Martin Luther King Jr. Day

To honor Dr. King on his day, I wanted to share his 1970 speech in which he spoke out against the war in Vietnam for perpetuating violence and racism overseas while affecting first and foremost the poor everywhere. This speech is said to have sealed his fate and is still painfully relevant today. I have included some of my favorite quotes below. Well worth to listen.

I've chosen to preach about the war in Vietnam because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal."

I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without first having spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government."

We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered."

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing, unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of mankind. And when I speak of love I'm not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. "

Martin Luther King Jr. removes a burnt cross someone had hammered into his lawn as his young son stands beside him. Original: Library of Congress

End Of The World As We Know It

Around the world, many people have prepared for the end of days as the ancient Mayan calendar counted down to December 21. The long awaited day came and went without so much as a snap, crackle or pop in most places and people accepted the reality that the world is staying put. Nothing changed and perhaps that is the real tragedy.

While there were many that believed that December 21st would mark the end of time, there are many more that hope it can mark the beginning. In September of this year, Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, spoke to the UN about what the Mayan calendar foretells. “December 21st marks the end of non-time and the beginning of time. It is the end of hatred and the beginning of love. The end of lies and beginning of truth.”

Predictions may only take one so far. The reality is whatever we, as a collective whole, choose to make it. The importance we place in a day exists only because we have placed it there. It is up to us to make these predictions a reality. While the beginning of an era of truth and love has a very nice ring to it, what we need is action. What we need is to work together to create a tangible, positive change in the world.

In Chiapas, Mexico, tens of thousands of members of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) marched silently into the central squares of the major cities of this poverty-stricken Mexican province. Wearing the traditional Zapatista pasamontañas and paliacates, they silently occupied the very same cities they once took by force during a 1994 rebellion. This time, they brought forth a message of peace and change. A reminder to the world that they still exist and that they are still working, patiently, towards a new future.

Their message reads:

Did you hear?  This is the sound of your world crumbling. The sound of ours re-emerging. The day that was the day, was night. And the night will be the day that will be day. DEMOCRACY! LIBERTY! JUSTICE!”

They bring with them a message of hope and of change. These descendants of the Mayas bring a new prediction. We can choose to end this world, not through destruction, but through the creation of something new.

Fiestas de Quito: Y sin los toros, quien somos?

La definición de "arte" y "cultura" evoluciona en Latinoamerica. En el año 2012 el alcalde de Bogotá Gustavo Petro anunció entrar en diálogo con la comunidad capitalina para prohibir la tradición de las corridas de toros en la ciudad y darle a la Plaza de toros de Santamaría un uso distinto, además de negar recursos de empresas públicas para tales fiestas. Actualmente es usada para eventos culturales.

Un ser humano es parte de un todo, llamado por nosotros Universo, una parte limitada en tiempo y espacio, se experimenta a si mismo, sus pensamientos y sentimientos como algo separado del resto; Esa separación es una especie de ilusión óptica de su conciencia; Esta falsa ilusión es una especie de prisión para nosotros. Nos limita a nuestros deseos personales y a dar cariño sólo a personas cercanas. Nuestra tarea debe ser liberarnos de esta prisión ampliando nuestro círculo de compasión, incluyendo a todas las criaturas vivientes y a toda la naturaleza en su belleza". -Albert Einstein

Los toros son un tema delicado porque para muchos está en el corazón de lo que forma parte de nuestra identidad como quiteños. Dada la inestabilidad ambiental, social, y económica a nivel mundial, es urgente que nos pensemos más allá de la tradición en favor de la innovación, la creatividad, y la diversidad. La suspensión de las corridas es una oportunidad para repensar quiénes somos y -aún más importante- quienes queremos ser.  

