.......................hence, Transfinancial Economics........................
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics
RS.
________________________________
From: Michel Bauwens <[email protected]>
To: p2p-foundation <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, 29 January 2013, 12:47
Subject: [P2P-F] Fwd: ZNet Daily Commentary: Experts Fear Collapse of Global
Civilisation By Stephen Leahy
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, Jan 27, 2013 at 7:34 PM
Subject: ZNet Daily Commentary: Experts Fear Collapse of Global Civilisation By
Stephen Leahy
To: [email protected]
Print
Experts Fear Collapse of Global Civilisation
January 27, 2013 By Stephen Leahy
Stephen Leahy's ZSpace Page / ZSpace
Experts on the health of our planet are terrified of the future. They can
clearly see the coming collapse of global civilisation from an array of
interconnected environmental problems.
“We’re all scared,” said Paul Ehrlich, president of the Center for Conservation
Biology at Stanford University.
“But we must tell the truth about what’s happening and challenge people to do
something to prevent it,” Ehrlich told IPS.
Global collapse of human civilisation seems likely, write Ehrlich and his
partner Anne Ehrlich in the prestigious science journal, Proceedings of the
Royal Society.
This collapse will take the form of a “…gradual breakdown because famines,
epidemics and resource shortages cause a disintegration of central control
within nations, in concert with disruptions of trade and conflicts over
increasingly scarce necessities”, they write.
Already two billion people are hungry today. Food production is humanity’s
biggest industry and is already being affected by climate and other
environmental problems. “No civilisation can avoid collapse if it fails to feed
its population,” the authors say.
Escalating climate disruption, ocean acidification, oceanic dead zones,
depletion of groundwater and extinctions of plants and animals are the main
drivers of the coming collapse, they write in their peer-reviewed article “Can
a collapse of global civilisation be avoided?” published this week.
Dozens of earth systems experts were consulted in writing the 10-page paper
that contains over 160 references.
“We talked to many of the world’s leading experts to reflect what is really
happening,” said Ehrlich, who is an eminent biologist and winner of many
scientific awards.
Our reality is that current overconsumption of natural resources and the
resulting damage to life-sustaining services nature provides means we need
another half of a planet to keeping going. And that’s if all seven billion
remain at their current living standards, the Ehrlichs write.
If everyone lived like a U.S. citizen, another four or five planets would be
needed.
Global population is projected to increase by 2.5 billion by 2050. It doesn’t
take an expert to conclude that collapse of civilisation will be unavoidable
without major changes.
We’re facing a future where billions will likely die, and yet little is being
done to avoid certain disaster, he said.
“Policy makers and the public aren’t terrified about this because they don’t
have the information or the knowledge about how our planet functions,” he said.
Last March, the world’s scientific community provided the first-ever “state of
the planet” assessment at the “Planet Under Pressure” conference in London.
More than 3,000 experts concluded humanity is facing a “planetary emergency”
and there was no time to lose in making large-scale changes.
In 2010,a coalition of the national scientific bodies and international
scientific unions from 141 countries warned that “the continued functioning of
the Earth system as we know it is at risk”.
“The situation is absolutely desperate and yet there’s nothing on the front
pages or on the agenda of world leaders,” said Pat Mooney, head of the
international environmental organisation ETC Group.
“The lack of attention is a tragedy,” Mooney previously told IPS.
Solutions exist and are briefly outlined in the Ehrlich paper. However, these
require sweeping changes. All nations need to do everything they can to reduce
their emissions of fossil fuels regardless of actions or lack of them by any
other country, he said.
Protection of the Earth’s biodiversity must take centre stage in all policy and
economic decisions. Water and energy systems must be re-engineered. Agriculture
must shift from fossil-fuel intensive industrial monocultures to
ecologically-based systems of food production. Resilience and flexibility will
be essential for civilisation to survive.
A key element in meeting this unprecedented challenge is “…to see ourselves as
utterly embedded in Nature and not somehow separate from those precious systems
that sustain all life”, writes England’s Prince Charles commenting on the
Ehrlich’s paper.
“To continue with ‘business as usual’ is an act of suicide on a gargantuan
scale,” Prince Charles concluded.
________________________________
From: Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives
URL: MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from
"email.zsustainers.org" claiming to be
http://www.zcommunications.org/experts-fear-collapse-of-global-civilisation-by-stephen-leahy
The tool to turn commentary mailings off or on can be found in "My Account" ->
"Preferences/Edit My Details" option (Receives commentaries).
To view commentaries online go here: MailScanner has detected a possible fraud
attempt from "email.zsustainers.org" claiming to be
http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/
Comment on this commentary: MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt
from "email.zsustainers.org" claiming to be
http://www.zcommunications.org/experts-fear-collapse-of-global-civilisation-by-stephen-leahy
Print
Temporarily toggle off commentary and other Sustainer mailings.
(You can turn them back on from your account page at any time. You will not
lose permissions or other Sustainer benefits nor will this interrupt your
donations.)
Visit your account page and make changes of any sort you may desire.
(You will have to enter your password in the field that appears.)
If you would like to stop receiving ZNet mailings, please follow the
unsubscribe link below
MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "email.zsustainers.org"
claiming to be
http://www.zcommunications.org/unsubscribe/7e37f20ff9c5325e123df6d22916e85d
--
P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net/ - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/
Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
#82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/
_______________________________________________
P2P Foundation - Mailing list
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/
https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
_______________________________________________
P2P Foundation - Mailing list
http://www.p2pfoundation.net
https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
