Author Archive

EARTH MEANDERS ESSAY: Happy Interdependence Day

Earth is dying if we let it. We need the Earth and each other to survive and thrive. Ecological Internet needs the financial support of its network participants at http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/donate/ to continue our unique and effective biocentric advocacy on the net, or we may be closing soon. Essay by Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk The global ecological system is being overrun by human industrial growth, ecosystem habitats and our one shared biosphere are collapsing. We have come to understand Gaia the Earth System is alive, yet are slow to recognize she is dying at our hand. These are some of the findings of my new science journal article – currently being peer reviewed – titled “Terrestrial Ecosystem Loss and Biosphere Collapse” and available in draft at http://bit.ly/EICollapse. There have been few deep ecology voices – as clear and dependable – as Ecological Internet and myself over the past twenty years. We understand ecology is the meaning of life, and that industrial growth is destroying ecosystems and all their life. Yet Ecological Internet continues to barely cover basic expenses, and continually sinks further in debt, to urgently spread the message of how to sustain our one shared biosphere. Our public ...

Stand with Ecological Internet

The Earth’s leading biocentric data and action network needs your donation to continue protecting ecosystems, and spreading deep ecology and green liberty thought and solutions. Appeal for donations from Dr. Glen Barry, President, Ecological Internet http://www.climateark.org/shared/donate/ * We are 41% to our goal of $25K, with 58 donors having given $10,237. To meet basic expenses and remain open, much less continue to innovate, we must raise $14,750 in the next month. There is very little wiggle room with a lean budget, yet we are confident we can raise these funds together as we have in the past. July 1, 2013 Dear Ecological Internet colleagues, I don’t think it is too late to save Earth, yet abrupt climate change and ecosystem collapse are happening and getting worse. But what we do together in the next several years is going to determine how bad it is and whether we can survive and recover. And those equipped with the knowledge, tools, and skills to build networks of ecological thought and action to facilitate solutions are going to need to be fully supported. Ecological Internet is Earth’s leading global biocentric data and action network. Our work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation and Google Grants, and repeatedly called ...

ECOLOGY SCIENCE: Terrestrial Ecosystem Loss and Biosphere Collapse

By Dr. Glen Barry Independent Political Ecology and Data Scientist glen.barry@gmail.com +1 608 332 5650 Manuscript submission under review by Management of Environmental Quality* June 16, 2013 Abstract Planetary boundary science defines key thresholds in the Earth System's biogeochemical conditions that precede ecosystem collapse and threaten human well-being. Terrestrial ecosystems enter into the nine originally defined planetary boundaries only indirectly, through boundaries such as biodiversity and land use. This study proposes a measurable terrestrial ecosystem boundary to answer the question: what extent of landscapes, bioregions, continents, and the global Earth System must remain as connected and intact core ecological areas and agro-ecological buffers to sustain local and regional ecosystem services as well as the biosphere commons? Two preeminent considerations are connectivity of large ecosystem patches, enabling them to persist as the matrix for the landscape, and critical collapse of the dominant large habitat patch – or "percolating cluster" – into smaller, more isolated habitats, amid a matrix of human development. This transition, found to occur at about 40% habitat loss in landscapes and bioregions, is likely to be similar at continental and global scales. A new planetary boundary threshold is proposed based on ecology’s percolation theory: that across scales 60% of terrestrial ecosystems must remain, setting the ...

RELEASE/VICTORY! Ecological Internet Welcomes Full Protection for Tasmania, Australia’s World Heritage Old-Growth Forests

By Ecological Internet, http://www.ecoearth.info/ and http://forests.org/ Media Contact: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org, +1 (608) 332-5650 By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet (EI) CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org (Madison, Wisconsin) – Ecological Internet – a small forest and climate protection NGO with a global reach – is thrilled to have contributed to an additional 170,000 hectares (about 420,000 acres) of Tasmania, Australia, old-growth forests [search] being protected. Following decades of local protest, six years of blockades, tree sitting, and extensive international affinity campaigns spearhead by Ecological Internet and others, most of Tasmania’s remaining old-growth has been granted World Heritage area protection, which should exclude further logging. The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area has been extended to include the iconic Upper Florentine and areas within the Styx, Huon, Picton, and Counsel River Valleys. Tasmania is home to the tallest hardwood forests on Earth, with eucalyptus trees reaching nearly 100 metres and living for over 400 years, existing within one of Earth's greatest tracts of large, connected, and ecologically intact temperate rainforest. Tasmania contains large tracts of natural old-growth forest, glacial landforms, alpine and sub-alpine environments, wild rivers, indigenous heritage sites, and critical endangered species habitat. There are many species that rely on old growth trees ...

