RUSH TO RICHES The War on Creation

Paul Wiegelmann Lectures on Environmental Studies: 2

RUSH TO RICHES The War on Creation

Rayappa A. Kasi

Dharmaram Publications Bangalore 560 029, India

2011 Rush to Riches: The War on Creation By Rayappa A. Kasi A. Kattupadi Post Vellore 632011, India Website: www.planetschaser.com Email: [email protected]; Phone: 09443537885

Paul Wiegelmann Lectures on Environmental Studies: 2 © Faculty of Philosophy Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram Bangalore 560 029, India Email: [email protected]

First Edition, 2011 Published by Dharmaram Publications

ISBN: 978-81-89958-45-9

Printed at: National Printing Press, Bangalore

Price: INì 395; US$ 40

Dharmaram Publications Dharmaram College, Bangalore 560 029, India Tel. 080/4111 6227; 4111 6137; 4111 6111 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.dharmarampublications.com In memory of all the species of animals and plants perished in the war on creation Other Publications from the Author

1. Earth: The Lost Paradise of Happiness (2009) 2. Global Warming: Everything You Want to Know! (2009) 3. Biosphere: The Fragility of Our Natural Heritage (2010) 4. Lithosphere: A Destructive Creator (2010) 5. Hydrosphere: The Giver of Life (2010) 6. Atmosphere: A Thin Line between Life and Death (2010) 7. Earth: Designed for Biodiversity (2010) 8. Youth: An Avatar of New Earth (2011) 9. Apes to Angels: Man Reaches his Omega Point (2011)

Cover Illustration

This picture, the oil-soaked bird from Gulf of Mexico, represents the agony and pain that the Creation is undergoing as a result of human conflict with Nature. It is a loud cry of Creation for help. Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. The spill stemmed from a sea-floor oil gusher that resulted on 20 April 2010 from an explosion of Deepwater Horizon, which drilled on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. The explosion killed 11 men working on the platform and injured 17 others. New estimates show the undersea well has spilled between 17 and 39 million gallons of oil. These estimates dwarf those of BP, who claimed the spill had only released 11 million gallons to date, and mean that the Gulf leak is far bigger than Exxon Valdez, making it the worst spill in American history. The National Wildlife Federation reports that already more than 150 threatened or endangered sea turtles are dead. Hundreds and thousands of sea birds, mostly brown pelicans and northern gannets, have been found dead along the Gulf Coast as a result of the spreading oil. A large number of fishermen are becoming seriously ill and many of them believe that the chemicals that BP is using in the Gulf are to blame. Local shrimpers in Louisiana are already predicting that it will be seven years before they can set to sea again.

Cover Design: Rajeev Karun Cover Photo: Courtesy of Google Table of Contents

FOREWORD: “Wounded Nature and Bounded Human” by Dr. Saju Chackalackal...... xv

INTRODUCTION...... 1

Chapter 1

RUSH TO RICHES The War on Creation The Kingdom of God Is Under Attack...... 12 Globalization One: The War of Exploration and Exploitation....14 Globalization Two: The War of Industrial Revolution and Emulation...... 20 Globalization Three: The War on the Kingdom of God...... 26 viii Rush to Riches

Kingdom of God Is Dying: A Shocking Report...... 30 A Sick, Stinking, and Shrinking Planet...... 34 The Curse of Plenty: Our Inflated Lifestyles...... 36 Gold Rush or Carbon Rush: A Generation of Looters...... 41 Industrialization: Ecological Suicide...... 42 Elite Billionaires and Destitute Paupers: Capitalism and Ethical Capitalism...... 46 Disappearing Cultures: War on Ethnosphere...... 50 Disappearing Values and Relationships...... 53 Consumption: A Latest Addiction...... 55 Carbon Footprint: Ten Pockmarks...... 58 Human Hubristic Blunders: Time of Anarchy...... 62 First, Second, and Third World: A Competitive Elimination.....66 Earth Is in Advanced State of Exhaustion...... 68 Hunters and Gatherers into Hoarders and Gardeners...... 70 Exiled Man: The Orphan in God’s Universe...... 72

Chapter 2

WAR ON LITHOSPHERE (Land) Scars on Earth: Ten Stigmata on Mother Earth...... 78 Stigmata Eleven: Pokhran, India...... 83 Stigmata in Afghanistan and Iraq: Pulverized Mountains...... 85 Ore and Mineral Depletion: A War between Need and Greed..87 Mining: The Resource Curse...... 88 Environmental Impacts of War on Land...... 91 Empty Coal Mines: A Wounded Lithosphere...... 95 The Curse of Oil: A Bleeding Lithosphere...... 96 Iron Ore: End of the Line...... 98 Copper Mines...... 101 Uranium: Ultimate Weapon of Savages...... 103 Rare Earth Metals...... 105 Table of Contents ix

Exploitation of Granite and River Sand...... 110 Nineveh: The Wicked City...... 112 Metropolis or Necropolis: Skyscrapers or Cemeteries...... 115 Ecology of Cities: Ghetto of Ecological Refugees...... 121 Earth Deficiency Disease...... 124 Unproclaimed War on Agriculture: Modernization...... 126 Human Biomass on Lithosphere: World Population...... 128 Human Biomass in India: 18 Million Every Year...... 129 Plastic Culture: Waste Disposal...... 129 E-Waste: Electrocuted Lithosphere...... 133

Chapter 3

WAR ON HYDROSPHERE (Water) Origin of Water: The Pouring of the Holy Spirit...... 136 Fresh Water: Blood of the Earth...... 138 Water Pollution: Effluents...... 140 Acid Rain: Life Buster...... 141 Oil Spill: Man Made Plague...... 144 Erosion: Earth Cancer...... 148 Soil Erosion and Climate Change...... 155 Cyclones, Hurricanes, Floods, Droughts, and Famines...... 157 Ocean’s Secrets: Cold War Nukes in the Oceans...... 160 Kursk: The Curse of Hydrosphere...... 165 Corals Bleaching: Silent Killing...... 168 Boom in Harmful Algal Blooms...... 170 Glaciers Melting: All Life Endangered...... 172 Ocean Carbon Cycle: Nature’s Recycler...... 174 Hydrologic Cycle: The Giver of Life...... 176 Marine Over-Harvesting: Tragedy of the Commons...... 178 Climate Change and Water Stress...... 182 Indian Life Line: An Impending Flatliner...... 184 x Rush to Riches

Sunderbans: First Victim of Global Warming...... 186 Water Danger Zones...... 187

Chapter 4

WAR ON ATMOSPHERE (Air) Blue Earth: A Breath of Life...... 193 Earth a Super Organism: A Global Immune System...... 197 Air Pollution: Poison Breathing Earth...... 200 Nature’s Extermination Camps: A New Holocaust...... 204 Present Levels of Greenhouse Gasses...... 206 Methane in Siberian Permafrost...... 208 Ice Core Readings: Ultimate Time Capsule...... 210 Tree Ring Readings: Dendrochronology...... 212 Chlorofluorocarbons: Carbon Debate...... 214 Factories or Mega Gas Chambers: Zyklon-B Gas...... 215

CO2 Concentrations 390 ppm in Atmosphere...... 219 880 Billion Tons of Carbon in Atmosphere...... 221 Greenhouse Effect: Almost on Venus...... 222 Efficiency, Quantity, Lifetime of Greenhouse Gases...... 225 Global Warming: A New Crematorium...... 227 Ozone Layer: Hole in the Stratosphere...... 229 Dimming Earth: Sun will Darken...... 231 Asthma Earth: Geo-Respiration...... 236 Adaptation: A Key to Survival...... 239

Chapter 5

WAR ON BIOSPHERE (Life) How Many Specie on Earth?...... 244 Man the Only Monster of Biosphere: The Omnivore...... 246 Table of Contents xi

Man: The Most Poisonous and Dangerous Animal...... 251 Colonialism, Slavery, World Wars, and Holocaust...... 253 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, India...... 259 Vellore: A City of Mutineers...... 261 A New Eugenics: The War against the Weak...... 264 War on Biodiversity: A Perfect Crime...... 268 Biodiversity’s Weapons of Mass Destruction...... 271 Animals under Siege...... 274 Mystery of the Disappearing Amphibians...... 278 Research on Animal Abuse: Massacre of the Innocents...... 279 Deforestation: Destruction of Green Cathedrals...... 283 Rain Forest Destruction Affects Earth Systems...... 285 Transgenics: Save Us from Evil...... 287 Bioengineered Products Are Not ‘Natural’...... 289 Bioethical Determinants...... 290 Go Green and Save Biosphere...... 291 A New Environmental Revolution: Ecopsychology...... 293 Biophilia and Biophobia...... 296

Chapter 6

WAR ON NOOSPHERE (Consciousness) God and Noosphere: God’s Pain for the World...... 301 Asoka and Noosphere: Fortune Is the Cause for Misfortune...303 Evolution of Noosphere: A Giant Leap in Complexity...... 305 The Omega Point: The Goal of History...... 307 Noosphere: Your Soul’s Internet Service Provider...... 309 Wounded Noosphere: A Broken and Contrite Heart...... 312 Pharisee and Publican: Noosphere Exalted and Wounded...... 313 Dark Night of the Soul: Purgation of the Noosphere...... 314 R-Complex and M-Complex: Reptiles versus Mammals...... 317 Get Connected to Earth: Recharge Your Spirit...... 319 xii Rush to Riches

Get Connected to Primal Matrix of Earth: Nature Nurtures....324 War on the Land of Ahimsa: India Losing...... 327 Eco-Spirituality: Building Nature Religion...... 329 Dominion Model Spirituality...... 331 Stewardship Model Spirituality...... 334 Creation-Centred Model Spirituality...... 337 Deep Ecology Model Spirituality...... 341 Prescription for a Wounded Noosphere...... 347

Chapter 7

ROLE OF RELIGION ON THE WAR ON CREATION Religion: The Most Powerful Tool...... 355 Appeal from Religions: Stop Messing with Mother Nature.....357 Old Man of Conservation: Noah...... 361 Lost Sheep: Jesus the Conservationist...... 363 St. Francis of Assisi: Meek Francis to Mutineer Francis...... 365 An Appeal from Rhineland Mystics...... 370 Goodness of Creation: Meister Eckhart...... 370 Goodness and Blessing of Earth: Julian of Norwich...... 372 Cosmic Awareness: Hildegard of Bingen...... 374 Panentheism: Mechtild of Magdenburg...... 375 Motherhood of God: Julian of Norwich...... 377 Compassion Understood as Interdependence by Mystics...... 379 A Generational Mission: Restoring the Earth...... 382 From Neighbour to Cosmos: A Good Samaritan...... 385 Anthropocentric Approaches: The Death of Spirituality...... 387 Desire: The Root of All Evil...... 389 Conservation: The Best Investment for Future...... 390 35 Hot Spots: Nature’s Gift to Future Generations...... 393 Save the Earth from Human Beings: Ecosophy...... 394 Vegetarianism and Veganism...... 397 Table of Contents xiii

Non-Vegetarian Habit: A Schism in Human DNA Makeup....400 Towards a Global Ethics: Connection to Mother Earth...... 405 Sacrifice/Sharing: Two Contenders of Conservation...... 407 Earth, the Bountiful: Regenerating a Healing Matrix...... 411 Man, the Creator: The Image of God...... 414

POSTSCRIPT...... 417

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 421

INDEX...... 427 Foreword

Wounded Nature and Bounded Human

Nature is bountiful. She has her being in letting herself to be shared by all elements that constitute her so much so that she exists and thrives in a symbiotic relationship established among everything created. Her ability to give without reserve is unmatched. Whoever reaches out to her will not go empty handed, as her bounty never gets drained or dried out. Being essentially part of and having a distinctive position within the nature, human beings have to assume greater responsibilities to protect and care for the whole creation. As human beings are endowed with the faculties of intellect and xvi Rush to Riches will, they are uniquely capable of enhancing the course and content of nature through their ongoing creative involvement facilitated through better understanding and judicious choices. The symbiotic relationship between the bountiful nature and creative human being is a fact that cannot be questioned or denied. The history of the universe, especially the history of human involvement in the evolution (spontaneous or agency- induced) of nature for millions of years, as they are gathered from different types of research carried out in recent years in different parts of the globe, attests to the fact that human presence was a blessing to the extent that they cared for the bountiful nature without adversely affecting her natural rhythm. This story, however, is found to have taken a different course in the recent past, especially from the era of agricultural and industrial revolutions. As it happens with any revolution, there were ruptures to the rhythm of nature both in deregulated and artificially augmented agricultural and industrial production, where the bounty of nature, instead of being handled with care and concern by human beings, began to be exploited without reserve, leading to catastrophic depletion of many resources, some of them being pushed even to a point of no return. A self-destructive drive was set in motion in the human approach to nature, directly or indirectly under the auspices of religious divinity and/or the tutelage of statutory majesty. Unfortunately, however, human beings many a time did not realize the obvious fact that the destruction of nature – even if it was reflected only in a particular element – was at the same time a destruction of their own lives. The unfortunate alienation of all non-human elements of nature by human beings, though had the ‘blessing’ and ‘justification’ from some organized religions, had accentuated the exploitation of nature. For example, the biblical sources were (mis)interpreted by some belonging to the Semitic religious traditions to licence unbridled human plundering of Foreword: “Wounded Nature and Bounded Human” xvii the nature. Moreover, as the capitalist economic doctrine was found to be the most popular form of commerce, and as political powers leaned over to the capitalist free market economies for their advantage, the destruction of nature reached its climax. All the more, a misconceived alliance between the religious powers and economic powers, especially of western Christianity and economic capitalism as it was practised in Europe and North America, issued the death warrant to the whole nature, as they together could salvage any plan to exploit nature’s bounty. Further progression (or digression!), more powerful than ever in the recorded history, in this regard took place through the ideological and political facilitation of globalization, whereby the destructive strategies of production and distribution have not only been made to go global, but has triggered a tantalizing of the human want to its extreme so much so that the extortion of almost all the natural resources available all through the bountiful nature would not suffice to meet the ever-increasing need and boundless greed of the people. Industries thrive, economies aim at two-digit annual growth, and men and women aim at all possible goods and services which can be manufactured and distributed by availing the limited resources in nature, which otherwise should have been cautiously used in view of sharing them with the future generations as well. Although most of us are happy with the availability of goods and services (as and when they are needed), and the advanced gadgets and facilities to make our lives comfortable and career efficient, seldom do we realize that the production and distribution of these are done at a high price, the adverse impacts of which would go well beyond our generation, as the damage done makes the vulnerable nature wounded to the core and further derailed and distanced from its own course. Despite the fact that most of the things of the consumerist culture is taken for granted and life would seem too difficult, or almost impossible, in their absence, even moderate assessment of experts indicates that the pace of life in the second half of the xviii Rush to Riches twentieth century and in the twenty-first century seems to have lost its natural dynamics and organic rhythm. The new globalized world of sheer business and hardcore exploitation has an almost exclusive focus on economic growth, which has thwarted all other areas and diverse dynamics of life so much so that materialistic overtones and consumerist concerns tend to rule everyone and everything. Despite the ‘all is lost’ impression and the overarching doom that descends upon almost all areas of creation and life, it must be borne in mind that the unique status of human beings enables us to hope for the best by, first, realizing the widespread and long-lasting harm done and, then, understanding their causes and committing to the corrective measures to set the course right. We must learn from our mistakes and make provisions to protect and preserve the nature in a sustainable manner, which would necessarily include protection and judicious use of natural resources. It would be possible only if we realize that the ecosystems, which include the animate and inanimate realities, are essential to the support of life in all forms. It is heartening to note that the world at large is becoming increasingly aware of the havoc that has beheld the entire creation; at least at the level of knowing, many are acutely aware of the devastating effects of certain modern practices adopted by the human beings, individually and collectively. Of course, despite the international treaties drawn up by different governmental and non-governmental bodies, there are certain influential political powers that are not ready to make any significant reduction in their nature-degrading production practices or lifestyle changes, which would not only benefit themselves but the entire creation. However, the enhancement of human consciousness that goes beyond the political divide and national affiliations has emerged more powerful, setting the trend to initiate more nature-friendly policies and practices. Even Foreword: “Wounded Nature and Bounded Human” xix if the political might seems to succeed for a while with their anti- natural pro-economic drives, the intense awareness, firm conviction, and unwavering commitment of a minority initiate a catalyst effect upon the people at large, which seem to open the avenues of a symbiotic relationship among the creation, where nature would be priced far above the quick-buck seeking economic and political gimmick. Despite the imperfections shared by democratic political processes, where the doctored majority voice turns out to rule the box, it also offers us the opportunity for the people’s voice being heard. As more and more people are aware of the issues involved in the exploitation and extermination of nature for vested interests of the economic and political mighty around the globe, the move to save the earth, environment, and life seems to gain momentum and impact. Looking at the whole issue of exploiting and exterminating nature from a critical angle would clearly indicate that the humanity has arrived at this through a sheer selfish mode of existence and action. The capitalist thrust which has been identified by many as the ‘successful’ mode of conducting economic transactions focuses on the generation of profit at any cost. When the capitalist mode is wedded to a utilitarian philosophy, even cutthroat competition and exclusive thrust on profit are said to be justifiable provided that would facilitate the amassing of economic benefit for the parties who run the show; as long as they gain their best, without incurring any loss, anything, including the exploitation of anyone or anything is acceptable among the practitioners of capitalism. The rule of thumb is the gain of the self. One could go any extent, provided that would open up the avenues for more gain and more profit for oneself. The fact that the resource rich countries around the globe (for example, some countries in Asia, Africa, and South America) encounter the poorest of the living conditions and the mayhem in the areas of development, political instability, etc., is indicative of the worst that can be set in motion by those who are xx Rush to Riches intent on grabbing the best, even if the rest are left in the lurch of economic deprivation and social cohesion. While the humanity has paved the way for the destruction of nature, the only way to salvage ourselves along with nature is to curb our selfishness, on the one hand, and to initiate positive measures of reinstating the nature to its mode of self-maintenance and protection through selfless action in favour of nature, on the other. As the symbiotic relationship existing in nature facilities each one’s mutual support and dependence, creating a mutually enhancing symbiotic network of relationship among the entire creation, including all animate and inanimate existences, is the need of the hour. Nature is the most effective nurturing ground of all; in fact, apart from and beyond nature, no embodied existence can survive or nurture itself. As nature is devastated due to unbridled human carelessness and exploitation, it is increasingly becoming inhospitable (e.g., by unmatched increase in pollution, mostly consisting of emissions and effluents) and unmanageable (e.g., the global warming is known to have done irreparable damage and has reached almost a point of no return). In the context of emphasis being placed on more industrial output and furthering of sound economic growth rate, chances are quite high for further degradation of nature. Although this self- defeating process against nature (which includes the human beings) has been set in motion by human beings, an end to this can be brought about only through the same human beings, but only if they are ready to change. It should be a metanoia – change of heart – that runs through their thinking, speaking, and acting, inviting every human being to be infused by the true teachings of various religions. True to their fundamental nature, religions have been facilitating a healthy relationship not only between human beings and God, but also between human beings and the nature. Despite some of the overtures on the part of these religions at Foreword: “Wounded Nature and Bounded Human” xxi one time or the other in the history of humanity, religion, if employed properly and creatively, is an effective institution to initiate and sustain trendsetting changes among the people. Christian teaching, for example, offers a ray of hope in this regard through its centrality on the total self-giving for the other. Against the background of all-pervasive human selfishness having caused most of the exploitation and degradation of nature, a true understanding of the Christian perspective would call for the practice of sharing and self-giving for the sake of others. While all are interested in grabbing as much as possible for oneself or one’s own, a true Christian will have to let go of everything for the sake of the other, including the nature. As we take part in the nature’s bounty, each one, then, has a responsibility to give back to the nature and to others as much as one can; while all other living beings would give back to nature whatever they have received from nature (as their nature is such that they neither hold anything back to themselves, nor do they take more than they need), human beings have a responsibility to give back to nature much more than they receive. It is due to their endowments of intelligibility and conscience which place upon them a greater responsibility to remedy the harm already done either by themselves or by their forefathers. As Pope John Paul II has put it in his encyclical, Sollicitudo rei socialis (“Social Concerns of the Church,” 1987), human society should pay attention to “the limits of available resources, and of the need to respect the integrity and the cycles of nature and to take them into account when planning for development” (§26). This would become a reality only in the case of human beings, by employing their intellect and will, in being and becoming true human beings placed in the matrix of nature. A true Christian, then, will not participate in any action that would bring about the death or annihilation of nature, but would be an ardent participant in resetting the nature back to its healthy course, by giving back to nature much more than one receives from nature. xxii Rush to Riches

A careful and impartial analysis of the sources of almost all religions would indicate that there are enough and more ideals and ideological provisions for the mutually enhancing existence of all within the world, highlighting the prominent responsibilities of the humanity as a whole in this regard. Moreover, as international organizations such as the United Nations and various political sovereignties across the world claim the right to manage the affairs of the people for the realization of the common good, they too have a greater responsibility to see to it that nature is properly cared for, as they make provisions for its continued use (or misuse!). While the states claim their legitimacy through legislation, religions have their justification in offering inspiration to their votaries; together they could make a significant difference in the lives of human beings through proper legislations for the holistic development and sustenance of nature. In fact, these two core institutions of human society shall become effective only if they could initiate a different kind of thinking and life based on a set of values and attitudes that are based on the self-giving and other-enhancing worldview. It is such a realization in the context of an acute awareness of the environmental problems that are encountered by the whole creation and a systematic analysis of their complicated causes that is at the source of this amazing book Rush to Riches: The War on Creation. Rayappa A. Kasi, an eco- warrior in his own right and commitment, offers us an incisive analysis of the present plight of the world focused exclusively on a rush to riches by waging an incessant war on creation, which is beset by many ills ranging from mysterious illnesses to catastrophic climatic conditions, unpredictability of weather to unprecedented global warming, and ruthless human greed to hopeless lethargy of political sovereignties. To cite an example, Kasi writes: “The holy land of India is stripped, raped, abused, and pillaged. Violence has been perpetrated to the extreme on the land of ahimsa in the form of modernization, Foreword: “Wounded Nature and Bounded Human” xxiii industrialization, westernization, globalization, and contamination. Guess what? India is losing in the war of rush to riches” (329). After having depicted the maladies that the nature faces, which do not seem to be showing any sign of immediate improvement, and knowing well from his scientific expertise and immense experience that there is no alternative for a sustainable development which will be good both for the humanity and for the rest of creation, Rush to Riches dwells on the creative role that different religions should play in inaugurating a new era against the war on creation. According to Kasi, human beings have to respond to the plea of nature, which is obviously visible and audible in themselves, by changing their approaches and attitudes. The proposal of Rush to Riches is not any temporary small-scale solution. In fact, its author does not believe in any cosmetic rearrangements or a hand-to-mouth solution. Instead, the proposal is for a total revamp of human approach to nature, by challenging a number of contemporary practices that seem to go against ourselves and our nature. According to Rayappa A. Kasi, “What may be hoped for is that humanity, on account of her fine and scientific intellect, will realize the obvious and retrace her steps and, from the demoralizing industrialism, she will find a way out. It will not necessarily be a return to the old absolute simplicity. But it will have to be a reorganization in which village life or simple life will predominate, and in which brute and material force will be subordinated to the spiritual force…” (241). Although he calls for swifter human action (compared to the almost ten thousand years long agricultural revolution and two-centuries long industrial revolution, the environmental revolution should have a momentum, if it should succeed, compressed into a few decades), “the heart of environmental revolution is a change in values, one that derives from a growing appreciation of our dependence on nature. Without it there is no xxiv Rush to Riches hope. In simple terms, we cannot restore our own health, our sense of wellbeing, unless we restore the health of the planet” (296). It is this process that is referred to as the new mode of sustainable development. Without halting the progress that humanity has been making, it proposes a more intelligent planning and execution of developmental paradigms that would protect and preserve the entire creation for the good of itself. In the given context of our contemporary economic and industrial practices, Rayappa proposes an intelligent understanding of sustainable development and an action plan to be adopted: “Sustainable development is defined as balancing the fulfilment of human needs with the protection of the natural environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future. It means development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Thus, to save the environment, it is not necessary to sacrifice our economic growth but it is necessary to adapt our economic growth in order to protect the environment” (409). Indeed, the call is to creatively involve in facilitating the growth of everything, be it a plant or tree, a tiny insect or animal, or a human baby or a grown up: everything should have its due place in nature, even if one may not always understand the implication or relevance of the other elements or agents within a given context. Both the presence and absence of anything can set in motion a ‘butterfly-effect’, which may have positive or negative impact upon everything in the world. Hoping for a positive catalyst effect from both the concerned and the unconcerned about the plight of nature, Kasi offers an intense personal invitation to all his readers. He writes: “As a Catholic priest, I believe that addressing this imbalance at its roots requires more than public policy, regulation, or legislation. It will require a collective psychological process (a global consciousness or noosphere) to heal us, technological Foreword: “Wounded Nature and Bounded Human” xxv peoples, who, through a mechanized culture, have lost touch with the natural world... We seek to reclaim the wisdom of native peoples and reconnect the noosphere to the primal matrix of the earth. A species smart enough to discover the double helix should be wise enough to leave unsustainable … technology and development” (351) and should seek other modes and paradigms to live a holistic life, a life and its amenities which would be through and through pro-nature. More than an invitation, here is a passionate appeal to save the planet earth. It is not something that one would do by oneself; it needs our collective will and concerted action plans. Both religious and political powers have to contribute their might in this regard, as they are the most conspicuous and powerful agencies that can change the world for bad or for good. Even if we realize that their powers have been identified at the base of almost all the problems we confront today, they do have the potential for impacting positive and constructive changes. Hence, hoping against hope, Rush to Riches envisages that the war on creation can be halted and a post-war reconstruction of the whole nature can slowly but steadily be effected by the personal and collective involvement of every human being. Instead of grabbing every opportunity for selfish gains, humanity has to tune in itself to a new philosophy of sharing, where one would not hold anything back to oneself, but would give away for the other, even to the extent of giving away all that one has and, hopefully, much more than what one has… Indeed, everything is not lost, as long as humanity has not lost itself!

Bangalore Dr. Saju Chackalackal CMI 26 August 2011 Dean, Faculty of Philosophy, DVK Email: [email protected] Introduction

Nature is warning us: the human massive attack on creation has to stop. We need to rediscover beauty in the simple things and stop fooling ourselves pursuing plastic dreams and inexistent thoughts. Lately, I was wondering, what was the biggest war ever fought? What is the largest battle ever fought in terms of the number of people that participated? World War I? Over 70 million military personnel were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. Over 15 million people were killed. Some historians feel that World War II was the biggest war in history, which took place between 1939 and 1945, with 50 to 70 million casualties. But the longest and the biggest battle ever fought in my opinion is the War on Creation. Without any doubt, Planet Earth is under attack. It has always been under attack ever since man appeared on earth. In fact, earth has been under attack since the creation of the world when the evil one entered the Garden of Eden and contradicted God’s word, bringing death. From then on, creation has been under constant attack and life has been under threat all over the world. This war gained momentum, when men increased in numbers on earth and fought over some 2 million years, the longest battle in the geological timescale, which still goes strong. 2 Rush to Riches

The War on Creation is the biggest battle ever assembled, fought by almost 125 billion humans so far, and it still continues with 7 billion soldiers adding 90 million new soldiers every year. In the twentieth century alone, more life was lost than in all other centuries combined. Every soldier is equipped with the most powerful and sophisticated weapon of mass destruction ever designed by humanity, i.e., Greed. The target is not Germany, Great Britain, France, Japan or Russia, but Creation, especially Earth Systems, and it includes the destruction of land, water, air, leaving irreparable damage to life supporting systems on earth. Humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels, the spread of cities, the destruction of natural habitats for farmland, and overexploitation of the oceans destroy earth’s ability to sustain life. Narrow-mindedly and retarded by laws these people have run out of creative ideas, they are still fighting senseless wars over infantile ideologies, natural resources, and artificial markets. Embarrassing enough, for thousands of years humans have fought their wars under the motto “the End Justifies the Means,” meaning they are sick and dirty, all tricks are allowed even when it means to betray their own beliefs, breeding societies of pathological liars, hypocrites, and psychopathic killers. Since Industrial Revolution, hundreds and thousands of species were driven to the edge of extinction. Most people, who destroy creation, belong to some kind of religious beliefs who believe in capitalism—Rush to Riches—vowed to destroy, if creation stands in between their ‘progress’. Modern generation is moving closer and closer to removing life influence from society altogether. We literally walk over dead bodies to get our fix of power and success; we commit suicide with greed and selfishness and go to war for oil, metals, minerals, and other natural resources at the expense of scorched earth and disfigured landscapes. Morality, ethics, justice, and the Ten Commandments are being removed from courts. What has happened? At some point in time, way back in biblical times, at Introduction 3 the transition from hunter-gatherer to agriculture societies, a new rationality emerged, a thinking method of logic and causality. In the beginning, this method was quite a useful tool for trade and technology, and combined with the use of writing, it quickly expanded into other areas of human life. A simple method evolved into a more complex system, developed into a new Monotheistic Belief Systems. Contrary to the old, relatively non-hierarchical, egalitarian, Animistic Beliefs, these new beliefs began to categorize, outline, and protect individual and collective properties in a hierarchic order. The use of writing, a quite restrictive form to describe and calculate material processes and values, was now also used to rationalize and regulate the spiritual world. Creation became the origin of identifying possessions in a hierarchic order. From there on we have claims of ownership of any kind and seizures of properties of any type. Gardens were fenced, fields were seized, quarries claimed, and timeframes set. Land, water, air, man and beast, plants and minerals were taken and made possessions of somebody. Controlling the world on a strictly materialistic level was the logic—straightforward process and seemed to progress successfully for a few thousand years. Law and order were established by the most ruthless, authoritative, manipulative, and ambitious individuals on this planet; a monoculture of egocentrism and uniformity developed a mobbing and bullying society. From socialization to education, from science to agriculture, everything was going down the ‘mono-way’ and no alternative was in sight or was systematically suppressed. Ownership and possessions were the main principles of the Abrahamic Religions. These titles of ownership included not only women, serfs, and cattle but also the rest of creation, as well as the human soul. Whatever ‘soul’ means, with this synonym the new belief system was also, linguistically, taking possession of the spiritual world. Religion was born and, then, came the death of spirituality; commercialized and politicized ‘spirituality’ became the 4 Rush to Riches foundation and paradigm of the linear culture, pushing creation to sidelines. As a consequence, we live on a planet that is ecologically deteriorating and inhabited by people who are psychologically troubled. As we have entered the first quarter of the twenty-first century, however, concern for the problem of ecological backlash is feverishly mounting. In a world bounded with fixed laws and the natural limits of physical existence, Protean man (ever changing man) is yet unwilling to live within his means. He is not a good householder of the ‘oikos’ that is our home—the Earth. Ever since man becomes a numerous species he has affected his environment notably. We know that we cannot continue to deforest the planet at the current rate without eventually getting into trouble. Similarly, we cannot continue to lose topsoil far faster than natural soil formation without eventually facing impoverishment. If we continue to lose plant and animal species at the rate of the past few decades, we face eventual ecosystem collapse. We also know that we cannot continue to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere without eventually producing economically disruptive climate change. Nor can we continue to add ninety million people to the world each year without eventually destroying the natural systems and resources on which we depend for sustenance. Out of ninety million people, India alone adds 18 million people every year. Unlimited population growth now puts a strain on the earth’s limited resources. Our insatiable appetites, which cannot distinguish between basic needs, neurotic wants, and infinite desires, threaten a wholesale collapse of our fragile biological systems. Man is by the far the most dangerous. He is the only species that can destroy the entire planet. No other animal pollutes or destroys its habitat; but man destroyed the nature and polluted it. Never before has man threatened the very extinction of his planet; until now it has appeared as if nature threatened man. There are periods in human history in which concern for the careful husbanding of resources acquires responsibility, Introduction 5 social visibility, and political influence. At other periods the imperatives of intensive and destructive use of nature are paramount, as, for example, over the first few decades of Industrial Revolution, development was promoted at all costs. But worldviews change with every generation, perhaps every twenty-five years or so. A generation passed, and the consequences of the course the world had taken in 1800s became more evident. The worldview began to shift, and ecological concerns came to the fore. Recently, the lack of finding inner peace, sustainable economics, trust, social justice and personal and environmental wellness have alarmed me every minute. I sought and finally found a tool that transformed my depressing stress and anxiety into responsible stability. I thought I was stressed because the more I became aware of the destructive things happening to earth and to people and places I loved, including myself, the greater became my lack of hope and feeling either mad, sad, or depressed. I felt anger with God and beauty, a fear and disrespect of God for letting so much war, suffering, and environmental deterioration occur that I was powerless to change. In time, I became aware that I was in denial. I denied that I, like many others, had an addiction to immediate rewards from my dysfunctions. They robbed me of the resilience to tolerate what I could not change. I have been giving a lot of thought to the probability that our generation, and our next, will be here long after me. I have been trying to envision how the earth will function in another 20, 30, or 40 years, and whether or not the branches extending from my family tree will be green and thriving. To be perfectly honest, I have my moments of doubt. I am tempted at times to indulge in the cynicism of our age. Yet, just as the doubters and critics are about to take over, I realize that it is up to me to determine how I will survive amidst the terror of environmental waste, pollution, and destruction. It is up to me to find strength. It is up to me to find resolve. It is up to me to see the hidden blessing that my situation is bringing me to go for a change in my lifestyle. 6 Rush to Riches

I see that we have entered into a new era of transformation, perhaps the most significant one in the history of humanity. The new era puts us in touch with healing principles of spirituality and compassion throughout our lives so that we may all become catalysts for social change—with all of our hearts and minds and souls. The new era paints an inspiring picture of a possible future in which the soul takes its rightful place at the core of healing. The world is seriously wounded, threatened by violence egocentricity and mass consumerism. Government and religious intervention alone will never solve society’s problems. We need personal responsibility and healing on a global scale. We should skilfully use science and spirituality with philosophy and ancient wisdom using potent imagery of the ‘wounded healer’ embodied in the life of Jesus Christ, the healer of the world. Through suffering his own physical and mental wounds, the wounded healer acquires a special empathy for recognizing and healing the wounds of others. The new era is full of hope as it hopes to a palpable global shift towards holistic and spiritual values. Through the healing needs of relationship, our economy, our environment, and the living Gaia, and finally the curing ability of a ‘Good Samaritan’ of brotherly and timely care, we may all become catalysts for social change for a happier and more peaceful world. Our earth is wounded and bleeding. Her oceans and lakes are sick; her rivers are like running sores; the air is filled with subtle poisons; and the oily smoke of countless hellish fires blackens the sun. Men and women scattered from homeland, family, and friends wander desolate and uncertain, scorched by a toxic sun. The above scenario well illustrates what is happening to our planet. In this desert of frightened, blind uncertainty, some take refuge in the pursuit of power. Some become manipulators of illusion and deceit. If wisdom and harmony still dwell in this world as other than a dream lost in an unopened book, they are hidden in our heartbeat. It is from our hearts that we cry out. We cry out and our voices are the single voice of this wounded earth. Our cries are a great wind across Introduction 7 the earth. We should care for the earth, and with it comes attention to the damage we humans are doing to our planet at our growing peril. This book is largely a response, or rather I should say, highly provoked response to the environmental and ecological devastation caused by man’s psychopathic greed, fuelled by religions and politics. It begins with the cause of man’s obsession “Rush to Riches,” the obvious reason for the War on Creation, which is fought from all fronts—by land, by water, and by air— making Planet Earth a target. The First Chapter paints a gruesome scene of the ‘status quo’ our planet is in. How sick is the earth? How are people’s lives affected? Our earth is not just mildly indisposed; instead, it is seriously ill and, consequently, man feels alienation from nature and has become an exile and a cosmic orphan as he continues his War on Creation. The Second Chapter depicts the exploitation of the land and its natural resources and obviously the human psyche (desire) is the root cause for this environmental and ecological devastation. Human wants are not based on need but on greed which is the ultimate cause for exploitation of resources. Chapter Three explains that water is the most precious resource on our planet, a key ingredient together with air for development of all life on earth, water as a resource is under relentless pressure. Due to population growth, economic development, industrialization, modern agriculture, and rapid urbanization, water stress has emerged as a real threat. The scarcity of water for human and ecosystem uses and the deteriorating water quality leads to “water stress” and intense socio-political pressures. Chapter Four warns the poisoning of our fragile atmosphere and it is a crisis for the entire life-supporting system of our civilization and of all species. Chapter Five explains that humans, and not an act of God, are the next executioners of Planet Earth as we know it. The most dangerous and poisonous species is the human race, without a doubt, cruel, greedy, selfish, unreasonable, and ruthless. As a result of human action, biosphere is in big trouble 8 Rush to Riches facing extinction; this includes all the things that are living. The biosphere includes life on land and in the oceans—multitudes of plants, animals, fungi, protists, and bacteria. Chapter Six argues that the necessity of establishing an ethical, moral collective consciousness of human awareness (noosphere) as a necessary prerequisite for any real future progress of the humankind. Noosphere is the sphere of human consciousness and mental activity, especially in regard to its influence on the biosphere and in relation to evolution. Finally, Chapter Seven concludes that, today, religion is the most powerful tool available to humanity and it can be used to mobilize people to protect the environment because spirituality is closely linked to nature, members can do it more efficiently in a faith-based conservation. I thank in a special way to Saju Chackalackal, a Catholic priest belonging to the CMI congregation, and his team from Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, Bangalore, India, for publishing this book. Dr. Chackalackal serves as Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, an elite Pontifical institution for ecclesiastical studies where he teaches epistemology and ethics. He has published number of books on ecology, environment, religion and conservation and he was also the chief editor of Journal of Dharma, an international quarterly of religions and philosophies. He is a powerful advocate of conservation of biodiversity. The great thing about wanting to be a conservation advocate is that anyone can do it. You don’t need a PhD in activism—just a desire for change and the willingness to work for it. I also thank Fr. Chackalackal for his inspiring foreword in this book; he never fails to impress me, as the ardour with which he pursues every subject is unique. With more than 1,000 students on the roll, Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram is the world of your dreams, a magic carpet; you can have anything you want to, philosophy, theology, spirituality, counselling, just to name a few. Dharmaram is a jewel of Bangalore ever green and vibrant; a massive campus of more than hundred acres, Dharmaram houses a treasure trove with hundreds and Introduction 9 thousands of endemic species of rare animals and plants; indeed, Dharmaram is a powerful advocate of conservation. If Amazon Forest is the “lungs of the earth,” Dharmaram is the “lungs of Bangalore.” Besides, there are well over 15,000 students ranging from toddlers to theologians, from Kindergarten to PhD, in different satellite institutions of Dharmaram College, which includes DVK and Christ University, which are involved in educating people who are prepared to commit themselves to the service of the Church and the world. This book, Rush to Riches, is dedicated in memory of all the animals and plants that have perished in the War on Creation. This book sets into motion a Mutiny, against the human conflict with Nature, against the War on Creation. in this Mutiny, I join with Dharmaram and with other young and old Eco-Warriors around the world to send one powerful message to religions and politics: Stop the War on Creation!

Diocese of Vellore Rayappa A. Kasi 26 August 2011 An Eco-Warrior Chapter One

Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 12 Rush to Riches Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 13

Our desire for riches started a long time back while we were hunters and gatherers and became an obsession in Neolithic period, around 10,000 years ago when we were a well-settled agrarian society, and became an addiction to consumption in recent times. The fabrication of artifacts and ingenious deployment of external sources of energy have allowed man to declare war on nature, enabling him to plunder the remaining resources. We are actually waging a war on earth; not on it—but against it. We are attacking it from all fronts—by land, by air, and by water. Our methods of attack are numerous and varied, and earth is losing battle after battle. Unless we call a ceasefire, earth may lose this war, which in the end means that we lose also. We impose demands on natural resources that are often completely unrelated to our biological needs. The demands frequently escalate, primarily as a result of competition amongst individuals and groups; these, then, create severe and unsustainable pressure on land, waters, forests, and the atmosphere, as well as on other living species, an increasing number of which have been wiped off the face of this planet by the intended and unintended consequences of human action. In movies, powerful forces from across the universe have brought war to our planet. But now, war is not fought by aliens, but by the inhabitants of the earth: it is man versus the planet. Humanity faces an imposing array of environmental problems on a worldwide scale, including a catastrophic loss of biotic diversity, especially because of deforestation in the moist tropics, depletion of the ozone layer, acid precipitation, toxification of the entire planet, a growing vulnerability to epidemic diseases such as AIDS. No problem is more daunting, though, than the gradual warming of earth’s surface because of the injection of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. In fact, none so clearly shows the interrelationships among all major environmental problems or so plainly demands the attention and cooperation of all nations in order to ameliorate its effects.

The Kingdom of God Is under Attack 14 Rush to Riches

Jesus Christ was the proponent of this new vision for the universe. Christians believe that Jesus Christ first brought his kingdom to light when he came to earth as a man. He healed the sick; he raised the dead. We will see and understand his kingdom to light when he comes again in glory. Although the kingdom of God does not appear on any map, it is a real place. The whole world is the kingdom of God, comprising the biotic and abiotic world, from tiniest of atom to the largest sun. No matter what version of Jesus you accept, the goal of a Christian life is to reach the Kingdom of God. There is just as much evidence in the gospels that reaching the Kingdom of God means arriving at a higher level of consciousness. Only inner transformation could bring about Christ’s vision of the Kingdom of God on earth, which was the Messiah’s ultimate mission. As is so often the case, you can read scripture many ways. But I think the argument for higher consciousness is by far the most persuasive. Christian tradition paints the kingdom of God as paradise, a place of sharing between humans, animals and plants; a banquet hall for the starving presided over by a smiling Father; in mundane terms, it is the warm home that the master welcomes his workers into after a hard day tending the vineyard; modern life may be more comfortable, but still we yearn for this place of refuge and rest. Also, Christianity has always focused on the weak and poor whose longing for rest and relief certainly hasn’t changed since Jesus’ time. When Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within, he meant within everyone, biotic and abiotic world; God in all and All in God. I think the only way to solve the riddles posed by the kingdom of God is to say that God exists in different places depending on your level of consciousness. The kingdom of God is not something ‘up there’, or ‘out there’, or beyond the beyond; a release into an eternity, or as the ancient sages experienced, a merging into the transcendence. But it is right here, in all fronts, and also within all of us; it is our ability to recognize God in everything we see. Therefore, God’s Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 15 presence could be seen in all the five kingdoms of life, Bacteria, Protoctista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia, and this is the Jesus’ vision of “Kingdom of God.” All we have to do is to realize that the whole Kingdom of God is built on relationships. We are all with the nature not above or over or out of the nature. In fact, more and more we are compelled to do so because the human mind alone can no longer resolve the ever more complex problems of the world, because our state of the mind is connected with the state of the natural world, through the power of the Spirit. The Kingdom of God is under attack. Man has declared war on creation. Humanity has declared war on biodiversity. Continued biodiversity loss threatens the web of life upon which humans depend: Global life support systems and biodiversity coevolved. The very atmosphere which makes the earth capable of supporting complex life forms was itself generated by plants and microbial organisms. Biodiversity depends on a complex interplay not only between living things and the natural world, but also amongst living creatures of varying forms and types, in ways we understand only vaguely. Ecosystem services provided by these complex global systems are essential for our quality of life as well as our survival. Biodiversity is essential for ecosystems to thrive and adapt to changing pressures from human activities. The less biodiversity there is and the more its natural composition is disrupted, the more the human enterprise is at risk. The world is now undergoing the fastest mass extinction in its entire history, according to seven out of ten biologists interviewed for a poll taken by the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The scientists said that the biodiversity loss the planet is now experiencing is more serious than global warming or pollution. One out of three of the scientists polled believe that half of all species now on earth will die out by 2028. The survey is a “wake-up call” to all of us “that we are facing a serious threat not only to the health of the planet but also to humanity’s own wellbeing and survival,” says Ellen 16 Rush to Riches

V. Futter, the museum’s president. If no action is taken to reduce species loss, 20 years out, species loss will severely threaten earth’s ability to sustain life. If earth is now heading into a sixth, and worst ever, period of mass extinction, we humans with our mushrooming world population may well be the cause.

Globalization One: The War of Exploration and Exploitation The first lasted from 1492—when Columbus set sail, opening trade between the Old World and the New World—until around 1800, I would call this era Globalization One. It shrank the world from a size large to a size medium. Globalization One was about countries and muscles. That is, in Globalization One, the key agent of change, the dynamic force driving the process of global integration, was how much brawn—how much muscle, how much horsepower, wind power, or, later, steam power—your country had and how creatively you could deploy it. In this era, countries and governments often inspired by religion or imperialism or a combination of both led the way in breaking down walls and knitting the world together, driving global integration. In Globalization One, the primary questions were the following: Where does my country fit into global competition and opportunities? How can I go global and collaborate with others through my country? How can I impose my religious beliefs? How can I exploit the poor and enslave them for religion? How can I exercise my dominion over the earth, subjugating and exploiting it? Exploration has always been a large part of history. There were many reasons for people to become explorers during the 1400s and 1500s. Wealth was a large reason. Many became explorers to extend their empire and the rule of their monarch. Others risked their life to spread their religion. European explorers set out to explore the lands beyond the ocean. They risked everything they had for chances of a better life. The explorers wished to convert people to Catholicism. The mid-to- late 15th century has quite rightly been called the Age of Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 17

Exploration and Discovery. The trade in spices and horticultural products played a pivotal role in the development of Western Europe and the conquest/settlement of the New World. Cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, pepper, and turmeric were known to Eastern peoples thousands of years ago, and they became important items of commerce early in the evolution of trade. Cinnamon and cassia found their way to the Middle East at least 2,000 years before the Christian era. From time immemorial, southern Arabia had been a trading centre for frankincense, myrrh, and other fragrant resins and gums. Arab traders artfully withheld the true source of these spices. To satisfy the curious, to protect their market, and to discourage competitors, they spread fantastic tales to the effect that cassia grew in shallow lakes guarded by winged animals and that cinnamon grew in deep glens infested with poisonous snakes. It was an age in which European sailors and ships left the coastal waters of the Old World and embarked on their adventure on the vast “green sea of darkness.” First, Portuguese ships, then Spanish and, finally, in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, British, French, and Dutch ships set out to discover a world, which they originally called the Other World, but eventually called the Mundus Novus—the New World. The costs were minimal but the risks were high. Whole continents were discovered and explored. However, despite the fact that history textbooks have, until quite recently, always glamorized this age of European exploration, there is one serious fact we need to consider. That fact is this: Europeans found native populations wherever they landed and their first task was to befriend them. After this initial period came to an end, that is, after gold and silver were discovered among the natives, the age of European exploitation began. In this way, exploration turned to exploitation. One example says a lot: during the second voyage of Columbus in 1494, and while at Hispaniola, one of his captains collected 1500 Indians and held them captive. Five hundred were taken on board Spanish ships and 200 died at sea. 18 Rush to Riches

Others were treated cruelly by the Spanish—the first armed conflict between Indians and Europeans occurred in March 1495. So strong were the Spanish that the Indian population of Hispaniola was nearly destroyed. Of a population of 250,000 in 1492, barely 500 remained alive in 1538, just over forty years later. Religion was a very important part in the lives of most Europeans. The prominent religion was Catholicism. Hard feelings remained after the Crusades. But crusades continued in the form of exploration and exploitation, this time not against the Muslims, but against the Third World. People felt it was their duty to spread their religion. Many became explorers and missionaries. They explored new lands and spread their religion to the new people they met. Dominion Model social teachings known as ‘papal bulls’1 were, very prevalent in fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. “Romanus Pontifex” is a papal bull written January 8, 1455 by Pope Nicholas V to King Alfonso V of Portugal. Papal bulls were originally issued by the pope for many kinds of communication of a public nature, but after the fifteenth century, only for the most formal or solemn of occasions. Here is one example, based on Dominion Model teaching: Romanus Pontifex asserts: “... since we had formerly by other letters of ours granted among other things free and ample faculty to the aforesaid King Alfonso—to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ…” These passages specifically granted to nations and explorers caused to seek out lands unknown to Christians. In 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued Inter Caetera stating one Christian nation did not have the right to establish dominion over lands previously dominated by another

1Papal Bull is a special letter or document bearing the pope’s own seal. The word bull originally meant ‘seal’ in the Middle Ages; it was applied also to the document to which the seal was affixed. Application of the word exclusively to papal documents, as opposed to documents of state bearing the seal of a sovereign, is a relatively modern development. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 19

Christian nation, thus establishing the Law of Nations. Together, the Dum Diversas (1452, by Pope Nicholas V), the Romanus Pontifex and the Inter Caetera came to serve as a justification for the Discovery Doctrine and the Age of Imperialism. Portugal had dominion over all lands that were discovered or conquered during the Age of Discovery. Henry the Navigator, who was the governor of the Order of Christ, negotiated with the Pope and offered him to propagate the Christian faith in the new countries. So, the bull was enacted, which politically protected the rights of the Portuguese. Along with encouraging the seizure of the lands of “Saracens, pagans ... and other enemies of Christ,” it repeated the earlier bull’s permission for the enslavement of such peoples. The bull’s primary purpose was to forbid other Christian nations from infringing the King of Portugal’s rights of trade and colonization in these regions. The bull praises earlier Portuguese victories against the Muslims of North Africa and the success of expeditions of discovery and conquest to the Azores and to Africa, south of Cape Bojador. It also repeats earlier injunctions not to supply items useful in war such as weaponry, iron, or timber to either Muslims or pagans. Romanus Pontifex has served as the basis of legal arguments for taking Native American lands by ‘discovery’, and continues to do so today. The logic of the rights of conquest and discovery were followed in all western nations including those that never recognized papal authority. They were also early influences on the development of the slave trade of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, even though the papal bull “Sublimus Dei” of 1537, by Pope Paul III, which was on the enslavement and evangelization if South American Indians, forbade the enslavement of non- Christians. Scholars note that the executive brief for “Sublimus Dei” was withdrawn by the pope after protests by the Spanish monarchy. Paul III publicly sanctioned slavery in Rome in 1545, the enslavement of Henry VIII in 1547 and the purchase of Muslim slaves in 1548. The consequences precipitated by 20 Rush to Riches

Dominion Model teachings, history would never forget the dark age of colonization, slavery, and the mass murders of Aztecs, Mayans and Incas of South America. The members of the Society of Jesus were the principal victims of the Dominion Model based social teachings. The pontificate of Clement XIII (1758-69) was dominated by the Jesuit issue. He was under heavy pressure from Portugal and, then, France, Spain, Naples, and Sicily, to dissolve the Jesuit order and he summoned a special consistory to discuss the matter but died the day before it met. The Jesuits had been expelled from Brazil (1754), Portugal (1759), France (1764), Spain and its colonies (1767), and Parma (1768). Those who have seen the movie, “The Mission” by Warner Brothers, 1986, which deals with Jesuits who attempt to evangelize a village of South American natives and the aftermath of terror and murder inflicted on the natives by politics and Church, would definitely understand and feel the dangers of anthropocentric Dominion Model. Very often, Dominion Model teachings, therefore, acted not as a form of conflict-resolution but, rather, conflict-intensification. I am struck by how little anger there is in the Dominion Model atrocities of religions, the era of massacres, slavery, expulsions, forced conversions, inquisitions, excommunications, suspensions, burning at the stake, ghettoes, and pogroms. In the early fifteenth century, the Portuguese were competing for a sea route to India to participate in the spice trade and they also brought with them the Dominion Model evangelization. After Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India in 1498, the Portuguese practised just trading for four centuries. Portuguese clerics were only responsible for the needs of the Portuguese, and clerics of other nations were not allowed to operate in Portuguese India. In Goa, envoys of the Pope were arrested and sent back. So, the Catholic Church threatened to open the East for all European Catholics. Around 1540 King John III started the Christian mission by sending the Society of Jesus to Goa. The missionaries were supported by the colonial Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 21 administration, who offered incentives for baptized Christians, rice for the poor, good jobs for the middle class, and military support for the local rulers. It is unquestionable that there had been emigration due to harsh methods of conversion. Historians Simao Botelho, Vedor da Fazenda of Portuguese India, wrote to the king in 1552 saying that some missionaries wanted to convert the Hindus by force, to the extent of even harming them and compelling them to migrate. The most ordinary means to attract the Hindus to conversion were charity, kindness, and social service; intensive and constant preaching, confessions, admonitions, judicial penalties, catechetical instruction and indulgences; appeal to emotions, fantasy and senses through the relics of saints, lives of saints, hymns, and promises of eternal salvation. The missionaries were successful and spread in Asia.

Globalization Two: War of Industrialization and Emulation The second era, Globalization Two, lasted roughly from 1800 to 2000, interrupted by the Great Depression2 and World Wars I and II. This era shrank the world from a size medium to a size small. In Globalization Two, the key agent of change, the dynamic force driving global integration, was multinational companies. These multinationals went global for markets and labour, spearheaded first by the expansion of the Dutch and English joint-stock companies and the Industrial Revolution. In the first half of this era, global integration was powered by falling transportation costs, thanks to the steam engine and the railroad and, in the second half, by falling telecommunication

2Great Depression was the worst and longest economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world, lasting from the end of 1929 until the early 1940s. Beginning in the United States of America, the depression spread to most of the world’s industrial countries, which in the twentieth century had become economically dependent on one another. The Great Depression saw rapid declines in the production and sale of goods and a sudden, severe rise in unemployment. Businesses and banks closed their doors, people lost their jobs, homes, and savings, and many depended on charity to survive. In 1933, at the worst point in the depression, more than 15 million Americans—one- quarter of the nation’s workforce—were unemployed. 22 Rush to Riches costs—thanks to the diffusion of the telegraph, telephones, the PC, satellites, fibre-optic cable, and the early version of the World Wide Web. It was during this era that we really saw the birth and maturation of a global economy, in the sense that there was enough movement of goods and information from continent to continent for there to be a global market, with global arbitrage in products and labour. The dynamic forces behind this era of globalization were breakthroughs in hardware—from steamships and railroads in the beginning to telephones and mainframe computers towards the end. The big questions in this era were the following: Where does my company fit into the global economy? How does it take advantage of the opportunities? How can I go global and collaborate with others through my company? How can I take advantage of opportunities? During the Industrial Revolution, the use of steam- powered machines led to a massive increase in the number of factories, particularly in textile factories or mills. As the number of factories grew, people from the countryside began to move into the towns looking for better paid work. Also thousands of new workers were needed to work machines in mills and foundries and the factory owners built houses for them. Cities filled to overflowing and London was particularly bad. London, like most cities, was not prepared for this great increase in people. Rooms were rented to whole families or perhaps several families. If there were no rooms to rent, people stayed in lodging houses. The workers’ houses were usually near the factories so that people could walk to work. They were built really quickly and cheaply. Victorian families were big with 4 or 5 children. There was no running water or toilet. A whole street would have to share an outdoor pump and a couple of outside toilets. Most houses in the North of England were “back to backs” built in double rows with no windows at the front, no backyards and a sewer down the middle of the street. The houses were built crammed close together, with very narrow streets between them. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 23

Even the cellars were full. Most of the new towns were dirty and unhealthy. The household rubbish was thrown out into the streets. Housing conditions like these were perfect breeding grounds for diseases. More than 31,000 people died during an outbreak of cholera in 1832 and lots more were killed by typhus, smallpox, and dysentery. Industrial Revolution took the war on creation directly on humanity by exploitation of human labour, child labour and unjust wages. Chimneys, bridges, and factory smoke have blocked out most of the light in the towns. A layer of dirty smoke often covered the streets like a blanket. This came from the factories that used steam to power their machines. The steam was made by burning coal to heat water. Burning coal produces a lot of dirty, black smoke. In 1848, Parliament passed laws that allowed city councils to clean up the streets. One of the first cities to become a healthier place was Birmingham. Proper sewers and drains were built. Land owners had to build houses to a set standard. Streets were paved and lighting was put up. Over time slums were knocked down and new houses built. However, these changes did not take place overnight. When slums were knocked down in 1875 the poor people had little choice but to move to another slum, making that one worse. Few could afford new housing. Many factory workers were children. They worked long hours and were often treated badly by the supervisors or overseers. Sometimes the children started work as young as four or five years old. A young child could not earn much, but even a few pence would be enough to buy food. The coal mines were dangerous places where roofs sometimes caved in, explosions happened and workers got all sorts of injuries. There were very few safety rules. Cutting and moving coal which machines do nowadays was done by men, women and children. The younger children often worked as ‘trappers’ who worked trap doors. They sat in a hole hollowed out for them and held a string which was fastened to the door. When they heard the coal wagons coming they had to open the 24 Rush to Riches door by pulling a string. This job was one of the easiest down the mine but it was very lonely and the place where they sat was usually damp and draughty. Older children might be employed as ‘coal bearers’ carrying loads of coal on their backs in big baskets. The Mines Act was passed by the Government in 1842 forbidding the employment of women and girls and all boys under the age of ten. Later, it became illegal for a boy under 12 to work down a mine. While thousands of children worked down the mine, thousands of others worked in the cotton mills. The mill owners often took in orphans to their workhouses they lived at the mill and were worked as hard as possible. They spent most of their working hours at the machines with little time for fresh air or exercise. Even part of Sunday was spent cleaning machines. There were some serious accidents, some children were scalped when their hair was caught in the machine, hands were crushed and some children were killed when they went to sleep and fell into the machine. Children often worked long and gruelling hours in factories and had to carry out some hazardous jobs. In match factories, children were employed to dip matches into a chemical called phosphorous. This phosphorous could cause their teeth to rot and some died from the effect of breathing it into their lungs. Although in 1832 the use of boys for sweeping chimneys was forbidden by law, boys continued to be forced through the narrow winding passages of chimneys in large houses. When they first started at between five and ten years old, children suffered many cuts, grazes, and bruises on their knees, elbows, and thighs; however, after months of suffering their skin became hardened. Hordes of dirty, ragged children roamed the streets with no regular money and no home to go to. The children of the streets were often orphans with no one to care for them. They stole or picked pockets to buy food and slept in outhouses or doorways. Charles Dickens wrote about these children in his Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 25 book Oliver Twist.3 Some street children did jobs to earn money. They could work as crossing-sweepers, sweeping a way through the mud and horse dung of the main paths to make way for ladies and gentlemen. Others sold lace, flowers, matches, muffins, etc., out in the streets. Poor families who lived in the countryside were also forced to send their children out to work. Seven and eight year olds could work as bird scarers out in the fields from four in the morning until seven at night. Older ones worked in gangs as casual labourers. It took time for the government to decide that working children ought to be protected by laws as many people did not see anything wrong with the idea of children earning their keep. They also believed that people should be left alone to help themselves and not expect others to protect or keep them. They felt parents had a right to send their children out to work. People such as Lord Shaftesbury and Sir Robert Peel4 worked hard to persuade the public that it was wrong for children to suffer health problems and to miss out on schooling due to work. Catholic Church was an efficient negotiator between the perpetrators of capitalism and the labour victims, through the social teachings of popes. Rerum Novarum, an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, is considered by many conservative Roman Catholics to be extremely progressive. It enunciated the late nineteenth century

3Oliver Twist is the British motion-picture adaptation of Charles Dickens novel of the same name. Released in 1948, the film chronicles the adventures of Oliver Twist (played by John Howard Davies), an orphan in nineteenth century England who runs away from a workhouse and joins a band of youthful pickpockets. A sinister character named Fagin (Alec Guinness) houses the gang of boys and manages their criminal activity. When Twist gets caught stealing from a wealthy man (Henry Stephenson), the man discovers that Twist is his nephew. He takes Twist away from the life of crime, but Twist’s underworld pals come looking for him, hoping to cash in on his good fortune. 4Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621-1683), English statesman, first, a supporter and, later, an opponent of King Charles II. Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850), British prime minister and founder of the modern Conservative party. 26 Rush to Riches

Roman Catholic position on social justice, especially in relation to the problems created by the Industrial Revolution, and it emphasized the Church’s right to make pronouncements on social issues as they related to moral questions. In earlier times, the primary vehicle for Catholic social teaching was the jurisprudence of canon law. The social doctrine of the Church became the purview of papal encyclicals during the nineteenth century when the Church struggled with the rise of the modern industrial society with its new structures for the production of consumer goods, with its new concept of a just society, with the rise of the secular state, and with the modern world’s new forms of labour and ownership. The papal encyclical Rerum Novarum is delivered on May 15, 1891, and offered a prospect of a Catholic labour movement. It dealt with the capital and labour and the condition of the working class. It broke down the barriers that separated the Church from the worker. The working class was exploited: working long hours, poor working conditions, low wages, and the use of child labour. These workers were excluded from the benefits of their labour, and it created an unhealthy society. Many thinkers and radicals offered solutions to this problem, among them Karl Marx and his Das Kapital. While Marx was proclaiming religion as being the opiate of the masses for neglecting the plight of the poor and the workers in the emerging industrial society, Pope Leo XIII offered Rerum Novarum as a response. Forty years later, Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, which amplified the themes found in Rerum Novarum. Issued on May 15, 1931, during the worldwide Great Depression, Quadragesimo Anno stated that the right of property must be subordinate to the common good and it delineated the idea of subsidiary, the idea that a greater and higher association should not do what a lesser and subordinate organization should do. At a time when the communist, the socialist, and the fascist movements were making headway in the troubled economic times, Quadragesimo Anno pushed for Christian workers Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 27 associations to help workers conditions. Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio built upon the achievements of Rerum Novarum and Guadragesimo Anno, and it was also influenced by the liberal ideas of the 1960s. Issued on March 26, 1967, Populorum Progressio focused on the responsibilities of former colonial powers to its former colonies, the need of the state to help the poor, and a continuation of a critique of the previous two encyclicals of the pursuit of profit without any attendant social responsibilities. Pope Paul VI calls for a more equitable relationship between industry and labour. Recently, Pope John Paul II wrote three encyclicals on social teaching concerning human dignity. First he issued the Laborem Exercens. It is on human work, issued on September 14, 1981. It focused on the themes that work is central to the social question and that work has potential not only to dehumanize but also to be the means whereby the human person cooperates in God’s ongoing creation. The second is Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, which was promulgated on the twentieth anniversary of Populorum Progressio. It was issued on December 30, 1987. Literally meaning ‘on social concerns’, Solicitudo Rei Socialis presented an overview of modern social problems with some guidelines for action. It dealt with authentic human development and adopted a critical attitude toward both capitalism and communism. It warned that economic development alone may not set people free but only enslave them more. Third and the most important of all is Centesimus Annus, which was promulgated on the centenary of Rerum Novarum. It was issued on May 1, 1991. Centesimus Annus brought Rerum Novarum up to date and tied it to “the preferential option for the poor” in the context of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Centesimus Annus is still being criticized for its comments on capitalism and communism.

Globalization Three: The War on the Kingdom of God 28 Rush to Riches

Around the year 2000 we entered a whole new era of Globalization Three. Globalization Three is shrinking the world from a size small to a size tiny and flattening the playing field at the same time. While the dynamic force in Globalization One was countries globalizing and the dynamic force in Globalization Two was companies globalizing, the dynamic force in Globalization Three—the force that gives it its unique character —is the newfound power for individuals to collaborate and compete globally. I believe that globalization has the potential to bring enormous benefits to those in both the developing and the developed world. But the evidence is overwhelming that it has failed to live up to its potential. The phenomenon that is enabling, empowering, and enjoining individuals and small groups to go global so easily and so seamlessly is what Thomas L. Friedman in his book The World Is Flat, calls it “the flat-world platform.”5 The flat-world platform is the product of a convergence of the personal computer which allowed every individual suddenly to become the author of his or her own content in digital form, with fibre-optic cable, which allowed every individuals to access more digital content around the world for next to nothing, with the rise of work flow software, which enabled individuals all over the world to collaborate on that same digital content from anywhere, regardless of the distances between them. No one anticipated this convergence. It just happened—right around the year 2000, and when it did, people all over the world started waking up and realizing that they had more power than ever to go global as individuals, they needed more than ever to think of themselves as individuals competing against other individuals all over the planet, and they had more opportunities to work with those other individuals, not just compete with them. As a result, every person now must,

5The World Is Flat is a book written by Thomas L. Friedman, where he examines the economic and political influences, shaping business and competition in a technology-fuelled global environment; it offers a call to governments, businesses, and individuals who must stay ahead of these trends in order to remain competitive. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 29 and can, ask: Where do I as an individual fit into the global competition and opportunities of the day, and how I, on my own, collaborate with others globally? Globalization Three encompasses many things: the international flow of ideas and knowledge, the sharing of cultures, global civil society, and the global environmental movement. The great hope of globalization is that it will raise living standards throughout the world; it gives poor countries access to overseas markets so that they can sell their goods, allow in foreign investment that will make new products at cheaper prices, and open borders so that people can travel abroad to be educated, work, and send home earnings to help their families and fund new businesses. But Globalization Three differs from the previous eras not only in how it is shrinking and flattening the world and in how it is empowering individuals. It also is different in that Globalization One and Two were driven primarily by European and American individuals and businesses. Even though China actually had the biggest economy in the world in the eighteenth century, it was western countries, companies, and explorers who were doing most of the globalizing and shaping of the system. But going forward, this will be less and less true. Because it is flattening and shrinking the world, Globalization Three is going to be more and more driven out only by individuals but also by a much more diverse —non-western and non-white—group of individuals. Individuals from every corner of the flat-world are being empowered. Globalization Three makes it possible for so many more people to plug in and play and you are going to see every colour of the human rainbow take part in it. While this empowerment of individuals to act globally is the most important new feature of Globalization Three, in this era, companies—large and small—have been newly empowered. Globalization has created a new world. People are now losing their sense of culture. 30 Rush to Riches

“Globalization is defined as the changes in societies and the world economy that result from dramatically increased international trade and cultural exchange.”6 The world is going through globalization faster than ever before. The changes in transportation and technology have also impacted globalization. All nations of the world are now able to rapidly transport goods and services by airplanes. They import goods and services via the Internet. People are now able to travel to any country they choose. Within a few hours, citizens of one country are able to fly across the globe to a distant land. These new conveniences cause lots of problems. The pollution of the world is continuously on the rise. We are now selling our environment for money. Economic activity often results in the negative effects of globalization, such as chemical waste and air pollution. Still, the cost of cleaning these effects up is not included in the price of a product. In many cases, specifically in the developing world, manufacturers take advantage of lax regulations and cause air pollution and chemical waste without restraint. Some economists studying globalization have come up with a theory that this behaviour follows a pattern first discovered by economist Simon Kuznets. The Environmental Kuznets Theory states that economic growth in poor countries will always coincide with negative environmental effects until a certain income level is reached. But, once a tipping point is reached, a higher per capita income starts correlating with an improving environment. This can clearly be observed in developing nations where per capita income is low, and more pressing social needs enjoys priority over environmental regulation. For a while economic development means more negative environmental effects like air pollution and chemical waste, but as soon as a country becomes more developed, more regulations are set in place to protect the environment. Obviously, environmental harm is stabilized, and as income rises further, some of the new wealth is used to reverse the damage already done. This theory holds important

6 www.docstoc.com/Positive and Negative Effects of Globalization. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 31 implications for the debate about global warming, because it implies that greenhouse emissions from developing countries, especially China and India, will continue until a tipping point in per capita income is arrived at. It turns out that very little empirical evidence exists to prove this theory, however. The Environmental Kuznets Theory rests on two assumptions, which is that environmentally friendly production is more expensive than environmentally unfriendly production, and that poor countries can’t afford environmentally safe production until they reach a certain income level. These assumptions could be false. Denmark’s economy has recently grown by 50% without an increase in greenhouse emissions, thereby disproving the first assumption. Denmark achieved this by shifting 22% of its electricity generation to wind power. The success of eco- labelling, a market-orientated program that promotes environmentally friendly products, also suggests that economic growth does not always have to coincide with environmental harm.

