Homo Sapiens and Biosphere

Antxon Olabe EgañaUniversity of Green Bay Wisconsin, (UGBW)

University of St Norbert`s CollegeSeptember, 2015

The Earth, our home, is the only place in the cosmos where life, the universe’s rarest phenomenon, is known to have originated and developed. It is a beautiful blue ball spinning around the nearest star – our sun – that when seen from space reveals itself to be an extraordinary blend of oceans, clouds and land masses. Life first appeared on our planet around 3.8 billion years ago. Since then it has evolved ceaselessly into millions of different species and now occupies an endless number of habitats in every corner of the Earth. We Homo sapiens, i.e. anatomically modern human beings, appeared in the world between one hundred and fifty and two hundred thousand years ago. As a species our evolutionary destiny is marked by our extraordinary specialisation in intelligence.

3

4

After tens of thousands of years of successful evolution, a single dominant species endowed with sharp intelligence and advanced technology has managed to colonize the whole planet and harness it in the service of its own short-term interests.

If our species is incapable of developing a mature, empathic relationship with the Earth System as a whole its very success will doom it to failure, because the destabilization of the life-support systems will eventually lead to the collapse of our civilization. And along the way a large proportion of the planet’s wealth of biological life will be wiped out.

Homo Sapiens and BiospherePersonal commitmentThe forces that are destabilising the biosphere are not unthinking volcanoes, great meteorites or catastrophic tidal waves. They are human actions, i.e. actions taken by a species endowed with intelligence and awareness. I refuse to just drift with the tide, and my book is an effort to do something about it. In is intended to be a call to take on personal commitment and responsibility.

5

Homo Sapiens and Biosphere

Part One. Underlying Trends and Driving Forces

- Homo Sapiens in the Forge of Evolution. The Dawn of Humankind .

- Agriculture, Cities, Civilization. The Transformation and Domination of Nature.

- Fossil Fuels, Trade, The Machine Age, Railways. The Industrial Revolution and the Global Economy.

Part Two. Humankind as an Ecological Force on a Global Scale. Entropy-Disorder and the Destabilization of the Biosphere

- Climate Change, the Loss of Biodiversity, the Decline of Oceans, the Depletion of Natural Resources. The Global Climate-Environmental Crisis.

- The Dynamics of the Crisis. Towards un Uncertain and Dangerous Future

6

Homo Sapiens and Biosphere

Part Three. New Responses by Society

- Setting up a Project to Preserve the Climate System and the Biosphere Based on Renewed Foundations.

- Economics in the Face of the Environmental Crisis.

- Building Hope and Making the Great Transformation Viable.

- Creating Institutions, Deploying Policies and Generating a Turning Point

7

The environmental crisis is the result of Homo sapiens mastering the environment at a time when the species has not yet made the transition from what the ecologist Eugene Odum (1989) called the “colonization stage” to the “climax stage”. On the deepest, primary, level, the destabilisation of the life-support systems is the result of the process of expansion and domination of nature set in motion by Homo sapiens 60,000 years ago when our species first ventured out of its African home on its long journey to conquer and occupy all continents, ecosystems and natural environments. That process has continued uninterruptedly ever since.

The basic forces of survival and reproduction that drove our ancestors remain active today. The predominant underlying trend continues to be one of colonisation characterised by the aggressive, predatory appropriation of the environment, which we then subject to disorderly, entropic changes aimed at maximising individual satisfaction in the short term regardless of the long-term consequences for future generations and for the rest of the ecosystem.

8

But…the destabilization of the life-support systems of the biosphere cannot be analyzed exclusively in ecological terms. The fact that it has been caused by humans means that it is also the result of historical, cultural, economic, political and social processes that need to be explored. Today’s global civilisation and climate-environmental crisis can only be understood by analysing the economic, technological, social and institutional forces from the past that formed them.

This is particularly true since the Industrial Revolution, which marked a break with history so great that the scientific community increasingly tends to consider the period since then as a new geological era, for which it has coined the name “Anthropocene”.

Some 250 years ago the Industrial Revolution made available to society and to the economy the vast amounts of energy contained in coal, oil and gas, paving the way for a global civilisation and for the current world economy.