Quito fue fundada en el tiempo del cacique Quitumbe, quien dió nombre a los primeros pobladores de la región -los quitus. Las fiestas de Quito pasa por alto esta primera ‘fundación’ y son insólitas por abiertamente celebrar la conquista de la ciudad milenaria. Pero esto es simplemente la primera parte de un proceso más largo de globalización: antes de la colonización española, los Quitus se habían fusionado con los Caras; después llegaron los españoles trayendo personas esclavizadas desde África que se encontraron con los habitantes originarios de las Américas, y es hasta el dia de hoy que nosotros seguimos mezclándonos con culturas de todo el mundo. En todos estos casos compartimos distintas descendencias genéticas, lingüísticas y culturales. Entonces ¿por qué practicar pasivamente nuestra herencia histórica? El que nuestra identidad esté cambiando constantemente nos permite a cada uno de nosotros el definir qué es lo que queremos ver cuando nos vemos en el espejo.

Toda sociedad colonizada o ‘globalizada’ tiene una profunda crisis de identidad porque no se es ni lo uno ni lo otro. En 1928 el poeta brasileño Oswald de Andrade propuso junto al movimiento antropófago trabajar la contradicción entre las culturas “primitivas” (amerindia y negra) y las “modernas” (de herencia europea) a través de la metáfora del caníbal, digiriendo la mezcla de culturas en un proceso de asimilación activo y armonioso que deja lo malo y re-elabora lo bueno.

Para construir una nueva identidad es necesario revalorar nuestro pasado, presente y futuro. Las corridas de toros vienen de la España medieval, notoria por la crueldad de sus festividades con animales como gansos, patos, cabras, cerdos, codornices y por supuesto, toros.Aunque se hable de las corridas como un tema de libertad de expresión ¿realmente queremos perpetuar el elemento cultural de la tortura y el sufrimiento animal como un espectáculo público? La “libertad” de torturar nos cuesta nuestra propia humanidad.

La suspensión de la Feria Jesús del Gran Poder en el 2012 es tan importante para los 36 toros que no morirán en el ruedo este año como para toda una ciudad que tiene la oportunidad de evolucionar con los tiempos. Tenemos mucha riqueza local que podría ser celebrada para llenar el vacío existencial y económico de una plaza sin feria medieval. Apreciar desde a todos los artistas que necesitan espacios y apoyos para continuar haciendo música, literatura, cine, danza, teatro, etc. hasta la gran diversidad de nacionalidades, lenguajes, delicias culinarias e inclusive nuestra forma de relacionarnos con la diversidad biológica que nos rodea.  Las posibilidades para redefinirnos son infinitas. El reto es aprovechar esta oportunidad y celebrar un Quito megadiverso donde el espectáculo de la vida no gire solamente alrededor de la muerte.

Extractive activities valuation and alternatives (Part II)

The form of production is still being defined by the primary products that we export, some are mineral resources, others are oil or other primary resources, but there is no change in the raw materials-exporting modality of this extractivism, and neither is our submissive form of insertion in the international market being questioned.” - Alberto Acosta

After and before large-scale mining

How should the costs of extractive activities be quantified?

Assigning a price tag to the environmental damage is much harder than simply estimating the cost of cleaning up any spills or refill the kilometer-wide craters that would result from extractive activities. Just to give you an idea of how unrealistic any remediation plans are, Ecuacorriente, the local branch of the Canadian mining giant, has pledged a laughable 2.5 million dollars per year to rehabilitate the Mirador project area in Ecuador. This is outrageous considering the track record of mining rehabilitation: not a single mine has been adequately rehabilitated, not even in Canada. Not that any amount of money and effort is capable of putting back together an ecosystem that took millions of years to evolve, or truly compensate for people’s lives once they have been destroyed, but even if companies are legally obliged to provide proper compensation for damages, they might still not comply. This is the case of Texaco, now owned by Chevron. In Feb 2011, the oil giant was found guilty of dumping billions of gallons of toxic water throughout an area the size of Rhode Island. Chevron is legally required to pay 18 billion USD in compensation for their negligence, which decimated five indigenous communities and caused an outbreak of cancer and other oil-related diseases, threatening thousands of lives and permanently polluting their water supply and surrounding ecosystems. However, Chervon has no intention of recognizing this debt to the Ecuadorian people.

