[P2P-F] Fwd: ZNet Daily Commentary: Experts Fear Collapse of Global Civilisation By Stephen Leahy

Tue Jan 29 13:47:23 CET 2013

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From: <info at zcommunications.org>
Date: Sun, Jan 27, 2013 at 7:34 PM
Subject: ZNet Daily Commentary: Experts Fear Collapse of Global
Civilisation By Stephen Leahy
To: michelsub2004 at gmail.com

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Experts Fear Collapse of Global Civilisation

January 27, 2013 By *Stephen Leahy*

Stephen Leahy's ZSpace
Page<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=xrLDuKs9E-2FW2gJyS-2BCwKWwqejxOUzTFczw65YAHq4GpCBKEzMu1TJYu8Ujm-2FOKE4R6rqa-2FBJ54-2FOyRjwGdLWxQ-3D-3D_V-2FUUiW5KvBPNV-2FItFYsbuIFOqr58NacNTIV3-2FGcH-2BSBVagFPxANJlN39ExAB0wl5JlXIm8SpvP-2BrDbqsML4Fj3QEH68NQ7hioq4VO6TkjnUMI0PDrl0Av3IKVchj8rdN49z-2F6nC3gbB7Sg8RWJ-2Bj1urDjK6oP-2B26gYcVyCYWdig-3D>/
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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?”<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=TZRZXOIFMx2AeEKFk5UP1oubQRXg-2F0-2FxQevFA6qOyCUaeDAZ2G3h4tOI5Cll5ZImdtfrGqsq7zmSSuE56JHbRDk5We1t5oQlCb-2BUmz0IGQk-3D_V-2FUUiW5KvBPNV-2FItFYsbuIFOqr58NacNTIV3-2FGcH-2BSBVagFPxANJlN39ExAB0wl5JlXIm8SpvP-2BrDbqsML4Fj9Pm-2FJy4V9VSjW5-2FYMqShJnpWzT0cLGBbDEueEybYVB2dVeNf7qpGWH7RAhPTRCr9oh-2BxWZSwF4DENm5RIowhMM-3D>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<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=xrLDuKs9E-2FW2gJyS-2BCwKWxjyMdF54RlbduvUEYOaEynEfSKEb-2BZKXM9uPEJA7b45_V-2FUUiW5KvBPNV-2FItFYsbuIFOqr58NacNTIV3-2FGcH-2BSBVagFPxANJlN39ExAB0wl5JlXIm8SpvP-2BrDbqsML4Fj6NuGUBGGMp-2BQFcuzrpPfgMV9f9g6qGYSaaFlrJ-2B4aMICNvBoon-2Fb4rLKdTkc5TKZcXi6WU9vftmp6jvGxluQmw-3D>”
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<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=xrLDuKs9E-2FW2gJyS-2BCwKW55QdNn3Jo14RA1is8Qu1zU-3D_V-2FUUiW5KvBPNV-2FItFYsbuIFOqr58NacNTIV3-2FGcH-2BSBVagFPxANJlN39ExAB0wl5JlXIm8SpvP-2BrDbqsML4Fj37-2FDRmoqP4P74ByyN-2B-2BmGDe9HZTUDrBNiI6fJp9ZdgE0ZJrVLd-2FvZFruD9Tqi40Cw7derVP-2B2oCB3W-2FHAFcVKs-3D>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<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=xrLDuKs9E-2FW2gJyS-2BCwKW1eEn66J6c7V9JzN3fCt0uk-3D_V-2FUUiW5KvBPNV-2FItFYsbuIFOqr58NacNTIV3-2FGcH-2BSBVagFPxANJlN39ExAB0wl5JlXIm8SpvP-2BrDbqsML4Fj-2Bx0X6quWmuDtI-2F2-2FKigRvsnKJi7cGGIShplgAuZV4g-2BmKI9LH8HYdUgfH9XIweyksb7V3ib576YR2Ohz0lm180-3D>
.

“The lack of attention is a tragedy,” Mooney previously told
IPS<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=xrLDuKs9E-2FW2gJyS-2BCwKW-2FWtbvfgpZVpYXk3rx5dfrvbiYXUYL2KPlrRBEBn2MXBrceTqOpr8nrXG7WBDhZHZg-3D-3D_V-2FUUiW5KvBPNV-2FItFYsbuIFOqr58NacNTIV3-2FGcH-2BSBVagFPxANJlN39ExAB0wl5JlXIm8SpvP-2BrDbqsML4FjzLXdNVDdpr2TOarG0URBfw88plxJa1zbX-2BY5rlGKm-2F4e2FalvRBWEutl5Xfr9yH80vsy91aCsHDu9HTBr-2FE8mU-3D>
.

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.
 ------------------------------

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