches people the need for setting a limit on the number of offspring at one child per family.

   2. Establish an upper limit on the growth of the individual human footprint.

   3. Restrict the reckless dissipation of limited natural resources so that the Earth is given time to replenish them for human benefit.

   4. Substitute clean, renewable sources of energy, through the use of substantial economic incentives, for the fossil fuels we rely upon now.

   5. Recognize that everything human beings do on the surface of our planetary home utterly depends on the finite resources and frangible ecosystem services of Earth. Perhaps the time is nearly at hand when an endlessly expanding, gigantesque global economy on a relatively small planet of the size and make-up of Earth becomes patently unsustainable.

5. Steve Salmony on February 3rd, 2008 6:04 am

   From my humble point of view and limited scope of observation, a perfect storm is taking shape in the form of a gigantic blast of ‘success’ called economic globalization, that can be seen as a soon to become unsustainable consequence of the selfish politics of neo-conservatism and the unbridled economics of market fundamentalism. How on Earth can the relatively small, finite planet we inhabit be expected to much longer sustain the huge scale and anticipated growth of an endlessly expanding global political economy?

   The billionaires are already looking ahead with pleasure and great anticipation to the coming of the first trillionaire among us.

   The color of the clouds on the far horizon are ominously turning from white to black. Some kind of impending ecological collapse or else calamitous economic disaster appears to loom in the offing.

6. Steve Salmony on February 10th, 2008 1:57 pm

   Dear Friends,

   Please forgive me for saying that I believe my not-so-great generation of elders is literally on the verge of devouring the birthright of its children and mortgaging their future, while not giving so much as a thought to the needs of coming generations. My generation may be remembered most for having ravaged the Earth and irreversibly degraded its environment, leaving our planetary home unfit for life as we know it or for human habitation or both.

   Unfortunately, many too many of our brothers and sisters as well as virtually all the political leaders, economic powerbrokers and ‘talking heads’ in the mass media are not yet acknowledging the distinctly human-induced predicament looming ominously before humanity, even now visible on the far horizon. Because human overproduction, over-consumption and overpopulation appear to be occurring synergistically, at least to me it makes sense to see and address them as a whole. Picking the most convenient or most expedient of the three aspects of the human condition could be easier but may not be a good idea. The “big picture” is what we need to see, I suppose. At some point we are going to be forced to gain a “whole system” perspective of what 6.6 billion (soon to be 9 billion) people are doing on Earth. That is to say, the human community needs to widely-share a reasonable and sensible understanding of the colossal impact of unbridled production, unrestained consumption and unregulated propagation activities of the human species on Earth……. and how life utterly depends upon Earth’s limited resource base for existence.

   If human beings can share an adequate enough grasp of the leviathan-like presence of the human species on Earth, then we can choose individually and collectively to behave differently from the ways we are behaving now, lest my generation could lead everyone to inadvertently precipitate the massive extinction of biodiversity, the irredeemable degradation of environs, the pillage of our planetary home and, perhaps, the endangerment of humanity.

   Sincerely,

   Steve

7. Steve Salmony on February 11th, 2008 9:19 pm

   There is something I would like you to consider and, if it pleases you, to comment upon.

   My impression is that the ‘talking heads’ in the mass media make many reports about “the world”; but these reports are as mainly organized around the artificially designed, manmade, global political economy. Afterall, “money, money, money, money makes the world go around.” Now, of course, there is nothing the matter with organizing things in this way; however, people do need to be reminded from time to time that this way of viewing “the world” fails to recognize the Earth and human beings as integral parts of that world.

   The mass media appears to segregate the Earth as well as human beings from economic globalization. By so doing, we are allowed ‘to forget’ what most of us know: that human beings and the gigantic global political economy are a part of, and utterly dependent upon, the Earth. There can be no human species and no human economy without the natural resources and ecosystem services only Earth can provide, I suppose.

   Sometimes, it appears to me as if the human community is once again discovering that too many of us are being mesmerized by a spectacularly successful, modern-day Tower of Babel, one that takes its colossal shape from economic globalization. That is to say, human thinking, judging and willing have become so grievously captivated by our idolatry of the global economy that our leadership will not speak openly and intelligibly about anything which serves to raise questions regarding the long-term viability of the huge scale and anticipated growth of an endlessly expanding global economy for fear of losing their positions as leaders.

   Sincerely,

   Steve

   Steven Earl Salmony
   AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population, established 2001

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