What are some direct and indirect values of natural areas?

Table 1: Utilitarian Values of Biodiversity. From "Why is Biodiversity Important" (NCEP 2003)

Just because something doesn't have a price tag doesn't mean it has no value. Only a few (direct) values have been included in the human economy, and we have barely been capable of valuing anything which is not extracted from the enviromnent (Table 1). One way to begin to wrap our minds around the dilemma of valuing nature is through the tools of ecological economics. We can explore the value of healthy ecosystems by identifying the priceless ecosystem services they provide and imagining how much it would cost (if possible) to replace them. Although there are alternatives to extractivism, the monstrous scale and infrastructure supporting the fossil-fuel industry makes it difficult to envision an alternative. Nevertheless, the value of the services that these ecosystems provide to our lives and industries is no less real. These values can and should be included into the human economy. Rather than placing our bets on industries that are certain to reduce or eliminate these benefits altogether, we could develop infrastructure to quickly identify, quantify, and maximize their value, so as to include them in the human economy. This way all Ecuadorians, nay, Earthlings (and not just those who own these industries) can "profit" from them. Below are some of the most basic, and therefore economically important functions of natural areas.

Watershed maintenance The paramos (see map above) are high-altitude grasslands whose soils act like a sponge and filter of water rushing down from the Andean mountaintops. These areas are a reservoir for lower watershed areas. They provide a useful and constant flow of filtered, low-sediment water to all the cities, industries and ecosystems that depend on them. No man-made reservoir and water treatment plant could ever provide the volume and quality of water provided by the paramos and their rivers, much less for free.

Genetic reservoirs:86% of earth's species remain unknown. It has been estimated that there are between 250,000 and 300,000 species of flowering plants, of which only about 10% have ever been evaluated for their medicinal or agricultural potential. Rainforests in particular are known to have a higher chemical diversity (a side effect of being an evolutionarily highly competitive environment) than temperate forests, for example. The applications of what we have yet to discover from biodiversity are endless: agriculture, alternative fuels, medicines, alternative materials, as an inspiration for industrial, mechanical, architectural design, etc. As Paul Stamets said, considering that fungi have been found to be able to break down components from biological weapons, conserving forests should be a matter of national security.

Supporting food independence: The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that about 75% of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost in the last century due to the widespread abandonment of genetically diverse traditional crops in favour of genetically uniform modern crop varieties. In fact, three quarters of global food production is comprised by just 12 crops and five animal species. Genetic diversity is necessary for successfully adapting to changing conditions like pests, disease, and climate change. Healthy ecosystems are necessary to support pollinator and pest predator populations, as well as keep weeds in check. Without pollinators and pest predators, people have to pollinate crops by hand and use hazardous chemicals which are detrimental to the ecosystem as well as for both farmer and consumer. The costs keep adding up.

Human health: Besides the health benefits of food, water, and shelter, biodiversity is a safeguard for human health, as both our physical and psychological health depend on on it.  Medicinal components come from life (plants, fungi, microorganisms, and animals) and they need to be discovered before we can make a synthetic version. For example, roughly 119 pure chemical substances extracted from some 90 species of higher plants are used in pharmaceuticals around the world. Similarly, various mushroom species possess potent anti-microbial properties and antiviral activity against hepatitis B, herpes simplex, HIV, influenza, pox, and tobacco mosaic virus. Furthermore, some of todays most potent anticancerigenic medicines come from fungi. Studies have shown that our cognitive abilities are also greatly improved by exposure to nature and even that  exposure to nature helps speed up recovery times for patients. 

Pollination, integrated pest management, carbon sequestration, oxygen production, nutrient cycling, water cycling, and climate stabilization are but some of the invaluable environmental services provided by natural areas. But if the benefits of focusing our economic activities away from extractivism don't convince you, the costs business as usual with them surely will. As Bill McKibben points out in his fantastic Rolling Stone article, "We have five times as much oil and coal and gas on the books as climate scientists think is safe to burn. We'd have to keep 80 percent of those reserves locked away underground to avoid [a temperature increase of about six degrees celsius]". After all, climatic instability is costly at every level, and creating an Earth unsuitable for human life is, to say the least, antieconomic. 