Kingdom of God Is Dying: A Shocking Report We should have taken global warming seriously ten years back when the climate scientists warned about the problem. Even now, there are some leaders in top level in politics and religions who tend to believe that global warming is a myth. Humanity may still have their heads in the sand, but one Russian ecologist, Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, leader of the Russian Ecological Union and the Director of the Institute of Water Problems, Russia, warns that global warming can no longer be stopped. The earth is heating up and he believes that we have dilly-dallied too long. There is nothing we can do to reverse a looming devastation of our planet’s delicate ecology. A recent issue of the Russian publication quotes Viktor-Danilyan,7 leader of the Russian Ecological Union, as threatening that the planet is heading for a

7From his “Official Report: Earth Climate Is beyond Repair.” www.100megasfree4.com. 32 Rush to Riches warm-up that will eventually make life as we know it uninhabitable. He said that all we can do at this point is work to “diminish climatic changes caused by civilization’s negative effects.” “It is too late to speak of preventing anthropogenic climatic changes,” Viktor-Danilyan said during a press conference held in Moscow. He urged the world to work to reduce the human effect on climate-forming factors and especially to stop the destruction of ecological systems and to cut the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. “Man has unbalanced the climatic system; it is looking for a new balance, and the state of balance,” told Danilov-Danilyan. He warned that the climatic changes will affect all the nations of the world. The World Meteorological Organization reports that the air temperature on the planet could increase by two to six degrees by the end of the century, which Danilov-Danilyan says will have catastrophic consequences.8 The Russian ecologist appears to be the first in the scientific community to make this dramatic conclusion public, although he is not the first to think it. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, in a speech last year in Edinburgh, England, said he fears global warming or an ‘accident’ might wipe out all life on earth. In another appearance during CNN’s Larry King Live, Hawking said he believes that the planet is in danger of reaching a point in which the heating begins to intensify without additional help from human produced waste. “The atmosphere might get hotter and hotter until the earth will become like Venus with boiling temperatures and render uninhabitable,” Hawking said.9 In their book The Coming Global Superstorm,10 radio personalities Whitley Strieber

8See “Environmental Problems” by Viktor Danilov-Danilyan at Website: www.fc05.deviantart.net. 9Stephen Hawking is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity. 10The magnetic field drives weather to a significant degree and when that field starts migrating, superstorms start erupting. This superstorm could bring blizzard conditions packing sustained winds in excess of 100 miles per hour. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 33 and Art Bell described a complex series of deadly earth changes that they believe are already in progress. They say these changes threaten to turn our planet into a hot, barren place where we can no longer live. Strieber, in a story that recently appeared on his website, noted the following: “Dr. Robert Watson of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is saying that the earth’s temperature is rising twice as fast as thought ten years ago. In another story, scientists are saying that methane is building up in the atmosphere for the same reason it did 14,000 years ago, in an event that we believe resulted in the last superstorm. At the same time, Nature Magazine has published a paper saying that ocean currents are slowing down, and other scientists have announced that climate change is likely to be sudden.”11 If they are right, Strieber said we should expect a dramatic warming during the next few years. He said that temperatures in the tropics could exceed 130 degrees Fahrenheit, forcing a human exodus from north and south into more temperate areas. Also fierce storms can be expected to continue to ravage Europe and North America, increasing in violence with each passing year. Excessive flooding will be more and more common all over the world. There is dramatic evidence that all of the above events are happening even as I write these words. Super localized storms, with straight winds clocked at 100 miles-per-hour and higher, are more and more common. Areas that normally see moderate rainfall are parched. Forests

Under the interior of the superstorm, death rates could possibly approach 100%. If it were to happen in the summer, massive flooding would devastate low lying areas. If it ignited during the winter, a new ice age would be upon us. According to scientific data, this global superstorm has happened before; perhaps many times. The fossil record would seem to indicate an occurrence of a superstorm between 7 and 10 thousand years ago. This is said to be responsible for the disappearance of entire populations of animals, namely, large ones such as the mammoths. 11Whitley Strieber is an American writer best known for his horror novels. www.100megsfree4.com/farshores/jd01.htm. 34 Rush to Riches fires are ravaging large areas of the planet due to abnormally dry conditions. Some parts of the globe that are usually arid are getting flooded with too much rain. Flowers are blooming in barren desert areas of the Southwest. The year 1988 holds the distinction as the warmest year in recorded history. The 1990s were acclaimed warmest decade and contained the warmest three years of the century. The 12 warmest years of the twentieth century occurred since 1983. The average temperature of the world increased, by 0.6 degrees centigrade during the twentieth century. The planet is now heating by a fifth of a degree every decade. These changes may not seem significant when we live in areas where temperatures can rise from extremes of minus degrees below zero in winter, to 100 degrees in the summer. But the overall temperature of the planet, which remains relatively constant, is extremely important to keep the delicate balance of nature intact. For nearly all of human history, we have enjoyed the moderate weather necessary for the subsistence of life. Now this moderation of weather seems to be going away. According to a report on the Internet, “Out There News,” the worldwide scientific consensus says that warming during this century could be as high as six degrees Celsius.12 That is, the earth will have gotten hotter a hundred years than it was colder during the last ice age. This is known as the worst-case scenario and is the stuff of nightmares. The story noted that during the last meeting of the United Nations Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a report based on statistics known as of 1995 indicated a worst-case scenario of three degrees warming, with a best scenario of slightly less than two degrees. “So the worst just doubled,” the story said.13 Since that meeting, the article said, a scientist at the United Kingdom’s Hadley Center determined that other elements than carbon emissions can come into play

12See www.megastories.com/index.php?option=com_content. 13See www.outtheretv.com, Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 35 after the planet gets warm enough.14 As the planet heats up, the scientists warn, the tropical forests start dying and eventually turn that part of the world into a desert. All the carbon in the trees and soil would be added with that already present in the atmosphere, pushing temperatures up about another two degrees. Also millions of tons of methane, also a potent greenhouse gas, would be released from the world’s oceans as they heat up. If Viktor-Danilyan is correct, the Hawking scenario of a world heating system getting out of control may become a reality in our lifetime. That means many of us may live to experience indescribable horrors. We have to blame ourselves for this nightmare. We have destroyed the spaceship earth. Even now, with these kinds of dire warnings, political and religious leaders prefer to continue on as if nothing is wrong. Even with 165 nations already approving the rules of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the biggest polluter in the world, the United States of America is not among them. President George W. Bush said during his campaign for office that he did not believe that there was enough scientific evidence to support global warming. Later, he said that he wouldn’t go along with it because the Kyoto Protocol would be too costly and unfair to American industry. Developing nations conveniently ignore the early warnings of climate change, as it can threaten their already crippled economies.

A Sick, Stinking, and Shrinking Planet The patient’s condition is serious. Symptoms are multiple. His breath is noxious. He has a fever, higher than ever before. Efforts to bring it down are not working. Poison has been found in body fluids. When symptoms are treated in one area, more pop up in other body parts. If this were a usual patient, doctors would be

14United Kingdom’s Hadley Centre deals with the climate prediction and research. Recent prediction on climate is quoted here from the website: www.metoffice.gov.uk. 36 Rush to Riches inclined to declare the multiple sicknesses as chronic and terminal. Not knowing what else to do, they would just take steps to make the patient as comfortable as possible until the end came. However, this is not a human patient. It is our home—the earth. The above scenario well illustrates what is happening to our planet. Dirty air, global warming, polluted waters, and toxic wastes are just a few of the maladies of our very ill earth. Like the doctors mentioned above, the experts are in a quandary as to what to do. The media regularly call attention to earth’s poor health with such headlines and captions as “Blast Fishing Turns Seabeds into Killing Fields,” “Billion Asians Could Be Parched in 24 Years,” “Forty Million Tons of Toxic Trash a Year Trades Globally,” “Nearly Two Thirds of the 1,800 Wells in Japan Are Contaminated with Poison,” “Ozone Hole over Antarctic Is Back and Bigger,” etc. Some people become accustomed to frequent news of danger to the environment, perhaps even thinking that it “is not of great concern as long as it does not affect me.” Whether we realize it or not, the wholesale destruction of the earth’s environment affects the vast majority of people. Since contamination of our planet is now so pervasive, it is likely that it already affects more than one aspect of our lives. Thus, all should be concerned about the health and preservation of our home. After all, where else would we live? Just how widespread is the problem? How sick is the earth? How are people’s lives affected? Let us take a look at just a few factors that help us to understand why our earth is not just mildly indisposed, but is seriously ill. First, large sections of ocean are overfished. A report by the United Nations Environment Program says: “70 percent of marine fisheries are so exploited that reproduction cannot or can just barely keep up.”15 For example, populations of cod, hake, haddock, and flounder in the North Atlantic fell by as much as 95 percent between 1999 and 2009. If this continues, what will it

15Overfishing is a threat to marine biodiversity. See the United Nations Official Website: www.un.org/events/tenstories.asp?storyID=800. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 37 mean for millions who depend on the sea as a major source of their food? Additionally, each year, an estimated 20 million to 40 million tons of sea life are caught and thrown back into the ocean—usually, wounded or dead. Why? They are caught along with target fish but are not wanted. Second, deforestation has many negative sides to it. Loss of trees results in a reduction in the earth’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, and this is said to be a cause of global warming. Certain species of plants, the potential source of lifesaving medicines, will disappear. Nevertheless, forest destruction continues unabated. In fact, the rate of destruction has increased in recent years. Some authorities feel that if this persists, tropical forests could disappear in about 20 years. Third, dumping of harmful materials both on land and in the sea is a serious problem that has the potential for bringing great harm to millions. Radioactive wastes, heavy metals, and by-products of plastics are among elements that can cause abnormalities, sickness, or death in humans and animals. Finally, the fourth, during the past 100 years, close to 100,000 new chemicals have come into use. These chemicals find their way into our air, soil, water, and food. Relatively few of them have been tested for their health effects on humans. However, those which have significant number have been found to be carcinogenic or to cause disease in other ways. There are many more threats to our environment: air pollution, untreated sewage, acid rain, lack of clean water, etc. The few already mentioned suffice to show that the earth is really sick. Can the patient be saved, or is the battle already lost?

The Curse of Plenty: Our Inflated Lifestyles “We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty,” Winston S. Churchill lectured in Cleveland, Ohio, February 3, 1932.16 Churchill was referring to the theory that over-production caused the Depression. Well-known as an orator, strategist, and

16Winston Churchill, Lecture at Cleveland, Ohio. See Website: www.quotationsbook.com/quote/41183. 38 Rush to Riches politician, Churchill was one of the most important leaders in modern British and world history. Sir Winston Churchill was voted the greatest-ever Briton in the 2002 BBC poll, the 100 Greatest Britons. The expression ‘resource curse’ refers to the observation that nations with rich endowments of natural resources (oil, metals, timber, etc.) often dramatically under- perform economically relative to what one would expect. Obviously, the poorest countries are the richest in natural resources. Common sense and simple economics suggest that countries blessed with an abundance of natural resources should live long and prosper. Yet, over many years, it has been observed that nations rich in oil, gas, or mineral resources have been disadvantaged in the drive for economic progress. In the 1950s and 1960s, concern was based upon deteriorating terms of trade between industrialized and developing countries. In the 1970s, it was driven by the impact of the oil price shocks on the oil exporters where windfall revenues17 seemed to introduce serious distortions to the economies. In the 1980s, the phenomenon of “Dutch Disease”—an overvaluation of the real exchange rate and the contraction of agriculture and industry—attracted attention. In the 1990s, it was the impact on government behaviour—rent- seeking and corruption—that dominated discussions. More recently, a revival of interest follows the World Bank’s “Extractive Industry Review” and growing concern over corporate social responsibility. Existence of the “Resource Curse” is controversial in the literature and there is growing evidence that its occurrence is far from inevitable. In many countries, natural resource revenues can produce tangible benefits. Where a “curse” has occurred, the main explanation lies in the way large windfall resource revenues affect government behaviour. Thus, avoidance implies political reform to encourage good governance. Increasingly, analysis addresses how the various players in natural resource

17A windfall revenue (or windfall profit) is any type of income that is unexpected. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 39 projects—international financial institutions, multinational corporations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)—can assist governments at risk to create capacity to manage the problem. The frightening growth of the world’s military spending represents an opportunity forgone to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. In 2001, it already stood at $839 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, with about three quarters of it in developed countries. By contrast, it would take just $19 billion to wipe out starvation and malnutrition globally, the same amount to provide safe clean drinking water and only $5 billion to eliminate illiteracy. In most cases, the objectives of armed conflicts are practical, to control accessibility to natural resources like oil, gas, diamonds, emeralds, and timber. All those who use land and other resources—like farmers, loggers, and fishers—have their own interests. The control of a natural resource by one will pre-empt others using it in a different way. Conflicts of interests can grow into open conflicts. When population and consumption increase, so does pressure on the use of natural resources. Settling conflicts on their use by force is a shortcut preferred by those in strong positions. The World Bank’s World Development Report 2003 reported that un-sustained growth is closely associated with point-source resources and civil conflicts. When production and revenue patterns are concentrated, such as with fuels or minerals—and government controls revenues from resource extraction—opportunities are opened up for financing activities without scrutiny by taxpayers. Easily appropriable rents weaken governance and institutions, increase corruption and self- interested rent-seeking, and prevent economic growth. Rival groups emerge, eager to have their share. Thus, a ‘resource curse’ can plunge a country into armed conflict. Practically, all armed conflicts are now taking place in developing countries, indicating that the development pattern followed thus far has serious shortcomings. Developing countries usually adhere to 40 Rush to Riches the single track of economic development, to raise incomes and growth of national GDP. When the economy grows, increased income is expected to trickle down and make social and environmental development available. Economic development successfully raised gross world output from $6.6 trillion to $44.9 trillion over the last half of the twentieth century. This growth was, however, accompanied by increased inequality: 17 percent of the world’s population receives 78 per cent of world income, while 60 per cent of the people share just 6 per cent of it. Close to 2.2 billion people live on less than two dollars a day. World population is expected to grow from its present 6.5 billion to 8 billion in 2025 and 9.5 billion in 2050. Some 5.2 billion of today’s 6.4 billion live in developing countries, and their numbers will increase to 8 billion in 2050. Their developmental needs are increasing while the natural endowments in their territories remain the same, creating the potential for open conflicts. Growth must continue and this will push consumption even further upwards. Enhanced economic development, while necessary, is not sufficient. The whole world population must now move along the path of sustainable development. This implies economic, social, and environmental sustainability. The economy can be sustainable if it aims at poverty alleviation through full employment, and simultaneously copes with negative economic impacts on social and environmental sustainability. Social sustainability is achieved by focusing development on raising the quality of human creativity through improved education, health, and capacity building—and by strengthening social cohesion among members of society through improving social solidarity, cooperation, and tolerance among religions and races and ethnic, professional, and political groupings. This social development must, in turn, be accomplished while simultaneously considering its impact on economic and environmental sustainability. Preserving and protecting environmental sustainability require preserving and protecting Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 41 natural resources in ecosystems essential to support life. Similarly, it must be achieved while simultaneously considering its impacts on economic and social sustainability. A sustainable livelihood, therefore, is achieved by applying proactive developmental policies through this triple-headed economic- social-environmental sustainability. In the past, conventional economic development has produced goods and services but had negative impacts on social and environmental development. Industry has polluted the atmosphere, and depleted the ozone layer. Transport and energy have heavily polluted the air with greenhouse gasses that change the climate and warm the globe, causing such impacts as sea-level rise, increasingly frequent floods, spreading desertification, growing evaporation of surface water, shrinking forests, the erosion of biodiversity and the eruption of new hazards to health. Conflicts of interests can grow into open conflict. The main causes behind such negative impacts from economic development are ‘market failures’, the inability of market prices to absorb the appropriate social and environmental signals, and the failure of business enterprises to internalize externalities into their structures of costs and benefits. Theoretical instruments have been developed to value social and environmental services and some countries have already introduced ‘green budgets’ and ‘green accounting’ into their systems to try to correct market failures. Putting economic, social, and environmental sustainability into the perspective of a global common vision for the world in 2050 is even more important. We need a universal or global commitment to build a sustainable world. This will require global cooperation in five areas: First, population dynamics, including striving to reach a stable population with high human and social cohesive capacity. Second, consumption patterns that will induce the production of goods and services based on less material-intensive, renewable, and recyclable resources, renewable and clean sources of energy, low-waste and low-polluting commodities and services, goods and services that 42 Rush to Riches use little space and land area, and products and services based on socially and environmentally friendly clean technology. Third is delivery of the Millennium Development Goals with equity. Fourth includes policy measures to correct global market and policy failures. Fifth consists of consolidating multilateral institutions such as the United Nations, and the triangle of partnership between governments, businesses, and civil society. Cooperation along these five lines of action makes it possible to strive for economic, social, and environmental sustainability with genuine global democracy on a multilateral basis—as members of the United Nations family move forward on the pathway to a humane and cohesive world in 2050, free from poverty, inequality, and fear.

Gold Rush or Carbon Rush: A Generation of Looters In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there were a series of major gold rushes. A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers into the area of dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in Oceania, Brazil, Canada, especially the Yukon, South Africa, and the United States of America, especially Georgia, California, and western states, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere. While gold mining itself was unprofitable for most diggers and mine owners, some people made large fortunes, and the merchants and transportation facilities made large profits. The resulting increase in the world’s gold supply stimulated global trade and investment. Today gold rush still continues in the form of ‘carbon rush.’18 Carbon rush has created a generation of looters! Do we look at nature’s bounty as if through the eyes of looters? Do we really need to drill for oil and natural gas in the ocean? Or trawl the seas until the last fish is caught? As a result, mother earth is being gang-raped. Let me repeat: Mother Earth is being gang- raped by a tag-team of corporate greed and criminal negligence,

18It refers to addiction to carbon based natural resources like coal, gas, and other fossil fuels. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 43 and we are all standing there, watching. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico19 is the good example, how man is addicted to carbon rush? Oil continues to leak, the rich nation on earth, who is responsible for the leak, is not doing anything to stop the freaking leak. You would be amazed at the public support you would discover if you pursued this course. Yes, the corporations that make billions of dollars a year from oil will not attempt to clean up the BP catastrophic spill. They will most likely litigate its long-term cataclysmic human and environmental impacts over generations. At the same time, they will continue to look elsewhere in the Gulf of Mexico for drilling sites for oil and natural gas. Mexico, China, and India will be willing partners. For, the reality is that the true cost of this mistake, our mistake in demanding unlimited fuel—oil, coal, and natural gas—to support our current lifestyle: for our electricity and heat, our automobiles, our airplanes, our travel, our trains, trucks, and cargo ships that bring us cheap foods and consumer goods from far away.

Industrialization: An Ecological Suicide Industrialization eroded the power of the aristocrats, made the intellectual middle class have to compete and eroded their prestige, and turned independent artisans into a very ill treated unhappy wage earning class. The idea that for the last 250 years we have pumped ever increasing amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere through industrialization and the automobile and that we can continue to do so without any consequences is suspect on its face. Any one country can pursue a dirty industrialization without much worry; but when all countries do

19An epic environmental tragedy, oil spill in Gulf of Mexico has been unfolding recently, with things going from bad to worse to terrible. The slick was estimated, as of April 30, to cover 6,000 square miles, or an area approximately equivalent to that of Jamaica. It was so close to New Orleans that many local residents reported that they could smell the oil: The Times- Picayune reports that the city has been overwhelmed by a “pungent smell.” 44 Rush to Riches so, a “tragedy of the commons”20 ensues: No wealthy country ever became wealthy without a dirty industrialization. The USA, which rose during industrialization and demonstrated the most remarkable industrial capability during World War II and for decades after, is now dependent on other nations such as China for the production of many of the consumer goods that they use. They have outsourced production and service jobs while they have developed Depression-like unemployment. Most societies become wealthier, and usually we see a lessening of economic inequalities that often arose during early industrialization. The rise of China and India is surely the greatest triumph of capitalism so far. Industrialization is the process of developing an economy founded on the mass manufacturing of goods. Industrialization is associated with the urbanization of society, an extensive division of labour, a wage economy, differentiation of institutions, and growth of mass communication and mass markets. Modern industrialization has created the wealth that has allowed social liberalism; it has also allowed the massive population increase that has strained this liberalism to the breaking point, to say nothing of its attendant environmental consequences. There is no reason not to believe that we have reached an inflection point in our history. Global warming is a major issue due to the industrialization and progress by humankind since the past few years. Global warming is basically a change in the climatic conditions of the earth. These climatic conditions vary due to various reasons external and internal. Changes to climatic conditions and, therefore, global warming can be caused to natural or man-made circumstances also. Some of the factors causing global warming are volcanic emissions and solar activity. According to the solar variation theory, the sun

20Undesired result of exploitation of others: a phenomenon in which individuals attempt to exploit the resources of a group, but only harm themselves because everyone adopts the same strategy and resources are uniformly depleted. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 45 has been gaining strength and is at it is the strongest for almost last sixty years. Therefore, it may now be acting as a cause of global warming. Sunspots21 are also said to be a cause or catalyst for global warming. Recent reports suggest that the number of sunspots in an area directly affects the amount of time the nearby earth takes to cool. Environmental problems such as acid rain which extend beyond national boundaries are becoming increasingly common phenomena. Acid rain reduces visibility, pollutes lakes and streams, destroying fish and other forms of life. Acid deposition results from the chemical transformation and transport of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Experts agree that the major strategy to the acid rain problem is to reduce the emissions of sulphur and nitrogen oxides. Without these reductions, lakes and streams, groundwater, soils and forests will continue to become acidified furthering economic and aesthetic damage. Studies indicate that pollution is linked to the acid blown from China. Other studies also reveal that acid rain is spreading from Northeast Asia south to the Japanese island of Kyushu, especially during the winter when currents of strong northwest winds blow within the region. Both South Korea and Japan welcome China’s economic growth but cannot be indifferent to the nations’ environmental problems. Air currents from China carry sulphur oxide, the major cause of acid rain. Acid rain in the Pacific region is affecting cultural symbols, destroying vegetation, polluting oceans, and affecting wildlife. Bilateral legislations between Korea and Japan, Japan and China, and Korea and China have been established. Agreements between these countries are in progress towards improving the environment of the Pacific Region.

21Large, dark spots, called sunspots, are often visible in the photosphere. The biggest sunspots exceed Earth in size and are easily visible with a telescope. Sunspots rotate with the Sun and change in size and shape. They come and go, with lifetimes lasting from hours to months. 46 Rush to Riches

Throughout history and prehistory trade and economic growth have always entailed serious population health challenges. All documented developed nations endured the ‘four Ds’ of disruption, deprivation, disease, and death during their historic industrializations. However, despite these well- understood, longstanding negative health risks associated with urbanization and with trade, by contrast the process of industrialization has in general been considered to have a much more positive relationship with human health. The apparently compelling logical inference is that industrialization has improved human welfare and health. This conclusion has been repeatedly supported during the course of the twentieth century by a succession of research-based interpretations of the relationship between health and the kind of sustained economic growth made possible by industrialization? The study of British economic history has played a particularly crucial role in informing this generally positive evaluation, partly because it was the first nation-state ever to industrialize but also because of the exceptionally high quality and quantity of its historical medical, epidemiological and demographic as well as economic data. This is due principally to the fact that the British nation- state, as a record-creating and preserving entity, has maintained its integrity throughout many centuries, resulting in the survival of a relative abundance of evidence. The rapid increase in the world’s human population together with its desire for food and military supremacy has led to activities that have introduced contaminants into air, soil, and ground water in a number of countries throughout the world. India’s and China’s rapid industrialization has led to a severe deterioration in water quality in the countries’ lakes and rivers. According to Business Week, India and China are quickly becoming the ecological wastelands, home to some of the world’s most polluted cities.22 India and China suffer from rampant water shortages, soil erosion, and acid rain. Most

22See www.pollutionarticles.blogspot.com. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 47 importantly, growth of India and China is taking a toll on public health. Some key points to be noted here are the following: India and China lead the world in sulphur dioxide emissions. India and China need to diversify from its heavy dependence on coal for energy—or at least encourage investment in cleaner coal- burning technologies now common in the West and Japan. India and China must improve energy efficiency across the country. There is huge energy waste, thanks to primitive coal-mining techniques, loose building-construction codes, and inefficient factories. For every $1 of GDP produced, India and China spend three times the world average on energy. China is also wrestling with the social aftermath of an urbanization plan that created a mass migration of more than 150 million workers to dozens of new industrial cities. A World Bank study estimated that environmental damage costs China some $170 billion a year in lost productivity and associated healthcare. Runaway economic growth with little thought of environmental side effects can provoke a societal backlash. Even as rapid growth continues and living standards rise, one hopes that China doesn’t commit ecological suicide along the way. For if it does, China may be rich, but who will want to live there?

Elite Billionaires and Destitute Paupers: Capitalism and Ethical Capitalism Where do our addictions end, and our human nature begin? Can we live in harmony in a world where every action honours life? The first action, perhaps, might be one of forgiveness. Can we first forgive ourselves for making the choices in our own lives that demand that someone else supply us with an unlimited supply of food, clothing, shelter, resources, and security? Wealthy people receive vastly disproportionate amounts of money compared to the actual work they perform. Poor-menial- employees toil the hardest but this truth is ignored by the capitalists. Slaving at hopeless-brain-dead-jobs is the toughest work humans can endure. The fallacy of capitalism says intelligent, skilled, privileged-people work harder than unskilled, 48 Rush to Riches stupid, underprivileged-people. This capitalist falsehood says the work of intelligent, skilled, privileged-people is very important; therefore, they deserve greater monetary reward. The truth is that all parts of the machine are equally important. Poor workers are very important because they do the jobs rich and intelligent people don’t want to do. Every worker performs an equally important role ensuring that civilization functions. Every worker should, therefore, receive equal pay. A massive network of menial- workers allows superior-specialized-workers to exist. Menial workers are very important because they are the foundations of civilization. Riches cannot be made fairly. Wealth is stolen. Wage-inequality is robbery. Large profits are made via charging more money than it costs to manufacture products or services. Consumers are overcharged; employees are underpaid. “Profits” are the essence of unfair transactions. Wealth is created via unfair exchanges. This is how ‘high-wage-earners’ legally steal money and, eventually, they become capitalists. Capitalism is founded upon monetary greed. Capitalism is theft. This selfish greed creates our inhuman society. Selfish values entail heartless social dysfunction. Enormous monetary inequality creates a social underclass entailing poor health, apathy, stupidity, and criminality. Our capitalist system is designed in such a way that most people cannot escape their poverty. Capitalism encourages millions of people to be brutally stupid. Capitalist intellectual poverty causes immense suffering. Huge numbers of stupid workers are needed to sustain extravagant lifestyles for rich people. Capitalism is a stupid system of monetary imbalance. Simple logistics decree that the majority of employees must be poor and stupid. Capitalism creates a grossly wealthy upper class via underpaying employees and overcharging customers. Millions of underpaid workers create riches for a minority of wealthy people. Extremes of poverty and riches are interdependent. A handful of opportunities exist for poor people to become rich; therefore, most people are poor. Elite billionaires and destitute paupers are Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 49 two sides of the same capitalist coin. Huge capitalist monetary inequality entails mind-numbing jobs for poor people. Poor people are unable to escape their agonizing plight because the capitalist system is against them. Low-paid workers are toxically demoralized. Capitalism steals your money via politicians, taxes, products, services, shops, food, fuel, musicians, celebrities, films, sports, banking, TV, the internet, etc. If everyone was intelligent who would do all the stupid jobs? Jeffrey Langan, chairman of the Liberal Studies Department, Holy Cross College at Notre Dame University, argues that the victory of capitalism over communism and fascism in the twentieth century has blinded us to the serious defects and “real injustices that are part of its foundation, history, principles, and ethos.” Langan argues that capitalism is based on a “subtly dangerous materialism,” that the greatest period of capital formation took place as a result of King Henry VIII’s theft of Church property, that self-interest is simply a euphemism for avarice, that capitalism promotes usury and the rule of the strong over the weak, and lowers the wages of the workers. Not content to stick to these very negative economic consequences, Langan then asserts that capitalism promotes “the widespread use of birth control, abortion, easy divorce, and now gay marriage. Children in proudly capitalist families are frequently beset with alcohol, drug, and sex addictions.” He concludes that “capitalism is not compatible with the principles of equitable human development” and that we better off avoid the term “capitalism” as such.23 If human beings are simply driven by their desire for even-increasing amounts of material goods and do not possess the ability to say “no” or even “enough,” then there really is no responsible use of freedom and

23Jeffrey Langan is the director of the Department of Liberal Studies at Holy Cross College, an interdisciplinary program that teaches universal human values and their practical application in the world. The references for the article quoted above can be found in the website: www.radioromancatholic.com. 50 Rush to Riches we would be nothing other than clever animals. It can and should be admitted that an unethical form of capitalism can treat people as nothing more than consumers. But if this is the anthropology at the root of capitalism, if human beings are not capable of living freely and responsibly, why shouldn’t we opt just as easily for those twentieth century ideologies of communism or fascism? Do we favour capitalism just because it gives us more stuff and makes fewer demands of us? Far from being a dangerous idea, ethical capitalism is what we need now more than ever. When the subject of climate change arises, there are several things that we can expect to hear about quite consistently. Part of me wants to think that Langan is being deliberately provocative, exaggerating his case of rhetorical effect, or even arguing tongue-in-cheek. But if Langan truly believes that supporters of capitalism are blind to its defects, he is purposely ignoring what Catholic social teaching had to say about capitalism, and especially Pope John Paul II’s qualified acceptance of an ethical form of capitalism in the 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus (see especially no. 42) as well as his preference for terms other than ‘capitalism’ to describe the market/free/business economy. More recently, Pope Benedict XVI has also gone to great lengths to recall the benefits as well as the challenges of economic globalization in his encyclical Caritas in Veritate (see, no. 42). Obviously, most of the western religions supported capitalism with their dominion model social teachings in the past and, in recent times, continue to root for ethical capitalism, intentionally or unintentionally, perhaps prompted by the spirit of the age. In a capitalist society, then, anybody who takes the threat of climate change and other environmental problems seriously will quickly be weeded out. Economic progress and environmental benefits can’t live in peace. Environmentally conscious economy means that not just their lives are threatened, but the stability of global capitalism. But they cannot achieve their goal without trying to dampen down the momentum of competitive capital accumulation, the Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 51 very basis of their system. Environmental degradation has always been a consequence of capitalism. Karl Marx showed this in the chapter on machinery in Das Kapital: Moreover, all progress in capitalistic agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the labourer, but of robbing the soil; all progress in increasing the fertility of the soil for a given time is a progress towards ruining the lasting sources of that fertility. The more a country starts its development on the foundation of modern industry, like the United States, for example, the more rapid is this process of destruction. Capitalism is in the situation of destroying the very ground on which it stands. Our futures—or at least, our children’s or grandchildren’s futures—are also at stake.

Disappearing Cultures: War on Ethnosphere Population growth and environmental degradation are interconnected and they are not the only threats facing humanity. Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water, and soil, the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife. Scientists Sabido and Ryerson agree that the loss of culture among nations is just as much a contributor to the extinction of the human race. Sabido teaches that culture is the real inheritance we have because it distinguishes us from animals.24 All the cultures of the world form our global community. Culture is, therefore, also a species, and many traditions—such as the Bali dances, the sub-languages of China, the Mexican Pastorelas, and the greater wisdom of Greece and Egypt—which are no longer valued in societies, have already become extinct. Sabido strongly feels that “the time has come in which the fight for humankind in culture and environment, at a global capacity, is no longer for charity reasons but for the sake

24Sabido and Ryerson, “Are Humans an Endangered Species?” See website: www.findarticles.com. 52 Rush to Riches of survival of mankind.”25 We must also be extremely careful with globalization when it comes to the cultural aspects. Our world is very diverse and has lots of interesting people in it. We need to make sure that all cultures and heritages are not blended together. The people in our world are best when they hold on to their cultural differences. Just as there is a biological web of life, there is also a cultural and spiritual web of life—what at the National Geographic have taken to calling the “ethnosphere.” It is really the sum total of all the thoughts, beliefs, myths, and institutions brought into being by the human imagination. It is humanity’s greatest legacy, embodying everything we have produced as a curious and amazingly adaptive species. The ethnosphere is as vital to our collective wellbeing as the biosphere. Just as the biosphere is being eroded, so is the ethnosphere—if anything, at a far greater rate. Some people say: “What does it matter if these cultures fade away.” The answer is simple. When asked the meaning of being human, all the diverse cultures of the world respond with 10,000 different voices. Distinct cultures represent unique visions of life itself, morally inspired and inherently right. Those different voices become part of the overall repertoire of humanity for coping with challenges confronting us in the future. As we drift toward a blandly amorphous, generic world, as cultures disappear and life becomes more uniform, we as a people and a species, and earth itself will be deeply impoverished. You argue that the steady loss of languages, which are reportedly disappearing at a rate of one every two weeks, is an alarming indicator of declining cultures. What do languages represent that makes you so fiercely concerned about their demise? Language isn’t just a body of

25Pastorelas are plays that recreate the biblical passage where the shepherds follow the Star of Bethlehem to find the Christ Child. In order to reach the birth place of the Redeemer, they have to experience a series of changes in fortune and confront the Devil, who will do everything possible to prevent them from completing their mission. It is at that moment that the Archangel Michael intervenes to defend the shepherds on their journey. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 53 vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules; it is a flash of the human spirit, the vehicle through which the soul of each particular culture comes into the material world. When you and I were born there were 6,000 languages spoken on earth. Now, fully half are not being taught to schoolchildren. Effectively, they are already dead unless something changes. What this means is that we are living through a period of time in which, within a single generation or two, by definition half of humanity’s cultural legacy is being lost in a single generation. Whereas cultures can lose their language and maintain some semblance of their former selves, in general, it is the beginning of a slippery slope towards assimilation and acculturation and, in some sense, annihilation. We talk about the need to preserve traditional cultures, but preserve at what level? We can’t really expect cultures not to change, mainly to satisfy our curiosity. Change is the one constant in history. All societies in all times and in all places constantly adapt to new possibilities for life. It is not change per se that threatens the integrity of the ethnosphere, nor is it technology. The gypsy Indian did not stop being a gypsy when he gave up a bow and arrow, any more than an Indian farmer stopped being an Indian when he gave up the bulls and cart. It is neither change nor technology that threatens the integrity of the ethnosphere. It is power—the crude face of domination. In every instance, these societies are not failed attempts of modernity. They are not archaic, destined to fade away. They are dynamic, living, vital cultures that are being driven out of existence by identifiable external forces. This is both discouraging and encouraging, for if human beings are agents of cultural destruction, we can also be facilitators of cultural survival. The increasing mobility of people, goods, and information has driven a powerful trend toward cultural uniformity and the extinction of local languages. As the world economy becomes more integrated, a common tongue has become more important than ever to promote commerce, and that puts speakers of regional dialects and minority languages at 54 Rush to Riches a distinct disadvantage. In addition, telecommunications has pressured languages to become more standardized, further squeezing local variations of language. Over the past 500 years, as nation states developed and became more centralized, regional dialects and minority languages have been dominated by the centrist dialects of the ruling parties. Latin has given way to Italian, Cornish to English, Breton to French, Bavarian to High German, Sanskrit to Bengali, and Fu- jian-wa to Cantonese. Linguists concur that minority languages all over the world are giving way to more dominant languages, such as English, Mandarin, and Spanish, among others. The realities of commerce and the seductive power of world pop culture are placing pressure on speakers of minority languages to learn majority languages or suffer the consequences: greater difficulty doing business, less access to information, etc. These pressures are inducing a rapid die-off of languages around the world. Languages have been disappearing steadily, with 3,000 of the world’s languages predicted to disappear in the next 100 years. According to the United Nations Environment Program, there are 5,000 to 7,000 spoken languages in the world, with 4,000 to 5,000 of these classed as indigenous, used by native tribes.26 More than 2,500 are in danger of immediate extinction, and many more are losing their link with the natural world, becoming museum pieces rather than living languages. Futurists have noted this loss with no little despair, for significant, culturally specific information may disappear along with a language. For instance, knowledge about unique medicines and treatments used by aboriginal groups could be lost forever if the language used to transmit that information is banned by a majority culture. The common wisdom is that globalization is the wave of the future, and in many respects this is undeniable. However, swept up in this conventional wisdom is the notion that languages and cultures will simply cease to exist, and

26United Nations, “Cultural Survival, Saving Native Languages” at www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 55 people will instead choose global cultures and languages that will transcend the boundaries.

Disappearing Values and Relationships “What is moral is what you feel good after, and what is immoral is what you feel bad after” (Earnest Hemingway). Nowadays, good is not perfect and perfect is not possible. Why? Because day-by-day our society is losing moral values. Standards of morality have consistently gone down in politics, bureaucracy, and law enforcement. Corruption has become so common in public life that people can now hardly think of public life without attaching thinking it with corruption. People know which is good and which is bad, but still moral values are vanishing. Why these things are happening? “Writing codes of ethics is one matter, practising it is quite another and likely more challenging.” Everybody makes many mistakes, knowingly or unknowingly. Still, they find fault with others. If a person wishes to do good things, he can’t get any chance, because every where people are encouraging corruption, bribery, and wrong things. How horrible is this, how can we change this world? One finger can’t hold anything, put together all fingers and see the power of hand. Similarly, we have to associate with good people and with teamwork we will establish a moral society. Then, we will try to change our society. To change society, first you have to change yourselves and change your associates. Society will change itself. When it comes to marriage, traditionally, a man and a woman became involved in a steady dating relationship as a preparation for marriage. Men looked for partners whose physical appearance would enhance their image, and women looked for partners whose achievements, financially and socially, would provide security and social status. These choices reflected the self-identity of both parties: women saw themselves in terms of their physical attributes with their future role revolving around the needs and desires of their husbands; men saw themselves in terms of their accomplishments and career 56 Rush to Riches prospects, with an additional future role as breadwinner and head of the family. In the past three decades, all of this has changed as feminist-minded women emphasize their own instrumental as well as expressive qualities, and look for more expressive and intellectual qualities in the men they choose for long-term relationships. Men who are open to more egalitarian gender roles focus less on physical qualities and more on the expressive and intellectual qualities of women. Women’s sense of autonomy is also evident in their tendency “to initiate dates and to share date expenses.” Feminist-minded women no longer wait to be chosen, they choose for themselves the men they want to be within exclusive relationships. Marriage is not necessarily the goal of long-term relationships in today’s world. “Individuals are expected to be deeply committed to the current serious relationship in an exclusive dating partnership, a living- together arrangement, or a socially recognized marriage.”27 When couples decide to marry, they do so in the belief that it will provide the rewards and satisfactions they seek in terms of both instrumental and expressive exchanges.

Consumption: A Latest Addiction We are addicted to the consumption of the earth itself. Contemporary society itself is based on what I call “techno- addiction.” Technology and society are completely interwoven. “Technology has become our environment as well as our ideology,” writes the Dutch social critic Michiel Schwarz. “We no longer use technology, we live it.” It is not a new idea that we who live in mass technological society suffer psychological addiction to specific machines like cars, telephones, and computers, and even to technology itself. But the picture is bigger and more complex. Addiction, in one form or another, characterizes every aspect of industrial society… [D]ependence on alcohol, food, drugs, tobacco … is not formally different from dependence on prestige, career achievements, world influence,

27Quoted from “What Is Healthy Relationship?” at www.enotalone.com. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 57 wealth, the need to build more ingenious bombs, or the need to exercise control over everything. We became addicted to excessive consumption by permitting ourselves to be seduced by seemingly unlimited supplies of cheap and abundant fossil fuels and other critical natural resources, a seemingly endlessly forgiving planet, a continuous barrage of “institutional misinformation,” easy credit, and seemingly infinite supplies of cheap foreign consumer goods, labour, and financing. We remain addicted to excessive consumption because upon experiencing the euphoria associated with living beyond our means, continuously, “spending more than we earn,” we have been unwilling to “kick our habit” and revert to living sustainably within our means. Terminating our addiction to excessive consumption would involve painful withdrawal symptoms: significant living standard disruptions—material living standard degradation and/or population level reductions, which we consider to be ‘unacceptable’. Addiction can be thought of as progressive disease that begins with inner psychological changes, leads to changes in perception, behaviour, and lifestyle, and then to total breakdown. The hallmark of this process is the out-of-control, often aimless compulsion to fill a lost sense of meaning and connectedness with substances like alcohol or experiences like fame. Humanity’s addiction is overextended, ecologically and economically—we have exceeded the carrying capacity of our habitat to sustainably support our existing population at our current standard of living. Our overextended condition is caused by our addiction to excessive consumption—living beyond our means in order to perpetuate our human way of life. Unfortunately, neither our addiction to excessive consumption nor our human way of life is sustainable. We, both individually and collectively, are the problem; we must be the solution. We have chosen to “live better today” at the expense of our tomorrows, and our children’s tomorrows, by depleting our reserves, borrowing imprudently, deferring critical investments, and 58 Rush to Riches relying excessively on foreign resources. Our cherished human way of life is enabled by excessive consumption, the dysfunctional behaviour through which we live beyond our means in order to perpetuate our inflated lifestyles. Excessive consumption does not mean that we are consuming more than we need, which is probably also true in most cases; it means that we are consuming at levels that are not sustainable. Excessive consumption is a self-induced societal disorder—a societal addiction. Every capitalistic country is addicted to excessive consumption; we are all living beyond our means—most of us individually, all of us collectively, as the beneficiaries of the excesses perpetrated on our behalf by our political and economic representatives. A hallmark of any addiction is the presence of denial. Addicts need to control their world to maintain access to the source of their obsession. Today’s multinational corporations display an obsession with controlling the world’s resources, consumer markets, worker’s behaviour, and public opinion toward their products. We consume a variety of resources and products today having moved beyond basic needs to include luxury items and technological innovations to try to improve efficiency. Such consumption beyond minimal and basic needs is not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, as throughout history we have always sought to find ways to make our lives a bit easier to live. However, increasingly, there are important issues around consumerism that need to be understood. For example: How are the products and resources we consume actually produced? What are the impacts of that process of production on the environment, society, on individuals? What are the impacts of certain forms of consumption on the environment, on society, on individuals? Which actors influence our choices of consumption? Which actors influence how and why things are produced or not? What is a necessity and what is a luxury? How do demands on items affect the requirements placed upon the environment? How do consumption habits change as societies Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 59 change? Businesses and advertising are major engines in promoting the consumption of products so that they may survive. How much of what we consume is influenced by their needs versus our needs? Also influential is the very culture of today in many countries, as well as the media and the political institutions themselves. What is the impact on poorer nations and people on the demands of the wealthier nations and people that are able to afford to consume more? How do material values influence our relationships with other people? What impact does that have on our personal values? Just from these questions, we can likely think of numerous others as well. Additionally, we can see that consumerism and consumption are at the core of many, if not most societies. The impacts of consumerism, positive and negative, are very significant to all aspects of our lives, as well as our planet. But equally important to bear in mind in discussing consumption patterns is the underlying system that promotes certain types of consumption and not other types. Inherent in today’s global economic system is the wasteful use of resources, labour and capital. These need to be addressed. Waste is not only things that cannot be recycled, etc.; it is deep within the system. Overpopulation is usually blamed as the major cause of environmental degradation. Consumption patterns today are not to meet everyone’s needs. The system that drives these consumption patterns also contribute to inequality of consumption patterns too. While consumption has, of course, been a part of our history, in the last 100 years or so, the level of mass consumption beyond basics has been exponential and is now a fundamental part of many economies. Luxuries that had to be turned into necessities and how entire cultural habits had to be transformed for this consumption is outrageous.

Carbon Footprint: Ten Pockmarks Have you ever stopped to think about how your actions add up your lifetime? Just think of all the things we produce and 60 Rush to Riches consume! Imagine the food we eat, all the soda we drink, all the water we flush down the drain, all the clothing we buy, the amount of fuel we use, and all the things we do depend upon. With six billions of us on this planet, our presence is simply earth-shaking. As individuals, we may think we have a little impact on the world around us. We may feel that our contribution to the world goes unnoticed. We will be wrong. Each of us makes a contribution. Each makes an impact and each one leaves a footprint. By examining everything we consume across the country, we have been able to calculate the effect that we each make on the world around us, from the miles we drive, the waste we throw away, the gasoline we use, etc. The quantity or these numbers reveal the impact that each of us makes per person, her lifetime. Individually, we are different but, statistically, we are remarkably the same. 1. The Primary Footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of

CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation (e.g., car and plane). We have direct control of these. Things to consider: Minimize motor cycle, car, and plane travel. How long is your shower or bath? How warm or cool do you keep your home? How long do you stay inside the house? How many lights and fans do you use? How long do you watch television? How much energy do you use for cooking?

2. The Secondary Footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use: those associated with their manufacture and eventual breakdown. To put it very simply: the more we buy the more emissions will be caused on our behalf. Things to consider: Do you buy more stuff than you really need? Do you reuse, recycle, and compost? Do you purchase items with a lot of packaging or bulk when possible? First, a stark example of this increasing consumption and its associated impacts is the use and promotion of consumption Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 61 by children. Kid’s markets are enormous and there are many products and foods geared towards children. Parents, on the one hand, have a hard time raising children; while, on the other, kids are being increasingly influenced by commercialism. Second, because consumption is so central to many economies, and even to the current forms of globalization, its effects, therefore, are also seen around the world. How we consume, and what purposes drive how we extract resources, create products, and produce pollution and waste? Issues relating to consumption, hence, also affect environmental degradation, poverty, hunger, and even the rise in obesity that is nearing levels similar to the official global poverty levels. Political and economic systems that are currently promoted and pushed around the world in part to increase consumption also lead to immense poverty and exploitation. Much of the world cannot and do not consume at the levels that the wealthier in the world do. Third, we look at the example of tobacco consumption. Smoking kills millions. Furthermore, it exacerbates poverty, damages the environment, and through diversion of land resources away from food production contributes to world hunger. Fourth, obesity typically results from over-eating especially an unhealthy diet and lack of enough exercise. In our modern world, with increasingly cheap, high calorie food for example, fast food—or junk food, prepared foods that are high in things like salt, sugars or fat, combined with our increasingly sedentary lifestyles, increasing urbanization and changing modes of transportation, it is no wonder that obesity has rapidly increased in the last few decades, around the world. The number of people overweight or obese is now rivalling the number of people suffering from hunger around the world. Obese people were thought to be mainly from richer countries or wealthier segments of society, but poor people can also suffer as the food industry supplies cheaper food of poorer quality. Fifth, we look at the example of sugar consumption: how it has arisen as it was once a luxury but now turned into a 62 Rush to Riches necessity. We look at things like how it affects the environment; the political and economic drivers in producing sugar, for example: historically, sugar plantations encouraged slavery. Its health effects today and its relation to world hunger as land used to grow sugar and related support, for export, could be used to grow food for local consumption, and so on. It is an example of a wasteful industry; it wastes labour, wastes capital, and uses up many resources. Sixth, beef, like sugar, is another vivid example of using resources wastefully, degrading the environment, contributing to hunger, poor health, and more. More than one third of the world’s grain harvest is used to feed livestock. Some 70% to 80% of grain produced in the United States of America is fed to livestock. A lot of rainforest in the Amazon and elsewhere are cleared for raising cattle—not so much for local consumption, but for fast food restaurants elsewhere. Just factoring in the cost of water alone, a more realistic estimate of the real cost of common hamburger meat would be $35 a kilogram! As with sugar beef is a luxury turned into an everyday item. Like sugar, it is also an example of how people’s tastes are influenced and how demands can be created or very much expanded, rather than meeting some natural demand. Seventh, the banana industry in Latin America and the Caribbean also touches many other issues. Rainforest destruction is one effect of the banana industry. Generation of dependent economies is another: bananas are grown not to feed local people and meet their demands, but to create exports for Europe and America. The recent trade disputes between those two regions have received the most attention. Like the sugar and beef examples, there is a lot of unnecessary use of resources that could otherwise be freed up to help local people in a way that is also less degrading to the surrounding environment. Eighth, there is so much of waste of wealth, capital, labour, and resources. We are beginning to get just a hint of how wasteful our societies are. Sugar, beef, and bananas are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of examples of wasted industry and Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 63 waste structured within the current system. Not only are certain wasteful job functions unnecessary as a result, but the capital that employs this labour is, therefore, a wasteful use of capital. As a result, we see waste and misuse of the environment, as well as social and environmental degradation increasing. Our industries may be efficient for accumulating capital and making profits, but that does not automatically mean that it is efficient for society. Ninth, energy security is a growing concern for rich and emerging nations alike. The past drive for fossil fuel energy has led to wars, overthrow of democratically elected leaders, and puppet governments and dictatorships. Leading nations admit we are addicted to oil, but investment into alternatives has been lacking, or little in comparison to fossil fuel investments. As the global financial crisis takes hold and awareness of climate change increases, more nations and companies are trying to invest in alternatives. But will the geopolitics remain the same? Tenth, the global illicit drugs market is enormous, estimated at some $320 billion. This makes it one of the largest businesses in the world. Some believe in strong prohibition enforcement. Others argue for decriminalization to minimize the crime and health effects associated with the market being controlled by criminals. Are there merits to each approach? Finally, environmental issues are also a major global issue. Humans depend on a sustainable and healthy environment, and yet we have damaged the environment in numerous ways.

Human Hubristic Blunders: Time of Anarchy The dangers associated with environmental damage have become better known over the last few decades. In fact, awareness of the crisis we face has entered the mainstream politics. Those who assert that environmental problems are minor or non-existent have, thankfully, become marginalized. Both politicians and corporations have been keen to announce their green credentials, which is ironic, as anarchists would argue that both the state and capitalism are key causes for the environmental problems we face. In other words, anarchists 64 Rush to Riches argue that pollution and the other environmental problems we face are symptoms. The disease itself is deeply imbedded in the system we live under and needs to be addressed alongside treating the more obvious results of that deeper cause. Otherwise, to try and eliminate the symptoms by themselves can be little more than a minor palliative and, fundamentally, pointless as they will simply keep reappearing until their root causes are eliminated. To quote from the philosopher Murray Bookchin: “Any attempt to solve the ecological crisis within a bourgeois framework must be dismissed as chimerical. Capitalism is inherently anti-ecological. Competition and accumulation constitute its very law of life, a law summarized in the phrase, ‘production for the sake of production.’ Anything, however hallowed or rare, ‘has its price’ and is fair game for the marketplace. In a society of this kind, nature is necessarily treated as a mere resource to be plundered and exploited. The destruction of the natural world, far being the result of mere hubristic blunders, follows inexorably from the very logic of capitalist production.” As Bookchin summarizes, capitalism “has made social evolution hopelessly incompatible with ecological evolution.”28 It lacks a sustainable relation to nature not due to chance, ignorance or bad intentions but due to its very hubris, nature and workings. The root causes for our ecological problems lie in social problems. Murray Bookchin uses the terms “first nature” and “second nature” to express this idea. First nature is the environment while second nature is humanity. The latter can shape and influence the former, for the worse or for the better. How it does so depends on how it treats itself. A decent, sane, and egalitarian society will treat the environment it inhabits in a decent, sane, and respective way. A society marked by inequality, hierarchies and exploitation will trend its environment as its members treat each other. Thus, “all our notions of dominating nature stem from the very real

28Bookchin, “Social Ecology” at www.dwardmac.pitzer.edu. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 65 domination of human by human.” The domination of human by human preceded the notion of dominating nature. Indeed, human domination of human gave rise to the very idea of dominating nature. This means, obviously, that “it is not until we eliminate domination in all its forms … that we will really create a rational, ecological society.” By degrading ourselves, we create the potential for degrading our environment. This means that anarchists “emphasize that ecological degradation is, in great part, a product of the degradation of human beings by hunger, material insecurity, class rule, hierarchical domination, patriarchy, ethnic discrimination, and competition.” This is unsurprising, for “nature, as every materialist knows, is not something merely external to humanity. We are a part of nature. Consequently, in dominating nature we not only dominate an ‘external world’—we also dominate ourselves.” We cannot stress how important this analysis is. We cannot ignore “the deep-seated division in society that came into existence with hierarchies and classes.” To do so means placing “young people and old, women and men, poor and rich, exploited and exploiters, people of colour and whites all on a par that stands completely at odds with social reality. Everyone, in turn, despite the different burdens he or she is obliged to bear, is given the same responsibility for the ills of our planet. Be they starving Ethiopian children or corporate barons, all people are held to be equally culpable in producing present ecological problems.” These become “de-socialized” and so this perspective “side-step[s] the profoundly social roots of present-day ecological dislocations” and “deflects innumerable people from engaging in a practice that could yield effective social change.” It “easily plays into the hands of a privileged stratum who are only too eager to blame all the human victims of an exploitative society for the social and ecological ills of our time.” Thus, for eco-anarchists, hierarchy is the fundamental root cause of our ecological problems. Hierarchy in religions and politics, notes Bookchin, includes economic class “and even gives rise to class 66 Rush to Riches society historically,” but it goes beyond this limited meaning imputed to a largely economic form of stratification.” It refers to a system of “command and obedience in which elites enjoy varying degrees of control over their subordinates without necessarily exploiting them,” anarchism, he stressed, “anchored ecological problems for the first time in hierarchy, not simply in economic classes.” Needless to say, the forms of hierarchy have changed and evolved over the years. The anarchist analysis of hierarchies goes “well beyond economic forms of exploitation into cultural forms of domination that exist in the family, between generations and sexes, among ethnic groups, in institutions of political, economic, and social management, and very significantly, in the way we experience reality as a whole, including nature and non-human life-forms.” This means that anarchists recognize that ecological destruction has existed in most human societies and is not limited just to capitalism. It existed, to some degree, in all hierarchical pre-capitalist societies and, of course, in any hierarchical post-capitalist ones as well. However, as most of us live under capitalism today, anarchists concentrate our analysis to that system and seek to change it. Anarchists stress the need to end capitalism simply because of its inherently anti-ecological nature. “The history of ‘civilization’ has been a steady process of estrangement from nature that has increasingly developed into outright antagonism.” Our society faces “a breakdown not only of its values and institutions, but also of its natural environment.” This problem is not unique to our times but previous environmental destruction pales before the massive destruction of the environment that has occurred since the days of the Industrial Revolution, and especially since the end of the Second World War. The damage inflicted on the environment by contemporary society encompasses the entire world... The exploitation and pollution of the earth has damaged not only the integrity of the atmosphere, climate, water Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 67

resources, soil, flora and fauna of specific regions, but also the basic natural cycles on which all living things depend. An ever-expanding capitalism must inevitably come into collision with a finite planet and its fragile ecology. Firms whose aim is to maximize their profits in order to grow will happily exploit whoever and whatever they can to do so. As capitalism is based on exploiting people, can we doubt that it will also exploit nature? It is unsurprising, therefore, that this system results in the exploitation of the real sources of wealth, namely nature and people. It is as much about robbing nature as it is about robbing the worker.

First, Second, and Third World: A Competitive Elimination When people talk about the poorest countries of the world, they often refer to them with the general term Third World, and they think everybody knows what they are talking about. But when you ask them if there is a Third World, what about a Second or a First World, you almost always get an evasive answer. Other people even try to use the terms as a ranking scheme for the state of development of countries, with the First world on top, followed by the Second world and so on; that is, in fact, perfect nonsense. To close the gap of information you will find here explanations of the terms. The use of the terms First, the Second, and the Third World is a rough, and it is safe to say, outdated model of the geopolitical world from the time of the cold war. There is no official definition of the first, second, and the third world. After World War II the world split into two large geopolitical blocs and spheres of influence with contrary views on government and the politically correct society: The term “First World” refers to the so-called developed, capitalist, industrial countries, roughly, a bloc of countries aligned with the United States of America after World War II, with more or less common political and economic interests: It roughly includes North America, Western Europe, Japan, and Australia. “Second World” refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, 68 Rush to Riches formerly the Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic, today: Russia, Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland) and some of the Turk States (e.g., Kazakhstan) as well as China. “Third World” are all the other countries, today often used to roughly describe the developing countries of Africa, India, Asia and Latin America, as well capitalist (e.g., Venezuela) and communist (e.g., North Korea) countries, as very rich (e.g., Saudi Arabia) and very poor (e.g., Mali) countries. Third World Countries are classified by various indices: their Political Rights and Civil Liberties, the Gross National Income (GNI) and Poverty of countries, the Human Development of countries, and the Freedom of Information within a country. The term “Fourth World” first came into use in 1974 with the publication of Shuswap Chief George Manuel’s: The fourth world, as an Indian reality,29 the term refers to nations’ cultural entities, ethnic groups, of indigenous peoples living within or across state boundaries. Today after the environmental awareness, we have learnt to see this world order in a different way, namely, the First World people have super ability to exploit the riches of the earth; the people of Second World have the medium ability to exploit the natural resources of the earth; and the people of Third World are learning this exploitive and destructive trick very fast. Unfortunately, this exploitive nature is not going to create one world order but only disorder. Everyone wants to follow the lifestyle of the First World, which is the best example of an imperialistic, anti-ecological anthropology. Western religions intend to teach in their social teachings that there is nothing wrong in their lifestyles; therefore, they recommend the same to the rest of the world, especially to the Third World. Their social teachings argue that poverty should be eliminated in all its forms by 2050 and the Third World people should be able to have all the money, economy, prosperity, and progress of the First World. But, think again, at what cost? Progress may not be

29See for the book www.nationsonline.org. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 69 possible until we delete all the remaining resources on earth before we reach the threshold or we should import natural resources from Jupiter and Mars. Perhaps, now is the time to rethink and admit the dangers of the First and second World’s imperialistic and anti-ecological-dominion approach, and come back to the Third World’s wise and sustainable deep-ecology approach, where man becomes, part of creation, not above creation.

Earth Is in Advanced State of Exhaustion Snapshots of living earth relayed by a satellite above have undoubtedly been among the most dramatic images ever encountered by humans. Satellite pictures, real and imagined, help us understand the radical changes on earth over the past four decades. It is a landscape in which the natural world is continually being replaced by a world of artefacts: where trees, shrubs and grasses are giving way to plantations and crop fields, roads and buildings; where rivers are being increasingly impounded with waters diverted through underground tunnels to turn giant turbines or merely being disciplined to flow along paths straight and narrow; where old wetlands are being drained and new ones created in the form of waterlogged fields. The relentless transformation of the natural world into the world of artefacts, brought out so vividly for us by the satellite, has most asymmetric implications for these different constituents of world society. The bulk of the poor, or even the not-so-affluent, must scratch the earth and hope for rains in order to grow their own food, must gather wood or dung to cook it, must build their own huts with bamboo or sticks of sorghum dabbed with mud and must try to keep out mosquitoes by engulfing them with smoke from the cooking hearth. Such people depend on the natural environments of their own locality to meet most of their material needs. Perhaps, four-fifths of world’s rural people, over half of the total population, belong to this category, which, following 70 Rush to Riches ecologist Raymond Dasmann (1988), we call “ecosystem people.”30 Ecosystem people are those who depend almost wholly on natural resources in their immediate vicinity. As the natural world recedes, so shrink the capacities of local ecosystems to support these people. These people constitute the “ecological refugees” who live in the margins of the exhausted land. As many as one-third of the world population probably live today such a life as displaces, with little that they can freely pick up from the natural world, but not much money to buy the commodities that the shops are brimming with either. These are the exhausted in spirit, who constantly depend on the exhausted planet. However, earth systems are in peril and increasingly becoming weak in supporting life. Land is exhausted and depleted of all organic elements due to over use and mismanagement of the soil. Deforestation has continuously placed pressure on land exposing it to erosion which stripped off the remaining nutrients in the soil. The stresses on the world’s water resources are already enormous, and man-made climate change will exacerbate these difficulties profoundly. Water resources are becoming low especially in places inhabited by over population. These are the areas in particular that are mining the groundwater, living on temporary glacier melt, and experiencing declining precipitation as a result of long-term climate change. In many cases, declining water availability is exacerbated by rising populations, extreme poverty, ethnic divisions, and other political cleavages that make problem solving especially complicated. Atmosphere is almost exhausted of life supporting gasses, as we pump in more poisonous gasses every day. The human presence on the earth has developed to the point where we have acquired the ability to affect the earth’s climate. At one time, the gasses our historical ancestors put into the atmosphere by burning wood to cook the animals they hunted was insignificant. The small quantities of greenhouse

30Raymond Dasmann, “An Eco-Health-Based Framework for State of Environment Reporting” (1988) at www.mendeley.com. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 71 gasses they produced were absorbed and diluted by the air. Today, this is no longer the case. We find different kind of gasses in the atmosphere. Some of the components of the atmosphere are natural. Some are contribution. Since all fuels—with the single exception of hydrogen gas—have carbon as part of their chemical makeup, every fuel produces carbon dioxide when it burns. As a result biosphere is encountering danger, hundreds and thousands of species and animals are disappearing, lost to planet forever. If we don’t stop this, our plant will be exhausted of all life, eventually man will be lost to the planet forever.

Hunters and Gatherers into Hoarders and Gardeners Hunting and gathering was how humans lived before the Neolithic period, which began approximately 30,000 years ago. The largest period of human history has been spent within the gathering mode of resource use, during which the hunting of wild animals and the gathering of vegetable matter were the mainstay of subsistence. All peoples who migrate from one area to another to live without settling down to farm are hunters and gatherers. Earliest humans living in this fashion invented many tools that we use today. Humans lived in one area until resources were exhausted, then moved to another area. Hunting and gathering was a form of living that allowed humans to work together. The use of tools and language evolved during hunts where groups of humans needed to communicate actions and strategy. Hunter and gatherer societies existed on many different continents. Wandering humans reached even remote islands and island continents such as Australia. While agriculture has become the normal way of life for most people globally, there are still tribes of hunters and gatherers. Most well-known are tribes in South American jungles such as the Pygmies. Hunters chase a wild beast. This is a bold and dangerous task so they have to carefully pick a relatively easy target and go after it. Setting up a trap or chasing the animal takes a lot longer than gathering fruit and if the one they targeted gets away they need to do it all over again. If for some reason they can’t eat the animal, the entire 72 Rush to Riches effort is wasted. Gatherers go around with a basket, looking at what is available and picking up fruit and vegetables. When they encounter something new and unknown, they can take a bite and see if it tastes good, then put it in the basket if they like it or throw it away. They pick up small things, one thing at a time, so if something is rotten or not edible, they quickly move on and find something else. Many scientists believe that ‘hoarding’ associated with shopping and ‘gardening’ replaced the hunters and gatherers lifestyle. In our global culture dominated by the T-shirt economy, for example, with one third of the world making T- shirts, one third selling them and one third buying and wearing them, there are those who go hunting for T-shirts with particularly clever or obscure inscriptions, and those who gather around the stalls offering twenty T-shirts for $1. This shopping habit made man to make a shift from hunters to hoarders, where man is addicted to consumption. We are now being urged to be hoarders, to collect everything lying about and put it into storehouses. Someday, it is assumed, someone will come and sort through the storehouses, discard all the junk and keep the rare finds. Hoarding is the biggest problem, which makes people consume without thinking and find hard to discard. Psychologists Frost and Gross’s 1993 study of hoarders found that the most likely justification for keeping an item was future need (“I might need this someday”), followed by lack of wear or damage (“This is too good to throw away”), sentimental saving (“This means too much to me to throw away”), and lastly potential value (“This may be worth something someday”). If you hoard, you probably have problems organizing and maintaining all your possessions. First of all, there are so many of them! A hoarder can have problems categorizing—necessary for organizing—seeing each item as unique. The result is chaos and clutter that cause stress and isolation. Part of the problem for hoarders is that they find it hard to make decision about what to do with their possessions, whether to keep something or throw it Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 73 away. A hoarder may feel that something bad will happen if HE discards an item or he may feel that a part of his identity will be lost. If a hoarder has a past experience of throwing something out and regretting it later, this is likely to increase the distress. Gathering is replaced by gardening or farming. Women continue to gather food and water through farming or working for a wage as coolies. Women work more but earn less than men. Women continue to get a raw deal despite putting in longer hours and work that is critically more important for the farm sector and the family. Women have to be good workers in the field, good marriage partners, bring up the family, look after the cattle, graze, feed, milk, and clean them, remove cow dung, sell milk, carry fodder, make ghee or butter, engage in off-farm work like basket making, weaving, or earthen pot making. So much of work but there is so little return. Most of the farms where women work are found in the small towns, villages, and hamlets. In the past, agriculture was the main source of income for our families. People used to work on a small farm owned by families where people learned ploughing, seeding, harvesting, and other activities. Though they spent most of their time working on the farms, women never neglected their home duties. They used to take good care of their homes, decorating them with flowers and plants. Women, especially the elderly, were still working on farms in the villages. Women constitute about 68.60 percent of the rural population and they are the “gathering force,” or “vital labour force” of planet earth. It is amazing to catalogue their activities in the farm sector from raising saplings to transplanting, sowing, spraying, hoeing, de- weeding, followed by half a dozen allied post-harvest activities. The useful contribution of farm women is generally considered unproductive in terms of monetary economics and, therefore, it does not figure in official statistics. But the services offered by women for household chores are indispensable and crucial for the survival of the family. A significantly large percentage of women in rural areas have been categorized as non-workers as 74 Rush to Riches they are engaged in domestic work and counted outside the labour force. Indeed, rural women constitute the huge invisible work force that sustains not just the family but the entire agrarian economy.

Exiled Man: The Orphan in God’s Universe Man is the cosmic orphan, alone in his understanding, does not find the universe a friendly place. It is a sphere of predicaments. It is the home of man, which he assumes mothers him, only to find it is utterly indifferent to him. Man stands today at the top of a vast scientific edifice in his knowledge of the universe. But the horrifying thing, he discovers, is that it may belong to no one, and that no one is in charge. It is like a ghost town; no one loves there. When there is no vertical dimension to the world, only the straight line of the horizon, then there is no real mystery, no real depth of life, no real height to human aspirations. Man faces alienation at another level, when he faces the vastness of the total universe. What is our earth but a tiny speck of dust, one speck in one of hundreds of millions of planetary systems. Our galaxy alone, we are told, has a diameter of about a hundred thousand light-years. How trivialized man has become compared to the compatible dimensions of medieval man when the earth was the centre of the universe and the heavenly space was only four hundred miles above him. Man, the cosmic orphan, is alienated in another dimension: his chance occurrence. When man conceives of his own existence as a chance event only, not the choice of human love but the chance affair of nature’s child, then he is an orphan indeed. When man is no longer at home in the world, but placeless in spirit, then he can only be a migrant, an exile, living uncertainly and experimentally in flux. He is then like Proteus, the Greek mystic prophet, who could change his form—wild boar to lion, flood to fire, according to prevailing circumstances. Proteus could not stay, however, in a single form. Today, Protean man is the typical model of our society, interminably engaged in experiments, fads, and fashions. It is environment engendered by Future Shock, of new experiences, wife swaps, new drugs, Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 75 and new identities. Homelessness has led to cosmic placelessness. One factor contributing to Protean existence has been the blasting of boundaries. In our own generation, we have witnessed the bestiality of Auschwitz and the atomic destruction of Hiroshima. The holocaust and nuclear war have introduced new times of cruelty and destruction once thought unimaginable. This breakdown of boundaries tempts man to break other boundaries of human existence, including the disintegration of the family, the erosion of any sexual standards, and the loss of authority in society. In place of structure and form, there is new emphasis on flux. Human identity is seen, not in terms of fixed moral activity, but as an endless process of self- discovery and personal fluidity. Instead of clear ethical contours in our landscape of life, there is moral shifting that embraces situation ethics. It is as if man is being influenced to leave the seashore of a bounded world and to become Homo novus, a new, technically determined sea-creature that, like a jellyfish, is infinitely plastic and floats aimlessly between the interfaces of time, tide, and wind in a vast ocean current of amoral possibilities. The series of processes is accelerating this breakdown of human structures. First, there is the worldwide sense of what may be called “psycho-historical dislocation.” This is the loss of vital connection with space and time, the loss of a sense of personal history: roots. Due to increasing mobility, man is increasingly placeless. The standard of human values is subordinated to the dictates of technocracy; “Organization Man” falls apart when the value of a person is defined in terms of his income and social role. Then the vast majority of the humankind is condemned to being defined as ‘nobodies’. The traits of the technological society, where everyone is a technician (Homo faber),31 caught up in the tyranny of the efficient, suggests a new

31Homo faber (Latin for “man the smith” or “man the maker,” in reference to the biological name for man, “Homo sapiens” meaning “man the wise”) is a concept articulated by Hannah Arendt and Max Scheler. It refers to humans as 76 Rush to Riches age. The historian J. H. Plumb has described this as “the death of the past.”32 Cut off from the past and isolated by the “uniqueness” of our contemporary pressures and problems, man is tempted to feel perennially restless. Vital and nourishing symbols of our cultural heritage begin to disappear and to become irrelevant even burdensome to the new generation. Secondly, there is the flood of imagery, produced by the mass media that is sweeping us into a chaotic and unassimilated whirlpool of influences. We are overwhelmed by undigested data, with endlessly incomplete alternatives to every sphere of living, and with synthetic sensations for every mood and fancy. If I think faster than I can speak, speak faster than I can act, act more than I have character to assimilate, there is already a basic disjunction within me, which challenges me to live a more integrated, authentic existence. But the extensions of forms and sensations that ‘techne’ provides exacerbate our loss of integrity. The myth of the global village, moreover, assumes that modern man’s place in this world is not in a fixed location, but only in space, in placenessness. For, everything is now homogenized in universal cultural packages that are dictated to us by the whim of manufacturer and media producer. Thirdly, there is the tendency of the modern arts to mirror—and indeed anticipate— this spirit of change and flux. The pace of technological exploits, the overcrowding and complexity of factual knowledge, the turmoil of multifaceted events, and the heaps of undigested experiences are all generating overload. The seeming boredom and passivity of many youth today is perhaps only the state of unconsciousness we mercifully fall into when we carry too much pain. Beyond that stage further overload eventually leads to an explosion of rebellious rage, to revolt, or to other loss of

controlling the environment through tools. 32In his book, The Death of the Past, J. H. Plumb investigates the way that humankind has, since the beginning of recorded time, moulded the past to give sanction to their institutions of government, their social structure, and morality. Rush to Riches: The War on Creation 77 continuity and coherence. Perhaps, then, the breakdown of style in literature, the loss of form in the arts, and the atonality of music that we are witnessing today in our culture reflect this tendency towards chaos, much like the sweeping pervasiveness of Noah’s flood. In fact, chaos is exploited systematically today with the exploration of the unconscious, free association, and in such movements as the “Theatre of the Absurd.”33 Modern writers like Sartre and Beckett allow their thoughts to flow around any boundaries or any concepts of fixity. Thus, the medium becomes the message, technique is master, and means rather than ends rule. Protean man, in such a culture, ends up as Homo absurdus, body without soul, message without content, technique without purpose—the ultimate absurdity.

