July 29, 2010

By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet

Earth Meanders come from Earth’s Newsdesk

Gaia – the Earth System – is alive and like any living entity has rights.

Earth has a right to not be stripped of its vegetative skin, its flesh

mined, body punctured by wells, ecosystems liquidated; and precious water,

air and oceans tainted. Gaia has the right to peacefully exist and to be

free of harm, violence or ecocide (to be murdered). Air, water, land and

ocean ecosystems are Gaia’s self-regulating internal ecosystem organs. All

Gaia’s creatures possess an equal claim upon a fair share of her bounty

for continued existence. Yet Gaia has a right to prohibit at any time,

using any means, any one species from over-running the biosphere and

habitats shared by all.

Sadly the industrial, speculative and unsustainable capitalistic economy

benefiting some humans is killing Earth. This growth machine in

population, economy and inequitable consumption has established as the

norm an immoral, short-sighted way of life based upon eating ecosystems

and children (or at least their future) to wantonly consume and grow a bit

more. If cumulative impacts of human ecosystem destruction upon Gaia

continue; the Earth System dies, taking humanity, all life and creation

with her. The current paradigm’s emphasis upon growth at all costs is so

pernicious that almost certainly only revolution, fundamental social

change and personal transformation can eradicate it.

Earth’s life – from seeds to plants, bees to trees, plant communities to

ecosystems, and all life in between – is remarkable. We are witnessing the

end product of 3.5 billion years of glorious evolution, now being cleared

for toilet paper and fish sticks. Three hundred years ago humans began

dismantling these priceless biological and ecological systems that provide  their habitat for growth in population, economies and consumption.  Somewhere around the time Europeans spilled forth to enslave and conquer  the world, this idea was lost. These ideals of ecological colonialism -  equating ecosystem destruction, biological diminishment, hierarchical  subjugation and growth in virtually everything; with progress – have spread globally, creating a world of over six billion human  super-predators. These beasts exist upon the flesh of Earth, and are  raping her supine bounty for selfish self-aggrandizement.

Ecological Internet is not the first or only one to note limits to growth  and collapsing ecosystems, however we are amongst the first to diagnose  people’s power Earth Revolution on Gaia’s behalf as the only workable  means to achieve ecologically sufficient solutions for global  sustainability.  Humanity has a long history of expanding rights necessary  for a broader sense of well-being to humans, and has fought just revolutions and wars to broaden this sphere of rights. The very same

Europeans whose worldview led them to slaughter natives and natural  ecosystems developed the Rights of Man, later amended to include most  women and races. In just the past few hundred years humans have made great  strides in personal liberty, freedom and equality that rank amongst the  greatest human achievements ever. Monarchy and systematic slavery have  largely been banished from Earth, and this is true human progress in  understanding the nature and rights of being.

Sadly human liberties remain incomplete, fragile and are not  universalized. Billions continue to live under authoritarian regimes,  women are not given equal rights in most places, billions more are unable  to exercise personal liberties as gross economic depredation leads to a scramble to survive, and the dominant economic system of hierarchical  capitalism continues to bind most to a life of slave wages. Shockingly,  two billion live on under $2/day, just under a billion each lack fresh water and food. And a system of elite rule remains firmly entrenched. Yet  the idea that all humans are created equal and enjoy liberties and freedom  has become established and continues to be perfected. Now what of the  rights of Earth that makes human rights possible?

The Rights of Earth and all creatures will surely be the next great  expansion of revealed truth and natural law. The non-human world – the  air, water, land, oceans and their plants and wildlife – provide the  living context for all biological existence including, for now, humans.  Together these ecosystems, organisms and their ecological processes and  patterns combine to create Gaia – a living, self-regulating organism -  who’s right to exist is independent of human notions of value. That is  birds, plants, trees, wildlife, wetlands and other ecosystems have  intrinsic value; and a right to exist independent of human needs and  wants. The disease that permeates the human condition is to continue  viewing Gaia as mere resources for consumption, rather than being  acknowledged as the ecosystems that make all life and the Rights of Man  possible.

This state of enraged human ecocide must end immediately at all costs.  Humans are entirely dependent upon Earth for every aspect of our  existence. Continued ignorance, greed, fear, or just giving up because we  are overwhelmed are not options. Each of us is now called to be the  greatest of the great generations and save Earth from ourselves, by  granting and enforcing her rights. Earth has the right to continue  evolving. It has the right to be free from human geoengineering technology  that further destroys creation. Earth has the right to not have its skin -  natural terrestrial ecosystems – peeled from its body. Water – the Earth’s  blood – has the right to flow freely creating the conditions for life.  Earth has a right to bounteous oceans, to be toxic free, to not drown in  carbon and nitrogen.

