Dear Editor,
Humboldt’s future….knowing where we should go from here requires knowing where we are now. There is a measure of our human techno-industrial civilization that assesses our impact on the Earth’s biosphere. The “human ecological footprint”, combining the disciplines of Economics and Ecology.
When looked at separately, our Economic yardsticks are at all-time positive levels, generating enormous “wealth” to the point of creating a large global herd of multi-billionaire oligarchs.
When looking at the measures of the health of all aspects of the biosphere of Earth, the planet should be in an ambulance headed to the ER. And an immense portion of our planetary collapse has occurred within my lifetime, since 1950. Almost all of Earth’s biospheric measures are in sustained collapse mode.
Our unquestioned assumption regarding the economy is that it will grow, even though perpetual growth on a finite sphere is an oxymoronic goal. Averaging 3 percent/year leads to a doubling in about 25 years. Thus three doublings since 1950 means we are consuming about eight times as much of the planet each day as we were in 1950, as well as creating eight times as much waste, featuring CO2 and plastics. (Micro-plastics are now in the tissues of most living creatures of Earth.) And every country and profit-maximizing corporation is on board. The human population has gone from 4 billion fifty years ago to 8 billion now. The populations of other living things on the planet are in free fall unless it is a species in the human industrial-agricultural food industry or urban rats.
The word which describes this condition is Overshoot. This change has largely occurred within the post-WWII era and continues unabated. If asked a question about the change in population numbers of any free animal species since 1970, the best guess is to say “70 percent decline”, and you will likely be close. Current numbers of vertebrates by mass on Earth are now 33 percent human, 63 percent human livestock animals (!!) and only 4% wild and free.
Should our wise human techno/industrial enterprise try to reduce its ecological footprint? Use less energy, less Earth extracted materials, and produce less waste?
This will not be achieved by large industrial projects. Humboldt’s history of interacting with western industrial civilization began with gold extraction, shifted to old growth redwoods and eliminated 95 percent of them until being stopped, and includes our decommissioned nuclear reactor built on earthquake faults as well as river-choking salmon-killing dams, now being dismantled.
Currently underway is a large land-based fish farm and a massive redoing of Humboldt Bay to accommodate an enormous wind turbine enterprise and the accompanying distribution system to transmit the electricity into the country’s energy grid.
Our best approach might be to simply begin the essential process of significantly reducing our civilization’s energy use. And a collective reduction of our economic standard of living, especially for our morbidly rich class, to become in balance with the health of Earth. But good luck with that at the polls.
However, as we are now seeing, Earth really does bat last. And it seems to be creating a fever that may eliminate the offending organism. Along with a lot of innocent other species in Earth’s now unfolding Sixth Mass Extinction. Which seems to be where we are now
Robert Fornes,
McKinleyville
Dear NEC Folks,
I am concerned that Scott Sway’s letter, “in response to the communique entitled ‘From Redwood Trees to Olive Groves, the Commune Grows” contains several important errors of fact and especially a repetition of Israeli propaganda lies which do not belong in this locally based, environmental newsletter. Although there is a note on page 4 of the August 2024 issue indicating that this letter does not reflect the positions of the NEC or its member groups, nonetheless the letter was published without its errors of fact/lies pointed out, which I think is irresponsible and unethical.
To be specific:
1 – “ barrage of at least 3,000 rockets” NOT 3,000 “Hamas terrorists” attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Hamas-led_attack_on_Israel)
Five armed groups, plus Al-Qassam fighters under the direct control of Hamas, a political entity (whatever one thinks of it), took part in the October 7 attacks. The number of fighters who broke through THE FENCE which has penned in the Palestinians living in Gaza for almost 2 decades is unknown.
2 – Sway claims that “many” of the residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza were “raped, tortured, and taken as hostages to Gaza.” ZERO physical or forensic evidence has been produced to support the Israeli government’s LIE, repeated ad nauseum, that Israelis were raped in mass actions of sexual terrorism. This claim has been debunked repeatedly. See
https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2024/03/05/israel-hamas-oct7-report-gaza
and
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/03/07/media-concocts-un-hamas-rape-report/
among many others easily available by Google search.
The claims of “torture” by Hamas fighters are also unsupported by physical evidence or testimony.
The rapes and tortures which have MANY pieces of evidence, including videos taken by Israeli soldiers, a UN Report, and much more, are the rapes and tortures of Palestinian men taken into Israeli custody, including many Palestinian medical doctors and other medical workers. Riots broke out in Israel, with the participation of elected officials, to protest the arrest of 9 Israelis who faced charges in a particularly sadistic gang rape of a prisoner whose bowel was punctured (among other injuries) and who had to be hospitalized. See
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/1/israel_gaza_palestinian_prisoners_torture
This pernicious lie should not have been allowed to stand un-fact-checked in your Letters section. You could have added an editorial note.
Countless rooftop solar panels in Gaza have been destroyed by Israeli bombing. The people in Gaza live in horrific and deteriorating conditions. The genocide in Gaza is also ECOCIDE. It is committed by the state of Israel, with the shameful backing of the Biden Administration using our tax dollars, US-made weapons and now US troops stationed nearby in expectation of retaliation by Iran and its proxies for Israel’s recent assassinations. These grim facts, not Israeli propaganda, are what should be printed in your paper, if you choose to publish about this tragedy.
With concern,
Janet Weil
resident of Palm Desert, visitor to Ukiah