there exists exactly one biosphere

Environmental Organizations and Activists “must” unite – in a Federation, a Fellowship – to halt man-made Degradation of our Biosphere.

This is an APPEAL and a CHALLENGE to you, and all the other activists and leaders of the environmental movement.

The content of this site is based on 2 beliefs:

  1. There exists exactly one biosphere
  2. We humans are degrading the biosphere, and in doing so we degrade ourselves
    1. We do it consciously and deliberately
    1. We know the actions that cause the degradation
    1. We broadly know the technical solutions and social changes required
    1. We already experience some of the effects, and we know that unless we take massive, urgent, global action, we will cause unprecedented hardship for many future generations of humans (let alone other living things).

If you regard any of these statements to be untrue, or even doubtful, then this site is not for you. Instead, you could look at the following:  The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the International Panel on Climate Change, the IPBES-IPCC 2021 joint workshop report, the Rebuttal of a 500 “scientists” denier letter, any articles by George Monbiot, “The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review”, “Nature, Culture, and Inequality”, by Thomas Piketty and this short TED Talk.

Environmental Organizations and Activists “must” unite

“Must” is a dangerous word.  I use it too often, and it invariably backfires; “No, I mustn’t.  Who are you to tell me what I must do?” and back we go to kindergarten argument.  The intent of this site is to justify that “must”.

The Basic Argument is:

 1. The forces which compel us to continue with the unabashed degradation[1] of the biosphere are too entrenched, too old, too organized and too powerful to be stopped.  They will continue to do so for their own reasons – or to paraphrase Games of Thrones; They would watch the planet burn, if they could be lords of the ashes[2].

2. The Environmental Movement is, by comparison, young, fragmented and powerless.  It has had many successes, and I have nothing but respect and admiration for their knowledge, courage and persistence.  Yet the degradation continues.

Quite apart from the overwhelming pressures pushing for further degradation – on national, economic and blatant self-enrichment grounds – the Environmental Movement faces other impediments:

  • It is forced to communicate within the structure and language of the opponents, which shifts the global view back to national, social, economic and technical arguments.  As for language, maybe Humpty Dumpty[3] was right and words can mean anything we choose them to mean – it just depends on “which is to be master”.
  • The Environmental Movement is supported by a massive amount of scientific research and analysis – in both the “hard” and “soft” sciences.  This very mass of continually growing, ever changing and complex information may well be one of our problems.  As Yuval Harari puts it: “Despite – or perhaps because of – our hoard of data, we are continuing to spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, pollute rivers and oceans, cut down forests, destroy entire habitats, drive countless species to extinction, and jeopardise the ecological foundations of our own species. We are also producing ever more powerful weapons of mass destruction, from thermonuclear bombs to doomsday viruses. Our leaders don’t lack information about these dangers, yet instead of collaborating to find solutions, they are edging closer to a global war.”

3. My naïve answer to all the above is that the currently disjointed Environmental Movement needs to unite into a new, coherent structure, a Federation, to successfully influence our society into halting and reversing – if that is still possible – the degradation of the biosphere.  I imagine the structure to look like some amalgam of a United Nations, a multi-national Corporation and a Religion.

4. The objections are easy to predict:

  • This is a pie-in-the-sky proposal. It will fail given our current national, political and financial realities.
  • We are too busy taking environmental actions on the ground.  We don’t have the time or energy to create another organization.
  • Financing our operations is a continuous struggle. This “federation” will consume money in overheads.  Where will it come from?
  • We value our independence and work according to our own ethics and priorities.  We do not want to be part of some overarching bureaucracy. 

These concerns are all valid. They need to be tackled and resolved as part of the process.  Given the reality that degradation of the biosphere is becoming worse instead of better, we must (that word again) stop, take stock and refocus our discussion on the most basic values.  This may be a brutal and tedious exercise. I believe it to be necessary.  Once through it we can more easily look at details, explore options and wax poetic again.

REFOCUS

Now, if you are still with me, let’s refocus: “There exists exactly one biosphere” is our basic axiom. We represent it by the symbol[4] “∃!O” and in a diagram as a thin blue circle:

The biosphere is a gossamer-thin film[5] on our planet. It is part of the total physical universe.  It is unique (“There is no planet B”).  It is bounded and logical.  It just is and will continue to be[6].