Table 1 source: Laverty MF, Sterling EJ, Johnson EA, 2003. Why is Biodiversity Important? Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP). Center for Biodiversity and Conservation of the American Museum of Natural History. 

Water, Life, and the Dignity of the People (Part I)

Water is worth more than gold"

This is one of the chants from the plurinational marches currently taking place in Ecuador. Thousands of Ecuadorians have been traveling 700 kilometers by foot across the Andes en route to Quito. The protesters are getting people to reflect upon an economic model that prioritizes the extraction of non-renewable resources over the defense of water resources, agriculture, food sovereignty, indigenous rights, and the conservation of biodiversity. President Correa is willing to sacrifice all of the latter for mining and oil drilling permits within designated protected areas, including one of the most biodiverse place on Earth, to pay for development initiatives in the country as a whole.

Ecuador’s 2008 constitution was internationally celebrated as the first in history to enshrine the rights of nature, as well as the Quechua concept of sumac kawsay, or “living well”. Paradoxically, the first approved legislation under the new constitution was the new mining law, paving the way for large-scale mining as early as January 2009. By March 2009, the national indigenous organization CONAIE had filed a petition challenging the constitutionality of the new mining law. Several communities in the province of Azuay whose water supply would be affected by the expansion of mining activities had also filed their case by the end of the same month. Three years later, neither case has even been heard by a judge.

Over 30,000 people flood the street to protest the expansion of mining activities and defend their right to a clean water supply in Azuay, Ecuador

The president has dismissed the ongoing protests by indigenous and environmental groups as “infantile”. The truth is, however, that the short-lived (15 – 20 years at best) economic gains from hydrocarbon and mineral exploitation will be greatly outweighed by the costs that the permanent damage to the environment will have on the entire region. Note that 95% of the profit by the mining industry will leave the country under the new mining law, while leaving 100% the long-term costs of extraction in the country. Furthermore, the expansion of extractive activities inflicts a disproportionate cost on the inhabitants of these fragile ecosystems, most of which would have 100% of their ancestral land affected (see map below) and their way of life destroyed. 

Oil blocks expansion and indigenous territories

There are better alternatives than extractive industries! Stay tuned for Part II: Extractive activities valuation and alternatives. For now, you can stand in solidarity with the plurinational march by signing this petition and spreading the word. If you are in Quito, download this PDF and connect with others on the street and via social networks. If you are there, be strong, the Ghandi way:

Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong" -Mahatma Ghandi

Update

on 2013-07-15 17:24 by The HumanCoral Team

As of November 23, Ecuador has reached $300 million in its Yasuni ITT initiative to leave its oil underground. However, the $3.3 billion required to make it a reality still seems far off. I say "seems" because this sum is relatively insignificant compared to military defense budgets and the paychecks of the wealthiest 1% of the world. In light of the terrifying new math of climate change, These sort of initiatives are not only only economically desirable, they are morally right, and necessary for the survival of our species. 

If you would like to tell President Correa to not expand oil exploitation, please sign this petition.

Above: A call from one group of Earthlings to another. Join us! Save our Amazon, save our future.  

Occupy Wall St. - What DO we want? Turn to nature for inspiration

We don’t want higher standards of living. We want better standards of living. - Slavok Zizek at OWS Protest

The protests in New York City and around the world have given us a glimmer of hope that a new world is possible, but there is still a long road ahead. Tough questions must be raised and nobody knows where this awakening will take us. One thing is clear: the present economic system is unsustainable - financially, socially, and ecologically. Quoting McDonough and Braungart (Cradle to Cradle, 2002) as a starting point, if we set out to design the industrial revolution, retrospectively, with all of its negative side effects, our wishlist would read something like this:

Design a system of production that

• puts billions of pounds of toxic material into the air, water, and soil each year
• produces some materials so dangerous that they will require constant vigilance by future generations
• results in gigantic amounts of waste
• puts valuable materials in holes all over the planet where they can never be retrieved
• requires thousands of complex regulations - not to keep people and natural systems safe, but rather to keep them from being poisoned too quickly
• measures productivity by how few people are working
• creates prosperity by digging up or cutting down natural resources and then burying them or burning them
• erodes the diversity of species and cultural practices

So we know what we don't want, but what DO we want? In order to come up with truly desirable alternatives, we can't try to fix a system that is inherently flawed by design. Instead, we must go back to the drawing board. Biomimetism, or using natural systems as an inspiration for design, can be very helpful at this stage. The key is to realize human systems are NOT isolated entities (as traditional economics would lead you to believe with their closed loops of production & demand), but rather inextricably and productively engaged with them. This is the key difference between the growth of human economic systems and natural systems. 

Consider a community of ants. As part of their daily activities, they:

• safely and effectively handle their own material wastes and those of other species
• grow and harvest their own food while nurturing the ecosystem of which they are a part
• construct houses, farms, dumps, cemeteries, living quarters, and food storage facilities from materials that can be truly recycled
• create disinfectants and medicines that are healthy, safe, and biodegradable
• maintain soil health for the entire planet

It may sound strange to take advice on our economic system from other species, or even from chemists and architects, but our mainstream economists have not provided any better suggestions. However, there are many economists who HAVE provided more economically, socially, end ecologically sound alternatives to our present system. Herman Daly and other proponents of ecological economics, for example, who use entropy ond physiscal laws to define what is truly "sustainable". 

With nature as an inspiration, Braungart and McDonough's biomimetic design assignment invite us to create the following:

• buildings that, like trees, produce more energy than they consume and purify their own waste water
• factories that produce effluents that are drinking water
• products that, when their useful life is over, do not become useless waste but can be tossed onto the ground to decompose and become food for plants and animals and nutrients for soil; or, alternatively, that can return to industrial cycles to supply high quality raw materials for new products
• billions, even trillions, of dollars' worth of materials accrued for humans and natural purposes each year
• transportation that improves the quality of life while delivering goods and services
• a world of abundance, not one of limits, pollution, and waste

This is by no means a comprehensive list of what we need, but rather a way to get our creative juices flowing at a time in human evolution when we desperately need to reinvent ourselves. Sounds like a better alternative to you too? Join the protests and have fun constructing a new world!

Silent Evolution: An awe-inspiring underwater sculpture park

The underwater sculpture park by Mexico-based artist Jason deCaires Taylor is a perfect example of an interdisciplinary approach to tackle overarching challenges like climate change (and a fantastic topic to kick off the new HumanCoral website). His sculptures are not only beautiful to look at, rich with meaning, and a source of income for people, but are also designed to serve as a habitat for underwater sea creatures. Hundreds of sculptures of people, and most recently, furniture and even a VW Beetle are designed in such a way to attract the settlement of soft and hard coral polyps, lobsters, and fish; many of which are stressed by climate change, pollution, and overfishing.

Life size 8 ton cement replica of the classic Volkswagon beetle.

New and improved website launched!

We are pleased to introduce our new website. We hope this website will facilitate the transfer of knowledge and resources among the HumanCoral community. We still have much to do, but in the meantime check out the following sections. We look forward to seeing you within our pages!

-Resources: Browse the library of resources the HumanCoral community has pooled together with our expanded search and browsing options. Everything from books and documentaries to organizations and ideas.

-Key Links: Meet the people that make this network possible and who are skilled collaborators towards our common goals of justice and sustainability.

-Lets talk!: Exchange ideas, make your needs and abilities known, and keep up to date with the latest news from our community.

BOOK FUSION: Beak of the Finch + Pedagogy of the Oppressed = Intergenerational Tyranny

Above: Young girl putting UN dignitaries in their place at UN meeting about the environment in Brasil.

