hi everyone interesting conversation indeed, apologies for being late to the party. thanks, martin, for sharing these references.
On the note of bright regenerative side I just thought share David Holmgren's latest post, who is one of Australia's leading perma culture guru or "permis". It is a rather long essay (11 pages or so) but I found it highly fascinating as it on one hand recaps core principles but still ends up in his personal conclusion to be anti vaccine (which from a sub-cultural perspective may not be surprising)... If there would be an archetype for the "free thinker" David would be meet that to a t, but it does make me wonder about necessary framing of such "free critical enquiry" due social obligations or not ... https://holmgren.com.au/writing/pandemic-brooding/ It would be great to hear other people's thoughts on this. I also intrigued by martin's point of projecting depression, but I suppose that's maybe better reserved for another thread ... cheers, jan On 6/9/21 7:40 pm, martin wrote: > Hello, > > Interesting conversation... > > On 05/09/2021 18:31, John Hopkins wrote: > > I am very sorry to hear about your ailments and wish you all the best. > > Then, > -- though I admittedly can sometimes also be caught in a moment of > weakness and despair where I forget myself and utter statements with a > dim, negative view of humanity > > -- this, to my mind: > >> Humans have always had an oversized impact on local energy flows around >> them (i.e., Pleistocene megafauna destruction) > > .... is a dangerous fallacy of thought. > > It expresses a sad, self-defeating view (see footnote 1 and 2; and with > regards to the speculative hypothesis of megafauna extinction see > footnote 3). > > Importantly there are historical examples as well as contemporary > movements, praxis and data testifying to quite the opposite: Complex > human societies have had / can have a positive impact on the > environment, enrich their habitat and increase biodiversity (see > footnote 4). > > Whether in the form of Amazonian Dark Earths, regenerative agriculture, > permaculture or other expressions of the human imagination from 'the > other side of the anthropocene', human beings have the capacity to leave > the world in 'a nicer state' tomorrow than it was yesterday. Not through > quick technofixes nor dirty hacks, but through building cultural > alliances with all the other beings in the complex web of life that > sustains us - from soil ecologies and their microbes, insects and other > beasts, through plants, trees and rivers to other mammals and everything > in between. > > Indeed, transformative agroecology (see footnote 5) combined with > regenerative agriculture possibly constitute the only reasonable, > significant set of carbon sequestration (carbon negative) techniques > available (see footnote 6) and has the useful side-effect of feeding > humanity, regenerating immune systems and, all in all, delivering a > healthy planet. > > It has been done, it can be done. It will be done if we all work towards > it. War is over if you want it, extractive/dominator culture can end. > > It is, imho, worse than a waste of time to go on about all the examples > of destructive human behaviour, rather than focusing on the hope- and > joy-providing opposite. > > Shifting the discourse to the endless possibilities of > more-than-sustainable social organisation will feed grassroots power > structures and undermine totalitarian attitudes. > > The future is ours, because this land is ours in common. > > sincerely/martin > > --------------------------- > > Footnote 1: Sad because it sounds like depression projected, and sad > because it feeds the power and agency of those who are into population > control and the concomitant necessity of global rule from above; and of > course it also helps push the corporate, hi-tech progress myth-based > geoengineering fantasies that perpetuate the causes of the effects they > purport to solve (/as Kolbert notes in 'Under a White Sky' on that > issue, this is “..a book about people trying to solve problems created > by people trying to solve problems”- > https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/06/it-is-the-question-of-the-century-will-tech-solve-the-climate-crisis-or-make-it-worse > ). > > Extractor/dominator culture probably needs this "bad humans" assumption > to remain in place as a baseline of reality to justify their elitist > model of society. > > ------ > > Footnote 2: On the population number "argument": the total fertility > rate has peaked and the next challenge is likely how to manage > increasingly smaller and older populations suffering from auto-immune > conditions and cancer, resulting from poor diet, lack of movement, and > the ubiquity of toxic air and drinking water. Please don't feed the > Malthusian trolls. > ------ > > Footnote 3: Invoking the speculative megafauna human-driven extinction > hypothesis rests on just that: speculation, and it also has potential > overtones