33Theatre of the Absurd, a term used to identify a body of plays written primarily in France from the mid-1940s through the 1950s. These works usually employ illogical situations, unconventional dialogue, and minimal plots to express the apparent absurdity of human existence. French thinkers such as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre used the term absurd in the 1940s in recognition of their inability to find any rational explanation for human life. The term described what they understood as the fundamentally meaningless situation of humans in a confusing, hostile, and indifferent world. Chapter Two

War on Lithosphere (Land) 78 Rush to Riches

The lithosphere, Greek for “rocky sphere,” is the outermost shell of the earth. The term is also used to refer to the outermost rocky shell of other solid planets. The lithosphere is composed of the upper crust, 5 km thick in the oceans and 65 km thick on the continents. Lithosphere above and below offers a variety of resources which humans have learnt to exploit through mining for gold, silver, iron, copper, coal, fossil fuel, phosphate, and other valuable minerals, leaving irreparable damage to the environment. I have always been amazed at how much humans have learned about the earth’s lithosphere while only able to barely scratch the surface. Although we cannot dig very deep into the earth’s crust, with current technology, geoscientists can study the properties of the deep lithosphere by examining special rocks, or xenoliths, brought up through deep volcanic pipes and new findings of valuable minerals can lead to more exploitation. We are able to extract elements that have been buried below the earth’s surface for millions to billions of years. This is all in such a small timeframe relative to the length of time the planet has taken to evolve to its current state. Man is systematically depleting all the natural resources above and below lithosphere; by his addiction to consumption and his rush to becoming rich, man has declared war on the lithosphere. Sometimes I think that our intelligence is our downfall. Humans have exploited these resources, and now we are looking at a situation where the earth’s lithosphere has less and less to offer humanity. I am just as guilty as everyone else for using these resources, but I sometimes wonder about how the War on Lithosphere 79 future will look. It is a little disheartening to think that the great achievements of the human species may be nothing more than an example of a species that was unable to sustain itself, even though it had the knowledge too. The evolution of the human species has had its ups and downs just like that of anything else in nature. ‘Trial and error’ is only natural. We may have depleted some resources from the planet’s lithosphere and hydrosphere, but that does not mean we are doomed. Besides, if everyone thinks that we are doomed, as a species, progress cannot be made to solve some of the problems that affect the planet. It should not matter whom or what caused the problems we face, instead the focus should be on how to mitigate these problems and create a state of symbiosis between our species and the natural world. To think that our species can singlehandedly bring down this planet is a little egocentric. It is not to understate the urgency these problems; but we will be fine. Being proactive will lead to progress. When it comes to conservation it takes a lot to alter and engage people’s personal beliefs and morals, and alter social norms.

Scars on Earth: Ten Stigmata on Mother Earth Our planet is going through some of the worst physical and emotional crises that it has ever faced. Oil spills, earthquakes, typhoons, volcanic eruptions, tornados, heat waves, and a host of other disasters beset our world in record-breaking numbers. Unfortunately, many of these dilemmas have been caused by the actions of humans. Our thoughts, emotions, and energies have had a profoundly deleterious effect upon our world. As a result, the earth is threatening to remove many of us from its surface. With explosions and massive machines scraping into the earth’s crust like a bad case of scabies, it is small wonder that opencast mining has made what many see as an unpleasant impact on the planet’s surface. Sixty five million years ago, mammals inherited the dominance of the earth, as science portrays, humans have descended from the reptiles. We still have a number of reptilian traits such as anger, violence, 80 Rush to Riches dominance, and deceitfulness. One of the important reptilian traits is the obsession with holes; snakes tend to slither through the burrows, for example. This reptilian trait has become almost an obsession in humans which causes them to drill holes through the planet, unravelling the mysteries of the deep and efficiently harness the resources from within. Consequently, the face of the earth is beleaguered with giant scars, scoured out in our ongoing bid to the plunder the planet of its natural resources. We have selected 10 of the holes most needing a bit of environmental ointment—where rehabilitation of the land could take some time. I would like to call them “Ten Stigmata.”34 Perhaps, these are the biggest man-made-scars on mother earth, clearly visible from space. Stigmata One: Bingham Canyon Mine, USA: Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah is the world’s biggest manmade pit. This mammoth mine measures 4 km wide and drops a stomach- churning 1.2 km into the ground, as a result of extraction began in 1863. The ore-inspiring fruits of its labour include more than 17 million tons of copper and 715 tons of gold—a mental load of metal. In the early 1900s, mining camps lined the steep canyon walls, but several of these were swallowed up by the ever- expanding mine. Now it employs 1,400 people, and 50,000 tons of materials are removed from it each day. What is more, this giant earth scar and National Historic Landmark is growing— and will continue to grow at least until 2013. Stigmata Two: Mirny Diamond Mine, Russia: Siberia’s Mir Diamond Mine comes close to taking the big mountain in it. The largest open diamond mine in the world, this Russian monster

34Stigmata, in Christianity, marks on a person’s body resembling the wounds suffered by Jesus Christ in the crucifixion and inflicted presumably by a supernatural agency. Observations of stigmata have included not only wounds of the hands and feet and of the side, such as those received in the crucifixion, but also those impressed by the crown of thorns and by the scourging. In some cases the stigmata have been only subjectively felt and could not be seen by others. War on Lithosphere 81 has a surface diameter of 1.2 km and is 525 metre deep. The size of the hole is such that the wind current inside causes a downdraft that has resulted in helicopters being sucked in and crashing. Good to know the area above it is now a no-fly zone. After its discovery in 1955, workers at the Mir had to endure incredibly harsh temperatures that froze the ground and everything else in the winter, making car tires and steel shatter. The mine ceased operations in 2001, having produced 10 million carats (2 tons) of diamond per year at its peak. Stigmata Three: Udachnaya Diamond Mine, Russia: Like the Sarlacc Pit on Steroids, the Udachnaya Mine in Russia is a gigantic open-pit diamond mine that plunges more than 600 meters into the earth’s crust. Indeed, it is one heck of a hole. Located in Russia’s vast but sparsely populated Sakha Republic, just outside the Arctic Circle, it seems that mining for these precious stones demands a good set of thermal undies. The nearby settlement of Udachny was named after the diamond deposit, which was discovered in 1955 just days after the Mir. The Udachnaya pipe is controlled by Alrosa, Russia’s largest diamond company, which boasts that it plans to halt open-pit mining in favour of underground mining in 2015. Stigmata Four: Minera Escondida, Chile: The Minera Escondida Mining Company runs twin open pit mines cut into the skin of the copper capital of the world that is Chile. Construction began in 1990, and this sucker recently overtook Chuquicamata as the world’s largest annual copper producer, with its 2007 yield of 1.48 million tons worth US$ 10.12 billion—a whole lot of dollar. Environmental impact aside, Escondida has become a key part of the Chilean economy and employs some 2,951 people directly. A strike in 2006 broke out because workers felt they were not sharing in the super high profits being made on the back of record copper prices. After wrangling for pay demands, the union briefly blockaded the road to the mine. 82 Rush to Riches

Stigmata Five: Chuquicamata, Chile: Chuquicamata in Chile is a colossus of a mine that has churned up a record total of 29 million tons of copper. Despite almost 100 years of intensive exploitation, it remains among the largest known copper resources, and its open pit is one of the biggest at a whopping great 4.3 km long, 3 km wide and over 850 metre deep. Copper has been mined for centuries at Chuquicamata, as shown by the 1898 discovery of a mummy dated around 550 AD found trapped in an ancient mine shaft by a cave-in. A great influx of miners was sucked in by ‘Red Gold Fever’ after the War of the Pacific, when at one stage the area was covered with unruly mining camps where alcohol, gambling, prostitution, and even murder were rife. Stigmata Six: Grasberg Mine, Indonesia: Opened in 1973, Indonesia’s Grasberg Mine is the world’s biggest gold mine and third largest copper mine. This industrial eyesore in the mountains of Papua employs a staggering 19,500 workers but is majority owned by smiling US subsidiaries. Built with permission it was not really the Indonesian government’s to give, the mine was attacked by the rebel Free Papua Movement in 1977. These days, steep aerial tramways ferry equipment and people in and out. In 2006, the mine coughed up 610,800 tons of copper and 58 tons of gold, but it doesn’t take much digging to find environmental controversy surrounding the site, with water contamination and landslides heading the list of concerns. Stigmata Seven: Ekati Diamond Mine, Canada: Another giant crater in the grizzled face of Canada, the Ekati Diamond Mine is North America’s first commercial diamond mine— having opened in 1998—and those still dazzled by diamond rush fever no doubt hope it won’t be the last. It is actually only a stone’s throw from the Diavic Mine just 20 km closer to the Arctic Circle—ensuring things here stay colder than a penguin’s pecker. Like its brethren blemish in Diavic, the Ekati Mine is accessed by hair-raising ice roads and got its 15 minutes of fame on The History Channel’s Ice Road Truckers program. Darned War on Lithosphere 83 crazy canucks? Driven mad perhaps by the 40 million plus carats (8,000 kg) of diamonds the steady scouring has so far produced. Stigmata Eight: Diavik Diamond Mine, Canada: Diavik Diamond Mine is located in Canada’s charmingly named North Slave Region—hopefully no reflection on the way the 700 workers here are treated. This is an open cast mine like no other. Gouged into a 20 square km island, 220 km from the Arctic Circle, there are particularly jaw-dropping views of this cold spot when the surrounding waters freeze over. Connected by a treacherous ice road, this remote mine takes some getting to and so even has its own airport big enough to accommodate Boeing 747s. With a lifespan of 16 to 22 years, the owners will be happy as long as this yawning hole continues to throw up 8 million carats (1,600 kg) of diamonds a year. Stigmata Nine: The Big Hole, South Africa: Another open pit whose name leaves little to the imagination, the Big Hole in Kimberly, South Africa, is said to be the largest hole excavated by hand—despite recent claims that the nearby Jagersfontein Mine holds the some might say dubious title. While it was closed in 1914, during its 43-year lifetime, the 50,000 workers who broke their backs using picks and shovels shifted 22.5 million tons of earth, yielding almost 3 tons of diamonds for their jolly bosses, the de Beer brothers. The Big Hole is 463 meters wide and was dug to a depth of 240 metre—though infilling and water- accumulation have left just 175 metre of the hole visible. It is now a show mine complete with a restored old town. Stigmata Ten: Kalgoorlie Super Pit, Australia: Kalgoorlie Super Pit is what it says on the tin. Irishman Paddy Hannan first saw the glimmer of gold here back in 1893, and this gigantic pockmark in Western Australia is now its continent’s largest open cut gold mine at 3.5 km long, 1.5 km wide and 360 m deep. It is huge and it is growing, at least, until 2017 when it is expected to cease being productive. While the Super Pit has the pull of a benign black hole for tourists into good hole-some fun, 84 Rush to Riches air pollution, water usage, noise and vibration issues and mining waste are all bones of contention for local residents. Still, as well as coughing up almost 30 tons of gold each year, the pit provides work and silver for around 550 employees.

Stigmata Eleven: Pokhran, India It is a remote location in the Thar Desert region and it served as the test site for India’s first underground nuclear weapon detonation. Surrounded by rocky and sandy five salt ranges Pokaran means “the place of five mirages.” Pokhran (also spelled Pokaran) is a city and a municipality located in Jaisalmer district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is en route both from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer and Bikaner to Jaisalmer. As of 2001 India census, Pokhran had a population of 19,186. Pokharan is a pilgrimage site of Jains. A Jain temple dedicated to 23rd Tirthankara Lord Parshvanath is situated here. There is a historical Sikh Gurdwara present at Pokhran called Gurdwara Damdama Sahib. Guru Nanak Devji visited this place during his travels. Abdul Kalam, the pioneer behind the launch of Indian nuclear program, an aeronautical engineer from Tamil Nadu, paved the way for India’s ascent into an elite group of nuclear states. Fondly called ‘Missile Man of India’, he later went on to become the President of India. The Indian government, however, declared that it was not going to make nuclear weapons even though it had acquired the capacity to do so. It claimed that the Pokhran explosion was an effort to harness atomic energy for peaceful purposes and to make India self-reliant in nuclear technology, but, subsequently, India conducted five nuclear tests on 11 May and 13 May 1998. The fully assembled device had a hexagonal cross section, 1.25 m in diameter and weighed 1400 kg. The device was detonated at 8.05 a.m. in a shaft 107 m under the army Pokhran test range in the Thar Desert. The aftermath of this explosion has caused a big rift in the psyche of India, a nation founded on ahimsa, capable of doing such a violent experiment. This experiment left a big scar on the War on Lithosphere 85 desert floor, annihilated all desert life in a second, in an instant pumped up heat and damaged the atmosphere and left an irreparable wound in the consciousness of Indian people, while Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, won freedom from the British using non-violent means. Later, after seeing the devastation caused on land and life by nuclear test in Pokhran, Abdul Kalam admitted that it was the biggest mistake he has ever committed in his life. What happened to the great teachings of Indian born saints like, Mahavir, Buddha, Sankara, and Ramanuja? Buddhism and Jainism had perforce to suggest broad principles, such as compassion towards all living creatures, a ban on killing animals, and planting as well as protecting trees. Jainism, especially in its Digambara branch, carried this to its extreme logical conclusion. Digambara Jain monks wear no clothes: these may trap and kill insects and other small living organisms. The monks sweep the ground as they walk, to eliminate stepping on living things that normally escape notice. This is the timeless, eco-spiritual Indian heritage. It is not the atom bomb we need in India; we need the truth and ageless wisdom of love and forgiveness. The money spent on nuclear bomb could have very well spent on conservation, hunger, poverty, and health. Whenever India chooses path of violence, our inherent nonviolent tale of ahimsa, keeps us comforting and correcting our course of action. Indian history has shown great respect to this moral appeal, many kings were seduced by it, and one of them was Asoka (more on this in Chapter 6).

Stigmata in Afghanistan and Iraq: Pulverized Mountains In the name of war, so much of harm is being done to nature by artificially made chemical agents. It took millions of years to make a mountain but it took few minutes to pulverize them. The US air war in Afghanistan, a response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, began on October 7, 2001. The first few days of the war consisted of strategic attacks on fixed military targets and were followed by weeks of tactical attacks on moving targets and command-and-control activities. As part of Operation Enduring 86 Rush to Riches

Freedom,35 US planes dropped bombs daily on military bases, airfields, terrorist training camps, communication facilities, and other targets. Later, the United States shifted its attention to Afghanistan’s mountain caves where Taliban and al-Qaeda troops were hiding. A month-long bombardment of the mountains around Tora Bora began on November 30, 2001. As the war progressed, journalists tracked cluster bomb use across the country. The US forces have dropped two devastating high- pressure blast bombs on suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda positions in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan after a ground offensive ran into difficulty. US defence sources said that two 2,000 pound (907 kg) “thermobaric” bombs, which send suffocating blasts through cave complexes, were aimed at mountain caves where enemy fighters were hiding. Thermobaric bombs were tested by the US in December 2001 and officials said in January that they would be rushed to Afghanistan for the campaign to root out supporters of Saudi-born dissident Osama Bin Laden. Laser-guided, these bombs are filled with a special explosive mixture that creates a high-pressure blast, driving all of the air out of a cave and potentially choking those inside. Russia has used similar fuel-air bombs in Chechnya, causing international protests. The mountains around Gardez have been a hiding place for Afghan warriors since anti-Soviet guerrillas used them as a base for their fight against Soviet troops in the 1980s. They have recently been identified as a possible refuge for fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Osama Bin Laden, widely blamed for the 11 September attacks on the United States. In a resolution prompted by the events in Afghanistan, the European Parliament called for an “immediate moratorium”36 on cluster

35Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) is the official name used by the U.S. government for the War in Afghanistan, together with three smaller military actions, under the umbrella of the global “War on Terror.” 36From “Fatally Flawed-Human Rights Watch” at www.hrw.org. A Moratorium is a delay or suspension of an activity. For instance, many animal War on Lithosphere 87 bombs until an international agreement was reached. Human Rights Watch as well as other NGOs, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the European Parliament called for an immediate stop to the use of cluster bombs in Afghanistan. Most organizations focused on the dangers cluster bombs posed to Afghan civilians. Some groups highlighted the inherent inaccuracy of CBUs. Landmine Action said that they are “prone to miss their targets.”37 Anti-mine NGOs emphasized the dud rate and long-term effects of unexploded bomblets. Opponents argued that the bombs were not only dangerous but also ineffective, especially in a war against terrorism where winning civilian support was crucial. While the care taken in targeting shows that the United States was concerned about potential civilian casualties, the Pentagon placed these casualties in the larger context of the war on terrorism. “We are now being threatened with weapons that could kill tens of thousands of people. We are trying to avoid killing innocent people, but we have to win this war and we will use the weapons we need to in this war,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said in response to a question about cluster bombs.38

Ore and Mineral Depletion: A War between Need and Greed Human wants are not based on need but on greed which is the ultimate cause for exploitation of resources. Consequently, failure to implement the appropriate laws on the extraction of natural resources inflicts an irreparable damage to the land, water, and air. Minerals are a non-renewable resource, and because of this, the life of mines is finite, and mining represents a

rights activists and conservation authorities often request “Fishing Moratoriums” or “Hunting Moratoriums” on endangered (or soon to be endangered) animal species. These delays, or suspensions, prevent people from hunting or fishing the animals in discussion. A moratorium can apply to any action, e.g., deforestation, mining, nuclear testing, etc. 37“Fatally Flawed: Cluster Bombs” at www.unhcr.org. 38“Cluster Munitions Ban: National Defense University” at www.ndu.edu. 88 Rush to Riches temporary use of the land. The mining life cycle during this temporary use of the land can be divided into the following stages: exploration, development, extraction and processing, and mine closure. Exploration is the work involved in determining the location, size, shape, position, and value of an ore body using prospecting methods, geologic mapping and field investigations, remote sensing, drilling, and other methods. Building access roads to a drilling site is one example of an exploration activity that can cause environmental damage. The development of a mine consists of several principal activities, e.g., conducting a feasibility study, including a financial analysis to decide whether to abandon or develop the property, designing the mine, acquiring mining rights, filing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and preparing the site for production. Preparation could cause environmental damage by excavation of the deposit to remove overburden, surface material above the ore deposit that is devoid of ore minerals, prior to mining. Extraction is the removal of ore from the ground on a large scale by one or more of three principal methods: surface mining, underground mining, and in situ mining (extraction of ore from a deposit using chemical solutions). After the ore is removed from the ground, it is crushed so that the valuable mineral in the ore can be separated from the waste material and concentrated by flotation (a process that separates finely ground minerals from one another by causing some to float in a froth and others to sink), gravity, magnetism, or other methods, usually at the mine site, to prepare it for further stages of processing. The production of large amounts of waste material (often very acidic) and particulate emission have led to major environmental and health concerns with ore extraction and concentration. Additional processing separates the desired metal from the mineral concentrate. The closure of a mine refers to cessation of mining at that site. It involves completing a reclamation plan and ensures the safety of areas affected by the operation, for instance, by sealing the entrance to an abandoned War on Lithosphere 89 mine. Planning for closure is often required to be ongoing throughout the lifecycle of the mine and not left to be addressed at the end of operations. Abandoned mines can cause a variety of health-related hazards and threats to the environment, such as the accumulation of hazardous and explosive gasses when air no longer circulates in deserted mines and the use of these mines for residential or industrial dumping, posing a danger from unsanitary conditions.

Mining: The Resource Curse Mining is very harsh on the environment. To understand how bad some mining is, think about the fact that producing a single gold ring generates 20 tons of mine waste. Where does that waste go? Into the water, air, land, animals, and even into us. However, mining is a bare necessity. It gives us access to necessary minerals and material that we use constantly. This creates many issues, with the mining companies wanting to go forward with plans for mines, and some people strongly opposing it. Mining gives jobs and makes money; it also gives us the materials we need, so it is very good in that sense; it is, however, very bad on the environmental side. Mining requires vast amounts of energy. The ore and rock have to be transported to great distances by large vehicles; transportation requires large amount of energy in the form of gasoline. Underground mines need extensive hoisting systems to transport the minerals, which also require energy. Controlling the temperature of mines deep underground is very energy consuming as well. Pneumatic equipment, which is used a lot in the mining industry, also takes energy. Smelting ores and metal requires lots of energy. Environmental Impacts Unique to each Mine Type are the following. Open Pit Mining: A method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or burrow. This is the most commonly used method to extract hard rock for ores such as metal ores, copper, gold, iron, aluminium, and, most 90 Rush to Riches commonly, coal. It is the most obvious and severe effect on the environment caused by open pit mines: the removal of huge chunks of land, creating craters. In addition to being a huge eyesore, these chunks of land used to be the habitat of many different organisms. By destroying them, the mine endangers the animals, forcing the creatures in the area to relocate. A link in the ecosystem chain is chopped out, and the entire biodiversity of the area suffers. Also, when the mine is no longer in operation, the area can no longer be used for anything else. Deep-Sea Mining: This type of mining involves extraction of minerals from the seabed. Dredging is the most commonly used method in deep sea mining. A dredge (excavator) is used to scrape the minerals off the seabed. Dredging can easily disturb aquatic ecosystems, throwing the whole thing out of balance. Toxic elements are released from the sediments into the water. Deep sea mining is a relatively rare and new method of mining. Because of this, any long-term effects on the environment remain unknown. Coal Mining (including Strip Mining): The main environmental effects unique to coal mining are the methane gasses released (causing greenhouse effect), the effects on water, and the dust produced. Because coal mining is such a massive industry all to itself, it is extremely harmful to the environment due to its massive amount of emissions. Strip mining, most commonly used to mine coal, drastically alters the landscape. Strip mining involves removing large strips of land to expose minerals underneath. Not only that, but the mined coal further harms the environment when it is burned as a fuel, which creates toxic fumes. In regards to safety, subsurface coal mines are known as some of the most dangerous mines to work in, with a high fatality rate. Mountaintop Removal Mining: It seems the mining industry will never stop creating more and more disgusting, destructive, and disturbing ways to steal from the earth. This War on Lithosphere 91 relatively new mining procedure involves clear-cutting the target area of all forest, then making liberal use of explosives to remove a maximum of 1000 vertical feet of mountain, to reach tiny coal veins underneath! The veins are excavated with a dragline excavator, which is basically a giant shovel attached to a giant crane. The waste rock is, then, shovelled into adjacent valleys, destroying every landscape, ecosystem, and animal beneath it. Placer Mining: It refers to mining which in current or ancient stream beds. Placer mining usually doesn’t require excavation. It is most commonly used to extract gold; the most well-known type of placer mining is gold panning. However, in recent years, the mining industry has, unsurprisingly, developed new, less eco-friendly ways of placer mining. Now, placer mines use large sluice boxes and trammels, which are contraptions that funnel water and ore in order to separate it from gold or gemstones. These machines require large amounts of water. The water collects a large amount of silt, which then pollutes the formerly clear-water streams in the area. Also, the waste rock left over after is has been mined is often simply left at the mine site in piles. Hard Rock Mining: This refers to different types of subsurface mining techniques used to take out hard minerals, such as zinc, copper, gold, nickel, and lead. Declines and shafts are used to get to the ore. Miners have to go in and blast away all the waste rock to get to the ore. This causes many various impacts on the environment. Artisanal Mining (includes in situ mining): Artisanal mining is terrible for the land, water, and people’s health. Toxic substances such as mercury and cyanide are used to extract gold from the land. Trenches are made which change and scar the landscape permanently. The mercury used could potentially get into the bloodstream of smaller animals, and since we are at the top of the food chain, it can eventually get into our bloodstream as well. Artisanal mining is hazardous to health, 92 Rush to Riches fertility, and the earth. Imagine if the mercury and cyanide were to accidentally spill! The damage done would be irreversible. This technique is often accompanied by widespread environmental degradation, both during operations and long after mining activities have ended. Each year, 500 to 800 tons of gold are produced, and 800-1000 tons of mercury are emitted!

Environmental Impacts of War on Land Mineral resources were developed around the world for nearly two centuries with few environmental controls. This is largely attributed to the fact that environmental impact was not understood or appreciated as it is today. In addition, the technology available during this period was not always able to prevent or control environmental damage. Ecosystem Damage: Mines are highly damaging to the ecosystems surrounding them. Many different types of mines affect many different types of ecosystems. For example, deep-sea mines are at high risk of eliminating rare and potentially valuable organisms. Mining destroys animal habitats and ecosystems. Pits that mines create could have been home to some animals. Also, the activity that surrounds the mine, including people movement, explosions, road construction, transportation of the goods, the sounds made, etc., are harmful to the ecosystems and will change the way the animals have to live, because they will have to find a new way to cope with the mine and live around it. Spills of deadly substances obviously have a very negative effect on animals and ecosystems in general. Many of the toxins and tailings that are discharged from the mines can disrupt and disturb the way animals live, and their health. Mining can completely destroy ecosystems by adding or taking out something from the animals’ everyday lives, therefore throwing the whole thing out of balance. Air: All methods of mining affect air quality. Since mines need to blast through rock to get to an ore, dust may be War on Lithosphere 93 produced in the process. Particulate matter39 is released in surface mining when overburden is stripped from the site and stored or returned to the pit. When the soil is removed, vegetation is also removed, exposing the soil to the weather, causing particulates to become airborne through wind erosion and road traffic. Particulate matter can be composed of such noxious materials as arsenic, cadmium, and lead. In general, particulates affect human health adversely by contributing to illnesses relating to the respiratory tract, such as emphysema, but they also can be ingested or absorbed into the skin. Non- vegetated or uncapped tailings dams release dust, and when radioactive elements are found in the ore, radiation is emitted. Heavy metals, such as sulphur dioxide, may be polluted into the air by unsafe smelter operations with insufficient safeguards. The gold mining industry is one of the most destructive industries in the world, because of all of the toxins that are released into the air. Acid rain and smog are also some side- effects of mining. Every year, 142 million tons of sulphur dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere because of smelting. That is 13% of total global emissions. Water: Water pollution problems caused by mining include acid mine drainage, metal contamination, and increased sediment levels in streams. Sources can include active or abandoned surface and underground mines, processing plants, waste-disposal areas, haulage roads, or tailings ponds. Sediments, typically from increased soil erosion, cause siltation or the smothering of streambeds. This siltation affects fisheries, swimming, domestic water supply, irrigation, and other uses of streams. Mines use a lot of water, though some of the water is reusable. Sulphide-containing minerals, when oxidized through

39Particle pollution (also called particulate matter or PM) is the term for a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. Some particles, such as dust, dirt, soot, or smoke, are large or dark enough to be seen with the naked eye. Others are so small so much so that they can only be detected using an electron microscope. 94 Rush to Riches contact with air, via mining, form sulphuric acid. This, when combined with trace elements, negatively impacts groundwater. Leftover chemical deposits from explosives are usually toxic, and increase the salinity of mine water, as well as contaminating it. Groundwater can be directly contaminated through “in situ” mining, in which a solvent seeps into un-mined rock, leaching minerals. In the extraction of minerals, some toxins (for example cyanide and mercury) are used that can permanently pollute the water, making it hard for fishers to find fish. Spills into oceans and lakes add toxic heavy metals and sulphuric acid into the environment, which can take ages to fix. Health and Safety: Mining can be very safe, but often it is extremely dangerous. Underground mining is usually more unsafe than surface because of the poor ventilation and visibility, as well as the rock fall hazards. The biggest health risks are from dust, which can cause breathing problems. One example would be silicosis, which is when silica found in the rock gets into one’s lungs, and rip them apart. The silica gets into the lungs when one blasts the rock away to find the ore inside, and little fragments of silica arise as dust, which one then breathes in. Another health issue is from exposure to radiation. People below poverty line in the Third World countries are affected by mining. Land: There are many environmental concerns about the effects mining on the land. Trees need to be cut down in order to have a mine built, and whole forests could be destroyed. Mining involves moving large quantities of rock, and in surface mining, overburden land impacts are immense. Overburden is the material that lies overtop of the desirable mineral deposits that must be removed before the mining process begins. Some mines make an effort to return the rock and land to its original appearance by returning the rock and overburden to the pit that they were taken out of. A lot of areas are pock marked by thousands of small holes by people digging in search of precious minerals. Mining activities also may lead to erosion, which is dangerous and bad for the land. Toxins used in the extraction of War on Lithosphere 95 minerals can permanently pollute the land, which makes people not able to farm in certain places. Open-pit mining leaves behind large craters that can be seen from outer-space. Acid Mine Drainage: Acid mine drainage (AMD) or acid rock drainage (ARD) takes place when the pH of water is lowered and made more acidic. This usually happens in abandoned subsurface mines. The reason is that subsurface mines, when operational, have to keep pumping the water out of the mine. Once abandoned, however, the pumping stops and the mine floods. The primary sources for acid generation are sulphide minerals, such as pyrite (iron sulphide), which decompose in air and water. Many of these sulphide minerals originate from waste rock removed from the mine or from tailings. If water infiltrates pyrite-laden rock in the presence of air, it can become acidified, often at a pH level of two or three. The increased acidity in the water can destroy living organisms, and corrode culverts, piers, boat hulls, pumps, and other metal equipments in contact with the acid waters and render the water unacceptable for drinking or recreational use.

Empty Coal Mines: A Wounded Lithosphere All over the world, coal is on the high demand, constantly putting pressure on the remaining reserves. The goal of coal mining is to remove coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s it is widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. Coal is mined commercially in over 50 countries. Coal production has grown fastest in Asia, while it has decline in Europe. The top coal mining nations (figures in brackets are 2007 estimate of total coal production in millions of short tons) are: China (2,804 Mt), USA (1,146 Mt), India (529 Mt), Australia (428 Mt), South Africa (283 Mt), Russia (347 Mt), Indonesia (180 Mt), Poland (162 Mt), Kazakhstan (103 Mt), and Colombia (75 Mt). Most coal production is used in the country of origin, with around 16% of 96 Rush to Riches hard coal production being exported. Global coal production is expected to reach 7,000 Mt/yr in 2030, with China and India accounting for most of this increase. Coal reserves are available in almost every country worldwide, with recoverable reserves in around 70 countries. At current production levels, proven coal reserves are estimated to last 147 years. Some of the world’s largest coal reserves are located in South America, with Colombia ranked sixth among major coal exporting nations, and an opencast mine at Cerrejón in Colombia is one of the world’s largest open pit mines. South Africa is one of the ten largest coal producing and the fourth largest coal exporting country in the world. In India, coal is mined in the states of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Meghalaya. The People’s Republic of China is by far the largest producer of coal in the world, producing over 2.8 billion tons of coal in 2007, or approximately 39.8 percent of all coal produced in the world during that year. An estimated 5 million people work in China’s coalmining industry. As many as 20,000 miners die in accidents each year. China does not require extensive reclamation and is creating significant acreages of abandoned mined land which is unsuitable for agriculture or other human uses, and inhospitable to indigenous wildlife. Because most Chinese coal is for domestic consumption and is burned with little or no air pollution control equipment, it contributes greatly to visible smoke and severe air pollution in industrial areas using coal for fuel.

The Curse of Oil: A Bleeding Lithosphere Secrecy in oil, gas, and mining industries has been identified as a major obstacle to reform. In many countries, contracts and payments between foreign companies and host governments are not made public, leaving citizens with little information about the revenues coming onto their country. Without accurate, timely, and complete information about resource revenues, War on Lithosphere 97 citizens have no power to hold their governments accountable for using their wealth for essential services like health and education. Transparency will help make way for stability and real solutions to poverty that the oil, gas, and mining industries can support in improving the ability of these industries to address poverty. In an essay “Saving Iraq from Its Oil,” development economists Nancy Birdsall and Arvind Subramanium point out that 34 less-developed countries now boast significant oil and gas resources that constitute at least 30 percent of their total export revenue.40 Despite their riches, however, 12 of these countries’ annual per capita income remains below $1,500. Moreover, two-thirds of the 34 countries are not democratic, and of those that are, only three score in the top half of Freedom House’s world rankings of political freedom. Nothing has contributed more to retarding the emergence of a democratic context in places like Venezuela, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran than the curse of oil. As long as the monarchs and dictators who run these oil states can get rich by drilling their natural resources—as opposed to drilling the natural talents and energy of their people—they can stay in office forever. They can use oil money to monopolize all the instruments of power—army, police, and intelligence—and never have to introduce real transparency or power sharing. All they have to do is capture and hold the oil tap. They never have to tax their people, so the relationship between ruler and ruled is highly distorted. Without taxation, there is no representation. The rulers don’t really have to pay attention to the people or explain how they are spending their money—because they have not raised that money through taxes. That is why countries focused on tapping their oil wells always have weak or nonexistent institutions. Countries focused on tapping their people have to focus on developing real institutions, property

40Nancy Birdsall and Arvind Subramanium, “Saving Iraq from Its Oil,” Foreign Affairs (July-August 2004) at www.foreignaffairs.com/nancy- birdsall-and-arvind-subramanium/saving. 98 Rush to Riches rights, rule of law, independent courts, modern education, foreign trade, foreign investment, freedom of thought, and scientific inquiry to get the most out of their men and women. As always, western countries, especially United States consumes, have the highest amount of oil. Oil usage—with less than 5% of the world’s population, the US consumes approximately 7.6 billion barrels of “oil” (total liquids) per year —i.e., 25% of the world total, two-third of which is imported. US oil production peaked in 1970; world crude oil production may have peaked in May 2005. The US consumes nearly 23 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year—i.e., 22% of the world total, 15% of which is imported. US natural gas production has peaked; world natural gas production peak is likely to occur by 2030. The biggest oil producers, Saudi Arabia and Iran are awash in oil money. On December 9, 2004, at a time when crude oil prices had soared to near $50 a barrel, The Economist, did a special report from Iran in which it noted: “Without oil at its present sky-high price, Iran’s economy would be in wretched straits. Oil provides about half the government’s revenue and at least 80% of export earnings. But, once again under the influence of zealots in parliament, the oil cash is being spent on boosting wasteful subsidies rather than on much-needed development and new technology.”41 The same could be said about other gulf countries, too. In many parts of the world, revenues from the oil resources are used to develop their respective economies, in that process, finally destroying ecology and environment; by and large, the curse of oil continues to plague planet earth.

Iron Ore: End of the Line Iron is the world’s most commonly used metal and iron is one of the most common elements on earth. Nearly every construction of man contains at least a little iron. It is used primarily in structural engineering applications and in maritime purposes,

41“Iran: Still Failing, Still Defiant,” The Economist at www.economist.com/ node/3471508. War on Lithosphere 99 automobiles, and general industrial applications (machinery). It is also one of the oldest metals and was first fashioned into useful and ornamental objects at least 3,500 years ago. Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in colour from dark grey, bright yellow, deep purple, to rusty red. The iron itself is usually found in the form of magnetite, hematite, goethite, limonite, or siderite. Hematite is also known as “natural ore,” a name which refers to the early years of mining, when certain hematite ores containing up to 66% iron could be fed directly into iron-making blast furnaces. Iron ore is the raw material used to make pig iron, which is one of the main raw materials to make steel. 98% of the mined iron ore is used to make steel. Indeed, it has been argued that iron ore is “more integral to the global economy than any other commodity, except perhaps oil.”42 Although iron is the fourth most abundant element in the earth’s crust, comprising about 5%, the vast majority is bound in silicate or more rarely carbonate minerals. The thermodynamic barriers to separating pure iron from these minerals are formidable and energy intensive; therefore, all sources of iron used by human industry exploit comparatively rarer iron oxide minerals, the primary form of which is used as hematite. Prior to the industrial revolution, most iron was obtained from widely available goethite or bog ore, for instance, during the American Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. Prehistoric societies used laterite as a source of iron ore. Historically, much of the iron ore utilized by industrialized societies has been mined from predominantly hematite deposits with grades in excess of 60% Fe. These deposits are commonly referred to as “direct shipping ores” or “natural ores.” World consumption of iron ore grows 10% per annum on an average with the main consumers being China, India, Japan, Korea, the United States of America and the European Union. China is currently the largest consumer

42“Iron Ore” from Wikipedia at www.en.wikipedia.org. 100 Rush to Riches of iron ore, which is considered to be the world’s largest steel producing country. It is also the largest importer, buying 52% of the seaborne trade in iron ore in 2009. China is followed by Japan and Korea, which consume a significant amount of raw iron ore and metallurgical coal. In 2006, China produced 588 million metric tons of iron ore, with an annual growth of 38%. China consumes 820 mm tons, Australia 470 mm tons, Brazil 250 mm tons, India 150 mm tons, Russia 105 mm tons, Ukraine 73 mm tons, USA 54 mm tons, South Africa 40 mm tons, Iran 35 mm tons, and Canada 33 mm tons. Total of 1690 mm tons of iron ore is extracted every year. The total recoverable reserves of iron ore in India are about 9,602 million tons of hematite and 3,408 million tons of magnetite. Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Orissa, Goa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu are the principal Indian producers of iron ore. It is highly capital intensive, and requires significant investment in infrastructure such as rail in order to transport the ore from the mine to a freight ship. For these reasons, iron ore production is concentrated in the hands a few major players. World production averages two billion metric tons of raw ore annually. The world’s largest producer of iron ore is the Brazilian mining corporation Vale, followed by Anglo-Australian companies BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Group. A further Australian supplier, Fortescue Metals Group Limited has helped bring Australia’s production to second in the world. The seaborne trade in iron ore, that is, iron ore to be shipped to other countries, was 849 m tons in 2004. Australia and Brazil dominate the seaborne trade, with 72% of the market. BHP, Rio, and Vale control 66% of this market among them. Industrial dangers are present during the mining, transportation and preparation of the ores, during the production and use of the metal and alloys in iron and steel works and in foundries, and during the manufacture and use of certain compounds. Inhalation of iron dust or fumes occurs in iron ore mining; there are other hazardous processes involved War on Lithosphere 101 such as welding, metal grinding, polishing and working, and boiler scaling. If inhaled, iron is a local irritant to the lung and gastrointestinal tract. Reports indicate that long-term exposure to a mixture of iron and other metallic dusts may impair pulmonary function. Inhaling dust containing silica or iron oxide can lead to pneumoconiosis, but there are no definite conclusions as to the role of iron oxide particles in the development of lung cancer in humans. Based on animal experiments, it is suspected that iron oxide dust may serve as a ‘co-carcinogenic’ substance, thus, enhancing the development of cancer when combined simultaneously with exposure to carcinogenic substances. Accidents are liable to occur during the mining, transportation, and preparation of the ores because of the heavy cutting, conveying, crushing, and sieving machinery that is used for this purpose. Injuries may also arise from the handling of explosives used in the mining operations. Recently, iron ore export restriction is causing environmental hazards in India. Mining industry warned that government’s move to restrict iron ore exports by imposing ad-valorem duty43 may lead to huge stockpiling of fines that may cause environmental hazards. “The decline in iron ore exports will pose a threat to the environment, as miners will have to stock their existing iron ore fines, which are hazardous in nature for the environment,” stated Rahul N. Baldota, the President of Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI).44 Heaps of iron ore fines going into water bodies may

43The word ad valorem means duty calculated on the value of locally manufactured goods. Ad Valorem excise duties were introduced as a fiscal measure on 26 March 1969 on certain selected locally manufactured goods. Being a fiscal measure, the rates as well as goods subject to ad valorem excise duty can be amended to accommodate the demands for more revenue. Corresponding ad valorem customs duties are levied at the same rate of duty on imported goods of the same class or kind. 44From an interview on “Miners Question: Government’s Rationale behind Duty on Iron Ore” at www.economictimes.indiatimes.com. 102 Rush to Riches contaminate them and indirectly affect humans with digestion and with other health problems.

Copper Mines Copper is a very common substance that occurs naturally in the environment and spreads through the environment through natural phenomena. Humans widely use copper. For instance it is applied in the industries and in agriculture. The production of copper has lifted over the last decades and due to this copper quantities in the environment have expanded. The world’s copper production is still rising. This basically means that more and more copper ends up in the environment. Rivers are depositing sludge on their banks that is contaminated with copper, due to the disposal of copper-containing wastewater. Copper enters the air, mainly through release during the combustion of fossil fuels. Copper in air will remain there for an eminent period of time, before it settles when it starts to rain. It will then end up mainly in soil. As a result, soil may also contain large quantities of copper after it has settled from the air. Copper can be released into the environment by both natural sources and human activities. Examples of natural sources are wind- blown dust, decaying vegetation, forest fires, and sea spray. A few examples of human activities that contribute to copper release have already been named. Other examples are mining, metal production, wood production, and phosphate fertilizer production. Because copper is released both naturally and through human activity it is very widespread in the environment. Copper is often found near mines, industrial settings, landfills, and waste disposals. Most copper compounds will settle and be bound to either water sediment or soil particles. Soluble copper compounds form the largest threat to human health. Usually, water-soluble copper compounds occur in the environment after release through application in agriculture. World production of copper amounts to 12 million tons a year War on Lithosphere 103 and exploitable reserves are around 300 million tons, which are expected to last for only another 25 years. About 2 million tons a year are reclaimed by recycling. Today copper is mined as major deposits in Chile, Indonesia, USA, Australia, and Canada, which together account for around 80% of the world’s copper. Copper is malleable, ductile, and an extremely good conductor of both heat and electricity. It is softer than iron but harder than zinc and can be polished to a bright finish. Copper has low chemical reactivity. In moist air, it slowly forms a greenish surface film called patina; this coating protects the metal from further attack. Most copper is used for electrical equipment (60%), construction, such as roofing and plumbing (20%), industrial machineries, such as heat exchangers (15%), and alloys (5%). The main long established copper alloys are bronze, brass (a copper-zinc alloy), copper-tin-zinc, which was strong enough to make guns and cannons, and was known as gun metal, copper, and nickel, known as cupronickel, which was the preferred metal for low- denomination coins. When copper ends up in soil it strongly attaches to organic matter and minerals. As a result, it does not travel very far after release and it hardly ever enters groundwater. In surface water, copper can travel great distances, either suspended on sludge particles or as free ions. Copper does not break down in the environment and because of that it can accumulate in plants and animals when it is found in soils. On copper-rich soils only a limited number of plants have a chance of survival. That is why there is not much plant diversity near copper-disposing factories. Due to the effects upon plants copper is a serious threat to the productions of farmlands. Copper can seriously influence the proceedings of certain farmlands, depending upon the acidity of the soil and the presence of organic matter. Despite of this, copper-containing manures are still applied. Copper can interrupt the activity in soils, as it negatively influences the activity of micro-organisms and earthworms. The decomposition of organic matter may seriously slow down because of this. 104 Rush to Riches

When the soils of farmland are polluted with copper, animals will absorb concentrations that are damaging to their health. Mainly, sheep suffer a great deal from copper poisoning, because the effects of copper are manifesting at fairly low concentrations.

Uranium: Ultimate Weapon of Savages Uranium ore breaks down into very small particles that are water soluble, thus, it contaminates ground water aquifers, wells, streams, soil, and even the air. Once water, soil, and air become radioactive, the food chain is forever contaminated. When life is exposed to these radioactive particles it alters the cells in our bodies and causes cancer, abortions, birth defects, and a myriad of other diseases and sickness. Gulf War Syndrome is actually radiation sickness from depleted uranium (DU). It takes about 1 billion years for these particles to become inert. A massive body of scientific evidence has stated clearly that there is “no” safe amount of low level radiation. It has also been stated that low level radiation is the second leading cause of cancer next to cigarette smoking. Scientists and engineers around the world are still puzzling over how to contain radioactive tailings,45 which has never been successfully done. Tailings must be managed for thousands of years. The common approach is to create huge pits which are usually made up of local native soils. The tailings pits or lakes are then covered with water. Water will leach through the lakes into the groundwater systems and into the river system. Radioactive radon gas is also given off from the tailings, and it migrates through soil particles in the ground. Over 50% of uranium mines are underground tunnel system, approximately 27% are open cut mining and around 20% are in situ leaching. Reclamation of uranium mining costs millions of dollars and can

45Management of radioactive tailings (mine waste) at uranium mines isolates the material from the surrounding environment and contains the waste on the mine site. The techniques for managing uranium tailings are essentially the same as those for managing tailings from the mining of any other mineral. War on Lithosphere 105 still never be successfully done. There is no new way to contain radioactive tailings. The radioactive half-life of uranium 308 is over a billion years. The radioactive isotopes contained within the tailings are water soluble and would leach into the ground aquifers, wells, streams, and rivers in perpetuity. The radon 222 gas would permeate throughout soil pores and contaminate the air indefinitely. Contaminated water, soil, and air would cause an indeterminable amount of disease and death, as well as, polluting water systems for thousands of years. Nuclear energy facilities are touted by the industry as “green and clean.” This focus has largely been on the fact that a nuke plant does not directly release green house gasses into the atmosphere. Missing from that claim is any mention of the green house gasses released through the rest of the nuclear cycle; from mining and transportation of uranium, to the building of massive plants and the unsafe disposal of (DU) wastes. The spent fuel rods are impossible to manage and there is still no proven technology to deal with uranium, which has been liberated from its ore composition. This waste must be managed for thousands of years. To date, a total of 179 nuclear plants worldwide are either under construction, planned or proposed, when conservation and alternative energy sources are cheaper, safer, and more reliable.

Rare Earth Metals Rare-earth metals are the key to twenty-first century technology. Without them, we wouldn’t have smart phones, hybrid cars, or precision weapons. All is not well in the world of rare earths. In discussing rare earth elements, the term rare can be thought of in two different ways. First, rare can be defined by how much of a particular metal is actually produced and made available to end- users who require its use. Second, rare can be thought of in terms of its uncommonness or scarcity. When speaking of ‘rare earths’ in current, manufacturing terms it is the production of these metals (high or low) and their availability (large or small) that 106 Rush to Riches can be used to establish which of them are rare and which are not. In short, ramping up production of some of these rare metals is one way of diminishing their value by increasing their availability on world markets and most importantly their availability to manufacturers which require their use. These include lanthanum, from which rare earth metals get their collective chemical name of lanthanides, to lutetium. For reasons of chemical similarity, two additional metals, scandium and yttrium, are commonly found in rare earth metal deposits, and so are frequently referred to as rare earth metals, resulting in a total number of 17 rare earth elements—all of which are metals. These 17 consecutive lanthanide elements have, uniquely among all the elements in the periodic table, chemical properties so similar that they are difficult and expensive to separate from one another. However, once these metals have been separated from one another, the individual physical properties of these materials put them in today’s top tier of the rarest and in many cases the most critical of metals for technological application. However, because of their geochemical properties, rare earth elements seldom concentrate into economically exploitable ore deposits. The scarcity of these minerals (or ‘earths’) was denoted by their original French name, terre rare. The first such mineral discovered was gadolinite, extracted from one mine in the village of Ytterby, Sweden; many of the elements bear names derived from this location. Dysprosium and terbium are in especially short supply, mainly because they have emerged as the miracle ingredients of green energy products. Tiny quantities of dysprosium can make magnets in electric motors lighter by 90 percent, while terbium can help cut the electricity usage of lights by 80 percent. Dysprosium prices have climbed nearly sevenfold since 2003, to $53 a pound. Terbium prices quadrupled from 2003 to 2008, peaking at $407 a pound, before slumping in the global economic crisis to $205 a pound. Indium, gallium and hafnium are some of the least-known elements on the periodic table, but the magazine New Scientist warns that reserves of these War on Lithosphere 107 low-profile minerals and others like them might soon be exhausted, thanks to the demand for flat screens and other high- tech goods.46 Scientists who have tried to estimate how long the world’s mineral supply can meet global demand have made some gloomy predictions. Armin Reller, a materials chemist at the University of Augsburg in Germany, estimates that in 10 years the world will run out of indium, which is used for making liquid-crystal displays for flat-screen televisions and computer monitors. He also predicts that the world will run out of zinc by 2037, and hafnium, an increasingly important part of computer chips, by 2017. Researchers worry that a supply crunch in some metals and minerals could kill off promising new technologies. Rene Kleijn, a chemist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, says that a new design for solar panels that would make them twice as efficient as most current panels might not get built for lack of gallium and indium. Estimates of reserves vary widely, and scientists say it is difficult in some cases to accurately forecast demand, says New Scientists David Cohen. If the dire predictions are true, recycling of rare metals will be the only way to manufacture some gadgets and machines as demand grows in the developing world. Hazel Prichard, a geologist at the University of Cardiff in the United Kingdom, also is developing ways to extract platinum, a vital component in catalytic converters and fuel cells, from the dust and grime of city streets. Apparently, urban grit contains 1.5 parts per million of platinum.47 The element gallium is in very short supply and the world may well run out of it in just a few years. It is a blue-white metal first discovered in 1831, and has certain unusual properties, like a very low melting point and an unwillingness to

46“Supplies of Rare Earth Elements Predicted to Be Exhausted by 2017” at www.forums.civfanatics.com. 47See “Precious Metal Investment” at www.precious-metal-investment. blogspot.com. 108 Rush to Riches oxidize, that make it useful as a coating for optical mirrors, a liquid seal in strongly heated apparatus, and a substitute for mercury in ultraviolet lamps. It is also quite important in making the liquid-crystal displays used in flat-screen television sets and computer monitors. As it happens, we are building a lot of flat- screen TV sets and computer monitors these days. Gallium is thought to make up 0.0015 percent of the earth’s crust and there are no concentrated supplies of it. We get it by extracting it from zinc or aluminium ore or by smelting the dust of furnace flues. Indium is threatened too, says Armin Reller.48 Its impending scarcity could already be reflected in its price: in January 2003 the metal sold for around $60 per kilogram; by August 2006 the price had shot up to over $1000 per kilogram, gone up over 1500% in 3 years. It is needed for that new generation of high output solar cells, as well as LCD displays. All the hafnium will be gone by 2017 also, and another twenty years will see the extinction of zinc. It has been estimated that if all the 800 million vehicles in use today were reequipped with fuel cells, operating losses would mean that all the world’s sources of platinum would be exhausted within 15 years. Unlike with oil or diamonds, there is no synthetic alternative: platinum is a chemical element, and once we have used it all there is no way on earth of getting any more. These metals are used to manufacture environmentally friendly products such as electric cars and in alternative power generating technologies such as wind turbines. Rare earth elements are also used in many modern technological devices, including superconductors, samarium-cobalt and neodymium- iron-boron high-flux rare-earth magnets, electronic polishers, refining catalysts and hybrid car components. Rare earth oxides are mixed with Tungsten to improve their high temperature properties for welding, replacing thorium which was mildly hazardous to work with. Many of these are essential ingredients in mobile phones, video game machines, computers, and even

48“Peak Minerals” at www.oilempire.us/peak-minersls.html. War on Lithosphere 109 green technologies. Tiny amounts of rare earths dysprosium or terbium might soon be used in electric cars as these let batteries work at high temperatures. The main accessible concentrations of the rare earths are found in China, where more than 95% of rare earths are now produced. Over the last seven years, China has reduced the amount of rare earths available for export by some 40%. Even existing mineral production may be in danger. Six months ago, a story was circulated concerning China’s State Council49 which is the arm of the government that sets the agenda for China’s command economy. The story, supported by a white paper from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), suggested that the export of the rarest of the rare earths, the higher atomic numbered (or heavy ones) be immediately terminated and that the export of the rare earths should be reduced in the next five-year plan (2010-2015). The story could have been floated as a trial balloon to measure world reaction to a curtailing of the rare earths’ supply. Another possibility is that the story was released to the Western press because the Chinese government had become aware of the importance of rare earths to China’s technological and green future and that this importance is sufficient enough to curtail the export of rare earths at current levels. This is particularly important since rare earth production may soon have to be reduced while environmental problems are remedied. For the rest of the world, the problem is that the rare earths which the Chinese deem so important to their technological and green future are already critical for maintaining the West’s technological and green presence, let alone a future of green growth and sustainable production.

49The State Council of the People’s Republic of China, namely the Central People’s Government, is the highest executive organ of State power, as well as the highest organ of State administration. The State Council is composed of a premier, vice-premiers, State councillors, ministers in charge of ministries and commissions, the auditor-general, and the secretary-general. 110 Rush to Riches

China has announced that over the life of the next two five-year plans, 2010-2020, it will construct some 133 Giga-watts of wind turbine generated electricity. This is likely to dramatically impact the supply of the rare earth metal neodymium. It could take up to half a ton of neodymium to make a permanent magnet for a very large wind turbine. If China chooses to go with the wind turbine generator design that uses a rare earth permanent magnet based on neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium, the last two of which are among the rarest of the rare earth metals, then, this will require that China increases its current production levels in order to meet additional demand. The alternative is that China substantially reduces its exports of the required metals under the terms of present production levels. Modern, smaller, high performance and high efficiency electric motors and generators are also increasingly dependent on the unique properties of these metals. Transportation alternatives such as electric cars, electricity generating technologies such as wind turbines, communications’ technologies, such as iPhones, and even medical equipment such as X-ray machines and MRI machines all require rare earths for their production. Getting onto the green road is not the same as staying on it.

Exploitation of Granite and River Sand The first traces of exploitation of the local granite come from Neolithic Age when it was used to produce querns. In the Bronze Age (about 2,500 years ago), the granite from the eastern part of the world, especially in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India was used to make many sculptures connected to a pagan cult. In the middle ages, the local granite was used to build churches and other buildings in Europe, Eastern Europe, and Asia. The biggest rise of the granite exploitation took place during the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century. With the industrial revolution, the exploitation of granite became easier and more rational. Recently, Africa, Australia, and Asia own big quarries and they are supplying enormous amount of granite in the form of blocks, gravel, and tiles. As the economy is booming in the War on Lithosphere 111

Third World, the need will sky rocket; obviously, the granite consumption will definitely destroy the remaining granite quarries on the lithosphere, along with the already crumbling ecosystems. Exploitation of river sand, gravel, and granite stones is a source of main natural, organizational, financial, and environmental problems. The main reason for the high demand for river sand for construction is its cleanliness and absence of salinity. However, continuous and intense exploitation of sand from the beds of major rivers has contributed in a big way to the degradation of river-ecosystems. An acute shortage of river sand has been affecting the construction sector. The scarcity has led to the skyrocketing price of sand and escalating construction costs. The situation has dashed the dreams of many in the lower and middle-income groups to own a house. Indiscriminate mining of sand has depleted the natural resource and ravaged the rivers. There is an urgent need to protect the rivers and rein in their mindless exploitation. In the construction sector, sand has always been a tricky thing. Most essential but in short supply, sand is fraught with controversy, as the indiscriminate extraction of it has taken a toll on major rivers. The demand for sand was estimated at more than 8 million tons last year in Tamil Nadu, India, alone. With the present rate of construction, the demand is on an uphill climb. As sand is the main coarse aggregate in concrete, helping to bind large pieces of crushed metal with cement, its quality is of paramount importance in construction. Sand should be clean and without salt content. However, the construction sector vows that in case an abundant supply of quality sand cannot be ensured, building activity can grind to a halt, which may, in turn, affect many ancillary sectors. The authorities have already imposed severe restrictions on extraction of riverbed sand as a direct response to the concern being raised about the degradation of environment caused by sand-mining. 112 Rush to Riches

Following the shortage of river sand, some research institutions are developing alternatives that can be used for construction. The use of manufactured or rock sand is another option being increasingly resorted to by many in the construction sector. According to geologists, Manufactured Sand (M-sand), which is nothing but crushed 40-mm granite stones passed through a 4.75-mm sieve, can be used as an alternative to river sand. The cubical-shaped M-sand has a surface that gives better binding strength and saves cement, labour, and water. By using M-sand, it was possible to totally replace river sand in construction of buildings and, thus, save the rivers, which have been overexploited for sand. Manufactured sand is in no way inferior to river sand. M-sand can save the rivers, preventing an environmental disaster. But M-sand can put enormous amount of pressure on already crumbling granite quarries, causing damage to mountain ecosystems. Over-exploitation of river sand has led to the reduction of the groundwater table in the river. City of Vellore50 in Tamil Nadu is the mega-victim of this problem, for example, facing an impending environmental catastrophe—desertification. Continuous exploitation of sand would reduce the water-holding capacity of the river, since it is the sand, which retains water in the river. If we remove the filter bed, we cannot get pure water at all. Removal of sand also leads to the weakening of structures such as abutments of bridges across rivers. River sand could also be replaced by using foundry waste sand. The foundry industry is ready to supply foundry waste sand free of cost, which can be utilized by the construction 50Vellore is the second most populous district of Tamil Nadu in India where the Palar River flowing towards east for about 295 km. The river sets as the major water source recharging the ground water in the nearby areas. The District is now known for its medical tourism and educational excellence. With more migration into the city, it becomes necessary for the corporation to give a good quality drinking water to the people. Vellore is surrounded by many leather tanneries and small scale dying industries and their effluents are discharged into the Palar River causing impact on the quality of the underground water. Hence, it becomes necessary to study the quality of the groundwater of the city as it is greatly influenced by the Palar River. War on Lithosphere 113 industry. Foundry waste sand could also be used for making paving tiles and hollow blocks. The shortage and environmental problems have been pointing to the need for a search for viable alternatives to sand.

Nineveh: The Wicked City The story of Nineveh from the Bible, reminds us of the dangers the humanity is facing in the big cities known as “Metropolis.” God decided to destroy the inhabitants of Nineveh for their sins and lifestyles. As the first step, let us focus on the following question. What was the sin of Nineveh? The focus is on the repentance itself rather than the sin that led to it. The sin most characteristic of Nineveh was violence, plunder, rough oppression, war-like swagger, “I will take what I want, when I want.” Sin expresses itself differently in each one of us. It is all pride. But it expresses itself in different ways—sexual indulgence, selfishness, greed, jealousy, envy, laziness, materialism, and lack of love one for another. It sounds like some of our cities in India. In his prophetic vision, prophet Nahum takes a tour of the city of Nineveh and observes how ripe it is for judgment. He sees it is a busy city, full of the noise of a whip and the noise of rattling wheels, of galloping horses, of clattering chariots. Yet it is busy with violence, deception, and idolatry. Not only where the rulers of Assyria terribly cruel, they boasted of the cruelty on monuments that exist in museums to this day. Archeologist Boice quotes some of the choice boasts from various monuments: “I cut off their heads and formed them into pillars.” “I cut off the limbs of the officers, the royal officers who had rebelled.” “3,000 captives I burned with fire.” “Their corpses I formed into pillars.” “From son I cut off their hands and their fingers, and from other I cut off their noses, their ears, and their fingers, of many I put out their eyes.” “I made one pillar of the 114 Rush to Riches living, and another of heads, I bound their heads to posts round about the city.”51 Because Nineveh was so known—even renowned—for its violence and cruelty, no wonder Nahum sees the nations applauding when the city is judged and destroyed. Perhaps, the real sin of Nineveh was political and social, i.e., related to city life: its avarice, greed and imperialism, its domination and oppression of others; a cold, calculating, amoral foreign policy in relating to other peoples. For thousands of years man believed that anything and everything was acceptable in international relations, for the state and its welfare stand above individual morality. People could accept that rebellion against God or interpersonal violence and injustice might damn a society and consign it to destruction. However, until very recently, only the prophetic voices maintained that the same is true in regard to how peoples and nations relate to one another, even among gentile nations, nothing to do with Israel. This understanding of Nineveh’s sin is explicit in the words of prophet Nahum, who calls Nineveh, “the whore of nations, for they knew to seduce the heart of the rulers of (various) lands to join them. At the end they would overcome them and placed them under their own dominion.”52 This great city was the source from which sorcery, degeneracy and amorality, in the guise of culture and civilization, emanated to the entire world. The meaning is that nations are seduced into gathering much wealth and commerce in it. Millions of people followed the city lifestyle of Nineveh, as people around the world, today follow the capitalistic lifestyle of western countries. “Behold, I am against you,” says the Lord of hosts; “I will lift your skirts over your face, I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame. I will cast abominable

51“Nahum 3-Noneveh, the Wicked City” at www.enduringworld.com/ commentaries. 52“Nahum 3-Noneveh, the Wicked City” at www.enduringworld.com/ commentaries. War on Lithosphere 115 filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle. It shall come to pass that all who look upon you will flee from you, and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste! Who will bemoan her?’ Where shall I seek comforters for you?” (Nahum 3:2-5). It is in this light that we might understand why the King of Nineveh put on sack. It is he who re-directed the course of the spontaneous individual repentance into a form of national penance. There is not a more potent symbol of contrition and humbling than a king wearing sack. True, Nineveh was rotten through and through. Its citizens cheated, robbed, and oppressed each other. It was, however, not the root of their problem, but a symptom. Their internal dissolution mirrored their external lack of national purpose beyond pursuit of power, naked aggression and desire to dominate, rule and destroy. Their repentance could never even begin to engage the real sin of their political culture until the pride and symbol of the haughty Assyrian state, the sovereign ruler, accepted responsibility and humbled himself. Does this sound familiar? Let us examine our own consciousness. Take a moment and think about the lifestyles of our people in the cities, when the sun goes down. Every city is a remainder of Nineveh the wicked city. In our own time and place, the issues of national morality have again been thrust to a prominent place in international politics. It is as it should be for the prophets of Israel taught us that rich and elite nations and peoples are not exempt from measuring their actions on the universal moral scale, and if they don’t, then God will. Can Nineveh offer some help for redeeming ourselves from the destructive economic and anti-ecological lifestyles, before it is too late.

Metropolis or Necropolis: Skyscrapers or Cemeteries From space, at night time one can witness that earth flaunts with billion pockets of lights, the cities glow with light but down under earth harbours dark secrets, deeply rooted in evil. With hundreds and thousands of cities around the world with their billions of people, there is no intermission from the play of darkness. Few centuries ago the lithosphere housed beautiful 116 Rush to Riches valleys, mountains, villages, and agricultural lands. But now, lithosphere is drastically destroyed and transformed into towns and cities, thickly populated ecosystems, addicted to consumption of all sorts. That makes New York City, a big “Necropolis, the City of Dead,” London a necropolis, Beijing a necropolis, and Chennai a necropolis. “Every Golden Age is an Urban Age,” wrote Sir Peter Hall.53 The story of civilization is the story of cities, as shown by the etymology of the two related words. To civilize means to citify, to step out of a primitive or savage condition into a higher existence. To live in the city is to come up in the world, to be cultured and mannerly rather than rude and barbaric, presumably a step closer to heaven, i.e., the “City of God,” according to the psalmist (Psalm 46:4). Metropolis sprouted from the seeds of agriculture. The tending of crops imposed a sedentary lifestyle, a staying in place to protect the growing food plants and to reap the harvest. The greatest change in human culture after the taming of fire around 200,000 BCE began a mere ten millennia ago when nomadic foragers, enlightened in the art of gardening by women, settled down and turned inventive. Using such technologies as hoes, wheels, and irrigation in fertile valleys they were soon producing surpluses of storable and transportable food. Invigorated by trade and by centralized religious ceremonies, agriculture-based hamlets grew into towns and then into cities. Civilization flourished. Strongmen, priests, and kings, took charge. The rest, as they say, is history—of a certain biased kind. Scrutiny of the rise and fall of civilizations from an ecological perspective reverses the picture. With the glitter of cities gone, Hobbesian times54 are

53Peter Hall, “Cities in Civilization” at www.goodreads.com. 54The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is best known for his political thought, and deservedly so. His vision of the world is strikingly original and still relevant to contemporary politics. His main concern is the problem of social and political order: how human beings can live together in peace and avoid the danger and fear of civil conflict. He poses stark alternatives: we should give our obedience to an unaccountable sovereign (a person or group empowered to decide every social and political issue). War on Lithosphere 117 assumed to prevail; life is nasty, brutish, violent, and short. No news is bad news until, favoured by ameliorating climate, new technology, discovery of unexploited lands, or expropriations through warfare, another round of civilization begins. Revivified through favourable ecological connections, new cities appear and scribes resume the chronicle of important human enterprises. Between the crests, in the fallen state, reports on the conditions of life are few and uniformly bad. The up-city/down-city phases of civilization’s cycle come into focus as “the unsustainable city phase” and “the sustainable non-city phase.” The rise of civilization, when cities grow, is a transient stage of exploitive living. The fall of civilization, when cities collapse, marks return to sustainable living on the land. In the past, cities fell apart when they had exhausted their hinterlands or invaders had done so. Then, the population, much reduced in numbers, reverted to foraging and simple subsistence agriculture: the only dependable, time-tested way of living that always works. During the so-called “Dark Ages,”55 the treasures of western culture survived in monasteries: forms of rural, horticultural, communal, subsistence living that are models of sustainability and, except for their sexual aberrance, patterns of high culture. Today cities thrive worldwide, borne to new heights on gushers of oil that make them potential hostages of a few feudal families in the Middle East. Hegemonous western civilization is on a roll, setting the trend of rural depopulation and urbanization for whole world to follow. Fifty percent of earth’s seven billion people now live in cities and the numbers keep rising. Apart from tangles of vehicles that poison the air and wretched living conditions for the poor, no insurmountable problems have so far appeared. Cheap transportation based on Otherwise what awaits us is a “state of nature” that closely resembles civil war – a situation of universal insecurity, where all have reason to fear violent death and where rewarding human cooperation is all but impossible. 55Period before the Middle Ages, i.e., the period of European history between the fall of the Roman Empire in AD 476 and about AD 1000, for which there are few historical records and during which life was comparatively uncivilized. 118 Rush to Riches cheap hydrocarbons has enlarged the hinterlands of cities to include the entire planetary surface. Global trade is ascendant and all necessities, plus a plethora of manufactured instruments of comfort and delight, can be drawn from any part of the globe. God denounces the concept of big cities like Babel and He curses Jerusalem: “you will be lowered as you would want to ascend to the top” (Genesis 11). As we construct more roads, houses, schools, and buildings, we destroy more habitats and this means less room for other creatures. “Look at the birds of the air” (Matt. 6:26). Jesus calls out for our attention to birds. Birds build small nests, just enough space to its body size, so do the foxes, jackals, and snakes. Only man builds bigger houses, hundred times more than his size. However, only when he dies he gets it right, his grave is a tit fit. Deep Ecology or eco-philosophy believes that humans should participate in but not dominate the natural environment. We are a creature of planet earth and as such we should live as part of the community of life rather than seeking to bring it under our control. The world does not exist for the purpose of serving humans and it was not designed as a resource for our consumption. The sum total of all living things on earth is called the biomass. There is a maximum amount of biomass that planet earth can support at any one time. This is any kind of life; forests and chickens, plankton and humans. The reason for this maximum limit is because all the earth’s energy comes from the sun and the sun only provides us with a finite amount. Sunlight falls onto the ground and the energy is captured by plants. Plants turn this into an energy that can then be eaten by animals. The volume of sunlight determines the quantity of plant life, the quantity of plant life determines the numbers of the animal population. Most people seem to think that the basic natural regulations that exist on planet earth do not apply to human beings. They seem to think that we somehow exist outside the boundaries of nature. Eco-philosophy and Deep Ecology challenge that assumption. We are very much a part of nature War on Lithosphere 119 and our actions have a profound effect on the rest of the ecosystem on this planet. This eco-philosophy recognizes that every increase in total human biomass must equal an equivalent decrease in the biomass of other living creatures. More buildings mean less biomass. More roads mean few species of animals and plants. Therefore, human progress and development can be seen as achievement only on the demise or entombing of other organisms. Metropolis continues to expand and to increase in number while non-human nature degenerates and shrinks. All developing economic life depends on city economies because, wherever economic life is growing, the process creates metropolis. The thesis that metropolis, the source of wealth, is correct only in the sense that today’s human wealth is nature’s wealth made over by urban know-how. But a world of growing cities, each building up its industrial plant to reduce dependency on imports so as to become itself a competitive exporter, is a recipe for global disaster. Only the naïve can be optimistic and confident that city wealth and city technology will solve the environmental problems they create out of sight beyond their borders. As human population skyrockets seven billion, species of plant and animal are becoming extinct every day. The dominant culture of the world would like to see it filled only with us, our food, and our food’s food. If any other creatures or wilderness were to be spared it would only be because they had some sentimental value to us, were nice to look at or had recreational value. The ecosystem of this planet survives and flourishes because of biodiversity. The way we are acting at present is destroying this biodiversity. If the human species is to survive we must change the way we interact with the rest of nature. In fact, by destroying natural habitats, humans build “Necropolis,” or “City of Dead,” not “Metropolis.” All those high rises, factories, roads, damns, government buildings, temples, churches, schools, and hospitals they may be beautiful buildings for humans, but from the viewpoint of ecology they 120 Rush to Riches are nothing but big and tall cemeteries built on dead trees, microorganisms and thousands of species of dead animals and plants. Most of the skyscrapers, roads, and other infrastructures are nothing, but the ever haunting horror stone books, a constant reminder of our destructive traits. Six hundred years ago, cities were islands in a patchwork of farms, valleys, villages, and wilderness. Today, they dominate the world and their influence is felt everywhere. Thanks to them, the lower atmosphere is a smog soup, soils and food are chemicalized, and millions drink bottled water daily. The human species, adaptable and compliant, accepts all this as unexceptional, as the way of the world. If asked to comment on cities and the lifestyles they entrain, most would undoubtedly simply say, “That’s Progress.” Big cities are the norm today and their central status is unquestioned. Earth’s environmental problems—such as clogged highways and climatic change, deforestation and loss of biodiversity, marine technology and collapse of cod and salmon stocks—spring from the same common root: faulty ideas about material progress and about the possibility of ever-higher standards of living for a burgeoning world population. Reigning theories assume the excellence of economic growth and foster its tools of science and technology. They encourage the accelerating use of irreplaceable fossil fuels and earth’s other natural assets. They promote greater global trade and transport, cheering on the adoption of lifestyles that are commodity-intensive. City leadership, exemplified by city growth, is an integral part of this transient splurge. The decisions, the planning, the lifestyles in cities determine what happens to the nation and to the earth. Therefore, the chief “city problem” is ecological, concerning the impacts of cities on the world outside them. Yet, these ecological relationships get secondary attention in urban studies. Most of the latter are physiological, focused on inner functioning, on problems of living within the boundaries. Such analyses are the source of articles on “the Eco-City,” “the War on Lithosphere 121

Liveable City,” “the Green City,” etc. They search for ways to make life bearable in the midst of noise, crowds, flashing lights, traffic, smog, asphalt, stone, and glass. The focus on cosmetic rearrangements within cities avoids confronting the mayhem that cities inflict on the regions around them and, by summation, on the earth. What needs examination is not urban renewal, affordable housing, architectural creativity, green park spaces, car-free malls, bicycle paths, safe lighting, or even the larger social injustice issues that work against these narrow though commendable objectives. The big question concerns the implications of increasing urbanization for the future of the countryside, for global soils and air, for natural areas and wilderness preserves, for lakes and free-running rivers, for forested landscapes patch-skinned at an accelerating rate, for the 30 million other species of organisms to which we are companions. In short, what is the relationship of cities to their hinterlands and, in times of dirt-cheap fossil fuel that allows irresponsible global trade, to the whole earth?

