We have already done irreversible (in our lifetimes) damage to the soil, water, air, and life forms of Earth.

More than 75% of the topsoil that existed worldwide when Europeans first colonized America is now gone and substantial damage has been done to the water cycle by cutting our forests.

In this chapter we’ll explore this subject and learn what it means for our future. By burning trees, coal, and oil, we’re currently pouring over six billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year, an explosion compared to the 1.6 billion tons we spit out in 1950. That carbon (most in the form of the gas carbon dioxide) is creating a greenhouse shield which is believed by the United Nations and informed scientists to be causing wild extremes of weather worldwide. Grain and food production in both America and the rest of the world peaked during the 1980s (and have been declining in the 1990s), leading to both record profits for the agriculture companies and the most widespread hunger and starvation in the history of the planet.

How can it be that our scientific knowledge, which is real and produces tangible benefits, is also leading to a disruption of our existence? The answer is that the tangible results come in isolated specific arenas, and their gains are accomplished by mortgaging our future: spending one part of the system to benefit another. (excerpt from the book)

 

The climate centres around the world, which are the equivalent of the pathology lab of a hospital, have reported the Earth's physical condition, and the climate specialists see it as seriously ill, and soon to pass into a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years. I have to tell you, as members of the Earth's family and an intimate part of it, that you and especially civilisation are in grave danger.

Our planet has kept itself healthy and fit for life, just like an animal does, for most of the more than three billion years of its existence. It was ill luck that we started polluting at a time when the sun is too hot for comfort. We have given Gaia a fever and soon her condition will worsen to a state like a coma. She has been there before and recovered, but it took more than 100,000 years. We are responsible and will suffer the consequences: as the century progresses, the temperature will rise 8 degrees centigrade in temperate regions and 5 degrees in the tropics.

Much of the tropical land mass will become scrub and desert, and will no longer serve for regulation; this adds to the 40 per cent of the Earth's surface we have depleted to feed ourselves.

Curiously, aerosol pollution of the northern hemisphere reduces global warming by reflecting sunlight back to space. This "global dimming" is transient and could disappear in a few days like the smoke that it is, leaving us fully exposed to the heat of the global greenhouse. We are in a fool's climate, accidentally kept cool by smoke, and before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.

My new book The Revenge of Gaia expands these thoughts, but you still may ask why science took so long to recognise the true nature of the Earth. I think it is because Darwin's vision was so good and clear that it has taken until now to digest it. In his time, little was known about the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans, and there would have been little reason for him to wonder if organisms changed their environment as well as adapting to it.

We should be the heart and mind of the Earth, not its malady. So let us be brave and cease thinking of human needs and rights alone, and see that we have harmed the living Earth and need to make our peace with Gaia. We must do it while we are still strong enough to negotiate, and not a broken rabble led by brutal war lords. Most of all, we should remember that we are a part of it, and it is indeed our home.

 

Put good food on your table, put good products in your home, plant a tree, drive a cool car, stop being toxic—these are five of the 10 simplistic but generally sensible bromides espoused by health magazine publisher Steinman. He's earnest, sometimes even bombastic, about how an army of "green patriots" can individually and incrementally confront global warming by embracing a "carbon-neutral" lifestyle. The "good food" chapter harrowingly recounts a visit to California's Central Valley—the most productive agricultural land in the United States but also the site of pesticides and poisoned water that have sickened generations of farm workers. However, his solution—to buy locally, eat organically and patronize food producers who emphasize organic products—is still out of reach for most Americans. A chapter on the importance of trees in combating global warming starts with the big picture of Costa Rica's remarkable commitment to reforestation before narrowing its focus to a list of manufacturers providing recycled papers. The ethic of every-little-thing-helps infuses the book—the author even counsels such micro-acts as unplugging unused appliances that draw "standby" power.

Physicist Romm, a veteran of the Department of Energy and founder and director of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, presents a clear and effective primer on climate science. But the most salient aspects of this provocative expose involve Romm's documentation of what he calls the Bush administration's irresponsible and backward energy policies, the censorship of legitimate and urgent information pertaining to global warming, and the threats rising temperatures pose to "the health and well-being of this nation and the world." Romm explains that we already possess the technologies and know-how we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; what we lack is the will to act. As Romm analyzes the "miscoverage" of global-warming realities in the press, especially the facts pertaining to dire changes already affecting plants, animals, and humans, he laments the perversity and folly of politicizing a global crisis. We must recognize, Romm asserts, that "ideology trumps rationality" all too often in public discourse, preventing us from doing what needs to be done to avert still preventable catastrophes. (Amazon.com)