Below: A short fusion between Weiner’s Pulitzer-prize winning account of the Grants’ fundamental research in evolutionary biology, The Beak of the Finch, and Freire’s seminal contribution to critical pedagogy, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

We are living through the sixth mass extinction. The first to be driven by the expansion of a single species. The first that this species is conscious of its effect on its surroundings. Evolution is accelerated as conditions change. Like all organisms, humans must find new niches that are favored by the new conditions in order to survive. Unfortunately, we are often not allowing our population to explore the diversity of currently empty niches because a minority of humans is imposing their will over other humans, making them “less human”. Such dehumanization is often recognized with the socially, economically, and culturally marginalized worldwide. I want to explore the missed evolutionary opportunity for our species when we dehumanize younger generations. Their particular situation this planet in crisis: as relatively new arrivals to Earth, as subject to the decisions of older generations, as the largest portion of global population, etc. has carved out a clear niche for them in the evolution of our species and our planet.

The evolutionary niche of the younger generations is to liberate themselves and older generations from environmental disaster. The unsustainable lifestyle and actions of living generations lead to environmental degradation. Environmental degradation is a legitimate form of oppression towards future generations – the fact that the living generations are taking more than their fair share as a generation result in future generations being left with diminished lifestyles – Just like the socially, economically, culturally oppressed that share this Earth with their contemporaries, this oppression cannot be overcome by the oppressors. In other words, the oppressed cannot be liberated; only they can liberate themselves AND their oppressors. This can only be accomplished through dialogue, critical analysis, and action. However, as oppressors, how do we engage in dialogue with those who do not exist yet (future generations – the most oppressed)?

Younger generations are the most affected by this oppression from the past few generations (especially those since the industrial revolution up to those currently living) and have the least amount of time participating as oppressors themselves. Responsibility falls upon them to speak for their generation and of those coming after them, as they are the ones who can most legitimately claim “oppressed” status.

Current trends show accelerating global resource depletion and increasing exposure to harmful environmental conditions caused by pollution and natural disasters. We have imposed upon future generations, through our unsustainable lifestyles, the most unfair distribution of resources and exposure to environmental hazards – they will bear the brunt of our actions the most while reaping the least benefit from our resource depletion and polluting of Earth. Yet the fact they are young does not make them any less human, and so should not mean that they are any less entitled to those resources than an adult. After all, everyone was young, and its only a matter of time before the young become old.

In this case, everyone is simultaneously oppressor and oppressed, some people (the majority) are just more oppressed than others (the minority). After all, you will not lead as full of a life, environmentally speaking, as your predecessors did (they ate fruits you will never taste, breathed air more pure than that you will ever breathe, saw animals you will never see, ) and likewise, your progeny’s welfare will be diminished even further than your own (you eat fruits they will never taste…etc)

As intergenerational OPPRESSORS, what can we do? We need to trust young people are able to reason in order to engage in an honest conversation with them as equals. Meanwhile, we must abandon unsustainable lifestyles: intentions don’t matter if we do not translate them into actions. To ask for the abdication of an oppressive, unsustainable lifestyle, while not living like those oppressed is a farce.  “Think seven generations ahead”, famously said the Iriquois. What would it mean to be sympathetic with people a couple hundred years into the future? How would you live if you were to live like they will have to live?

As intergenerationally OPPRESSED, what can we do? We must break the cycle of oppression by no longer defining ourselves in contrast with those who oppressed us. i.e. we must not yearn to have as much material possessions as those who came before us, use as much resources as those who came before us, lead the lifestyle of those who came before us. We must not become oppressors ourselves, and thus perpetuate the oppressor-oppressed dependency cycle. We must create a new identity for ourselves, go a new direction that does not involve gauging ourselves as humans based on the measuring stick of past generations (often wealth and power). Fulfill our humanity in a new way, find a new meaning in life.

What if this denouncement of intergenerational injustice, voiced by the younger generations themselves, goes through the proper legal means to influence policy/regulation? What if engaging young generations in the exercise of critical reflection and action to change their condition as “environmentally oppressed” by past generations becomes the praxis of educators (in this case, the revolutionary leadership)? What if, in their search for a new way of life which does not emulate that of its predecessor’s, the young generations free themselves, and older generations from environmental collapse? What if this niche is so fitting in the face of current environmental degradation that it is able to drive the evolution of our species, through our economies and societies, and the planet into a sustainable, non-oppressive direction?

