Lives In Ecology – A new freely downloadable book by John Avery

Kids ecology game.web

I would like to announce the publication of a book, which reviews the lives and thoughts of some of the women and men who have addressed the crucial problems of ecology and sustainability that we are currently facing. I have tried to let them speak to us in their own words. The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link:

http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Lives-in-Ecology-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf

We face an ecological crisis

The Industrial Revolution marked the start of massive human  use  of  fossil  fuels.    The  stored  energy  from  several hundred  million  years  of  plant  growth  began  to  be  used at  roughly  a million  times  the  rate  at  which  it  had  been formed.  The  effect  on  human  society  was  like  that  of  a narcotic. There was a euphoric (and totally unsustainable) surge  of  growth  of  both population  and  industrial  production.   Meanwhile,  the  carbon  released  into  the  atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels began to duplicate the conditions which led to the 5 geologically-observed mass extinctions, during each of which more than half of all living species disappeared forever.

Industrialism and the rapid development of science and technology have given some parts of the world a 200-year period of unbroken expansion and growth, but today this growth is headed for a collision with a wall-like barrier – limits set by the carrying capacity of the global environment and by the exhaustion of non-renewable resources. Encountering these limits is a new experience for the the industrialized countries. By contrast, pre-industrial societies have always experienced limits. The industrialized world must soon replace the economics of growth with equilibrium economics. Pre-industrial societies have already learned to live in equilibrium – in harmony with nature.

It is assumed by many people in the industrialized North that if the developing countries would only learn mass production, modern farming techniques and a modern lifestyle, all would be well. However, a sustainable global future may require a transfer of knowledge, techniques and attitudes in precisely the opposite direction – from pre-industrial societies to highly industrialized ones. The reason for this is that the older societies have cultures that allow them to live in a sustainable way, in harmony with nature. This is exactly what the highly industrial North must learn to do.

We need their voices today!

How can we avoid the ecological megacatastrophe that is currently threatening both human society and the biosphere? How can we achieve a stable and sustainable global society? Voices from those who have thought deeply about the problems can help us. We need their voices today!

Other books and articles about  global problems

Some of my other books and articles can be found on the following link:

http://eacpe.org/about-john-scales-avery/

I hope that you will circulate this link (as well as the link at the start of this article) to friends who might be interested.

John Scales Avery is a theoretical chemist at the University of Copenhagen. He is noted for his books and research publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. His 2003 book Information Theory and Evolution set forth the view that the phenomenon of life, including its origin, evolution, as well as human cultural evolution, has its background situated in the fields of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory. Since 1990 he has been the Chairman of the Danish National Group of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. Between 2004 and 2015 he also served as Chairman of the Danish Peace Academy. He founded the Journal of Bioenergetics and Biomembranes, and was for many years its Managing Editor. He also served as Technical Advisor to the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe (19881997).
http://www.fredsakademiet.dk/ordbog/aord/a220.htm. He can be reached at [email protected]. To know more about his works visit this link. http://eacpe.org/about-john-scales-avery/


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