Humans are a subset of the biosphere.  With our big brains, opposable thumbs, tools and language we think we’re quite special.  And we are – but we tend to forget that we’re made of the same dirt as everything else.

No biosphere : No humanity ↔ Degraded biosphere : Degraded humanity.

Then there exists something else; all the “dreams” we humans have invented in our minds – the universe of our imagination.  It is essentially unbounded.  This “something” has features that are logical, contradictory and chaotic, all at once. It has no physical reality, and much of it is not real in any sense[7]. It is represented here as a cloud.

This universe of our imagination can only exist if humans exist. It is composed of the stories we tell each other[8].

To avoid continually typing “the universe of our imagination” I use the symbol “C” as a shorthand. 

“C” includes everything outside the physical universe; Civilization, Commerce, Caste, Culture, Clan, Cartel, Capitalism, Cabal, Politics, Society, Religion, History, Art, Science, Philosophy, Music, Good, Poetry, Lies, Mathematics, Ethics, Nation, Sect, Party, Time, NGO, Evil, Union, The Economy, Ownership, The Media, Freedom, Pride, Grief, Truth, Happiness, Latitude and Longitude, Taxes, Fairies and so forth…

C and the biosphere interact, but only through the individual human.

The interactions between a human and C are stories.  The interactions between a human and the biosphere are physical actions.

 Our imaginary universe, “C”, cannot directly act in the biosphere.  Likewise, the biosphere cannot tell any stories. We create the stories [“Mother Nature”, “Gaia”, “The weather forecast”] and share them within C.

No humanity : No C ↔ Degraded humanity : Degraded C

If we now imagine C as some sort of vague sea, full of currents, sparkling waves and abysmal depths, we can see a swirling, seemingly infinite mass of strange shape-shifting creatures. They emerge from the complex network of stories shared among humans.

The term “creature” is of course a piece of imagination itself.  It simply denotes subsets of all our imaginary constructs, of the entity “C”.  I draw just a few of these subsets as little clouds within the overall C. Often they overlap (e.g. Religions and Nations)

Which gets us back to point 1 of the Basic Argument at the start of this page;  The forces abetting the degradation of the biosphere can be drawn as a relatively large solid cloud within C.  The content of this cloud has been called Neoliberalism, Oligarchism, Capitalism of various colors, and sundry other names. 

I use the symbol “E” to represent this subset of C.  E is responsible for the degradation of the biosphere.  Responsible, how?  By creating and sharing biased information that influences individual humans to carry out destructive actions in the biosphere. Those “E stories” drown out all others, even as they lead to negative outcomes for the bulk of humanity.

Let me be clear: E is the toxic subset of the vast collection of ideas about governance, finance and the applications of science and technology.  Those overall concepts feed 8 billion people. They give healthier, richer lives to most of us. They are and will continue to be an integral part of our humanity.

In contrast to E there are also numerous subsets of C that create more positive stories and so influence humans to carry out beneficial physical actions within the biosphere.  These subsets are the current Environmental / Ecological Organizations. By comparison to E, they are very young, small and disorganized. (shown here in green)  

Only by merging, creating a new entity – a Federation, (with the symbol “F”) – can we hope to achieve the required success.

OK – so we have a pretty diagram.  How does that help in practical action on the ground?  Honestly, I don’t know.  Maybe it can help tell the complicated story of the biosphere and our relation to it.

For our purpose here, the diagram and the two symbols “E” and “F” will make the following, more detailed, discussions easier.  We won’t need to continuously define what we mean by E and F. 

Why E and F anyway? As a mnemonic let them stand for Empire and Federation. Of course, that begs for more explanation.  Just for fun you may like to look at the blog entry “Any Metaphor in a Storm”

We can now restate the initial – “Environmental Organizations and Activists “must” unite” – into something simpler, without the distraction of complicated words, namely: We must form “F” to effectively influence and change “E”.

