USING WITHOUT ABUSING THE BIOSPHERE*

John Cairns, Jr.

University Distinguished Professor of Environmental Biology EmeritusDepartment of Biological Sciences

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State UniversityBlacksburg, Virginia 24061, U.S.A.

June 2012

THE BIOSPHERE IS THE PRIMARY SOURCE OF RENEWABLE RESOURCES. THE FOLLOWING

QUOTES EMPHASIZE THE WIDE RANGE OF VIEWPOINTS ON RESOURCE AVAILABILITY.

“For all but the last few years of human history the dominant worldview was a limited view: resources were limited, human nature was fixed, and spending beyond one’s income was a sin. This essentially conservative perception prevailed until about 1600.”1

“We now have in our hands in our libraries, really the technology to feed, clothe, and supply energy to an ever-growing population for the next 7 billion years. . . . We [are] able to go on increasing forever.”2

“There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.” (Former US President Ronald Regan)

“And so I am nominating economy for an equal standing among the arts and humanities. I mean, not economics, but economy, the making of the human household upon the earth: the arts of adapting kindly the many human households to the earth’s many ecosystems and human neighborhoods.”3

“. . . populations have their own version of Liebig’s Law of the Minimum: if one factor proves limiting to population growth, it doesn't matter how permissive the other factors are.” (http://www.paulchefurka.ca/Population%20Limits.html)

TWO CONTEXTUAL PROBLEMS ARE EVIDENT WHEN CONSIDERING THE BIOSPHERE. (1) People regard the

Biosphere as a collection of plants and animals rather than as a highly interactive system. (2) People give little or no thought to the Biosphere’s role as a planetary life support system that is

also the provider of renewable resources upon which the human economy is based.

Until the general public and its political representatives understand that the Biosphere is a complex, interactive system important to their lives, abuse of the Biosphere will continue.

The general public and its political representatives must understand that human survival is closely linked to the present Biosphere.

Although the economy is always given a high priority and the environment a much lower priority, the economy is a subset of the present Biosphere and will collapse if the present Biosphere collapses.

FOR MOST OF THE 200,000 YEARS THAT HOMO SAPIENS HAS EXISTED, IT WAS NOT

CAPABLE OF INFLICTING MUCH DAMAGE TO THE BIOSPHERE.

However, at present, no part of the Biosphere is unaffected by human activities, especially in the era of human-caused climate change.

Humanity has appropriated both space (i.e., cities) and resources (e.g., oceanic fisheries), which are equally essential to optimal biospheric health and function.

Humanity has replaced self-maintaining parts of the Biosphere with agricultural systems and other “humanized” environments (e.g., feedlots).

Human-created anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have altered the oceans from mildly alkaline to mildly acidic, which is already adversely affecting the biota.

The acidity of the oceans could become corrosive if “business as usual” continues.

HOMO SAPIENS HAS REACHED ITS PRESENT STATE OF DOMINANCE TO A SIGNIFICANT DEGREE

BECAUSE OF CHEAP, ABUNDANT FOSSIL FUEL ENERGY AND TECHNOLOGY USING THIS ENERGY.

This dominance produced an exceptional ability to acquire resources, which resulted in a belief that this state was normal rather than temporary.

However, global climate change from fossil fuel greenhouse gas emissions is reducing agricultural productivity, and water shortages add another burden. These changes will create a major energy allocation problem since agricultural products must be transported to centers of population.

Per capita energy allocations must be reduced until alternative, non-carbon energy sources (e.g., solar, wind geothermal) are more readily available.

Energy will probably never be as cheap and abundant as it was in the recent past.

HUMANS ARE FINALLY BUT SLOWLY BECOMING AWARE THAT

THEY ARE LIVING ON A FINITE, FRAGILE PLANET.

This realization was solidified most dramatically by the first photograph of Earth from outer space — a tiny, pale blue dot suspended “alone” in a vast universe.

How many species, the components of the Biosphere, will be driven to extinction before the result is collapse of the present Biosphere?

How many complex systems will be driven past crucial tipping points before humanity becomes aware that resilience is limited?

How long before humans realize that passing a tipping point results in irreversible damage?

EXPONENTIAL POPULATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH ARE

UNSUSTAINABLE ON A FINITE PLANET WITH FINITE RESOURCES.

Perpetual human population growth damages the biospheric life support system and reduces regeneration of renewable resources.

Economic growth is the goal of most present world leaders.

Growth is the metric most commonly used to extol “progress” in everything from church congregations to corporate profits.

Growth results in ecological overshoot, which is “sustainable” for only short periods of time and ecologically damaging for every year it continues.

WHEN POLITICS DIVERGES TOO FAR FROM SCIENCE,

CATASTROPHES ABOUND.

“Every major national science academy in the world has reported that global warming is real, caused mostly by humans, and requires urgent action. The cost of acting goes far higher the longer we wait — we can’t wait any longer to avoid the worst and be judged immoral by coming generations.”4

Humanity rushed into financial globalization without the necessary globalizations needed for such a dramatic change in resource use and demand.