Global population pyramids comparison in developing and developed countries 1950, 1990, 2030. Notice the pyramyds are wider towards the bottom. Most people are towards the younger side of the spectrum. Most people live in "developing countries". Two forms of the oppressor-oppressed dichotomy are depicted: by age and by "developed" vs "developing" countries (oppressor & oppressed countries, respectively). In both cases you have those who consume the most resources as the minority: People towards older side of spectrum & people in developed countries.

Works Fused:

Weiner, Jonathan. (1994) The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time. Vintage. New York.

Freire, Paulo (2006). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 30th Anniversary Ed. Continuum. New York.

Biodiversity: The next environmental issue for business

Biodiversity loss is one of those excruciatingly pressing issues that most people ignore because its implications are hard to grasp with traditional linear thinking. Most people are not even aware we are living through the sixth mass extinction. Humans have already driven more species to extinction than the meteorite that wiped dinosaurs off the face of the planet. Its consequences are hard to encapsulate in bite-size pieces without undermining its intrinsic complexity; this is why it is a subject that has usually been shrouded in uncertainty, reduced to photos of charismatic megafauna, or simply ignored altogether.

A UN-backed report recently found that one in four business leaders thought the decline in biodiversity was a threat to their business growth and detrimental to profits.

“We are entering an era where the multi-trillion dollar losses of natural and nature-based resources are starting to shape markets and consumer concerns” – UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

This find was echoed in the latest McKinsey Global Survey results:

“…a majority of executives, 59 percent, see biodiversity as more of an opportunity than a risk for their companies. They identify a variety of potential opportunities, such as bolstering corporate reputations with environmentally conscious stakeholders by acting to preserve biodiversity and developing new products or ideas from renewable natural resources.” -McKinsey Quarterly

Running the risk of supporting greenwashing, any publicity is good publicity when it comes to raising awareness about our choices’ effects on the biosphere. However, the most successful businesses in the long run will be those that truly reinvent themselves to incorporate biodiversity conservation into their agenda. After all, considering mass extinctions are such a rare event in the history of the planet, it would seem logical that its prime time for business opportunities that address biodiversity, right?

“Respondents say consumers, followed by regulators, are the stakeholders with the most impact on the actions their companies take to address biodiversity.” – McKinsey Quarterly

I was especially pleased to see how the McKinsey Quarterly  emphasized that it is the consumer that has the most leverage to change the way we do business, above regulators even! You can change the way business is run with every dollar you spend simply through choice. Don’t sit wait for top-down solutions, because the ones on top are waiting for feedback from the bottom-up.

Project Pinta: An ecological analog ‘test drive’

Did you know giant tortoises were common on all continents except the Antarctic? Galapagos giant tortoises are a relic of prehistoric times that have formed close bonds with their environment, and like many other tortoises, still play an indispensable role as seed dispersers. The effects of their disappearance are difficult to quantify on mainland. We require a natural laboratory like the Galapagos islands to evidence the ecological impact of their extinction.

Galapagos National Park (GNP), with the support of Galapagos Conservancy and SUNY-ESF, is currently carrying out a pilot project for the ecological restoration of the island Pinta through the introduction of thirty nine adult giant Galapagos tortoises. These will be the first tortoises to set foot on Pinta since Lonesome George (Geochelone abigdoni), the last specimen endemic to Pinta, was removed from the island almost four decades ago. The introduction of “ecological analogues”, or species with a high degree of genetic relatedness with those that once occupied an ecological niche, has rarely been attempted around the world (like for example, the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park to control herbivore Populations). This is the first time that it will be tried in the Galapagos islands in hopes to revert some of the negative impacts that humans have had directly or indirectly though the introduction of invasive species.

