Our planet, the earth. Directed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield. BBC Worldwide, 2007 (Trailer)
It just has to be possible for us humans, who are so resourceful, to develop a lifestyle which uses the planet’s resources sustainably and is in balance with the planet’s other inhabitants.
To live with the guiding principle of harmony is to be aware of life’s true meaning. We are standing at a crossroads in our history and it is up to each and every one of us to choose the right direction.
“Mankind’s greatest limitation…
is its inability to understand the exponential function. ”
(Source: Zeitpunkt 100, March/April 2009. German only.)
What incentive do we need to change to sustainable habits? What motivation do we need to live in a way that is compatible with nature – of which we are part and without which we cannot exist? Perhaps the best motivation is the desire to live a more satisfying relaxed healthy and cheerful life.
lovos.org is not about the search for an imaginary utopia, it is about the big and the small changes we can make, which may seem a little uncomfortable and inconvenient at first, but will in fact make our lifes healthier, happier and more fulfilling in the long run.
After even a few seconds of reflection on what is really essential to life one realises that without an intact natural environment all other concerns diminish in importance. Problems at work, relationship worries, that holiday you are planning and the new car you are thinking about buying all lose their significance when there is no viable planet on which they can exist. So, the desire to change can be a selfish one. It can, and in many ways has to, emerge from a personal motivation. Therefore individuals need to identify what is really important for themselves as members of society and also as human beings.
A simple personal vision is required to live life with a sustainable environmental impact, and often goals help, for example, organising your life so that your ecological footprint is not bigger than 1.
Have you ever calculated your personal ecological footprint already? Here is a chance to do so:
Footprint Calculator
The goal (1) is not that easy to achieve, but trying to reach it, by doing things like taking the train or cycling to work, makes you feel like you are doing something really meaningful and worthwhile – not a bad side effect!
This blog is an opportunity to exchange general information and give different examples of how “voluntary simplicity” can be achieved in reality. The more concrete examples there are of different ways to live sustainably, the more attention and interest may be generated and perhaps the more we will be motivated to act. That’s trend setting.
Links
> Arithmetic, Population, and Energy (Lecture of Prof. Emeritus Dr. Albert A. Bartlett)
> Adbusters (global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, … in our society)
> Foundation for Deep Ecology (Foundation of Douglas + Kris Tompkins – an archetype for those with lots of money)
> Znout + ecosia (search engines with a carbon footprint = 0)
> Links of transitionculture.org (excellent listing of Links concerning sustainability)
Extracts of the paper “REFLECTIONS ON SUSTAINABILITY, POPULATION GROWTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT – 2006” within “The Future of Sustainability. An Anthology Edited by Marco Keiner et.al., Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich. Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, (2006)” from Albert A. Bartlett. The original script will be sent on personal request with information to the author.
Extraction of the – to my mind – vital statements:
When applied to material things, the term “sustainable growth” is an oxymoron.
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
The inevitable and unavoidable conclusion is that if we want to stop the increasing damage to the global environment, as a minimum, we must stop population growth.
So, instead of trying to calculate how many people the Earth can support, we should instead, focus on the question of why should we have more population growth. This is nicely framed in the challenge:
Can you think of any problem, on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way, aided, assisted, or advanced, by having larger populations at the local level, the state level, the national level, or globally?
THE FINAL WORD ON THE CARRYING CAPACITY OF THE EARTH
Even though we cannot calculate a carrying capacity for the Earth, we have an unambiguous indication that the world population has already exceeded this carrying capacity. We are observing global warming. If any part of the observed global warming is due to the activity of humans, then this is positive proof that the present population of the Earth, living as we do, is greater than the carrying capacity of the Earth.
LAWS RELATING TO SUSTAINABILITY
Let us be specific and state that both “Carrying Capacity” and “Sustainable” imply “for the period in which we hope humans will inhabit the earth.” This means “for many millennia.”
The Laws that follow are offered to define the term “sustainability.” In some cases these statements are accompanied by corollaries that are identified by capital letters. They all apply for populations and rates of consumption of goods and resources of the sizes and scales found in the world in 2005, and may not be applicable for small numbers of people or to groups in primitive tribal situations.
These Laws are believed to hold rigorously.
The list is but a single compilation, and hence may be incomplete. Readers are invited to communicate with the author in regard to items that should or should not be in this list.
First Law: Population growth and / or growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained.
Second Law: In a society with a growing population and / or growing rates of consumption of resources, the larger the population, and / or the larger the rates of consumption of resources, the more difficult it will be to transform the society to the condition of sustainability.
Third Law: The response time of populations to changes in the human fertility rate is the average length of a human life, or approximately 70 years. (Bartlett and Lytwak 1995) [This is called "population momentum."]
