Guest post by Dr. Peter D. Carter, M.D..
Click here to read: The Insanity of Exterminating Life on Earth – Part 1
“We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.” — Albert Einstein
The new way of thinking has to be nothing short of a re-evolution. This is the last chance for nations to make good on their 1992 commitments on biodiversity.
The situation, though, appears the same as ever.
There is no way to even slow the rate of extinctions by 2010 (as nations agreed) because the G8 – and particularly the U.S. – continues to sabotage the Convention, as it has since 1992. They say the Convention (like the Climate Change Convention) is not binding because it is ‘soft law’ with no means of enforcing it, and even the best environmental lawyers agree.
So expect the wealthiest nations to carry on their mass-extermination of all life on Earth – for money – the most manifest evil ever.
What follows are pleading excerpts from the opening statement of Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biodiversity, Bonn, Germany, May 19, 2008
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…Last year the United Nations launched 13 appeals for humanitarian assistance, breaking a record. Twelve of them were climate-related disasters…
…Albert Einstein once noted that, “We still do not know one thousandth of one per cent of what nature has revealed to us.” In spite of unprecedented scientific discoveries and technological advances, we human beings still have much to learn from Nature. All life on Earth is interconnected. Species cannot survive without their natural habitat and, in turn, the latter is being impacted by their disappearance…
…Every species is a vital piece in the complex puzzle of the life web of our planet. Interlinkages are what keep the puzzle glued together – for the planet to function. E.O. Wilson pointed out that, “If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”
About two thirds of the food crops that feed the world rely on pollination by insects or other animals to produce healthy fruits and seeds. Included among these are potato crops. Here in Germany, there has been a 25% drop in bee populations across the country. In the eastern United States, bee stocks have declined by 70%. If pollinators disappear, so too will many species of plants. If we take away one link, the chain is broken…
As Albert Einstein once said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”
The unfolding global food crisis sounds like a wake-up call to the serious consequences of human activities on the ability of our planet to continue sustaining life on Earth. The dramatic rise in crop prices is a symptom of the unprecedented loss of agricultural biodiversity and certainly a reflection of its far-reaching impacts on humankind…
…Impacts on the natural functions of our planet have never been as destructive as in the last 50 years. Over the past hundred years humans, have increased species-extinction rates by as much as 1,000 times the typical background rates over Earth’s history, as inferred from the fossil record.
Last week, WWF released its Living Planet Index, a unique measure of the state of the world’s biodiversity. It tracks nearly 4,000 populations and shows a frightening overall decline of 27%; populations of tropical terrestrial species appear to have declined by 46%. As we all know, 80% of the biodiversity of our planet is located in tropical forests.
The report also confirmed that humanity’s total footprint exceeded the productive capacity of the biosphere by 25%, and its rate of growth showed no sign of diminishing. The cost has been evaluated by the lead author of the study, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, Mr. Pavan Sukhdev, at 3.1 trillion dollars a year or 6% of overall gross national product. As always, the poorest are bearing the brunt of the cost…
…The recent cyclone Nargis, which devastated Myanmar, brings back memories of the horror of the 2004 tsunami, as well as hurricane Katrina. With the recent deadly tornados in Arkansas and Oklahoma, this year is on pace to see the most deaths from tornados in the United States since 1998. The severity and the frequency of the 1,270 tornados a year in the United States are a reminder that not a single country is immune from the devastating effects of the deterioration of our environment.
…As Einstein once pointed out, “We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
In Curitiba (2007), a new phase of enhanced implementation of the three objectives of the Convention was born…
…The enhanced phase of implementation of the Convention calls for the active engagement of all stakeholders alike. The establishment of a universal global alliance for protecting life on Earth is urgently required. This is about OUR FUTURE.
Our future starts today. At the closure of our meeting, we will have less than 579 days left to fulfill the promise made by Heads of State and Government in Johannesburg to substantially reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010…
…Half measures and business-as-usual are no longer options when it comes to the unprecedented environmental challenges that the world faces today…
Albert Einstein also said, “A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness…a kind of prison…Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty…We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.”
Let us be inspired by Einstein’s wisdom so as to liberate from the prison the 565 bracketed words contained in the 173 pages of decisions before you. Let us widen our circle for it is indeed to this end, Biologische Vielfalt braucht unser Engagement Eine Natur, Eine Welt, Unsere Zukunft — ONE NATURE, ONE WORLD, ONE FUTURE.
Guest post and excerpts by: Dr. Peter D. Carter, M.D.
Click here to read: The Insanity of Exterminating Life on Earth – Part 1
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