ALERT! HSBC Bank Must Stop Funding Old-Growth Rainforest Logging

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal TAKE ACTION! HSBC Bank continues to fund logging companies [search] pillaging old-growth rainforests and causing human rights abuses in Sarawak, Malaysia, and expanding globally. After ravaging all but 5% of Sarawak’s once pristine tropical rainforests, HSBC’s Sarawak clients – described in Papua New Guinea as the “Malaysian timber mafia” – now dominate the global, ecocidal old-growth timber industry. Anyone participating in the industrial destruction of Earth’s last old-growth forests – be they banks, governments, corporations, or NGOs – are legitimate protest targets, if we are to maintain local well-being and a habitable Earth for all. Please demand that HSBC end all involvement with old-growth rainforest logging.

ESSAY: The Fascist State of America

#IStandWithEdwardSnowden because free nations don't spy on and murder their citizens. Democracies don't terrorize sovereign nations and their peoples with torture, false imprisonment, and drone-based perma-war. It is time to stand up against the oil oligarchy’s police state that is stifling social change required to achieve universal human rights, justice, equity, and global ecological sustainability. By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin “If living unfreely but comfortably is something you are willing to accept… it is going to get worse with the next generation… The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The greatest fear I have for the outcome of these disclosures is that nothing will change… [that people] won’t be willing to stand up and take the risks to fight. I am not afraid, because this is the choice I've made.” – Edward Snowden The Bush administration "puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide." – Candidate Barack Obama 2007 "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary ...

RELEASE: Victory as British Columbia Government Opposes Northern Gateway Tar Sands Pipeline

The decision means it is highly unlikely the Northern Gateway pipeline [search] - to carry Alberta’s filthy tar sand bitumen to China - will commence any time soon. Ecological Internet is pleased to have successfully been the first to lead international opposition to the project, achieving with many others the second major delay to the flawed proposal. Concerns expressed over the inability to cleanup spilled bitumen in water apply equally to the flawed Keystone XL pipeline, for which President Obama is now clear to deny approval. One down, one to go! By Ecological Internet, http://www.climateark.org/ Contact: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org (Madison, WI) - Ecological Internet (EI) is enormously pleased to note British Columbia (B.C.), Canada’s thumbs down to the proposed Northern Gateway tar sand pipeline. Announced yesterday, the decision virtually guarantees that the flow of filthy tar sands oil from Canada’s interior to China will not commence through a Western Pacific route any time soon. EI was the first to protest internationally on the issue, doing so since 2010, over a full year earlier than other global affinity efforts – successfully laying the groundwork for the victory. EI’s President, Dr. Glen Barry, states: “The B.C. pipeline victory against tar sands ecocide is the result ...

ALERT! Protect Papua New Guinea Indigenous Cave Dwellers from Rainforest Destroying Mafia

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal TAKE ACTION! Notorious Malaysian illegal loggers Rimbunan Hijau [search] have diversified into mining in primary rainforests, in East Sepik threatening unique nomadic cave-dwellers and their 20,000 year old ancient stenciled cave art. Support the local resistance and demand an end to indigenous genocide and rainforest ecocide in the name of false development that is little more than pillaging and plundering of cultural and biological diversity.

ESSAY: Freedom Isn’t Free, Terrorism Is Pervasive

Enduring occasional acts of random terror is the cost of living in a free society. Giving up civil liberties does not provide security, but rather enslaves you in a state of pervasive terror. The human family is threatened by systematized eco-terrorism and other assaults by the elite upon the poor far more than by infrequent criminal acts which the courts can and should handle. By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk Terrorism is the act of inspiring terror in others by harming presumed innocents. For many, unjust postmodern life on a dying planet is full of PERVASIVE TERROR. The term terrorism has been usurped by the nanny military state to mean only politically motivated violence that targets the public. While such murder is never justified, in fact it occurs rarely and is not a high-profile threat to most. It is one of the manageable costs of being free. Infrequent criminal acts, of the sort that recently occurred in Boston and occur much more frequently around the world, are tragic but best handled by the criminal justice system. America has become such a drama-queen nation that it continues to incautiously react to such dastardly acts with endless pundit pontificating, needlessly ...

ESSAY: What Would John Muir Say… About the Sierra Club?

What would Muir say about the Sierra Club being led by Michael Brune, Accountant-in-Chief and old-growth forest logging apologist? On the occasion of Muir's 175th birthday, we are certain he would not be pleased and would say so strongly. As we celebrate Earth Day, will Madison Progressives see through Brune's greenwash of logging ancient, sacred wildlands for toilet paper and books? "The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness." - John Muir "Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed -- chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got..." - John Muir "The battle we have fought, and are still fighting for the forests is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong, and we cannot expect to see the end of it." - John Muir “By choosing to sell FSC-certified wood, The Home Depot is walking its talk.” - Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk John Muir was one of the greatest protectors of forests and nature who ever lived. He was connected to my hometown Madison, Wisconsin, where he attended college. He ...