Fourth Law: The size of population that can be sustained (the carrying capacity) and the sustainable average standard of living of the population are inversely related to one another. (This must be true even though Cohen asserts that the numerical size of the carrying capacity of the Earth cannot be determined, (Cohen 1995))
Fifth Law: One cannot sustain a world in which some regions have high standards of living while others have low standards of living.
Sixth Law: All countries cannot simultaneously be net importers of carrying capacity.
Seventh Law: A society that has to import people to do its daily work (“we can’t find locals who will do the work.”) is not sustainable.
Eighth Law: Sustainability requires that the size of the population be less than or equal to the carrying capacity of the ecosystem for the desired standard of living.
Ninth Law: ( The lesson of “The Tragedy of the Commons” ) (Hardin 1968): The benefits of population growth and of growth in the rates of consumption of resources accrue to a few; the costs of population growth and growth in the rates of consumption of resources are borne by all of society.
Tenth Law: Growth in the rate of consumption of a non-renewable resource, such as a fossil fuel, causes a dramatic decrease in the life-expectancy of the resource.
Eleventh Law: The time of expiration of non-renewable resources can be postponed, possibly for a very long time, by:
i ) technological improvements in the efficiency with which the resources are recovered and used
ii ) using the resources in accord with a program of “Sustained Availability,” (Bartlett 1986)
iii ) recycling
iv ) the use of substitute resources.
Twelfth Law: When large efforts are made to improve the efficiency with which resources are used, the resulting savings are easily and completely wiped out by the added resources that are consumed as a consequence of modest increases in population.
Thirteenth Law: The benefits of large efforts to preserve the environment are easily canceled by the added demands on the environment that result from small increases in human population.
Fourteenth Law: (Second Law of Thermodynamics) When rates of pollution exceed the natural cleansing capacity of the environment, it is easier to pollute than it is to clean up the environment.
Fifteenth Law: (Eric Sevareid’s Law); The chief cause of problems is solutions. (Sevareid 1970)
Sixteenth Law: Humans will always be dependent on agriculture. (This is the first of Malthus’ two postulata.)
Seventeenth Law: If, for whatever reason, humans fail to stop population growth and growth in the rates of consumption of resources, Nature will stop these growths.
Eighteenth Law: In local situations within the U.S., creating jobs increases the number of people locally who are out of work.
Nineteenth Law: Starving people don’t care about sustainability.
Twentieth Law: The addition of the word “sustainable” to our vocabulary, to our reports, programs, and papers, to the names of our academic institutes and research programs, and to our community initiatives, is not sufficient to ensure that our society becomes sustainable.
Twenty-First Law: Extinction is forever.
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
The challenge of making the transition to a sustainable society is enormous, in part because of a major global effort to keep people from recognizing the centrality of population growth to the enormous problems of the U.S. and the world.
On the global scale, we need to support family planning throughout the world, and we should generally restrict our foreign aid to those countries that make continued demonstrated progress in reducing population growth rates and sizes.
The immediate task is to restore numeracy to the population programs in the local, national and global agendas.
On the national scale, we can work for the selection of leaders who will recognize that population growth is the major problem in the U.S. and who will initiate a national dialog on the problem. With a lot of work at the grassroots, our system of representative government will respond.
On the local and national levels, we must focus serious attention and large fiscal resources on the development of renewable energy sources.
On the local and national levels, we need to work to improve social justice and equity
On the community level in the U.S., we should work to make growth pay for itself.
A THOUGHT FOR THE FUTURE
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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
THE MEANING OF SUSTAINABILITY
THE USE OF THE TERM “SUSTAINABLE”
SUSTAINABILITY
CARRYING CAPACITY
FINAL WORD ON THE CARRYING CAPACITY OF THE EARTH
POPULATION AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
THE MARGINALIZATION OF MALTHUS
THE WORLD’S WORST POPULATION PROBLEM
POPULATION GROWTH NEVER PAYS FOR ITSELF
PSEUDO SOLUTIONS: GROWTH MANAGEMENT – SMART GROWTH
PSEUDO SOLUTIONS: REGIONAL PLANNING
WAR AND PEACE
LAWS RELATING TO SUSTAINABILITY
TWO POSTULATA OF THOMAS MALTHUS
BOULDING’S THREE THEOREMS
LAWS OF SUSTAINABILITY
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
BOULDING ON MALTHUS
A THOUGHT FOR THE FUTURE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
Comment by simply sustainable — November 24, 2010 @ 1:07 pm |
I recommand you this to read… it is poweful (to me): Neale Donald Walsh: The Complete Conversations With God.
Enjoy life by going to nature. Get in full contact with it and you will feel most powerful energy in you as well what’s up with you.
Then follow your inner voice… and you will feel love. You will remember and start to be. Wish you all the best.
Comment by simply sustainable — June 26, 2011 @ 10:48 am |