Like his Presidency, it is time for President Bush's looting, plundering, and pillaging of America’s natural beauty, ecological treasures and vital ecosystems to end

TAKE ACTION! The Bush Administration is rushing out long-term plans that would convert over 2 million acres of Oregon's national forests, with their towering trees, rushing rivers, and superb wildlife habitat, to empty clearcuts. Much of the forests under siege are in the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion [search] nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Cascade Crest, which contains some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the continent. There are some 20,000 miles of rivers, where wild Pacific salmon thrive. Ancient old-growth forests are abundant -- home to huge Douglas fir, western hemlock and western red cedar trees -- some well over 400 years old.

The plan increases logging by 400% and would target 100,000 acres of old-growth forests for destruction. Oregon Governor Kulongoski is the only elected official standing between the Bush Administration and western Oregon's forests, rivers and salmon. He is allowed a 60-day "consistency review" period to propose recommendations for changes to land use plans. Please encourage the governor to propose significant amendments, pushing this decision to the Obama administration. TAKE ACTION!

A coal plant permit in Utah was rejected [ark] yesterday by the E.P.A on the basis of lack of control of carbon dioxide [search]. The ruling puts in question permits for as many as 100 new plants [search], and should aid lawsuits against them as well.

This comes as the International Energy Agency confirms that coal will continue being the leading source of energy globally until at least 2030 [ark]. A week earlier in their annual report that had warned that the world's energy use was "patently unsustainable" [ark] and warned of 6°C rise in average global temperatures [ark]. As long as coal is burned to produce electricity, dumping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, there is zero chance of maintaining historically reliable climatic patterns or a habitable Earth.

The No Ecology, No Economic Recovery Ever -- $75K or Bust – Keeping Green Hope Alive, Funding Appeal.

Dear Fellow Earth-Lovers,

It is time for Ecological Internet's (EI) annual end-of-year fund-raiser, which provides well over half of our modest yearly budget. We absolutely must raise $75,000 before the end of the year, or our 15 year effort on behalf of the Earth using the Internet comes to an end. With the past year of innovation and success, and with your help, we expect to do so. As a key network participant, I would like to ask YOU to make a donation to support EI's vital non-profit work on behalf of the Earth. Please donate NOW.

Ecological Internet (EI) -- guided by ecological science and using advanced IT networking -- promotes ambitious, sufficient ecological policies necessary to achieve global ecological sustainability. Our email network of tens of thousands of people -- including you, and millions of web users -- from virtually every country, seeks to bring about a higher level of consciousness regarding humanity's dependence upon the Earth for our shared survival. No one else is taking this approach at near the scale or level of success anywhere in the world.

The environment movement is failing because of a dearth of truth telling and a profound lack of ambition. Apart from what sells, is compatible with public opinion, or may remain unknown at the time; ecological truth exists and matters deeply. These truths include the laws of the universe and requirements for existence of organic life. When Homo sapiens perceived themselves, and lived, as one with the Earth, there was no problem. But now the ever so pugnacious hairless ape has asserted mastery over nature, with dire consequences that remain to be fully realized.

Shared survival depends critically upon first fully knowing and feeling eco-crises, and then formulating and implementing ecologically sufficient personal and social transformations. Let us be clear. We know of no life on Earth or elsewhere that does not require water, and in most cases an atmosphere and soil. The naturally evolved ecosystems required for human survival have been, and are being, ripped to shreds by a way of living that is wantonly ungrounded in requirements for maintaining the Earth and all life. The imminent end result can only be grisly, grimy despair and then death -- the end of existence for all.

New Earth Rising is based upon the premise that critical aspects, inter-relationships and the magnitude of the Earth crises remain unknown, thus sufficient and workable policies able to make a difference are unable to be proposed and implemented. Indeed, in its most basic and essential form, knowing the coming ecological Armageddon is quite simple: like a disease upon creation, humanity is burning and cutting the natural ecosystems that are the foundation and provide habitat for all life. At this point we must pray to Gaia that the Earth is more resilient than supposed, and that a revolutionary spirit of action can be awakened in time to continue being and ensure shared survival.

There is still hope things can be turned around. And the responses, difficult as they may seem in terms of gut-wrenching change and sacrifice, are equally straight-forward: ending the use of coal and ancient forest logging would largely solve the climate and biodiversity crises, and get us at least half way to equitable and just global ecological sustainability. The rest of the mess including soil, water, toxics and oceans are not insubstantial, and each could eliminate us and all complex life in their own right. But if the upright apes can simply stop cutting and burning -- and begin an era of ecological protection and restoration -- we have a real chance to address these other issues, and of surviving as a species, with other life, on a living Earth.

