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Before reviewing that report card, I first want to tell you about next week's BSB that will focus on a radical idea that could help us raise our "grades" substantially. Our goal is to make Mother Nature happy...
Next week, we'll focus on creating a completely new way of life on our planet - one that will inspire humans everywhere to truly "want" to live in a manner that will turn our future report card from Mother Nature into one with A's in all subjects. The title for next week's piece:
Paradise? Design. Plan. Execute.
But first, our current report card. If Mother Nature were our teacher, she would be giving us failing grades in all five subjects - when it comes to living in harmony with Earth's ecosystem that gives us life.
Day by day, for over 200 years, we humans have moved further and further away from sustainable living. As such, my colleague Stuart Scott at
scientistswarning.org describes the situation thusly:
Humanity is on a collision course with Nature.
A damaged Nature will survive. We may not.
We must change course to avert an ecological disaster.
I had lunch with Stuart in New York last month and told him about my "report card" for assessing how we're doing when it comes to living in harmony with nature. I explained that it covers five "subjects," all of which we must master if humanity is to survive and thrive long-term on this beautiful planet.
Below is the slide that I use in my presentations when discussing that subject. Notice that my assessment is that we have a "failing" grade in every subject. Three of the five were graded as F-, implying that we've completely ignored them to date.
So what does this mean? To me, it means that we humans are enthralled with living the "good life" and are oblivious to the fact that, in the process of living large, we're rapidly destroying nature's ability to sustain us. And, to borrow a line from an old commercial: "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"
If the Earth improves as a result of our presence, then we will flourish. If it doesn't, we will die off.
In my public talks, I use this image when describing how we've been running roughshod over the fragile ecosystem that gives us life.
Why do we get F's in all five subjects?
1. Overpopulation. Most scholars agree that we have a serious overpopulation problem as we approach 8 billion. According to my own research, combined with a few extrapolations, I have concluded that it might be possible for our planet to support 4 billion humans indefinitely.
In order to get down to that number, I computed that if we were able to lower the global daily births from 360,000 to 100,000, it would take 145 years to reach four billion.
Sadly, zero progress has been made in lowering the birth rate. As such, we continue to add a net 230,000 to the global population every single day, a number equal to the population of Birmingham, Alabama.
A new Birmingham every day of the year!
2. A "Green" Economy
would be the exact opposite of what we have today. It would be aimed at minimizing the use of natural resources and would reward people for having less stuff, using only renewable energy, eating zero animal products and taking steps to place the needs of nature above their own.
3. Eating Animals. According to a
2009 study by World Bank environmentalists, the production of animal-based foods contributes more to climate change than all other human-induced causes of GHG combined. And, of all the primary drivers of climate change, this is the ONLY one that could be totally eliminated by everyone in the world in less than a decade.
4. Fossil Fuels. While renewable energy continues to grow, the fossil fuel sector continues to expand at a torrid pace that will likely continue until the last drop of oil is burned.
In a perfect world, we would tax fossil fuels to the hilt in the near term and completely eliminate them within a single decade. Aggressive action on the first three items will have a huge positive effect on this one as well.
5. Removing Carbon. There has been practically zero progress in actually removing CO2 from the atmosphere, an incredibly expensive process that noted ocean scientist, Dr.
Peter Wadhams, of the University of Cambridge, has called our only chance to save ourselves.
Bottom Line. The ideas expressed in this blog must be embraced by enough powerful individuals who are capable of making a difference. The recent dire climate change projections from the United Nations should help attract more attention from those kinds of people. As the IPCC report stated, we're running out of time to take decisive action on climate change.
Personally, I have been focusing on the field of journalism in search of just one courageous soul who will start relentlessly bringing this most important topic to the forefront of world awareness.
So what can you do?
You can share this BSB with journalists, thought leaders and elected officials who you respect. You can encourage them all to help wake up the world to the urgent need for sustained action to preserve our civilization and our species.
Finally,
here are a few related "Bite-Size Blogs" (BSBs) from the past few weeks:
Be well,
J. Morris (Jim) Hicks
CEO, 4Leaf Global, LLC
I welcome your feedback and/or questions at:
[email protected] Also, please visit my friends at:
Looking for Opportunities to Speak.
Since 2016, my research, writing and speaking has been focused on the sustainability of our ecosystem and our future as a species. With a primary emphasis on food choices, I call it the "most important topic in the history of humanity."
After all, what could possibly be more important to humans than the survival of our species?
(now contains 5-minute video of me speaking in Tucson)
To schedule a presentation at a venue near you, please contact me at
[email protected]
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