Ecology of Cities: Ghetto of Ecological Refugees Anthropologist Lewis Mumford was one of the first to ask ecological questions about cities and their sustainability, in his 1965 article, “The Natural History of Urbanization,” precisely referring to the ecology of urbanization.56 He noted the dependencies of cities on their hinterlands, and the steady extension of their influences aided by the growing power of transportation technology. He pointed out that the city story, from Nineveh to New York, is one of increasingly substituting artificial for the natural. Technology rearranges environments so that nature is never experienced directly. In losing connections with earth within the city, inhabitants also lose track of earth- relationships without. An illusion of complete independence from nature is fostered, and the phrase “urban sustainability” is

56Lewis Mumford, “The Natural History of Urbanization,” ed. Thomas, W. L. Chicago, 1965. 122 Rush to Riches no longer recognized as oxymoronic. Mumford expressed pessimism about modern large cities because of their dependence on plunder of the non-urban hinterland. The same dark thread runs through his book City in History, published five years later when cities of the world were under threat of nuclear annihilation.57 But although Mumford’s reading of history repeatedly revealed Metropolis ending in Necropolis, the City of the Dead, he was optimistic that it need not be so. His book is one long sermon exhorting humanity to be better and to do better, not by renouncing the city as a structural/functional error but by converting it, somehow, into what it is not: an environment for fostering community and advancement to a higher-than-economic life, an environment for “man devoting himself to the development of his own deepest humanity,” a true vehicle of human progress. This recurring theme expresses his frustrated longing for the city as container-museum of mankind’s superlative achievements. The stage for the city was set, according to Mumford, by the first progressive step from man-the-hunter and his clan to the village-based matrifocal agricultural society. The change from wandering forager to sedentary farmer marked “a sexual revolution, a change that gave prominence not to the hunting male but to the more passive female; home and mother are written over every phase of Neolithic agriculture.”58 The next quick step upward was from female village to dominance by the male city. Mumford’s thoughts on the city are ambivalent. He is convinced that it is the highest and best structure within which men, drawn by “social and religious impulses,” come together “for a more valuable and meaningful kind of life.” At the same time, he identifies the city as a centre of power, aggression, and aggrandizement, contemptuous of organic processes, contributing to violence and war, eventually inviting its own

57Lewis Mumford, City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects, New York: Mariner Books, 1968. 58Mumford, “The Ecology of Cities” at www.ecospheric.net. War on Lithosphere 123 destruction. Post-city, the people return to rural living-on-the- land in small communities. Then, in the repeating cycle, Mother- Village nurtures another crop of competitive City-Sons. Babylon and Tikal are reminders that city planning and city beautification are no hedge against the dangers of peripheral influences, especially those rendered virulent by neglect. Each fresh Metropolis is reconstituted both physically and ethically by drawing on “the positive forces of cooperation and sentimental communion kept alive in the village.” New life, fresh and unsophisticated, “full of crude muscular strength, sexual vitality, procreative zeal, and animal faith” is recruited from rural regions to build new cities or rebuild the old. In Jeffersonian tones, Mumford warned that the ancient factor of safety for cities will vanish with the disappearance of the rural source of strength. He accepted the latter as essential for provisioning the city, but not as itself an acceptable environment. To him the rural source is passively female, described as an “unfertilized ovum” needing male insemination to become the urban “developing embryo.” To the urban intelligentsia, the flaws of the city are surface blemishes that can be patched or glossed over. Assured that the city is the best machine for living, they trust that this time around it will never stop, that Necropolis is forever banished. British anthropologist Sir Peter Hall, the latest city exalter expresses confidence: Consideration of the ecology of cities—their relationship to their regions and to the earth— reveals a precarious dependence of which the inhabitants are unaware. Cocooned away from the real world, city folk live in ignorance of their life-support system. The “culture” for which cities are acclaimed is itself a kind of virtual reality, providing various compensations for separation from the natural world. Artifice is used to plug the holes in urban lives with facsimiles of important experiences thoughtlessly blown away. The arts serve as 124 Rush to Riches

humanistic buoys to keep spirits afloat after natural life- preservers have been discarded. In various ways these cultural institutions provide laundered glimpses of the real world of stars, of living landscapes, and organic things. They also offer sanctuaries, escape into quietness or at least, in the concert hall, harmonic relief from simian chattering and city noise. Visit the gothic cathedral to experience the virtual reality of the forest grove and of rolling thunder from the pipe organ. See in the zoo the world’s animal inhabitants and in the planetarium the night sky. Look at the stuffed birds in the museum and watch the nature programs on TV. Drive to the gymnasium and exercise those little-used leg muscles on a treadmill. Immerse yourself in the Olympic-size swimming pool and breathe its chlorinated effluvium, a high-tech substitute for the lake and its bracing air. Study the man-made architecture of old buildings and neglect the marvellous architecture of the world. In short, trust human ingenuity to invent substitutes for nature where it has effectively been walled out. When that falls short of expectation, try Prozak or meditation: therapy for the urbane.59 I call these inhabitants “Ecological Refugees.”

Earth Deficiency Disease Are cities necessary for healthy psychological and social living? It seems unlikely, given humanity’s long ex-urban evolutionary history. The opposite thesis, that cities breed various kinds of unhealthiness, is much more likely. According to Theodore Roszak, city dwellers are psychotic victims of EDD: Earth Deficiency Disease.60 His diagnosis emphasizes, in another way, that the ecological environment outside the city is more important than the social environment within. Healthy 59Peter Hall is cited by Mumford “The Ecology of Cities” at www.ecospherics. net/pages/RoweCities.html. 60“Environmentalism for a New Millennium” at www.questia.com. War on Lithosphere 125 childhood requires opportunities for outside-the-city nature experiences, especially those revealing earth in its life-giving, food-giving, care-giving role. Roszak remarked that the way the world (the city-as-environment) currently shapes the minds of its children, especially the boys, lies somewhere close to the roots of humanity’s environmental dilemma. As to the social environment, large cities are generally deemed to be the centres of originality and creativity, feeding the flame of culture. Sponsored by city wealth, cultural pursuits are drawn into the urban machine which is, then, confirmed as their natural home. Much of what is popularly considered culture in the creative arts and sciences is disconnected from reality by the very fact that the city is its milieu. City culture is refined in a virtual-reality crucible, a container insulated from its roots, out of touch with its source. Such a culture is likely to be blind to nature’s truths, unintentionally contributing to and supporting urban fantasies of which there are many. The intellectual religions of the world are the mind’s supreme virtual realities. City-based and patriarchal, they renounce ‘animism’61 with its vital insight that mother earth is the life- source. Technology is the body’s supreme virtual reality. City- based, it renounces nature and substitutes artifice for the essential processes of earth. Virtual mind-body is perfectly realized in the city and with it virtual culture that has little connection with the earth. Suppose that the end of cities, as we know them, can be foreseen as the time—20, 30, or 40 years from now—when the flow of irreplaceable, non-renewable resources that support civilization slows to a trickle. To survive and thrive, humanity will have to live a different kind of life based on different values and different attitudes. City culture, the culture of civilization, will be

61Belief that nature has soul: the belief that things in nature, e.g., trees, mountains, and the sky, have souls or consciousness. Belief in organizing force in universe: the belief that a supernatural force animates and organizes the universe. 126 Rush to Riches passé—not because it served humanity badly but because on a depleted, impoverished planet it is irrelevant. City culture will be a museum piece remembered for its wanton ways, displayed in another kind of earth environment. In tracing the history of deforestation for city-building through the ages, anthropologist Perlin commented that “civilization has never recognized limits to its needs.”62 Nothing today contradicts that statement. Its truth means that cities and city culture cannot be beacons for the future. The source of a sustained human culture will always lie outside the city, in closer ecological relationships to earth. The twentieth century neglected the ecology of cities, assuming that they will go on forever. The imagining, designing, and testing of sustainable alternatives to cities and city culture by the arts and sciences are the task of the dawning twenty-first century.

Unproclaimed War on Agriculture: Modernization Nothing stands against the battle cry of progress. The lofty ideals of progress have often been used to justify imperialism, slavery, and unlawful inquisition. The new Revolution I, titled Rush to Riches, has marred the reasonable thinking of each and every one, obviously, many making bad choices. Industrialization has increased the value for land and many people are tempted to sell their agricultural land for a high price; in turn, this has reduced cultivable land into 50 percent. Besides, high demand, at high price levels, for fruits, vegetables, and red meat, led peasants to turn away from such basic staples as wheat, pulses, and oilseeds, because relative prices, as a result of strong demand emanating from high income groups, made it more profitable to produce fruits, animal, and market-garden crops. The rapid rise of agricultural prices has also slowed down improvement in the population’s real consumption, increasing the relative share of the household budget devoted to foodstuffs at the expense of other consumer items. The sustained growth of non-agricultural

62“Vancouver Island Big Trees: A Forest Journey” at www.vancouverislandbigtrees.blogspot.com. War on Lithosphere 127 employment and the transfer of part of the rural labour force to the towns have made it possible to stabilize the number of agricultural workers and halt the growth of population pressure on the land, thus, creating the conditions for improved labour productivity and peasant incomes. Industrialization has been accompanied by a rapid rise in the demand for food and in agricultural prices, creating profitable outlets for agriculture and, thus, increasing purchases of industrially produced goods. Imports were limited to basic products (wheat, vegetable oils, dairy products, and sugar) which account for most of the calorie and protein intake of the bulk of the population and for 80% by value of imports. Leaving aside this group of products and some additional imports of beef, mutton, and lamb, local production did not face competition from imported products, total supply exceeding demand. Protection of local agriculture from world markets is also assured by de-linking consumer prices from producer prices. If all Indians have to have good nutrition and plenty of food, then we need 360 million tons of food grains by 2020. The contribution of agriculture to India’s GDP has reduced from 39 to 22 percent in the period 1979-2004. In the same period, manufacturing and services have grown from 24 to 27 per cent and 37 to 51 percent, respectively. The percentage of people in agriculture has come down from 64 to 54. By 2020, our employment pattern should be 44 percent in agriculture, 21 percent in manufacturing and 35 percent in the service sector. Cities are the most crowded areas around the world, especially in India. With the population of 15 million in Chennai, 16 million in Mumbai, 15 million in Delhi, and 17 million in Calcutta, life in these areas faces many health and sanitation problems. Youth attracted to the lifestyle of cities, foolishly abandon their healthy habitats in villages, most of them coming from agrarian societies. The allure of riches being so overwhelming, youth make bad career choices by replacing agriculture with some other job in the cities. There is nothing wrong with agriculture and it is the 128 Rush to Riches prestigious, noblest, and freedom-filled profession in the world, endorsed Thiruvalluvar, a great poet from Tamil Nadu, India. Unlike other professions, you try to earn money for your family but in agriculture you produce food for other people, and to other animals; hence, a touch of holiness is attached to agriculture. India’s heart has always lain in its villages—70 percent of India’s people live there. It is to these villages that we must go back if we are to truly develop. Indian villages can no longer be poor and lacking facilities. They are to be transformed with the modern knowledge. The developed India will be a network of prosperous villages empowered by various connectivities: physical as well as virtual, telemedicine, tele- education, and e-commerce. Developments in biotechnology, biosciences, agricultural sciences, and industries will aid the emergence of a prosperous India. Helping the process will be political leaders and administrators who will devote themselves with a professional attitude to their work, disregarding individual interests and political influences. This attitude will lead to minimizing the rural-urban divide. Modern lifestyles will become available to the rural people also. At the same time, the natural beauty of the countryside must be carefully protected.63

Human Biomass on Lithosphere: World Population Estimates of “the total number of people who have ever lived,” published in the 2000s, range approximately from 100 to 115 billion. An estimate of the total number of people who have ever lived was prepared by Carl Haub of the Population Reference Bureau in 1995 and, subsequently, updated in 2002; the updated figure was approximately 106 billion. The world population is the population of humans on the planet earth. It is currently estimated to be 6,871,800,000 by the United Nations Census Bureau. The world population has experienced continuous

63Abdul Kalam and Y. S. Rajan, Mission India, New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2005. War on Lithosphere 129 growth since the end of the Black Death64 around the year 1400. The highest rates of growth—increases above 1.8% per year— were seen briefly during the 1950s, then for a longer period during the 1960s and 1970s; the growth rate peaked at 2.2% in 1963, and declined to 1.1% by 2009. Annual births have reduced to 140 million since their peak at 173 million in the late 1990s, and are expected to remain constant, while deaths number 57 million per year and are expected to increase to 90 million per year by 2050. Current projections show a continued increase of population with the population expected to reach between 8 and 10.5 billion in the year 2050. Asia accounts for over 60% of the world population with almost 3.8 billion people. China and India together have about 40 percent of the world’s population. Africa follows with 1 billion people, 14% of the world’s population. Europe’s 731 million people make up 11% of the world’s population. North America is home to 514 million (8%), South America to 371 million (5.3%), and Australia to 21 million (0.3%). The population of the world reached one billion in 1804, two billion in 1927, three billion in 1960, four billion in 1974, five billion in 1987, and six billion in 1999. It is projected to reach seven billion by late 2011, and around eight billion by 2025. By 2045-2050, the world’s population is currently projected to reach around ten billion.

Human Biomass in India: 18 Million Every Year India’s population has jumped 1.21 billion, an increase of more than 181 million during 2001-2011, according to provisional data of Census 2011 released on 31 March. Every year Indians alone add 18 million people to this fragile lithosphere; that is the population of entire continent of Australia. Though the population is almost equal to the combined population of the USA, Indonesia, Brazil, Bangladesh, and Japan (1,214.3 million),

64Black Death is the outbreak of bubonic plague that struck Europe and the Mediterranean area from 1347 through 1351. It was the first of a cycle of European plague epidemics that continued until the early eighteenth century. The last major outbreak of plague in Europe was in Marseilles in 1722. 130 Rush to Riches the silver lining is that 2001-2011 is the first decade, with the exception of 1911-1921, which has actually added a smaller population than the previous decade. Of the total provisional population of 1,210.2 million, the number of males stood at 623.7 million and females 586.5 million. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state with 199 million people, followed by Maharashtra with 112 million people, and Lakshadweep is the least populated at 64,429 people. India still holds the record of “second most populous nation in the world.”

Plastic Culture: Waste Disposal Lithosphere is becoming increasingly contaminated by plastic pollution, especially by the unnecessary use of plastic carry bags. Big black bin liners, plastic carrier bags carrying advertising logos, clear sandwich bags, vegetable bags and a variety of other forms used to carry our daily food items and other items are all polluting our environment. If we were to take a look around, we would see plastic bags hanging from the branches of trees, flying in the air on windy days, settled amongst bushes and floating on rivers. They clog up gutters and drains causing water and sewage to overflow and become the breeding grounds of germs and bacteria that cause diseases. Animals and sea creatures are hurt and killed every day by discarded plastic bags—a dead turtle with a plastic bag hanging from its mouth isn’t a pleasant sight but mistaking plastic bags for food is commonplace amongst marine animals. Plastic clogs their intestines and leads to slow starvation. Others become entangled in plastic bags and drown. Because plastic bags take hundreds of years to break down, every year our seas become ‘home’ to more and more bags that find their way there through our sewers and waterways. Given India’s poor garbage collection facilities, tons of plastic bags litter the roads, preventing rainwater from seeping into the ground. Hundreds of cows die in New Delhi alone every year when they choke on plastic bags while trying to eat vegetable waste stuffed in the garbage. Besides choking drains, plastics are highly toxic. When burned they release War on Lithosphere 131 cancer-causing gasses. The cheap bags contain chemicals such as cadmium or lead-based chemicals that are harmful to health. They leach into vegetables, meat and food. Every year, around 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. So, over one million bags are being used every minute and they are damaging our environment. Plastic bags are difficult and costly to recycle and most end up on landfill sites where they take around 300 years to photo degrade. People in India also litter excessively. India’s plastics consumption is one of the highest in the world. Yet, precious little has been done to recycle, re-use, and dispose of plastic waste. Where does the garbage go? The sweeper again sends all this garbage to the local dump, from where it finally goes to a landfill. At the end of the day, it is safe to say that all garbage gets dumped in a certain piece of land. The stench and ugly sight of garbage dumped on the roadside, sometimes overflowing from drains or floating on the surface of rivers, is not at all uncommon in India. It is disgusting, until you get used to it and begin to ignore it. India’s garbage generation stands at 0.2 to 0.6 kilograms of garbage per head per day. Also, it is a well known fact that land in India is scarce. The garbage collector who comes to the doorstep every morning to empty the dustbins into a truck takes all the garbage from the neighbourhood and dumps it on an abandoned piece of land. Garbage collectors from all parts of the city meet there to do the same. Such a land is called a landfill. India’s per capita waste generation is so high, that it creates a crisis if the garbage collector doesn’t visit a neighbourhood for a couple of days. Typically, each household waits for the garbage boy with two or three bags of trash. If he doesn’t turn up, the garbage becomes too much to store in the house. The household help or maid of the house will, then, be instructed to take the bags, walk a few yards away—probably towards the end of the lane—and dump the bags there. Seeing one household, all the others in the neighbourhood immediately follow suit. 132 Rush to Riches

This land, at the end of the lane, soon becomes the neighbourhood’s very own garbage dump—a convenient place to dump anything if the garbage boy doesn’t show up. Of course, when the quantity of the waste becomes too much to bear, then, diseases are feared, and the residents would march up to their colony’s welfare association and demand for the waste to be cleaned up at once. The waste will then be picked up from there and dumped in another piece of land—this time further away from the colony—probably in a landfill. As already mentioned, waste disposal in India simply involves rounding up the waste from different parts of the city, and dumping everything in a landfill. Once a landfill is completely occupied, a new landfill is discovered in a different part of the city. The Energy Research Institute estimates that 1400 square km of land would be required by 2047 for municipal waste!65 Cities those are fortunate enough to have a river passing through them, have an additional dump for all their garbage. The state of the Yamuna River in Delhi is a testimony to this fact. The river practically doesn’t flow at all. Expansive white deposits can be seen on their surfaces that prevent the flow. The deposits are nothing but toxic wastes that have reacted with the water. Practically no living creature lives in this section of the river. The landfill method is simply one that creates land pollution (and in some cases, ground water contamination too). The waste is not subjected to recycling, composting, or any other form of environmental treatment. Hazardous toxic wastes lie side by side with the organic wastes in the landfill. The waste disposal issue is usually given a small budget by the government. Limited by this, the municipalities are ill- equipped to deal with the massive amounts of waste they collect every day. Another problem is their inefficiency in collecting the waste. Currently, their efficiency is only about 50 to 80 per cent. The common man living in a populated urban city would claim

65“Waste Disposal in India” at www.theviewspaper.net/waste-disposal-in- india. War on Lithosphere 133 that the garbage boy seems to take holidays every now and then. The real problem is that he has collected so much that he can’t store any more trash in his truck for the day, which is why he seems to take a “holiday” and does not come regularly. On the one hand, we can blame the municipality for not having enough resources to collect all the garbage. On the other, we ourselves are to blame for generating such huge amounts of garbage. What can be done about it? Firstly, it is imperative on the part of municipalities to separate the biodegradable from non- biodegradable waste. Biodegradable wastes can then be subjected to composting, which is a process of converting plant and animal wastes to humus by soil microorganisms. Humus enhances the fertility of soil. Non-biodegradable wastes then further have to be categorized on the basis of their toxicity. Toxic wastes, when dumped in the land, may eventually contaminate and poison ground water. They have to be stored in tightly sealed underground containers. Wastes like plastic, metal, paper, etc., can also be subjected to recycling. In some ways, the waste can actually serve as a resource! Of course, all of the above suggested processes require a hike in the waste disposal budget. The municipalities need to be taught the technologies described above so that they can effectively deal with the waste. As individuals, we need to realize that we do generate quite a lot of waste—we dispose of containers that can be reused and we throw away papers that can be recycled. It is important to reduce our wastage of resources so that we don’t pressurize our weak waste disposal system. Moreover, our generation has to join hands with the mantra, “Stop the Plastic Pollution; Be Part of the Solution.”

E-Waste: Electrocuted Lithosphere Electronic and Electrical waste, popularly known as e-waste, do not decompose or rot away. The disposal of e-waste is a particular problem faced in many regions across the globe. Environment and human health is affected by e-waste. E-waste takes up space in the communities it invades and can be very 134 Rush to Riches harmful to humans and animals. E-waste is of concern mainly due to the toxicity and carcinogenicity of some of the substances if processed improperly. There is an urgent need to improve e- waste management, covering technological improvement, institutional arrangement, operational plan, and protective protocol for workers working in e-waste disposal and, last but not the least, education of general population about this emerging issue posing a threat to the environment as well as public health. Amongst the important initiatives in dealing with e-waste, one is “Plug-in to E-Cycling.” It is a partnership of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and consumer electronics manufacturers, retailers, and service providers that offers more opportunities to donate or recycle to “E-Cycle” used electronics. E-Cycling includes recycling and recovers valuable materials from old electronics which can be used to make new products. It also includes reducing greenhouse gas emission, reducing pollution, saving energy and resources by extracting fewer raw materials from the earth. Safe recycling of outdated electronic items promotes sound management of toxic chemicals such as lead and mercury and helps others. In India alone, an estimated 1,500,000 computers and 3,000,000 mobile phones are disposed of every year. Computers, mobiles, and other electronic items generate hazardous e-waste like lead, brominated flame retardants, and chromium which can cause cancer. I have been saying this for years. It may sound weird, but recycling is the key to survival and recycling in a strange place, i.e., the landfill. We shall be exploring landfills soon after they are no longer viable for producing methane gas. Such “exhausted” landfills will be packed with little more than inorganic waste, like easily harvested metals. Point at anything on the periodic table and it will exist in a landfill at concentrations far higher than what exists in ore deposits we are mining today; so, this will be ridiculously profitable. Add to that the fact that they are all close to home, and you have yourself an industry that does a brisk business in mining landfills. Since all the stinky stuff has War on Lithosphere 135 long since decomposed, you only have heavy-metals and toxic runoff to worry about. After that, companies will look to cut out the middle man and buy back everyone’s e-waste after the recycling plant has sorted it out. So, the landfill will disappear, leaving a closed loop from the recovery of raw materials all the way to the consumer and back again. Here are the two magical words which could stop the further war on Lithosphere: Recycle and Reduce Your Consumption! Chapter Three

War on Hydrosphere (Water) 136 Rush to Riches

We cannot see oxygen and hydrogen molecules, but when they combine, 1 molecule of oxygen and 2 molecules of hydrogen, a miracle unfolds in front of your eyes: water. Earth is the water planet, and water, in its three states—vapour, liquid, and solid— defines and sustains the earth. In the beginning, there was water. Water is an enigma. It is both simple and complex. We all know that water is essential to life, making up about 80% by weight of all living things. Water is essential to life because the various electrochemical processes that constitute humans and other life forms can occur only within it. The ocean was almost certainly the cradle of life, and it remains life’s most expansive habitat. The volume of the oceans—about 520 million cubic kilometres— is eleven times larger than all the land above the sea. Whereas land is populated by life only at its surface, the entire volume of the oceans is capable of sustaining life. The hydrosphere is often called the—”water sphere” as it includes all the earth’s water found in streams, lakes, the soil, groundwater, and in the air. The hydrosphere interacts with, and is influenced by, all the other earth spheres. The water of the hydrosphere is distributed among several different stores found in the other spheres. The biosphere serves as an interface between the spheres enabling water to move between the hydrosphere, lithosphere and atmosphere as is accompanied by plant transpiration. Overpopulation certainly puts pressure on food and water resources and it appears that humanity will soon face a big problem for water.

Origin of Water: The Pouring of the Holy Spirit War on Hydrosphere 137

The Holy Book begins with water associated with the Spirit: “And Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” (Genesis 1:1). All religions celebrate the holiness and the newness of water. We see the power of water in the natural world as an agent of creation and purification. Hindus in India believe that the water of River Ganges is holy. Egyptians believed that the Nile was sacred. In Christianity, water is used to baptize new members. God uses the sacrament of water to give his divine life to those who believe in him. On Easter night water is celebrated, demonstrating the power of water in the history of the world. The Christian people, having emerged from the waters of baptism, are sent out to the whole world to bear witness to this salvation, to bring to all people the fruit of Easter, which consists in a new life, freed from sin and restored to its original beauty, to its goodness and truth. Jesus promised to the Samaritan woman “ever fresh … gushing water” (John 5:4). Stagnant water brings death and stench, however, fresh gushing water brings abundance of life. Water is the most precious resource on our planet, a key ingredient together with air for development of all life on earth; in fact, even our bodies are mostly water so whenever you think about it you have to ask yourself a question as to what is the origin of all this immense amount of water in our planet, and how were our oceans formed. If we go way back in the past, around 4 billion years ago, we could see the earth was bequeathed with sufficient water for oceans to form and for life to find favourable areas in the seas and on the continents that resulted from plate tectonics. But how did water arrive on our planet and filled this gigantic oceans? The most accepted theory suggests that oceans were formed from vapours emitted during intense volcanism that happened at the time when our planet appeared in endless space.66 According to this theory, both the oceans and the atmosphere were formed from volcanic gasses that originated in

66“Earth’s Oceans and Atmosphere came from Outer Space” at www.viewzone2.com. 138 Rush to Riches earth’s interior. Water was the key part of earth’s initial inventory, but not all scientists believe in this theory. There are some scientists like Francis Albarède of the Laboratoire des Sciences de la Terre who believe how water, in fact, came much later on our planet from the turbulence caused in the outer solar system by giant planets. According to his theory, the ice-covered asteroids thus reached the earth one hundred million years after the birth of the planets. The water on our planet could even have extraterrestrial origin. This would, of course, mean that the origin of water on our planet is extraterrestrial, and could have arrived on our planet much later than dominant theories believe. The main thesis of his theory is that during the formation of the solar system, the temperature between the sun and the orbit of Jupiter never dropped enough for volatile elements to be able to condense with planetary material. The arrival of water on earth, therefore, has to correspond to a later episode in earth’s history. The water on our planet could have its origin in a space phenomenon that happened some tens of millions of years after the lunar impact, namely, the big clean up of the outer solar system initiated by many giant planets. These planets had very strong gravity, and so were able to send the final ice-rich planetary bodies in all directions, including the direction of our planet. These ice-rich planetary bodies then penetrated into the mantle through the surface and so the plate tectonics began creating continents surrounded by vast oceans. This theory would even explain why there is no life on Mars because probably Mars dried out before water managed to penetrate in depth. In any case, this theory is rather interesting, and whatever caused water to flow on our planet enabled something to our planet that no other planet in solar system has, it enabled earth to harbour life. Some of the most likely contributing factors to the origin of the earth’s oceans are as follows: The cooling of the primordial earth to the point where the out-gassed volatile components were held in an atmosphere of sufficient pressure for the stabilization and retention of liquid water. Comets, trans- War on Hydrosphere 139

Neptunian objects or water-rich meteorites (protoplanets) from the outer reaches of the asteroid belt colliding with the earth may have brought water to the world’s oceans. Measurements of the ratio of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and protium point to asteroids, since similar percentage impurities in carbon-rich chondrites were found to oceanic water, whereas previous measurement of the isotopes’ concentrations in comets and trans- Neptunian objects correspond only slightly to water on the earth, bio-chemically through mineralization and photosynthesis (guttation, transpiration). Gradual leakage of water stored in hydrous minerals of the earth’s rocks. Photolysis:67 radiation can break down chemical bonds on the surface. A sizeable quantity of water would have been in the material which formed the earth.

Fresh Water: Blood of the Earth Water as a resource is under relentless pressure. Due to population growth, economic development, modern agriculture, rapid urbanization, large-scale industrialization and environmental concerns water stress has emerged as a real threat. The scarcity of water for human and ecosystem uses and the deteriorating water quality leads to “water stress” and intense socio-political pressures. Many areas in the world are already under severe water stress. Any addition to the intensity of water stress in the existing water scarcity areas, or addition of new areas to water stressed list, will only further push the problem in to the realm of a disaster. Freshwater supply to ecosystem and humans is from river system, lakes, wetlands, soil moisture and shallow groundwater is less than 1% of all freshwater and only 0.01% of all the water on earth. As per who estimates only 0.007% of all water on earth is readily available for human world consumption. This indicates that freshwater on earth is finite and also unevenly distributed. Despite the importance of freshwater resources in our lives and wellbeing, we are increasingly 67Photolysis is light-stimulated chemical decomposition: the irreversible decomposition of a chemical compound as a result of the absorption of electromagnetic radiation, especially visible light. 140 Rush to Riches beginning to take this resource as being infinite, and for granted. In today’s world, much water is wasted, used inefficiently and polluted through its abusive use. The per capita availability of freshwater is fast declining all over the world. If the present consumption pattern continued, two out of every three persons on earth will live in water stressed conditions— moderate or severe water shortages—by the year 2025. The following are some of the true facts about water: 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water (one-sixth of population) and 2.4 billion people lack safe sanitation (40% of population). 6000 children die every day from diseases associated with unsafe water and sanitation and hygiene. More than 2.2 million die each year from disease associated with poor water and sanitation. Unsafe water and sanitation lead to 80% of all the diseases in the developing world. In developing countries, 90% of waste water is discharged without treatment. Over- pumping groundwater caused decline of water levels by tens of metres in many regions, forcing people to use low quality water for drinking. Loss of water through leakage, illegal hook-ups, and waste is about 50% of water for drinking and 60% of water for irrigation in developing countries. Floods and droughts— affect most part of the country. One flush of a western toilet uses as much water as the average person in the developing world uses for a whole day’s washing, cooking, cleaning, and drinking. Freshwater eco-systems have been severely degraded; half the world’s wet land lost and more than 20% known freshwater species extinct.

Water Pollution: Effluents Effluence or industrial waste ending in rivers is one of the biggest environmental problems in the modern world. Unfortunately, our affluent society has also been an effluent society. Being affluent refers to one who is financially well off, prosperous, and living in abundance. Affluent nations dump their effluence on the poor people. The poor are often takers— War on Hydrosphere 141 victims of affluence not necessarily out of desire although that is sometimes the case, but primarily out of a perceived lack and need. Poor countries are still colonized by the rich countries, now in the form of world trade, markets, globalization, and industrialization. Most of the products such as cars, air- conditioners, and computers produced in these factories are meant to be shipped out of the country, not many can afford to buy them locally. We thought, in India, that we became free in 1947, but the contrary is true, in all those times, we were under one country’s rule: British; but India still remains colonized now by several capitalistic countries through their economic interests and by India’s economic reforms. These economically rich countries keep their water safe and clean, while turning the Third World’s water resources into dumping grounds. People living in the Third World are becoming addicted to consumption as the world economy propagates the doctrine of consumerism. Industrialization is one of the disguising elements of colonization. Even the religions from the First World support the capitalistic doctrine of industrialization, capitalism, and consumerism. Effluent is usually defined as an outflow from a sewer or sewage system, or a discharge of liquid waste, as from a factory or nuclear plant. All industry, no matter how big or small, produces effluents. An industrial activity is any process that involves the creation of any object or service for profit—from the garage that services your car to the café where you buy your lunch. Many factories release toxic sewage and hot water into streams, rivers, and lakes, known as industrial effluent. Contamination of drinking water supplies from industrial waste is a result of various types of industrial processes and disposal practices. Industries that use large amounts of water for processing have the potential to pollute waterways through the discharge of their waste into streams and rivers, or by run-off and seepage of stored wastes into nearby water sources. Other disposal practices which cause water contamination include 142 Rush to Riches deep well injection and improper disposal of wastes in surface impoundments. Industrial waste consists of both organic and inorganic substances. Organic wastes include pesticide residues, solvents and cleaning fluids, dissolved residue from fruit and vegetables, and lignin from pulp and paper to name a few. Effluents can also contain organic wastes such as brine salts and metals. Toxic sewage is not only deadly to the marine life, but also to any human that drinks the water. Hot water is also dangerous to water life. The heating of water causes dissolved oxygen gas in water to become more ‘excited’ and leave the water. This suffocates fish and other marine life. Recycling of industrial effluent is now being practised by several industries to reduce the demands on freshwater resources and to reduce pollution of the environment.

Acid Rain: Life Buster Acid rain describes any form of precipitation with high levels of nitric and sulphuric acids. The primary cause of acid rain is sulphur dioxide and it is released from burning of fossil fuels, especially fossil fuel power plants. Another cause of acid rain is the oxides of nitrogen which are released from vehicles and power plants. Acid rain is a popular term for the atmospheric deposition of acidified rain, snow, sleet, hail, acidifying gasses and particles, as well as acidified fog and cloud water. The heating of homes, electricity production, and driving vehicles all rely primarily on fossil fuel energy. When fossil fuels are combusted, acid-forming nitrogen and sulphur oxides are released into the atmosphere. These compounds are transformed in the atmosphere, often travelling thousands of kilometres from their original source, and then fall out on land and water surfaces as acid rain. As a result, pollutants from power plants in south India can impact pristine forests or lakes far away in north India. Rotting vegetation and erupting volcanoes release some chemicals that can cause acid rain, but most acid rain falls because of human activities. The use of fossil fuels leaves poisonous gasses in the atmosphere. These chemical gasses react War on Hydrosphere 143 with water, oxygen, and other substances to form mild solutions of sulphuric and nitric acid. Winds may spread these acidic solutions across the atmosphere and over hundreds of miles. When acid rain reaches earth, it flows across the surface in runoff water, enters water systems, and sinks into the soil. Effects on Vegetation: Acid rain can wash away essential plant nutrients from the soil. In addition, it makes the soil acidic and aids the release of aluminium and copper ions which are harmful to plants. Acid rain also damages forests, especially those at higher elevations. It robs the soil of essential nutrients and releases aluminium in the soil, which makes it hard for trees to take up water. Tree leaves and needles are also harmed by acids. The effects of acid rain, combined with other environmental stressors, leave trees and plants less able to withstand cold temperatures, insects, and disease. The pollutants may also inhibit trees’ ability to reproduce. Some soils are better able to neutralize acids than others. In areas where the soil’s “buffering capacity”68 is low, the harmful effects of acid rain are greater. Effects on Aquatic Life: When pH is less than 4.5, calcium metabolism in fresh water fish will be affected, leading to poor health. As a result, diversity and population of some fish species will be reduced. Acid rain has many ecological effects, but none is greater than its impact on lakes, streams, wetlands, and other aquatic environments. Acid rain makes waters acidic and causes them to absorb the aluminium that makes its way from soil into lakes and streams. This combination makes waters toxic to crayfish, clams, fish, and other aquatic animals. Some species can tolerate acidic waters better than others. However, in an interconnected ecosystem, what impacts some species eventually impacts many more throughout the food chain—including non- aquatic species such as birds. 68Buffering capacity can be defined in many ways. You may find it defined as “maximum amount of either strong acid or strong base that can be added before a significant change in the pH will occur.” See www.chembuddy.com. 144 Rush to Riches

Effects on Buildings and Monuments: Acid rain will cause damage to common building materials (such as limestone and marble), in addition to damaging statues and monuments. Many metals become oxidized. Iron corrodes with the presence of acid rain to form rust. The cost of maintenance of iron structures is high in highly polluted areas. A classical example, the white marble of Taj Mahal is turning into yellow due to acid rain. Innovations for reducing fossil fuel emissions, such as scrubbers upstream of the tall smoke stacks on power plants and factories, catalytic converters on automobiles, and use of low- sulphur coal, have been employed to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). As a result of increasing global economies, fossil fuel combustion is increasing around the world, with concomitant spread of acid rain. The only way to fight acid rain is by curbing the release of the pollutants that cause it; this means burning fewer fossil fuels. Many governments have tried to curb emissions by cleaning up industry smokestacks and promoting alternative fuel sources. These efforts have met with mixed results. But even if acid rain could be stopped today, it would still take many years for its harmful effects to disappear. Individuals can also help prevent acid rain by conserving energy. The less electricity people use in their homes, the fewer chemicals power plants will emit. Vehicles are also major fossil fuel users, so drivers can reduce emissions by using public transportation, carpooling, biking, or simply walking wherever possible.

Oil Spill: Man Made Plague Another killer form of water pollution is the oil spill. In an oil spill, oil covers vast areas of waters and coats animals in a sticky film, preventing them from doing vital processes, or causing them to freeze. Oil spills are especially disastrous because of the large regions that they pollute. Oil spills happen when people make mistakes or are careless and cause an oil tanker to leak oil into the ocean. There are a few more ways an oil spill can occur. War on Hydrosphere 145

Equipment breaking down may cause an oil spill. If the equipment breaks down, the tanker may get stuck on shallow land. When they start to drive the tanker again, they can put a hole in the tanker causing it to leak oil. When countries are at war, one country may decide to dump gallons of oil into the other country’s oceans. Terrorists may cause an oil spill because they will dump oil into a country’s ocean. Many terrorists will do this because they are trying to get the country’s attention, or they are trying to make a point to a country. Illegal dumpers are people who dump crude oil into the oceans because they do not want to spend money on decomposing their waste oil. Because they won’t spend money on breaking up the oil (decomposing it), they dump oil into the oceans, which is illegal. Natural disasters (like hurricanes) may cause an oil spill, too. If a hurricane was a couple of miles away, the winds from the hurricane could cause the oil tanker to flip over, pouring oil out. Birds die from oil spills if their feathers are covered in oil. The thick black oil is too heavy for the birds to fly; so, they attempt to clean themselves and, in the process, they poison themselves. If workers have found sea birds that are not dead because of oil, they will take the birds to a cleaning centre or captivity where they are kept in a facility, as they cannot live in the wild on their own. Animals that are in captivity because of an oil spill will be cleaned by professionals and volunteers. When a bird is in captivity, the oil will be flushed from its eyes, intestines, and feathers. The bird will be examined for any more injuries like broken bones, and it will be served medicines to prevent any more damage. After the bird seems healthier, it will take a test on its abilities to float in the water and keep water away from its body. As soon as the bird passes its test, it will soon be let out into the wild. Other animals may die because they get hypothermia, causing their body temperature to be really low. They may die from really low body temperature. Oil also can kill an animal by blinding it. The animal will not be able to see and be aware of their predators. If they are not aware of 146 Rush to Riches other animals, they may be eaten. Oil spills sometimes are the reason for animals becoming endangered. This means that a certain type of animal is getting so small that it is in danger of becoming extinct. Sea otters are affected by oil in many ways. The otters’ bodies may get covered in oil, which causes build up in the otters’ air bubbles. These air bubbles are located in their fur and help them survive the cold oceans. They act like a covering for their body and help the otters to float. When oil builds up in the air bubbles, the otters may die of low body temperature. Many sea otters are being placed in captivity after an oil spill until the otters are cleaned and ready to live in the ocean again. Oil spills are one of the many ways killer whales have become endangered. The oil may be eaten or enter the whale’s blowhole. A blowhole is a hole to help them breath. Whales will rise up over the water to take a breath. If the blowhole is plugged with oil, the whale cannot breathe. The main reason for whales dying because of a spill happens when they eat a fish that swam through the oil. If a fish swam through the oil, the whale will eat the oil along with the fish. Because the whale has eaten the oil, it will be poisoned, and it will die. Many people don’t realize all the animals in the ocean that oil spills affect. Plankton, larval fish, and bottom dwelling organisms are strongly affected. Even seaweed, clams, oysters, and mussels can be affected by oil spills. Only off- shore accidents can really cause the death of these small living creatures because this is mainly the home for these small organisms. When hundreds of planktons die because of oil, that species of animal may become extinct. Then, fish won’t be able to eat the plankton, so they will become extinct. A killer whale could then become extinct because it can’t eat the fish. This is what happens when a species from animal becomes extinct of a large oil spill. The oil spills can damage the entire food chain in the area. An oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, in 2010, was one of the greatest fears, when the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank. Oil spill off the coast of Louisiana has spread to cover more than War on Hydrosphere 147

1,800 square miles. The oil spill is coming from a leak in the well that was drilled by the Transocean Deepwater Horizon, a giant offshore drilling rig that exploded and sank. The oil spill is reported to be leaking about 42,000 gallons a day from a well nearly a mile deep. The New York Times reported that the well was leaking its liquid cash today from the ‘riser’. The riser is a 5,000-foot-long pipe extending from the wellhead on the ocean bottom that was connected to the drilling platform. Now detached, the riser is kinked like a garden hose. The leaks are at the sea floor, and officials believe the kinks are preventing an even worse gusher of oil from escaping. Before the platform sank, a geyser of oil and gas shot from the riser to create a giant plume of flame and black smoke. The US Coast Guard has been using robot subs to try to stop the leak. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to remain about 30 miles offshore, based on an analysis of ocean currents and weather patterns. In a statement, the Coast Guard warned that the oil spill puts the state’s shoreline at the highest risk.69 The Exxon Valdez incident was a major oil spill. This oil spill took place on 23 March 1989 at Prince William Sound in Alaska. The drivers of the Exxon Valdez noticed icebergs in their planned route. Instead of trying to weave through the icebergs, they decided to go in another direction. On the new route, the oil tanker hit shallow land. The shallow land was not a beach, it was called Bligh Reef. The Exxon Valdez spilled about 125 Olympic- sized swimming pools. The Exxon Valdez affected many animals at Prince William Sound in Alaska. The spill greatly affected sea otters and sea birds. There were about 2,800 sea otters and 250,000 seabirds killed by the spill. Harbour seals, bald eagles, killer whales, and salmon were also greatly affected by the spill. Many people complained about the large amount of sea otters dumped in crude oil because Prince William Sound was a tourist attraction. Many people came to Prince William Sound to visit the animals. Because the spill impacted 1,300 miles, it took the

69www.newworldorderreport.com. 148 Rush to Riches

Exxon Valdez Company four summers to clean up the spill. Some oil may still remain on the beaches. It took 10,000 workers, 1,000 boats, 100 airplanes, and the Navy, Army, and Air Force to clean up the spill. Exxon spent about $2.1 billion for the cleanup. Have you ever stopped to think what you use oil for? Everyone uses a lot of oil. The whole world uses nearly three billion gallons of oil every day. We all use it to fuel our cars, trucks, buses, and even to cook or to heat our homes. If you have touched a chain on a bicycle, you have touched some oil. The black stuff that appears on your fingers is oil that makes the chains on your bike run smoothly. We use oil to make asphalt which can help us pave our roads. You can get examples of oil at a toy store, a hardware store, or a drugstore, because oil is made into plastics, which could be any of your toys or CD players. Oil is also used in medicines, ink, paints, and to create some electricity. Everyone can help stop oil spills happening in the oceans. If we use less oil, then less will have to be transported. We can use less oil by not using our cars when we can walk or ride a bike. We also can use less oil by paving the roads with cement. That way we are not using oil. Think about how many lights you have in your house. Also think about all the electronics like computers or televisions. All of these things use electricity. If we all were to turn off lights, computers, or televisions when not in use, we wouldn’t be using as mush oil to create the electricity throughout the house. There are many things being done to prevent more spills.

Erosion: Earth Cancer One of the main causes of erosive soil loss is the result of slash and burn treatment of tropical forest. When the total ground surface is stripped of vegetation and then seared of all living organisms, the upper soils are vulnerable to both wind and water erosion. In a number of regions of the earth, entire sectors of a country have been rendered unproductive. For example, on the Madagascar high central plateau, comprising approximately War on Hydrosphere 149 ten percent of that country’s land area, virtually the entire landscape is sterile of vegetation, with gully erosive furrows typically in excess of 50 metres deep and one kilometre wide. Shifting cultivation is a farming system which sometimes incorporates the slash and burn method in some regions of the world. This degrades the soil and causes the soil to become less and less fertile. Erosion is the process of weathering and transport of solids, such as sediment, soil, rock, and other particles in the natural environment or their source and deposits them elsewhere. It usually occurs due to transport by wind, water, or ice, by down-slope creep of soil and other material under the force of gravity, or by living organisms, such as burrowing animals, in the case of bio-erosion. Erosion is a natural process, but it has been dramatically increased by human land use, especially industrial agriculture, deforestation, and urban sprawl. Land that is used for industrial agriculture generally experiences a significantly greater rate of erosion than that of land under natural vegetation, or land used for sustainable agricultural practices. This is particularly true if tillage is used, which reduces vegetation cover on the surface of the soil and disturbs both soil structure and plant roots that would otherwise hold the soil in place. However, improved land use practices can limit erosion, using techniques such as terrace- building, conservation tillage practices, and tree planting. A certain amount of erosion is natural and, in fact, healthy for the ecosystem. For example, gravels continuously move downstream in watercourses. Excessive erosion, however, causes serious problems, such as receiving water sedimentation, ecosystem damage and outright loss of soil. Erosion is distinguished from weathering, which is the process of chemical or physical breakdown of the minerals in the rocks, although the two processes may occur concurrently. The rate of erosion depends on many factors. Climatic factors include the amount and intensity of precipitation, the average temperature, as well as the typical temperature range, and seasonality, the wind 150 Rush to Riches speed, storm frequency, etc. The geologic factors include the sediment or rock type, its porosity and permeability, the slope (gradient) of the land, and whether the rocks are tilted, faulted, folded, or weathered. The biological factors include ground cover from vegetation or lack thereof, the type of organisms inhabiting the area, and the land use. In general, given similar vegetation and ecosystems, areas with high-intensity precipitation, more frequent rainfall, more wind, or more storms are expected to initiate more erosion. Sediments with high sand or silt contents and areas with steep slopes erode more easily, as do areas with highly fractured or weathered rock. Porosity and permeability of the sediment or rock affect the speed with which the water can percolate into the ground. If the water moves underground, less runoff is generated, reducing the amount of surface erosion. Sediments containing more clay tend to erode less than those with sand or silt. Here, however, the impact of atmospheric sodium on erodibility of clay should be considered. Approximately 40% of the world’s agricultural land is seriously degraded. According to the UN, an area of fertile soil the size of Ukraine is lost every year because of drought, deforestation and climate change.70 In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to United Nations University’s Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.71 When land is overused by animal activities (including humans) there can be mechanical erosion and also removal of vegetation, leading to erosion. In the case of the animal kingdom, this effect would be impacted primarily with very large animal herds stampeding such as the blue wildebeest on the Serengeti Plain. Even in this case, there are broader material benefits to the ecosystem, such as continuing the survival of grasslands that are indigenous to this region. This effect may be viewed as anomalous or a problem only when there is a significant

70“Drought” at www.physorg.com. 71“Ghana: Environmental Profile” at www.mongabay.com. War on Hydrosphere 151 imbalance or overpopulation of one species. In the case of human use, the effects are also generally linked to overpopulation. When large number of hikers use trails or extensive off road vehicle use occurs, erosive effects often follow, arising from vegetation removal and furrowing of foot traffic and off road vehicle tires. These effects can also accumulate from a variety of outdoor human activities, again simply arising from too many people using a finite land resource. One of the most serious and long-running water erosion problems worldwide is in the People’s Republic of China, on the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. From the Yellow River, over 1.6 billion tons of sediment flows into the ocean each year. The sediment originates primarily from water erosion in the Loess Plateau region of the northwest. Mass Movement is the down-slope movement of rock and sediments, mainly due to the force of gravity. Mass movement is an important part of the erosion process, as it moves material from higher elevations to lower elevations where other eroding agents such as streams and glaciers can then pick up the material and move it to even lower elevations. Mass-movement processes are occurring continuously on all slopes; some mass-movement processes act very slowly; others occur very suddenly, often with disastrous results. Any perceptible down-slope movement of rock or sediment is often referred to in general terms as a landslide. However, landslides can be classified in a much more detailed way that reflects the mechanisms responsible for the movement and the velocity at which the movement occurs. Slumping happens on steep hillsides, occurring along distinct fracture zones, often within materials like clay that, once released, may move quite rapidly downhill. They will often show a spoon-shaped isostatic depression, in which the material has begun to slide downhill. In some cases, the slump is caused by water beneath the slope weakening it. In many cases it is simply the result of poor engineering along highways where it is a regular occurrence. Surface Creep is the slow movement of soil 152 Rush to Riches and rock debris by gravity which is usually not perceptible except through extended observation. However, the term can also describe the rolling of dislodged soil particles 0.5 to 1.0 mm in diameter by wind along the soil surface. Splash Erosion is the detachment and airborne movement of small soil particles caused by the impact of raindrops on soil. Sheet Erosion is the detachment of soil particles by raindrop impact and their removal down-slope by water flowing overland as a sheet instead of in definite channels or rills. The impact of the raindrop breaks apart the soil aggregate. Particles of clay, silt, and sand fill the soil pores and reduce infiltration. After the surface pores are filled with sand, silt, or clay, overland surface flow of water begins due to the lowering of infiltration rates. Once the rate of falling rain is faster than infiltration, runoff takes place. There are two stages of sheet erosion. The first is rain splash, in which soil particles are knocked into the air by raindrop impact. In the second stage, the loose particles are moved down-slope by broad sheets of rapidly flowing water filled with sediment known as sheet-floods. This stage of sheet erosion is generally produced by cloudbursts, sheet-floods commonly travel short distances and last only for a short time. Rill Erosion refers to the development of small, ephemeral concentrated flow paths, which function as both sediment source and sediment delivery systems for erosion on hill-slopes. Generally, where water erosion rates on disturbed upland areas are greatest, rills are active. Flow depths in rills are typically on the order of a few centimetres or less and slopes may be quite steep. These conditions constitute a very different hydraulic environment than typically found in channels of streams and rivers. Eroding rills evolve morphologically in time and space. The rill bed surface changes as soil erodes, which, in turn, alters the hydraulics of the flow. The hydraulics is the driving mechanism for the erosion process and, therefore, dynamically changing hydraulic patterns cause continually changing erosion patterns in the rill. War on Hydrosphere 153

Gully Erosion, also called Ephemeral Gully Erosion, occurs when water flows in narrow channels during or immediately after heavy rains or melting snow. This is particularly noticeable in the formation of hollow ways, where, prior to being tarmacked, an old rural road has over many years become significantly lower than the surrounding fields. A gully is sufficiently deep that it would not be routinely destroyed by tillage operations, whereas rill erosion is smoothed by ordinary farm tillage. The narrow channels, or gullies, may be of considerable depth, ranging from 1 to 2 feet (0.61 m) to as much as 75 to 100 feet (30 m). Gully erosion is not accounted for in the revised universal soil loss equation. Valley or Stream Erosion occurs with continued water flow along a linear feature. The erosion is both downward, deepening the valley, and headward, extending the valley into the hillside. In the earliest stage of stream erosion, the erosive activity is dominantly vertical, the valleys have a typical V cross-section and the stream gradient is relatively steep. When some base level is reached, the erosive activity switches to lateral erosion, which widens the valley floor and creates a narrow floodplain. At extremely high flows, kolks, or vortices are formed by large volumes of rapidly rushing water. Kolks cause extreme local erosion, plucking bedrock, and creating pothole-type geographical features called Rock-cut basins. Bank Erosion is the wearing away of the banks of a stream or river. This is distinguished from changes on the bed of the watercourse, which is referred to as scour. Erosion and changes in the form of river banks may be measured by inserting metal rods into the bank and marking the position of the bank surface along the roads at different times. Shoreline Erosion, which occurs on both exposed and sheltered coasts, primarily occurs through the action of currents and waves but sea level (tidal) change can also play a role. Hydraulic Action takes place when air in a joint is suddenly compressed by a wave closing the entrance of the joint. This then cracks it. Wave Pounding is when the sheer energy of the wave hitting the cliff or rock breaks pieces off. Abrasion or 154 Rush to Riches

Corrosion is caused by waves launching seaload at the cliff. It is the most effective and rapid form of shoreline erosion (not to be confused with corrosion). Corrosion is the dissolving of rock by carbonic acid in sea water. Limestone cliffs are particularly vulnerable to this kind of erosion. Attrition is where particles or sealoads carried by the waves are worn down as they hit each other and the cliffs. This then makes the material easier to wash away. The material ends up as shingle and sand. Another significant source of erosion, particularly on carbonate coastlines, is the boring, scraping, and grinding of organisms, a process termed Bioerosion. Sediment is transported along the coast in the direction of the prevailing current (long-shore drift). When the upcurrent amount of sediment is less than the amount being carried away, erosion occurs. When the upcurrent amount of sediment is greater, sand or gravel banks will tend to form. Ice Erosion can take one of two forms. It can be caused by the movement of ice, typically as glaciers, in a process called Glacial Erosion. It can also be due to freeze-thaw processes in which water inside pores and fractures in rock may expand, causing further cracking. Glaciers erode predominantly by three different processes: abrasion or scouring, plucking, and ice thrusting. In an abrasion process, debris in the basal ice scrapes along the bed, polishing and gouging the underlying rocks, similar to sandpaper on wood. Glaciers can also cause pieces of bedrock to crack off in the process of plucking. In ice thrusting, the glacier freezes to its bed; then, as it surges forward, it moves large sheets of frozen sediment at the base along with the glacier. In arid climates, the main source of erosion is wind. The general wind circulation moves small particulates such as dust across wide oceans thousands of kilometres downwind of their point of origin, which is known as deflation. Erosion can be the result of material movement by the wind. There are two main effects. First, wind causes small particles to be lifted and, therefore, moved to another region. This is called deflation. Second, these suspended particles may impact on solid objects causing erosion War on Hydrosphere 155 by abrasion (ecological succession). Wind erosion generally occurs in areas with little or no vegetation, often in areas where there is insufficient rainfall to support vegetation. An example is the formation of sand dunes, on a beach or in a desert. Loess is a homogeneous, typically non-stratified, porous, friable, slightly coherent, often calcareous, fine-grained, silty, pale yellow or buff, windblown (aeolian) sediment. It generally occurs as a widespread blanket deposit that covers areas of hundreds of square kilometres and tens of metres thick. Loess often stands in either steep or vertical faces. Loess tends to develop into highly rich soils. Under appropriate climatic conditions, areas with loess are among the most agriculturally productive in the world. Loess deposits are geologically unstable by nature, and will erode very readily. Therefore, windbreaks (such as big trees and bushes) are often planted by farmers to reduce the wind erosion of loess. Thermal Erosion is the result of melting and weakening permafrost due to moving water. It can occur both along rivers and at the coast. Rapid river channel migration observed in the Lena River of Siberia is due to thermal erosion, as these portions of the banks are composed of permafrost-cemented non-cohesive materials. Much of this erosion occurs as the weakened banks fail in large slumps.

Soil Erosion and Climate Change Soil erosion and degradation are so severe worldwide that it threatens our agricultural base. Soil can degrade without actually eroding. It can lose its nutrients and soil biota. It can get damaged by water-logging and compaction. Soil erosion detrimentally affects farming. Physical damage is the most visible form of soil loss, and most likely to be remedied. Gravity pulls constantly at soil, nudging it down hill, causing soil slips, earth clips, cracks, creep, and slumps. Ironically, the most damaging of rainfall is the impact with which water droplets hit the soil. From there on, the flow of water causes sheet-wash, rilling, surface gullying, tunnelling and in rivers it scours banks. Frost can cause frost-heave, a mysterious upward movement of 156 Rush to Riches soil. In dry climates, wind blow is the main cause of erosion. Soil erosion can be predicted from the kind of soil, what it is used for, how it is farmed, the lay of the land, and size of the field. The landscapes we see today have existed for a very long time. Under the influences of climate and cover, they have formed into shapes that minimize the loss of soil and nutrients. The warmer atmospheric temperatures observed over the past decades are expected to lead to a more vigorous hydrological cycle, including more extreme rainfall events. Studies on soil erosion suggest that increased rainfall amounts and intensities will lead to greater rates of erosion. Thus, if rainfall amounts and intensities increase in many parts of the world as expected, erosion will also increase, unless amelioration measures are taken. Soil erosion rates are expected to change in response to changes in climate for a variety of reasons. The most direct is the change in the erosive power of rainfall. Other reasons include the following: first, changes in plant canopy caused by shifts in plant biomass production associated with moisture regime; second, changes in litter cover on the ground caused by changes in both plant residue decomposition rates driven by temperature and moisture dependent soil microbial activity as well as plant biomass production rates; third, changes in soil moisture due to shifting precipitation regimes and evapo- transpiration rates, which changes infiltration and runoff ratios; fourth, soil erodibility changes due to decrease in soil organic matter concentrations in soils that lead to a soil structure that is more susceptible to erosion and increased runoff due to increased soil surface sealing and crusting; fifth, a shift of winter precipitation from non-erosive snow to erosive rainfall due to increasing winter temperatures; sixth, melting of permafrost, which induces an erodible soil state from a previously non- erodible one; and seventh, shifts in land use made necessary to accommodate new climatic regimes. The removal by erosion of large amounts of rock from a particular region, and its deposition elsewhere, can result in a War on Hydrosphere 157 lightening of the load on the lower crust and mantle. This can cause tectonic or isostatic uplift in the region. Research undertaken since the early 1990s suggests that the spatial distribution of erosion at the surface of an orogen72 can exert a key influence on its growth and its final internal structure. Water erosion is what destroys houses and landscapes due to rain, which erodes the soil and causes things like rill, gulley and stream erosion. Soil is naturally removed by the action of water or wind: such soil erosion has been occurring for some 450 million years, since the first land plants formed the first soil. Even before this, natural processes moved loose rock, or regolith, off the earth’s surface, as it had happened on the planet Mars. In general, background erosion removes soil at roughly the same rate as soil is formed. But ‘accelerated’ soil erosion—loss of soil at a much faster rate than it is formed—is a far more recent problem. It is always a result of mankind’s unwise actions, such as overgrazing or unsuitable cultivation practices. These leave the land unprotected and vulnerable. Then, during times of erosive rainfall or windstorms, soil may be detached, transported, and (possibly travelling a long distance) deposited. Accelerated soil erosion by water or wind may affect both agricultural areas and the natural environment, and is one of the most widespread of today’s environmental problems. It has impacts which are both on-site (at the place where the soil is detached) and off-site (wherever the eroded soil ends up).

Cyclones, Hurricanes, Floods, Droughts, and Famines Greenhouse gasses can stay in the atmosphere for an amount of years ranging from decades to hundreds and thousands of years. No matter what we do, global warming is going to have some effect on earth. As it is obvious by its name, global warming is a global phenomenon with a number of effects on the global level.

72Orogeny refers to forces and events leading to a severe structural deformation of the Earth’s crust due to the engagement of tectonic plates. Response to such engagement results in the formation of long tracts of highly deformed rock called orogens or orogenic belts. 158 Rush to Riches

Global warming has various effects, ranging from the effects to the atmosphere to the economical, environmental as well as the health life of human beings. There are also a number of effects to the nature and atmosphere. One of the most serious effects of global warming that humans have to think about is the effect on the health of individuals, nations and, therefore, civilizations. Health Related Problems: Spread of diseases as northern countries warm, disease carrying insects migrate north, bringing plague and disease with them. The rise in temperature due to global warming is known to be supportive to various viral diseases like the West Nile Virus and malaria. This will result in economic as well as health effects on human beings. For example, global warming will increase the incidence of such diseases in poorer countries where these diseases exist and it will also cause countries who have eradicated these diseases to spend more on vaccinations and other ways of eradication like pesticides, etc. The rise in temperatures will finally result in an increase in the mortality rate of people and higher temperature causes problems to people with cardiovascular problems. In extreme cases, people are known to have died of heatstroke. People may also have heat exhaustion problems. Respiratory problems are also known to arise out of a high temperature. High temperature also causes the concentration of ozone in the lower atmosphere. Ozone is a harmful pollutant and causes respiratory problems. Ozone is also known to damage lung tissues and, therefore, causes more complications for people with asthma. These are some of the health effects of global warming. More Cyclones and Hurricanes: Just as warmer waters and more cyclones and hurricanes emerge as the temperature of oceans rises, the probability of more frequent and stronger cyclones and hurricanes increases. A cyclone is an area that is surrounded by a wind system and has a low atmospheric pressure. Worldwide there are about eighty five tropical cyclones each year, of which about sixty reach hurricane force. War on Hydrosphere 159

When Katrina went from a category 1 to a category 5 hurricane back in August 2005, the surface of the Gulf of Mexico was around 86 degrees Fahrenheit, which, as far as anyone knows, was a record. Whether or not climate change can be blamed for the record sea temperatures, those temperatures certainly helped Katrina strengthen as it slipped across the Gulf from Florida toward the Louisiana coast. More Droughts and Famines: Global warming has many other effects other than the health of individuals. Increased probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves although some areas of earth will become wetter due to global warming, other areas will suffer serious droughts and heat waves. Africa will receive the worst of it, with more severe droughts also expected in Europe. Water is already a dangerously rare commodity in Africa and, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global warming will exacerbate the conditions and could lead to conflicts and war. Global warming may also cause a decline in agriculture due to the rise in temperature. The agriculture will also decline due to the role of carbon dioxide in photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide prevents photorespiration and, therefore, is the cause of the damage of many crops. Global warming also results in increased number and longer droughts. Rising Seas: Every day I read about the ice caps melting and the horrible things all of this will wreak additionally in fresh water in the ocean. Global warming will melt the remaining Polar Ice. First, it will raise sea levels. There are 5,773,000 cubic miles of water in ice caps, glaciers, and permanent snow. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, if all glaciers melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet.73 Luckily, that is not going to happen all in one go! But sea levels will rise. Therefore, this will result in an increase of the costs of the coastal defence. This is also dangerous, because the most

73“The Water Cycle” at www.ga.water.usgs.gov/edu. 160 Rush to Riches important trade ports are always at the coast of any area for trade reasons. Second, melting ice caps will throw the global ecosystem out of balance. The ice caps are fresh water, and when they melt they will desalinate the ocean, or in plain English— make it less salty. The desalinization of the gulf current will “screw up” ocean currents, which regulate temperatures. The stream shutdown or irregularity would cool the area around north-east America and Western Europe. Luckily, that will slow some of the other effects of global warming in that area! Third, Rising temperatures and changing landscapes in the Arctic Circle will endanger several species of animals. Only the most adaptable will survive. Fourth, global warming could snowball with the ice caps gone. Ice caps are white, and reflect sunlight, much of which is reflected back into space, further cooling the earth. If the ice caps melt, the only reflector is the ocean. Darker colours absorb sunlight, further warming the earth. Environmental Problems: Global warming will also have an effect on the daily weather. One of the most important effects is the increase in extreme temperatures. The hydrologic cycle will become more intense process of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation will also increase due to global warming and it will affect all the ecosystems. The effects of global warming have already been seen in birds. Other effects of global warming, like a decreased snow level, increased temperature, and other weather changes will have an effect not only on humans but also the entire ecosystems. These ecosystems will change and cause many traditional inhabitants to leave their habitats. This may speed up the extinction of species.

Ocean’s Secrets: Cold War Nukes in the Oceans The prospect of a stray, possibly damaged atom bomb lying somewhere on the ocean floor is truly horrific. Britain’s BBC is currently causing uproar with a report on the loss of an American atom bomb in 1968. When an American B-52 bomber crashed into the ice off Greenland, the conventional explosives in War on Hydrosphere 161 the bombs exploded, causing a large area to become radioactively contaminated by the plutonium that was released in the process. But what the US government kept secret for decades was that a reconstruction of the bomb components found at the site had revealed that a nuclear warhead was missing. It had apparently drilled its way through the ice in North Star Bay.74 It was never found. The loss of an atom bomb is not as rare an occurrence as one would hope. “The American Defense Department has confirmed the loss of 11 atomic bombs,” says Otfried Nassauer, an expert on nuclear armament and the director of the Berlin Information Center for Transatlantic Security. From 1945 to 1991, the Cold War dominated international affairs. The global competition between the United States of America and the Soviet Union took many forms: political, economic, ideological, and cultural. At times, the constant arms race burst into armed conflict. But overshadowing all was the threat of nuclear war. Despite vast numbers of tanks, warships, and other conventional weapons, nuclear weapons defined the Cold War. Soviet planners accepted the possibility of fighting and winning a nuclear war, but United States’ policy stressed deterrence—discouraging the use of nuclear weapons by threatening nuclear annihilation and millions of deaths in retaliation. Only secure retaliatory forces could make the threat credible, and that led the USA to develop the “Strategic Triad”— long-range bombers, land-based missiles, and submarines, each force independently able to inflict catastrophic damage on an attacker. Up to 50 nuclear warheads are believed to have gone missing during the Cold War, and not all of them are in unpopulated areas. United States military misplaced at least

74North Star Bay, also called Thule Harbor or Bylot Sound, is a bay in Wolstenholme Fjord, Greenland. The bay was the site of a Cold War nuclear accident when a B-52 bomber carrying four thermonuclear bombs crashed, spreading contaminated material over the area. Thule Air Base is located at the edge of the bay. 162 Rush to Riches eight nuclear weapons permanently. These are the stories of what the Department of Defense calls “broken arrows,”75 America’s stray nukes, with a combined explosive force 2,200 times the Hiroshima bomb. A much larger number of atom bombs disappeared in plane crashes over the open ocean. In the early days of the Cold War, the aircraft lacked sufficient range to cross the Atlantic on one tank of fuel. Some bombers collided with their tanker planes and others missed the tankers, after running out of fuel, plunged into the sea. Between the late 1950s and mid-1960s, the most explosive part of the Cold War, US bombers, carrying atom bombs were in the air around the clock, 365 days a year. Their four main routes passed over Greenland, Spain and the Mediterranean, Japan and Alaska. Only when the bombers became capable of flying across the Atlantic or Pacific on one tank did the frequency of accidents diminish. Probably the most absurd “broken arrow,” happened on 5 December 1965 on board the USS Ticonderoga. The aircraft carrier was en route from Vietnam to Yokosuka in Japan when a fighter-bomber emerging from one of the giant elevators that carry the aircraft from the ship’s hold onto the deck plunged into the ocean. The pilot, the aircraft and the nuclear bomb on board sank to a depth of five kilometers (16,400 feet) and were never found. That incident was also kept secret for many years, partly because, when it was finally made public in 1981, it proved that the Americans had stationed nuclear weapons in Vietnam, after all. It also revealed that the United States had defied a treaty with Japan, under which the Americans had agreed not to bring any nuclear weapons onto Japanese territory. The US military’s rather nonchalant handling of its most dangerous toys was not limited to foreign countries. In fact,

75Since 1950, there have been 32 nuclear weapon accidents, known as “Broken Arrows.” A Broken Arrow is defined as an unexpected event involving nuclear weapons that result in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft or loss of the weapon. To date, six nuclear weapons have been lost and never recovered. War on Hydrosphere 163 seven of the 11 nuclear warheads that are officially missing were lost at home in the USA. On 5 February 1958, bomber pilot Howard Richardson had to jettison the hydrogen bomb he was carrying after colliding with a fighter jet. The bomb then disappeared in the shallow waters of Wassaw Sound,76 about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Savannah, Georgia, a city of 100,000 people. Richardson, an experienced pilot, barely managed to land his aircraft at nearby Hunter Army Airfield. The crew of a B-52 that exploded on 24 January 1961 as a result of a defective fuel line was less fortunate. Before the aircraft broke apart, the men managed to eject their dangerous cargo. One of the two hydrogen bombs was parachuted safely into a tree, while the other one went down in a swamp near the small city of Goldsboro, North Carolina, where it plunged an estimated 50 meters (165 feet) into the marshy ground—and where it still lies today. The crash site remains a restricted military zone. But what made this incident famous was the bomb that landed in a tree. Five of its six fuses designed to prevent a detonation failed, with only the last one averting a nuclear explosion. Do the two bombs still pose a danger to the residents of these cities? “Weapons that are on the ocean floor are hardly unlikely to explode,” says Nassauer.77 Nevertheless, he cautions: “perhaps this risk is somewhat greater with the bombs that were lost on land. But virtually nothing is known about whether such bombs can explode spontaneously.” A completely different fear has taken hold since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. What happens if terrorists acquire one of the lost bombs? An unfounded fear, says Nassauer, noting that even the military, after using all means at its disposal, has failed to find or salvage the bombs. “Quite a few weapons are located in places that are

76Wassaw Sound is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean on the coast of Georgia, United States, near Savannah where the Wilmington River flows. It is the location of a hydrogen bomb lost by a B-47 Stratojet bomber in 1958. This lost hydrogen bomb is also known as the Tybee Bomb. 77“The Cold War’s Missing Atom Bombs” at www.sovrn.com. 164 Rush to Riches still completely inaccessible with the means available to us today,” says Nassauer. The real dangers lie in the area surrounding a crash site, and they include the possibility of explosion at the time of the accident and the effects of corrosion, which could allow radioactivity to escape over decades. In Palomares,78 for example, the nightmare continues after more than four decades. The sleepy village has since become part of a thriving tourist region. But, in 2004, two pits containing radioactive soil were discovered at the site of future golf courses and luxury hotels. Extensive soil studies revealed that other areas were still contaminated. The Spanish government has confiscated the affected land and, in 2009, US troops were deployed to decontaminate the area once again. More than 40 years after the first bomb fell on Palomares, several thousand tons of contaminated earth was shipped to America once again. Most of these highly dangerous weapons are still lying on the ocean floor. In April 1989, a fire on board the Komsomolez79 resulted in the sinking of the Russian nuclear submarine to a depth of 1,700 meters (5,500 feet) in the North Atlantic Ocean, together with two torpedoes and their nuclear warheads. On 22 May 1968, another nuclear submarine, the USS Scorpion, sank to a depth of 3,300 meters (10,800 feet) about 320 nautical miles south of the Azores. There were two nuclear warheads on board.