Biotic impoverishment (e.g., accelerated deforestation) of the Biosphere was one of the most important consequences.

EACH CATASTROPHE, FROM THE GULF OIL SPILL TO THE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR

POWER PLANT DISASTER, REDUCES BIOSPHERIC AND, THEREFORE, HUMAN

SECURITY. Properly understanding global issues requires global evidence.5

Every disaster has a direct or indirect deleterious effect upon the Biosphere, although the aggregate damage is rarely assessed, even for a single year. However, the Biosphere responds to aggregate impacts, both huge and small.

For example, illegal logging has cumulative effects upon the Biosphere and also takes a serious immediate human toll.6

Humanity’s abject failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be extremely perilous as the global mean surface temperature reaches the 2°C increase that marks “the threshold between ‘dangerous’ and ‘extremely dangerous’ climate change.”7

“WE FACE A CHOICE BETWEEN A SOCIETY WHERE PEOPLE ACCEPT MODEST SACRIFICES FOR

A COMMON GOOD OR A MORE CONTENTIOUS SOCIETY WHERE GROUP[S] SELFISHLY PROTECT

THEIR OWN BENEFITS.”8

The health and well being of Homo sapiens are closely linked to the fate of other species, collectively called the Biosphere, with which humans share the planet.

When humans were primarily hunter/gatherers, the common good was a dominant tribal social contract.

“We are entering a new world, but we’re entering it as Paleolithic brains.”9

ONE WOULD NEVER DEDUCE FROM THEIR PRESENT WORLD VIEWS THAT BOTH THE WORDS ECONOMICS AND ECOLOGY ARE DERIVED FROM THE SAME GREEK WORD

OIKOS.

Both ecologists and economists focus on resource allocation and use, but ecologists have carrying capacity as a unifying theme and believe in limits to growth, while most economists appear not to hold these beliefs since economic growth seems paramount.

Exponential human population growth will increase misery unless it is accompanied by exponential resource growth.

Long-term sustainable growth is not possible on a finite planet with finite resources.

THE NINE INTERACTIVE GLOBAL CRISES CANNOT BE PRIORITIZED IN ANY REASONABLE MANNER SINCE NONE IS

ISOLATED FROM THE OTHERS. THE HUMAN ECONOMY SEEMS TO DOMINATE THE THOUGHTS OF BOTH CITIZENS AND POLICY

MAKERS, OFTEN TO THE EXCLUSION OF OTHER CRISES.

Avoiding hearing about the global financial crisis is impossible and has been for years.

The financial crisis is different because it diverts attention from all of the other eight crises.

When resources diminish, resource wars are a common solution to obtaining needed resources, although such actions are the wrong way to manage scarce resources.

Reason is a renewable resource, but it tends to diminish or disappear just when it is most needed.

To achieve financial stability, humanity must use wisdom and reason to determine how to live within limits set by the universal laws of biology, chemistry, and physics.

ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATE CHANGE CAUSED BY GREENHOUSE GAS

EMISSIONS IS A RECENT PHENOMENON.

For most of the 200,000 years that Homo sapiens has lived on the planet, human-caused climate change did not occur.

During the Edo Period (1603-1867), Japan had a stable society of about 30 million that was driven only by solar energy.10

What portion of present fossil energy use is worth risking very dangerous climate change?

EXPONENTIAL HUMAN POPULATION GROWTH DISCOURSES ARE RARE BECAUSE THEY ARE

ESSENTIALLY TABOO; HOWEVER, REASON CONFIRMS THAT THE HUMAN POPULATION IS

GROWING FASTER THAN THE RENEWABLE RESOURCES NECESSARY TO SUPPORT IT.

Homo sapiens would last longer as a species if it ceased damaging the Biosphere, remained within Earth’s carrying capacity, and eliminated ecological overshoot.

The universal laws do not give “rights” to any species — “each species has arisen through evolution by natural selection.”9

Humanity might have more humility if it reflected on the horseshoe crab, which has been on Earth for about 300 million years (http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/horseshoecrab/history/index.html) and the jellyfish, which survived Precambrian time (http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/precambrian).

“If the only ultimate check on the growth of population is misery, then the population will grow until it is miserable enough to stop its growth.”11

ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT — USING MORE RESOURCES THAN THE BIOSPHERE CAN

REGENERATE — CAN BE AVOIDED BY NOT ESPOUSING “. . . THE QUANTITATIVE

EXPANSION OF GOODS . . .” OR “. . . RAPID GROWTH . . .”12

“If a finite supply of material goods was to make all people affluent, naturally enough of it was necessary to avoid waste and skillfully circulate and recycle goods.”12

Long product life, reuse, repair, and recycling were the norm — they were living sustainably with no ecological overshoot.

NURTURING THE BIOSPHERE MEANS AVOIDING BIOTIC IMPROVERISHMENT AND THE REDUCTION OF

BIODIVERSITY SINCE SPECIES ARE THE BASIC COMPONENTS OF THE BIOSPHERE.

