Denial of Human Dependence on Nature: Time to accept reality

Dr Haydn Washington, Visiting Fellow, Institute of Environmental Studies, UNSW Co-Director CASSE NSW, Fenner Conference, 2014

2011 2013

2015 Forthcoming

Why this talk? • To paraphrase a famous quote:

‘It’s the reality stupid!’

• Fenner 2014 is needed due to denial of a finite planet which has been pushed past ecological limits

• The ‘endless growth myth’ (physical growth) remains in control of both economics and society

• Ecological ignorance abounds

• George Perkins Marsh wrote ‘Man and Nature’ in 1864 and had a more accurate view of humanity’s role in the Nature than decision-makers today

Accepting reality • Kenneth Boulding referred to ‘Spaceship

Earth’ in 1966

• We know we live on a finite planet

• We know the number of people and resource use has increased exponentially

• Environmental scientists know ecological limits have been exceeded

• Yet society still denies this

• Hence endless growth is the key cause of the environmental crisis

Obligate Dependence on Nature

• About something obvious but overlooked and denied.

• Humanity and its societies depend and rely on Nature, not the other way around.

• We are physically, ecologically, spiritually and psychologically dependent on the natural world from which we evolved and of which we are a part.

Energy is life!

The sun’s energy is trapped by photosynthesis and goes into NPP that powers food webs upon which all species rely.

Ecosystem realities • Keystone species – essential to maintain diversity

in ecosystems, but often not known. Can be predators, mutualists or ecosystem engineers. Examples are: sea otter, brown bear, dingo, Banksia prionotes (photo, WA), alligator, cassowary, elephant and Tsetse fly.

• Biodiversity – genetic, species, ecosystem levels.

• Stability = tendency of community to

keep structure and function.

• Ecosystem resilience = capacity of

ecosystems to cope with disturbances

without shifting to a different state.

What is humanity’s fair share of NPP? • NPP = net primary productivity of ecosystems • Vitousek et al (1986) concluded that we consume and

coopt about 40% of NPP • Rojstaczer et al (2001) argue it could be as high as 55%

of NPP • Haberl et al. (2007) have a figure of 24-29% of NPP • Whichever figure one uses, humanity’s appropriation

of NPP is huge. • Humanity’s consumption biomass is 100 times higher than 96 highest mammals (Fowler and Hobbs, 2003) • Humanity has become an ‘energy vampire’ on NPP.

The Great Cycles - The Nitrogen Cycle Alterations: Natural flux N 110 million tonnes/ yr, humans producing

186 million tonnes/ yr. Causes eutrophication, increased N2O as GHG, loss of soil nutrients (P, Ca), acidification of ecosystems.

Phosphorus Cycle Alterations: At least doubled P moving through ecosystems. Causes eutrophication of waters. Phosphorus flux to oceans triple that of background rates (MEA, 2005). We throw away P in sewage into oceans. Peak P projected to be before 2035.

The Carbon Cycle Alterations: CO2 increased 40% since pre-industrial times, level increases 2 ppm yearly. Major ‘forcing’ of climate leading to rapid climate change that could send 18-35% of species extinct (Thomas et al. 2004).

Ecosystem Services

• Ecosystem services are the:

‘conditions and processes through which

natural ecosystems, and the species that

make them up, sustain and fulfil human life’. (Daily, 1997)

• They maintain biodiversity and production of ecosystem goods such as seafood, forage, timber, biomass fuels, fibre, medicines.

• Ecosystem services are the actual life-support functions such as cleansing, recycling and renewal, but also non-material and cultural benefits.

• Essential but overlooked and denied.

Non-material dependency on Nature

• Social values • Educational values • Recreational values • Cultural values • Spiritual values • Psychological values • Transformative power of wild Nature • A ‘sense of wonder’ • Values above not ‘peripheral’ • The problem of ‘anti-spirituality’ in Western culture

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)

State of Play of Ecosystem Services

• Overall 60% of ecosystem services are being degraded or used unsustainably.

