A new freely downloadable book
I would like to announce the publication of a book, which discusses the urgent changes that are needed to save our planet and our collective future. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link:
http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/A-Critical-Decade-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf
Humanity has reached a critical decade
A new report, published on 14 March, 2021 in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ journal Ambio, points out that humanity is hurtling towards destruction unless we have the collective wisdom to change course quickly. Here is a link to the artocle:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-021-01544-8
The Ambio article was written as part of the preparation for a meeting of Nobel Prize winners to discuss the state of the planet. The virtual meeting was held on April 26-28, 2021.
Nobel Prize Laureates and Other Experts Issue Urgent Call for Action
Here are some quotations from the statement, which was signed by 126 Nobel laureates and other experts:
…“Science is a global common good on a quest for truth, knowledge, and innovation toward a better life. Now, humankind faces new challenges at unprecedented scale. The first Nobel Prize Summit comes amid a global pandemic, amid a crisis of inequality, amid an ecological crisis, amid a climate crisis, and amid an information crisis. These supranational crises are interlinked and threaten the enormous gains we have made in human progress. It is particularly concerning that the parts of the world projected to experience many of the compounding negative effects from global changes are also home to many of the world’s poorest communities, and to indigenous peoples. The summit also comes amid unprecedented urbanization rates and on the cusp of technological disruption from digitalization, artificial intelligence, ubiquitous sensing and biotechnology and nanotechnology that may transform all aspects of our lives in coming decade…
“The summit has been convened to promote a transformation to global sustainability for human prosperity and equity. Time is the natural resource in shortest supply. The next decade is crucial: Global greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut by half and destruction of nature halted and reversed. An essential foundation for this transformation is to address destabilizing inequalities in the world. Without transformational action this decade, humanity is taking colossal risks with our common future. Societies risk large-scale, irreversible changes to Earth’s biosphere and our lives as part of it.
“We need to reinvent our relationship with planet Earth. The future of all life on this planet, humans and our societies included, requires us to become effective stewards of the global commons – the climate, ice, land, ocean, freshwater, forests, soils, and rich diversity of life that regulate the state of the planet, and combine to create a unique and harmonious life-support system. There is now an existential need to build economies and societies that support Earth system harmony rather than disrupt it…”
Chapters
Here is a list of chapters in my new book:
The Scientists’ Warning
Other Warning Voices
Extinction Events and Feedback Loops
The Global Food and Refugee Crisis
Sir David Attenborough
Greta Thnberg
Continued Extraction of Fossil Fuels Must Stop!
The Health of Our Oceans
The Global Human Footprint
Appendices
China
India
Russia
North America
Brazil
Other books and articles about global problems are on these links
https://wsimag.com/authors/716-john-scales-avery
I hope that you will circulate the links in this article to friends and contacts 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 avery.john.s@gmail.com. To know more about his works visit this link. https://www.johnavery.info/
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A brilliant book.
It is calling for a reinvention of much of what we have believed to be sacred, true and justified. We will have to change the way we think about everything; our lifestyles, our economics, our political systems, our laws, our social and religious systems, ourselves, our “Raison d’etre” (reason for being)
Today’s patchwork of repairs and technological fixes will not suffice. We humans will need to find a way to replicate those parts of our behavior that allowed the transcendental symbiotic relationship with Nature that had successfully guided our three plus million year evolutionary development.
A totally new societal design is called for; one leading to an entirely new form of society, one whereby all human activity can exist in concert with Nature.
It cannot be implemented without first examining the core all of our New Age weakness; our dark eukaryotic neurotic psychotic destructive me/me/mine side.
Yet even this examination alone will not suffice. Survival will require a neurological metamorphosis of the human mind by CRISPR or other sperm/egg biological/neurological means, also the removal from participation in society of those identified as potentially destructive to it; accomplished by prisons or other means such as the rehabilitation “separation” as now seen with the Uyghurs in China and mental and physical rehabilitation facilities in the West.
Also a controlled population birth number determined by population/earth sustainability.
Can it all be accomplished? Can there emerge in this century a human society able to function within the Biosphere of this Planet, a human society moving toward the cosmic meaning of our species? This is now the challenge of our time.
http://inquiryabraham.com/bio-lectures.html