78The 1966 Palomares B-52 crash or Palomares incident occurred on 17 January 1966, when a B-52G bomber of the USAF Strategic Air Command collided with a KC-135 tanker during midair refuelling at 31,000 feet over the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard. 79The K-278 Komsomolez was a Soviet nuclear submarine. It was put into service in 1984. On 7 April 1989, fire broke in the rear from Komsomolez. The boat was at a depth of 150 to 380 metres, when a valve of a high-pressure airline, the main ballast tanks of the boat combined the burst, and oil on a hot surface fire started leaking. The spread of the fire could not be stopped. Of the 69 crew members 42 were killed during and after the disaster, most of them hypothermia in cold water. War on Hydrosphere 165

Because of the considerable depths involved, neither the weaponry nor the nuclear reactors on both submarines have been recovered to date. More recently, on 12 August 2000, when the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk tragically sank, official accounts raised more questions than they answered. What caused the explosion that ruptured the sub’s watertight hull? Why did rescue efforts take so long? Perhaps, most troubling is the question about the American submarine that was reportedly in the same area of the Barents Sea? Investigative French filmmaker Jean-Michel Carré reveals some new details suggesting an American involvement in the disaster that took 118 lives.

Kursk: The Curse of Hydrosphere K-141 Kursk was a Russian nuclear cruise missile submarine which was lost with all hands when it sank in the Barents Sea on 12 August 2000. More than simply a shared tragedy the Kursk disaster psychologically staggered many who seemed to feel that Russia’s last bragging rights to technological excellence, to military competence, to first-tier global status went down with the biggest and most fearsome boat in its submarine arsenal. It was named after the Russian city Kursk, around which the largest tank battle in military history, the Battle of Kursk, took place in 1943. Many theories had been proposed for the cause of the mishap; however, the generally accepted theory was that two explosions in the torpedo room sank the submarine. It is said that the explosions were almost equivalent to 3-7 tons of TNT. The Kursk was participating in a naval exercise in the Barents Sea, off Russia’s northwest coast, when an explosion thudded in its bow about 11:27 a.m. on 12 August 2000. The only credible report to-date is that this was due to the failure and explosion of one of Kursk’s new or developmental torpedoes. During the exercise high test peroxide (HTP), a highly concentrated form of hydrogen peroxide that is used as a propellant for torpedoes, oozed through rusted torpedo casing and reacted with copper and brass in the tube, from which the torpedo was to be fired. This resulted in a chain reaction that led to the explosion. It was 166 Rush to Riches a usual practice to leave the watertight door open that separated the torpedo room from the rest of the submarine, because when a torpedo was launched it released compressed air. Since the watertight door was open, the blast ripped through the first two of the nine compartments in the submarine, killing seven men. It is believed that Captain-lieutenant Dmitri Kolesnikov tried to order ‘emergency blow’ to raise the submarine rapidly to the surface, but it was overcome with smoke. The chemical explosion blasted with the force of 100-250 kg of TNT and registered 2.2 on the Richter scale. Few seconds after the first explosion, another explosion (much larger than the first) ripped through the submarine. This was due to the increasing temperature inside the submarine that led to the explosion of about half-a-dozen torpedo warheads. The explosion was equivalent to about 5 tons of TNT and measured 4.2 on the Richter scale. The nuclear reactors were shut down after the second explosion. Either this explosion or the earlier one propelled large pieces of debris far back through the submarine. The explosion had created a large hole in the hull of the submarine from which the water poured inside at the speed of 90,000 litres per second, killing all who were inside the compartment. 23 men working in the sixth compartment had survived the blast and they gathered in the ninth compartment of the submarine which contained the escape tunnel. The power soon ran out because the nuclear reactors had been shut down. It isn’t clear for how many days did those people survive. Forensic evidence has shown that the 23 sailors in the 9th compartment lived for 3 or 4 days, but Russians say they died quickly. Contrary to it, superoxide chemical cartridges that are used to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen for survival were found empty which suggests that they survived for a few more days. Norwegian divers who opened that escape hatch nine days after the disaster found that the air lock was filled with water. That led the navy to abandon all efforts to find anyone alive, and to turn its attention to recovering the dead. But the War on Hydrosphere 167 ninth compartment might have remained dry for weeks, even up until rescuers entered it. So, what actually happened in the 9th compartment at about 7 p.m. on 12 August? By the evening, there was an obvious lack of oxygen in the compartment. It was decided to charge the double-decker regeneration unit with fresh regeneration plates. This job was given to three submariners. They approached the regeneration unit with a can of special fluid and started recharging. That is when the irretrievable happened. One of the three dropped the regeneration plates and possibly the whole can into the water that was mixed with oil. One can only suppose why this happened. Most likely this was due to fatigue from the previous hours, the cramped quarters and insufficient lighting. Then came the explosion. By the nature of the burns, one may assume that one of the seamen tried to cover the can filled with regeneration fluid with his body and take the entire force of the explosion upon himself. But even that desperate, fatal lunge could no longer change anything. The men next to the regeneration unit were killed instantaneously as a result of the explosion. The rest lived a little longer. The explosion immediately consumed all the oxygen, discharging tremendous volumes of carbon monoxide. No one expected the explosion, and that is why none of the submariners were wearing the breathing equipment they were dutifully preserving in case they managed to get out of the submarine. That is why for all of them it was sufficient to take one or two inhalations to lose consciousness. That was the end. After two years of investigation, a French movie The Kursk: A Submarine in Troubled Waters, unveiled the contradictions, lies, and secrets created by the authorities at the time, hiding the true origins of the disaster. The film exposes a truly disturbing story that includes: a military exercise to sell weapons to the Chinese that could change the balance of naval power in the Pacific; a confrontation between the Kursk and two American submarines; the hostile firing of a MK40 torpedo resulting in the sinking; a purposefully delayed rescue effort to 168 Rush to Riches hide the confrontation; and billions of dollars in debt relief to Russia from the US following the disaster. This revelatory documentary asks if the crew of the Kursk were sacrificed in a game of geo-political brinkmanship, and reveals the high-stake strategies now being played out between Russia, the USA, and China in a post Cold War world. The film also examines the political, military, and economic policies developed by Vladimir Putin, which are intimately linked with the event and his tightening control of media and government in Russia. The movie is constructed like a counter espionage documentary. It underlines the gap between a nation torn apart by a human tragedy and a government willing to stop at nothing to reach its global aims. There are fascinating viewpoints from various experts and compelling footage of the Kursk, the attempted rescue and the hysterical aftermath. A former British military official Maurice Stradling has backed a sensational claim that the Russian nuclear submarine, the Kursk, was torpedoed by the US forces.

Corals Bleaching: Silent Killing Global warming causes coral bleaching—and there is absolutely no doubt about it, right? Tens of thousands of websites found searching for “Global warming and coral bleaching” seem to agree that when the ocean warms, the oxygen content reduces, and the corals become bleached. The heat affects the tiny algae which live symbiotically inside the corals and supply them with food. The heat stress damages the algae and in consequence leads to coral death. The argument for the global warming or coral bleaching connection is bolstered by the massive El Niño80 event in 1997 and 1998 that led to unusually warm tropical waters throughout the world’s lower latitudes and coral bleaching in many locations. But, as with so many other topics covered in World Climate Report, the idea that corals are in peril because of global warming turns out to be considerably more 80El Niño, oceanic and atmospheric phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, during which unusually warm ocean conditions appear along the western coast of Ecuador and Peru, can cause climatic disturbances of varying severity. War on Hydrosphere 169 complicated than is commonly presented to the public at large. Two recent articles give us reason to question the alarmists’ claims that coral reefs are in deep trouble due to the build-up of greenhouse gasses. The first piece was published in Marine Environmental Research by M. J. C. Crabbe of the United Kingdom’s University of Bedfordshire. Crabbe notes: “Coral reefs throughout the world are under severe challenge from a variety of environmental factors including overfishing, destructive fishing practices, coral bleaching, ocean acidification, sea-level rise, algal blooms, agricultural run-off, coastal and resort development, marine pollution, increasing coral diseases, invasive species, and hurricane/cyclone damage.”81 We agree that the coral reefs are facing no end of challenges in our modern world! Crabbe studied reefs in Jamaica, and he noted: “The Jamaican reefs are subject to a number of both acute and chronic stressors, the last including overfishing and continuing coastal development, including the much-publicized development on land adjacent to Pear Tree Bottom reef82 and the resurfacing of the North Jamaican coastal highway.”83 Again, there is a lot more to the story of reefs than just global warming. Next up comes from two scientists from the University of Exeter’s Marine Spatial Ecology Lab who focused on coral in other Caribbean reefs. Mumby and Harborne noted: “Because the Bahamas was severely disturbed by the 1998 coral bleaching event, and later by hurricane Frances in the summer of 2004, 81“Hurricanes and Coral Bleaching” at www.anu.academia.com. 82Pear Tree Bottom Reef, near Runaway Bay, Jamaica, was originally described by T. F. Goreau in the 1950s and is noted for its ‘Buttress Zone’ morphology and presence of sclerosponges at water depths less than 30 m. Since 2005, increased sedimentation has caused a drastic decline in reef health. It is thought that this increased sedimentation is related to two concurrent construction projects: the reconstruction of the north Jamaican costal highway and construction of the Gran Bahia Principe Resort along the coast adjacent to the reef. 83www.linkinghub.elsevier.com. 170 Rush to Riches coral cover was low at the beginning of the study, averaging only 7% at reserve and non-reserve sites.”84 Corals have been around for eons, they have survived periods much hotter than anything experienced today, they have survived massive El Niño events, and as seen in their study area, the corals can be severely damaged by hurricanes. Delicate corals would have never made it—robust corals would win in the world of natural selection. In the Caribbean, macroalgae compete vigorously with coral, and macroalgae are controlled to a large extent by herbivorous parrotfishes living within the reef. The parrotfish are more common in reserves than in non-protected areas, and sure enough “the proportional increase in coral cover after 2.5 years was fairly high at reserve sites (mean of 19% per site) and significantly greater than that in non-reserve sites which, on average, exhibited no net recovery.” They conclude: “Reducing herbivore exploitation as part of an ecosystem-based management strategy for coral reefs appears to be justified.” An important implication of the research is that the long-term impact of and recovery from coral bleaching events may be largely controlled by herbivore fish—rather than just global warming. Also, shark’s killing leads to bleaching of corals. Sharks are the cops of the reefs; they ensure the survival of the reefs by killing the fish which eat corals.

Boom in Harmful Algal Blooms Harmful algal blooms (HAB), lethal for human beings and marine ecosystems alike, are steadily increasing in intensity in the oceans, especially in Indian waters. Researchers have found out that the toxic blooms had increased by around 15 percent over the last 12 years in Indian seas. There were 80 harmful blooms between 1998 and 2010 in the Indian seas against the 38 that took place between 1958 and 1997. The number of such blooms was just 12 between 1917 and 1957, according to scientists. These findings form part of the research data that was

84“Coral Bleaching” at www.worldclimatereport.com. War on Hydrosphere 171 generated by a team of marine life experts from India. The researchers had monitored the harmful blooms and tried to identify the factors causing the bloom formation, spread, and its ecological consequences on marine ecosystems. The potentially toxic microalgae recorded from the Indian waters included Alexandrium, Gymnodinium, Dinophysis, Coolia monotis, Prorocentrum lima, and Pseudo-nitzschia. Toxic blooms have been reported from over 30 countries, including India. The first recorded observation on algal blooms in India was in 1908. The blooms turn lethal for human beings when they consume marine organisms that feed on such algae. Incidents of paralytic shell fish poisoning, following an algal bloom, was reported in 1981 from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. Three persons lost their lives and 85 were hospitalized in Tamil Nadu. In a similar incident at Vizhinjam in Kerala, in 1997, seven persons died and around 500 were hospitalized. These people had consumed a mussel, which had fed on toxic algae. Another bloom that hit Kerala, in 2004, resulted in nauseating smell emanating from the coastal waters extending from Kollam to Vizhinjam. More than 200 persons suffered from nausea and breathlessness for short duration due to the foul smell. The bloom also resulted in massive death in the region, scientists said. Scientists had collected algal samples from 1,880 stations during the last 12 years as part of the study. They had also recorded the presence of 422 species of microalgae, including 35 harmful ones. Noctiluca scintillans was the dominant and frequently occurring algae during summer monsoon. While Cochlodinium, Gymnodinium, Gonyaulax and Ceratium bloomed frequently, blooming was an annual affair for Trichodesmium. However, the Noctiluca bloomed at intervals. It was the Arabian Sea that experienced the most number of blooms over the decades. The Bay of Bengal recorded blooms by and large during the northeast monsoon when cyclonic storms occurred in the region. Global warming and the resultant storminess could also influence the frequency of bloom formation in the Indian seas, 172 Rush to Riches scientists said. Upwelling,85 formation of mud banks, nutrient discharges from the land during southwest and northeast monsoons cause some algae blooms in coastal waters. According to scientists, the changing patterns of nutrient ratio of the coastal and the open ocean waters due to anthropogenic activities, increased aquaculture operations leading to enrichment of coastal waters, dispersal of toxic species through currents, storms, ship ballast waters, and shell fish seeding activities were some of the factors triggering the blooms.

Glaciers Melting: All Life Endangered A glacier can be described as a huge block of ice that has formed from falling snow. Glaciers contain almost all of the fresh water present on earth. Glaciers are formed in places where the temperatures are extremely cold. This could even include places that are at sea level, but are mostly places that are high up on mountains. In such cold places, there is snowfall most of the year. This snow will settle down and when it snows again the lower layer of snow gets compressed. Every time it snows, the below layers will compress more, finally turning into hard ice, the glaciers. When the temperatures rise slightly, the outer edges of the formed glacier and fresh snow will melt. For a glacier to form and sustain itself it is of prime importance that the amount of snow that falls on it must be more than the amount of glacier that has melted. This is the only way in which the glacier will be able to maintain itself and keep increasing in size year after year. Melting of glaciers is perfectly normal. Many people worldwide depend on melting glaciers for survival. All their freshwater needs are met by these melting glaciers year through. This is the water these people use for drinking and irrigation. If this fresh

85Upwelling is rising of water to surface: a process in which cold nutrient-rich water rises to the surface from the ocean depths. Life in the oceans is not uniformly abundant. Because of the low ratio of surface water to deep water and the lack of seasonal nutrient enrichment, much of the open ocean is a watery desert, especially the tropical seas. The most productive areas are the coastal regions, areas of upwellings, and the Arctic and Antarctic oceans. War on Hydrosphere 173 water source were to stop it will create chaos. People will be forced to shift to places with other sources of freshwater. Certain nations depend a lot on the flow of this water for the production of electricity. It has been noticed that glaciers have melted more than normal over the past century. It was argued in the past that this was a normal process that takes place over time, but this is now proving wrong. Many glaciers have melted so fast over the past few decades that they have vanished from the face of the earth forever. Many glaciers that remain are today facing the same fate. They are reducing in size year after year because the falling snow is not able to replace the amount of melting ice. Why this sudden change? Almost everyone believes that the prime reason for this is sudden and rapid industrialization which, in turn, has caused global warming—the prime culprit of fast melting glaciers. The industrial revolution is the main cause of this rise in average temperature. The indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels has resulted in extreme atmospheric pollution leading to this condition. Coal is still burnt in huge quantities for various reasons such as electricity production. Burning of oil is a major culprit in the past century. Deforestation has increased to procure wood and make more space available for farming, resulting in an increase in carbon dioxide concentrations. All these pollutants help in trapping more heat in the earth’s atmosphere, increasing global temperatures. It is due to this increase in temperature that glaciers are melting more than they actually should. When a glacier melts fully, it exposes the earth below. Glaciers absorb approximately 20% heat from the sun, reflecting back 80%. When the earth gets exposed this percentage gets reversed. This, in turn, causes a further increase in temperature. This is a vicious trap which has already begun and it will be almost impossible for us to stop it totally. In the future, the global temperature will in all likelihood keep increasing, melting glaciers even faster than they are today. 174 Rush to Riches

Faster than normal melting, glaciers will cause the streams and rivers to overflow causing flooding. This is a reality that many places have and are currently facing. Those living in close proximity to these rivers will need to relocate. Farmlands get destroyed in these flood waters. Higher up on mountains this excess water creates new ponds. As these ponds keep getting filled with more water, they form lakes with the pressure on the boundaries increasing. There is always a threat of these lakes bursting, causing huge floods in villages situated below. Once the glacier has totally melted, the streams and rivers will run dry. Farmland will turn dry. Those depending on freshwater from the melting glacier will have to relocate. Places that depend on the constant flow of this water for the production of electricity will have to look for other sources to produce electricity. This will cause further atmospheric pollution and cost much more to produce. Sea levels that have already risen due to warmer waters will rise even further when all this water from melting glaciers empty into the sea. An immediate risk will be to those living in low lying areas in the close vicinity of seashores. These areas will get flooded and sweet groundwater will get polluted with sea water making it unfit for human use. All these people will have to relocate. Many animals, birds, and fish that depend on the fresh water from glaciers that empty directly into the sea will become endangered. Corals will suffer because of low sunlight due to increasing sea-levels. Fish feeding on these corals will, in turn, get affected. Animals and birds feeding on these fish will be affected. There are many more dangers that could crop up due to fast melting glaciers in the coming years if we do not do something to reduce the menace of global warming immediately. Each one of us can play a part in helping reduce harmful emissions, leading to a possible reduction in future global warming.

Ocean Carbon Cycle: Nature’s Recycler

Of all the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted into the atmosphere, one quarter is taken up by land plants, another quarter by the oceans. Understanding these natural mechanisms is important in War on Hydrosphere 175

forecasting the rise of atmospheric CO2 because even though plants and bodies of water now absorb surplus greenhouse gas, they could become new trouble spots. The ocean absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere in an attempt to reach equilibrium by direct air-to-sea exchange. This process takes place at an extremely low rate, measured in hundreds to thousands of years. However, once dissolved in the ocean, a carbon atom will stay there, on average, more than 500 years, estimates Michael McElroy, Butler Professor of Environmental Science.86 Besides the slow pace of ocean turnover, two more factors determine the rate at which the seas take up carbon dioxide. One is the availability of carbonate, which comes from huge deposits of calcite (shells) in the upper levels of the ocean. These shells must dissolve in ocean water in order to be available to aid in the uptake of CO2, but the rate at which they dissolve is controlled by the ocean’s acidity. The ocean’s acidity does rise with increased CO2, but the slow pace of ocean circulation prevents this process from developing useful momentum. It takes a long time for the increased acidity to reach the vulnerable calcite deposits, to dissolve them and, then, to bring the carbonate cations (an ion) to the surface where they can combine with CO2 in the surface waters of the ocean. There is no hope, says McElroy, that this process will take place fast enough to help control the build-up of CO2. Another process, called “the biological pump,” transfers

CO2 from the ocean’s surface to its depths. Warm waters at the surface can hold much less CO2 than can cold waters in the deep. “This is the ‘soda bottle on a warm day’ effect,” says James McCarthy, Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography, “and is not unique to carbon dioxide; it applies to all gasses dissolved in water. There is a higher capacity to hold a gas with a lower temperature than with a higher temperature.”87 This means that when deep ocean waters rise to the surface as part of normal ocean-circulation patterns, the water heats up and actually

86www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/mbn. 87“Ocean Carbon Cycle” at www.harvardmagazine.com. 176 Rush to Riches

releases CO2. The biological pump works in the opposite direction. One-celled plants, the remains of organisms that feed on them and faecal matter sink, by force of gravity, into the deep ocean. This phenomenon was first described in the late 1800s by Harvard’s Alexander Agassiz, who referred to it as the “rain of detritus.”88 Its effect is to pull carbon out of the upper ocean and cause it to rain down into the depths, where bacteria and other organisms metabolize and release it back into the water as CO2, enriching carbon dioxide in the deep ocean. Either way, the chance is very small that a carbon atom in the ocean will be incorporated into organic matter or chemically combined with a carbonate cation to form calcium carbonate that will end up sequestered in sediments, where it might remain for hundreds of millions of years. For complex reasons, the fertilization effect of CO2 does not stimulate biological production in the oceans as it can on land. What regulates these plants’ growth is light and the availability of nutrients. Patterns of circulation control both these parameters. For example, plankton does not thrive in sinking water masses such as those found deep in the North Atlantic, because it is pulled down and away from the light. Similarly, warm surface waters don’t hold much in the way of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. What these plants require is an upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich waters from lower levels of the ocean, and then a particular stratification of waters of different temperatures, in order to thrive. “These upwellings follow natural cycles,” says McCarthy, “which is why there are seasonal blooms of plankton in different places near ocean- circulation features. Along the New England Coast, we see a spring bloom off Georges Bank that feeds the great cod and haddock fisheries.”89 Nobody knows how climate change will affect currents, stratification, and nutrient supply. “But to say that the ocean will continue working just the way it is, and that

88“Biological Oceanography” at www.harvardmagazine.com. 89“Coastal Fisherman” at www.coastal-fisherman.com. War on Hydrosphere 177 the biological pump will continue to work the way it does at present this is sophistry… We know that it will not.”

Hydrologic Cycle: The Giver of Life From the time the earth was formed, water has been endlessly circulating. This circulation is known as the hydrologic cycle. Groundwater is part of this continuous cycle as water evaporates, forms clouds, and returns to earth as precipitation. Surface water is evaporated from the earth by the energy of the sun. The water vapour forms clouds in the sky. Depending on the temperature and weather conditions, the water vapour condenses and falls to the earth as different types of precipitation. Some precipitation runs from high areas to low areas on the earth’s surface. This is known as surface runoff. Other precipitation seeps into the ground and is stored as groundwater. Think of groundwater as water that fills the spaces between rocks and soil particles underground, in much the same way as water fills a sponge. Groundwater begins as precipitation and soaks into the ground where it is stored in underground geological water systems called aquifers. Sometimes groundwater feeds springs, lakes, and other surface waters, or is drawn out of the ground by humans through wells. The water, then, can evaporate, form clouds, and return to the earth to begin the cycle all over again. The hydrologic cycle begins with the evaporation of water from the surface of the ocean. As moist air is lifted, it cools and water vapour condenses to form clouds. Moisture is transported around the globe until it returns to the surface as precipitation. Once the water reaches the ground, one of two processes may occur: first, some of the water may evaporate back into the atmosphere or, second, the water may penetrate the surface and become groundwater. Groundwater either seeps its way to into the oceans, rivers, and streams, or is released back into the atmosphere through transpiration. The balance of water that remains on the earth’s surface is runoff, which empties into lakes, rivers, and streams and is carried back to the oceans, where the cycle begins again. 178 Rush to Riches

Marine Overharvesting: Tragedy of the Commons90 The use of over-efficient fishing technology, the lack of sufficient scientific data regarding the oceans, the ignorance and apathy of humanity towards this oceanic crisis, and insufficient implementation of existing maritime agreements result in a decrease in the biodiversity of the ocean, changes the ocean chemistry, altering the genetic composition of marine species, disturbs the food web and ecosystem, collapsing fish stocks, and irreparable damage to marine ecosystems and to the fishing industry, including all those who depend on fish for sustenance, income, and cultural value. The problem has not arisen overnight. Historically, fishermen believed that the ocean could support unlimited fishing. As stocks began to collapse, however, international limits and regulations on fishing were implemented. Many nations, however, have cultural and economic ties to the fishing industry that impede the implementation of fishing regulations. Currently, the United Nations is working to control over-fishing, enforce fishing regulations, and resolve international fishing disputes. Examples of the outcomes from over-fishing exist in areas such as the North Sea of Europe, the Grand Banks of North America, East China Sea of Asia, Arabian Sea, and the Bay of Bengal of India. In these locations, over-fishing has not only proved disastrous to fish stocks but also to the fishing communities relying on the harvest. Like other extractive industries such as forestry and hunting, fishery is susceptible to economic interaction between ownership or stewardship and sustainability, otherwise known as the tragedy of the commons.

90The tragedy of the commons is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared but limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone’s long-term interest for this to happen. This dilemma was first described in an influential article titled “The Tragedy of the Commons,” written by Garrett Hardin and first published in the journal Science in 1968. See www.sciencemag.org. War on Hydrosphere 179

All over the oceans predatory fish such as sharks, whales, dolphins die of hunger, as there is not enough food in the oceans. With 85% of fish species loss, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea are the most depleted ocean ecosystems in the whole world. Most of the fish caught in these seas, not fully grown, mostly caught premature, such as baby sharks, baby crabs, baby tuna, and baby king-fish, are not at all regulated by the department of fisheries. The FAO scientists publish a two yearly report (SOFIA) on the state of the world’s fisheries and aquaculture. The report is generally rather conservative regarding the acknowledging of problems but does show the main issues: 52% of fish stocks are fully exploited; 20% are moderately exploited; 17% are overexploited; 7% are depleted; 1% is recovering from depletion. This information chart details that over 25% of all the world’s fish stocks are either overexploited or depleted. Another 52% is fully exploited these are in imminent danger of overexploitation and collapse. Thus, a total of almost 80% of the world’s fisheries is fully to over-exploited, depleted, or in a state of collapse. Worldwide about 90% of the stocks of large predatory fish stocks are already gone. In the real world, all this comes down to two serious problems: we are losing species as well as entire ecosystems. As a result, the overall ecological unity of our oceans is under stress and at risk of collapse; we are in risk of losing a valuable food source many depend upon for social, economical, or dietary reasons. We are the trespassers, fish never trespass, 350 million years back they tried and they were excommunicated; they became amphibians. We should ask some experts in “excommunicating business” about what befitting punishment one could impose on man for intruding into oceans’ ecosystems. We have to turn very urgently to other alternative food sources, before we wreck the ocean food web which is already shaking. Stop trespassing oceans, stop spilling the blood anymore and please turn to the land, search for vegetarian food supplies. Homo sapiens are designed to be ‘vegetarian’, and non- vegetarian lifestyle is a schism in our human DNA make up. 180 Rush to Riches

The magnitude of the problem of overfishing is often overlooked, given the competing claims of deforestation, erosion, desertification, energy resource exploitation, and other biodiversity depletion dilemmas. “Overfishing cannot continue,” warned Nitin Desai, Secretary General of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, which took place in Johannesburg. “The depletion of fisheries poses a major threat to the food supply of millions of people.”91 The practice of commercial and non-commercial fishing deplete a fishery by catching so many adult fish so much so that not enough remain to breed and replenish the population. Overfishing exceeds the carrying capacity of a fishery. The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation calls for the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which many experts believe may hold the key to conserving and boosting fish stocks. Despite its crucial importance for the survival of humanity, marine biodiversity is in ever greater danger, with the depletion of fisheries among biggest concerns. Fishing is central to the livelihood and food security of 200 million people, especially in the developing world, while one of five people on this planet depends on fish as the primary source of protein. The rapid growth in demand for fish and fish products is leading to fish price increasing faster than price of meat. As a result, fisheries investments have become more attractive to both entrepreneurs and governments, much to the detriment of small-scale fishing and fishing communities all over the world. In the last decade, in the north Atlantic region, commercial fish populations of cod, hake, haddock, and flounder have fallen by as much as 95%, prompting calls for urgent measures. Some are even recommending zero catches to allow for regeneration of stocks, much to the ire of the fishing industry. Overfishing means that more marine animals are starving. It seems that humanity’s voracious appetite for fish—be it wild or farmed—is depleting the ocean so much of its smaller “prey

91“Environmental Hazards of Fishing” at www.fnqfishing.com. War on Hydrosphere 181 fish” and krill that marine predators, such as dolphins, seals, whales are facing starvation. As predator fish populations such as tuna and salmon are now being overexploited to the brink, four times as much of these little fish are now brought in, compared to fifty years ago. A new report by ocean conservation group Oceana describes how “scrawny predators—dolphins, sea bass and even whales—have turned up on coastlines all over the world,” including seabirds “emaciated from lack of food, vulnerable to disease and without enough energy to reproduce.”92 Instead of feeding people, four-fifths of this catch ends up in fish farms or in fish oil. Much like the vast amounts of water needed to produce one pound of beef, as opposed to the water needed for vegetables to directly feed someone—it takes 11 pounds of fish meal for one captive fish to gain 1 pound. The report notes that part of the problem is lack of responsible, farsighted management, which arbitrarily assumes the amount of prey fish needed to sustain predator populations is low. Prey fish is taken for granted in fishery management, despite their critical role in marine food webs. Even in planning the recovery of endangered or overfished species, managers often give no consideration of the food supply needed for their populations to rebound. Squid, krill, and other prey remain ignored, unregulated and unaccounted for. It is not only the fish that is affected by fishing. As we are fishing down the food web with the increasing effort needed to catch something of commercial value, marine mammals, sharks, sea birds, and non-commercially viable fish species in the web of marine biodiversity are overexploited, killed as by-catch and discarded (up to 80% of the catch for certain fisheries), and threatened by the industrialized fisheries. Scientists agree that at current exploitation rates many important fish stocks will be removed from the system within 25 years. Daniel Pauly describes it as follows: “The big fish, the bill fish, the groupers, the big things will be gone. It is happening now. If things go

92“Overfishing Means Marine Animals Are Starving” at www.treehugger.com. 182 Rush to Riches unchecked, we will have a sea full of little horrible things that nobody wants to eat. We might end up with a marine junkyard dominated by plankton.”93 The Johannesburg forum stressed the importance of restoring depleted fisheries and acknowledged that sustainable fishing requires partnerships by and between governments, fishermen, communities, and industry.94 It urged countries to ratify the Convention on the Law of the Sea95 and other instruments that promote maritime safety and protect the environment from marine pollution and environmental damage by ships. Only a multilateral approach can counterbalance the rate of depletion of the world’s fisheries which has increased more than four times in the past 40 years. “For years we have been fishing on a deficit.”96 The report names three major threats to the stability of prey fish populations and the marine food web in general: overfishing, aquaculture, and climate change. The report also suggests some solutions, including: Management for ecosystem integrity, no new fisheries for prey species, set conservative catch limits, prioritize uses for prey after predator needs have been met, fish less during natural declines, maintain a reserve for natural predators, protect breeding hotspots, and save 10% buffer of prey populations for climate losses.

Climate Change and Water Stress The stresses on the world’s water resources are already enormous, and man-made climate change will profoundly exacerbate these difficulties. While a lot is still unknown with regard to the precise consequences of man-made climate change on the hydrological cycle, a few things are clear. First, warmer temperatures will intensify the cycles of evaporation and precipitation. There will be more rainfall on average, but in

93“Overfishing” at www.environmentinfocus.com. 94“Global Civil Society” at www.geog.ucsb.edu. 95Laws of the Sea means the rules for use of sea: the international rules that govern the use of the oceans, derived from custom, treaties, and judicial decisions. 96“Global Civil Society” www.geog.ucsb.edu. War on Hydrosphere 183 shorter and more intense episodes. There will be more evapo- transpiration at higher temperatures, and storms will increase in intensity. Here are some more detailed conclusions. 1. The dry-lands will tend to become even drier. Many parts of the world are facing desertification. 2. The wet equatorial areas will become even wetter and more subject to floods and other extreme events. 3. The populous regions with water supplies dependent on annual snowmelt and long-term glacier melt will lose water security with the disappearance of the glaciers and the elimination of the buffering effect of mountain snow. 4. The frequency of droughts will rise significantly. For example, African people will have to face more droughts and famines. 5. Drier and more variable conditions combined with higher temperatures will lead to lower and more variable crop yields. For example, agriculture will suffer in many places due to new pests and weeds. Recent studies have confirmed the human influence on precipitation patterns in the twentieth century; a wetter equatorial band and high-latitude zone, and a drier subtropical zone. Another recent study has found that the proportion of land area suffering from very dry conditions rose from 15 percent in 1970 to around 30 percent at the start of the twenty-first century. One robust conclusion is that climate change will adversely affect the world’s regions dependent on snowmelt and glacier melt. The lives of hundreds of millions of people, especially in South Asia and East Asia, depend on regular snowmelt from major mountain ranges in the dry spring and summer months. Much of the Indian subcontinent, 250 million people in China, and inhabitants of cities near the Andes all depend on such water flows. Higher temperatures will lead to more rapidly melting snow and, thus, to more frequent floods and faster- flowing rivers. The water flow will come earlier in the spring and there will be water shortage during the summer months. 184 Rush to Riches

Ironically, many regions will experience massive flooding in the coming decades due to glacier melt, which will, then, be followed by extreme water scarcity once the glaciers have disappeared several decades from now.

Indian Lifeline: An Impending Flatliner A Flatliner is a monitor-readout on an EEG or EKG, indicating total cessation of brain or cardiac activity, respectively. When Flatline appears on the monitor, the doctor declares that the patient is dead. The main Himalayan river systems are the Indus and the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (Barak) system. The Ganga rising from the snow capped Himalayan Mountains, flows through the great Indo-Gangetic plains. The Brahmaputra rises in Tibet where it is known as the Tsangpo and runs a long distance until it crosses over to India in Arunachal Pradesh under the name of Siang or Dihang. The Ganges and the Brahmaputra join inside Bangladesh and continue to flow under the name Padma forming the Sunderban delta. In the alluvium plains of the Indo-Gangetic valley, ground water depths measure up to 450 meter. The coastal aquifers also have similar depth range of ground water availability. Inland river basins in the country have recorded shallower depth within the range of 100 to 150 metres. Static Ground Water resource also sometimes known as ‘fossil’ water, considered as ground water available in the aquifer zones below the zone of water level fluctuation, available in the country has been assessed as 1081.2 million hectare metres. Ground water is widely dispersed. It is an important source of water for drinking and irrigation. Ground water contributes 51 percent of the irrigation potential created in the country through more than 4 million dug wells, 5 million shallow tube wells and some ninety thousand public tube wells. Rainfall in India is dependent largely on the southwest and northeast monsoons, on shallow cyclonic depressions and disturbances, and on violent local storms. Most of the rainfall takes place under the influence of southwest monsoon between War on Hydrosphere 185

June to September, except in Tamil Nadu and some other Southern States where it occurs under the influence of northeast monsoon during October and November. In all its forms, water shapes and nourishes life on earth. Human communities and the world’s unique biodiversity both depend on clean, secure sources of fresh water. However, less than one percent of the earth’s fresh water flows freely, and burgeoning human populations are making unsustainable demands on this vital resource. Demand for fresh water is already outstripping supply in many regions around the world. The degradation and decline of freshwater resources is now far too prevalent to be ignored. With the human population expected to increase to 9 billion by 2050, and with much of that growth happening in developing countries, the global freshwater crisis is only going to get worse. Water is vital for more than direct human health: water also sustains freshwater ecosystems, which, in turn, provide food and livelihoods for millions. The ecosystem services provided by freshwater systems, including fisheries, filtration, and flood regulation, have global economic value estimated at trillions of dollars annually. Nearly 70 percent of all freshwater used by people is for agricultural purposes. We have also come to rely on steady water flows for a significant portion of the world’s energy generation. Increasing infrastructure, agricultural development and demands on our drinking water and sanitation systems are drying our underground aquifers, polluting our sources of clean water, and diverting water away from where it is needed to replenish freshwater stocks as well as maintain healthy freshwater ecosystems. Climate change represents another formidable threat, resulting in too much water in some places, and not enough in others. Freshwater systems have aesthetic and recreational value as well. A remarkable array of biodiversity shares this limited supply of clean, fresh water with humanity. Freshwater ecosystems support unparalleled concentrations of species, yet they are among the most imperilled ecosystems on earth, with 186 Rush to Riches extinction rates as high as 15 times greater than in the marine realm. This makes freshwater ecosystems and the biodiversity they support a global conservation priority. Our urgent vision and mission is to work with existing and new partners to set global, science-based priorities for freshwater conservation, implement management and protection of key resources to benefit both human communities and freshwater biodiversity, and promote innovative policies for governments and markets.

Sunderbans: First Victim of Global Warming Sunderbans is one of the most ecologically vulnerable zones in India. Global warming is wrecking the delicate ecology of this estuarine region which stretches from West Bengal to neighbouring Bangladesh. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that by the end of this century the sea level could rise by 0.8 metres due to global warming.97 Studies indicate that even an increase of 0.6 metres could totally submerge the Sunderbans. The area is an alluvial archipelago, with creeks, streams, and rivers meandering around the largest mangrove forest98 in the world. It is also home to the endangered Royal Bengal Tiger. The villagers living in the islands here are already facing the brunt of rising sea levels. Rivers breach embankments regularly, while cyclones and floods have become a way of life. Incoming saline water has ruined agriculture, mainly paddy cultivation, and is threatening the conservation of the mangrove forest. Some islands are already submerged, leaving about 10,000 villages as climate refugees. They are not perpetrators of carbon emission or global warming, but they are the primary victims by virtue of geographical location. Conservation and

97“Sea Level Rise: Weather Underground” at www.wunderground.com. 98Mangrove is a common name applied to several kinds of tropical flowering plants that are members of three different families. Mangroves are trees or shrubs that have the common trait of growing in shallow and muddy salt water or brackish waters, especially along quiet shorelines and in estuaries. War on Hydrosphere 187 protection of this area should be an international responsibility. Sunderbans, with its mangrove forests is a carbon sink for Indian subcontinent, absorbing carbon emission. Studies indicate that sea surface temperature is rising in the Bay of Bengal and the north Indian Ocean Basin. Over 120 years, the region has been hit by severe cyclones more frequently. The cyclones have made survival extremely difficult for the villages in Sunderbans. Homes, cattle, and standing crops get washed away, income generation comes to a standstill, there is nothing to eat, and there is no drinking water as well. The case was taken to the UN Summit on Climate Change by one brave Indian woman Tanushree from Sunderbans. While Tanushree spoke her mind in Copenhagen99 on her situation, along with a demand that the developed world and industrial belts reduce their carbon emissions so that places like Sunderbans can be protected. The West Bengal Government has made a case for the delta area, in support of people like Tanushree, through a charter of demands that the official Indian delegation has presented at Copenhagen. The demands include financial assistance, advanced scientific technology transfer to mitigate the damage caused by cyclones, measures and projects to safeguard the mangrove forest and the wildlife there. If Copenhagen is to have any significance, it is vital that the world listens to the insight provided by Tanushree and others like her, and takes steps to address their concerns.

Water Danger Zones It is useful to focus on several regions primed for water trouble in the coming years, so that we can take preventive and remedial action. These are the areas in particular that are mining the

99The United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen was a defining moment in which we had the opportunity to solve the world’s most complex problem. The failure of climate talks to forge a global deal increases doubts about the UN’s ability to solve the world’s most pressing problem. The European Union had hoped to use its pledge to deepen emission-cuts as a bargaining chip to coax the USA and China into stronger action, but Barack Obama brushed aside EU demands and forged a non-binding deal. 188 Rush to Riches groundwater, living on temporary glacier melt, and experiencing declining precipitation as a result of long-term climate change. In many cases, declining water availability is exacerbated by rising populations, extreme poverty, ethnic divisions, and other political cleavages that make problem solving especially complicated. Here are some of the most challenging regions. The Sahel: Rainfall has been declining sharply in much of the Sahel: down by one quarter to one half during the past thirty years compared with the first part of the twentieth century. The drying seems to be related to long term, human-induced warming of the surface waters of the Indian Ocean as well to global air pollution that is, apparently, affecting the location of the tropical rains. The Sahel’s troubles are a combination of water stress, rapid population growth, and extreme poverty. The Horn of Africa: This region, including Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, and parts of Kenya, is a hotbed of instability, with decreasing, precipitation intersecting the multifaceted demographic, environmental, economic, and agricultural crises of pastoralism. Grasslands are overgrazed and destroyed by drought. Tribal, ethnic, and religious strife intensifies as communities struggle for the dwindling supplies of drinking water, arable land, and grassland for livestock. Israel-Palestine: The ongoing battle between Israel and Arab Palestine is aggravated by a deepening water crisis. The waters of the Jordan River, long disproportionately appropriated by Israel, are being used unsustainably to the point that the Dead Sea, at the terminus of the Jordan River, is disappearing because the diminishing inflow of river water does not replace evaporation from the Dead Sea. Groundwater aquifers are being depleted. The Gaza Strip is among the most water-stressed, high- density settlements on the planet. Because of overuse of the groundwater, Gaza’s aquifers are becoming dangerously salty. Through all of these, the Palestinian population is continuing to soar and the pressure on the environment is bound to increase. War on Hydrosphere 189

The Middle East, Pakistan, and Central Asia: The entire band of drylands stretching from the Arabian Peninsula through Iraq and Iran to Pakistan and the steppes of Central Asia is burdened by rising populations and long term declines in precipitation. The oil-rich principalities are relying increasingly on desalination, the conversion of seawater into freshwater. This solution is far too expensive for poor states, such as Yemen, and landlocked states, such as Afghanistan. The Indo-Gangetic Plains: India’s Green Revolution was based on a powerful combination of high-yield, dwarf-variety wheat, irrigation, and fertilizer. Small holder farms (that is, farmers with small farms) irrigated their fields by sinking boreholes to tap the groundwater. Green Revolution technology enabled India to escape from seemingly endless cycles of famine and to break out of the poverty trap. Yet, now a water crisis is intersecting with India’s rising population. The twenty million or so boreholes that pump irrigation water to India’s farmlands (up from ten thousand in 1960) are depleting the groundwater aquifers, with declines of the water table from 100 to 150 metres in some places, but in the South India it is between 150 to 450 metres. A similar crisis is affecting the Indus valley in Pakistan. Water that now flows from glaciers in the Himalayas will cease in a few decades, when those glaciers have completely melted and disappeared. There is massive water pollution to boot, with only about 10 percent of wastewater from industrial and municipal uses treated before it is discharged into lakes, rivers, and the sea. There is no immediate solution in sight. The US Southwest: The semiarid US Southwest is becoming more arid and has the potential to become a dust bowl within years or decades. The paleoclimate record as well as large scale climate models point robustly to further human-induced drying ahead. Till now, much of the region’s rising population has been supported by abstracting river flow, for example, from the Colorado River. Yet, the region has reached limits in the amount of water abstraction from the rivers and will have to 190 Rush to Riches promote far more “crop per drop” solutions, and perhaps a significant substitution away from agriculture in the coming years. The same problems, with even less ability to respond, occur across the border in northern Mexico. Murray-Darling Basin: This watershed is Australia’s largest and the home of the country’s agricultural potential. The basin has suffered a once-in-one-thousand-year drought from 2003 to 2007, meaning a drought so severe that before man-made climate change intervened, such a drought was likely to occur no more than once in a thousand years! The ongoing drought is causing a sharp loss of crops and urgent and expensive measures of water conservation. The IPCC highlights the likelihood that global warming will lead to further drying in the basin and in other parts of Australia. Water supplies around the world are already severely stressed. The crisis in world water supplies is indeed very real. Global freshwater resources are threatened by rising demands from many quarters. Growing populations need ever more water for drinking, hygiene, sanitation, food production, and industry. As the global population grows—and freshwater supplies dwindle—ensuring that everyone has sufficient supplies of life- giving H2O has become an enormous challenge. Climate change, meanwhile, is expected to contribute to droughts. Policymakers need to figure out how to supply water without degrading the natural ecosystems that provide it. Existing low-tech approaches can help prevent scarcity, as can ways to boost supplies, such as improved methods to desalinate water. But governments at all levels need to start setting policies and making investments in infrastructure for water conservation. As demand for freshwater soars and planetary supplies become unpredictable, existing technologies could avert a global water crisis, but they must be implemented soon. Chapter Four

War on Atmosphere (Air) 192 Rush to Riches War on Atmosphere 193

There are many historical examples of climate shifts or extreme of weather triggering conflict, which have even contributed to the rise and fall of civilizations and nations. Climate change was the culprit for the destruction of Indus Valley Civilization (2500?–1700 BC), corresponding to the Bronze Age cultures of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Crete: growing aridity and frigid temperatures from a prolonged cold snap caused Huns and German tribes to surge across the Volga and Rhine into milder Gaul during the fourth century, eventually leading to the sack of Rome by Visigoths, while Muslim expansion into the Mediterranean and southern Europe in the eight century was to some extent driven by drought in the Middle East. The Viking community in Greenland died out in the fifteenth century partly because of a sudden cooling of temperatures across northern Europe known as the “Little Ice Age.” History repeats again, recently, however, scientists have discovered strong evidence that human activity is upsetting our atmosphere’s delicate balance of gasses and warming the planet. Power plants, airplanes, and automobiles powered by fossil fuel emit carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, CFCs, and halocarbons into our atmosphere. Factories, agriculture, deforestation, and landfills also contribute greenhouse gasses to our atmosphere. These greenhouse gas emissions do more harm than just create smog and pollution. They actually trap more of sun’s heat. They are slowly raising the planet’s temperature and altering its weather patterns. Global warming has already contributed to the melting of glaciers and ice caps. No other planet in the known universe has an atmosphere like that of earth and, as far as we know, no other planet supports life. Not only is it exactly the right distance from the sun to have temperatures that will support life, but it is also one of the only planets to have liquid water on its surface. An atmosphere is a collection of gasses surrounding a planet. We may not always be aware of them, but without these gasses, life on earth would definitely not be possible. The atmosphere provides the gasses that animals and plants need for 194 Rush to Riches respiration and photosynthesis; it helps to keep temperatures on earth constant and also protects us from the sun’s harmful radiation. But beyond that our atmosphere is an important buffer between the warm earth and freezing outer space. It plays a crucial role in regulating earth’s temperature. Our atmosphere’s gasses, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapour, trap the sun’s warmth and heat earth’s surface to a temperature that can sustain life. Over the millennia, our planet has experienced a number of ice ages—long periods when earth cooled and glaciers covered much of the planet’s surface. Earth has also experienced warmer periods when glaciers melted and life spread towards the poles. Throughout it all, the atmosphere has always played a crucial role in keeping the planet the right temperature for life to thrive. But now, the same life is in peril. Humanity faces a genuinely new situation. It is not an environmental crisis in the accepted sense. It is a crisis for the entire life-supporting system of our civilization and of all species. During the past 10,000 years, since the close of the Ice Age, human civilizations have plundered and destroyed their local environment, wrecking the natural fecundity of sizable areas of the planet. Nevertheless, the planet’s life-support system as a whole has until now remained stable. As one civilization fell, another rose. But the rules of the game have changed. In the atmosphere, human influences on planetary systems are global and pervasive.

Blue Earth: A Breath of Life Life has survived massive impacts from outer space, huge variations in solar output, gripping ice ages, the shifting of the earth’s magnetic field and a host of other disasters that would make human perturbations seem puny by comparison. Life has already maintained a tenacious hold on this planet for some 3.8 billion years, and will exist here for another 5.5 billion years or so, until the world’s oceans boil from the heat emitted from an War on Atmosphere 195 exhausted red sun. Gaia100 evolved ways of coping with all sorts of disasters long before there were humans. She will survive us, too. Is the earth in trouble? No. As Lynn Margulis has said, “Gaia is one tough bitch.”101 Is the Human Race in Trouble? Maybe! It seems that the earth can heal, but we do not know how quickly. Gaia may not be able to react in time to save us from our own folly. From the perspective of an organism with a lifespan measured in terms of eons, rather than decades, we humans may seem expendable. Indeed we are. More than 99% of all species to inhabit this earth are now extinct, and Gaia takes it all in stride. As Margulis has said, Gaia is no doting mother. Something we might do, whether it eradicates our fellow species, releasing CO2, methane, chlorofluorocarbons, and other gasses into the air, or simply logging the world’s rain forests, may well set in motion a cascade of events which will have very unpleasant consequences for us as a species.

If, as mystical traditions tell us, the earth is a living system, how might she be doing that most fundamental process of life known as breathing? Might evidence for the earth’s breathing not be witnessed as oscillations in the flow of subtle energies through and between the earth and the cosmos? This was the thinking of Russian astrophysicist Vladisvlav Lugoveko.102 In the course of a lifetime of research, he has devised experiments that detect and measure just such an oscillation in this flow. Moreover, his experiments have been replicated. During the past decade, Lugovenko’s experimental data has revealed not only that the earth breathes—with striking similarities to the breathing

100Gaia theory is about life processes on earth: the theory put forward by James Lovelock holds that the earth is a self-regulating organism with its own lifecycle. 101Lynn Margulis, The Third Culture, www.edge.org/documents/ThirdCulture/n-Ch.7.html; see in particular, Chapter 7. 102Carol Hiltner, “The Breathing of the Earth” at www.spiritofmaat.com. 196 Rush to Riches patterns of human beings—but that her breathing is dynamically affected not only by events in the Cosmos but also by human thought. What is this ‘breathing’ of the earth? First of all, Lugovenko has found that there is a daily rhythm. The breathing is quiet at night. Then, as the earth spins toward the sunrise, the particular pattern and amplitude of that day moves like a wave around the earth, varying gradually according to other influences like sun spots, meteorological disturbances, earthquakes, and human activity. There are seasonal fluctuations. For example, the earth’s breathing is quieter in the winter. There appear to be longer breathing cycles—periods of years—that seem to be affected by celestial bodies such as comets. Lugovenko defines the breathing of the earth as “the temporary variations of a cosmo-terrestrial field,” and refers to both “global” and “local” breathing.103 Global breathing consists of all possible methods of receiving, processing, and obtaining energy from external space through a complex system of grids and chakras of different calibres. Local breathing is a measurable change of width of zones of regular Hartmann or Curry grids.104 The concept of a universal space energy that people can use to realize supersensory phenomena has deep roots in cultures of all peoples. Sacred Indian and Buddhist texts describe this same ancient space energy and designate it with the mystical syllable OM. This syllable causes an oscillation in the brain that enables various chakras to accept space energy. We call the interaction of this energy with the earth a “cosmo-terrestrial field,” which is defined as the substance by which the biopower interaction

103Vladislav Lugovenko, “Project Camelot” at www.projectcamelot.org. 104Earth radiation is a hypothetical geophysical phenomenon described primarily by the German authors Manfred Curry and Ernst Hartmann. This is known as Curry Lines. Both men describe a mystic force field, similar to Odic force, Mana, and Qi, that covers the Earth at regular intervals and can be detected by dowsing a divining rod. It is not supposed to be detectable by common scientific instruments but some still connect it to telluric currents, which are actual phenomena, detectable by scientific instruments. War on Atmosphere 197 between space and earth takes place. The cosmo-terrestrial field is a phenomenon on the boundary between the thin (unmanifest) world and the material (manifest) world. The cosmo-terrestrial field has many interesting properties, including whirlwind movement, resonance, and virtually instantaneous distribution over vast distances (at least within the limits of the solar system). This energy can be perceived by highly sensitive people and by specially created equipment. Each contributor gives his own determination of the qualities of the field that he researches. How is it measured? Because such measurement is a new endeavour for western science, and because the definitions and units of measure are still being worked out, researchers have each been creating their own means to measure this energy. Lugovenko uses two primary means. The first is through a pair of sensors—one copper (placed over a positive vortex) and one nephrite stone (placed over a negative, or dark, vortex). Each of these sensors is suspended by wire over a radial graph, and they both move in opposite directions—that is, one goes clockwise and the other goes counter-clockwise. At intervals determined by how quickly the direction and amplitude change, Lugovenko observes and records the time and the position of the sensors in his lab book. Lugovenko’s second means of measurement is the use of dowsing rods and a pendulum, the accuracy of which he has verified through years of comparing his dowsing results with read-outs from electronic instrumentation. He uses copper dowsing rods to locate the positive and negative energy vortexes. When people visited Lugovenko’s home outside Moscow, he demonstrated his technique to them. First, he set his intention, and started walking across the room holding the dowsing rods so they pointed in front of him. About five feet from where he had his instrumentation set up, the rods abruptly separated so they pointed out to each side. Then, he handed the rods to the audience, and they were able to obtain the same results. Lugovenko also links with other observers around the world, enabling him to compare and validate his results globally. 198 Rush to Riches

When he was asked why, as a senior scientist at a prestigious research institute, he was conducting these experiments at his home. With a wry smile, he answered (through a translator), “We used to have the most advanced instrumentation, but with Perestroika,105 budgets were reduced, and this line of research was cut. So, I continue it at home, because it is important.”106 Variations in the Earth’s Breathing: After charting the general characteristics of the breathing of the earth, Lugovenko started examining the variations and anomalies. The indented text below is excerpted from two of his translated articles: (1) “Solar Activity,” according to which the maximal activity of breathing of the earth occurs when there is a minimum of solar activity and (2) “The Hale-Bopp Comet” in which he held that just the first inhalation of the earth after its night’s sleep is very interesting.107 It sets the tone of intensity for the whole day, and essentially depends on how close the current period is to the longest day of the year (June 22 in the Northern Hemisphere). The nearer the date is to June 22, the more powerful is the first morning’s inhalation of the planet. Since 1992, this effect has become stronger each year—until 1997. Before the appearance of the Hale-Bopp comet, the usual period of breathing of the earth for average latitudes was 30 to 40 minutes. By the end of March 1997, it had decreased to about one minute! The value was so slight that it became difficult to measure. For almost a whole year, the earth breathed very frequently. People felt this. In the most intense days (at the close of March and beginning of April, when the comet Hale-Bopp was especially close to the earth and to the Sun), there were many calls for first aid, and many complained of poor health. Prabakar Poddar, director of the

105Perestroika (Russian for ‘restructuring’) is the key element of the campaign initiated by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to reform and to revitalize the Soviet system. 106Vladislav Lugovenko, “Project Camelot” at www.projectcamelot.org. 107Vladislav Lugovenko with Carol Hiltner, “Breathing of the Earth” www.spiritofmaat.com. War on Atmosphere 199

Institute of Application Geophysics in India, reports repeatedly that the maximum positive readings of the cosmo-terrestrial field near Madras occur on religious holidays. What are the implications? Lugovenko offers clear scientific documentation that the earth “breathes,” and that her breathing is reactive to stimulation—this being one of the definitions of what constitutes life. Even more significantly, he has shown that the breathing of the earth is responsive to human intention, that humanity, through our thoughts and prayers, radically impacts the earth.

Earth a Super Organism: A Global Immune System Earth is a living planet, a super organism. Activity is constantly taking place not only on the surface, but also on the inside, i.e., beneath our feet. We do not know exactly how all these systems are coordinated, but we sense complex systems run perfectly, a profound activity taking place continuously, without pause. When you stop to think about it, our planet does act like a huge organism. If you look at the interrelationship between plants and atmospherics, animals and humans, rocks and water, a complex pattern of symbiotic processes seem to perfectly complement each other. Should one system be pushed out of balance by some external force, such as a massive injection of atmospheric carbon dioxide, often a volcanic event? Other processes are stimulated to counteract the instability, such as more phytoplankton appear in the oceans to absorb the carbon dioxide in the water. Many of these processes could be interpreted as a “global immune system.” It is true. After all, the human body is composed of hundreds of billions of bacteria, and yet we consider the human body to be a single organism. Earth is a super organism and the earth does have internal organs. Earth’s core is the heart, mantle is the kidneys, crust is the liver, water is the blood, trees are the lungs, electromagnetic force is the energy, gravity is the pulse and natural resources are the vitamins of the earth. The mineral fields are the ‘eyes’, ‘ears’, and ‘nerves’ of the planet, the channels that the earth uses to transmit the space power. A volcano is actually a zit. When it erupts, the lava is just zit juice. 200 Rush to Riches

Earthquakes happen when earth is hungry. The earth eats asteroids and space debris that is actually little tiny space animals. According to geophysical and geological researchers, the planet has almost a reaction to its ‘wounds’, it gives a start in the places, where it has been ‘injured’ and has an ability to recalibrate itself. Volcanic eruptions in time turn in to meadows, earthquakes turn into beautiful lakes, asteroid impact turns into a geological masterpiece and tsunami hit land turns into tropical rain forest. Earth is a collection of self regulating systems. One of the most important balances in our planet is revealed in the atmosphere that surrounds us. The atmosphere of the earth holds the most appropriate gasses in the most appropriate ratio needed for the survival not only of human beings, but also of all the living beings on the earth. The 77% of nitrogen, 21% of oxygen, and 1% of carbon dioxide as well as other gasses readily available in the atmosphere represent the ideal figures necessary for the survival of living beings. If the oxygen percentage in the atmosphere were greater than 21%, the cells in our body would soon start to suffer great damages. The vegetation and hydrocarbon molecules needed for life would also be destroyed. If this percentage were any less, this would cause difficulties in our respiration and the food we eat would not be converted into energy. These proportions remain constant, thanks to a perfect system. The vegetation covering the earth converts carbon dioxide to oxygen, producing 190 billion tons of oxygen every day. The proportion of other gasses is always kept constant on the earth by the help of interconnected complex systems. Life is thus well sustained. Any break in the balance, though instantaneous, or any change of ratios, even for a very short time period, would mean the total destruction of life. Yet, this does not happen. The formation of these gasses in the atmosphere just in the amount people need and the constant preservation of these ratios indicate a planned creation. War on Atmosphere 201

At the same time, the earth has the ideal size in terms of magnitude to possess an atmosphere. If the mass of the earth were a little less, then its gravitational force would be insufficient and the atmosphere would be dispersed in space. If its mass were a little greater, then the gravitational force would be too much and the earth would absorb all gasses in the atmosphere. There is an incredibly high number of conditions required for the formation of an atmosphere such as the one our world currently has and all of these conditions should exist altogether to be able to talk of life. It is sufficient to look at millions of dead planets in space in order to understand that the delicate balances required for life on earth is not a result of random coincidences. The conditions essential for life are too complicated to have been formed “on their own” and at random, and these conditions are specially created for life alone. Examining only a part of the balances and harmony on the earth is enough to comprehend the superior being of God and grasp the existence of a planned creation in every detail of the universe. It is no doubt impossible for a person or any other living being to build such an enormous balance and order. Nor are the components of this order such as atoms, elements, molecules, and gasses capable of establishing an order based on such intricate and extremely delicate calculations and measurements, and such fine tunings. This is because activities like planning, ordering, arranging, calculating, and proportioning can only be realized by beings that possess wisdom, knowledge, and power. All life on earth cooperated with the rules of the Mother Earth, but Homo sapiens are the only trouble makers who systematically destroy all life supporting systems. The history of human civilization on planet earth counts three million years. However, the things that people have been doing to their planet for many decades cause irreparable damage to all living beings, including humans themselves. Man has destroyed all the vital organs of the Mother Earth by plundering, pillaging, and exploiting her natural resources, leaving the mother wounded and bleeding. 202 Rush to Riches

Air Pollution: Poison Breathing Earth As I look to the world, where the apotheosis of industrialization has been reached, the life here does not appeal to me. To use the language of the Bible, “What shall it avail a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?” (Mark 8:36). In modern terms, it is beneath human dignity to lose one’s individuality and become a mere cog in the machine. God forbid that rest of the world ever takes to industrialism after the manner of the West. If an entire world of 6.5 billion took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts. We have to go after Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. Unless the capitalists of the world help to avert that tragedy by becoming trustees of the welfare of the masses, and by devoting their talents not to amassing wealth for themselves but to the service of the masses in an altruistic spirit, they will end either by destroying the masses or being destroyed by them. Unfortunately, new developing countries such as India, China, and Brazil have chosen a destructive path, as a result every day, tons of carbon dioxide is poured into our atmosphere through exhaust pipes in cars. Unfortunately, as carbon dioxide is a “greenhouse gas,” it contributes to global warming. This process is known as the greenhouse effect. Heat becomes trapped near the surface, caused by gasses like carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, nitric oxide and chlorofluorocarbons. At the current rate, scientific experts agree that summer temperatures will increase by 3 Celsius, by the summer of 2050! If carbon dioxide emissions were halted today, it would take more than a century for the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide to drop down to its pre-industrial level. Furthermore, about 15% of all carbon dioxide which has already been emitted would remain airborne for thousands of years, causing indefinite warming. Before human beings began to affect the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the natural emissions of carbon dioxide were nearly exactly balanced by natural process, which remove carbon dioxide, such as photosynthesis. As a result, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has changed War on Atmosphere 203 minutely for 10,000 years. Although the oceans and forests absorb about half the carbon dioxide emitted by industry, the rest builds up in our atmosphere. As a result, carbon dioxide levels are now 30% above what they were in times before industry. Car emissions also contribute to a large amount of air pollution. Carbon dioxide, a product from the combustion of gasoline, undergoes a series of reactions in the air producing deadly carbon monoxide gas. Unburned hydrocarbons and nitrogen dioxide emissions also produce other highly toxic gasses. Developing countries, when they begin to exploit other nations—as they must if they become industrialized—will be a curse for other nations, a menace to the world. Why should I think of industrializing India to exploit other nations? I do not believe that industrialization is necessary in any case for any country. Indeed, I believe that independent India can only discharge her duty towards a groaning world by adopting a simple but ennobled life by developing her thousands of cottage industries and living at peace with the world. High thinking is inconsistent with complicated material life based on high speed imposed on us by Mammon worship. All the graces of life are possible only when we learn the art of noble living. Whether such plain living is possible for an isolated nation, however large geographically and numerically, in the face of a world armed to the teeth and in the midst of pomp and circumstance is a question open to the doubt of a sceptic. The answer is straight and simple: If plain life is worth living, then the attempt is worth making, even though only an individual or group makes the effort. Before we choose the path of technology and development, we should come out clean from the carbon- based fossil fuel energy on which we depend 80%. Until we find an alternative green energy, it is wise to choose better, less polluting options. The by-products of fossil fuels are pollutants, such as sulphur dioxide, soot, and ash. These pollutants, however, also change the properties of clouds. Clouds are formed when water droplets are seeded by air-borne particles, 204 Rush to Riches such as pollen. Polluted air results in clouds with larger number of droplets than unpolluted clouds. This then makes those clouds more reflective. More of the sun’s heat and energy are, therefore, reflected back into space. This reduction of heat reaching the earth is known as global dimming. The pollutants that lead to global dimming also lead to various human and environmental problems, such as smog, respiratory problems, and acid rain. The impacts of global dimming itself, however, can be devastating. The death toll that global dimming may have already caused is thought to be massive. Climatologists studying this phenomenon believe that the reflection of heat have made waters in the northern hemisphere cooler. As a result, less rain has formed in key areas and crucial rainfall has failed to arrive over the Sahel in Northern Africa. In the 1970s and 1980s, massive famines were caused by failed rains which climatologists had never quite understood why they had failed. At the same time, I believe that some key industries are necessary, especially village industries. In India, villages are always neglected from the frame of development. In seeking to revive such village industries, as are capable of being revived, I am trying to do what every lover of village life, everyone who realizes the tragic meaning of the disintegration of villages is doing or trying to do. The revival of the village is possible only when it is no more exploited. Industrialization on a mass scale will necessarily lead to passive or active exploitation of the villagers as the problems of competition and marketing come in. Therefore, we have to concentrate on the village being self-contained, manufacturing mainly for use. Provided this character of the village industry is maintained, there would be no objection to villagers using even the modern machines and tools that they can make and afford to use. Only, they should not be used as a means of exploitations of others. India needs a real planning and real planning consists in the best utilization of the whole man-power of India and the distribution of the raw products of India in her numerous War on Atmosphere 205 villages instead of sending them outside and re-buying finished articles at fabulous prices. Unfortunately, the poorest of the poor live in the most resource rich continents in the world, Asia, Africa, and South America, for example. More than half of the world’s poorest people live in countries rich in natural resources. Despite billion dollar industries operating on their lands, many resource-rich countries exhibit classic signs of the “resource curse” with high rates of underdevelopment, internal conflict, and political instability, all of which impinge on the rights of citizens. This hearing is a timely opportunity to assess the progress made in the last decade to improve human rights and development in these countries. For many decades, these important issues were not part of the international development agenda. Recently, UN and other nongovernmental organizations as well as civil society groups in the developing countries have begun calling attention to the tragic irony of extreme poverty in countries with abundant natural resources. We can play a significant role in increasing the information available to citizens in countries rich in natural resources empowering them to hold their governments accountable. India and other countries must recognize that more comprehensive strategies are needed for resource-rich states to truly overcome the “resource curse” through human rights promotion, political accountability, and improved transparency in all areas. Only then can citizens truly begin to see the benefits of natural resource extraction. God has given every gift to humanity you could ever imagine and they have to be equally shared and distributed.

Nature’s Extermination Camps: New Holocaust Most of the developing countries’ landscape resembles like extermination camps, with the new roads, with new massive production and storing facilities. With the arrival of a new- middle-class society, addiction to consumerism is pushed to the extreme. Most of the factories in the third world, established by multinational corporations, in the first place were not granted permission to operate in their own native land, they were 206 Rush to Riches rejected, but they found their way into poor countries. Most of the first world countries wouldn’t allow any car factories, rubber factories, cement factories, paint factories, and leather factories to operate in their respective countries. They want their land, water, air, and environment clean and pure for their future generations. These rich countries, in the name of industrialization, have built new extermination camps in the third world. As a consequence, hundreds and millions tons of carbon is being dumped in the atmosphere, thousands of species of animals and plants face extinction and these industries have become the new killing machines. Most of the productions are intended to far away countries, while only few end up in local markets, the effluents from the factories do the irreparable and permanent damage to the earth systems. Most of the nations became affluent by dumping effluents on poor nations. During colonial times these capitalistic nations stripped all the resources in the colonized lands and colonization days are not yet over, still continues; third world becomes the waste disposal or dumpster, or, literally, extermination camps. Extermination camps were killing centres designed to carry out genocide. Extermination camp was the term applied to a group of camps set up by Nazi Germany during World War II for the express purpose of killing the Jews of Europe, although members of some other groups whom the Nazis wished to exterminate, such as Roma (Gypsies) and Soviet prisoners of war, as well as many Poles and others, were also killed in these camps. This was part of what has come to be known as the Holocaust. Many Jews were worked to death in these camps, but eventually the Jewish labour force, no matter how useful to the German war effort, was destined for extermination. In all Nazi camps, there were very high death rates as a result of starvation, disease, and exhaustion, but only the extermination camps were designed specifically for mass killing. The method of killing at these camps was by poisonous gas, usually in ‘gas chambers’, although many prisoners were killed in mass shootings and by War on Atmosphere 207 other means. The bodies of those killed were destroyed in crematoria and the ashes buried or scattered. Many were constructed during Operation Reinhard, the code name for the systematic killing of the Jews of Europe, widely known under the euphemism, the “final solution of the Jewish question.” The operation was decided at the Wannsee Conference of January 1942 and carried out under the administrative control of Adolf Eichmann. The same Nazi concentration-camp-scenario could be seen from the plane when you fly over India, as you would witness thousands of factories with black smoke, deep scars on lithosphere, fragmented tropical rainforests for roads and housing, effluents from factories contaminating rivers estuaries and transportation spitting poisonous gasses into the atmosphere. Six million Jews would perish in these death camps. Virtually, the whole Jewish population of Poland died in these camps. As the Soviet armed forces advanced into Poland in 1944, the camps were closed and partly or completely dismantled to conceal what had taken place in them. The post-war Polish Communist government further partly dismantled the campsites, and generally allowed them to decay. Monuments of various kinds were erected at the camps, although these usually did not mention that the people killed in them were nearly all Jews. After the fall of Communism in 1991, the camp sites became more accessible and have become centres of tourism, particularly at Auschwitz, the best-known of them. Modern industrialization is a big killing machine and it is a New Holocaust. It has destroyed or altered the productivity of all ecosystems and destroyed so many species of animals and plants. In the short term, without doubt, it offers temporary benefits: job, food, security, healthcare, and economic status. But in the long run, it destroys everything that is essential to support life. The euphemism, “Final solution of the Jewish question,” the code name for the systematic killing of the Jews of Europe, perhaps comes back to haunt our present generation in 208 Rush to Riches developing countries. Industrialization is the final solution of ending all life in the Third World, “the final question of human life” as well.

Present Levels of Greenhouse Gasses Current levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere are higher than at any time in the past 650,000 years, say researchers who have finished cataloguing air bubbles trapped for millennia inside Antarctic ice. The record, which extends back over the past eight ice ages, shows that today’s concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane far outstrip those in the past. For the past ten years, the average annual rate of increase is 2.04 parts per million (ppm). Both atmospheric CO2 and climate change are accelerating. Climate scientists say we have years, not decades, to stabilize CO2 and other greenhouse gasses. The situation is similar for methane: during this period, levels hovered around 600 parts per billion. Today’s atmospheric methane concentration is well over 1,700 ppb. Non-energy-related sources of greenhouse gasses include manufactured halocarbons, methane, and nitrous oxide from agriculture, and methane from animal farms and landfills. Halocarbons is the general label applied to chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), halons, and chlorocarbons (CCs). Halocarbons have the largest radiative impact per molecule of any of the greenhouse gasses. However, halocarbon emission volumes are much lower than

CO2 emission volumes, so that the total halocarbon contribution to global warming is less than that of CO2 from the sources. The CFCs also threaten the stratospheric ozone layer. Emissions of CFCs are scheduled to be eliminated under the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty signed in 1987 and strengthened in 1990 that commits nations to act to preserve the ozone layer. Positive action under the Protocol, including bringing additional nations under its umbrella, continues to be a visible demonstration of the possibility of global action on War on Atmosphere 209 environmental questions. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in 2010, the present level of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere is as follows: Water vapour is by far the most abundant of the greenhouse gasses, making up about 3% of the atmosphere or 30,000 parts per million (ppm). Although responsible for up to 70% of global warming, because 99.99% of water vapour is of natural origin, this greenhouse gas is not amenable to man-made mitigation efforts; Carbon dioxide is the largest of the anthropogenic greenhouse gasses. The present day level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 387 ppm, an increase of 107 ppm (man-made) since pre-industrial times. Levels of methane, natural and man-made, are at 1,774 parts per billion (ppb) with 1,040 ppb added since 1750. Nitrous Oxide levels are at 314 ppb with 44 ppb added since 1750. Combined levels of CFC gasses such Freon-11 and Freon-12, which were used in refrigeration and air conditioning processes until banned under the Montreal Protocol as damaging to the ozone layer, are still at 1070 parts per trillion (ppt); HFC gasses or F-Gas, as they are collectively known, replaced CFC gasses and are now at combined levels approaching 100 ppt; Sulphur hexafluoride levels are at 5 ppt. CFC, HFC, and Sulphur hexafluoride gasses are entirely man made and did not exist prior to industrialization.