Ecological Internet's new e-zine, New Earth Rising, which I am pleased to hereby inaugurate, is committed to shrill yet reasoned ecological truth telling, and laying the foundation to obstruct all that lies between global citizenry and shared survival.  Our gamut is quite broad as militarism, poverty, elite rule and other issues all have an ecological sustainability element and will in turn be examined in order to know ecological truth so we together can take sufficient action. This issue is a bit of a hodge-podge -- examining entropy in relation to solar energy, while promoting the eating of peaches; revealing the lure of big plantation schemes, while showcasing innovative water management schemes; and with ancient memories and cartoons thrown in the mix.

New Earth Rising intends to be at the vanguard of bright green thought and a movement committed to ecological truth-telling that reveals the depth of the global ecological crisis, and to taking whatever ecologically informed steps are deemed necessary to ensure our shared survival and continuation of being. Where the others provide flash, and sell half-measures to fill their coffers, this is Ecological Internet's latest effort to provide thoughtful substance and ecologically based sufficient action. This is in line with Ecological Internet's mission of empowering the global movement for environmental sustainability, and working to commence the age of ecological sustainability and restoration.

As with our other efforts, if we ruffle some well groomed feathers, so be it. If confronting the Rainforest Action Network's support for ancient forest logging (banner photo above), which greenwashes the destruction of sacred primeval forest temples, is attacking another NGO, so be it. If writing emotionally of the truth of Gaia's demise threatens the powerful and wealthy, so be it. If calling for a reduction in human population, an end to coal and ancient forest logging, and other similarly ambitious yet crucial steps to transition to an era of ecological sustainability is just impossible crazy talk, so be it. We will strongly, even if our voices crack, tell truth to power -- and then demand action be taken or else -- until our last breath.

The experience of campaigning against environmental groups that greenwash first time logging of centuries old trees, across hundreds of million of hectares of the world's last ancient forests, has shown me just how pervasive delusional, wishful untruths are. Ecological Internet is not interested in being cool, but actually working effectively to know and achieve what must be done, because it is ecologically truthful.

It is better to pursue ambitious, sufficient environmental goals, and perhaps fail to achieve what must be done ecologically in order to maintain the species and Gaia indefinitely, but have a real shot at success, than to fully achieve what is inadequate and assuredly crashing nonetheless. 95% of the environmental movement is hand-waving, feel good reformist claptrap that is failing, and even if it succeeded, would be overwhelmingly insignificant given the crises' magnitude. Hanging banners and gracefully posing makes many seemingly solid greens feel good, but having fewer babies, consuming less and stopping ecosystem destruction at any cost, and insisting others do likewise, is what is needed.

Let the first issue of New Earth Rising be a call to action for individuals and society to think and act in ways necessary for our shared survival and continued being. The time is short my friends -- to be effective in these goals we must not fear to know ecological crises intimately, work tirelessly to formulate and implement sufficient responses, and then, if need be, commit to a revolutionary spirit of action, including laying our lifes on the line, for all that is truthful, beautiful and good. Our present way of living must die, and a new way of being birthed. New Earth Rising is dedicated to helping do so. Let's start now.

In our next issue, we intend to address the financial crisis and implications for global ecological sustainability, and we hereby issue a call for papers on the topic. As an economic recession (depression?) approaches, and the economy shrinks by 0.3% in the last quarter, this end to growth is greeted like it is the end of the world. Yet we know the real end of the Earth will come through ecologically mediated collapse of habitats which provide the requirements for life. We hope others will share their insight into the fact that nothing, absolutely nothing, grows forever – eventually positive feedback rips apart exponentially growing systems, be it economic or ecological. How can the growth machine be stopped?

Climate change, peak oil and all the other unfolding crises associated with pollution and resource depletion are all symptoms of one problem. There has been a fundamental change in the relationship between people and the Earth. We no longer have new frontiers to expand into when resources get scarce or our waste becomes intolerable. This change marks the maturity of the human species. Well-being now requires an equally fundamental change in how we manage our societies.

As long as the goal of expanding production and consumption is considered legitimate, we are in danger of overshooting planetary limits and collapsing. When sustainability gains legitimacy, as our primary goal, the possibility will emerge for evolving a mature social form, capable of long-term well-being. It is a Question of Direction.

