Social Media:

Teaching

Items of the month:
Note that since April 2014, I am publishing these items in my blog at http://runninginfog.wordpress.com/.

Activities I contribute to:

Selected Recent Presentations and Publication

Thought of the month ...

February 2010: What if we look at Earth as Gaia: a huge organism-like system with physiological processes keeping the system in a dynamic equilibrium, a homeostasis? What would humanity be in this system?

Humanity is the malignant skin cancer of Gaia. Starting from a few cores, humanity slowly spread over Gaia's surface initially transforming minor parts in an organic way. The cancer turned malignant with the advent of the North Atlantic culture. This highly virulent center soon extended its links all over Gaia's skin and formed metastasis in America, Australia, Africa, and Asia. Today, highly active centers of mutations are all over Gaia, eventually leading to the destruction of the original skin. Characteristic for a malignant cancer, the metastasis and associated destruction are spreading at an increasing speed. As of today, more than 50% of the ice-free surface has been transformed, and much of the original surface cover has disappeared: forests, grasslands, swamps have mutated first into cities and then into sprawling urban regions of endless junk space filled with monotonous boxes housing psychologically damaged people. Highways have replaced animal tracks and human trails; plains have turned into airports that link the malignant virulent centers across the continents and the oceans; agricultural land with extreme abundances in a few species have replaced ecosystems with high biodiversity; invasive species are supporting humanity in the transformation of Gaia's skin to a malfunctioning dying layer; and mine pits and landfills are the bleeding cancerous cracks. Modified physiological processes have changed the quality and quantity in the water cycle, altered the chemistry of the atmosphere, reduced the extent and functioning of ecosystems, and fundamentally diminished the richness and diversity of the biosphere. The originally rich forms of Gaia's skin types and the diversity of organisms in the thin layer inhabited by living organisms increasingly make room for the monotony of a few generic types (deserts, urban areas, industrial wasteland, agricultural wilderness) and an ever lesser number of species, with one species taking over: Homo sapiens, or, more correctly, homo urbanis: Today we have 19 cities with more than 20 million inhabitants (see 192021 for an illustration ...) and more then half of us are living in cities or urban centers. In 2050 more than 2/3 of us will be living in urban regions increasingly further away from rural areas and even more so from Gaia's healthy skin. Thus, we are close to at least one vision of "Silent Green": Many humans who will never see a natural stream running through a healthy forest; never smell the many scents of spring in an unspoiled countryside, and never breath the clean and fresh air in a natural environment.

In his recent book "Plan B 4.0 - Mobilizing to Save Civilization" (see Earth Policy Institute), Lester R. Brown writes: "The thinking that brought us into this mess is not likely to get us out." But do we know what in our thinking is flawed? Only with this knowledge will we be able to correct our thinking, to stop the malignant process and help Gaia to overcome the cancer and recover from the damage already done. Where is the research that would focus on the question of why humanity is the lethal cancer killing Gaia?


If you have a story, thought, or picture worth to be considered as story, thought or picture of the month, please feel free to inform me about it by sending an e-mail to hpplag@unr.edu.