We are wounding the biosphere.  We need to stop, and then heal

My use of the terms “Environmental Crisis” and “Environmental Healing” needs further explanation.

The subject of Environmental Crisis / Healing is huge.  Trying to write short, sharp, accessible stories becomes very tough.  Maybe I am trying to do too much? 

But then that is exactly the point of “1biosphere” – not to reexamine the underlying research, or to once again produce another report, nor to rewrite an article about what we can expect and what needs to be done. Others, far more qualified, more eloquent and with far greater resources have done that valuable work.

What this site is about are 2 things: 

• First;  find those very short stories that can capture the imagination of the currently silent majority and create a political, social and economic environment that will allow Environmental Healing, and
• Second; underpin those stories by chains of fact – through those articles, reports and research – to show 1bio stories to be verifiably “true”.

And it needs your help.

In “The Idea” for 1bio I define the biosphere as being that closed system where all life occurs:

We humans are injuring every part of this system.  Many of these cuts, burns and poisonings are beyond the capacity of the biosphere to repair. Some will set off a cascade of further problems if we do not stop making the wounds bigger every day. That is why it is a crisis.

The biosphere does not care.  It will go on in one way or another.  But we need to care, because each injury to the system will rebound on us – biologically, economically, socially and spiritually.  The more we wound the system, the more we will be hurt in return.

We can’t escape that reality.  There is no alternate biosphere. We are physically part of it.  We are all inside it, together.

Of course there are deniers and vacillators.  They are not stupid.  They are intelligent, quick witted and can see where this is going.  There will be costs!  Costs not just in money terms, but in comfort, luxury, entitlements, rights. They can see these costs and are unwilling to pay the price. So they develop their own stories – sharp, compelling, vivid stories – promising an easy road to the future. Taken at face value their stories are more attractive than ours.  But they lack the supporting chain of facts.  And that is something we need to tackle as well.

By Environmental Healing I simply mean, first, stop harming the biosphere and, second, reverse the harm done – if that is even possible.

Practically every part of the biosphere is undergoing its own crisis.  Each one of these interacts with the others, compounding the difficulty of description, analysis and prediction.

With that said here are some “bullet points” of the  Environmental Crisis:

GLOBAL WARMING

Global Warming with all the consequences; Climate Change, Sea Level Rise, Intensity of Weather Events and so forth, captures most attention.  It is first because of the many negative effects and the size of the potential economic harm.  

I also believe that this is top of the list because it can be treated as a technical problem.  We speak of Gigatons of CO2, trapping of solar radiation, feedback loops, albedo and global average temperature changes in fractions of a degree.  We speak of the remedies in equally technological terms; carbon dioxide sequestration, solar PV, pumped storage, electric vehicles, advanced SMRs, shoreline protection, disaster resilience, ESG, geoengineering. 

MINING of MINERALS and COAL

Destruction of environment, pollution from the mining operation, tailing dumps and waste lagoons of toxic materials. Pollution of streams and groundwater.  Health effects on the workers and the surrounding communities.  Destruction of significant sites – biological, archeological and spiritual.

LIQUID and GAS FOSSIL FUELS

Quite apart from the CO₂ released when these fuels are burnt (Really – we unearth these million year old treasures and burn them?) we have accidental releases of gas and/or oil during production, transport and refining. We have negative effects on all the living things near these sites.  Fracking chemicals.

SOIL

Agricultural practices, Deforestation, Salt pans when farming marginal land, Monocultures.

OCEANS 

Currents, Reefs, Aquatic life, Fishing, Acidification, Plastics.

FRESH WATER

Falling aquifers, Changing rainfall patterns, Pollution from personal, industrial and agricultural sources.

AIR

Pollution, Greenhouse Gases, More intense weather, Changed weather patterns.

PLANTS

Deforestation, Monocultures, Loss of diversity, Species loss, Invasive species, Insect infestations, Wildfires.

ANIMALS

Loss of diversity, Loss of species, Loss of habitat, Insect “collapse”. 

Wild land animals exist only at our pleasure.  Whales as well.  

HUMANS

Too many of us – we have tripled since I went to school.  It’s a hugely difficult subject but has to be discussed.  We consume too much.  We waste too much. We already have climate wars and climate refugees.  There will be more.  We cling to artificial concepts like nations, religions and politics.  The biosphere does not recognize any of those things.

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The biosphere has gone through crises before.  Many in the long history of the planet, some within one human generation.  

The ancient crises; climate change, ice ages, meteorites, did massively change the biosphere and cause vast destruction.  But the repairs and adjustments were made over time spans we can barely imagine.  We, with our frantic lives, do not have the luxury of evolutionary or geologic time.

Two recent examples are the acid rain problem of the 1970 to 1990’s and the ozone holes, which came to public attention at much the same time.  Both were overcome, against resistance of course, but nevertheless with reasonable success and without huge economic impact.  

For acid rain the answer was scrubbing the exhaust gases of coal fired plants to reduce the emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.  

The ozone holes over each pole were tackled by an international agreement to phase out CFCs and Halons. The task is not over yet; NASA predicts the ozone holes will not return to 1980 levels until 2075.