During the Edo Period in Japan, forests were conserved for flood control, but conservation went far beyond flood control — some “. . . forest areas were closed off to protect hawks’ nesting grounds . . . but also cutting or burning of branches or stripping of bark” were prohibited.12

Natural habitats of wildlife were protected — for example, “. . . bans on the development of new rice fields along riverbanks” even though “. . . they would generate land-tax revenue.”12

During the Edo Period, “. . . people never thought in terms of endless expansion, continuation, and increase.”12

In the Edo Period . . . “sense of quantity was epitomized by the phrase bun o mamoru, ‘maintaining bounds.’”12 — in short, coexisting with natural systems.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND OTHER HUMAN ACTIVITIES (E.G., DEFORESTATION) ARE CAUSING A GLOBAL

LOSS OF BIOSPHERIC RESOURCES.

“In some regions, water demand exceeds the amount of water that is naturally replenished every year.”13

“In China, . . . where 700 million people lack access to safe water, payments in exchange for watershed protection increased from US$1 billion in 2000 to US$7.8 billion in 2008 . . .”14

“Unsustainable water use is threatening agriculture, other business and populations in China, India and the US . . .”15

Severe water stress is already global. Both the economy and social stability of each country experiencing severe water stress will be strongly affected. Refugees are inevitable and will increase as the situation worsens.

REGARDLESS OF REFUGEE MOVEMENTS, THEY WILL ALWAYS BE IN THE PRESENT

FINITE BIOSPHERE WITH FINITE RESOURCES. People will leave areas where water and other resources are critically short and migrate to

areas perceived to be better.

Since almost all national populations exceed long-term carrying capacity, this movement will only exacerbate the carrying capacity problem.

Determining the “common good” is difficult, but damage to the present Biosphere and exponential human population growth are definitely not benefiting the global common good.

“The North American society of 200 years ago got along using mainly solar energy. First, and most important, the population was much, much smaller than today’s population. Second, the society was an agrarian society with most of the population employed directly or indirectly in agriculture.”16

Paying more attention to the universal laws is mandatory. No plea bargains here!

SUSTAINABLE LIVING WAS ACHIEVED ON LESS THAN A GLOBAL SCALE BY CULTURES WITH A

MORE REALISTIC VIEW OF THE LIMITS IMPOSED BY THE FINITE PRODUCTION OF RENEWABLE

RESOURCES BY A FINITE BIOSPHERE.

“If any fraction of the observed global climate change can be attributed to the actions of humans, this is positive proof that the human population, living as we do, has already exceeded the carrying capacity of the Earth.”16

The assault on science and reason is proof that something is badly wrong with humanity’s understanding of scientific evidence and the scientific process.

“SURVIVAL FIRST — THEN SUSTAINABILITY” DOES NOT MEAN THAT HUMANITY CAN AFFORD TO ABUSE THE PRESENT BIOSPHERE, BUT RATHER THAT THE

WORD SUSTAINABILITY IS A FAÇADE BEHIND WHICH “BUSINESS AS USUAL” IS CONTINUING.

“When competing ‘experts’ recommend diametrically opposing paths of action regarding resources, carrying capacity, sustainability, and the future, we serve the cause of sustainability by choosing the conservative path, which is defined as the path that would leave society in the less precarious position in case the chosen path turns out to be the wrong path.”17

Clearly, in 2012, perpetual economic growth and exponential population growth are the wrong paths.

The wrong path has depleted resources, caused climate change, damaged the Biosphere, and resulted in more human suffering.

“WE’VE BEEN TOO KIND TO THOSE WHO ARE DESTROYING THE PLANET. WE HAVE BEEN

INEXCUSABLY, UNFORGIVABLY, INSANELY KIND.” Derrick Jensen

“RUIN IS THE DESTINATION TOWARD WHICH ALL MEN RUSH, EACH PURSUING HIS OWN BEST INTERESTS IN A SOCIETY THAT BELIEVES IN THE FREEDOM OF THE

COMMONS.” Garrett Hardin

To assert that no environmental (i.e., biospheric) regulations are needed is to assert that every individual and corporation will always act to benefit the common good.

Can humanity rise to the challenge of working for the common good instead of individual wealth?

“NOT EVERYTHING THAT CAN BE COUNTED COUNTS, AND NOT EVERYTHING

THAT COUNTS CAN BE COUNTED.” Albert Einstein

Resource “shortages” are not the problem — the problem is excessive demand.

All species have economies based on resources and energy rather than money.

Species that have persisted for many millions of years might be said to have superior “economies” ideally suited to the Biosphere they inhabit.

IF HUMANITY SUCCEEDED IN USING WITHOUT ABUSING THE BIOSPHERE, THE NUMBER OF HUMANS WHO MIGHT LIVE ON

EARTH COULD GREATLY EXCEED THE BILLIONS THAT LIVED DURING THE ERA OF ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT.

Acknowledgments. I am indebted to Darla Donald for transcribing the handwritten draft and for editorial assistance in preparation for publication and to Paul Ehrlich and Paula Kullberg for calling useful references to my attention.

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