“In an ecological perspective, in other words, there are few accidents or anomalies, only outcomes based on system structure and dynamics. Climate change and glittering malls, Calcuttan poverty and sybaritic wealth, biotic impoverishment and economic growth, militarism and terrorism, global domination and utter vulnerability are not different things but manifestations of a single system.” DifferentGrowthWealthPovertyEconomicPerspectiveStructureClimateEnvironmentalClimate ChangeTerrorismAccidentsManifestationOutcomesVulnerabilityDifferent ThingsDominationEconomic GrowthEcologicalMallsDynamicsMilitarismAnomalies Book:The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror Source: The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror
“Dispossessed peasants slash-and-burn their way into the rain forests of Latin America, hungry nomads turn their herds out into fragile African rangeland, reducing it to desert, and small farmers in India and the Philippines cultivate steep slopes, exposing them to the erosive powers of rain. Perhaps half the world's billion-plus absolute poor are caught in a downward spiral of ecological and economic impoverishment. In desperation, they knowingly abuse the land, salvaging the present by savaging the future.” WorldWayAmericaTurnsPoorHalfEconomicLandRainAbuseIndiaAbsolutesCaughtBillionsHungryForestsDesertPlusLatinFarmersFragileDesperationReducingPeasantsHerdsLatin AmericaEcologicalExposingSpiralsPhilippinesSlopesSteepNomadDownward Spiral Author:Alan Thein Durning
“What the new fertilizer technology has accomplished for the farmer is clear: more crop can be produced on less acreage than before. Since the cost of fertilizer, relative to the resultant gain in crop sales, is lower than that of any other economic input, and since the Land Bank pays the farmer for acreage not in crops, the new technology pays him well. The cost-in environmental degradation-is borne by his neighbors in town who find their water polluted. The new technology is an economic success-but only because it is an ecological failure.” WellsWaterPayTechnologyClearEconomicLandCostGainsTownsEnvironmentalNeighborAccomplishedFarmersRelativeCropsDegradationEcologicalNew TechnologyInputFertilizerEnvironmental DegradationEconomic Success Author:Barry Commoner
“The current economic crisis...has numerous causes and sends a powerful message about the need for a profound revision of the model of global economic development. It's an acute symptom that is added to other more grave and already well-known ones, such as the continued imbalance between wealth and poverty, the scandal of hunger, the ecological emergency and the problem of unemployment, which has now become general. In this context a strategic re-launching of agriculture appears decisive.” NeedsWellsProblemCausesWealthPowerfulKnownPovertyEconomicLandDevelopmentMessagesModelsCrisisProfoundHungerCurrentsGravesAgricultureUnemploymentWell KnownSymptomsScandalEmergenciesStrategicEcologicalRevisionEconomic DevelopmentImbalanceLaunchingEconomic CrisisWealth And Poverty Author:Pope Benedict XVI
“Sustainability is a seemingly laudable goal - it tells us we need to live within our means, whether economic, ecological, or political - but it's insufficient for uncertain times. How can we live within our means when those very means can change, swiftly and unexpectedly, beneath us?” NeedsMeanPoliticalGoalEconomicSustainabilityUncertainEcologicalInsufficientVery MeanUncertain Times Author:Jamais Cascio
“The world is a complex, interconnected, finite, ecological - social - psychological - economic system. We treat it as if it were not, as if it were divisible, separable, simple, and infinite. Our persistent, intractable global problems arise directly from this mismatch.” IfsWorldProblemSocialSimpleEconomicTreatsInfiniteComplexesArisePsychologicalFinitePersistentEcologicalEconomic SystemsInterconnectedMismatch Author:Donella Meadows
“The reductionist measure of yield is to agriculture systems, what GDP is to economic systems. It is time to move from measuring yield of commodities, to health and well-being of ecosystems and communities. Industrial agriculture has its roots in war. Ecological agriculture allows us to make peace with the earth, soil and the society.” WellsWarEarthMovingCommunityEconomicRootsWell BeingSoilYieldAgricultureCommodityEcologicalEcosystemsMaking PeaceMeasuringEconomic SystemsGdp Author:Vandana Shiva
“Women's struggle for equality worldwide is about more than equality between men and women. Our struggle is about reversing the trends of social, economic, political, and ecological crisis - a global nervous breakdown! Our struggle is about creating sustainable lives and attainable dreams.” MenDreamPoliticalSocialChangeStruggleEconomicCreatingMen And WomenCrisisNervousTrendsBreakdownEcologicalNervous BreakdownEcological Crisis Author:Bella Abzug
“Being rational - along with being clear and honest - are important if we are to create the needed shift in fundamental thinking necessary to make it possible to pull this world back from the brink of multiple disasters on ecological, cultural, political, and economic fronts.” IfsThinkingWorldImportantPoliticalClearEconomicHonestFrontsThis WorldNeededFundamentalsDisasterRationalMultipleEcological Author:Robert Jensen
“We have a very old conservation movement, particularly in the United States, which has focused on campaigns to protect endangered species: the spotted owl, the old-growth forest. But usually it stops there. To me, biodiversity is the full spectrum. Species conservation is not only about wilderness conservation. Its also about protecting the livelihood of people even while changing the dominant relationship that humans have had with other species. In India, its an economic issue, not just an ecological one.” PeopleHumansStatesGrowthUnitedUnited StatesIssuesEconomicMovementProtectIndiaSpeciesFocusedCampaignsForestsWildernessDominantConservationSpectrumEcologicalLivelihoodOwlBiodiversityEndangered SpeciesEconomic Issues Author:Vandana Shiva