The Galapagos Islands used to be a world-renowned destiny for whalers, buccaneers, and sailors since the XVIII century, where they could easily catch dozens of tortoises at once to obtain fresh meat that would not spoil during their long journeys. By the end of the XIX century, the exploitation of tortoises intensified to such a degree that tortoise oil was used to light up the streets in Quito at night. Today, 10 of the 14 identified galapagos tortoises still have populations in the wild. In the case of Pinta, we know that the G. abigdoni populations were already so small 100 years ago that they could have already be considered “ecologically extinct” then. Records from the California Adademy of Science from 1906 state that they removed three male tortoises from Pinta. G. abigdoni was considered extinct in the wild since, until Lonesome George was discovered by chance and taken to captivity in 1972.

In 1959, the same year that GNP was established, fishermen introduced three goats to Pinta, and their numbers exploded to over 30,000 in less than 15 years. After arduous efforts from GNP, Pinta was finally declared goat-free in 2003. The eradication campaign eliminated over 40,000 goats on Pinta, which clearcut large part of the island’s vegetation, severely threatening the 176 native plant species and the ecological processes that have sustained local flora and fauna for millions of years. The presence of goats and the absence of tortoises was a fatal combination, as it heavily altered plant communities. For example, the native woody shrubs that goats would prefer not to eat (Castela galapageia and Cryptocarpus pyriformis) have become abnormally abundant. Furthermore, the absence of a large herbivore could result in the demise of other endemic species, especially those that are most shade intolerant. Due to the close interaction between tortoises and Pinta’s vegetation, several experts have advocated for the return of tortoises to Pinta to restore and balance the ecosystem.

Unfortunately, Lonesome George is the last known member of its species (G. abigdoni), and any solution that involves his descendants (to this day nonexistent and with each passing year his reproduction becomes less likely) would take decades to bring about while the island ecosystem continues to degrade without a tortoise population. The most genetically similar tortoises to G. abigdoni are those from Española island (Geochelone hoodensis). A recent study has shed light on the possibility that there may still be G. abigdoni descendants on Volcan Wolf, Isabela Island. Until these tests are finalized, GNP chose to introduce a small population of non-reproductive tortoises - thirty-nine hybrid tortoises that were kept in captivity by the GNP. Their behavior, movements, and impacts were monitored from May to July 2010 after their initial introduction and follow up studies will take place throughout the following years. These tortoises were chosen for their morphology and size. The GNP has the support of Dr. James Gibbs and Elizabeth Hunter from SUNY ESF, who are leading the monitoring project with three main goals:

1. Monitor tortoise impacts on island vegetation
2. Estimate what is the island’s tortoise carrying capacity with the present plant composition
3. Develop a strategy for future releases

The return of tortoises to Pinta, besides an besides an event of great ecologic importance, also has great symbolic value for GNP. Not only are Galapagos tortoises the most emblematic creatures of the “bewitched islands”, but Pinta is the specific island where Lonesome George comes from, perhaps the best known galapago in the world. We hope this project helps us return Pinta to a more pristine state. Projects like these, which help us better understand the complexity of the systems in which we live in and our place within them, may demonstrate our capacity to be a a positive influence on the ecosystem.

Read more about this fascinating project on its official blog: http://retortoisepinta.blogspot.com

Update

on 2012-11-18 16:55 by The HumanCoral Team

On June 24 the symbol of the Galapagos National Park and of conservation worldwide, Lonesome George, passed away. Lonesome George was thought to be the last remaining member of his species, Geochelone abigdoni. However, George might have not been so lonesome after all: scientist have just found 17 hybrid tortoises which can trace ancestry to G. abigdonion the island of Isabella. Five of them are juveniles, suggesting that there may be a live purebred specimen still running around. Yale and the Galapagos Conservancy hope to collect hybrids and any surviving members of both Pinta and Floreana Island species and begin a captive breeding program that would restore both species. 

Hello Earthlings!

Welcome to the HumanCoral Blog! Here you will find the latest about our network as we simultaneously cut through uncharted territory and reinforce our roots, individually and collaboratively. Enjoy!

-The HumanCoral Team