Fourteen Keys to the analysis of ecological problems

 

 

1.    The worth of nature in dollars: Accounting – Visualizing costs – Natural assets

 

2.    Natural productivity    productivity

 

3.    The accumulation of ecological {biomass} capital described        Trees              "natural capital"

 

4.    A means to accounting for natural values?  ecological asset accounting in design

 

5.    Carrying Capacity is one measure of the ecological system's natural  ability to adjust to changing impacts.

 

6.    Carrying capacity is contrasted with assimilative capacity Capacity: carrying compared to assimilative capacities

 

7.    New ways to reconsider, plan, and re-evaluate solutions to conserving natural systems & ecological problems

 

8.    Defining biodiversity: biological diversity & Edward O. Wilson

 

9.    Population related pages; an index, demography

 

10. What is ecology? long definition, & short definition

 

11. Using ecological thinking or ecosystem criteria to understand nature: Ecological Criteria

 

12. Contrasting social norms with natural, intrinsic, or inherent values: value means?

 

13. What does WEAL mean? weal as water, energy, air, land

 

14. Solutions to our predicament: How are solutions to problems evaluated?

 

 

 

Commons, defined: What is common?

 

       Hardin's analogy of tic tac toe

 

       Tragedy of the Commons, by Garrett Hardin

 

          • A synopsis and outline -- "TRAGEDY of THE COMMONS"

 

          • Hardin -- Garrett Hardin's book Living Within Limits

 

 

 

A vision for all times

 

Fritjof Capra's The Web of Life

 

What is “the wisdom of biotic navigation?”

“we are spending the Earth’s natural capital, putting such a strain on natural functions…that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.”

Walter Reid, in Ehrlich, p. 330

 

“we have entered the Century of the Environment, in which the immediate future is usefully conceived as a bottleneck. Science and technology, combined with a lack of self understanding and Paleolithic obstinacy, brought us to where we are today.”

 

“Now science and technology, combined with foresight and moral courage, must see us through the bottleneck and out.”

E. O. Wilson, The Future of Life, 2002, p. 23

 

“On a more hopeful note, he continued, ‘We can never reverse the degradation of many ecosystem services over the next 50 years, but the changes in policy and practice required are substantial and not currently underway.”

p. 330.

“the energy problem brings together many crucial issues in the human predicament. The great speed of evolution in the technological dimension of our culture has led to the deployment of a dangerous and unsustainable global energy infrastructure.”

p. 308.

Imperative – the necessity of acting differently

“Global climate change not only modifies the environment in which organisms are evolving genetically: it can have a major impact on our human cultural evolution as well.”

p. 254.

Energy – what is needed in the least amount to achieve outcomes?

“Energy, the ability to effect change in our physical world.”

p. 290.

 

A new way to design a functionally renewing world.

Saving Capital – microbes create interest on solar & geothermal accounts

landscape modification and losses in biological diversity and ecosystem integrity; hence services

 

Avoiding past mistakes

            Reduce, reuse, recycle, & revive

            Renew where possible

            Invest in geothermal, solar thermal, water purification

 

            Reduce, reuse, recycle, & revive

                        How little can I effectively utilize / not how much do I need.

                        Is there anything that can be utilized again?

                        What is discarded; is it energy infused, capable of breakdown?

                        Grow again those things that can replenish ecosystem services

 

            Renew where possible

                        Soil, water, forests and fisheries are a round river of life

 

            Invest in geothermal, solar thermal, water purification, bioremediation