RCC-100.07
J. V. Siry, Ph.D.

The Imperiled Planet

The Dominant Animal: Chapter 12, New Imperative

an on line guide
Garret Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons

Ecological citizenship

Weeks

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

 

Summary

Rates

Outline | Conclusions | Ending paradox
"The point where our presence is perceptibly disabling the planet..."
New Imperative for action.

 

 

    "over the last two decades a new imperative has come to dominate environmental concerns with the growing awareness that human activities have increasing influence on Earth. . ."
 

 

 

Finite meaning limited, bounded, and constrained by circumstances.

Reform culture, asset accounting, & the Future of Life

"Large-scale human caused environmental change also is an old story."

Outline

 

Scope: “The roots of global change go far back in time . . . “

 

1.   Land use change {236

2.   Agriculture and its challenges {240

3.   Oceans: an open access resource {245

4.   Homogenization of nature {247

5.   Toxic substances {248

6.   The ecological foot print {251

 

"The ecological footprint of a designated population is 'the total area of land and water ecosystems required to produce the resources that a population consumes, and to assimilate the wastes that the population produces,...." (pp. 251-252.)

footprint

7.   Tying it all together {252

"...and even common sense, suggest that the human enterprise is already unsustainable –human demand is outstripping what nature can provide...."

carbon

"The eco-footprint of an average American is roughly four times the global average,...and as much as ten times larger than those of ...Bangladesh and Chad."

"Now our hard-earned dominance threatens our own civilization, and it will therefore greatly influence future trajectories in cultural evolution–and, in turn, what they portend for humanity's life support systems."

Trees in a forest.

Ehrlichs' entire Summary

 

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