"Enough" is the cue indicating physical maturity. A caterpillar spends its entire life gathering natural resources and growing. When it is big enough, it stops growing and undergoes a change of purpose. The butterfly that emerges from its cocoon is beautiful, it lives very lightly on the Earth, sipping the nectar of flowers, and its primary purpose is to launch the next generation.

This image speaks to a sustainable future. If we were to gather our satisfaction from the beauties of life and use the material world primarily to provide nutritious food and energy efficient shelter, we too could safely usher the next generations.

Moving beyond "enough"

Unfortunately, as a society, we missed our cue.

Industrial civilization reached "enough" in the 1920s when human need was vanquished. The industrial order went into crisis. What could they do to keep monetary fortunes expanding when productivity had grown to the point where everyone's needs could be met? On top of that, the labour force was campaigning for a 30 hour work week.

The work week had already shrunk, in recent decades, from 80 hours to 70, to 60, to 50, to 40 hours, on the premise that, due to high productivity, work had to be shared for everyone to have jobs. Fewer work hours would allow people to spend more time with their families, to pursue friendships, the arts, sports, education, and to develop parts of themselves that longed for expression. This was the cue that civilization had come of age.

Rather than celebrating our maturity and exploring the many wonders of being alive, the decision makers of that time launched a campaign against shorter hours and turned to advertising to encourage people to want more. After millennium of being content with the clothes, furniture and other goods that people worked hard to produce, an attitude of wastefulness was cultivated.

The fallacy of perpetual growth

By the 1950s this new "Gospel of Consumption" was well established. Retail analysts Victor Lebow described it thus:

"Our enormously productive economy . . . demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption. . . We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate."

The critical evolutionary cue of "enough" was lost in the flurry of wasteful production that has brought us to the edge of ecological collapse. If we want to resolve climate change, or any of the other problems arising because we are outgrowing our planet, we have to acknowledge our changed circumstances and clearly adopt the goal of sustainability; not as a new style, or add-on, but as the core aspiration for decision making.

The illusion of our growth based economy is that disaster will strike if we stop growing. This is only true because of the way that mutual provision (the economy) is presently structured. Explaining why most of the world uses this system, what the problems with it are, the alternatives available and how to encourage the transformation, would take an entire book. Such is the purpose of my book. I only want to point out here that we have a fundamental choice to make, between growing until we drop and aiming for sustainability.

Just think what human imagination and creativity would come up with if we applied it to making goods durable, rather than engineering their obsolescence; if our educational and persuasive abilities were used to encourage the celebration of what life offers and to affirm each individual's potential, rather than promoting materialism and sewing the seeds of doubt and fear, only to suggest purchases to make the discomfort go away.

We could reduce our collective ecological footprint to the point where there certainly wouldn't be enough work to keep everyone busy all the time. We would then have to share the work that remained, breathe deeply, and learn how to enjoy our selves.

Deciding on direction

Legitimacy is the key to transformation. Imagine yourself, with a pack sac full of tools going into the wilderness with the intent of staying there, by yourself, for two years. How many of us would emerge after two years, in good health? And that is with tools that somebody else made and with a knowledge of how to use them obtained from our culture. Even the words and concepts with which we think, we get from the people around us. Without a society, a person is almost as useless as a computer with no programs. With no social support, survival would be a long shot.

Even in today's arms length economy, we are totally dependent on the products of other people's labour. In earlier times it was very clear that if our tribe or clan were to leave us behind, we would perish. We want, very deeply, to belong. The price of membership is subscription to the value system of one's society.

As long as our society ascribes legitimacy to the goal of producing and consuming ever more, it will be an uphill struggle to avoid over-exploiting natural resources and polluting beyond the limits of tolerance. If the goal of sustainability were wholeheartedly adopted, and was sincerely used as the foundation of decision making, we would, within a decade, be moving so clearly toward a sustainable world that we would no longer be worried for our children and grandchildren.

It is important to turn off unnecessary lights, compost and support local producers. Each step slows the expansion of human impacts on the Earth. More critically, your acts are testimony to the goal of sustainability. When such testimony, reach critical mass, anyone wishing to accelerate growth will feel like a smoker lighting up in a public space. From that point, solutions will emerge everywhere and be implemented in every corner of our world.

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Mike Nickerson is the author of three books on sustainability, including "Planning for Seven Generations" and "Life, Money & Illusion." For more information on the Question of Direction and how to stimulate an appropriate choice, see "The Challenge and the Goal" at http://www.SustainWellBeing.net/

Reprinted from Ottawa's Peace and Environment News
(January-February 2008)