Reproductive Health Report Card

Be careful if you visit the Population Institute, it might make you nervous. Their website has a population counter and while I was there a few days ago, the counter showed that new people were being added to the planet every second. Now, a few days later, more than 660,000 people have been added since my first visit. Well, welcome all of them, but my gosh, that's a lot of people in such a short time. It makes me nervous that with all our talk of sustainability, it won't be enough to feed, clothe and house everybody.

This week, the Population Institute released its report, Not Making the Grade: a 50 State Report Card on Reproductive Health and Rights. Overall, the US gets a grade of C- because, among other reasons, the teen pregnancy rate here is higher than any other industrialized country. Nearly 3 out of every 10 teenage girls will become pregnant and nearly half of all pregnancies in the US are unintended. You can find the report here and see how your state fares. Massachusetts scores barely above the national average with a C, partly because it does not mandate sex education in public schools (really? in 2012?), nor does it offer a Medicaid expansion for family planning services.

Only 12 states received grades of B- or better and 3 states received grades of A: California, Oregon and Washington. Here's why California received an A: (i) It does not currently have abortion restrictions that would make it unnecessarily difficult for a woman to obtain an abortion should she choose to do so; (ii) it guarantees a woman’s right to access emergency contraception in the emergency room and in pharmacies; and (iii) it requires private insurance companies to cover birth control with only a limited refusal clause that exempts only churches and church associations.

How does your state fare? Shouldn't we be trying to boost the national average?

The End of the Wild

If you’re worried about the present extinction crisis, you can stop now. It’s over. We lost. That’s the conclusion of MIT professor Stephen Meyer in his trenchant analysis, “The End of the Wild”, published in 2006 by Boston Review Books. He writes, “Nothing – not national or international laws, global bioreserves, local sustainability schemes or even ‘wildlands’ fantasies – can change the current course.”

The wild is gone, we have destroyed it. In the process we have created an environment where weedy species can thrive. Weedy species are adaptive generalists like raccoons, coyotes, rats and deer. They are to be distinguished from “relic” species, like African elephants and giant pandas, whose numbers are declining due to human encroachment, and “ghost” species, who are doomed to extinction either because they can’t adapt quickly enough to human changes in their environment or from over-hunting and over-fishing. Examples of ghost species include African lions, whose numbers have plunged from greater than 200,000 in 1980 to under 20,000 today mostly because of perceived threats to livestock, and large fish such as tuna and swordfish.

Meyers identifies the main causes of the crisis as landscape transformation, pollution and over-consumption. Though we’ve enacted legislation (such as the Endangered Species Act) and created reserves, these actions, he argues, are too little too late. They are not changing the outcome that we are losing species and the wild.

So what’s to be done?

First, Meyers contends, we have to abandon business as usual. The future biosphere under the present scheme of benign neglect will not be human-friendly: we would see the collapse of additional fish stocks, ecosystems would lose the functions we depend on, there would be an increase in pests, parasites and disease-causing organisms and, worst of all, we would lose all the species that are psychologically important to us – the quality of life on Earth would plummet.

Second, in order to understand the crisis, we must realize that the end of the wild is about us, not about “the environment.” Our own cultural norms, values and priorities are now being tested. Meyers reminds us that though it’s easy to blame corporations, it’s still about us and our demands for “instant-on appliances, out-of-season vegetables and ten mpg armored transports to move groceries home.” This is why we’re drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

He advocates an ecological identity that “underscores the connection between how we live and what happens around us.” Though we’re beginning to see the wild as providing us with natural resources and the genetic links between ourselves and other species on the tree of life, we need to see moral linkages and the realities of a shared existence and shared fate. Presumably, Meyers admits, this ethical transformation will take centuries.

In the meantime, he argues, we have a moral obligation to take steps to reduce the impact of the heavy hand of human selection. He urges research into understanding how the remaining wild functions, protecting the landscape to preserve ecosystem functions and more intensive management, through, for example, additional legislation. These efforts allow us to examine our role as the planet’s stewards. After all, Meyers asks, “What is the essence of our own morality if it fails to encompass most of the life on Earth.” 

Meyers' book is a concise diagnosis of one of the main problems of our time. Buy it here. 

Koch Brothers Exposed

A few nights ago I watched the provocative documentary, Koch Brothers Exposed, with a group of activist students here at Boston University. I had seen the film before and it was good to see it again, particularly now, between the mock fright of Halloween and the present presidential election, whose outcome could cause a real fright.

Koch Brothers Exposed is a sort of horror film where you constantly wonder what how the Koch Brothers will next rear their greedy heads. According to the film's website, between 1997 and 2010 the Koch Brothers, whose company, Koch Industries, is one of the top ten polluters in the US, gave more than $60 million to climate change denial groups. They are one of the main reasons that there is popular uncertainty over climate change in this country, while the science has long been settled (yes, humans are affecting the climate). In sixty minutes, the film shows the Koch Brothers' self-serving reach in issues as diverse as social security, environmental regulations, workers rights, education and voter identification.. It's amazing what a few well-placed million dollars here and there will do to get your point across.

One of their most disturbing causes is grants to colleges and universities. So far, more than 150 colleges and universities are receiving Koch dollars and one wonders how long it will be before we see the results of this Koch cash in terms of curricula and ideology. There are claims that this money often comes with strings attached -- the donors want a say in hiring decisions. If that doesn't impinge on academic freedom, I don't know what does. 

You can read more about the Koch Brothers shady efforts to quash social security, how they tried to resegregate schools in North Carolina, their involvement in voter suppression and their efforts to fund climate change denial

In the film, the Koch Brothers' mandate is exposed for all to see. It's about greed, doing what's right for the 1%, corruption and attacking democracy. Their dealings need to be brought to light for all to see. Get the film, host a screening, expose the Koch Brothers once and for all. 