(MEA, 2005)

• Many ecosystem services are being degraded primarily to increase food supply.

• How many people know this?

• Society does not often think about or value ecosystem services (Kumar, 2010).

What is the dollar value of Nature?

• Costanza and Neil (1981) came up with a monetary value of U$34 trillion/yr, - 2.4 times the world GNP

• Costanza et al. (1997) estimated value of the world’s ecosystems at U$33 trillion/yr. - 1.8 times the world GNP

• Costanza et al. (2014) estimated ecosystem services at U$125 trillion/ yr - 1.7 times world GDP

• UNEP in ‘TEEB’ – big difference upper and lower estimates, but upper estimates far larger than world GDP

• Daily (1997) notes that ES actually

have infinite use value. Human life

could not be sustained without them.

Collapse

• Collapse of ecosystems and

civilisations linked (Diamond, 2005)

• Problem of jargon. Collapse = regime shift = irreversible non-linear change = state change = ‘sudden unexpected losses as ecosystems cross thresholds’ (MEA, 2005).

• Scale of ecosystem collapse far beyond natural processes and of ecosystem resilience. World’s ecosystem changed more in the second half of the 20th C than at any time.

• Thresholds (tipping points) for collapse unknown (and possibly unknowable). Hence ‘radical uncertainty’.

• Restoration of some ecosystem collapses not possible.

Collapse of Atlantic Cod stocks off the east coast of Newfoundland in 1992 (MEA, 2005)

Is Collapse happening?

• Global Ecological Footprint 1.5 Earths and Living Planet Index (WWF) fallen by 28%.

• Biomass of fish in fisheries reduced 90% relative to levels prior to industrial fishing (MEA, 2005).

• Examples of ecosystem collapse: eutrophication; fisheries collapse; species introduction; coral ecosystems; regional climate change; unsustainable bushmeat trade; loss of keystone species.

The Extinction Juggernaut

• The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

in 2005 conservatively estimated extinction 1000 times the normal fossil record level

• Wilson (2003) estimated it was 10,000 times so (without action) half of all life extinct by 2100

• Raven et al (2011) put the figure at two thirds by 2100

• 6th great mass extinction of last 600 million years now underway (Kolbert, 2014)

• Soule and Wilcox (1980) note:

Death is one thing – an end to birth is something else.

Transgressed 3 planetary boundaries - Chemical pollution not yet quantified

Rockstrom et

al (2009)

Do we have a problem?

In 20th century (Rees, 2008): • Human population quadrupled to 6.4 billion. • Industrial pollution went up 40-fold. • Energy use increased 16-fold and CO2 emissions 17-fold. • Fish catches went up 35-fold. • Water use increased 9-fold. • Mining of ores and minerals grew 27-fold. • One quarter of coral reefs, 35% of mangroves and half of all

wetlands were destroyed • Climate crisis means rising sea levels (2-5 metres a century),

extreme weather, desertification, extreme bushfire, massive species extinction

SO YES – IF WE ACCEPT REALITY IT’S A REAL PROBLEM – AN ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS

Teleology – why are we doing what we do?

• Our problems are real – so why is society doing what it’s doing?

• Teleology, the ‘study of purpose’, one of the dominant concepts of an earlier

age, has apparently been

banished today (Daly, 1991)

• What drives our current

unsustainability?

The Great Divide - Anthropocentrism

• There is a ‘great divide’ in terms of our, worldview, ethics and values about Nature.

• ‘Doctrine of inherent human superiority’ (Taylor, 1986) and even ‘human supremacy’ (Crist, 2012)

• Anthropocentrism – focus on ourselves.

• Ecocentrism – focus on Nature, of which we are a part. Nature has intrinsic value and ‘rights’

• Dominance of anthropocentrism in society and academia, disseminated by globalisation.

The problem of ‘ideology’ • Modernism: strong anthropocentric view of the world as

just a resource for human use (resourcism). Nature came to be seen as a machine (Oelschlaeger, 1991).