Methane in Siberian Permafrost Methane is a greenhouse gas, 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. It is released from previously frozen soils in two ways. When the organic material (which contains carbon) is stored in permafrost thaws, it begins to decompose and, under anaerobic conditions, gradually releases methane. Methane can also be stored in the seabed as methane gas or methane hydrates are, then, released as sub-sea permafrost thaws. These releases can be larger and more abrupt than those that result from decomposition. The East Siberian Arctic Shelf is a methane-rich area that encompasses more than 2 million square kilometres of seafloor in the Arctic Ocean. It is more than three times as large 210 Rush to Riches as the nearby Siberian wetlands, which have been considered the primary Northern Hemisphere source of atmospheric methane. The East Siberian Arctic Shelf is already a significant methane source, releasing 7 teragrams of methane yearly, which is as much as is emitted from the rest of the ocean. A teragram is equal to about 1.1 million tons. In the permafrost bottom of the 200-metre-deep sea, enormous stores of gas hydrates lie dormant in mighty frozen layers of sediment. The carbon content of the ice-and-methane mixture here is estimated at 540 billion tons. Scientists learned last year that the permamelt contains a staggering 1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon, about twice as much carbon as contained in the atmosphere, much of which would be released as methane. Methane is extremely potent, a heat-trapping gas as

CO2 over a 100 year time horizon, but 72 times as potent over 20 years! The carbon is locked in a freezer, i.e., in the part of the planet warming up the fastest. Half the land-based permafrost would vanish by mid-century on our current emissions path. No climate model currently incorporates the amplifying feedback from methane released by the defrosting tundra. The must-read National Science Foundation press release warns: “release of even a fraction of the methane stored in the shelf could trigger abrupt climate warming.”108 The NSF is normally a very staid organization. If they are worried, everybody should be. It is increasingly clear that if the world strays significantly above 450 ppm atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide for any length of time, we will find it unimaginably difficult to stop short of 800 to 1000 ppm. The amount of methane currently coming out of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is comparable to the amount coming out of the entire world’s oceans. “Our concern is that the sub-sea permafrost has been showing signs of destabilization already,” says the Russian

108“Science Stunner: Vast East Siberian Arctic Shelf Methane Stores” at www.thinkprogress.org. War on Atmosphere 211 biogeochemist Natalia Shakhova, currently a guest scientist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks who is also a member of the Pacific Institute of Geography at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Vladivostok.109 “If it further destabilizes, the methane emissions may not be teragrams, it would be significantly larger.” Shakhova notes that the Earth’s geological record indicates that atmospheric methane concentrations have varied between about 0.3 to 0.4 parts per million during cold periods to 0.6 to 0.7 parts per million during warm periods. Current average methane concentrations in the Arctic average about 1.85 parts per million, the highest in 400,000 years, she claims. Concentrations above the East Siberian Arctic Shelf are even higher. The East Siberian Arctic Shelf is a relative frontier in methane studies. The shelf is shallow, 50 meters (164 feet) or less in depth, which means it has been alternately submerged or terrestrial, depending on sea levels throughout earth’s history. During the earth’s coldest periods, it is a frozen arctic coastal plain and does not release methane. As the earth warms and sea level rises, it is inundated with seawater, which is 12-15 degrees warmer than the average air temperature.

Ice Core Readings: Ultimate Time Capsule An ice core is a core sample from the accumulation of snow and ice over many years that have re-crystallized and have trapped air bubbles from previous time periods, a container of information. Antarctica is a container of information from our past, because it had been soaking up climatic information from the atmosphere over hundreds of thousands of years. That information was locked up inside air bubbles in the ice, which could reveal how the earth’s atmosphere had changed over time. Although there had been other studies of ice in Antarctica, Greenland, and Europe by the mid-1980s, no one had uncovered any ice samples showing distinct atmospheric changes over

109“The Environmentalist: Arctic Methane Causing Concern” at www.theenvironmentalist.com. 212 Rush to Riches recent centuries. Three kilometres below the Antarctic’s surface earth’s climate history is written in ice. Eric Wolff, leader of the British Antarctic Survey’s Chemistry and Past Climate team, explains how to decipher the ultimate time capsule. There are things ice cores can tell you that nothing else can. In particular, they allow us to see the composition of the atmosphere in the past. There is no other way of getting that information. Ice cores are an unusually pure way of measuring the atmosphere but when it comes to climate they really only tell you about the polar climate. People have collected ice cores from mountains in the tropics but they tend to be partly melted and refrozen and are hard to interpret. So, ice cores are historical climate documents. How far back can they take us? The oldest ice collected is from a core in Antarctica, which is three kilometres deep and contains 800,000 years of ice. We would like to get to ice 1.5 million years old. In the last 800,000 years ice ages came and went roughly every 100,000 years but before that we know from marine sediments that ice ages came and went every 40,000 years. Why this change? One theory is that CO2 levels decreased so the ice sheets got larger, and the earth system had a longer time scale. If we could get an ice core from that era we could say whether that is correct. How do you drill ice cores? To drill for very old ice you go somewhere with a low snowfall rate, like ice domes on top of ice sheets where the ice has not flowed from anywhere else. We only drill about two to three meters of ice at a time. The drill is actually quite short. It is on the end of a wire. It takes about one hour for the drill to go down three kilometres; so, most time is spent waiting for the drill to go down and come back up again. The longest core took three summer seasons to drill. The core comes to the surface and we then cut the ice into sections with saws. It then goes back to Europe frozen. We want to keep it frozen to the last possible moment before analysis. How do you date an ice core? If somewhere has quite a high snowfall rate you can count back the summer and winter War on Atmosphere 213 snowfalls like tree rings. In Greenland, researchers have counted back 60,000 years. But, in the oldest ice cores, there is not enough snowfall. There we estimate age by measuring how much snow falls each year, calculating how it thins through ice physics, and checking the results by comparing with other data. For example, the 800,000 year old ice core can be dated because we know that 780,000 years ago the earth’s magnetic field reversed. That increased the amount of cosmic rays that entered the earth’s atmosphere and formed the radioactive isotope beryllium-10, which can be measured in ice cores. How exactly do ice cores tell us about the past climate? Aren’t they just water and air? First, the water molecules tell us about temperature because the balance of different isotopes of water reveals the temperature when the snow fell. We can see the composition of water changing from summer to winter, and from warm period to ice age. Second, every snowflake has at its centre a particle of sea salt or dust, and particles attach to it as it falls. Those particles tell us about the composition of the atmosphere. For example, after a big volcanic eruption the amount of sulphuric acid in the ice increases for a couple of years. Finally, there is the air itself. In Antarctica, snow never melts; it gets buried by more years of snow and the weight crushes the snowflakes into a solid matrix which traps air bubbles. Those air bubbles contain a record of every stable molecule in the air: nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, and methane. So, what key climate facts have ice cores revealed? We all take for granted that CO2 and methane levels have increased in the last 200 years. But only from ice cores can we be absolutely sure. Regular measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere started just 50 years ago. Ice cores show CO2 levels in the atmosphere started increasing in about 1800, from about 280 parts per million (ppm) to 390 ppm today. Methane concentrations have more than doubled. Ice cores have shown that the recent warming of the last 50 years in the Antarctic Peninsula region is unusual in the context of the last few hundred years. In Greenland, ice cores 214 Rush to Riches from the last ice age—between 80,000 and 30,000 years ago— have revealed climate jumps of 10 degrees Celsius within 30 to 40 years. Nobody would have believed that possible. How could the climate transform so quickly? People think that the ocean circulation system that transports heat in the oceans—what people experience in Europe as the Gulf Stream—was switching from a strong to a weak mode and back again. The reason was probably because in the last ice age large amounts of ice melted off the North American ice sheet into the North Atlantic. That can’t happen now because we don’t have that ice sheet. Can ice cores tell us much about the climate future? Yes and no. What climate history can tell us is what has happened and what can happen; and we can then compare climate models with the ice core record.

Tree Ring Readings: Dendrochronology Tree rings are a good place to start thinking about how climate researchers get information about past climates. In certain cases, trees can live for many hundreds of years and in an extraordinary case, like the bristlecone pine,110 thousands of years! Not only are bristlecone pines the longest lived trees on earth, they also live in a place where, even when they do die, they are well preserved over hundreds or thousands of years. We can, therefore, look at a living bristlecone, take its ring record then look at a dead tree and see where the rings match up. In this way, scientists have established a ring record that records climate signals for over 9,000 years into the past. Each year trees add rings which can indicate what sort of growing season the tree experienced. Interestingly, these rings are more than a temperature indicator, they also tell the researcher about moisture and cloudiness as well. Dendrochronology is the study

110Bristlecone Pine is a common name for a cone-bearing evergreen tree native to high, dry mountainous areas in the western United States. Bristlecone pines, named for the bristle-like prickles on the cone scales, are renowned for their longevity; some specimens have reached ages of 3,000 to 5,000 years, making bristlecone pines the oldest known living trees. War on Atmosphere 215 of climate change as recorded by tree growth rings. Each year, trees add a layer of growth between the older wood and the bark. The layer, or ring seen in cross section, can be wide, recording a wet season, or narrow, recording a dry growing season. Because the rings are basically recording a good growing season or a bad growing season, they are indirectly recording more than just moisture. They also document temperature and cloud cover as they impact tree growth as well. This record of annual summer information is very important when you consider that certain types of trees grow slowly over hundreds and hundreds of years and, therefore, they contain a record of as many years of climate and climate change. Trees in the temperate zone only record the growing season, so the winter season, no matter how dramatic, will not be seen in the ring record. Interestingly, trees in tropical regions grow year round and, therefore, show no real obvious annual growth rings. Therefore, climate data from equatorial areas is difficult to piece out and use. The record is geographically limited in another way too. Trees do not grow in all places on earth; therefore, we don’t have a tree ring record of climate change for each region and each ecologic niche globally. Dendrochronology is currently still in its scientific infancy; there are many problems in the use of tree rings, particularly because the growth of tree rings can be impacted by many issues—not just rainfall amount, temperature, and cloud cover—but also by wind, soil properties, disease, or even pollution. These issues can certainly impact tree ring growth and cloud the scientific record. Fortunately, scientists are gaining new insight in the reading and use of tree rings, and hope that they can be used to help understand whether global warming has any precedent in the ring record of the past 1,000 years.

Chlorofluorocarbons: Carbon Debate Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are man-made chemical compounds used as refrigerants, cleaning solvents, aerosols, propellants, and 216 Rush to Riches blowing agents for foam packaging in many commercial applications. CFCs do not spontaneously occur in nature. They were developed by industrial chemists. CFCs are non-toxic, chemically non-reactive, inflammable, and extremely stable near earth’s surface. Their apparent safety and commercial effectiveness led to widespread use, and to steadily rising concentrations of CFCs in the atmosphere, throughout the twentieth century. CFCs are generally non-reactive in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere, but intense ultraviolet radiation in the outer layer of the atmosphere, called the stratosphere, decomposes CFCs into component molecules and atoms of chlorine. These subcomponents initiate a chain of chemical reactions that quickly breaks down molecules of radiation-shielding ozone (O3) in the lower stratosphere. The stratospheric ozone layer absorbs ultraviolet radiation and protects earth’s surface from destructive biological effects of intense solar radiation, including cancers and cataracts in humans. One may be exposed to CFCs if one uses a pre- 2008 inhaler that contains CFCs, use older window air conditioners that contain CFCs, or drive an older car with an air conditioner that contains CFCs. If you use an older refrigerator that contains CFCs and if the CFCs leak out of the refrigerator, you can be exposed. Older appliances and vehicles need to be carefully handled for safe disposal of the CFCs they contain. At work, you can be exposed to CFCs if you work in a facility that recycles CFCs in air conditioners. You can be exposed if you work at a facility that has permission to use recycled or stockpiled CFCs, or conducts research that uses them. How can CFCs affect my health? Direct exposure to some types of CFCs can cause unconsciousness, shortness of breath, and irregular heartbeat. It can also cause confusion, drowsiness, coughing, sore throat, difficult breathing, and eye redness and pain. Direct skin contact with some types of CFCs can cause frostbite or dry skin. When CFCs destroy the ozone layer, harmful ultraviolet War on Atmosphere 217 rays reach the earth. Exposure to increased ultraviolet rays can cause skin cancer, cataracts, and weakened immune systems.

Factories or Mega Gas Chambers: Zyklon-B Gas We are, by default, conducting a massive clinical toxicological trial. Our children and their children are the experimental animals. We are poisoning our children via pollution, electrical exposure, chemical use, and poor diet, which include food additives that are unsafe. I don’t think you would voluntarily take your children down to a laboratory and offer them as experimental subjects for toxic chemical testing. Yet, that is exactly what is going on today, when we are exposed to toxins released in atmosphere and turning our neighbourhood and home as a Mega Gas Chamber. A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiate gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used. The gas chambers were mostly large rooms, holding numerous people at once. The victims were forced to undress, men, women and child alike, and given the impression that they would be taking a shower to clean off after the long train ride to the ‘camp’ (the Nazi’s called it a “work camp”). There were no windows, just overhead showers in multitude. Once inside, instead of water coming out of the showerhead, a gas would be released, killing all those inside. Initially, carbon monoxide (exhaust gas) was used, then, later on, experiments were conducted with Hydrogen Cyanide (Called Zyklon-B). Carbon monoxide was first used in the 1930s by the Nazis in their “Euthanasia Program”—to kill those people who were mentally and/or physically handicapped, as they did not believe that those whom were impaired had a right to live and cost the ‘state’ money. It was less expensive to kill them than to house and treat the ill. The Nazis had gas chambers in mobile vans, and in some of the Concentration Camps (extermination camps) there were gas chambers large enough to hold and kill upwards of 2500 people at a time; it has been reported in a 218 Rush to Riches journal entry that there were claw and bite marks on people and walls, from those trying to keep away from the gas, clawing and biting one another in pain and horror.111 The future of industrialization is dark. Industrialization is, I am afraid, going to be a curse for the humankind. Exploitation of one nation by another cannot go on for all time. Industrialization depends entirely on your capacity to exploit, on foreign markets being open to you, and on the absence of competitors, it will lead to domination of one nation, ultimately again it sounds like colonialism, this time not stripping resources but spitting gasses. Industrialization in the developing countries does the same thing, spitting out poisonous gasses into the atmosphere, sometimes it doesn’t resemble like development, but it looks like a “Nazi Euthanasia Program.”112 Most of the developing countries depend on coal-fired plants with their primitive technologies, pumping up more pollutants than productivity. More than 80% of the energy comes from fossil fuels in the third world, where do you think all those gasses eventually end up? If we continue at the same rate with the existing technology, we might turn atmosphere into a giant gas chamber and, in turn, it will become a big killing machine ever invented by humanity. Nobody is truly able to say what it was like in the Gas Chambers in the extermination camps, as not a single person who entered it survived; however, you may try to imagine being forced to strip down with people you both know and love, and, complete strangers; having to remove everything, including wedding bands, watches, etc., then, being led to a large dark room, on the way meeting up with others from the opposite sex who were made also to remove all articles on 111“What Were the Gas Chambers Like During the Holocaust” at www.wiki.answers.com. 112In the fall of 1941, the Nazis began deporting all the Jews of occupied Europe to the east (Poland and the western USSR) in order to exterminate them. In the meantime, in Germany, they had already carried out their program of exterminating people who were mentally impaired or severely disabled. This program came to be known as Nazi Euthanasia Program. War on Atmosphere 219 themselves; forced as a herd of cattle with very young, crying children, the elderly—listening to them wail and pray to God for help, and those in-between, begging for the door to be opened— then the hissing of the gas is heard followed by the screams of those inside, and then the mad rush of those strong enough to try to force themselves on top of you, and/or others so that they may live a few seconds more. The pristine land of poor countries is becoming like Auschwitz-Birkenau mega gas chambers. In combination with industrialization and population explosion, the amount of filth in the streets creates egregiously unsanitary conditions. A breath could not be taken free from the coal dust and smoke that permeates the air. We know fossil fuels produce poisonous gasses which are killing hundreds and thousands of microscopic bacteria, plankton, and corals, while we are immune at present, but when these poisonous gasses cross the safe limit in the atmosphere, we will definitely feel the power of deadly Zyklon- B. It is a powerful insecticide which serves as a carrier for the gas Hydrocyanic acid, or HCN. It usually comes in the shape of small pellets or disks. HCN is the cause of death following the application of Zyklon-B. While interacting with iron and concrete, it creates Hydrocyanic compounds, which Leuchter113 admitted were found in the ruins of the gas chamber in Krematoria II. HCN is extremely poisonous to humans. It is used in execution gas chambers in the US; the first was built in Arizona in 1920. Zyklon-B was used in Germany before and during World War II for disinfection and pest extermination in ships, buildings, and machinery. Zyklon-B consisted of diatomite, in the form of granules the size of fine peas, saturated 113The Leuchter report is a pseudoscientific document authored by American execution technician Fred A. Leuchter. For the defence in the trial of Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, Leuchter compiled the report in 1988 with the intention of investigating the feasibility of mass homicidal gassings at Nazi extermination camps, specifically at Auschwitz. However, during the trial Leuchter was dismissed as expert witness as he had neither the qualifications nor experience to act in such a position. 220 Rush to Riches with prussic acid. In view of its volatility and the associated risk of accidental poisoning, it was supplied to the camp in sealed metal canisters. Zyklon-B was used at Auschwitz Birkenau, Majdanek, Sachsenhausen, and one of the Operation Reinhard camps. At the other extermination camps, Carbon monoxide from engine exhaust was used in the gas chambers or mobile gas vans. This will again happen in much larger scale, in next few years as we build mega gas chambers in the name of technology and development. The consequences of industrialization are beginning to surface gradually, threatening all life on earth. Our life sustaining part of atmosphere, called troposphere, a thin line between life and death, is constantly under threat and vulnerable. It doesn’t take too long to fill it with poisonous gasses. Bad news is that poisonous gasses are increasing very rapidly!

CO2 Concentration 390 ppm in Atmosphere Scientists are saying that the world needs to reach 350 ppm

(Parts Per Million) of CO2 to maintain a safe level to avoid climate catastrophes. We are currently over this concentration already and carbon emissions are poised to grow in the next decades. Is it scientifically and, more importantly, politically feasible to achieve a 350 ppm target on time? ‘Parts Per Million’ is generally used to measure and denote the concentration of chemical in a very low quantity, for example, we say that the sea water contains 0.5 ppm of pure gold. Or human blood contains 20 ppm of iron oxide. This unit is used when other units like percent and fractions are too big to denote the quantity. Percent is one part in hundred. So, you can understand what is a part per million. This is the concentration of a chemical or element in something like food or drink, for example, 8 milligrams of mercury in 100 grams of fish would result in a mercury concentration of 0.8 ppm. PPM is used to describe the amount of a certain chemicals in a substance. These measurements often are used by farmers to calculate the strength of fertilizers. For example, nitrogen is sold as part of a solid compound, but War on Atmosphere 221 farmers need to make liquid fertilizers of different strengths, measured in ppm. PPM calculations also are used by government agencies to determine whether air, soil, or water is polluted enough to be hazardous to human health. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intervenes when the amount of copper in water exceeds 1.3 ppm. At 400 ppm, the amount of carbon dioxide currently in the atmosphere is extreme and unprecedented, at least in the past 415,000 years. The last time it reached even 300 ppm was 325,000 years ago. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is strongly correlated to temperature and glaciation. The record is jagged, but it is easy to see patterns. When the concentration is below 240 ppm, kilometres thick glaciers cover most of Europe, Canada and the northern part of the United States. There are 4 Ice Ages recorded here. Note that temperatures decrease irregularly over a span of approximately 100,000 years while temperature increases are sudden and dramatic. We live in an era just after a rapid temperature increase. For more than 2 million years our earth has cycled in and out of Ice Ages, accompanied by massive ice sheets accumulating over polar landmasses and a cold, desert-like global climate. Although the tropics during the Ice Age were still tropical, the temperate regions and sub-tropical regions were markedly different than they are today. There is a strong correlation between temperature and CO2 concentrations during this time. Historically, glacial cycles of about 100,000 years are interrupted by brief warm interglacial periods—like the one we enjoy today. Changes in both temperatures and CO2 are considerable and generally synchronized, according to data analysis from ice and air samples collected over the last half century from permanent glaciers in Antarctica and other places.114 Interglacial periods of 15,000-20,000 years provide a

114 “CO2 and Temperature: Last 400000 Years” at www.geocraft.com. 222 Rush to Riches brief respite from the normal state of our natural world—an Ice Age Climate. Our present interglacial vacation from the last Ice Age began about 18,000 years age. Over the last 400,000 years the natural upper limit of atmospheric CO2 concentrations was about 300 ppm. Compared to former geologic periods, concentrations of CO2 in our atmosphere are still very small and may not have a statistically measurable effect on global temperatures. For example, during the Ordovician Period 460 million years ago

CO2 concentrations were 440 ppm while temperatures then were about the same as they are today. Do rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations cause increasing global temperatures, or could it be the other way around? This is one of the questions being debated today. Interestingly, CO2 lags an average of about 800 years behind the temperature changes—confirming that CO2 is not the cause of the temperature increases. One thing is certain: earth’s climate has been warming and cooling on its own for at least the last 400,000 years. At year 18,000 and counting in our current interglacial vacation from the Ice Age, we may be due— some say overdue—for return to another icehouse climate!

880 Billion Tons of Carbon in Atmosphere How many pounds of carbon dioxide are added to the atmosphere by burning one gallon of gas? A gallon of gasoline weighs 3.5 kg, consisting mostly of carbon, a small amount of hydrogen, and a few impurities. Through combustion each carbon atom combines with two atoms of heavier oxygen atoms, which results in 19.8 pounds of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. How much prehistoric plant matter did it take to make that gallon of gas? About 96,000 kg, or as much as is found in one acre of wheat. Americans burn up about 131 billion gallons of gas every year, or the equivalent of 13 quadrillion kg of prehistoric biomass. Since 1751, our species has used the equivalent from all types of fossil fuels of about 13,300 years of biomass production by all plants on earth. The stability of the climate is threatened by greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide released from fossil fuels and deforestation. The War on Atmosphere 223 ecosystem naturally recycles an estimated 225 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year from processes like respiration, decay, and fires. Most of the carbon is removed from the atmosphere by forests and by microorganisms in the oceans. Human activity has tipped the balance by adding 5.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the air each year from fossil fuel use. Deforestation contributes another 2.2 billion tons of carbon a year to the atmosphere while simultaneously reducing the total amount of forests available to remove carbon. Although the amount of carbon dioxide we add to the atmosphere seems small by comparison to the amount recycled by nature every year, we are nevertheless greatly increasing the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Two-atom molecules like nitrogen and oxygen vibrate at high frequencies; so, they do not absorb much of the heat that normally reflects of the earth and bounces back into space. But 3- atom molecules like carbon dioxide, water vapour, nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxide all absorb heat and reflect it back down on the earth, trapping heat in like a window; hence, the term ‘greenhouse effect’, Carbon dioxide, and other trace gasses may be a very small part of the atmosphere, but they keep the earth’s surface about 59 degrees warmer than it would be without these gasses, so even a small increase in the amount of greenhouse gasses can have a big effect on the climate. While it is virtually certain that altering the atmosphere will alter the earth’s climate and weather patterns, it is difficult to predict how it will change. Global warming is the most likely scenario, and already we have melted about 40% of the arctic ice cap in less than 30 years. Global warming could flood coastal cities, increase the frequency of hurricanes and other weather-related disasters and transform crucial croplands into deserts. Paradoxically, global warming also increases atmospheric humidity, which can increase precipitation and potentially trigger an ice age. Rather than wait to find out what happens, we would likely be wiser to alter human behaviours by stopping the build-up of greenhouse gasses. 224 Rush to Riches

Greenhouse Effect: Almost on Venus The notion of global warming as an enhanced greenhouse effect is best understood by using the following analogy. You try to stay warm at night by using a blanket to trap the heat that the earth’s greenhouse gasses do by reradiating heat back to the body of interest, to you in the former and to the earth’s surface in the latter. Just as a blanket must be the right thickness to keep you comfortable, the earth’s greenhouse gasses must be of the right type to keep the planet comfortable. Just as too many blankets may make you too warm, too many greenhouse gasses may lead to a warming of the globe. In an ordinary greenhouse, sunlight passes through the glass walls and warms up the inside. This heat then gets trapped within the walls. The greenhouse effect in the atmosphere works a little bit like an ordinary greenhouse. Greenhouse gasses trap the heat brought by light passing through the atmosphere of the earth. Greenhouse gasses are components of the atmosphere that contribute to the greenhouse effect. Without the greenhouse effect the earth would be uninhabitable. Greenhouse gasses come from natural sources and human activity. In 1824, the French scientist Joseph Fourier hypothesized that the average temperature of the planet is warmer because of the existence of the earth’s atmosphere. He claimed that the warming effect of the atmosphere on the earth’s surface was similar to how a plant warms when it is encased in a house of glass. Fourier called this phenomenon the ‘greenhouse effect’. The composition of the earth’s atmosphere governs the climate of the planet and establishes conditions vital for life. Although the atmosphere is primarily composed of nitrogen (78 percent) and oxygen (21 percent), these gasses do not interact with the long-wave thermal radiation emitted by the earth. This task is left to the greenhouse gasses, which account for less than

3 percent of the atmosphere. Greenhouse gasses, including CO2, methane CH4, nitrous oxide N2O, halocarbons, ozone O3, and water vapour H2O, are very effective at absorbing thermal War on Atmosphere 225 radiation expelled from the earth’s surface. The energy from the sun that reaches earth’s surface is mostly ‘shortwave’ radiation, mostly visible light. This energy passes freely through the atmosphere and is absorbed by earth’s surface. The surface warms from the energy input, and some of its heat projects back to the atmosphere absorb 95% of the energy in infrared radiation, allowing only 5% to pass into space. After greenhouse gasses absorb thermal radiation emitted from the earth’s surface, they reradiate this energy back to the surface of the earth, which warms the earth in the same way that a blanket traps body heat on a cold night. While greenhouse gasses absorb and emit thermal radiation, they are essentially transparent to solar radiation and allow additional heat into earth’s atmosphere, where it is trapped by the greenhouse gasses. This system permits hospitable conditions for life on the earth’s surface. However, small changes in the concentrations of these gasses can drastically alter the heat-trapping capabilities of our atmosphere, resulting in acute changes in climate with serious consequences for life on earth. The four planets that are closest to the sun are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Earth’s two neighbouring planets, Venus and Mars, offer good examples of how changes in atmospheric composition can lead to changes in surface temperatures. Although Venus is closer than the earth is to the sun and, thus, receives a greater amount of incoming solar radiation, thick clouds engulf the planet and reflect nearly 75 percent of this radiation (compared to 30 percent for earth). Venus is a searing desert. Its waterless surface crushed under a thick atmosphere almost 100 times the pressure of the earth. The clouds that shroud the planet contain droplets of deadly sulphuric acid; the acid rain in Venus is known as Virga,115 rain

115In meteorology, virga is an observable streak or shaft of precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground. At high altitudes the precipitation falls mainly as ice crystals before melting and finally evaporating; this is usually due to compressional heating, because the air 226 Rush to Riches of no life-sustaining water. The atmosphere of Venus is rich in greenhouse gasses, with carbon dioxide accounting for 97 percent of it. As a result, the thick Venusian atmosphere is highly effective at trapping thermal radiation from escaping to space. The large amounts of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere reradiate the trapped heat back to the surface of the planet, resulting in average surface temperatures of 470 degrees Celsius (878 degrees F), hot enough to melt lead. All known forms of life would be boiled alive. Yet, both Venus and Earth may have had similar climates shortly after they formed. The big mystery that Venus will help answer is how these two similar worlds ended up with such different outcomes. Understanding the atmosphere of Venus will help scientists learn how a world that might have been a tropical Eden became instead a close approximation of Hell. In contrast, Mars has a very thin atmosphere with a minimal greenhouse effect. As a result, most of the heat radiated from the surface of Mars is about minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 degrees F). The ability of greenhouse gasses to warm the surface of the planet depends on three main factors: their efficiency in absorbing heat, their total atmospheric quantities, and their atmospheric lifetimes or the amount of time they remain in the atmosphere. By looking at the clouds of Mars, we learn about the seasonal and daily weather pattern of Mars. Scientists want to understand how water vapour is transported around the planet. For example, on the extremely cold red planet, surface ice warmed by sunlight can briefly turn to vapour that rises into the atmosphere and then quickly cools to form ice crystals again, either in clouds or back on the ground. Scientists also estimate wind speed and direction based on the movement of the clouds. It definitely gives you a sense of what it might feel like to sit back and watch clouds on Mars.

pressure increases closer to the ground. It is very common in the desert and in temperate climates. War on Atmosphere 227

Efficiency, Quantity, and Lifetime of Greenhouse Gasses Greenhouse gasses are defined by their ability to absorb thermal radiation emitted by the earth. Different molecular structure of the gasses leads to differences in their ability to absorb radiation. Scientists estimate the heat-trapping efficiency of the different greenhouse gasses using an index called the high global warming potential (HGWP). It is important that we discuss what is meant by HGWP. Global Warming Potentials (GWPs) are used to compare the abilities of different greenhouse gasses to trap heat in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is used as the base for all the calculations; so, its global warming potential is 1. The higher the GWP, the more heat the specific gas can keep in the atmosphere. So, the more HGWP gasses enter the atmosphere, the faster our climate will change. This represents the ratio of energy reemitted to the earth’s surface during a year for a given gas compared to that of the same mass of CO2. As time passes, the GWP of a greenhouse gas usually decreases, but, as is the case with fluorinated gasses since their global warming potential is already very high, it takes a very long time for them to break down and lose their ability to trap heat. As these fluorinated gasses are created exclusively by humans and are not normally found in nature, there is no natural process or ‘sink’ to remove these gasses from the atmosphere slowly over time. That small volume of fluorinated gasses is responsible for 87% of the extra heat trapped on earth, which has a huge impact on climate change. By comparison, methane has a GWP of 21, meaning that a given mass of methane can heat the planet twenty-one times as much as the same mass of CO2. Other greenhouse gasses have even larger GWPs. Nitrous oxide and halocarbons have GWPs of 300 and over 5,000, respectively. So, although carbon dioxide is notorious for its role in global warming, other less known greenhouse gasses also play potent roles in the process. Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring greenhouse gas which cycles through reservoirs in the land, ocean, atmosphere, and vegetation. 228 Rush to Riches

Atmospheric CO2 has been maintained between 180 and 280 ppm (lower during glacial periods and higher during interglacial periods) over the last 650,000 years. Anthropogenic or human made CO2 began to be emitted to the atmosphere when people started to burn wood and fossil fuels. Methane is produced naturally, but its atmospheric concentrations have been augmented by agricultural processes, such as, rice cultivation, use of fertilizers, and cattle farming, and industrial activities. Increasing non-vegetarian habits demand beef, pork, sheep, goat, and chicken farming. Vegetarian habits can reduce methane pollution. Because of the overwhelming worldwide effort to curtail the usage of CFCs since the Montreal Protocol of 1987,116 the earth’s ozone layer is slowly recovering. The success with CFCs provides hope that we are able to alter behavioural patterns to repair the damage we cause to earth’s atmosphere. Most greenhouse gasses have lifetimes of decades to centuries. This means that a gaseous molecule may remain in the atmosphere for as long as two hundred years, mixing throughout the atmosphere. Lifetime of the gas is the primary factor in determining the overall warming effect of the gas. Carbon dioxide, for instance, which has an atmospheric lifetime of about 120 years, continues to contribute to radiative forcing, although with decreasing impact, for many decades. Like some CFCs that have long lifetimes, may contribute to global warming for many years. Water vapour with a short lifetime of a few days to the weeks is not well mixed in the atmosphere, and many locations have high humidity, cloud cover, and rainfall while other locales are dry and cloud free. Most other greenhouse gasses have long

116The 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is a landmark agreement that has successfully reduced the global production, consumption, and emissions of ozone-depleting substances (ODSs). ODSs are also greenhouse gasses that contribute to the radiative forcing of climate change. War on Atmosphere 229 lifetimes and continually accumulate in the atmosphere, leading to important long-term implications for future climate changes.

Global Warming: A New Crematorium There is no longer much doubt that the world is facing a prolonged period of planetary warming, which is unprecedented in human history in terms of magnitude and probable environmental consequences. Of far more immediate concern, however, is the now irrefutable evidence that human activities are heating up the planet at a rapid rate. This anthropogenic warming could have profound implications for our security and way of life. The reason is that air pollution from industrial emissions, automobile exhausts, the burning of carbon-based fuels, changes in land use, agriculture, and the large-scale destruction of forest cover has resulted in a build-up of greenhouse gasses in the earth’s atmosphere and it is becoming a gas chamber. In other words, our new revolution, “rush to riches,” is building a high-tech crematorium for the future. Nazi Germany built hundreds of crematoriums where the bodies of dead prisoners were incinerated in an oven. The crematorium building also had an execution room where prisoners were executed with a shot in the nape of the neck. It is just a bare room with a floor drain, so that the blood could be washed away. Hitler’s crematoriums incinerated a few hundred people at a time, but the new ones (industrialization) what we build, capable of incinerating millions of species of animals and plants, including humans, in a few years. You know those summer days that are just so hot; it is almost unbearable and you swear that you can see the heat. Imagine 65 degrees Celsius with humidity as high as 99% by the turn of this century, and we will bring hell to our doorsteps. A crematorium is the same thing as a crematory. Here, any corpses are cremated (turned to ashes). There were many of these during Holocaust, because of all the death camps. Most of the major Nazi concentration camps standing today still have 230 Rush to Riches their crematoria on public display. A visitor is struck by the similarity of the ovens, made by a German firm Topf and Söhne in Erfurt. The firm’s name is on furnaces found at Buchenwald, Dachau, Mauthausen, Gross-Rosen, and Auschwitz. Complicitous German technicians like Kurt Prüfer, the company’s senior engineer, made onsite visits to camps to improve the ovens’ efficiency. When Soviet authorities questioned Prüfer in 1946 while in custody and asked him why he did his work, the engineer responded: “I had my contract with the Topf firm and I was aware of the fact that my work was of great importance for the national socialist state. I knew that if I refused to continue with this work, I would be liquidated by the Gestapo.” When asked why he worked to improve the furnaces during the war years, another Topf engineer in Soviet custody, Kurt Sander, said: “I was a German engineer and a key member of the Topf Works and I saw it as my duty to apply my specialist knowledge in this way in order to help Germany win the war, just as an aircraft construction engineer builds airplanes in wartime, which are also connected with the destruction of human beings.”117 Clearly, men like Sander and Prüfer knowingly helped the Nazi state develop the most efficient system possible of cremating human cadavers, fully aware that imprisoned persons were being burned daily at the camps. Similarly, modernization or industrialization appears as if it is helping to improve the quality of human life, but the contrary is most evident, it slowly eliminates all life. Human intelligence combined with arrogance, manipulation, greed, ego, selfishness, and dominion continue to extinguish all that is dear to that quality of life. Crematorium is right here!

Ozone Layer: Hole in the Stratosphere Three British scientists shocked the world when they revealed on 16 May 1985, i.e., 25 years ago, that aerosol chemicals, among

117“Nuremberg Remembered Biography: Kurt Prufer” at www.facinghistory.org. War on Atmosphere 231 other factors, had torn a hole in the ozone layer over the South Pole. The earth’s atmosphere is divided into five layers—the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and the exosphere. Lying between the troposphere and mesosphere, the stratosphere extends over a vertical distance of 50 kilometres. The ozone layer is a part of the stratosphere, which ranges between 15 km to 34 km. This layer contains ozone—a form of oxygen with three molecules, as opposed to normal oxygen with two molecules. These molecules tend to absorb the harmful ultraviolet radiations coming from the Sun, which have the ability to harm the life forms on the earth. If these harmful ultraviolet rays reach the earth, they can spell disaster for the life on the planet. The factors responsible for the depletion of the ozone layer include various compounds released in the earth’s atmosphere due to human activities. These compounds include chlorofluorocarbons, halons, etc., which rise in the air, reach the stratosphere, and destroy the ozone molecules through a series of chemical reactions. The ozone hole became the poster-child for humankind’s impact on the planet. Today, the ozone hole— actually a region of thinned ozone, not actually a pure hole— doesn’t make headlines like it used to. The ozone layer hole is basically an area of the ozone layer, above the continent of Antarctica, which is subjected to seasonal depletion on a large scale. The ozone layer depletion can be basically divided into two parts. The first deals with a depletion of around four percent per decade in the stratosphere, while the second deals with the rapid depletion of the stratospheric ozone at the poles. The size of the hole has stabilized, thanks to decades of aerosol-banning legislation. But, scientists warn, some danger still remains. First, the good news: Since the 1989 Montreal Protocol banned the use of ozone-depleting chemicals worldwide, the ozone hole has stopped growing. Additionally, the ozone layer is blocking more cancer-causing radiation than any time in a decade because its average thickness has increased, according to a 2006 United Nations report. Atmospheric levels of ozone- 232 Rush to Riches depleting chemicals have reached their lowest levels since peaking in the 1990s, and the hole has begun to shrink. Now, the bad news: More recently, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) declared that the ozone layer-hole size has increased to 11 million square miles. This report was based on the studies conducted by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This was brief information about the ozone layer-hole facts which made scientists the world over stand on their toes. The rate at which the ozone hole is increasing is a sign of approaching calamity. This thinning is predicted to continue for the next 15 years due to weather-related phenomena that scientists still cannot fully explain, according to the UN report.118 Repairing the ozone-hole over the South Pole will take longer than previously expected, and it won’t finish until between 2060 and 2075. Scientists now understand that the size of the ozone hole varies dramatically from year to year, which complicates attempts to accurately predict the hole’s future size. Interestingly, recent studies have shown that the size of the ozone hole affects the global temperature. Closing the ozone hole actually speeds up the melting of the polar ice caps, according to a 2009 study from Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.119 So, even though environmental-friendly laws have successfully reversed the trend of ozone depletion, the lingering effects of aerosol use, and the link between the ozone hole and global warming, virtually ensure that this problem will persist until the end of the century.

Dimming Earth: Sun Will Darken Earth’s skies have dimmed since the mid-1970s, as airborne pollutants scatter the sun’s rays and turn blue skies into a milky haze. The effect was quantified in a study published in Science,120

118“Whatever Happened to the Hole in the Ozone Layer?” at www.livescience.com. 119“Ozone Layer” at www.enn.com. 120“Earth’s Dimming Skies: Before and After Wired Science” at www.wired.com. War on Atmosphere 233 and widely covered by the press. But the study explained the effect with graphs, and stories only described a phenomenon for which words aren’t enough. We see rather less and less of the sun, according to scientists who have been looking at five decades of sunlight measurements. They have reached the disturbing conclusion that the amount of solar energy reaching the earth’s surface has been gradually falling. Paradoxically, the decline in sunlight may mean that global warming is a far greater threat to society than previously thought. The effect was first spotted by Gerry Stanhill, an English scientist working in Israel.121 Comparing Israeli sunlight records from the 1950s with current ones, Stanhill was astonished to find a large fall in solar radiation: “There was a staggering 22% drop in the sunlight, and that really amazed me.” Intrigued, he searched records from all around the world, and found the same story almost everywhere he looked. Sunlight was falling by 10% over the USA, nearly 30% in parts of the former Soviet Union, 45% in Asian countries, and even by 16% in parts of the British Isles. Although the effect varied greatly from place to place, overall the decline amounted to one to two percent globally every decade between the 1950s and the 1990s. Stanhill called it “global dimming,” but his research, published in 2001, had met with a sceptical response from other scientists. It was only recently, when his conclusions were confirmed by Australian scientists using a completely different method to estimate solar radiation that climate scientists at last woke up to the reality of global dimming. Dimming appears to be caused by air pollution. Burning coal, oil, and wood, whether in cars, power stations, or cooking fires, produces not only invisible carbon dioxide—the principal greenhouse gas responsible for global warming—but also tiny airborne particles of soot, ash, sulphur compounds, and other pollutants. This visible air pollution reflects sunlight back into the space, preventing it reaching the surface. But pollution also changes the

121Quoted from BBC, “Science and Nature-Horizon” at www.bbc.co.uk. 234 Rush to Riches optical properties of clouds. Because the particles seed the formation of water droplets, polluted clouds contain a larger number of droplets than unpolluted clouds. Recent research shows that this makes them more reflective than they would otherwise be, again reflecting the sun’s rays back into the space. Scientists are now worried that dimming, by shielding the oceans from the full power of the sun, may be disrupting the pattern of the world’s rainfall. There are suggestions that dimming was behind the droughts in sub-Saharan Africa which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the 1970s and 80s. There are disturbing hints that the same thing may be happening today in Asia, home to half the world’s population. “My main concern is global dimming which is also having a detrimental impact on the Asian monsoon,” says Veerhabhadran Ramanathan, professor of climate and atmospheric sciences at the University of California, San Diego.122 But perhaps the most alarming aspect of global dimming is that it may have led scientists to underestimate the true power of the greenhouse effect. They know how much extra energy is being trapped in the earth’s atmosphere by the extra carbon dioxide we have placed there. What has been surprising is that this extra energy has so far resulted in a temperature rise of just one degree Celsius. This has led many scientists to conclude that the present-day climate is less sensitive to the effects of carbon dioxide than it was, say, during the ice age, when a similar rise in CO2 led to a temperature rise of six degrees Celsius. But it now appears that the warming from greenhouse gasses has been offset by a strong cooling effect from dimming—in effect two of our pollutants have been cancelling each other out. This means that the climate may, in fact, be more sensitive to the greenhouse effect than previously thought. Then, this is bad news, according to Peter Cox, one of the world’s leading climate modellers.123 As things stand, CO2 levels are projected to rise strongly over

122“Global Dimming” at www.ottawariverinstitute.ca. 123Quoted from BBC, “Science and Nature-Horizon” at www.bbc.co.uk. War on Atmosphere 235 coming decades, whereas there are encouraging signs that particle pollution is at last being brought under control. “We are going to be in a situation unless we act where the cooling pollutant is dropping off while the warming pollutant is going up… That means, we will get reduced cooling and increased heating at the same time and that is a problem for us,” says Cox.124 Even the most pessimistic forecasts of global warming may now have to be drastically revised upwards. That means a temperature rise of 10 degrees Celsius by 2100 could be on the cards, giving the UK a climate like that of North Africa, and rendering many parts of the world uninhabitable. That is unless we act urgently to curb our emissions of greenhouse gasses. The answers that global dimming models seemed to provide, the documentary noted, has led to a chilling conclusion: “What came out of our exhaust pipes and power stations [from Europe and North America] contributed to the deaths of a million people in Africa, and afflicted 50 million more”125 with hunger and starvation. Billions are likely to be affected in Asia from similar effects. Scientists say that the impact of global dimming might not be in the millions, but billions. The Asian monsoons bring rainfall to half the world’s population. If this air pollution and global dimming have a detrimental impact on the Asian monsoons, some 3 billion people could be affected. Fossil fuel burning and contrails is another source. Contrails (the vapour from planes flying high in the sky) were seen as another significant cause of heat reflection. During the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States of America, all commercial flights were grounded for the next three days. This allowed climate scientists to look at the effect on the climate when there were no contrails and no heat reflection. What scientists found was that the temperature rose by some 1 degree centigrade in that period of 3 days. Global dimming is hiding the true power of global warming. Currently, most

124“What Peter Cox Said” at www.bionic.nu/what_peter_cox_said.htm. 125“Global Dimming: Global Issues” at www.globalissues.org. 236 Rush to Riches climate change models predict a 5 degrees increase in temperature over the next century, which is already considered extremely grave. Addressing global dimming only will lead to massive global warming. Global dimming can be dealt with by cleaning up emissions. However, if global dimming problems are only addressed, then the effects of global warming will increase even more. This may be what happened to Europe in 2003. In Europe, various measures have been taken in recent years to clean up the emissions to reduce pollutants that create smog and other problems, but without reducing the greenhouse gas emissions in parallel. This seems to have had a few effects: This may have already lessened the severity of droughts and failed rains in the Sahel. However, it seems that it may have caused or contributed to the European heat wave in 2003 that killed thousands in France, saw forest fires in Portugal, and caused many other problems throughout the continent. Irreversible damage would be only about 30 years away. Global level impacts would include the following: The melting of ice in Greenland, which would lead to more rising sea levels. This, in turn, would impact many of our major world cities. Drying tropical rain forests would increase the risk of burning. This would release even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further increasing global warming effects. Some countries have pushed for using “carbon sinks”126 to count as part of their emission targets. This has already been controversial because the stored carbon dioxide can be released into the atmosphere when burnt. Global dimming worries increase these concerns even more. This would be a more rapid warming than any other time in history, the documentary noted. With such an increase, vegetation will die off even more quickly. Soil erosion will increase and food production will fail. A Sahara type of climate could be possible in places such as Norway, Holland,

126Carbon sink is reservoir of carbon: an environmental reservoir that absorbs and stores more carbon than it releases, thereby offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. Forests and oceans are examples of carbon sinks. War on Atmosphere 237

France, and England, while other parts of the world like India, Brazil, and China would fare even worse. Such an increase in temperature would also release one of the biggest stores of greenhouse gasses on earth, methane hydrate, currently contained at the bottom of the earth’s oceans and known to destabilize with warming. Due to the sheer amounts that would be released, by this time, whatever we would try to curb emissions, it would be too late. This is not a prediction; it is a warning of what will happen if we clean up the pollution while doing nothing about greenhouse gasses.

Asthma Earth: Geo-Respiration Does the earth breathe? In a superficial sense, the answer is certainly yes. It may be a bit of poetic fancy, but aeronomers,127 i.e., those who study the upper atmosphere, are talking these days about watching the earth breath. By way of illustration, when a low-pressure area moves in, higher-pressure air residing in deep wells and caves comes rushing out (‘exhaling’)! The exhalations of large caves can be copious and strong so much so that some aeronautical pioneers tested their airplane models at cave mouths. More specifically, a few researchers think they have discovered a “breathing mode” of the upper atmosphere— in which the planet’s gaseous blanket expands and contracts regularly about once every 9 days in a previously unrecognized cycle. The evidence comes from satellite observations of the thermosphere, the region of sky extending from 85 kilometres to roughly 1,000 km above the surface. Data obtained from Germany’s CHAMP satellite indicate that the density of the thermosphere doubles about every nine days, according to Jeffrey P. Thayer of the University of Colorado at Boulder, one of the researchers who presented data on this newly observed pattern.128 Geoff Crowley, president of Atmospheric and Space

127Aeronomer is one who studies of Earth’s upper atmosphere: it consists of a study of the upper atmosphere of the Earth above 50 km, including its reaction with cosmic and ionizing radiation. 128“In the Field: The Earth Breathing” at www.blogs.nature.com. 238 Rush to Riches

Technology Research Associates in San Antonio, Texas, found a similar 9 day cycle in chemical data taken by the Global Ultraviolet Imager on NASA’s TIMED satellite. Measurements made by the SABER instrument on the same satellite also revealed the 9 day cycle, reported Martin G. Mlynczak of NASA’s Langley Research Center. “Aeronomy researchers were well aware of longer cycles, such as the 27 day pattern that corresponds to the rotational period of the sun, but nobody had looked for shorter patterns,” said Thayer. He and his colleagues hypothesize that the sun is also driving the 9 day cycle, as well as some weaker, even shorter period, as they have emerged from the data. The earth’s atmosphere is not a dead-end dumping ground for waste gasses. CO2 is constantly being cleansed from the atmosphere by the process of life itself and even by such ‘natural’ forces as precipitation. We humans have upset earth’s breathing. Each year, we add an extra six billion tons of CO2 to the air. We have given the planet a case of asthma. Our fear is that earth may soon be developing a fever, along with her asthma. Or, perhaps, the earth will just change the way she breathes. One characteristic of life, the ‘experts’ seem to agree, is its adaptability. Clearly, the earth did not always possess its current oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. Before the emergence of life, the earth’s atmosphere was an inhospitable brew of CO2, ammonia, hydrogen, methane, and water vapour. Life emerged under these conditions, and we know from our presence on the earth that the conditions have never been wholly inhospitable for life. Early life had to cope with a reducing atmosphere, rich in hydrogen and hydrogen- bearing molecules but bereft of oxygen. The first life forms could have generated a chemical gradient as large as plants do today, with hydrogen-rich material being found externally, rather than internally. Over time, the abundance of life of this kind would have oxidized the reducing materials in the earth’s crust, leading to a build-up of oxygen in the air. Atmospheric oxygen must have been very poisonous to most of these early life forms, much War on Atmosphere 239 as it is for today’s anaerobic bacteria. But earth adapted. Rather than oxygen being catastrophic for life, life has since become dependent upon it. Today’s oxygen-breathing animals owe their very existence to cyanobacteria (sometimes called blue-green algae) that polluted the atmosphere with oxygen aeons ago. Even today, the fossilized microbial mats of these early polluters, known as stromatolites, still grow in a few scattered subtidal marine localities. The earth we see today is at Gaian homeostasis,129 an improbable entropy, sustained this way by the world’s most ancient life form. One can imagine how earth could respond to various changes in the contemporary world. As CO2 rises above the optimal level for life, it would seem that the added nutrient would be exploited by plants everywhere, and the rate of carbon fixation (and ultimately carbon burial) would rise accordingly. Boyd Strain, a Duke University botanist, hopes that it will not be necessary to wait a half century or more to determine the 130 effect of CO2 on the growth and diversity of plants. Strain has devised an experiment that duplicates the twenty-first century atmosphere in a section of Duke Forest. It will still be several years before any conclusions can be drawn from the experiment; yet, Strain believes that increased levels of CO2 already existing in the atmosphere have contributed to enhanced crop yields achieved during this century. No doubt, more than rice and soybeans will benefit from this ubiquitous gas. It would be unreasonable to expect that all plants would exploit the added

CO2 equally. There will inevitably be changes in the diversity of global plant life. William Schlesinger, who now manages the Duke experiment, believes that species diversity will suffer: “In almost every case in which a fertilizer has been applied to a natural community, it has reduced species diversity,” he claims.

129Homeostasis, in biology, is an overarching term for the tendency of biological systems to maintain a state of equilibrium. Here Gaian homeostasis deals with the earth’s self ability to fix the problems. 130“Pacific Biofuel: Environment” at www.pacfuel.com. 240 Rush to Riches

The earth may very well see more vegetation, but it would also see fewer kinds of plants, just as it inevitably occurs when one dumps phosphorous in a lake or nitrogen in grassland. If the world is truly alive, we must rethink the carbon debate. In fact, we really ought to rethink the environmental policy. The so- called carbon cycle can best be understood as breathing by the planet earth. Each year, green plants inhale about 100 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere during photosynthesis. Since the atmosphere at any given time holds about 700 billion tons of

CO2, all of earth’s CO2 is recycled in this fashion about every seven years.

Adaptation: A Key to Survival Adaptation to environmental change is not a new concept. Human societies have shown throughout history a strong capacity for adapting to different climates and environmental changes. Adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change is vital in order to reduce the impacts of climate change that are happening now and increase resilience to future impacts. Not all change brings disaster, as natural and human systems have an inbuilt capacity to adapt and reduce their vulnerabilities. Adaptation is an evolutionary process whereby a population becomes better suited to its habitat. This process takes place over many generations and is one of the basic phenomena of biology. As a consequence of climate change, much of this adaptation will be underway already as animal and plant species modify their behaviour, alter their distribution and frequencies of occurrence, select different genetic-code sets, or even become extinct. There is some observational evidence of these changes, but the subtleties and our lack of data mean that by and large they are occurring without our knowledge. Humans, of course, also have a capacity to adapt and, as thinking beings, to consciously weigh risk and develop responses. Some degree of future climate change will occur regardless of future greenhouse gas emissions. Human-induced climate change represents a new challenge, and may require adaptation approaches to changes that are War on Atmosphere 241 potentially larger and faster than past experiences with recorded natural climatic variability. Furthermore, the IPCC concluded that “adaptation will be necessary to address impacts resulting from the warming which is already unavoidable due to past emissions.”131 Adapting to or coping with climate change will, therefore, become necessary in certain regions and for certain socioeconomic and environmental systems. The need for adaptation may be increased by growing populations in areas vulnerable to extreme events. However, according to the IPCC, “adaptation alone is not expected to cope with all the projected effects of climate change, and especially not over the long term as most impacts increase in magnitude.”132 The term adaptation may also refer to a feature which is especially important for an organism’s survival. It is a matter of survival for all life and for humanity as well. Examples of adaptation and coping strategies with current climate fluctuations include farmers planting different crops for different seasons, and wildlife migrating to more suitable habitats as the seasons change. Developing countries require international assistance to support their adaptations. This includes funding, technology transfer, and capacity building. Successful adaptation not only depends on governments but also on the active and sustained engagement of stakeholders, including national, regional, multilateral and international organizations, the public and private sectors, civil society and other relevant stakeholders. There are substantial limits and barriers to adaptation, including environmental, economic, informational, social, attitudinal, and behavioural barriers that are not fully understood. Furthermore, the ability of ecosystems to adapt to climate change is severely limited by the effects of urbanization, barriers to migration paths, and fragmentation of ecosystems, all of which have already critically stressed ecosystems independent

131“Adaptation: Climate Change – Health and Environmental Effects” at www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/adaptation.html. 132www.climateinstitute.org.au/climate-change-dictionary. 242 Rush to Riches of climate change itself. It is good to have faith in human nature. I live because I have that faith. But that faith does not blind me to the fact of history that, whilst, in the ultimate level, all is well, individuals and groups called nations have perished. Rome, Greece, Babylon, Egypt, and many others are a standing testimony in proof of the fact that nations have perished before due to their misdeeds. What may be hoped for is that humanity, on account of her fine and scientific intellect, will realize the obvious and retrace her steps and, from the demoralizing industrialism, she will find a way out. It will not necessarily be a return to the old absolute simplicity. But it will have to be a reorganization in which village life or simple life will predominate, and in which brute and material force will be subordinated to the spiritual force. “Blessed are the simple, for theirs is the kingdom of God” (Matthew 5:3). Chapter Five

War on Biosphere (Life) 244 Rush to Riches

The biosphere is all life on our planet. It is the part of the earth, in which living organisms exist or that is capable of supporting life. This includes all the things that are living as well as the remains of those that have died but have not yet decomposed. The biosphere includes life on land and in the oceans— multitudes of plants, animals, fungi, protists, and bacteria. The biosphere has a great impact on the climate because the biosphere is closely connected to the atmosphere. When plants harness the sun’s energy through photosynthesis, oxygen is released into the atmosphere and carbon dioxide is taken out. When plants and animals respire, carbon dioxide gas is added to the atmosphere and oxygen is taken out. Microbes living in soils can add nitrous oxide gas to the atmosphere. As humans burn components of the biosphere such as fossil fuels, forests, and fields, greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are released into the atmosphere. One thing is clear in the reading on the next wave of biodiversity extinction on earth: While it is true that a mammoth asteroid could strike at any moment (although none is on the way, to the best of my knowledge), humans, and not an act of God, are the next executioner of planet earth as we know it. There is time to act, but like a fragile heart beating on the monitor outside the patient’s hospital room, the line will go horizontal for hundreds and thousands of ecosystems around the world.

How Many Species on Earth? Have you heard the expression “carbon-based life forms?” The living things on our planet are called ‘carbon-based’ because War on Biosphere 245 most of the molecules in them are chains of carbon atoms linked together. These carbon chains really add up when you consider the total amount of life on the planet. Add it all up and the life on our planet contains approximately 1900 giga tons of carbon. Species come in all shapes and sizes. The largest organism now alive is a giant Sequoia tree, estimated at 6265 metric tons. The oldest is probably a Japanese cedar, believed to date from roughly 7,200 years ago. The shortest lifespan is probably that of the colon bacterium, which divides under favourable conditions after 20 minutes. This also places the bacterium among the most fecund of species: within 3 hours it can increase its numbers 1000-fold, and within 1 day throw off billions of progeny. The human body contains more bacteria than there are humans on earth. A bacterium is also small: the virus that causes foot-and- mouth disease, roughly spherical in shape, is about one- millionth of a millimetre in diameter. If the period at the end of this sentence represents an average-sized virus, then a German shepherd dog magnified by the same factor, times 5000, would be about five and half km long. By contrast, the largest animal is the blue whale, weighing 150 tons. It is not only the largest animal now alive, but the largest animal ever, 3 times heavier than the largest land animal, the brontosaurus. Organisms exist in clusters, apparently in accord with their biological characteristics. At a level where these differentiating characteristics become significant, clusters of organisms can be classified as species. To put it more precisely, a species is a natural biological group united by the sharing of a common pool of genes. All members of the group can interbreed, and they cannot generally breed with other species in the wild to produce fertile offspring. This, of course, limits the definition to bisexual organisms, which does not apply to those ‘lower’ species that reproduce by asexual or vegetative means. There are anywhere from 5 to 10 million species on earth. This represents a culmination of around 3.5 billion years of evolution of life forms, and 700 million years of 246 Rush to Riches diversification among most modern categories of life—plants, insects, mammals, birds, and the rest. The ‘Kingdom of Life’ is divided into different levels and Swedish Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1777) is often considered the father of taxonomy. The principles he developed for classifying living things hierarchically still permeate the field today. Linnaeus grouped similar species into a larger group, called a genus. Then, he grouped similar genera into families, and so on. In all, he designated seven levels: kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species. At the species level, there are a few species that share many traits. In a kingdom, there are many species that share a few traits. A common mnemonic device to remember the groups, from largest to smallest, is: King Philip Came Over For Good Spaghetti. Biologists commonly classify living things into five kingdoms, or large-scale units. The five kingdoms are Bacteria, Protists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals. Until the mid-1960s the number of species on earth was estimated at around 3 million. Of this total, about half had been identified. That is, they had been found to exist, they had been given scientific names, and they had been described, even though 99 percent of them were known only in terms of an occasional locality and a few physical characteristics. The earth was considered to support about 4100 known species of mammals, 8700 birds, 6300 reptiles, 3000 amphibians, 23,000 fishes, roughly 800,000 insects, and over 300,000 green plants and fungi, plus several thousand micro-organisms such as bacteria and viruses. Of these identified species, around 1 million were known to exist in temperate zones and half a million in tropical zones. As for the other one and half million species, they were believed to exist somewhere on the planet, mostly in the tropics, though no field researcher had actually come across them. To arrive at the overall figure, scientists would examine, for example, a patch of forest. They would document the number of species in it, and then make heroic generalizations about species totals in other areas of similar forests. This process enabled them War on Biosphere 247 to come up with informed estimates for numbers of species in all forests of a particular type. They did the same for all categories of global environments, or ‘biomes’ and, thereby, arrived at a figure of 3 million.

Man the Only Monster of Biosphere: The Omnivore Man is an animal, considerably an advanced ‘monster’. I know I come in hard on humanity, I am aware of it. Monster is a pejorative term which can be applied either within or across cultures and religions. All men and women are sapient. Sapience may be obscured within any cultural context and when that happens, ‘monster’ is just one of the terms applied to indicate that the man/woman animal no longer behaves acceptably. A monster is any fictional creature, usually found in legends or horror fiction that is somewhat hideous and may produce physical harm or mental fear by either its appearance or its actions. Even some highly developed Homo sapiens have been called monsters—by those who have not understood. Also, quite a few folks who are embraced by society act in obviously monstrous ways. Untold eons of causes and conditions are the setup for anyone’s unavoidable animal like behaviour. One can eventually recognize a way out of this. Fortunately, humans will always be a Homo sapiens with the capacity to awaken. I would like to believe that even the most horrible people have a small spark of good inside them. It is getting the good to manifest itself that is the hard part. I have met monsters that are closer to enlightenment than any. Monsters suffer from themselves, and they have basically a good core. For God, it is a transition phase only. Even a person who has experienced great adversity at the hands of other humans will be connected to humanity. Until then, our small mind, which we all have at this time of human evolution, will most always find fault where there is none. Big mind holds all this in equanimity, impersonally, and with love. The consciousness or awareness, the hidden man that illuminates man-the-animal is not the monster. 248 Rush to Riches

When it comes to food, man has the appetite to exploit both the vegetarian and non-vegetarian food sources. Man’s activity on biosphere so far has earned him a befitting title: “man the monster.” In the beginning man was “herbivore,” completely vegetarian, then his addiction to non-vegetarian habits has earned him another title “carnivore” (the meat eater); thus, he earned one more title “omnivore,” as he could exploit both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food sources. How can we call ourselves Homo religious while we kill other beings to satisfy our own needs? The following information will help us minimize the daily suffering and exploitation of living creatures, who suffer every moment for humanity. ‘Man the monster’ has willed it that way. Factory farming is the method of intensive breeding used today which employs assembly line technology and reduces mammals and birds to production units confined under the most inhumane conditions. Stress, disease, pain, and suffering for the animals are the inevitable results. The cow, a naturally docile animal, has been turned into a flesh and milk machine, drugged and injected with hormones and antibiotics. She ultimately suffers the horrors of the slaughterhouse when she is no longer profitable as a producer of milk and veal. Cows are artificially forced into a continuous state of pregnancy and are made to produce 400 times their normal amount of milk. This results in widespread infectious diseases unknown to them under natural conditions, which necessitates the use of various antibiotics. Newborn calves are taken from their mothers so that we can drink the milk intended for them. They are placed in dark wooden crates, fed an anaemia inducing liquid diet, all to produce white veal. Moreover, Rennet, used to curdle most cheeses, is obtained from the stomach of a freshly killed very young calf. Factory farm bred layer hens are confined 4 to 5 per 1 to 2 square feet wire mesh cages arranged in different tiers. Over 90% of all eggs produced come from factory farms. A broiler chicken’s life is around 8 to 10 weeks. The average space allotted War on Biosphere 249 to them is about 0.5 square foot per bird. This overcrowding produces stress and neurotic behaviour in the birds that they resort to feather-pecking, scratching, and cannibalism. The solution to this is to clip half of the upper and lower beaks of all the birds by putting them through a hot knife machine, to clip their toes, to keep them in constant dim lighting and feeding them anti-stress chemicals added to their water and food. “Free- range” hens are ultimately slaughtered when their productivity drops off. Sheep by nature do not have too much wool. Scientific breeding, under factory farm conditions, creates an excessive amount of wool. Sheep are shorn continuously in all seasons. Every year, hundreds of thousands of sheep die from exposure to cold. A closely shorn sheep is more sensitive to cold than a naked human. Sheep are not shorn by ‘experts’, as we see in educational films. The truth is that sheep are pinned down violently and shorn quickly while blood-stauncher stand by to cover the cuts with tar. Old sheep are ultimately shipped to the slaughterhouses in abominable conditions and without food or water. If people were to stop eating lamb and mutton, sheep would still be raised for their wool alone. Buying woollen products supports this cruelty. Bees are bred commercially. Their honey and combs are taken away from them, and given a cheap sugar substitute on which they cannot survive. Thousands upon thousands bees die. Honey also contains toxins, which the bees produce as a preservative that are harmful to us. Most often, the trapping of fur-bearing animals does not result in a quick death. The most commonly used traps are of steel leg-hold. The trapped animals often are caught for days until the traps are checked. Many chew their limbs-off to escape. Trapping results not only in painful anguish for the trapped animal, but also starvation for its young. Commercially bred fur- bearing animals (such as mink) are raised in cramped anxiety 250 Rush to Riches provoking pens and do not live to reach one year. The methods of killing them are painful, in order to avoid scarring the valuable coats. Most cosmetics contain animal products and they are tested on animals in laboratories. Cosmetics include toothpaste, shampoo, mouthwash, talcum, hand lotions, lipsticks, eye cosmetics, face creams, hair conditioners, perfumes, and colognes. Though the FDA does not require such testing, they endorse the Gillette procedures for tests on animals. Common tests on animals are the LD/50 test which induces death in 50% of the animals used (rats, mice, guinea pigs and dogs) to determine the lethal dose of a product; the Draize test is used to measure eye irritancy in cosmetics and other products by restraining rabbits and administering increasing amounts of the product directly to the cornea; the Acute Dermal Toxicity test presses the substance on the shaved skin of an animal after abrasions have been made on its skin; and there are a number of other tests done on animals. Animals are cut up and infected with diseases, bones are broken on purpose, and all manner of horrible things are done to animals to test medications. Anything bad that can accidentally happen to a human being is inflicted on animals to see if ways of treating these things can be improved. These animals are not sedated. They are treated in a very painful and hurtful way because the labs want a ‘live’ experiment to see how things will really work. In the end, how well do you relate yourself to a monkey, a dog, a cat, a rat? This animal testing is ludicrous, for example, testing anti-depressants on animals that have completely different brain chemistry than we do. On dogs to be specific! There are dogs in veterinary schools called ‘anaesthesia dogs’. They are dogs that go under anaesthesia, for example, 10 times a week so that students can ‘practice’ giving anaesthesia. They are then thrown back in a cage to sleep it off until next day. The science doesn’t match up with reality but those grants keep coming in and so the money is used on useless experiments that only harm animals. There is a huge underground market on War on Biosphere 251 stealing pets to sell to labs that test on animals. It is deplorable. Moreover, the use of animals is not ethical. If it is not OK to treat a person like this, what makes it OK to treat an animal like this? God gave us dominion over animals, but never to abuse them. The abuse to animals pushed to the extreme in circuses, zoos, rodeos, horse racing, etc. Animals for the most part are put through painful training and forced to perform, totally alien to their natural way of life. The living condition is also unnatural. Countless animals are killed before a good specimen is captured to fill the many zoos and circuses. Many animals die in transport. Their young ones are left behind to starve. Electric prods are used in rodeos, and the gentle domesticated steers and horses are made to ‘buck’ by a leather belt tightened around their abdomens pressing against their genitals. Horns are broken, animals are strangled while being roped, kicked, and abused. Circus animals are forced to perform as freaks. The training is very unpleasant. Horses bred for racing are genetically bred by humans for swiftness, but suffer constantly from weak and sprained ankles, broken bones, and drug abuse. Often they must be ‘destroyed’ once their efficient performance comes to an end. Meat, cheese, and eggs are extremely high in saturated fats and the cholesterol that accumulates on the arterial walls is the major factor of heart attacks. Large amounts of antibiotics and chemicals are readily used to control the vast amounts of diseases those meat animals, cows, and chickens are prone to get due to their unnatural living and breeding conditions. The drugs are present in the animals’ meat, milk, and eggs. The kidneys of a moderate meat eater work three times harder than that of a vegetarian. This is due to the excess toxic wastes in meat, which the kidneys try to eliminate. The waste and faecal matter, chemicals, and grease from the meat packing industry empties into our sewer systems and then into our rivers. Slaughterhouses and feedlots are some of the worst polluters of land, water, and air. A diet including meat and dairy products requires the daily 252 Rush to Riches consumption of 8 times more gallons of water than that is needed to produce non-animal foods.