There are lasting scars from both crises; eroded stone ornaments, disrupted plant and animal life, health issues such as skin cancers, breathing difficulties etc.  

If we could so “easily” resolve those crises why can’t we do the same for the current Environmental Crisis?  Because:

• The problems were essentially technical and had known technical solutions
• The problem could be solved by a relatively small number of corporations acting under public and government pressure and in their own self interest
• The problems, although widespread, were not global
• Most people did not have to change their way of life (except in some trivial ways; e.g. if you had an old car and could not obtain CFC to recharge the AC then the repair was very pricey)
• Politics was simpler; governments made binding decisions and enforced them

Sadly none of those conditions apply to what we face today.

We are wounding the biosphere.  We need to stop, and then heal

Below is a breakdown of the “Biden $2 trillion plan – which is great news but will be subject to a lot of tough negotiation. And here’s a hypothetical question: “Should a country spend the same amount on “green” programs as on the military (approx $5.6T over 8 years), or more?”

So, what is the story?…

It’s great news, especially after the last 4 years.

But now it will be a fight for every penny. The minority leader in the US senate already announced that “I’m going to fight them every step of the way…”. We can be sure the plan will undergo alteration in the next few months. And who knows what will happen to it over the next 8 years.

We can also be sure that the military budget will be passed year after year.

Almost certainly the economic, social and national security implications of the Environmental Crisis will be larger than anything facing our military. The budget to fight the crisis should be the same or bigger than the military one.

Money is our madness, our vast collective madness.  (D. H. Lawrence)

Given my personal relationship with money it is the height of folly to even approach this subject.  However, elsewhere I state that the Environmental Activists and their organizations are vastly outspent by players in “The Economy”.  So here I quote some numbers just to support that contention.

As a yardstick let me use the Earthshot Prize.  This is a sought after award introduced in 2020, with the first five winners to be announced in 2021.  Each winner will receive 1 million pounds to “inspire and celebrate new, collaborative action to meet the environmental challenges we face”. 

The Earthshot Prize then totals $US 65 million (approx) over 10 years (£50 million).  That sum is enhanced by the prestige, support and publicity surrounding the prize.  It is very generous and will no doubt be leveraged many times over by the recipients and the Earthshot Alliance.  

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$65 million is:

• The net income of Apple Inc. in 10 hours (2019)
• Jeff Bezos’ net worth increase in 5 hours
• Lockheed Martin’s sticker price for one F35 aircraft (plus another $65 million to fly it for about a year)
• The value of oil shipped from Saudi Arabia in 3 days
• The value of natural gas on 4 LNG carriers
• US spending on pet food in 15 hours (source:Statista)
• 5 ½ minutes of super-bowl  (US “football”) ads ($5.6 million per 30 seconds)
• A bit less than the value of Everydays: the First 5,000 Days; a mosaic of every image that artist Mike Winkelmann, who goes by the name Beeple, has made since 2013. The artwork is attached to a non-fungible token (NFT), a digital certificate of authenticity that runs on blockchain technology.

…which handily provides a segue into crypto-currencies and NFTs

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Crypto-currencies

When I saw the headline “Bitcoin uses more electricity than Argentina” my immediate reaction was to add Bitcoin, and all the other crypto currencies into the “bad” column.  Actually the “more bad” column, given my previous dismissal of crypto as a worthwhile investment (a predictable part of my relationship to money).

Then, inevitably, there is an opposing view in Forbes, which makes me rethink crypto. Does it need to go in the “Maybe not so bad” column?  Is it a valuable tool that allows fast and easy money transfers safe from inflation, exchange fees, dictatorial governments and confiscation? Is the energy cost justified?

Based on the Forbes article here are some comparison numbers and a concluding quote:

• Electricity use in 1 year:
  • Bitcoin   12 TWh
  • Gold mining 132 TWh
  • Banking 140 TWh
  • Grid loss US 200 TWh (my calculation; 4009 TWh generated, 5% loss)

“The bottom line is this: as renewable energies become cheaper, bitcoin will become greener – and so will everything else. There is no question that bitcoin, the blockchain, cryptographic currencies, and DLT [Distributed Ledger Technology] protocols must all seek to lower their energy consumption and reduce their carbon footprints – but we all do: central banks, financial institutions, the mining sector… and you and me.”

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The Biden green plan

$3 to maybe $4 trillion !

If the numbers being reported are correct that would be a green and gold* moment for the Environmental Crisis.

But there are a few issues:

• The actual numbers are hard to parse.  It is just a plan, the numbers are under discussion.The legislation will go through lengthy negotiations and amendments before being passed.
• Green spending is tied into a huge number of other priorities; highways, bridges, broadband, water and sewer lines, railways, ports, the grid, human infrastructure such as housing and child care etc.
• Finally all of this spending is subject to reversal if power in the US government shifts again.  Hence 1biosphere and the call for stories to generate political action.

*which happen to be the national colors of Australia. The national colours, green and gold, hold a treasured place in the Australian imagination. Long associated with Australian sporting achievements, the national colours have strong environmental connections. Gold conjures images of Australia’s beaches, mineral wealth, grain harvests and the fleece of Australian wool. Green evokes the forests, eucalyptus trees and pastures of the Australian landscape.