• Postmodernism: rejected Modernism but still anthropocentric. Skepticism of reason, denial of grand narratives, questioning of the ‘real’,

including ‘Nature skepticism’ where

Nature is seen as just part of culture.

Denial = Delusion

• Skepticism is not denial. They

are virtual opposites.

• Denial of environmental crisis is rampant.

Long history (e.g. wilderness loss, DDT, acid rain).

• Ideological basis. Free market = liberty, so regulation to protect the environment seen as attack on liberty and must be opposed (along with the science!)

• We let denial prosper - Fear of change; failure in values; fixation on growth economy; ignorance of ecology; gambling on the future; ‘balance as bias’ in media. (Washington and Cook, 2011).

Four elephants in the room

Population

Consumption The Growth economy

Climate Change

Which elephant is bigger?

Which is more dangerous?

Which is least discussed?

Believing in 7 stupid things:

1) The world and the Universe are all

about us 2) Although we live on a finite planet, endless growth is possible (indeed apparently praiseworthy)

3) Population growth is not a problem (‘more is better’)

4) Endless growth in consumption and resource use is not a problem (‘resource limits are in our mind’ Simon, 1998)

5) The ‘invisible hand’ of the market is a God and must not be regulated

6) Technology can solve everything (techno-centrism)

7) Greed is good.

Washington (2015)

The evolution of humanity?

Homo sapiens?

Homo denialensis?

Australopithecus Homo habilis or

A Framework for Solutions • Accept ecological reality and roll back denial.

• Need to change our worldview, ethics and ideologies, abandon the false dream of ‘Mastery of Nature’.

• Scale of problem huge but not hopeless (people need hope).

• Move past growthism to a steady state economy.

• Roll back the deliberately constructed consumer ethic.

• Move to 100% renewables within 2-3 decades (feasible and economic).

• Control population growth through education, family planning and non-coercive humane strategies.

• Ecologically sustainable biosphere as key focus.

• Creating the political will for change.

• The Great Work (Berry, 1999) of Earth repair.

Move to a green then steady state economy

• Adopt a low carbon and low material

use ‘green’ economy (UNEP, 2011) immediately

• Then move to a steady state economy where population and throughput of energy and materials are stable and sustainable (Daly, 1991)

• This will need to involve degrowth of developed countries to allow some further growth of developing countries (due to equity considerations)

• Overall, throughput must be much lower than today (using strategies such as Factor Five)

Steady state economy = a key part of the ‘Great Work’

• Society is trapped in a ‘no win’ situation

• ‘Endless growth’ ≠ sustainability but does

= collapse

• We have to act on population/ resource throughput

• Ecological reality – the way the world really works – won’t allow endless growth to continue

• Breaking the denial dam and discussing this reality is a critical part of the ‘Great Work’

• Hence this conference is a key part of an essential dialogue we must have. One step of many.

‘Anyone who believes in indefinite growth in anything physical, on a physically finite planet, is either mad or an economist’. Kenneth Boulding (1973) ‘It is widely believed by persons of diverse religions that there is something fundamentally wrong in treating the Earth as if it were a business in liquidation.’ Herman Daly (1991)

References

• Berry, T. (1999) The Great Work: Our Way into the Future, New York: Bell Tower.

• Boulding, K. (1966) ‘The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth’, in Environmental Quality in a Growing Economy, ed. H. Jarrett, pp. 3-14.,Baltimore, MD: Resources for the Future/Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Boulding, K. (1973) Attributed to Boulding in: US Congress (1973) Energy reorganization act of 1973: Hearings, Ninety-third Congress, first session, on H.R. 11510. p.248

• Costanza R. and Neil, C. (1981) ‘The energy embodied in the products of the biosphere’, in Energy and ecological modelling, eds. W. J. Mitsch, R. W. Bosserman, and J. M. Klopatek, New York: Elsevier.

• Costanza, R., D’Arge, R., De Groot, R., Farberk, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K., Naeem, S., O’Neill, R., Paruelo, J., Raskin, R., Suttonkk, P. and Van den Belt, M. (1997) ‘The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital’, Nature, vol. 387, pp. 253-260.