Man: The Most Poisonous and Dangerous Animal I was wondering, what is the most dangerous animal in the world: crocodiles, elephants, lions, tigers, snakes, sharks, jelly fish, mosquitoes, scorpions, or hippos? I still wonder why ‘man’ didn’t make it to the list. None of the ‘animals’ on this list takes more than it needs for food; only a few species will kill or even eat their own kind. We kill unnecessarily, always take more than we need, countless deaths from wars, genocide, and the list goes on. Can we guess that humans top the list? Human beings are definitely the most dangerous and destructive animals on this Planet! I see that I am not alone in this thinking. What is the problem? Man is the problem. It is man who pollutes the water and the air, ravages the forests, strips the ground, and exhausts the resources of earth. Now he threatens to bring everything down to a smoking nuclear ruin, destroying all animal life along with himself. What is the reason? It is because we have lost our way. We have no understanding of how to handle the commission given to us to rule and reign in the natural world. We are out of step with nature. Man is now opposed to nature; he is like an orphan in God’s universe. Without any doubt, human race is the most dangerous species, which is cruel, greedy, selfish, unreasonable, and ruthless. What a beautiful world this would be without us? Look at the harm we have caused to our home earth and to all creatures on it! We are the most selfish animal in existence … Period! We intentionally harm, kill, and always have more! For instance, if you take a lion that has been raised in the wild and try to interact with it, you will be killed. If you interact with one that has been raised with humans the possibility is severely reduced. If you interact with a human that has been raised in a manner that makes him adverse to society in general than he will be, more likely to do something unacceptable. If you take a person who has been raised to social standards, that person may be easier to get along with. Of War on Biosphere 253 course, only human beings kill with malice, and forethought; no other animal does it. It was reported that the New York Zoo had a sign on a cage in the ape section, and it read as follows: “The Most Dangerous and Poisonous Animal in the World.” As the passersby would look into the cage they saw their own image reflected in a mirror. After 30 years in Catholic priesthood, nothing surprises me as to what we will do to each other as humans. The problem with the humankind is that they do not see themselves as part of the animal kingdom. But, they are, a simple primate that has affected, disrupted, and caused the total extinction of many other species. Human is the only animal that kills for ‘sport’. A shark might kill a human because it is hungry. Human beings will kill many sharks simply because they find it an entertainment. That is dangerous and a little bit psychotic, if you really think about it. Regarding sharks: it is not the shark which is dangerous, but the human entering into the marine domain without any consideration for the creatures that live there. Do they invade your home? Over 90% of sharks have disappeared due to Shark Finning and poaching, due to the oriental demand for shark fin soup. In order to redeem the sharks, the only way is to ban the selling of any food containing shark fins. We must develop respect for all creatures and remember that every one of them has a purpose and reason to be on this planet. We all know about the destructive nature of man and the things he has done to endanger the whole world. If you need an example, pick up any newspaper and read what man does to himself and others each day. ‘The Talking Animal’ is definitely the most dangerous creature on this planet. Yet, he and she are also the only animals that can change things for the better. 254 Rush to Riches

Colonialism, Slavery, World Wars, and Holocaust During the Victorian era133 when colonialism was at its peak the British held colonies on most of the continents of the world. The British who conquered and unified India were at that time the world’s premier omnivores, drawing resources of the entire biosphere to their tiny island kingdom. The men presiding over the British Empire perched on chairs of Burma teak and ate at tables of African mahogany, consuming Australian beef washed down with French and Italian wines. Their women were decked in Canadian furs and clothes of Egyptian cotton, dyed with Indian indigo,134 glittering with diamonds from South Africa and gold from Peru. These levels of resource consumption among the British elite were attained by draining their many colonies, including India, of their natural resources. The peasants were forced to cultivate cash crops such as cotton, jute, and indigo to feed the expanding British textile industry. The British wanted to retain India as a supplier of cheap raw materials and a market for higher-priced manufactured goods. The British omnivores were, of course, assisted in the task of mobilizing and draining the country’s natural resources by representatives of the Indian omnivores of pre-colonial times. When the British conquered India in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it had a substantial surplus of agricultural production. This surplus had largely disappeared by 1920. With the spurt in population

133Queen Victoria ruled Britain from 1837 to 1901. Her reign was the longest of any monarch in British history and came to be known as the Victorian Era. As embodied by the monarchy, this era was represented by such nineteenth century ideals as devotion to family life, public and private responsibility, and obedience to the law. 134Indigo Plant is the common name for any of a genus of shrubs or perennial herbs. The genus has about 700 species, most native to tropical regions. Indigo plants have compound leaves and bear purple, pink, or white flowers. Their fruit consists of pods. Various Asian species contain the glycoside indican, which can be oxidized to produce the dyestuff indigo. Of a long- lasting, deep-blue colour, indigo was an important Indian, Egyptian, and Roman dye during antiquity. It was first introduced into Europe during the sixteenth century. Most indigo dye today is synthetically manufactured. War on Biosphere 255 growth that followed this period, a serious food deficit developed. India’s forest had also been seriously depleted by the World War II, while its mineral resources were not very promising. At the same time, the Indian elite had become increasingly conscious of the drain of the country’s resources, and came to appreciate the possibilities of diverting these resource fluxes in their own interest. A section of the elite, therefore, took up the cause of Indian independence, a cause that came to be increasingly supported by the wider population as well. It was at this low point that the British departed from India in August 1947. Spanish colonialism began as a way in which Spain could compete in the international shipping trade. Through colonialism Spain hoped to find greater resources for raw materials and gain economic influence in international politics. Spain proceeded to acquire many of the colonies with the idea that in making these areas and their people part of the Spanish Empire, they could more easily spread Christianity. The Spanish Empire is best known for its conquests in the South Americas. The Portuguese began their colonial history in the fifteenth century with a colony established in Angola. The last colony that Portugal released was Macao in 1999. Portugal was one of the last countries to hold on to a colony into the late twentieth century. After the Portuguese established their colony in East Africa they set their sights on the Americas, later developing a colony in South America, Brazil. The Portuguese later developed more colonies in Africa. Belgium was responsible for some of the greatest atrocities that occurred in the colonial era. The Belgian King lied and manipulated his way into the acquisition of a colony. King Leopold, the king of the Belgians, who reigned during the occupation, showed a complete disregard for the lives of the people of the Congo. Like the British the French held colonies over many parts of the world. Some of the colonies established by these empires were designed and were prison colonies. These were places where the 256 Rush to Riches mother country could send the people who were criminals, the people the mother country no longer wanted. The colonies functioned and, eventually, were drained by serving their purposes. Many native people were killed directly or indirectly by colonial authorities or people who belonged to their camps, their numbers estimating to reach more than those who died in the Holocaust. Colonialism is another black mark that much of the world wished to brush aside as non-existent; it is, at the same time, a mark that the rest of the world cannot recover from. Many of those who were colonized are still trying to gain a foothold in the modern world, left drained by the colonial powers. Christopher Columbus believed that Indians would serve as slave labour force for the Europeans, especially on the sugarcane plantations off the western coast of North Africa. Convinced that the Taino Indians135 of the Caribbean would make ideal slaves, he transported 500 to Spain in 1495. Some 200 died during the overseas voyage. Thus, Columbus initiated the African slave trade, which originally moved from the New World to the Old, rather than the reverse. By the beginning of the sixteenth century, Spain’s experiments in enslaving Indians were failing. To meet the mounting demand for labour in mining and agriculture, the Spanish began to exploit a new labour force, namely, slaves from western Africa. Slavery was a familiar institution to many sixteenth century Europeans. Although slavery had gradually died out in north-western Europe, it continued to flourish around the Mediterranean Sea. Ongoing warfare between Christianity and Islam produced thousands of slave labourers, who were put to work in heavy agriculture in Italy, southern France, eastern Spain, Sicily, and Eastern Europe near the Black Sea. Most slaves in this area were ‘white’—either

135The Taino Indians were indigenous Native American tribes, inhabitants of the Caribbean islands in pre-Columbian times, but they still have a large history. The Taínos called the island Guanahaní which Columbus renamed as San Salvador. War on Biosphere 257

Arabs or natives of Russia and Eastern Europe. But by the mid- fifteenth century, the expansion of the Ottoman Empire136 cut off the supply of white slaves. It was during the mid-fifteenth century that Portugal established trading relations along the West African coast, and discovered that it was able to purchase huge numbers of black slaves at a low cost. The first African slaves were brought to the New World as early as 1502, where they would mine precious metals and raise sugar, coffee, and tobacco—the first goods sold to a mass consumer market. The African slave trade would be an indispensable part of European settlement and development of the New World. By the mid- eighteenth century, slaves could be found everywhere in the Americas from French Canada to Chile. Between 1492 and 1820, approximately ten to fifteen million Africans were forcibly brought to the New World, while only about two million Europeans had migrated. The institution of slavery is as old as civilization. Many nations and empires were built by the muscles of slaves. The number of casualties in World War I exceeded by far those of any other war before World War II, in which almost 17 million men of the armed forces perished. Civilian deaths from military action, massacre, starvation, and exposure in the war between 1914 and 1918 are estimated at 12,618,000. Economic loss was estimated in billions of dollars. War costs are of two kinds: direct and indirect. Direct costs embrace all expenditures made by belligerents in carrying on hostilities. Indirect costs include the economic losses resulting from deaths attributable directly or indirectly to the war, the value of property damaged or destroyed, the loss of production arising from the transfer of men from civilian to military pursuits, expenditures for war

136Ottoman Empire, dynastic state centred in what is now Turkey, was founded in the late thirteenth century and dismantled in the early twentieth century. At its height, in the mid-1500s, at the end of the reign of Süleyman I, the Ottoman Empire controlled a vast area extending from the Balkan Peninsula to the Middle East and North Africa. 258 Rush to Riches relief work, the cost of war to neutral nations, and the like. After four years at war the worlds’ economy had been drained. Britain, whose economy had relied on trading, faced serious economic problems. 40% of its merchant fleets had been destroyed by German submarines in the war, making it difficult to export goods. Other countries imposed high tariffs on imports to protect their own industries, but this had hurt Britain’s economy. Britain’s old and outdated factories, machines, and mines also hurt its industries. Germany was also hit hard by the aftermath of the war. In an attempt to find money to pay its $33 billion debt in reparations, Germany printed an abundance of paper money. However, this merely led to severe inflation. In 1923, the value of German money dropped so significantly that one had to fill a wheelbarrow with cash simply to buy a loaf of bread. In 1921, Warren Harding became the new president of the United States of America. Under Harding, America’s unemployment rate plummeted from 11.7% to 2.1% between 1921 and 1923. Technology was booming: electrical appliances and packaged food made daily life easier, while radios, movies, air travel, international airmail, and automobiles all became more common. American farmers, however, were not faring well as crops were being cheaply imported from Europe again. There was no longer a high demand for American crops as there had been during the war. America’s economy took a turn for the worse in October 1929 when the stock market crashed. This caused The Great Depression: a time of slow business, high unemployment, low prices, and low wages. As 85,000 businesses failed, unemployment shot up from 3.2% in 1929 to 23.6% in 1932. Banks were forced to close as they had loaned money to European and American businesses and didn’t have enough money to honour the deposits. World War II was the mightiest struggle humankind has ever seen. It killed more people, cost more money, damaged more property, affected more people, and caused more far- reaching changes in nearly every country than any other war in War on Biosphere 259 history. The number of people killed, wounded, or missing between September 1939 and September 1945 can never be calculated, but it is estimated that more than 55 million people perished. More than 50 countries took part in the war, and the whole world felt its effects. Men fought in almost every part of the world, on every continent except Antarctica. Chief battlegrounds included Asia, Europe, North Africa, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Historians do not agree on the exact date when World War II began. Most consider Adolf Hitler’s German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, to be the beginning of the war. Germany, then, crushed six countries in three months—Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and France—and proceeded to conquer Yugoslavia and Greece. Japan’s plans for expansion in the Far East led to the attack of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, bringing the USA into the war. By early 1942, all major countries of the world were involved in the most destructive war in history. World War II would go down in the history books as bringing about the downfall of Western Europe as the centre of world power, leading to the rise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), setting up conditions leading to the Cold War, and opening up the nuclear age. Along with worldwide domination, Hitler also aimed to rid the world of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups. The Holocaust began in 1941 and continued until 1945. The goal of the Nazis was to attempt, on an industrial scale, to assemble and exterminate as many people as possible. Concentration camps were established and mass executions carried out. The Jews of Europe were the main targets, but Hitler also targeted Poles, Slavs, gypsies, the disabled and gay men. By the end of the war, approximately six million people had been killed by the German Gestapo or the SS. Late in April 1945, the head of the German home guard and dreaded Gestapo, Heinrich Himmler, tried to negotiate a peace with Great Britain and the United States of America. Adolf Hitler committed suicide in 260 Rush to Riches

Berlin on 30 April 1945. The Allies demanded that German troops on all fronts surrender. In July 1945, the heads of government in Britain, Soviet Union, and the United States conferred and were told that Japan was willing to negotiate a peace, but unwilling to accept unconditional surrender. An ultimatum was issued, calling for unconditional surrender and just peace. When Japan ignored the ultimatum, the United States decided to use the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb helped to make an invasion of Japan unnecessary. On 6 August 1945, a B- 29 called the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb used in warfare, on the city of Hiroshima. More than 92,000 people were killed or ended up missing. Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, which killed at least 40,000. Injuries from the two bombings were about equal to the deaths. Others would die later from radiation. The Japanese realized that they were helpless if one atomic bomb could cause so much damage. On 10 August, the Japanese government asked the Allies if unconditional surrender meant that Emperor Hirohito would have to give up his throne. World War II was the most expensive war in history. It has been estimated that the cost of the war totalled between $1 and $2 trillion, and the property damage amounted to more than $239 billion. The United States spent about 10 times as much as it had spent in all its previous wars put together. The national debt rose from $42 billion in 1940 to $269 billion in 1946.

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, India The Jallianwala Bagh site is witness to one of the most brutal incidents that took place during the Indian freedom struggle and it came as a monster in the form of General Dyer. It symbolizes the ultimate cruelty ever perpetrated against humanity on the biosphere and this incident still fills the minds of the people with anguish. Jallianwala Bagh incident played an important role in giving a definite direction to the Indian freedom movement. On 13 April 1919, around 10,000 people of Punjab gathered in Amritsar’s Jallianwala Bagh as part of the Sikh Festival Baisakhi, War on Biosphere 261 to protest peacefully against the oppressive Rowllat Act.137 These people were unaware of the imminent danger that was surrounding them from all the sides in the form of General Dyer and his army. The brutal general ordered his army of 50 soldiers to open fire at the crowd. As the only exit point was blocked and the walls of the park were beyond the reach of the people, the innocent people were trapped helplessly before the spraying bullets. For 10 to 15 minutes 1,650 rounds of ammunition were unloaded into the screaming, terrified crowd, some of whom were trampled by those desperately trying to escape. 400 people were killed on the spot, which included some children. The 1500 wounded people were left to die in the pool of their own blood. Winston Churchill wrote: “The Indians were ‘packed together so that one bullet would drive through three or four bodies’; the people ‘ran madly this way and the other. When fire was directed upon the centre, they ran to the sides. The fire was then directed to the sides. Many threw themselves down on the ground, and the fire was then directed on the ground. This was continued for eight or ten minutes, and it stopped only when the ammunition had reached the point of exhaustion.”138 Dyer then marched away, leaving 400 dead and over 1,500 wounded. Back in his headquarters, he reported to his superiors that he had been “confronted by a revolutionary army,” and had been obliged “to teach a moral lesson to the Punjab.” In the storm of outrage which followed, the brigadier was promoted to major general, retired, and placed on the inactive list. General Dyer admitted before the Hunter Enquiry Commission that he came to know

137The Rowlatt Act was a law passed by the British in colonial India in March 1919, indefinitely extending “emergency measures” enacted during World War I in order to control public unrest and root out conspiracy. Passed on the recommendations of the Rowlatt Committee, named for its president, British judge Sir Sidney Rowlatt, this act effectively authorized the government to imprison for a maximum period of two years, without trial, any person suspected of terrorism living in the Raj. The Rowlatt Act gave British imperial authorities power to deal with revolutionary activities. 138“Amritsar Massacre” at www.amritsar.com. 262 Rush to Riches about the meeting at Jallianwala Bagh at 12.40 hours that day, but took no steps to prevent it. He also admitted in his deposition that the gathering at the Bagh was not a concentration only of rebels, but people who had covered long distances to participate in the Baisakhi fair. This incident had an international impact, but the guilty General Dyer was not punished for his doings. The Indian freedom struggle took a significant turn from this tragic incident, and the politicians started to ask for complete independence. Although Queen Elizabeth offered a wreath on the Jallianwala Bagh in 1997, she was unable to wash off the ruthless act of General Dyer.

Vellore: A City of Mutineers The Vellore Mutiny (10 July 1806) was the first instance of a large-scale and violent mutiny by Indian sepoys (soldiers) against the British East India Company, pre-dating the Indian Rebellion of 1857139 by half a century. Vellore Mutiny was a bloody affair, with both the British and native exiled rulers fighting for justice. The revolt, which was waged in the South Indian town of Vellore, was rather brief, lasting only one full day. But the extent of brutality it had employed is unsurpassed in warring tactics of those times. The 1500 sepoys located in the Vellore garrison mutinied and killed or wounded over 200 of 370 Europeans in the fort, on the fated day of July 10, 1806. The mutiny was put down by British dragoons dispatched from nearby Arcot, due to the quick response of Colonel Robert Gillespie (1766-1814). They stormed the fortress at Vellore, which

139Widespread rebellion against British rule in India begun by Indian troops (sepoys) in the service of the English East India Company. The mutiny began when sepoys refused to use new rifle cartridges which were thought to be lubricated with grease containing a mixture of pigs’ and cows’ lard and thus religiously impure. They were shackled and imprisoned, but their outraged comrades shot their British officers and marched on Delhi. The ensuing fighting was ferocious on both sides and ended in defeat for the mutineers. Its immediate result was that the East India Company was abolished in favour of direct rule of India by the British government; in addition, the British government began a policy of consultation with Indians. War on Biosphere 263 had been taken over and occupied by the sepoys and ruthlessly shot and slashed their way through the fortress. About 350 sepoys were killed in this assault, at the cost of 130 British dragoons. The mutiny was ended, and William Bentinck (1774– 1839), the British governor-general of Madras, was replaced for his failure to prevent the mutiny. This war was triggered by the cultural arrogance and insensitivity that characterized the British colonial policy in the nineteenth century. The British East India Company, seeking to introduce Western-style military uniformity into the ranks of native troops under the command of the company, ordered that all sepoys discard their turbans and wear leather military headdress. Furthermore, no caste marks or other ornaments were to be worn during parades. Hindus were prohibited from wearing religious marks on their foreheads and Muslims were required to shave their beard and trim their moustache. This offended both the Hindu and the Muslim sepoys and went contrary to an earlier warning by a Military Board that sepoy uniform changes should be “given every consideration which a subject of that delicate and important nature required.”140 These apparently minor changes, intended to improve the “soldierly appearance” of the men, created strong resentment among the soldiers. In May 1806, some revolting soldiers were sent to Fort St. George (Madras then, now Chennai). Two soldiers—a Hindu and a Muslim—were given 90 lashes each and their services terminated. Nineteen soldiers were punished with 50 lashes each and forced to seek pardon from the East India Company. In addition to the military grievances listed above, the rebellion was also instigated by the sons of the defeated Tippu Sultan,141 confined at Vellore since 1799. Tippu’s wives and sons,

140“Amritsar massacre” at www.indiastudychannel.com. 141Tippu Sultan (1750-1799) was the de-facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He is better known as the “Tiger of Mysore.” He was a benevolent and instrumental leader, whose constant valiant efforts against the British oppression in southern India resulted in his name being etched in the annals of 264 Rush to Riches together with numerous retainers, were pensioners of the East India Company and lived in a palace within the large complex comprising the Vellore Fort. One of Tippu Sultan’s daughters was to be married on July 9, 1806. The plotters of the mutiny amassed at the fort under the ruse of attending the wedding. The objectives of the civilian conspirators remain obscure but by seizing and holding the fort they may have hoped to encourage a general rising through the territory of the former Mysore Sultanate. Two hour after the midnight, on July 10, the sepoys surrounded the fort and killed most of the British. The rebels seized control by daybreak and raised the flag of the Mysore Sultanate over the fort. Tippu’s second son Fateh Hyder was declared king. However, a British officer escaped and alerted the garrison in Arcot. Nine hours later, the British 19th Light Dragoons, led by Colonel Gillespie and the Madras Cavalry entered the fort through gates that had not been fully secured by the sepoys. Arriving at Vellore Gillespie found the surviving Europeans, about sixty men of the 69th, commanded by NCOs and two assistant surgeons, still clinging to the ramparts but out of ammunition. Unable to gain entry through the defended gate, Gillespie climbed the wall with the aid of a rope and a sergeant’s sash which was lowered to him; and to gain time, he led the 69th in a bayonet-charge along the ramparts. When the rest of the 19th arrived, Gillespie had them blow in the gates with their galloper guns, and made a second charge with the 69th to clear a space inside the gate to permit the cavalry to deploy. The 19th and the Madras Cavalry, then, charged and slaughtered any sepoy who stood in their way. About 100 sepoys who had sought refuge in the palace were bought out, and by Gillespie’s order, placed against a wall and shot dead. The remaining of the Vellore Mutiny was a foregone conclusion. After the incident, the imprisoned royals were transferred to Calcutta. The controversial interference with social and religious customs of

Indian history. War on Biosphere 265 the sepoys was abolished, as was flogging. After, formal trial six mutineers were blown away from guns, five shot by firing squad, eight hanged and five transported. The three Madras battalions involved in the mutiny were all disbanded. The senior British officers responsible for the offensive dress regulations were recalled to England and the orders themselves cancelled. Apart from these concessions, the British East India Company learnt little from this incident, and the general resentment would culminate in the Mutiny of 1857 (Indian Rebellion of 1857), when similar circumstances of ignoring native sentiments nearly costing the whole of India. The events of 1857 caused the British crown to take over Company lands in India with the Government of India Act 1858, which saw the total dissolution of the British East India Company.

A New Eugenics: The War against the Weak Eugenics is commonly associated with the Nazi racial hygiene program that began in 1933 and ended in May 1945, with Germany’s defeat near the end of World War II. Although the German eugenics movement existed long before the Nazis came to power, scholars have shown that Nazi eugenicists were inspired by American eugenic studies and sterilization, as well as their anti-miscegenation and immigration restriction laws. The Eugenics movement, which aimed to improve the genetic quality of the human race through selective breeding, was a forerunner of the Holocaust. This scientific movement first began in England during the 1880s, but it was in the USA that it first gained widespread scientific and political support. How American corporate philanthropies launched a national campaign of ethnic cleansing in the United States, helped found and fund the Nazi eugenics of Hitler and Josef Mengele, and then created the modern movement of ‘human’ genetics. They were all bent on breeding a eugenically superior race, just as agronomists would breed better strains of corn. The plan was to wipe away the reproductive capability of the weak and inferior. How? By identifying so-called ‘defective’ family trees and 266 Rush to Riches subjecting them to legislated segregation and sterilization programs. The victims were poor people, brown-haired white people, African Americans, immigrants, Indians, Eastern European Jews, the infirm and really anyone classified outside the superior genetic lines drawn up by American raceologists. The main culprits were the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Harriman railroad fortune, in league with America’s most respected scientists hailing from such prestigious universities as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, operating out of a complex at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island. The eugenic network worked in tandem with the US Department of Agriculture, the State Department, and numerous state governmental bodies throughout the country, including the US Supreme Court. Ultimately, 60,000 Americans were coercively sterilized— legally and extra-legally. Many never discovered the truth until decades later. American eugenic crusades proliferated into a worldwide campaign, and in the 1920s came to the attention of Adolf Hitler. Under the Nazis, American eugenic principles were applied without restraint, careening out of control into the Reich’s infamous genocide. During the pre-war years, American eugenicists openly supported Germany’s program. Once WW II began, Nazi eugenics turned from mass sterilization and euthanasia to genocide. With the rise of National Socialism, the advocates of sterilization and euthanasia found ever-increasing support. More than half of Germany’s doctors joined the Nazi party. In 1935, Adolf Hitler gave his approval for the elimination of the ‘incurably ill’. In October 1939, Germany began its euthanasia program. One of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute doctors in the program financed by the Rockefeller Foundation was Josef Mengele who continued his research in Auschwitz, making daily eugenic reports on twins. The Nazis instituted state-supported positive eugenics programs that encouraged ‘racially fit’ women to reproduce, as well as a massive negative eugenics program that included euthanasia. Ultimately, the Nazis sterilized about War on Biosphere 267

400,000 people and euthanized another 70,000 individuals that were judged to be feebleminded or otherwise unfit. It was largely because of the technology and methodology developed during the course of Germany’s euthanasia program that the Nazis were able to murder nearly six million Jews in such a relatively short period of time. The same doctors who had developed and carried out the euthanasia program were in most cases the same ‘experts’ who developed and supervised the killing operations at each of the six ‘extermination’ centres later built in Poland. After the world recoiled from Nazi atrocities, the American eugenics movement—its institutions and scientists renamed and regrouped under the banner of an enlightened science called ‘human genetics’. The victims of the twentieth century’s “new eugenic program” (i.e., industrialization) are animals, plants, and the poor. One-sixth of world’s population is the real beneficiaries of this “new eugenic program,” which sidelines the creation and the weak for its preference for the rich. These beneficiaries are bigger landowners with access to irrigation; these are modern entrepreneurs in pockets of industrialization and the workers in the organized sector; these are the urban professionals—lawyers, doctors, investment bankers and of employees in governments, rapidly gaining in wealth and prestige; and these are the ever- growing numbers of employees in government and semi- government and government-aided organizations. They have the purchasing power to buy cars and fly in airplanes, to dress in polyester clothes and to feast on fish, flesh, and fruit brought to them from the four corners of the land. Not only do they have the money to pay for these commodities, but they have the clout to use the power of the state to ensure that the goodies come to them cheap, if not altogether free. As prosperous farmers, they pay next to nothing for the electricity that runs their pump sets; as city dwellers, they pay little for the water brought to them from hundreds of kilometres away. The news they read is printed on paper subsidized by the low rate at which bamboo is 268 Rush to Riches supplied to the mills, and the state builds and maintains at its own expense the highways on which ply the trucks that bring them manners of commodities from great distances. Like their western counterparts, whom anthropologist Raymond Dasmann calls “biosphere people,”142 they enjoy the produce of the entire biosphere, in contrast to the “ecosystem people,” who have a very limited resource catchment. Devouring everything produced all over the earth, they might equally be termed “omnivores.” Omnivores are those who have a political and economic power to avail themselves of the resources of the entire country, and indeed the globe. Omnivores have successfully monopolized the benefits of development, with an ‘iron triangle’ among them making sure that state incentives, subsidies, and technological interventions are designed principally to further their interests. I argue that biases in the development process have allowed these omnivores to successfully pass off costs such as resource depletion, habitat fragmentation, and species loss, to the ecosystem people. This process has created a third class of people, whom I have called “ecological refugees.” Omnivores, ecosystem people, and ecological refugees are three broad categories, to which we might assign all of world’s population today.

War on Biodiversity: A Perfect Crime Our planet is going through some of the worst physical and emotional crises that it has ever faced. Oil spills, earthquakes, typhoons, volcanic eruptions, tornados, heat waves, and a host of other disasters beset our world in record breaking numbers. Unfortunately, many of these dilemmas have been caused by the actions of humans. Our thoughts, emotions, and energies have had a profoundly deleterious effect upon our world. As a result, the earth is threatening to remove many of us from its surface. The political news frustrates and angers us. We seem to be a people determined to undo everything that the

142“Conservation of Natural Resources” at www.data.iucn.org. War on Biosphere 269 geniuses who founded this country set out to bequeath to us. But it takes news of what we are doing to the environment to really put me in a blue funk for days at a time. According to an article published in the Huffington Post,143 about ten types of habitats are seriously endangered through human involvement and mismanagement. Mangroves: The mangrove is not a plant; it is a habitat that can contain a great diversity of individual species of plants —like holly, plumbago, hibiscus, legumes, acanthus, and myrtle. These complex habitats do the important work of capturing carbon and provide shelter for many species of animals. Unfortunately, they exist on valuable real estate along coasts and we know what happens when the needs of the planet collide with man’s greed. From 1980 to 2000, 35% of mangrove habitats disappeared under the developers’ earthmovers. Coral Reefs: These are beautiful hot spots of diversity in the sea that have been estimated to have benefits to the environment, of at least $30 billion a year. They are being destroyed by pollution, fishing, acidification of the ocean, and most especially by increased heat from global warming which bleaches them. This continues in coral reefs around the world while our elected representatives in politics dither and squabble and deny that global warming even exists. Rainforests: Rainforests have been rightly dubbed the ‘Lungs of the Earth’. They help to regulate the temperatures and weather on earth as well as producing fresh water for us to drink. However, we are destroying a football-field-sized plot of them every single second.

143Huffington Post is an American news website and content aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring various news sources and columnists. The site offers coverage of politics, media, business, entertainment, living, style, the green movement, world news, and comedy, and has news, blogs, and original content. Huffington Post was launched on 9 May 2005. 270 Rush to Riches

Tall Grass Prairie: These prairies once covered millions of acres around the world, they are known by a variety of names in different countries, such as ‘taiga’, ‘savannas’, and ‘grasslands’. It is the home of the bison as well as a great diversity of animals and plants that depended on their yearly cycles; they were regularly ravaged by prairie fires that were part of that cycle, a part that kept trees out. Then, European settlers came and stopped the cycle of fire and put the earth to the plough. In time, trees took over. Today, for all practical purposes, the tall-grass prairie has ceased to exist except in small, unsustainable patches as museum exhibits. Long Leaf Pines: Forests of these pines once reached, without a break, from north to south and an entire ecology depended on them. Today they have been stripped from the land and exist only in widely separated patches. Many of the birds and other animals that depended on them have vanished. Birds like the red-cockaded woodpecker teeter are on the brink of extinction in spite of our belated attempts at protecting them. Glaciers: Global warming is the great culprit here. The glaciers are disappearing at an alarming rate. It is a vicious cycle, because, intact, they help to reflect heat back away from the earth and keep the earth in a temperate climate phase. When they are gone, one more key to humans’ survival on earth will have been lost. War on Biosphere 271

Wetlands: I spent much of my day recently tramping around a part of the great wetland areas that exist along the Coast of Kerala, India, and I was reminded again of the great diversity of life here—both animal and vegetative. These areas exist as protective barriers along our coasts, helping to mitigate the effects of natural disasters like hurricanes and even man- made catastrophes like oil spills. Of course, we destroy them just as fast as we possibly can. Wet lands are among the most varied and beautiful in the world. They are the birthplace of numerous animal and plant species, but are in danger due to over- exploitation by man: deforestation, swamp drainage, desertification, pollution, etc., cause the disappearance of dozens of fragile wetland areas every year. Maldives: These are low-lying islands that are disappearing under the ocean as sea levels rise. The people who live there are the victims of our ignorance and stubborn refusal to do what we can—to do anything, really—to mitigate global warming. They know that global warming is happening. They see its effects every day, but they are too small and powerless to do anything to stop it or even slow it down. That is up to us, and we refuse to act. Arctic Tundra: Like the glaciers, the permafrost which underlies the tundra is melting, endangering the habitat of the caribou, migratory songbirds that spend their summer there, waterfowl, foxes, polar bear, and wolves. The migratory caribou have already seen a precipitate drop in their numbers in recent years. That condition is likely to continue. 272 Rush to Riches

Oceans: It is not only about seafood or a romantic sunset; our oceans are essential to us both ecologically and economically. They regulate our climate, produce oxygen, and remove carbon from the atmosphere through processes such as photosynthesis. They are also home to an incredible number of species, with many new ones discovered on a regular basis, living in almost unimaginable settings. Today, biodiversity in Europe’s seas and oceans faces an unprecedented range of pressures and require urgent action.

Biodiversity’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Animal and plant species are now disappearing at an alarming rate. Scientists estimate that the rate at which they are disappearing is 1,000 to 10,000 times greater than would have been the case without industrial development. Extinction is a natural event and, from a geological perspective, routine. We now know that most species that have ever lived have gone extinct. The average duration of a species is 1-10 million years (based on the last 200 million years). There have also been many episodes of mass extinction, when many taxa representing a wide array of life forms have gone extinct in the same blink of geological time. In the modern era, due to human actions, species and ecosystems are threatened with destruction to an extent rarely seen in earth history. Probably, only during the handful of mass extinction events have so many species been threatened, in so short a time. What are these human actions that threaten biodiversity? Although there are many ways to consider these, we shall restrict ourselves to only two. First, we can attribute the loss of species and ecosystems to the accelerating transformation of the earth by a growing human population. As the human population passes the 7 billion mark, we have transformed, degraded, or destroyed roughly half of the word’s forest. We appropriate roughly half of the world’s net primary productivity for human use. We appropriate most available fresh water, and we harvest virtually all of the available productivity of the oceans. It is little wonder that species are disappearing and War on Biosphere 273 ecosystems are being destroyed. Threats to biodiversity come from 3 major areas: introducing new species 39 percent, habitat destruction 36 percent, and hunting 23 percent. Second, we can examine six specific types of human actions that threaten species and ecosystems. Over-Hunting: Over-hunting has been a significant cause of the extinction of hundreds of species and the endangerment of many more, such as whales and many African large mammals. Most extinction over the past several hundred years are mainly due to over-harvesting for food, fashion, and profit. Commercial hunting, both legal and illegal (poaching), is the principal threat. The Indian Cheetah, Tasmanian Wolf, Indian Rhino, and Madagascar Dodo are some of the examples. The recent expansion of road networks into previously remote tropical forests enables the bushmeat trade, as more and more wild animals are shot for food. The pet and decorative plant trades fall within this commercial hunting category, and include a mix of legal and illegal activities. The annual trade is estimated to be at least US $5 billion, with perhaps one-quarter to one-third of it illegal. Habitat Loss, Degradation, and Fragmentation: Habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation are important causes of known extinctions. As deforestation proceeds in tropical forests, this promises to become the main cause of mass extinctions caused by human activity. All species have specific food and habitat needs. The more specific these needs and localized the habitat, the greater the vulnerability of species to the loss of habitat to agricultural land, livestock, roads, and cities. In the future, the only species that survive are likely to be those whose habitats are highly protected, or whose habitat corresponds to the degraded state associated with human activity. Habitat damage, especially the conversion of forested land to agriculture, has a long human history. Environmental fluctuations, disease, and other chance factors make such small isolates highly vulnerable to extinction. 274 Rush to Riches

Any species that requires a large home range, such as Bengal Tiger, will not survive if the area is too small. Invasion of Non-Native Species: Invasion of non-native species is an important and often overlooked cause of extinctions. The African Great Lakes—Victoria, Malawi, and Tanganyika—are famous for their great diversity of endemic species, termed “species flocks,” of cichlid fishes. In Lake Victoria, a single, exotic species, the Nile Perch, has become established and may cause the extinction of most of the native species by simply eating them all. It was a purposeful introduction for subsistence and sports fishing, and a great disaster. Domino Effects: Domino effects occur when the removal of one species (an extinction event) or the addition of one species (an invasion event) affects the entire biological system. Domino effects are especially likely when two or more species are highly interdependent, or when the affected species is a ‘keystone’ species, meaning that it has strong connections to many other species. A keystone species is one whose influence on others is disproportionately great. A seminal study of marine invertebrates in the rocky intertidal region of Washington State found that the top predator, a starfish, facilitated the coexistence of many other invertebrates by selectively consuming mussels, which otherwise would crowd out other organisms. Thus, a keystone species is one whose presence or absence, both directly and indirectly, influences other species through food web connectivity. Contrary to what some may think, not all species are ‘keystones’, and it requires careful experimental studies to identify keystone species. Pollution: When the earth warms up, pollution increases and plants, animals, and their habitat are overexploited, the whole balance between man and other forms of life is upset. Pollution from chemical contaminants certainly poses a further threat to species and ecosystems. While not commonly a cause of War on Biosphere 275 extinction, very likely it can be for species whose range is extremely small and threatened by contamination. Climate Change: A changing global climate threatens species and ecosystems. The distribution of species (biogeography) is largely determined by climate, as is the distribution of ecosystems and plant vegetation zones (biomes). Climate change may simply shift these distributions but, for a number of reasons, plants, and animals may not be able to adjust. The pace of climate change almost certainly will be more rapid than most plants are able to adapt. With further warming, many of the species will likely be eliminated. A changing climate will have many other effects. As a consequence of these multiple forces, many scientists fear that by the end of next century, perhaps 25 percent of the existing species will be lost.

Animals under Siege The earth supports amazing biodiversity, but much wildlife is threatened from one particularly successful species, i.e., human beings. Even if we do manage to reduce forest loss and stop wildlife trade, a greater threat looms on the horizon in the form of global warming. As the climate changes rapidly, the territory to which species have adapted may become unliveable faster than they can respond. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has reported that warming could put as much as 70% of species at a greater risk of extinction, with Arctic animals like the polar bear potentially among the first to go. The Amazon rain forest is the most biodiverse place on earth, but logging imperils animals like jaguar. Tropical forests are home to the greatest concentration of biodiversity on the planet, but when the trees are lost, various species would soon follow suit. From 1990 to 2005, the world lost 172 million acres (70 million hectares) of forest, much of it in South American countries like Brazil, where deforestation has accelerated as land is cleared for pastures. Widespread deforestation on the island of Madagascar has put 276 Rush to Riches unique species like the greater bamboo lemur at serious risk of extinction. With a population of 6.7 billion, which is set to pass 9 billion by 2050, human beings are crowding out other species through sheer numbers. As a rising middle class in countries like India begins to consume goods at western rates, we could leave little room for wildlife. The rising global trade in animal parts, like tiger penises, prized as an aphrodisiac in China, has made killing even more profitable. In the Congo Basin, three-fifths of all large mammals are being hunted at unsustainable rates, many for bushmeat, which is increasingly popular in Africa’s markets. Illegal Wildlife Trade, the buying and selling of endangered live animals as pets, performers, and more, is a new and growing menace to wildlife. Total wildlife trade is believed to be the second largest direct threat to many species, after the habitat loss. The problem has become so severe that conservationists have coined the term empty-forest syndrome to describe habitats that remain standing but have been stripped of the animals that once lived there. Southeast Asia has long been a hub of the wildlife trade; almost anything can be found in the live markets of Bangkok or Guangzhou. Further, the internet has allowed the sale of species to go global. Mountain Gorilla, a Giant under Siege: Gorillas are the largest and most charismatic of the great apes. After chimpanzees, they are our closest biological kin and share up to 98% of our genes. They bear an unmistakable affinity to humans by way of intelligence, physiological structure and behavioural patterns. This may perhaps explain human fascination with these gentle giants as they continue the journey to understand themselves. Gorillas are colossal afro-anthropoids with characteristic long forelimbs, and are known for their classic chest thumping. They inhabit some of Africa’s remaining tropical rainforests. These great ape species are scientifically known as Gorilla. They are classified into 3 sub-species, which War on Biosphere 277 are all are quite similar, except for minor distinctions in size, build, and colour. Tigers under Siege: Wild tigers in most parts of the world were wiped out during the past 100 years, according to the WWF’s website.144 Tigers have been extinct on the islands of Bali and Java since 1972 and the animals disappeared from around the Caspian Sea by the 1950s. About 5,100 to 7,500 tigers remain in the world, the WWF estimated. India, home to the largest number of wild tigers in the world, needs to protect its forests and the people who live in and around them to safeguard the endangered animal. The tiger is under attack from poachers, miners and other exploitative activity, according to the report submitted by the Tiger Task Force to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.145 It is also under siege from the people who share its land and who haven’t benefited from conservation, the report said. Recently, there is reason for tiger enthusiasts to celebrate: India’s wild tiger population has grown 12 percent in the last four years. According to the 2011 study, reported in The Hindu, there are approximately 1,706 of the big cats in the country, which includes about 70 in the marshes of the Sunderbans, which have never been scientifically surveyed before.146 30% of the tiger population lives in areas outside the government’s reserves, giving conservationists a new challenge in the effort to protect them. The celebrations, however, were muted by the decrease in land area where tigers can thrive. “Tiger occupancy areas shrunk from 9 million hectares to less than 7.5 million hectares over the last four years,” said environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh.147 “This means that tiger corridors are under severe threat, especially in central India, in Madhya Pradesh (213 tigers), and northern Andhra Pradesh (65 tigers).” The largest

144“Tigers: Wildlife – Safeguarding the Natural World” at www.wwf.org.uk. 145“Tiger Task Force” www.cseindia.org/node677. 146“The Tiger Census Counts 1706,” The Hindu at www.hindu.com/2011/ 03/29/stories. 147“Wild Tiger Watch” at wwwwildtigerwatch.blogspot.com. 278 Rush to Riches number of tigers lives in Karnataka—about 280—and conservation efforts have been successful in the entire Western Ghats area, with Tamil Nadu and Kerala also seeing good results. Birds under Siege: Available statistics from Birdlife International said 1,227 bird species, constituting 12.4 percent of the 9,865 different bird species in the world are under threat of extinction. One in eight of the world’s bird species is at risk of extinction, say wildlife experts. This amounts to 1,200 species under grave threat, largely because of global warming and widespread habitat destruction. Experts say that changes to the planet and the climate could jeopardize the future of many more of our best-loved birds. Climate change threatens to further imperil hundreds of species of migratory birds, already under stress from habitat loss, invasive species, and other environmental threats. Migratory birds constitute 19 percent of all known bird in the world, and out the 19 percent, 11 percent are considered threatened or near threatened and 31 percent are considered to be critically endangered. Without immediate conservation action, proper regulatory controls, and care for our environment, there is a risk that the state of our biodiversity will continue to get worse and as a result of negative impact on our natural resources, economy, and wellbeing as a whole. War on Biosphere 279

Monarch Butterflies under Siege: Year 2010 may be one of the worst for the monarch butterflies, experts report.148 Severe hailstorms in Mexico (one of the monarch’s winter homes) followed by 15 inches of rain has left the population decimated by up to 50 percent this year. Add to that the ongoing issue of habitat destruction, and the future of the monarch begins to look a little shaky. Unlike most other insects in temperate climates, monarch butterflies cannot survive a long cold winter, according to MonarchWatch.org. Instead, they spend the winter in roosting spots. Amazingly, they fly in masses to the same winter roosts, often to the exact same trees. Part of the problem monarchs face is the longevity of the trees within which they roost: Illegal logging in Mexico has destroyed the butterflies’ mountain habitats, while property development in California threatens the eucalyptus trees where they roost. In addition to habitat issues and the increasingly severe weather, there has also been a significant increase in the Midwest of planting corn and soybeans that are genetically engineered to be herbicide- resistant. That allows farmers to spray weed killer without hurting the crops, but it has meant almost no milkweed survive in the fields. No milkweed means, no place for the butterflies to breed along the way, a crucial step, obviously, in the survival of the species. That’s where we can help. An advocacy group is encouraging the public to create monarch habitats by planting milkweed in home gardens. They are also encouraging schools, zoos, farmers, and anyone else with access to unused land to grow the perennial plants.

Mystery of the Disappearing Amphibians Biologists are hard put to explain why recent years have seen a decline in frogs, toads, salamanders, and other amphibians in several parts of the world. Some point to pollution and others to habitat fragmentation. But even in many areas where habitats have remained healthy, amphibians have not. In North America,

148“Monarch Butterflies” at www.huffingtonpost.com/2010. 280 Rush to Riches some 75 percent of the tiger salamander’s native grasslands habitat has been replaced by farmland and housing developments, with the result that the salamander is now on the endangered species list. In Costa Rica, 20 amphibian species have declined or disappeared just since the late 1980s. Among them is the famous golden toad. Amphibians are a hardy lot and were the first land animals to evolve. They have been around for 350 million years and are found on every continent except Antarctica. Four northern species of frogs can freeze solid and survive. So far, biologists have identified some 5,000 species of amphibians. Yet, some frogs are extremely sensitive and need just the right habitat conditions to maintain their populations. Some need a gently flowing stream at a certain water temperature and with a sandy bottom where they can lay their eggs. The south-eastern United States is the world’s richest region in salamanders. Most species of salamanders do not have lungs and breathe through their skin, which must be kept moist at all times. When a forest is logged or wiped out, its salamander populations must move elsewhere or perish. Sunlight flooding the forest floor creates dry conditions that can spell death to salamanders. The favourite habitats of these skin-breathers are mature hardwood forests. At the present rate of cutting, the forests will be all but gone by 2015, and many salamander populations will also be gone. The great mystery is why amphibians in a variety of habitats, healthy, protected, or those degraded by human activity, are dying out. Some biologists think that pollution, acid rain, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer runoff from farms erode amphibian populations in many areas. The animals are especially sensitive to poisons that can easily penetrate their thin moist skin and their eggs, which lack protective shells. Could a worldwide epidemic that seriously injures or kills off entire amphibian populations be involved? Some biologists think so, and they have identified the War on Biosphere 281 killer as chytrid fungus.149 Bacteria and viruses also seem to be agents of amphibian death in certain areas. Some biologists wonder if some disease agent that has spread worldwide is weakening amphibians’ ability to fight off disease. In shallow lakes and ponds in India, climate change has reduced water level in many areas with it, high amphibian populations. The result has been increased exposure of embryos to ultraviolet B radiation, making them more sensitive to infection by disease agents. The eggs begin to develop normally for a few days but then turn white and die by the hundreds of thousands.

Research on Animal Abuse: Massacre of the Innocents The zoos are the central places of animal abuse. Unfortunately, when it comes to the worst zoos in the world, the stories are pretty much the same: small cages and living spaces, unnatural surroundings of concrete and iron, underfeeding and under- watering, and cruelty in general. However, some zoos go above and beyond expectations of horrible. Cruelty to animals or animal abuse is the infliction of suffering or harm upon animals, other than humans, for purposes other than self-defence. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur. Diverging viewpoints are held by jurisdictions throughout the world. Broadly speaking, there are two approaches to the issue. The animal welfare position holds that there is nothing inherently wrong with using animals for human purposes, such as food, clothing, entertainment, and research, but that it should be done in a humane way that minimizes unnecessary pain and suffering. Animal rights theorists criticize this position, arguing that the words ‘unnecessary’ and ‘humane’ are subject to widely differing interpretations and that the only way to ensure protection for animals is to end their status as property, and to ensure that they are never used as commodities. Laws concerning animal cruelty 149Chytrid fungus, not a novel pathogen, has only now entered the global stage. The most compelling theory for this is the theory that rising temperatures increase the virility of chytrid. 282 Rush to Riches are designed to prevent needless cruelty to animals, rather than killing for other aims such as food, or they concern species not eaten as food in the country involved, such as those regarded as pets. There are several different reasons as to why some people abuse animals. Research conducted by various animal protection agencies and interest groups places abusers into one of three categories: Unwitting abusers don’t set out to harm animals. They simply don’t realize that some of the things they do are cruel. They might keep a pet dog on a short chain not realizing that the dog needs time and space to move more freely. Or, they may have heard that swatting a pet on the snout with a newspaper is a way to discipline, not realizing that there are far more effective and humane ways. Immature abusers actually set out to hurt animals by a lack the mental and emotional maturity to realized the nature and extent of harm they are doing—not only to the animal but also to their own character development. A young child throwing rocks at a frog in a pond or deliberately scaring a cat to watch its typical reaction might fall into this category. Serious intentional abusers actually derive satisfaction from hurting animals. From a psychological perspective, the reason is mainly about power. For the most part, animals, especially smaller or domesticated animals, can’t easily defend themselves and are vulnerable in the face of someone who can inflict great pain on them. This makes the abuser feel powerful. Some abusers feel a lack of power in other areas of their lives and try to make up for it by wielding ruthless power over the weak. Others simply enjoy the feeling of dominance so much that they are always looking for an opportunity, to exercise it. Still others have such a feeling of superiority and entitlement that they view the animal’s only purpose as being to serve their needs. Such is often the case when animals are used for fighting contests (e.g., dog fights, cock fights, etc.) as a way to make money for and gain notoriety for the owners and handlers. War on Biosphere 283

Cruel acts toward animals had long been recognized as indicators of a dangerous psychopathy that often claims more than animal victims. According to Robert K. Ressler, who developed profiles of serial killers for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), “murders … very often start out by killing and torturing animals as kids.”150 Studies have now convinced sociologists, lawmakers, law enforcement officials, and the courts that acts of cruelty to animals deserve our attention. They can be the first sign of a violent pathology that includes human victims. Acts of cruelty to animals are not mere indications of a minor personality flaw in the abuser; they are symptomatic of a deep mental disturbance. Research in psychology and criminology shows that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals don’t stop there; many of them move on to their fellow humans. Non-vegetarian habits are also certainly associated with some deep violent traits of the reptilian brain in humans such as violent attitudes, aggressiveness, and harassing other people (forced conversions). Research shows that the non-vegetarian societies have done more violent and inhumane acts in history such as slavery, colonialism, poaching, deforestation, World Wars I and II, holocaust, religious wars, etc., and continue to destroy the rest of creation through global warming and globalization. Studies have shown that violent and aggressive criminals are more likely to have abused animals as children than criminals considered non-aggressive.151 A survey of psychiatric patients who had repeatedly tortured dogs and cats found that all of them had high levels of aggression toward people as well. According to a New South Wales newspaper, a policy study in Australia revealed that “100 percent of sexual homicide offenders examined had a history of animal cruelty.” According to this researcher, a fascination with cruelty to

150“Animal Abuse and Human Abuse: Partners in Crime” at www.peta.org. 151See the website of Animal Cruelty Research Centre at www.bleats.com.au/ research. 284 Rush to Riches animals is a red flag in the lives of serial killers and rapists.152 According to the Ressler, “these are the kids who never learned [that] it is wrong to poke out a puppy’s eyes.”153 History is replete with serial killers whose violent tendencies were first directed at animals. Albert DeSalvo the “Boston Strangler,” who killed 13 women, trapped dogs and cats and shot arrows at them through boxes in his youth. Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer had impaled frogs, cats, and dogs’ heads on sticks. Dennis Rader, the so-called “BTK” killer, who terrorized people in Kansas, wrote in a chronological account of his childhood that he hanged a dog and a cat. During the trial of convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, a psychology professor testified that the teenager, who killed 10 people with a rifle, had “pelted—and probably killed—numerous cats with marbles from a slingshot when he was about 14.”154 The deadly violence that has shattered schools in recent years in the USA has, in most cases, begun with cruelty to animals. High school killers such as 15 year old Kip Kinkel in Springfield, Oregon, and Luke Woodham, 16, in Pearl, Mississippi, tortured animals before starting their shooting sprees. Columbine High School students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who shot and killed 12 classmates before turning their guns on themselves, spoke of mutilating animals to their classmates. “There is a common theme to all of the shootings of recent years,” says Harold S. Koplewicz, director of the Child Study Center at New York University. “You have a child who has symptoms of aggression toward his peers, an interest in fire, cruelty to animals, social isolation, and many warning signs that the school has ignored.”155 Sadly, many of these criminals’ childhood violence went unexamined, until it was directed at humans. Communities

152“Link between Animal Abuse and Human Abuse” at www.knockoutfighting.org 153“Animal Abuse” at www.peta.org. 154“Knock out Dog Fighting” at www.knockoutdogfighting.org. 155“Research in Psychology and Criminology” at www.peta.org. War on Biosphere 285 must recognize that abuse to any living individual is unacceptable, as it would endanger everyone. After an extensive study of the links between animal abuse and human abuse, Harold S. Koplewicz concluded: “The evolution of a more gentle and benign relationship in human society might be enhanced by our promotion of a more positive and nurturing ethic between children and animals.”156

Deforestation: Destruction of Green Cathedrals Rainforest is not a commodity, but it is a community to which we belong. This change in conception is far-reaching and profound. It involves a shift in our metaphysical conception of nature—that is, a change in what sort of thing we take our natural surroundings to be. Indeed, tropical forest is a victim of a spiritual crisis in humanity. The destruction of tropical forest reflects an all too-widespread willingness to submit to an economic determinism every bit as rigid as that of Marx. We learn from Columbia Encyclopaedia that, in very early times, forests covered virtually the whole land surface of the earth, apart from the areas of perpetual snow (such as the North Pole). As recently as the nineteenth century, tropical rain forests in their own right covered around 20% of all the dry land area of the earth, but this figure was only 7% by the end of the twentieth century. Probably, the main fundamental factor that has been invariably pushing rain forest destruction more and more over the decades and indeed centuries, is the demand for the rain forest as a enormous economic and social resource. First of all, tropical rain forests are “treasure troves of nature,” as they contain endless supplies of resources widely used in human societies, such as food, timber, raw materials, etc. Second, rain forests cover huge swathes of land. The land has always been a limited resource required for accommodation of ever growing human populations. Forests are very important to the

156“Animal Abuse and Human Abuse” at www.wilbargerhumanesociety.org/ abuse.php. 286 Rush to Riches

environment because they use carbon dioxide (CO2) and produce oxygen. They also provide shelter and food for many different types of plants and animals. Trees are cut down for many reasons but the main reasons are to make space to build new houses and to clear land to grow grass for cows and sheep to eat and to produce dairy foods. The trees which are cut down are sold and they are made into paper and furniture. Cutting down trees is called deforestation and it can have serious effects. If animals’ homes, which are built in and around the trees, are destroyed, many species will become extinct. For example, many different types of animals in South America were lost before scientists could learn about them. Deforestation also affects the climate. When rain falls on a forest, new clouds are created. If huge areas of trees are cut down, clouds do not form, rain does not fall, and the land becomes dry. The CO2 builds up and adds to the global warming, making the earth hotter. Many European countries are planting trees faster than they are cutting them down. Many trees were planted a few years ago to replace woodland and to create forests in areas where there wasn’t much wood. We can help to save forests by reusing and recycling paper. More than half of the world’s animals live in the rain forest. Many of the earth’s insects are found in the tropical forests. A number of these inhabitants belong to the category of endangered animals. With each passing year, and many hundreds of thousands of acres of the forests being destroyed, more and more habitat is cut away, sending the creatures to the brink of extinction. Some startling statistics are that over an acre of rain forest is destroyed each second. That is truly incomprehensible. Within 40 years, they could be gone, vanished from this planet. We need to stop the rain forest destruction!

Rain Forest Destruction Affects Earth Systems Do you know that enough tropical rainforests are destroyed every minute to fill fifty football fields? Many countries with War on Biosphere 287 rainforests are demolishing our vital source of oxygen. The atmosphere and oceans are not the only parts of the environment being damaged. Rain forests are being quickly destroyed as well, and their survival is questionable. E. O. Wilson, a biologist at Harvard, called the depletion of rain forest areas “the greatest extinction since the end of the age of dinosaurs.”157 Unlike some issues, rain forest depletion has fortunately received significant public and media attention. Despite the opposition to the cutting down of rain forests, the problem continues. Every year, Brazil chops down an area of forest the size of Tamil Nadu State, India. India chops down an area of forest the size of Malta. In addition to the Amazon’s rain forests, many other forests are being cut down as well. In Indonesia, Zaire, Papua-New Guinea, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, and Venezuela, rain forests that were once great have been lost. According to some estimates, 50 million acres of rain forest are cut down every year. Most of the tropical rain forests straddle the equator. One- third of the world’s total is in the Amazon basin of Brazil. The vast areas of trees have been called the “lungs of the earth.” Although tropical forests cover only about 7 percent of earth’s dry land, they probably harbour about half of all species on the earth. Many species are so specialized to microhabitats within the forest that they can only be found in small areas. Their specialization makes them vulnerable to extinction. In addition to the species lost when an area is totally deforested, the plants and animals in the fragments of forest that remain also become increasingly vulnerable, sometimes even committed, to extinction. The edges of the fragments dry out and are buffeted by hot winds; mature rainforest trees often die standing at the margins. Cascading changes in the types of trees, plants, and insects that can survive in the fragments rapidly reduce biodiversity in the forest that remains. People may disagree about whether the extinction of other species through human

157“Rain Forest Destruction” at www.library.thinkquest.org/26026/ rainforestdestruction 288 Rush to Riches action is an ethical issue, but there is little doubt about the practical problems that extinction poses. First, global markets consume rainforest products that depend on sustainable harvesting: latex, cork, fruit, nuts, timber, fibres, spices, natural oils and resins, and medicines. Second, the genetic diversity of tropical forests is basically the deepest end of the planetary gene pool. Hidden in the genes of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria that have not even been discovered yet may be cures for cancer and other diseases or the key to improving the yield and nutritional quality of foods, which the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says will be crucial for feeding the nearly ten billion people the earth will likely need to support in the coming decades. Third, genetic diversity in the planetary gene pool is crucial for the resilience of all life on earth to rare; however, catastrophic environmental events, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, meteor impacts, or massive and sustained volcanism.

Transgenics:158 Save Us from Evil Recent advances in genetic-engineering or biotechnology are being focused on commercial application in animal agriculture. There are three basic approaches to enhance animal health and productivity using this new technology. In the first approach, gene-spliced bacteria have been engineered to manufacture new- generation animal vaccines and other pharmaceuticals such as synthetic growth hormone to boost growth rates and milk yield. These products are claimed by manufacturers to be analogs of natural compounds already present in the animals’ bodies. But the safety and efficacy of these products of biotech ‘farming’ await verification. The use of all genetically engineered production-enhancing products, such as growth hormones, in organic animal agriculture should be prohibited on the grounds

158A transgenic animal is one that carries a foreign gene that has been deliberately inserted into its genome. The foreign gene is constructed using recombinant DNA technology. In addition to a structural gene, the DNA usually includes other sequences to enable it. War on Biosphere 289 that they are non-natural, analog products. In the second approach, gene-spliced microorganisms are being developed and soon will be marketed for feeding to pigs and poultry, and for injection into the rumens (stomachs) of cattle to help improve digestibility of feed including such non-natural ingredients as sawdust and newspaper pulp and to reduce nitrate levels in manure. From an organic perspective, this is wholly unacceptable, no matter what efficiencies and cost savings might be claimed. To so alter the internal physiology of farm animals by bacterial manipulation is the antithesis of organic animal agriculture. The third approach is to develop gene-spliced farm animals, but their commercial future is at least five to ten years away. By inserting the genes of other species, or extra genes of their own kind, into developing embryos, the so-called ‘transgenic’ farm animals (including fish) have been created. Some of them are able to transmit these additional genes to their offspring. With the exception of some poultry, these transgenic farm animals have been created either to be more productive, rather than disease- or stress-resistant, or to produce pharmaceutical products in their milk. Other developments in biotechnology include embryo transfer, cloning and DNA mapping, which have been criticized as leading to a potential loss of genetic diversity in the already threatened farm-animal gene pool, and to the selection of varieties of livestock and poultry that are suited only for intensive production systems. Gene mapping, which identifies desirable and undesirable genetic traits in animals and plants, is a costly and time-consuming process. Its promised benefits will be limited, however, by the reductionism of genetic determinism. In other words, the belief that gene mapping and identifying genetic markers will enable us to improve the health, productivity, and disease-resistance among animals and plants is a science-based concept that may be true in theory but not in practice. Many traits that we judge good or bad involve a complex interplay of many genes, some of which are expressed only under certain 290 Rush to Riches environmental circumstances or at a particular time during the organism’s development or lifecycle. What we judge as good traits from the narrow measure of productivity such as egg or milk production, rate of growth, or ratio of fat to muscle and muscle to bone, may not be so good from the measure of stress and disease-resistance. Traits believed to be good may not be good in different farming systems, climates, and bio-geographic regions. Furthermore, the consequences of genetic screening and sequencing the genomes of domesticated animals and plants could be extremely harmful in that the resultant genetic uniformity of commercial varieties will increase the likelihood of serious disease wipe-outs as well as the development of new disease. This production-focused selection for commercially desirable traits using new technology may not only have undesirable biological and ecological consequences, it is also likely to have undesirable social and economic consequences, as when ‘improved’ varieties of crops, live stock, and poultry are patented and contract growers use them, resulting in the competitive extinction of other varieties and farming systems. Processor, retailer, and consumer demand for uniformity of produce, from apples to pork, has stimulated the loss of genetic diversity.

Bioengineered Products Are Not ‘Natural’ There is plenty of genetically modified food in many local grocery stores. About 80% of the packaged foods contain genetically modified ingredients. The Food and Drug Administration has determined that genetically modified (GM) foods don’t need to be labelled, because they are “substantially equivalent to conventional foods.”159 But are they? I have my doubts about this new ‘food’. To make a genetically modified food, scientists transfer genes from one species of plant or animal to another. Genes are taken from animals, insects, viruses,

159“Safety of Genetically Engineered Food” at www.ucbiotech.org/resources/ factsheets/8180.pdf. War on Biosphere 291 vaccines, pharmaceutical drugs, and spliced into a plant. The genes are re-arranged to create desirable traits in the plant, such as drought resistance, or to create medicine. Pesticides and vaccines can be inserted right into the plant! So we have fish genes inserted into tomatoes, scorpions crossed with potatoes. No wonder Europeans call this ‘frankenfood’, farms brought to you by mad scientists! I know that plants are intelligent. Their genes are in a certain order for a reason, and plants evolve in an ecosystem, full of the right mix of soil, bees, birds, seasons, earthworms, all interconnected. To splice in new genetic information has got to disrupt the plants intelligence. Genetically modified food is not labelled and any safety tests are done by the biotech companies themselves, an obvious conflict of interest! Agribusiness and government are working together to allow more genetically modified food into the food supply. Currently, they have taken over corn, soy, cotton, and canola. These plants are used extensively in processed foods in the form of corn starch, corn oil, soy oil, canola oil, high fructose corn syrup, etc. The grocery store foods are full of these ingredients. The genetically modified plants have pollen that cross pollinates with other plants, changing their genetic codes. They are entering the ecosystem, the web of life. What are the consequences?

Bioethical Determinants From the bioethical perspective of what I call natural philosophy, the creation of transgenic animals, plants, and other life forms is unacceptable because such action violates the sanctity of life and may be regarded as an act of violence. To change the intrinsic or inherent nature of distinct and unique species for purely human ends is unethical to those who embrace the philosophy of reverential respect for all life. None of the ends that transgenic life forms serve are essential or basic to our survival, but instead serve primarily pecuniary interests. The creation of life forms, purportedly better designed to serve human ends, be it through traditional breeding methods or new bioengineering techniques, must be opposed if those ends cause life forms to suffer, or harm 292 Rush to Riches natural ecosystems or put them at risk. Because of the lesser risk of suffering, conventional breeding techniques, refined by genetic screening or DNA sequencing and utilizing the untapped genetic resources of rare livestock breeds and plant varieties through conventional cross-breeding, should take preference over gene splicing. The utilitarian argument that genetic engineering and other biotechnologies could make plants and animals more productive and efficient, thus, requiring less land so that more can be saved for nature and wildlife, is unconvincing. It lacks a bioethical framework and totally ignores the potentials of organic and other ecologically alternative farming systems. These more natural and ‘holistic’ systems are antithetical to the ethos of industrial agriculture and agri-biotechnology, in which the production of biomass commodity monocrops and of animal protein and fat from intensive-confinement factories and feedlots, is considered progressive and not pathogenic. From an organic and holistic animal-agriculture perspective, the creation of transgenic farm animals is an unnecessary and unacceptable alternative to traditional selective breeding and other biotechnologies to make them more productive, disease- resistant, or heat or cold tolerant are not acceptable substitutes for humane farming practices, and should be opposed if they encourage intensive, ‘factory’ production methods and other inhumane farming practices. The major components of disease prevention are the basic principle of organic animal agriculture and the ‘pillars’ of veterinary holistic medicine, namely, right breeding, right environment, right nutrition, and right understanding, and attitude. Raising animals under optimal social and environmental conditions is the best way to avert the inappropriate and wholesale use of antibiotics and other drugs. It is also the best way to discredit the economic rationale for selective breeding and for even creating transgenic livestock and poultry that are better suited for intensive-confinement system. As these developments now stand, and judging from the War on Biosphere 293 direction being taken by the biotech, livestock, and poultry ‘improvement’ ideology, transgenic livestock and poultry have no place in organic agriculture and no place in any truly sustainable farming system.

Go Green and Save Biosphere As we continue to see the damage that we are doing to our home planet, many environmentalists will raise the cry, “Save the Earth!” I have to admit, however, that I am with ecologist George Carlin on this one. I don’t think the earth needs our saving. Carlin used to say that when we became too expensive for our planet to maintain that earth would “shake us off like a bad case of fleas.” I believe that he was right. The earth will not suffer itself to be destroyed by us. When we become unsustainable, it will shrug us off and go on with the process of repairing the damage we have done. We might more aptly say, “Save yourself before it is too late! Save these precious habitats that sustain you.” Our demand on natural resources has doubled since 1966 and we are using the equivalent of 1.5 planets to support our activities. If we continue living beyond the earth’s limits, by 2030 we will need the equivalent of two planets’ productive capacity to meet our annual demands. Current consumption trends would lead us to the point of no return, 4.5 earths would be required to support a global population living like an average resident of the USA. An alarming 11-fold increase in our carbon footprint over the last five decades means carbon now accounts for more than half of the global Ecological Footprint. The top 10 countries with the biggest Ecological Footprint per person are the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Denmark, Belgium, United States of America, Estonia, Canada, Australia, Kuwait, and Ireland. The 31 OECD countries160 which include the world’s

160The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 34 countries founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It defines itself as a forum of countries committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common 294 Rush to Riches richest economies, account for nearly 40 percent of the global footprint. While there are twice as many people living in BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India, and China—as there are in OECD countries, the report shows the current rate of per-person footprint of the BRIC countries puts them on a trajectory to overtake the OECD bloc if they follow same development path. Somehow we need to find a way to meet the needs of a growing and increasingly prosperous population within the resources of this one planet. All of us have to find a way to make better choices in what we consume and how we produce and use energy. Non renewable energy sources account for about 90% of the energy used today. These sources are being depleted. Since they are known to have an impact on air quality, causing human and environmental health problems, greater emphasis is placed on renewable energy as a new challenge for energy. Renewable energy sources consist of solar, hydro, biomass, geothermal, and ocean. These energy sources will never be exhausted, and are environmentally friendly because they do not contribute to the greenhouse effect or global warming. Solar Energy is the most available renewable energy source. Today, solar panels absorb energy from the sun to generate heat for cooking and heating, as well as electrical needs. Hydro Energy draws on the energy produced by flowing water. This interaction allows a transfer of energy that can be extracted to generate electricity using wind turbine generators. Wind Energy, or kinetic energy, is derived from movement of air. The wind machines, or wind turbines, collect the kinetic energy by catching the wind in the leaves. Biomass Energy comes from wood, waste, food crops, manure, grass and plants, agricultural and forestry wastes, and residues. Geothermal Energy is basically the earth’s heat. It comes from hot dry rocks, magma, hot water springs and hot geysers. It can also be used to produce electricity using a geothermal power

problems, identifying good practices, and coordinating domestic and international policies of its members. War on Biosphere 295 plant. In these plants, the hot water travels through turbines connected to a generator. Ocean Energy is produced from ocean waves or temperature differences in water. Wave energy is the kinetic energy from moving water. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion uses differences in water temperatures from surface to deeper depths of water as an energy source. For this to work there must be a temperature difference of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. As you can see, there are various renewable energy sources available to us as alternatives to fossil fuels. There are many benefits for them among; the most popular is that they will not deplete the supply, which means that they will be around forever.

A New Environmental Revolution: Ecopsychology Over the forty years, the environmental movement has succeeded in turning the health of the planet into a major political issue in every industrial society. When it comes to raising the collective consciousness about the liabilities of industrial ‘progress’, we have done a remarkable job by sounding an alarm. The environmental movement has grown to become the largest, most densely organized political cause in human history. From lofty government agencies to grassroots citizens’ groups, it has engaged people at every social level. Everybody seems to be protecting some piece, big or small, of the biosphere, from the worldwide tropical rainforests down to the local streams passing through the villages. Everything we turn our hand to becomes infused with an impassioned sense of urgency. From the global vantage point, we see a world economy that is unsustainable, one that is slowly destroying its underpinnings. What we are now looking at is nothing less than an environmental revolution, an economic and social transformation that ranks with the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Like the agricultural revolution, the environmental revolution will dramatically alter population trends. Whereas the former sets the stage for enormous increase in human numbers, this revolution will succeed only if it stabilizes population size, 296 Rush to Riches re-establishing a balance between people and nature. In contrast to the industrial revolution, which was based on a shift to fossil fuels, this new transformation will be based on a shift away from them. The two earlier revolutions were driven by technological advances, the first being the discovery of farming and the second the invention of the steam engine, which converted the energy in coal into mechanical power. The environmental revolution, while it will obviously use new technologies, will be driven primarily by the restructuring of the global economy so that this economy does not destroy its natural support systems. The pace of the environmental revolution will be faster than that of its predecessors. The agricultural revolution began some ten thousand years ago, and the industrial revolution has been underway for two centuries. But if the environmental revolution is to succeed, it must be compressed into a few decades. Ecopsychology addresses the problem of effective communication with the general public that will have to meet the demands of the environmental revolution. It has to do with our understanding of human nature, or, if you will, the nature of the soul. Psychology is, after all, the study of the soul in all its complexity and contradictions. It is the study of what people love and hate and fear and need. At some point, both psychologists and environmentalists need to decide what they believe our human connection is with the planet our species has so endangered. Ecopsychologists believe there is an emotional bond between human beings and the natural environment out of which we evolve. The major contribution ecopsychology promises to make to environmental politics is the identification of the irrational forces that the people develop in their environmental habits. For example, some ecopsychologists believe that our consumption habits are connected to deep addictive attractions. The advertising industry is a contingent of talented ‘pushers’ working to make us compulsive consumers. That is psychology working against environmental sanity. War on Biosphere 297

Ecopsychology seeks to redress that balance. It wants to know how to free people from the addictions of the shopping mall and to encourage values that serve the life of the planet rather than imperilling it. A classical prescription of ‘Ecosychology lifestyle’ can be quoted from the Bible, i.e., a conversation between John the Baptist and his audience from the Gospel of Luke 3:10-14. People asked John the Baptist: “What shall we do then?” He answered and said to them: “He who has two tunics, let him give him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” Then tax collectors asked John the Baptist: “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them: “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.” Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “What shall we do?” So, he said to them: “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.” John the Baptist insisted that a man’s entering the kingdom expressed itself in ethical and moral relationships with the natural world. At its most ambitious level, ecopsychology seeks to redefine sanity within an environmental context. It contends that seeking to heal the soul without reference to the ecological system of which we are integral part is a form of self-destructive blindness. Ecopsychologists are drawing upon the ecological sciences to re- examine the human psyche as an integral part of the web of nature. At the heart of environmental revolution is a change in values, one that derives from a growing appreciation of our dependence on nature. Without it there is no hope. In simple terms, we cannot restore our own health, our sense of wellbeing, unless we restore the health of the planet. It is against this backdrop that we find the emerging new field of ecopsychology so exciting. Ecopsychology brings together the sensitivity of therapists, the expertise of ecologists, and the ethical energy of environmental activists. Out of this rich mixture may arise a new, more effective and more philosophically grounded form of environmental politics! A new generation of psychotherapists is seeking ways in which professional psychology can play a role in 298 Rush to Riches the environmental crisis of our time. Psychologists in service to the earth are helping ecologists to gain deeper understanding of how to facilitate profound change in the human heart and mind.