Using the symbols E and F allows us to see the big picture[9].  The symbols reduce the emotion related to what we are doing and encourage logical approaches.  The symbols also hide the individuals that develop and practice E’s philosophy.  This impersonal approach is opposite to what many environmental activists want to do; to expose the leaders within E.  However, the emotions that many of us feel towards these individuals may well cloud our judgement and lead us to counterproductive actions.

IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?

Well, of course it’s possible.  We can certainly envisage F as a United Nations without the shackles of national interests and spiteful vetoes, or as a science-based religion, or a mixture of both.  We have enough future fiction to provide models. But that’s just toying with words.  Can F, even if formed and active, be successful? It will be a struggle to induce E into a major course change before damage to the biosphere becomes irreparable.  Here however, are some indicators that success is truly possible:

The “social DNA” to create F exists and is shown by:

  • Readiness to sacrifice personal safety and comfort in pursuit of higher goals. Prime examples: War, Disaster Relief… [Sports competitions, Taylor Swift and Adele concerts[10]]
  • Ability to create and control complex social structures across national, racial, economic and religious divides. Examples: Religions, NGO’s.

Our culture/society is primed for the evolution of new structures like F:

  • The complex, networked structure of our global society facilitates the rapid evolution of new self-organizing creatures (e.g. Social Media, Extremist Politics)
  • Communication is now practically instantaneous.  New constructs can emerge in days.  F could be alive and active in a blindingly short time (ref. the millions of views of a viral YouTube spot)
  • F can overcome E’s 10,000-year head start.

We don’t have to convince everybody:

  • As Monbiot and Hutchinson[11] state: “Both observational and experimental data suggest that once roughly 25 percent of the population is committed to change, most of the rest of society quickly joins them.”  (In the US a 10% shift of uncommitted voters would result in landslide results[12])
  • They continue: “The most important question that humanity has ever faced is whether we can reach the social tipping points (to effectively oppose the degradation) before we reach the environmental tipping points.”
  • For a united F that is an achievable goal!

E is afraid:

  • E is not stupid, quite the opposite;  It is a brilliant psychologist, technological innovator, relentless marketeer and ruthless manipulator.
  • But behind the facade it knows it has an illogical, impossible foundation.  It knows it cannot disregard the absolute limits of the biosphere and understands the mathematical impossibility of unlimited growth. E is aware that it cannot sustain its contempt for the welfare of humanity as a whole. 
  • Look at the humans E selects and rewards to be its most visible extremities.  Those choices signal the desperation, and eagerness for ruinous action, that lie at the heart of E.
  • E knows that F, in some form, is coming.  Its violence against protesters, and others that seem to threaten E, is proof that it is afraid of the future and has no coherent plan.
  • Even if E succeeds in its apparent mission to massively degrade the planet, either through continued exploitation, or through nuclear war, it knows that it will itself be destroyed.

HOW DO WE GET STARTED? – Simple, we arrange a meeting (virtual of course). Here’s the agenda:

INAUGURAL MEETING AGENDA

This agenda is a draft, a plausible piece of future fiction.  A fuller discussion of each agenda item, especially comparisons between E and F, are in the .pdf document on 1biosphere.org. Here, I include some short comments on the few items that will likely be topics at an initial meeting.  Clearly the entire list is way beyond the scope of any single discussion.

  • Welcome, Housekeeping, Introductions
    • [Getting to this point will be a definite win!]
  • Vision, Goals, Ethics
    • Vision and Goals
    • Ethics
      • [It is foolish for me to try and suggest a Vision for F (the Federation).  It needs to emerge from F itself.  The setting of the Vision, Goals and the underlying Ethics will happen in parallel to the creation of F.  As F evolves, it will set its own goals.  Our initial responsibility is to define the most basic ethics and limits.]
  • Scope, Governance, Structure, Leadership
    • Scope
      • [Needs to be global to be successful.  But an initial meeting will realistically need to be small, maybe a handful of interested people.]
    • Governance
    • Structure
    • Leadership
  • Money Matters
    • [One fun thought: It seems logical that all countries should match their current spending on the military (for national defense and security) by an equal amount on preventing degradation of the biosphere (again for national defense and security]
  • Marketing
    • Marketing is possibly the most important new, or different, aspect of F, when compared to the existing Environmental Organizations.  E is the absolute Master of Marketing. Marketing within F needs to create and “sell” the story that we still have a unique opportunity to bring about an enlightenment period unlike any in human history.  John Kerry, in an interview, stated: “The movement writ large [that would be F, 😉] needs to do a hell of a lot better job communicating to people that on the other side of this transition is a better world — cleaner, safer, healthier, more secure.”
  • Consumption
  • Politics, Justice, Violence
  • Time
  • Religions
  • Partners / Alliances
  • Population
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Next Steps