of human self-aggrandisement and belittling of the large > beasts; see for instance Brook and Bowman (2002) and Hocknull et al. (2020): > > Brook and Bowman (2002): "...Understanding of the Pleistocene megafaunal > extinctions has been advanced recently by the application of simulation > models and new developments in geochronological dating. Together these > have been used to posit a rapid demise of megafauna due to over-hunting > by invading humans. However, we demonstrate that the results of these > extinction models are highly sensitive to implicit assumptions > concerning the degree of prey naivety to human hunters. In addition, we > show that in Greater Australia, where the extinctions occurred well > before the end of the last Ice Age (unlike the North American > situation), estimates of the duration of coexistence between humans and > megafauna remain imprecise. Contrary to recent claims, the existing data > do not prove the “blitzkrieg” model of overkill..." - from: > > https://www.pnas.org/content/99/23/14624 > > Hocknull et al. (2020): "...Explanations for the Upper Pleistocene > extinction of megafauna from Sahul (Australia and New Guinea) remain > unresolved. Extinction hypotheses have advanced climate or human-driven > scenarios, in spite of over three quarters of Sahul lacking reliable > biogeographic or chronologic data. Here we present new megafauna from > north-eastern Australia that suffered extinction sometime after 40,100 > (±1700) years ago. Megafauna fossils preserved alongside leaves, seeds, > pollen and insects, indicate a sclerophyllous forest with heathy > understorey that was home to aquatic and terrestrial carnivorous > reptiles and megaherbivores, including the world’s largest kangaroo. > Megafauna species diversity is greater compared to southern sites of > similar age, which is contrary to expectations if extinctions followed > proposed migration routes for people across Sahul. Our results do not > support rapid or synchronous human-mediated continental-wide extinction, > or the proposed timing of peak extinction events. Instead, megafauna > extinctions coincide with regionally staggered spatio-temporal > deterioration in hydroclimate coupled with sustained environmental > change..." - from: > > https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15785-w.pdf?origin=ppub > > -------------------- > > Footnote 4: Maezumi et al.: 'The legacy of 4,500 years of polyculture > agroforestry in the eastern Amazon' / > https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-018-0205-y . See also the work of > Michael Heckenberger, for instance, introduced lightly here: > https://news.mongabay.com/2008/08/pre-colombian-amazonians-lived-in-sustainable-urban-society/ > > > These lines of argument are slowly taking hold, see also: > > Buscardo, E., Forkuor, G., Rubino, A. et al.: 'Land and people'. Commun > Earth Environ 2, 178 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00240-5 > - who write: > > "...Amazonian Dark Earths (terra preta) and European Dark Earths > (plaggen soils) are fairly well known, but many less well-known types of > anthropogenic soils are now being documented in the tropics and > subtropics3,4. Conversely, ancient mining and smelting activities > produced concentrations of heavy metals toxic to plant and animal life, > in some cases even more severe than modern soil contamination5,6. > Ancient human societies have had a wide range of impacts on the > environment that can persist through to the present day... > > ..Looking forward, more work is needed to share and standardize > geochemical and other proxy data that may be fundamental for answering > questions of where, when and how people in the past influenced their > environment. Understanding the global distribution of anthropogenic > soils and paleo-pollution will not only help place the rate of soil > degradation seen in the Anthropocene within a deeper historical context, > but perhaps, optimistically, reveal the fundamental role that human > societies have played in building healthier soils throughout much of the > Holocene. By sharing data and developing global research agendas, the > paleoenvironmental community at large has the exciting opportunity to > reveal the widespread legacy of premodern human–environmental > interactions and increase the general awareness of the long-lasting > ecological legacy of ancient societies. > > ------------------- > > Footnote 5: Entry in ‘Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology’ on > ‘Agroecology’ > > https://oxfordre.com/anthropology/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.001.0001/acrefore-9780190854584-e-298 > > https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.298 > > --------------- > > ---- Footnote 6: Easy intro to the work of David Montgmery: > https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/02/desertification-barren-solution-famine-agriculture >
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