Earth has a right to exist independent of any other human concern -  including growing the economy and population, providing outrageous  consumption for some and little for others, or any obligation to lift the  over-populated poor from material poverty by destroying the future. The  biosphere has a right, indeed an obligation, to continue functioning  regardless of whether this inconveniences the wants of any one species or  some of its members. Without Gaia there is no being; no singing, politics,  love or making love, dance, sport, economics, living, or anything. Earth’s  rights are paramount over every other consideration. As the foundation of  known being, Earth is the ultimate truth. Gaia is God.

Earth and her humanity and all creatures are poised upon a precipice of  total and complete ecological and social collapse. Earth has the right to  mercilessly slaughter any creatures that threaten the integrity of the  whole and other parts. Insofar as knowledgeable humans can positively  help, Earth’s ecocide must be resisted at all costs using all means, or  being ends and there is nothing. Should the human animal – the current  rulers of Earth (for now anyway) fail to expand the notion of the Rights  of Earth, and stop its pervasive dismembering of Gaia, it will be to their  own detriment and eventual demise. As one species amongst many, continued  human being and shared survival depends upon taking a hard turn back to  Earth, natural ecosystems and Gaia’s defense.

Gaia and all creatures including humans have a right to ecological  self-defense. Gaia – and those with global ecological vision acting on her  behave – have the right to eradicate the disease consuming being. Earth  has the right to inspire revolution on its behalf. The past movements and  revolutions to end monarchy and slavery are examples but not blueprints.  Earth and those human defenders whom have evolved to fully appreciate  their connection with Gaia have a right to take any and all reasoned,  thoughtful actions deemed strategic to protect and restore Gaia – ranging  from protest, boycotts, civil disobedience, swarming, sabotage,  non-cooperation, insurgency , guerrilla warfare to global peoples’ power  Earth Revolution.

The meaning of the rest of enlightened human being is protecting and  restoring ecosystems making up our habitat – air, water, land, soils,  fish, oceans, toxics – and to make a just, equitable and sustainable world  for all Gaia’s creatures. You are encouraged to hurry back to land and  dedicate your being, your very life, to Gaia. Provision of Earth’s right  to exist means getting back to the land to protect terrestrial, water,  ocean and atmospheric ecosystems. Organic gardening, permaculture,  population limits, ending coal and old forest logging and much more are  keys to Earth and humanity’s survival.

All our shared futures, all life’s survival, are being determined now. If  Gaia undergoes much more ecosystem loss and diminishment, and her humaninhabitants fail to turn the corner to embrace ecological protection and  restoration, it almost certainly will be too late. Earth and her defenders  have all rights to use escalating revolutionary tactics, to do whatever is  necessary to avert an end to being. Indeed all global citizens that  understand what is at stake for the planet and all of Gaia’s shared  survival have a sacred obligation to slay the growth machine, banish  speculative and industrial capitalism, and return to a rewilded,  relocalized and a just, free, equitable and ecologically sustainable  Earth.

Simply, the environmental movement lifts its game and embraces radical  tactics or it’s over. What is continued being worth to you? What  sacrifices are you willing to make? Are you willing to organize,  sacrifice, protest, prepare, sabotage and revolt? Would you die fighting  for Earth’s continued being? A people’s power Earth Revolution must be  built. Long-standing campaigns, protests and petitions will continue and  expand. Some may engage in leaderless resistance Earth revolution, forming  autonomous cells with friends, to clandestinely sabotage the growth  machine. Continued intransigence by the elite, and a full-scale Earth  insurgency may be necessary, and there should be preparations now.

We are at a point in history where any future revolutions would rightly  find indiscriminate killing intolerable. There is no need for terrorism,  and this is not what is being discussed. Yet there are so very many soft  property targets for sabotage within the growth machine. To say “violence  is never the answer” as Earth is dying by known perpetrators relegates  biosphere and society to apocalyptic ecological collapse which will  assuredly not be non-violent. It is well past time for the global  ecological sustainability movement to carefully consider all options and  begin escalating its tactics. Or we can just roll over with Gaia and die.

Discuss essay at http://www.ecoearth.info/blog/ and
http://www.facebook.com/ecointernet

By Dr. Glen Barry