Anthropocene:Humanity as an ecological force on a planetary scale

9

Our species, whose hunting expeditions took it beyond the African lands of its birth 60,000 years ago; which organized itself into groups of hunter-gatherers undertook an epic journey of dispersal and discovery that eventually led it to occupy every continent; which created formidable civilizations and cultures, has now become an ecological force on a planetary scale. Our drive to change the natural environment is so overwhelming and our population is so large that we have set ourselves on a collision course with the very fabric of the biosphere. 80 per cent of the surface area of the world above sea level now bears the marks of change made by human beings. Only 17 per cent of all the unfrozen land– the tundra, the taiga, a large part of the Amazon rainforests and the deserts – can still be considered as wilderness, i.e. unmarked by major signs of human occupation.


10


The main driving force set in motion by the Industrial Revolution was economic growth.

Each year, global material extraction has reached 60.000 million tonnes , a quantity on the same scale as the total amount of biomass produced on Earth each year as a result of photosynthesis.

11

Anthropocene:Humanity as an ecological force on a planetary scaleIn little more than 250 years world energy consumption has increased 25-fold and the population by almost 10-fold.

Each day, 90 million barrels of oil and vast quantities of coal and gas are extracted to keep the world economy running.

With such great power at its disposal humankind have become an ecological force, capable of destabilising the life-support functions of the biosphere.

12

-The Destruction of Natural Habitats and the Loss of Biodiversity.-The Decline of the Oceans-The Soil Erosion, Desertification and Food Security.-The Shortage of Fresh Water-The Chemical Pollution-The Disturbing of the Nitrogen Cycle-The Nuclear Legacy-The Climate Change


13

A Systemic Environmental Crisis

The boundaries in three systems (rate of biodiversity loss, climate change and human interference with the nitrogen cycle) have already been exceed.

(Rockström et al, Nature, September, 2009)


14

Nine planetary systems. Beyond the Boundary

The figure highlights the shifts in the states of ecosystems that began with the Industrial Revolution. It shows trends over time and the likely outcomes of the forces set in motion.

The result is a “moving picture” that reflects the increasing extent of the Earth’s surface that has undergone ecological state shifts. The trend points to sudden rather than linear change: by around 2045 the proportion of the total surface area affected by such shifts will exceed 50%.

(Barnosky et al. Nature, 7 de junio, 2012)


15

Approaching a State Shift in the Earth`s Biosphere


The institutional factors that have proved most significant in conditioning this process and the associated destabilisation of the biosphere are free access to and indiscriminate, unregulated use of assets which belong in common to all humankind, such as the Earth’s atmosphere, the oceans and biodiversity

(a process known in economic literature as the “tragedy of the commons”).

16

Closely linked to economic growth is population growth, which is the second biggest driving force set in motion by the Industrial Revolution.

In the 250 years since the beginning of that revolution the world’s population has increased almost tenfold, from 790 million to the current figure of 7.2 billion. It trebled in the 20th century alone. Although the rate of increase began to decline around 1965 the population has continued to increase and UN demographers expect it to reach 9.6 billion by the mid-21st century.

It took humanity 180,000 years to reach a population of 1 billion, but our numbers are currently increasing by 1 billion every 15 years approximately.

17


New responses by society

-Setting up a Project to Preserve the Climate System and the Biosphere Based on Renewed Foundations.

-Economics in the Face of the Environmental Crisis.

-Building Hope and Making the Great Transformation Viable.

-Creating Institutions, Deploying Policies and Generating a Turning Point

18


The climate-environment crisis it is not (only) a scientific-technical issue. It must be approached in moral terms because there are decisive factors of justice at stake.

Its negative consequences are felt by societies everywhere, but it is the poorest, most vulnerable communities in developing countries that are and will continue to be hit hardest. For example, many island states in the Pacific and Caribbean will find themselves under water when the sea level rises. Climate change threatens the very existence of these countries. Moreover, indigenous communities such as the Inuit in the Arctic and the millions of people who live in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta will have to emigrate; and millions in Sub-Saharan Africa will see the already devastating droughts there grow worse, exerting yet more pressure on their scant resources.

Political Philosophy.Renewed Foundations

19


Economics as a social science can only look on in perplexity at a climate-environmental crisis that undermines the very basis of the lasting operation of society. British economist Nicholas Stern, in his benchmark publications on climate change The Economics of Climate Change, (2007) and A Blueprint for a Safer Planet (2009) refers to GHG emissions as “the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen”.