Appendix 1 – Degradation

Biosphere Degradation goes way beyond Climate Change.  The items listed below are connected inside the complex systems of the biosphere.  This list does not affect the primary argument for the creation of the federation (F).  It does, however, become important when we discuss the operational structure of F. It is almost certainly incomplete, and additions are welcome

Solving (or at least reducing) any one problem will not necessarily solve any others.

For instance: Let’s assume that climate change – arguably the most important threat – is solved overnight. A miraculous breakthrough gives us low temperature fusion.  Pollution free energy at ridiculously low cost becomes available for everyone.  GHG emissions tumble, stock markets soar.  As a result, consumption also soars, plastics become cheaper than dirt, waste skyrockets as all nations demand standards of living comparable to the US and Europe.  Biodiversity plummets. Will future generations be happier?

We need to tackle all of it:

Waste and Pollution

  • Green House Gases (In excess over some pre-industrial norm)
  • Plastics (Nano to Macro)
  • Particulates/Aerosols
  • Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Fertilizers
  • Industrial/Military (Heavy Metals, Fire Retardants, Defoliants, spent U)
  • Cement
  • Noise, Light, Orbital Debris
  • Heat (Industrial, Energy Generation, Air Conditioning)
  • Collateral Damage (Fishing “bycatch” and seafloor damage, Industrial Agriculture, Kills from pets, Bird kills from buildings)
  • Food (30 – 40 – 50% becomes waste)

Depletion of Non-Renewable[13] Resources

  • Water (Aquifers)
  • Soil (Erosion, Nutrient Depletion, Mono-cultures)
  • Elements (Rare Earths, Helium)
  • Life (Species Decline/Extinction)
  • Fossil Fuels

Exploitation of Humanity (Humanity is a subset of the biosphere, so degradation of humans is a degradation of the biosphere)

  • Slave labor (or its equivalents) – enforced through economic pressures and physical violence
  • Debt accumulation
  • Physical effects of Waste and Pollution
  • Psychological effects of biosphere degradation
  • Health effects[14] (physical and mental) from overwork, stress, drugs, food additives, loss of community, loss of habitat
  • Migration, and hence refugees, resulting from the above conditions
  • Destruction of human heritage. This item does not strictly fall under the heading of “Exploitation of Humanity”.  It is however related and illustrates some of the mindset of E.  Examples, among many, are: Australian Aboriginal sites through mining operations, Religious and cultural objects by the Taliban in Afghanistan, Geoglyphs in the Atacama desert of Chile.

Each of us contributes to this degradation.  Some more than others. There has been extensive research into how much degradation is caused by various populations – especially in the emission of Green House Gases.  No surprise: wealthy populations degrade more.  F should drive a broader and more rigorous examination and publication of this issue.

Appendix 2 – Symbols

Using symbols: 

Throughout this site I keep using symbols.  Most people find them annoying.  Some accept them, but don’t see any further use.  I find them a useful shorthand to keep me on track and, once I combine them with some rudimentary operators, show up logical holes in my arguments.  Also symbols, once they become accepted, make useful slogans and memes.

Unfortunately, I used different symbols for the same concept as I learned more and shifted focus.  I apologize for the resulting confusion.  For instance, I used “B” for the biosphere until it dawned on me that ∃!B (there exists exactly one biosphere) is directly opposite to “there is no planet B”.  So I had to drop the B.  And so on.