• Costanza, R., de Groot, R., Sutton, P., van der Ploeg, S., Anderson, S., Kubiszewski, I, Farber, S. and Turner, R. (2014) ‘Changes in the global value of ecosystem services’, Global Environmental Change, vol. 26, pp. 152–158

• Crist, E. (2012) ‘Abundant Earth and the population question’, in Life on the Brink: Environmentalists Confront Overpopulation, eds. P. Cafaro and E. Crist, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, pp. 141-151.

• Daily, G. (1997) Natures Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems, Washington: Island Press.

• Daly, H. (1991) Steady State Economics, Washington: Island Press.

• Diamond, J. (2005) Collapse: Why Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, New York: Viking Press.

• Fowler, C. and Hobbs, L. (2003) ‘Is humanity sustainable?’, Proc. Royal Soc. London, Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 270, pp. 2579-2583.

• Haberl, H., Erb, K., Krausmann, F., Gaube, V., Bondeau, A., Plutzar, C., Gingrich, S., Lucht, W. and Fischer-Kowalski, M. (2007) ‘Quantifying and mapping the human appropriation of net primary production in earth’s terrestrial ecosystems’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, vol. 104, pp. 12942-12947.

• Kolbert, E. (2014) The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, New York: Holt and Company.

• Kumar, P. (2010) The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Ecological and Economic Foundations, London: Earthscan.

• Marsh, G. P. (1864) Man and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, New York: Scribner.

• MEA (2005) Living Beyond Our Means: Natural Assets and Human Wellbeing, Statement from the Board, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, United Nations Environment Programme (UNE), see: www.millenniumassessment.org.

• Oelschlaeger, M. (1991) The Idea of Wilderness: from Prehistory to the Age of Ecology, New Haven/ London: Yale University Press.

• Raven, P., Chase, J. and Pires, J. (2011) ‘Introduction to special issue on biodiversity’, American Journal of Botany, vol. 98, pp. 333-335.

• Rees, W. (2008) ‘Toward Sustainability with Justice: Are Human Nature and history on Side?’, in Sustaining Life on Earth: Environmental and Human Health through Global Governance, ed. C. Soskolne, New York: Lexington Books.

• Rockstrom, J. et al (2009) ‘Planetary boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity’, Ecology and Society, vol. 14, no. 2, p. 32, see: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/ (accessed 21/7/14)

• Rojstaczer S., Sterling S. and Moore, N. (2001) ‘Human appropriation of photosynthesis products’ Science, vol. 294, no. 5551, pp. 2549-2552.

• Simon, J. (1998) The Ultimate Resource 2, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

• Soulé, M. E. and Wilcox, B. A. (1980) ‘Conservation biology: Its scope and its challenge’, in Conservation Biology: An Evolutionary-Ecological Perspective, eds. M. Soulé and B. Wilcox, Sunderland (MA): Sinauer.

• Taylor, P. (1986) Respect for Nature: a Theory of Environmental Ethics, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

• Thomas, C., Cameron A., Green R., Bakkenes M., Beaumont L., Collingham Y., Erasmus B., Siqueira M., Grainger A., Hannah L., Hughes L., Huntley B., Jaarsveld A., Midgley G., Miles L., Ortega-Huerta M., Peterson A., Phlllips O. and Williams S. (2004) ‘Extinction risk from climate change’, Nature, vol. 427, pp. 145-148.

• UNEP (2011) Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication, United Nations Environment Programme, see: www.unep.org/greeneconomy.

• Vitousek, P., Ehrlich, A. and Matson, P. (1986) ‘Human appropriation of the products of photosynthesis’, BioScience, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 368-373.

• Washington, H. (2013) Human Dependence on Nature: How to Help Solve the Environmental Crisis, London: Earthscan.

• Washington, H. (2015) Demystifying Sustainability: Towards Real Solutions, London: Routledge.

• Washington, H. and Cook, J. (2011) Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand, London: Earthscan.

• Wilson, E.O. (2003) The Future of Life, New York: Vintage Books.

References continued