The Earth can no longer be thought of as that place with an almost infinite capacity for generating resources and absorbing waste and emissions that the industrialists and traders of Europe and the USA saw before them when they ventured out on the economic conquest of nations and continents following the Industrial Revolution. A new outlook and new ways of thinking are therefore needed.

Economics.In the 21st century Economics needs to stop turning its back on scientific Ecology.

20


The world today is very different from the one that opened up before European industrialists and traders in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, when Adam Smith wrote his seminal work The Wealth Of Nations (2010, [1776]), which established the foundations of Economics as a social science.

The view of nature as the provider of an all-but infinite supply of resources with an all-but infinite capacity for assimilating waste and emissions is no longer tenable. The biosphere is finite; it is vulnerable and it is being subjected to major destabilisation as a result of human actions.

Economics.In the 21st century Economics needs to stop turning its back on scientific Ecology

21

New responses by societyBuilding hope means remembering that great changes can be made when the moral conscience of society says “this far and no further”. At the time of its abolition, slavery had been lawful for more than 2500 years, and the Quakers who pioneered the struggle for human dignity were told that the universal abolition of slavery was a radical, utopian idea. Even so, they started a process of change that did not end until slavery was eradicated.

The forces that are causing the destabilisation of the biosphere are not uncontrollable natural phenomena but social dynamics: they depend on us, and we have the last word.

22

The International Civil Society


Laudato Si The environmentalist movement needs to set up a broad alliance to avoid the climate crisis and to defend the preservation of the biosphere, so that these ideas and feelings take root in broad sectors of our societies.

An alliance involving the scientific community, religious and spiritual traditions, thousands of towns, cities and regions, the world of education, culture and art and major media organizations as well as the environmentalist movement per se.

23

The International Civil Society


The special responsibility of the permanent members of the Security Council in the face of the climate crisis (USA, France, United Kingdom, Russia and China)

Given the inertia built up, the rate at which climate change is taking place and the existence of physical tipping points, the international community needs to reach binding agreements concerning the 2°C boundary for temperature increases as a basis for “reprogramming” the entire energy system between 2015 and 2050 so as not to exceed that boundary. To avoid such interference, at least three quarters of the carbon contained in known coal, oil and gas reserves needs to remain in the ground, unexploited.

24

Creating Institutions


Security Council

By midway through this century the world’s population is likely to reach 9.6 billion, with 90 per cent of that number living in what we currently refer to as emerging and developing countries. Given the overwhelming predominance of fossil fuels in the global energy mix, a powerful inertia has built up in the economic/demographic/energy system which is being passed on to greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change can only be redressed to prevent the temperature from rising more than 2°C through the capabilities for leadership and persuasion of those nations which are the last resort in keeping the peace and maintaining international security, i.e. the permanent members of the Security Council

25



A World Environmental Organization within the United Nations systemThe time has come to set up an independent agency within the United Nations system with the resources and authority needed and with a clear mandate to act as an executive and coordinating body, and with a remit to preserve the integrity of the biosphere.

The World Environmental Organisation could work with academies of science and other excellence-based organisations to mobilise and channel the world’s scientific talent into finding mechanisms to foster and disseminate knowledge concerning each critical biosphere boundary, following on from the experience of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose track record has been exemplary in this regard.

26



The Biosphere Stewardship CharterThe climate crisis is the most urgent problem and should

therefore be the immediate focus of attention. However, the anthropic destabilisation of the biosphere is a broad, systemic problem that requires across-the-board solutions.

The UN Biosphere Stewardship Charter should be approved, under which states make a regulatory commitment to remain within safe boundaries (see the table below). It must be a social contract between nations, under which they not only make declarations but actually draw up rules for accessing and using global commons, so as to protect the most vulnerable communities in the present and safeguard the rights of future generations.

A Biosphere Stewardship Charter needs to be endowed with a level of significance comparable to that granted to the Charter on Human Rights, which has proved so decisive in protecting those rights everywhere. It should be a declaration signed by governments and actively supported by the international scientific community, by religious and spiritual traditions, by committed cities and regions, by thousands of community groups and by millions of conscientious individuals. The approval of such a Charter would mark a turning point in the transition towards an enduring global society.

27


Thanks for your attention!

29

Homo Sapiens and Biosphere

Documents

Transcript of Homo Sapiens and Biosphere