For now, I’ll try and stick with this little ditty:  

It was meant to be so easy; A,B,C and D,E,F;

  • A – for Planet “A”, our Earth – with its blue circle biosphere
  • B – can’t be – “There is no Planet B” – so here’s a gap
  • C – for Civilization, the cerebral construct
  • E – equals Evil Empire?  No – Just “E”.  Egged on by Ego?
  • F – for our future freedom fighting  Federation
  • But where is Humanity and the single human in this? – H? and h?
  • How about D?  Demografía – ¡olé! – Humanity
  • We slide the D in place of B (which doesn’t exist)
  • And get A ↔D↔C, and E and F

We just need a poet for rhyme and a songwriter for rhythm and we’re done

Appendix 3 – Other Items

The “sister” site 1biosphere.org contains the “APPEAL and a CHALLENGE” document in a more extensive format.  My intent is to revise that document as needed.  The site itself is a placeholder and will become active once there is an interest in taking the Federation idea forward.

The countdown to the US national elections, in the sidebar at right, draws attention to the importance of this contest. Not only the presidential race, but the house, senate, state and more local contests will have global implications for the degradation of the biosphere. No matter who comes into power, and how convincing their mandate will be, the need for a federation of environmental organizations will remain. E’s influence will continue unabated.

The old home page is archived here. It’s a bit of a mess, but still has some points worth remembering. The core item being the importance of stories and how we need to create better stories – a major job of the marketing arm of the proposed federation (F)

Foot Notes

[1] Biosphere Degradation goes way beyond global warming.  My definition is in Appendix 1

[2] GOT. The original quote is “Littlefinger would watch the Realm burn, if he could be King of the Ashes”

[3] “When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ ’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things. ’’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.’” / Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

[4] Many people see symbols as barriers to understanding.  I do believe that they bring several advantages:

  • Reduce a complex system to a single symbol
  • Allow a logical foundation
  • Prevent misinterpretation through poor word choice
  • Allow us to concentrate on essentials by removing emotion
  • Symbols are key identity elements for nations, religions and many other human groups. They will be powerful in creating a global image for the proposed Federation of Environmental Organizations.

[5] Just how thin is the biosphere? See this video for a fun explanation.

[6] Any other basic axiom, or creation myth, may be added to the “There exists exactly one Biosphere” statement – from the Big Bang Theory to Turtles All The Way Down.  It does not alter the argument.

[7] With regard to C (the universe of human imaginations) you may ask; what about movies, books, sculptures, all the thoughts we have stored on digital media, the sound waves of speech and music? They are all physical and real. Yes, all those things are part of the biosphere. They are part of what makes us human, because we can pass on knowledge across generations. But without humanity to interpret those physical artifacts they become just unusual arrangements of molecules. By extension a degraded humanity, through lack of skill, education, opportunity etc. can only interpret that stored knowledge in a limited manner.

[8] Yuval Harari expresses the concept of better, of course: “For thousands of years we humans have lived inside the dreams of other humans. We have worshiped gods, pursued ideals of beauty, and dedicated our lives to causes that originated in the imagination of some prophet, poet or politician.”  (He goes on to say “Soon we will also find ourselves living inside the hallucinations of non-human intelligence”)

[9] As my ideas on this web site evolved, I have used different symbols.  I apologize for the confusion.  E and F seem like good choices right now (see Appendix 2).  But when the Federation actually gets going and develops a marketing strategy, they will no doubt change again.

[10] Comments in square brackets [  ] are not meant to be taken too seriously

[11] “Invisible Doctrine – The Secret History Of Neoliberalism” by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchinson – available through The Guardian and in the US through Amazon, a Guardian review here.

[12] I say a 10% swing would create a landslide result in the USA. Because of the skewed national election process, it could be a very much smaller number; “Can 0.03% of US votes really swing the presidential election?  Hundreds of millions of Americans cast their votes in the US election, but a tiny fraction of those can swing the race for one candidate or another.”

[13] I use the word “non-renewable” in the sense that these resources have built up over long timeframes and cannot be renewed, even with advanced technology, on any comparable human timescale. The depletion of fossil fuels over two hundred years will take millions of years to return naturally. Water drawn from artesian basins over decades will take hundreds of years to replenish.

[14] Health Effects: The 2024 Europe report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: unprecedented warming demands unprecedented action. “This new report tracks 42 indicators highlighting the negative impacts of climate change on human health, the delayed climate action of European countries, and the missed opportunities to protect or improve health with health-responsive climate action”

Rev: 2024-09-27