The Killing Fields of Ivory -- Infographic

Here's another infographic from visual.ly that spells out the brutal, destructive and lucrative trade of poaching for ivory. The infographic focuses on elephants but poaching of rhinos is equally alarming. (A zoomed view is here.)

by memuco. Learn about infographic design.

How we're endangering species -- infographic

There's lots of cool stuff over at visual.ly to help us picture the world around us.


Here's a great infographic that summarizes the human impact on the environment and species. Overall: ouch!
(Unfortunately, the ones shown below are the marquee species... many less glamorous species are also suffering.)

by NatGeo.Browse more data visualization.

The Future isn't What it Used to Be

Quote of the Day: "For every species other than humans, the biggest environmental issue on Earth is Humanity." This is from Rex Weyler of Greenpeace, who recently wrote a column called "Nature: A System of Systems" where he argues for a systems approach to nature because our present piecemeal approach isn't working. We now have more environmental groups but fewer forests, more national parks but fewer species. The once promised bountiful future has been usurped by glimpses of environmental catastrophe. Unfortunately, we have the same attitude to nature -- that it's unlimited and inexhaustible -- as those who hunted the passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet and Great Auk to death. Nature is less a resource and more a treasure that is slipping through our fingers. As Camilo Mora and Peter Sale point out in their recent article on global biodiversity loss, we're not going to "save nature" with more protected areas; instead, we need broad systems-based thinking that addresses poverty, overpopulation, overconsumption, unfair taxation, and ruinous subsidies. We need to get green groups together to synergize their message and help raise awareness that carbon dioxide emissions aren't our only problem. 

To that end, one wonders if we should be putting a price on nature, as Richard Conniff argues in Yale360. This has been a popular idea in economic circles for some time. Perhaps if we understood the enormous value we get from ecosystem services we would start to pay attention to what we are losing. But perhaps this will make nature subject to negotiation, that if we only save half the wetland, we can still have our tax cut, or if we only protect part of the forest, we can still enjoy certain subsidies. Conniff points out that we're asking the wrong questions. It's not

“Why do species matter?” but “Is food important to you?” or “Do you want your children to have effective medicines when they get sick?” or even “Do you like to breathe?” None of these questions overstates the importance of species.

It's this sort of straight talk that we need to see what kind of future we can have versus the sort of future we're going to get with business as usual. What after all, is the value of a walk in the woods?

Meanwhile, Robert Jensen at Truth-Out, in his article, "From Start to Finish: Why we won and how we are losing" puts it in plain terms that business as usual is causing global depletion. This is the subject of Michael T. Klare's book "The Race for What's Left: The Global Scramble for the World's Last Resources (New York: Metropolitan, 2012), which is reviewed by Jensen along with two other books. The cheap, easily accessible oil has been vaporized by our cars and planes and now we're onto the dirtier tar sands oil, and the inaccessible oil off the continental shelves and in the Arctic. Next to go are the rare minerals, mined out of rainforests and natural landscapes to feed our industrial juggernaut. Jensen makes the point that we're not going to invent our way out of the crisis. Indeed, some of our previous standbys, like "Necessity is the mother of invention" are going to have to be jettisoned if the transition to this new, environmentally impoverished world is going to be, well, manageable, if not catastrophic. It's not about changing our tools, but about changing our values. Valuing the future requires us to look beyond short-term gratification of consumption and see the beauty of the natural world and the species we share the planet with. We're good at taking care of ourselves and our needs. Now we have to start taking care of the planet -- and our future.

Top Ten Blog Posts

We reached a milestone last week -- 10,000 page views since our inception! (And that doesn't include an additional 6000 page views for the blog when it was formerly known as "Ecolympics".) Thanks for reading. To celebrate, I thought I'd highlight the top ten posts that are getting the most hits.

1. Environmental Cartoons I: Crisis? What Crisis? -- most people find Eco-Now by searching for the Supertramp album, "Crisis? What Crisis?" whose cover was featured in this post.

2. Portraits of Endangered Animals -- I'm a big fan of Joel Sartore and his work is highlighted here.

3. Endangered Species at the North and South Poles: The Eco-Art of Xavier Cortada  -- Now that I found out about the terrific work of Miami eco-artist, Xavier Cortada, I'm a big fan of his work too. See also his Eco-Now interview, which just missed the top ten.

4. Six Great Environmental Protest Songs -- I tried to find some that weren't on everyone else's list.

5. What is Shark Finning? -- simply, it's a brutal, inhumane practice that is decimating worldwide shark populations, all for a supposed delicacy.

6. The Endangered Species Print Project -- great conservation-art project by Jenny Kendler and Molly Schafer of Chicago.

7. The Lost Bird Project -- "Forgetting is another kind of extinction," says Todd McGrain, whose work to commemorate extinct birds with larger-than life sculptures is profiled in the eponymous film (reviewed here). See also the thoughtful interview he gave.

8. Thoughts on World Population Day -- can natural resources keep up with our growing population? No.

9. How Water Chestnuts are Taking over the Northeast: A Photo-essay -- invasive species like water chestnuts are becoming a problem in ecosystems everywhere.

10. Living in an Age of Extinction: Building a Life Cairn -- Why do no church bells ring when animals go extinct? Why, indeed. Read the interview with Andreas Kornevall about the great project in East Sussex to commemorate extinct species.

Please share this post or any other post you found provocative. We need to raise awareness that we humans are part of the tree of life and the high extinction rates now seen, due to habitat destruction, pollution, over-exploitation, invasive species and climate change mean that we are failing in our role as stewards. We now know of more than 2000 other planets in the galaxy, but none of them are known to have life. It's our planet, and biodiversity is our life: we need to take care of it.