Biophilia and Biophobia In a recent work, the Harvard Zoologist Edward O. Wilson has raised the possibility that human beings possess a capacity called “biophilia,” which is defined as “the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms.”161 He sees this as an important force working to defend the endangered biodiversity of the planet. Wilson’s colleagues have been quick to suggest that the influence of biophilia might be offset in some degree by an equally innate “biophobia,” but from the psychologist’s viewpoint, both our love and our fear of nature are emotions; both merit study. The innate biophobic intensities are most readily evoked by sources of peril that have existed in the natural world throughout humanity’s evolutionary past. They include heights, close spaces, running water, snakes, wolves, rats and mice, bats, spiders, and blood. In contrast, prepared learning is unknown in response to knives, frayed electric wires, automobiles, and guns, although they are far deadlier than the ancient perils of humankind, and are too recent in the evolutionary history to have been targeted by genetically prepared learning. The companion of biophilia is, therefore, biophobia. Like the responses of biophilia, those of biophobia are acquired by prepared learning. As they might be translated into devotion, respect, concern, or awe, they can be used to rebuild our strained bonds with the natural environment. In a sense, ecopsychology might be seen as a commitment by psychologists and therapists to the hope that the biophilia hypothesis will prove true and, hence, become an integral part of what we take mental health to be.

161E. O. Wilson, “Biophilia” at www.haworth.com/en- us/knowledge/Workplace-Library?Biophilia.pdf. War on Biosphere 299

The oldest healers in the world, the people our society once called ‘witch doctors’, knew no other way to heal than to work within the context of environmental reciprocity. Some are quick to see elements of sentimentality or romanticism in our growing appreciation of the sacred ecologies that guide traditional societies. It is common sense that human beings must live in a state of respectful give-and-take with the flora and fauna, the rivers and hills, the sky and soil, on which we depend for physical sustenance and practical instruction. Some religions call this experience ‘mystical’ or ‘transcendental’. Even in a dominant and domineering culture, both religion and science are subject to that sort of major transformation we have come to call a shift of paradigms. In the mainstream Christian churches today, there are environmental ministries that are encouraging an active discussion of planetary stewardship and creation spirituality. A new earth and Spirit movement is exploring the possibility of a religiously based biophilia. Meanwhile at least along the fringes of modern science, we witness the birth of a new cosmology grounded in an ever-deepening vision of ordered complexity on the earth and in the universe at large. We now know that the periodic table of elements, as it moves from heavy to light, from simple to complex, is the language of our evolving collective autobiography. It is in its own right a creation story. Hydrogen, as Edward Robert Harrison, a British astronomer has put it, is “a light, odourless gas that, given enough time, turns into people.” Chapter Six

War on Noosphere (Consciousness)

“As an eco-visionary, I envision a future on Earth in which all people are conscious of their role in protecting and sustaining the living ecology of people and the planet and they wholeheartedly embrace the wisdom for everyday living and learning rituals that honour their innate eco-intelligence.” Vladimir Vernadsky

The present epoch is called Neocene Epoch or Noöcene Epoch. Noöcene Epoch refers to “how we manage and adapt to the immense amount of knowledge we have created.” The noosphere is predicted to be the next evolutionary step in the development of life, a kind of globalized thinking and 44 Rush to Riches consciousness. The noosphere is defined as the sum total of all human knowledge and experience. This would include everything from our most private dreams to our knowledge of universe itself, with accelerating technology as its catalyst. The term noosphere was coined in 1922 by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) as part of his philosophy and his intention to bridge evolutionary science and Christian worldview. Chardin used the term ‘noosphere’, possibly first coined by Vladimir Vernadsky to represent a sphere of mind encircling the earth.162 As he saw it, the noosphere encased what we call the biosphere, or sphere of life. Within this framework, Chardin saw the ongoing evolution of the human species manifesting itself as changes and advances in mind more than in body. In other words, human evolution would henceforth take place mainly in the noosphere. In the book The Phenomenon of Man, Teilhard de Chardin observed that, from a historical point of view, the “stuff” of this universe is becoming ever more complex, that information is becoming ever more concentrated. In it, he called this enveloping sphere of thought the noosphere and described it as “a living tissue of consciousness”163 enclosing the earth and growing ever more dense. He further observed that, at least in this corner of the cosmos, human beings are the most complex of all known forms found in nature. From an evolutionary standpoint, he also saw that changes taking place in the human species occur in the domain of mind at a much faster rate than changes seem to appear in our biology. Chardin was deeply concerned with establishing a global unification of human awareness as a necessary prerequisite for any real future progress of the humankind. It is also the reason Chardin is often called the patron saint of the Internet.

162Vladimir Vernadsky for the first time used the word ‘Noosphere’ in his book The Biosphere and the Noosphere in 1934. 163Teilhard de Chardin’s definition on Noosphere is found at www.matrixmasters.com. War on Noosphere 45

God and Noosphere: God’s Pain for the World “Then the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done’” (Genesis 8:21). The flood story from the Bible is the best example which displays the powerful influence of the Noosphere in the divine and natural worlds and how it changed God and His creation forever. According to Genesis 6-9, God sent the flood because of people’s increasing disobedience to Him. The Bible tells us: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5, RSV). God determined to destroy the human race and to begin again with new people who would obey Him. Of all the people on earth, only Noah, his sons, and their wives remained faithful to the Lord. God chose them to repopulate the earth following the devastation of the flood. After the flood God made a covenant with the whole world, even with every living thing of animals and of men that He would no more destroy with a flood all that grew upon the earth. God’s contrite heart set them a sign (saying): “When the sky shall be covered with a cloud, the bow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember my covenant, and will no more destroy by water every moving thing upon the earth.” God must have really felt sorry for all life that has perished in the flood, felt so awful and felt they had no choice but to end their lives and it was the biggest emotional test for God. God felt pain in His living tissue of consciousness. God grieved for the destroyed creation: destroyed trees, collapsed ecosystems, flooded biomes, dead animals, crushed microbes, and beautiful places lost in the flood. Confronting so vast and final a loss as this brings sadness beyond the telling. Above all, there was sorrow. Even human terms, such as sadness, distress, suffering, pain, grief, and sorrow are inadequate to convey the feelings God experienced in 46 Rush to Riches this context. What we are really dealing with God is akin to the original meaning of compassion, i.e., suffering with. It is the distress God feels in connection with the larger whole of which He is a part. It is God’s pain for the world. Here we should realize that almost all of the literature on grief pertains only to the death of humans, but God grieved for all life starting from atoms to human, biotic and abiotic worlds. It is God’s mourning for the wrong decision he has made, through mourning, God experienced contrition for environmental loss— and the way in which he has been inhibited from openly expressing that bereavement—God captures the sensibility required by a new ecological self. God reminds us that “for an environmental ethic to succeed, nature needs to be meaningful to us on a variety of levels, including the emotional.”164 God’s Noosphere suffered as a result of the devastation inflicted on life caused by the flood, eventually leading God toward a shift in his consciousness, i.e., not to destroy life with flood. God’s covenant with Noah was foundational for his grace seen later in the cross. In the flood, God displayed his hatred and vengeance toward sin. In the rainbow, he showed that man’s deserved punishment for his acts of sin would not be immediately fulfilled. He also revealed that his hatred of sin would not be expressed until his plan of grace was completed. How then, could God stand to face humankind’s continued sin? The answer lies in his character: though God is holy and just, he is also longsuffering. God is always more interested in salvation than in damnation. His noosphere wins every time! What about man who had waged a battle on creation? The destructive power of human activity is far more lethal than the flood. Probably, man has to look for his living tissue of consciousness or noosphere lost somewhere in the rubble. When he finds, man has no other choice than “suffering with the Earth.” It is man’s pain for the world.

164“Environmental Virtue Ethics” at www.oup.co.uk/pdf. War on Noosphere 47

Asoka and Noosphere: Fortune Is the Cause for Misfortune Another classical example from history is the story of Asoka and his noosphere which turned the tyrant Asoka into a Dharmasoka. Despite your noosphere’s belief that having world under your feet is definitely a misfortune, if you begin to operate on the belief that fortune means having whole world under your feet, the outcome would be sometimes daunting. Asoka was one of the greatest kings of the Mauryan dynasty who was left in such kind of a dilemma; eventually, however, he listened to his noosphere and translated his life into Dhamma.165 Asoka’s religious policy of Dhamma had carved out a permanent place for him in the niche of ancient Indian history. Asoka did not impose his Dhamma on his people. His Dhamma was mostly drawn from Buddhism. But he made a clear distinction between his personal belief in Buddhism and his duty as an emperor. He stopped animal sacrifices. He himself gave up hunting and meat eating. He had constructed rest houses for travellers. He planted trees on either side of the roads to give shade. He established hospitals for human beings and animals alike. He convened the third Buddhist council at Pataliputra. King Asoka has to be credited with the first attempt to develop a Buddhist polity. Today, with widespread disillusionment in prevailing ideologies and the search for a political philosophy that goes beyond greed (capitalism), hatred (communism), violence, delusion, and dictatorship led by ‘infallible’ leaders, Asoka’s edicts may make a meaningful contribution to the development of a more spiritually based political system. We have no way of knowing how effective Asoka’s reforms were or how long they lasted but we do know that monarchs throughout the ancient Buddhist world were encouraged to look to his style of governance as an ideal to be followed. Asoka ascended the throne in 273 BC and proved himself a mighty conqueror. In the history of ancient 165Dhamma is the Pali equivalent for dharma. It means religious or moral duty. The chief features of Asoka’s Dhamma are tolerance, non-violence, love, and compassion. It also insists, for example, that masters should be kind to their servants and slaves and the young people should obey the elders. 48 Rush to Riches

India, the reign of Asoka is marked with his aggressive imperialism as well as his own policy of religion. The personal religion of Asoka and the religious policy he followed provide a glimpse into the religious trends of the age. However, Asoka is known in the history of India as the king who turned out to be a resolute non-violent Buddhist from a mighty vanquisher. As soon as he was appointed a king, he began instituting his law of oppression by administering capital punishment for even the slightest infractions. His cruel heart showed mercy upon no one. His people spoke so poorly of the new king’s antics, word went straight to the top by way of the spies Asoka had created to investigate public concern. Desiring to win rather than demand acclaim, Asoka decided to surpass the efforts of his predecessors by brutally demolishing the kingdoms previously unscaved. He conducted several military campaigns to expand his empire. His last major campaign was fought for the conquest of the Kingdom of Kalinga (in Orissa) in 261 BC. The kingdom of Kalinga had with its borders, long kept the Mauryan Empire from accessing much of the Ganges River. This was enough of a reason to initiate an invasion. Asoka succeeded in conquering Kalinga after a long and brutal war. The war took a toll of 100,000 men. 150,000 men were injured and thousands were captured and retained as slaves. Standing along the front lines, Asoka witnessed firsthand the massacre of so many humans, elephants, and horses. Asoka asked himself exactly what had his people won in war? The battle field of horrific bloodshed profoundly affected Asoka. The pain entered into his consciousness or noosphere and this was a turning point in his life and it turned the tyrant Asoka into a Dharmasoka. At last, he understood that fortune is the cause of misfortune. It was a moral victory for the Orissan army. Deeply distressed, he gave up war and sought peace in Buddhist teachings of love and nonviolence. Asoka shunned violence of every kind and advised his subjects to do the same. He wanted to use religion to win War on Noosphere 49 over the hearts of the people. Great changes in policy fell on India following the war. Asoka turned all his attention to the welfare of his subjects and, thus, began an era of peace and internal progression. By example, Asoka taught and persuaded his people to love and respect all living things. Dhamma would bring harmony to India in the form of compassion. Serving as a guiding light, a voice of conscience, dhamma can lead one to be a respectful, responsible human being. Historian Edward D’Cruz interprets the Asokan dhamma as a “religion to be used as a symbol of a new imperial unity and a cementing force to blend the diverse and heterogeneous elements of the empire.”166 Asoka’s intent was to instigate “a practice of social behaviour so broad and benevolent in its scope that no person, no matter what his religion, could reasonably object to it.”167 Diversity of religion, ethnicity, and many cultural aspects held citizens against each other, creating a social block. The dream was to unify a nation so large that its people of one region share little in common with those of another region. Today, the alien religions do the damage to indigenous cultures, turning many families into strangers in the neighbourhood, breaking ageless cultural family ties, and damaging one’s “sense of belonging” with a culture or a nation. In the twenty-first century, where humanity is torn among religious affiliations, forced conversion, and religious bigotry we need to return to the wisdom of Dhamma.

Evolution of Noosphere: A Giant Leap in Complexity One of the original aspects of the noosphere concept deals with creation by evolution. French writer Henri Bergson, with his L’évolution créatrice, was one of the first to propose that evolution is ‘creative’ and cannot necessarily be explained solely by Darwinian natural selection. L’évolution créatrice is upheld, according to Bergson, by a constant vital force that animates life,

166“Emperor Asoka” at www.porchlight.ca/blackdog/asoka.htm. 167“Emperor Asoka” at www.porchlight.ca/blackdog/asoka.htm. 50 Rush to Riches which fundamentally connects mind and body, an idea opposing the dualism of René Descartes. In 1923, C. Lloyd Morgan took this work further, elaborating on an ‘emergent evolution’ that could explain increasing complexity, the evolution of mind. Morgan found that many of the most interesting changes in living things have been largely discontinuous with past evolution and, therefore, did not necessarily take place through a gradual process of natural selection.168 Rather, evolution experiences jumps in complexity such as awareness, noosphere, and the complexification of human cultures, particularly language, facilitated a quickening of evolution in which cultural evolution occurs more rapidly than biological evolution. In the book Metro 2033, by Dmitry Glukhovsky, the noosphere is mentioned as being destroyed during the last war, and with it also destroying paradise and hell.169 Along Teilhard de Chardin, Julian Huxley, and the other neo-Darwinists, the cosmic evolution, from the big bang170 up to now, presents nine levels of complexity, which can be grouped into three stages: the lithosphere consists of levels 1 to 5, i.e., the ‘dead’ matter, consisting of strings, quarks, particles, atoms, and molecules, organized by physical laws; the biosphere covers levels 6 to 8, i.e., the ‘living’ matter, consisting of eobionts, protozoa, and metazoan, organized by genetic codes and active by reflexes; and the noosphere, as level 9, i.e., the ‘thinking’ matter, giving rise to human society, organized by the software of the human brain and active by creative intelligence. Noosphere, according to the thought of Vladimir Vernadsky, denotes the “sphere of human thought.”171 The word is derived

168Lloyd Morgan, “Emergent Evolution” at www.giffordlectures.org. 169“Noosphere Discography” at www.artist.maestro.fm/Noosphere. 170Big Bang theory is a widely accepted explanation of the beginning of the universe. The big bang theory proposes that the universe was once extremely compact, dense, and hot. Some original event, a cosmic explosion called the big bang, occurred about 13.7 billion years ago, and the universe has since been expanding and cooling. 171See www.amira.amplify.com. War on Noosphere 51 from the Greek νοῦς (nous, mind) + σφαῖρα (sphaira, sphere), in lexical analogy to ‘atmosphere’ and ‘biosphere’. In the original theory of Vernadsky, the noosphere is the third in a succession of phases of development of the earth, after the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life). Just as the emergence of life fundamentally transformed the geosphere, the emergence of human cognition fundamentally transforms the biosphere. For Chardin, the noosphere emerges through and is constituted by the interaction of human minds. The noosphere has grown in step with the organization of the human mass in relation to itself as it populates the earth. As the humankind organizes itself in more complex social networks, the higher the noosphere will grow in awareness. Chardin argued that the noosphere is growing towards an even greater integration and unification, culminating in the Omega Point, which he saw as the goal of history. The goal of history, then, is an apex of thought/consciousness.

The Omega Point: The Goal of History Chardin’s attempts to combine Christian thought with modern science and traditional philosophy aroused widespread interest and controversy when his writings were published in the 1950s. He aimed at a metaphysic of evolution holding that it was a process converging toward a final unity that he called the Omega point. He attempted to show that what is of permanent value in traditional philosophical thought can be maintained and even integrated with a modern scientific outlook if one accepts that the tendencies of material things are directed, either wholly or in part, beyond the things themselves toward the production of higher, more complex, more perfectly unified beings. Chardin regarded basic trends in matter—gravitation, inertia, electromagnetism, and so on—as being ordered toward the production of progressively more complex types of aggregate. This process led to the increasingly complex entities of atoms, molecules, cells, and organisms, until finally the human body evolved, with a nervous system sufficiently sophisticated to 52 Rush to Riches permit rational reflection, self-awareness, and moral responsibility. While some evolutionists regard man simply as a prolongation of the Pliocene fauna172—an animal more successful than the rat or the elephant—Chardin argued that the appearance of man brought an added dimension into the world. He defines it as the birth of reflection: animals know, but man knows that he knows; he has “knowledge to the square.”173 Another great advance in Chardin’s scheme of evolution is the socialization of mankind. This is not the triumph of herd instinct but a cultural convergence of humanity toward a single society. Evolution has gone about as far as it can to perfect human beings physically: its next step will be social. Chardin saw such evolution already in progress; through technology, urbanization, and modern communications, more and more links are being established between different peoples’ politics, economics, and habits of thought in an apparently geometric progression. Theologically, Chardin saw the process of organic evolution as a sequence of progressive syntheses whose ultimate convergence point is that of God. When humanity and the material world have reached their final state of evolution and exhausted all potential for further development, a new convergence between them and the supernatural order would be initiated by the Parousia, or Second Coming of Christ. Chardin asserted that the work of Christ is primarily to lead the material world to this cosmic redemption, while the conquest of evil is only secondary to his purpose. Evil is represented by Chardin merely as growing pains within the cosmic process: the disorder that is implied by order in process of realization. The title Omega Point refers to a moment of transcendence when we go beyond the limits of space and time, adding that the signs of a next age

172The paleontology of the Pliocene epoch (5 million to 1.6 million years ago) does not differ much from that of the Miocene, although the period is regarded by many zoologists as the climax of the Age of Mammals. 173See “Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,” Encyclopaedia Britannica www.seanparnell.com. War on Noosphere 53 are upon us. We are going through the underworld—the birth canal of mankind, being born into a new level of timelessness and innocence.

Noosphere: Soul’s Internet Service Provider Like many revolutionary ideas, however, the concept of a noosphere was eventually passed over by most mainstream thinkers and largely forgotten. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I wasn’t the only one who remembered Chardin’s work and had begun thinking about the Internet in terms of the noosphere. As Sir Julian Huxley explained in his introduction to the first English translation of The Phenomenon of Man, “In Père Teilhard’s view, the increase of human numbers combined with the improvement of human communications has fused all the parts of the noosphere together... But when it is confined to spreading out over the surface of a sphere, idea will encounter idea, and the result will be an organized web of thought, a noetic system operating high tension, a piece of evolutionary machinery capable of generating high psychosocial energy.”174 This is a perfect description of what is taking place on the World Wide Web. Huxley and Teilhard would be amazed and delighted if they were alive today. Many people involved with the Internet and who are familiar with The Phenomenon of Man accept as fact that the Internet and the noosphere are interrelated in some way. According to the big bang theory, our universe is becoming ever more complex as it continues to cool. From an initial point of intensely concentrated and homogeneous matter, we see the formation and evolution of stars, galaxies, and planets as the primordial ball of plasma expanded, cooled, and formed structures of ever-increasing complexity. In the case of our own planet, we also see the development of biological life with its even more complex forms of matter. These organic structures are actually containers of sorts-densely packed with information.

174“The Noosphere and the Internet” at www.matrixmasters.com/spirit/html. 54 Rush to Riches

The more information an object carries in a given volume, the more complex it is. A strand of DNA is not only smaller than a grain of sand, but also is considerably more complex because it contains more information than the silicon in the grain of sand. The densest collection of complex information we know of thus far is the human being, and human activity gives rise to even greater complexity. If Chardin is correct in asserting that reflective consciousness is “the specific effect of organized complexity,”175 it follows that some sort of intensification of human consciousness is at least possible within the laws of biological evolution. If consciousness does expand as complexity increases, how will this expansion or intensification of mind become manifest? Will the noosphere, an “envelope of thinking substance,” as Teilhard called it, one day become so complex and full of information that it evolves into a higher form of consciousness in its own right? Perhaps! What Chardin foretold was an awakening of the noosphere as a result of an overall increase in knowledge and the increasing psychosocial pressure on the surface of the planet due to the explosion in human population. In other words, a massive amount of information is building up within the relatively small confines of the planet earth. This, Chardin believed, will result in the blossoming of the noosphere into some form of super-consciousness, once the amount of information it contains reaches a critical density. To illustrate this phenomenon, he suggested that we consider our current understanding of the atom. It goes without saying that no one person could have possibly developed the complete body of knowledge we now have about the atom. He further suggests that this is not a mere accretion of information, but a synthesis of information that erects “as though it were a vault above our heads, a domain of interwoven consciousness.”176 Nuclear physicists and mathematicians are not the only ones who are a

175“The Noosphere and the Internet” at www.matrixmasters.com/spirit/html. 176“The Noosphere and the Internet” at www.matrixmasters.com/spirit/html. War on Noosphere 55 part of this interwoven consciousness; also included is every child, woman, and man on the planet who has any knowledge of the atom. Awareness of the smallest titbit of information about the atom is all that is required for the mind containing that awareness to become joined in the noospheric web of thoughts about particle physics. Just as hypertext documents177 on the World Wide Web are interconnected, information in the noosphere may be conceived to be structured as webs of thought. Seemingly unrelated information becomes interconnected when two or more of these webs of information intersect in individual minds. “Where two or three gathered in my name, I am there among their midst” (Matthew 18:20) exclaimed Jesus. True God will be revealed in collective consciousness, not in the bigotry of world religions. The moment our species attains the ability to tap into the complete body of human-created information at will is the point at which Chardin hypothesizes the collective consciousness of the noosphere and becomes an entity aware of some sort in its own right. He says: “... and the noosphere tends to constitute a single closed system in which each element sees, feels, desires, and suffers for itself the same things as all the others at the same time.”178

Wounded Noosphere: A Broken and Contrite Heart Internet plays an important role in creating a collective noosphere, enabling humanity to see the environmental degradation that has left in a state of wounded noosphere. This knowledge is enough and it will propel man to take necessary positive action in future. “The Lord is near to those who have a 177Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the underlying concept defining the structure of the World Wide Web, making it an easy-to-use and flexible format to share information over the Internet. 178Teilhard de Chardin, “Where Is Love? Black-Eyed Peas” at www.chrisvaltines.com/memoir/teilhard.html. 56 Rush to Riches broken heart. And saves such as have a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18). Humble seekers are the objects of God’s special, tender regard. Those who are thoroughly convinced of their misery and danger by sin would spare no cost to obtain the remission of it. The good work wrought in every true penitent, “a wounded noosphere”—is a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, and sorrow for sin. The noosphere broken all to pieces, and the heart broken all to pieces, stamped and beaten out, are the sacrifices which, in such cases, thou requirest; and these “thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17). It is a heart that is tender, and pliable to God’s word. Oh, if there were such a heart in every one of us! God loves the wounded living tissue of consciousness and He is graciously pleased to accept this; it is instead of all burnt- offering and sacrifice. The broken noosphere (Prodigal Son) is acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ; there is no true repentance without faith in him. Men despise that which is broken, but God will not. He will not overlook it; he will not refuse or reject it; though it makes God no satisfaction for the wrong done to him by sin. Those who have been in spiritual troubles know how to pity and pray for others afflicted in like manner. King David was afraid lest his sin should bring judgments upon the city and kingdom. He had grievously sinned; and the blood of animals offered in sacrifice could not put away his sin, nor could anything remove it unless the noosphere were itself penitent and contrite. Psalm 34:18 declares: “The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” A broken noosphere is a mind broken or crushed under the weight of conscious guilt. The idea is that of a burden laid on the soul until it is crushed and subdued. The two words together constitute intensity of expression. Thou wilt not despise—thou wilt not treat with contempt or disregard. That is, God would look upon them with favour, and to such a heart he would grant his blessing. A ‘broken’ spirit has more value than many sacrifices. Psalm 51:16-17 states that thou desirest not War on Noosphere 57 sacrifice: external acts of worship are not enough. The psalmist desires to delight God not with required sacrifices, as they by themselves do not bring satisfaction to God (Psalms 50:8; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6.); a broken and a contrite heart is offered, as it really delights God, as it is open, humble, and dependent upon God. A wounded noosphere will definitely connect to God who is the ultimate solution to all our environmental problems.

Pharisee and Publican: Noosphere Exalted and Wounded The story of Publican and Pharisee in the temple from the Bible (Luke 18:9-14), explains clearly the advantages of the wounded noosphere over the vanity filled ‘exalted’ noosphere. Standing by himself, the Pharisee prayed and he was wholly intent upon himself, had nothing in his eye but self, his own praise, and not God’s glory. A great many good things he said of himself, which we will suppose to be true. He was free from gross and scandalous sins; he was not an extortioner, not a usurer, not oppressive to debtors or tenants, but fair and kind to all that had dependence upon him. He was no adulterer, but had possessed his vessel in sanctification and honour. Yet, this was not all; he fasted twice in the week, as an act partly of temperature, partly of devotion. Thus, he glorified God with his body: yet, that was not all; he gave tithes of all that he possessed, according to the law, and so glorified God with his worldly estate. Now, all this was very well and commendable. He thought meanly of all mankind but himself: “I thank thee that I am not as other men are.” He speaks indefinitely, as if he were better than any. He thought meanly in a particular manner of this publican, whom he had left behind, it is probable, in the court of the Gentiles, and whose company he had fallen into as he came to the temple. He knew that he was a publican and, therefore, very uncharitably concluded that he was an extortioner, unjust, and all that is naught. Here is the publican’s address to God, which was the reverse of the Pharisee’s: while the Pharisee was of pride and 58 Rush to Riches ostentation, the publican was full of humility and humiliation; in full repentance for his sin and maintaining his undeserved desiring towards God, the publican stood at a ‘distance’. He expressed his repentance and humility in what he did; and his gesture, when he addressed himself to his devotions, was expressive of great seriousness and humility, and the proper clothing of a broken, penitent, and obedient heart. He stood afar off. The publican kept at a distance under a sense of his unworthiness to draw near to God, and perhaps for fear of offending the Pharisee, whom he observed to look scornfully upon him, and of disturbing his devotions. He would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, much less his hands, as was usual in prayer. He did lift up his wounded heart to God in the heavens, in holy desires, but, through prevailing shame and humiliation, he did not lift up his eyes in holy confidence and courage. His iniquities are gone over his head, as a heavy burden, so that he is not able to look up. His prayer was short. Fear and shame hindered him from saying much; sighs and groans swallowed up his words; but what he said was to the purpose: God, be merciful to me a sinner. He did not use excessive verbiage in prayer rather he persuaded his “wounded noosphere” to communicate and create a connection. He offered his wounded, bleeding, living tissue of consciousness to God. Blessed be God that we have this prayer upon record as an answered prayer, and that we are sure that he who prayed it went to his house justified; and so shall we, if we pray it, as he did.

Dark Night of the Soul: Purgation of the Noosphere Dark night of the soul is a metaphor used to describe a phase in a person’s spiritual life, marked by a sense of loneliness and desolation or wounded noosphere. It is referenced by spiritual traditions throughout the world, but in particular by Christianity. Dark Night of the Soul (Spanish: La noche oscura del alma) is the title of a poem written by a sixteenth century Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic Saint John of the Cross, as well as of a treatise he wrote later, commenting on the poem. Saint War on Noosphere 59

John of the Cross was a Carmelite priest. His poem narrates the journey of the soul from its bodily home to its union with God. The journey occurs during the night, which represents the hardships and difficulties the soul meets in detachment from the world and reaching the light of the union with the Creator. There are several steps in this night, which are related in successive stanzas. The main idea of the poem can be seen as the painful experience that people endure as they seek to grow in spiritual maturity and union with God. The poem is divided into two books that reflect the two phases of the dark night. The first is a purification of the senses. The second and more intense of the two stages is that of the purification of the spirit, which is the less common of the two. The text was written while John of the Cross was imprisoned by his Carmelite brothers, who opposed his reformations to the Order. He was a friend of St. Teresa of Avila, although they seldom met face to face; and like her, he was dedicated to bringing back the more rigorous old Carmelite rule for those who wished to follow it. These parallel experiences across faiths have led to the speculation that Dark Night is a common spiritual or mystical state or stage which is independent of the specific belief system. The Buddhist author Daniel Ingram, who also invokes St. John of the Cross, uses the term ‘maps’ for the sequence of mental states: The Christian maps, the Sufi maps, the Buddhist maps of the Tibetans and the Theravada, and the maps of the Khabbalists and Hindus are all remarkably consistent in their fundamentals. These maps, Buddhist or otherwise, are talking about something inherent in how our minds progress in fundamental wisdom that has little to do with any tradition and lots to do with the mysteries of the human mind and body. It is a kind of suffering, being separated from the mother while we are young, for example. Another example is that man’s noosphere suffers when it is disconnected from the mother earth, causing more damage to health and wellbeing. How would one feel in his noosphere when he is separated from God or earth? One feels as fish out of 60 Rush to Riches water. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, a nineteenth century French Carmelite nun, underwent similar experiences. Centring on doubts about the afterlife, she reportedly told her fellow nuns, “If you only knew what darkness I am plunged into.”179 While this crisis is usually temporary in nature, it may last for extended periods. The ‘dark night’ of Saint Paul of the Cross180 in the eighteenth century lasted 45 years, from which he ultimately recovered. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, according to letters released in 2007, “may be the most extensive such case on record,” lasting from 1948 almost up until her death in 1997, with only brief interludes of relief between. Franciscan Friar Father Benedict Groeschel, a friend of Mother Teresa for a large part of her life, claims that “the darkness left” towards the end of her life. Jesus Christ may also have had experienced such a crisis, on the cross, before dying when uttering “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). Typically for a believer in the dark night of the soul, spiritual disciplines such as prayer and consistent devotion to God, suddenly seem to lose all their experiential value; traditional prayer is extremely difficult and unrewarding for an extended period of time during this ‘dark night’. The individual may feel as though God has suddenly abandoned him or her, or that his or her prayer life has collapsed. It is important to note, however, that the presence of doubt is not tantamount to abandonment—there is a strong biblical tradition of authentic confusion before God. Rather than resulting in permanent devastation, the dark night is regarded by mystics and others as a blessing in disguise, whereby the individual is stripped (in the dark night of the senses) of the spiritual ecstasy associated with

179“Mysticism and the Dark Night of the Soul” at www.darknightofthesoul.net. 180St. Paul of the Cross was born at Ovada in the Republic of Genoa on 3 January 1694. His infancy and youth were spent in great innocence and piety. He was inspired from on high to found a congregation; in an ecstasy he beheld the habit which he and his companions were to wear. For fifty years St. Paul remained the indefatigable missionary of Italy. War on Noosphere 61 acts of virtue. Although the individual may for a time seem to outwardly decline in his or her practices of virtue, in reality he or she becomes more virtuous, as being virtuous is less for the spiritual rewards (ecstasies in the cases of the first night) obtained and more out of a true love for God. It is this purgatory, a purgation of the noosphere that brings purity and union with God. The War on Creation has left humanity in the ‘dark night of the soul’, disconnecting man from the earth. It is a death sentence; abandoned by land, water and air, man exiled himself, became a cosmic orphan and it is a lonely feeling! Will he ever feel the need for relationship with earth and get connected again? Something blocks achieving the connection, i.e., until he finds his living tissue of consciousness or noosphere. It is the ‘reptilian brain’, which plays tricks all the time, transforming man the creator into man the destroyer—Steward into Satan.

R-Complex and M-Complex: Reptiles versus Mammals The most ancient part of the brain is known by scientists as the R-complex or reptilian brain. It is the most obvious remnant of our reptilian genetic history, apart from those who are still born with tails. This reptilian brain or R-complex is vital to understanding the ways that man manipulates human thinking and perception. Most people have no idea of the reptilian heritage of the human body and its influence on our behaviour. Scientists say that the R-complex represents a core of the nervous system and originates from a “mammal-like reptile,” that was once found all over the world in the Triassic period (205-240 million years ago). It is believed that this was an evolutionary link between the dinosaurs and the mammals. There may be other explanations, too! All mammals have this reptilian part of the brain. Now look at the character traits of the reptilian brain as agreed by scientists. I quote here from a fascinating Internet article by Skip Largent: “At least five human behaviours originate in the reptilian brain... Without defining them, I shall simply say that in human activities they find expression in: obsessive compulsive behaviour; personal day-to-day rituals and 62 Rush to Riches superstitious acts; slavish conformance to old ways of doing things; ceremonial re-enactments; obeisance to precedent, as-in legal, religious, cultural, and other matters, and all manner of deceptions.”181 Add other traits of the R-complex such as hierarchy (I am superior, you are inferior), territoriality (this is mine), aggression, and the idea that might-is-right (winner-takes-all). Racism comes from the reptilian brain; so also is aggressive and violent sex. Cosmologist Carl Sagan, who knew far more than he was telling, wrote a book, The Dragons of Eden,182 to highlight the reptilian influences on humanity. He said: “It does no good whatsoever to ignore the reptilian component of human nature, particularly our ritualistic and hierarchical behaviour. On the contrary, the model may help us understand what human beings are all about.”183 Other areas of the human brain balance the extremes of the reptilian characteristics in most people, but they can still be seen, for example, in those who live their lives as a daily ritual, such as going to the same supermarket at the same time every week and having the same meals on the same days. Obviously, the reptilians understand the R-complex better than anyone and how it can be manipulated. Predictably, therefore, it is through the reptilian part of the brain that humanity is most controlled and directed. The most distinguished character of reptiles, such as in snakes is making venom. Snakes are equipped with a small pouch behind the fangs where they store the venom in small amounts. Venom is used to defend themselves from other predators and also they use it to paralyze their victims for food. Most of the striking ranges of different snake species vary in distance from 2 to 6 feet. Their venom is good for two to three strikes and again they have to produce. But 65 million years of

181Skip Largent, “Reptilian Brain” at www.2012.com.au. 182Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden, New York: Ballantine Books, 1977. 183“The Human-Reptilian Connection” at www.bibliotecapleyades.net. War on Noosphere 63 mammalian evolution has enabled humans to produce their venom in more complex and sophisticated ways. Humans can produce larger amount of venom and it can be securely stored not in a tiny pouch but in cranium. Therefore, evolution has provided a bigger and a better storage facility. This venom gets stored more and more and never gets depleted or never goes out of stock. This venom is indirectly the cause for human conflict with nature, leading to a mad Rush to Riches. This venom is responsible for creating in human beings anger, lust, exploitation, violence, authority, aggression, and jealousy. Consequently, humans can destroy animals and other humans with their venom, not two or three victims, but the venom is good enough to kill more than 30,000 not only in the vicinity of 2 to 6 feet but on long range with modern weapons reaching as far as 10,000 km. Reptiles eat other reptiles in the wild. The same reptilian behaviour causes humans to consume each other through, war, hierarchy, globalization, imperialism, slavery, capitalism, and competition. Until today, Darwinian “survival of the fittest,” is the rule of evolutionary biology and its latest prodigy is reptilian brain. Jesus acknowledges this negative evolutionary trait in humans when he calls Pharisees, “Serpents, You brood of Vipers!” (Matt. 23:33).

Get Connected to Earth: Recharge the Spirit Contemporary society and its citizens are in a denial mode. We are aware that we are part of nature and that although we are disconnected from nature we deny that this separation bears ill effects upon our physical or mental health and inner peace. We are also in denial if we know our separation from nature is producing destructive personal, social, and environmental disorders but we don’t use readily available nature-reconnecting tools to help us treat these disorders. Many people display mood disorder symptoms or other discontents that are not normally found in nature-connected people. These individuals are usually in denial that they suffer because they are, or have been, excessively separated from nature and its regenerative healing 64 Rush to Riches and restorative powers. The symptoms these individuals endure include the discomforts of fatigue, apathy, stress, anxiety, depression, hopelessness, anger, mood swings, mistrust, loneliness, broken relationships, destructive dependencies, and sleep, eating, learning, and attention disorders. Contemporary society consciously and subconsciously socializes us to believe that nature is an enemy to overcome, conquer, or develop. We are in denial that we mistakenly consider its progress and economically sound to subdue natural systems within and around us and thereby lose the resilience and immunity provided by the recuperative powers of these systems. We deny that if disconnection from nature produces discontents, that authentic reconnecting with nature enables nature’s renewing powers to help us transform our discontents into happier and more reasonable ways of being and relating. We deny that nature-reconnecting tools are readily available to us and that we can use them to help ourselves reverse our disorders. Because we are members of a nature-disconnected society in denial, we are psychologically bonded to our society’s ways and many of us suffer from and perpetuate the dysfunctions, insanity, and discontents of our society. Individuals who only address their personal dysfunctions without empirically addressing the nature-disconnected roots of these dysfunctions too often further their and our problems as time passes. Because we live in a nature-separated society, we seldom learn that it is the personal and collective relationship of our mind with nature that determines our sanity, our future, and the future of the earth. Much has been written about how we need to help the planet regenerate itself. Too often we overlook the fact that restoring it is the lasting means to improve the environment of our mind, our wellness, and our destiny. How conscious are we about the interactions of our mentality with the natural world? How do we passionately incorporate nature’s intrinsic health and recuperative powers into our sense of self, other, and livelihood? Do we acknowledge this deep and penetrating War on Noosphere 65 partnership in a renewable path to sustainability that serves people, the environment, and peace? These are compelling questions for us as our society is in denial of our mentality’s relationship with nature and we face a most precarious future. As nature’s resources are diminished, so is the quality of our lives as part of nature. As the quality of our lives diminishes, we become desensitized and fearful. We further lose touch with our natural ability to connect to the web of life within which we are so intricately bound. It becomes a cycle of loss. The nurturing link between our human lives and our earthly home gets broken. We are driven to seek more and more satisfaction in the material world, which means that we consume more and more of the resources we need to sustain natural world and our inborn love of it. We get further distanced from our innate sense of meaning and being. We lose what we most love about ourselves, the world to which we belong, and our sense of the sacred in everyday life. In these difficult times, we are virtually on the edge of losing our ability to save both ourselves and our earthly home. Yet, the saving grace is simple: We will save what we love. When we learn how to stop long enough to genuinely reconnect to the nurturing sustenance of nature, we emotionally reconnect to what is most deeply satisfying in our human experience in terms of ‘belonging’. We re-learn to love the very essence of what we are as living, breathing, perfect beings on a living, breathing, perfect planet. It is a generative partnership that happens when we reawaken and enliven all our senses with the awareness of nature’s grace, intelligence, and sustenance. We find and feel that we, too, are part of the very grace and intelligence we celebrate in nature. We belong. Acknowledge that you, as a biological being, have the emotions, feelings, and intuitional knowledge that connect you to earth. Your biology establishes roots that keep you connected with who you are. As you learn to tune into earth, you will feel the changes transpiring. Earth is providing you with an opportunity to extend the knowledge of your roots and to 66 Rush to Riches connect to the very essence of life. Staying connected to the natural world will relax your body, free your mind, and restore a sense of balance and perspective. The earth’s bounty is infinitely healing and calming. Spending time in nature soothes an overexcited nervous system, and it remains the one universal cure for stress and despair. Despite being surrounded by privation and unimaginable horror and despair, Anne Frank wrote: “The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside somewhere they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes people happy, amidst the simple beauty of Nature.” Each one needs to get out of bed, go outside, and take a breath of fresh air; soak up the morning’s beauty before everyone else wakes up; admire the washed-clean bright blue of the sky after it has rained, listen to the magpies’ liquid call, and touch the graceful strip of bark peeling from a gum tree; feel the sun on your face, and let the wind lift your hair and play with it; go barefoot whenever you can; kick off your shoes and let yourself feel the grass or sand beneath your feet. A symbol of connection with the earth and our personal freedom, it is also one of the quickest of all ways to slow down, recharge your spirit, and find balance in your life. Can’t get outside? Use your imagination. As Albert Einstein said, “Logic will get you from A to B. But imagination will take you everywhere.” It doesn’t matter if you are up to your elbows in soapsuds at the kitchen sink, or studying late at night, you can still close your eyes, take a deep breath, and picture yourself walking along a beach at twilight, diving beneath a wave and tasting the salt water, or sitting on a moss-covered rock and dangling your fingers in the icy-cold water of a mountain stream. By creating a meaningful connection with something— whether it is nature, family, a partner, work, or a complete stranger, you begin to believe in something larger than yourself. Shifting your attention from (un)civilization to the beauty of the War on Noosphere 67 natural world makes you feel more fully alive; it also means that you begin to acknowledge your place in the world, to see the sense of it all. Developing any kind of real passion and authentic purpose will do the trick, too. Go where you are needed: volunteer for a homeless shelter or a political organization. No one has really said it better since William Shakespeare wrote, “The quality of mercy is not strained; it is twice blessed; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” In other words, if you give to others and help enrich their life in some way, you are also giving yourself the opportunity to grow and to connect with the world in a meaningful way. Help something to grow, whether it is a child, an animal, or a tree. Have real conversations with real people, not machines, wherever you can. Be a person who lifts people up, not someone who brings them down. Consider the small, tenacious cluster of leaves that somehow manages to grow out of rusty guttering on a building in the middle of the city, or the tender, apple-green spikes that stubbornly poke out of the charred earth hours after a fire has destroyed everything in its path. No matter how stressed your day is, or how difficult it is to see a way forward, you can find solace, inspiration and courage in Nature’s resilience and determination. The vitality of earth is waiting to be discovered by you. She can provide you with a greater abundance in life if you can understand who she is. She can be thought of as the Mother Goddess, as an aspect of existence that provides, nurtures, feeds, and nestles you. She is your home and your mother, the source from which you have come.

Get Connected to Primal Matrix of the Earth: Nature Nurtures As human beings, we are equipped to handle even the direst emergencies in our lives. As long as we have faith in each other and our surroundings, we have the loving intention to live well and give ourselves permission to reclaim the innate eco- intelligence we were born with that guides us to live well. The truth we must all come to terms with is that we may never live on a planet that is entirely free of problems and dangers. What is 68 Rush to Riches essential is not to create any more problems, but try to fix the ones that already exist by living in an eco-intelligent manner. There are hundreds of circumstances on earth right now that seem less-than-desirable, but actually are perfect circumstances from which we can all learn about our place and function in life. Many people would like to abandon earth at this time, as if she is no longer a worthy place to live. Angry voices don’t like the conditions of the cities or the water, as if the earth herself created these conditions. These perfect circumstances represent one of the rarest opportunities in our history as a human species for our growth and maturation. They represent one of the greatest opportunities that our bodies, minds, and souls will ever know for learning about how to function in greater harmony and balance with the rest of life. It also presents the needs of each one of us to shift our everyday beliefs, actions, and choices in the world, to support an ecology of personal and planetary wellbeing, rather than an ecology of disease. Can contact with nature relieve anxiety and stress, aid healing, and increase concentration? It appears that it can, even when ‘contact’ is defined in the loosest way. Some researchers now suggest that passive contact with nature, like looking at trees from a car, can be as therapeutic as a walk in the woods. It appears that nature can really provide nurture—for the young and old, healthy and sick, alike. The source of all that heals us comes from the earth; the minerals, elements, and nutrients from the earth and oceans are the basis of the mother earth’s collection of gifts to humanity. How do we give back what we use? The earth is amazing in its ability to regenerate these valuable resources but we can also help protect the earth as we benefit from its gifts. Our collections of gifts are not only meant for us, more importantly they belong to the future generations, and that is a good reason to protect them. In essence, our perfect circumstances on earth today present us with an opportunity for healing and an opportunity to ‘bring back’ the earth that we depend upon for our life War on Noosphere 69 constantly for survival. Though I realize that some people on earth are set in their belief that our long-term destructive relationship with the earth cannot be healed, I cannot agree with them. The reason for this is that I have seen and experienced the power of healing in my own life. The power of healing is the power to live whole. It is the power to set right the things that have become lost, injured, or unsettled in the course of life. It is the power to focus our energies in a direction that does not dissipate our vital life force. It is the power to avoid the kinds of internal and external conflicts that hurt our health and separate us from our true spiritual natures. Ultimately, healing noosphere is about exercising the ability and willingness to live connected to the greater whole of life and to cultivate the kind of healthy relationships with the earth. We live with a clear sense that we are not just bodies walking on the planet, but bodies that share a connection with our minds, emotions, and spirits. By connecting with our innate eco-intelligence, we become aware of the fact that life is supported by the exchange and flow of positive energy. Energy is the key to health and the key to life! “We have two kinds of attention,” says Andrea Faber Taylor, an environmental psychologist at the University of Illinois.184 The first is the “directed attention” we call on for tasks that require focus, like driving or doing our taxes. Directed attention tends to be tiring, however, and fatigue affects our ability to make good decisions and control destructive impulses. The best way to restore directed attention is to give it a rest by shifting to the second type, “involuntary attention,” which we display when we watch a fire or meditate, for instance. Looking at nature is another activity that gives our directed attention a chance to recover. For example, Roger Ulrich and his colleagues at Texas A&M University found that people who commuted along scenic roads recovered more quickly from stressful driving conditions than

184Deb Aronson, “The Nature of Nature” atdebaronson.com/features/ the_nature_of_nature. 70 Rush to Riches those who saw billboards, buildings, and parking lots. Ulrich also noted something he termed an “inoculation” effect: Drivers who had taken the scenic route responded more calmly to stressful situations later on. Further, Ulrich looked at patients recovering from gallbladder surgery. The patients who could see trees from their hospital beds needed fewer painkillers and had shorter hospital stays than those who looked out on brick walls. So, with all our efforts to alleviate stress—from aerobics and yoga to anti-anxiety pills—cure may be lying in as simple as a garden.185 In fact, even a little bit of green seems to make a big impact. Some studies suggest that a houseplant or even a picture of nature can convey similar benefits. “It used to be that we looked at cataclysmic events, like divorce or loss of a job, as stressors,” says Kathleen Wolf of the College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington. “But now we are seeing that our daily lives have constant small stressors, and the cumulative effect is significant. Consequently, even small, incremental contacts with nature in our daily lives are beneficial.” In her study, Andrea Faber Taylor looked at children living in Chicago’s notorious Robert Taylor Homes Housing Project. The children she studied were all from the same socioeconomic bracket; all were African American; all lived in virtually identical apartments to which their families had been randomly assigned; and all lived on the second, third, or fourth floors, the best levels for viewing nature. The only difference was that some apartments overlooked trees and grass while others overlooked pavement. Girls who could see nature from their windows were better able to concentrate, and to control impulsive behaviour, as measured in standard psychological tests. These behaviours tend to help children resist peer pressure and sexual pressure, and help in other challenging situations. “Our theory was that public housing is a very fatiguing environment,” said Faber Taylor. “It

185“How Do Bach Flower Remedies Work?” at www.321healthy.blogspot.com. War on Noosphere 71 turns out that small amounts of greenery seem to make a big difference. You don’t have to live in Amazon Forest to enjoy nature’s benefits.”186 By creating more green spaces, particularly in urban areas, we could minimize or, at least, buffer the stresses of everyday life and the long-term costs in mental and physical health associated with stress. Now that is a magic bullet.

War on the Land of Ahimsa: India Losing I know that many Indians are struggling with the pains and conflicts brought about recently by greed, inequality, and personal disappointments. I know that many are frightened by the economic isolation they very strongly feel, the apparent inadequacies of human nature, and the violence and sickness in their lives. I know that most of the Indians are preoccupied with the maintenance of survival, while only a handful of them have found their way to abundance by destroying the remaining air, water, and land on which rest of the poor Indians depend on. I know that it weighs heavily on them that so many of those who have found abundance have done with violent means, with little concern for others. Does India lose her ancient and irreplaceable heritage of ahimsa to the violence of economic growth? Hindu wisdom, which inspires human beings to live the ideals of compassion, tolerance, and nonviolence, are captured in one word, ahimsa. In Sanskrit, himsa means doing harm or causing injury. The ‘a’ placed before the word negates it. Very simply, ahimsa is abstaining from causing harm or injury. It is gentleness and non-injury, whether physical, mental, or emotional. It is good to know that nonviolence speaks only to the most extreme forms of forceful wrongdoing, while ahimsa goes much deeper to prohibit even the subtle abuse and the simple hurt. Devout Hindus oppose killing for several reasons. Belief in karma and reincarnation are strong forces at work in the Hindu mind. They know that any thought, feeling, or action sent out from them to

186“The Social Brain: The Social Brain Stresses – Relief in Trees” at www.thesocialbrain.blogspot.com. 72 Rush to Riches another will return to them through yet another in equal or amplified intensity. What we have done to others will be done to us, if not in this life then in another. The Hindu is thoroughly convinced that violence which he commits will return to him by a cosmic process that is unerring. Two thousand years ago South India’s weaver saint Tiruvalluvar has captured it summarily and subtly in the following verse: “All suffering recoils on the wrongdoer himself. Thus, those desiring not to suffer refrain from causing others pain” (Tirukural 320). Even those Indians who do not believe in reincarnation of an individual still hold that all that exists abides in the Divine. They further hold that each life form, even water and trees, possesses consciousness and energy. Whether the belief is that the life force of animals can evolve into human status, or that the opposite can also take place, or simply that all things enjoy their own consciousness, the result is the same: a reverence for life. But modern India has turned the land into killing fields through social-technological imbrication as the artificial universe. Wilderness transformed into city streets, subways, giant buildings, and factories resulted in the complete substitution of the real world for the artificial of the urban India. Surrounded by an artificial universe when the warning signals are not the shape of the sky, the cry of the animals, the changing seasons, but the simple flashing of the traffic light and the wail of the ambulance and police car, urban India have no idea what the natural universe is like. It is shocking to see that India is slowly moving away from the traditional way of life which has been proven sustainable for the past 6000 years, and now, on the other hand, India prefers western technology and development, which has been proven disastrous within the timeframe of 200 years. Most of us who inhabit mass technological India, find it difficult to understand technology’s impact on this holy land, let alone on our psyches. Like the tiny aerobic bacteria that reside within computer hardware, we are so entrenched in our technological world that we hardly know it exists. Consequently, on the land War on Noosphere 73 of ahimsa, a new wave of attacks of environmental degradation is carried out: radioactive contamination, cancer epidemics, oil spills, toxic leaks, environmental illness, ozone holes, poisoned aquifers, and cultural and biological extinctions. With the traditional way of life India can go on strong forever even with 2 or 3 billion people, but with the adopted western lifestyle, we will be lucky if we could make up a couple of decades. The holy land of India is stripped, raped, abused, and pillaged. Violence has been perpetrated to the extreme on the land of ahimsa in the form of modernization, industrialization, westernization, globalization, and contamination. Guess what? India is losing in the war of rush to riches.

Eco-Spirituality: Building Nature Religion Eco-spirituality is a spiritual view of, and context for our relationship with the universe and the earth. It has the potential to transcend boundaries between spiritual traditions and also between science and spirituality. On a personal level, it can foster a deep sense of belonging to the universe and the earth and a deep sense of participation in unfolding the mystery of this universe. Lived, it leads to sustained actions on earth’s behalf. It is now self-evident to anyone who looks out and observes the environmental conditions at our doorstep that this earth is in trouble. But mere observation is not enough; we can and must do something about it. This recognition that we can address the situation both as individuals and as a community of concerned citizens is the basis of eco-spirituality. Today, more than ever we need to learn about the depths of eco-spirituality as we face the devastating issues of climate change, water pollution, acid rain, deforestation, hazardous waste disposal, and the total annihilation of many plant and animal species. We need to deepen our realization that the human being is so connected to the cosmos that destroying God’s creation becomes a moral, even a human-rights issue. We hope that an increased awareness of eco-spirituality will transform our minds and hearts and bring oneness and integration with one another and with our planet. 74 Rush to Riches

“Let the sea and all within it thunder praise! Let the land and all it bears rejoice! All the trees of the wood shout for joy! At the presence of our God! For our God comes to rule the Earth!” (Psalms 96:11-13). For hundreds of years, those who have been interested in the spiritual life have found that exposure to the beauty of the earth is a way to make God powerfully present. Recently, Catholics and all Christians have become interested in the ecological movement and a new awareness of the transcendence of the cosmos. Concern for the present ecological crisis has become more than a cause; it involves, too, a spirituality that supports activists and even simple lovers of nature to be caretakers of the earth and stewards of God’s creation. Just as Christian spirituality focuses on one’s relationship with God in the Trinity, God is revealed to the person in diverse ways. Eco- spirituality teaches that divine life extends to all reality, and the cosmos is an integral part of God’s self-revelation. It studies our relationship to God as it develops in the context of our relationships with the cosmos in its totality. Ecology studies our total environment and all the living or non-living creatures that dwell with us in this cosmic house (oikos). While the term, ‘eco- spirituality’, is a relatively new one, the Psalmist sang of God’s presence in nature and often called on the entire cosmos to join in celebration: “Let the heavens rejoice and the Earth be glad” (Psalm 97:1). Theologians and contemplatives, past and present, have experienced the hand of God in the magnificence of the cosmos. The order that is inscribed into the very fabric of creation reveals to us that not only everything God created is good, but also that creation itself reflects the grandeur of God. In the ancient tradition, the Church Fathers often spoke of Nature and Scripture as two divine books. The first shows us some of God’s attributes through traces and images of the creator imprinted on material things. Among these attributes are his transcendence, sovereignty, and marvellous creative power that appear to us in War on Noosphere 75 the vast cosmos and the fertile earth with its wonderful assortment of creatures. Even some peoples prior to or outside the influence of revelation were moved by the wonder of the world to intuitions about its origin and how everything had been brought into being. The sheer variety of things led them to speculate about the plentitude of their source. The order and intelligibility they found everywhere seemed a trace of some divine reason or unitive principle operating in all creatures. The world’s beauty and majesty spoke of some perfect spirit at work. Stars, seas, mountains, animals, and plants visibly pointed beyond themselves to some invisible reality hidden to mortal eyes. The biblical revelation deepened these intuitions still further, placing them on a firmer foundation, encouraging believers to observe ever more closely the world God had made, and leading the humankind into different kind of spiritualities. Major religions like, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam are the key players of these spiritualities. Let us examine the outcome of these spiritualities in relationship to the religious consciousness or religious noosphere.

Dominion Model Spirituality Dominion model spirituality sees planet earth as the source of all value. Therefore, humans feel that they can rightfully exploit natural environment. The emphasis here is that humans are not at all at home in nature. It stresses differences between humans and the rest of nature, while we are not above the nature but with the nature. The danger is the arrogant disdain for material world; subjugating and empowering nature and environment, which leads to exploitation. Consequently, the monotheistic conservative religious believers cared little for the health of our natural environment. This stereotype goes back at least to Lynn White’s famous 1967 article in Science magazine, which blamed the biblical view of man’s dominion spirituality over the environment for present day environmental degradation. In the article, Lynn White blamed monotheistic religions for all the catastrophes in the world: crusades, colonialism, conversions, 76 Rush to Riches slavery, World War I, World War II, poaching, deforestation, and exploitation of natural resources, global warming, and climate change. Although White’s argument has been decisively refuted by religious scholars her stereotype lives on.187 The biblical starting point for any discussion of the nature of religious environmental dominion must begin with the witness in the Book of Genesis: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth’” (Gen. 1:27- 28). In the past and in our modern times, however, this biblical vision of the relationship among God, man, and nature is muddled by a false view: dominating and subjugating nature. The Hebrew root, ‘radah’ for ‘dominion’ means “to rule, to dominate, to exercise power.” It is variously used in the context of crushing the grapes by the wine press (Joel 4:13), of imposing punishment on someone (Lam. 1:13), and of suppression or oppression (Lev. 25:53; Is. 14:6). Besides, it serves to express in court languages the royal ideology of ruling over one’s foes and enemies (Ps. 110:2; 72:8). Similarly, the term ‘subdue’, in Hebrew ‘kabas’, is used to express various ideas as “to tread down, to press, to rape” (Est. 7:8; Mic. 7:19), to reduce someone to the status of a slave (Neh. 5:5), or to bring nations under subjugation (2 Sam. 8:11). Dominion model spirituality is the hallmark of monotheistic religions even today and it was very prevalent in the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries. This spirituality was highly recommended by the popes through their social teachings; accordingly, they justified slavery, colonialism, and conversion by force. The consequences precipitated by dominion 187Lynn White, “The Roots of Our Ecological Crisis, 1967” at www.answersingenesis.org. Some arguments against Lynn White’s position could be found at www.clas.ufl.edu. War on Noosphere 77 model spirituality, history would never forget the dark age of colonization, slavery, and the mass murders of Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas of South America. The members of the Society of Jesus were the principle victims of the dominion model spirituality. Fortunately, after the Vatican Council II, more relaxing approach towards dominion model spirituality was added, still anthropocentric, but infused with feeling of justice, holiness, and responsibility towards creation. One example is Gaudium et Spes (1965): “For man and woman created to God’s image, received a mandate to subject to themselves, the earth and all that it contains, and to govern the world with justice and holiness, a mandate to relate ourselves and the totality of things to him who was to be acknowledged as the Lord and Creator of all. Thus, by the subjection of all things to man and woman, the name of God would be wonderful in all the earth” (GS, §§12, 33, 34). Reasonably, the dominion motive is depicted in the act of first human being naming all the animals that God has made and led before him “to see what he would call them” (Gen. 2:19). All other creatures would be what the human beings say that they are, certainly an extraordinary statement of the power over creation given by God to humanity. But the context of this conferral is the human hunger for companionship. The natural world is not merely intended for subjugation by human beings but for companionship. Dominion over the earth and all that it contains with the command “to fill the whole earth and subdue it”: certainly this conveys power. Such a claim to power by human beings over all nonhuman creation contains the possibility, all too often realized, of domination and exploitation of the earth. This Christian belief is erroneous and it has misguided policies towards the environment. Unless, Christians along with all people change their attitudes towards the earth, global warming and its effects will only worsen. We need to confront climate change because our collective wellbeing depends on the environment, especially because we are Christians who are called to care for the earth, serving God’s 78 Rush to Riches vision of shalom throughout all of creation. Therefore, the terms ‘dominion’ and ‘subduing’ can permit no license for the unbridled exploitation and subjugation of nature. It is not a dominion of caprice or exploitation, but one of justice and benevolence patterned on God’s own benevolent justice.

Stewardship Model Spirituality Stewardship model spirituality sees man, as the source of all value. Humans care for creation, which is intended to serve our needs. The emphasis is that there is a wide gap between humans and the remainder of creation; according to anthropocentrism, the human person is the centre of creation. There is the danger of overemphasis on mastery, with focus on conquering and controlling nature; in this type of understanding emphasized by speciesism, there is no sense of solidarity with other species. Stewardship is a way of life. Stewardship is a conversion of heart. Stewardship is a disciple’s response. Stewardship is an expression of love. Stewardship is part of our vocation. Stewardship is an honour and an opportunity. Living as good stewards of God’s gifts will satisfy the deepest, strongest longings of our hearts. It will fill us with joy, happiness, and satisfaction. Stewards know the meaning of life and make real sacrifices to make the world a better place, making their own lives better in the process. Genesis presents a radically different picture of how the world is put together. In this account, God is the source of all values: in truth, he is the source of everything, calling it into being out of nothing by his powerful word. Man is part of this order essentially and, what is more, by the virtue of his created nature is placed at the head of creation as its steward. Yet, this stewardship can never be arbitrary or anthropocentric, as the old canard goes, for this notion implies that man rules creation in God’s stead and must do so according to his divine will. The biblical narrative speaks, then, of God’s solicitude and care for man so far as “he puts the man whom he had formed” in the War on Noosphere 79 garden (Gen. 2:8-15), with the avowed purpose that he must “till it and keep it” (2:15). Work as cult becomes a sacred mandate from God and is intrinsic to human nature. Agriculture and cult (from the Latin root ‘colere’) form an inseparable pair in the constitution of human beings. Humans are expected not merely to till the earth and cultivate it but guard it, watch over it, preserve it, and protect it from all damage and destruction and decimation. Human beings must be authors of life and not proliferators of death. Hence, stewardship model spirituality demands from us a responsibility as custodians of the world which is God’s gift. We must indeed develop the world and we must use all the discoveries of science and technology in doing so. We cannot, however, use the world just for our own profit and convenience. We must ‘keep’ the earth, and prudently conserve its riches; moreover, we must avoid exploitation and wastage which are simply a desecration of what God has placed at our disposal. Many consider that liberty, science, and technology are more a threat to the environment than a blessing to humanity and nature. Human understanding and control of natural processes empower people not only to improve the human condition but also to do great harm to each other, to the earth, and to other creatures. As concerns about the environment have grown in recent decades, the moral necessity of ecological stewardship has become increasingly clear. At the same time, however, certain misconceptions about nature and science, coupled with erroneous theological and anthropological positions, impede the advancement of a sound environmental ethics. In the midst of controversy over such matters, it is critically important to remember that while passion may energize environmental activism, it is reason, including sound theology and sound science that must guide the decision-making process. Unfortunately, stewardship spirituality is also misunderstood in the modern world, as man the steward gets the license and ethical support for exploitation, from the 80 Rush to Riches religious social teachings as they place man at the centre of creation. The story of man has taken a deadly trajectory toward the imperial and anti-ecological anthropology. As a result, exploitation of natural resources in the past led to conflict and the enrichment of a few at the expense of many. The reason for the problems facing mankind today appears to be overexploitation of all the resources around us far beyond our genuine immediate needs. Natural resources remain an important source of income. During the 1990s, 65% of all foreign direct investment was in oil, gas, and mining. Man, the steward has become the natural enemy of all living things, as he has been destroying it systematically; no wonder that thousands of species of animals and plants are disappearing from the face of the earth. We are squandering all the natural resources without foresight. Consequently, ecological imbalances like global warming, climate change, ozone depletion, famine, cyclones, and drought are on the rise. Every one of us is responsible for the disaster threatening the very existence of life on earth. What better word can we use than ‘matricide’ for this irresponsible stewardship destroying the entire earth community for human selfish interests? The question that we have to ponder is whether it is possible even now, although late, to salvage the planet and make it a habitable place for all living things. Science believes in the 4.5 billion year-old- earth; therefore, many scientists doubt the role of man as steward, because where was man some 2 million years ago and where will be man in another 2 million years from now? Finding ways for nature and man to coexist for the benefit of all of creation will demand great human ingenuity and effort in the coming years. Social teachings of popes always addressed these problems in a number of encyclicals such as “Redemptor hominis,” “Sollicitudo rei socialis,” and “Centessimus annus.” In his Sollicitudo rei socialis, which is in a sense the Catholic Church’s first encyclical on ecology, the pope has reminded us of “the limits of available resources, and of the need War on Noosphere 81 to respect the integrity and the cycles of nature and to take them into account when planning for development” (§26). Most of the encyclicals point out an inner man, “the image of God,” enabled by spirit, consciousness, awareness, enlightenment, which is a consoling and promising dimension of man as a steward in the future. Therefore, stewardship spirituality becomes a lifestyle, whereby we offer to God our time, talent, and treasure. As an act of love, we serve God, we help others, and we build up God’s kingdom on earth and make a positive difference in the world God gave us. Stewardship model spirituality, finally, is an invitation to human beings to be active observers of nature and, at the same time, participants who are totally involved in the cosmic symphony. It is a challenge to decision making, to be what we are, part of the created world, and be the high priests of this universe.

Creation-Centred Model Spirituality Creation-centred model spirituality sees all life as the source of value. Humans are not so much caretakers as fully part of creation; the emphasis is on intrinsic value and sacredness of nature and, hence, all species deserve protection; it recognizes interdependence within the web of life. The danger is that the call for sustainable development leaves many unresolved issues. It is unclear how to balance human needs with solidarity with other species. What is said here of the earth applies naturally to all the living creatures. The Lord who formed the humans “out of the dust” (Gen. 2:7), has also made “out of the ground” (2:19), all the beasts and the birds and all vegetation (2:9). Thus, more than a rupture and a break, there seem to exist certain similarity and continuity and a commonality in origin among the humans and all the living beings. It is in preserving and promoting this inter-relatedness among all creatures that the humans reflect the image and likeness of God himself. This is biblical wisdom, this is ecological wisdom, and this is true wisdom with regard to God, world and the humans. This again is an invitation to the 82 Rush to Riches humans not to treat them as enemies and conquer, destroy, and decimate but to tender, nurture, and take care of them. Thus, in creation-centred model spirituality, creation calls man to render praise and gratitude to its creator and so man becomes the high priest. The creation-centred spiritual life moves, expands, grows, and heads outward. It emphasizes ‘extroverted meditation’ such as art, rather than an ‘introverted meditation’ that contemplates the individual’s psychic situation. Many Psalms, especially Psalm 104, stress only the equality of human beings with all the created realities, especially the animals, all of whom together depend on their creator. In other words, the hymn-singers in the Psalms do not attempt to reach higher levels of perfection transcending temporal joys and struggles, but move ever deeper into the life of the universe with all its variegated beauty and riches and, thus, display a constant ‘engagement’ with the created order. Their way to God is rooted in Mother Earth. It is in the cosmos that they see God’s ‘kabod’ (glory) being celebrated. As extinction rate accelerates to wipe out all species on earth, we need very urgently creation-centred approach to spirituality, as it has a strong appeal to humanity. Stuart Pimm of the University of Texas said that scientific evidence strongly suggests that the current rate of extinction is higher than the natural rate—about 1,000 times greater than before humans were on the earth.188 Most endangered species protection concentrates on ‘fixing’ problems that people created, not stopping natural extinctions. When the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, the UN said that endangered species are of “aesthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational, and scientific value.”189 So, let us look at those reasons: Aesthetic refers to the fact that the endangered species are beautiful to look at, just like a clean

188“Endangered Species: Why Should We Protect All Species?” at www.library.thinkquest.org. 189See www.fws.gov for information on North Dakota Ecological Service Field Office. War on Noosphere 83 stream or ocean, beautiful mountains, wildflowers, and other parts of nature are to us. We would like to save beautiful things for our lifetime and for the kids who come after us. Ecological refers to the need to maintain biodiversity; it means keeping a variety of life forms in our ecosystem. Think of all the different kinds of dog breeds there are and how many varieties of flowers we have on the earth. It is also important to have variety in ecosystems: forests, deserts, wetlands, swamps, prairies, oceans etc. They help keep varieties of species alive. We don’t think about bacteria as very important, but bacteria in the soil helps crops grow. Birds control pests and improve harvests. Plants and trees filter our water and our air. Educational value is indicated by the fact all the species are being studied by students at different grade levels. We continue to learn from animals and the problems we create for them and the solutions that we find for dealing with them as well. Historical refers to the record of extinctions in recent times and the fossil record of past extinctions. Many species play a part in our living history, and we are emotionally connected with the extinct species, such as dinosaurs, trilobites, mammoth, dodo, and Tasmanian wolf; Recreational value indicates that millions of people enjoy camping, hiking, bird watching, rowing, kayaking, backpacking, fishing, hunting, biking, and other outdoor activities in nature. Scientific value indicates that most of our medicines come from plants and animals. Probably, most of our ‘future’ medicines and cures will be found there too. What if the species of an animal or plant to disappear in the near future is the one that would lead to a cure for cancer or AIDS? Can we afford to take that chance? Moral value informs us that we owe to future generations a responsibility to give the same opportunities in all the areas listed above. If we have made problems with our earth, isn’t it our job to fix them if we can? In 1971, the Synod of Bishops came up with an important declaration, Justitia in Mundo. Here the bishops could see much ahead of their time the environmental catastrophes which would 84 Rush to Riches befall on us in the third millennium. First time, Catholic Church, takes a trajectory toward creation-centred model of spirituality. They talk about earth’s systems: lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. All these systems are built in a complex form of relationship, where damage to one could cause irreparable disaster to all. Justitia in Mundo is definitely inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit and, one time in history, I feel very proud of the bishops of the Catholic Church. We need more synods of this type, from our pastors, if we want to accelerate the campaign against extinction, global warming, and climate change. Creation-centred approach should base itself on a new grasp of God as immanent in creatures, conserving them, coordinating them, blessing them, and re-creating them. This spirituality consciously and instinctively sees creatures as part of the earth and not just as mere beings on the earth. This way of looking at the cosmos is typically oriental and Indian. By calling the earth ‘mother’, our own bards bear witness to the presence of the Great Spirit in plants and animals, in land and rivers, in seas and mountains, in stars and the sky. The reverence given to creatures becomes worship extended to the creator Himself. Justice for the oppressed, option for the poor, should start with a firm choice for the voiceless—the animals, vegetation, and the earth. This is the beginning of true worship.

Deep Ecology Model Spirituality Deep ecology model spirituality sees breathe (spirit) in every life, and considers that it is the source of all value. It is the radical re- visioning of the relationships and boundaries between humans and the rest of creation. The emphasis is on the call for revival of asceticism, human renunciation, and mysticism; eco-theology views nature as a medium for the mystery of the sacred, which humans must not presume to know fully. The danger is that an overly romanticized view may make creation into an idol, which may result in a danger of totally neglecting legitimate human needs. Someone asked Mikhail Gorbachev: “What are your spiritual beliefs?” He answered: “Well, I believe in the cosmos. War on Noosphere 85

All of us are linked to the cosmos. Look at the sun. If there is no sun, then we cannot exist. So, nature is my god. To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.”190 The term deep ecology denotes a spirituality based on ecology, the word being derived from the Greek noun ‘oikos’, which means a house, home, or hearth. Thus, ecological spirituality is concerned with earth as our home. The cosmos as the creative blessing of God entrusted to humans takes on the central stage in such a spirituality. There is a shift here from the anthropocentric to a biocentric or cosmocentric paradigm. From a profiteering and destructive mystique, we move on to a mystique of life, guardianship, and fellowship. We perceive this shift when God made a covenant with Noah after the flood: “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle and every beast of the earth with you … never again shall all flesh be cut off … and never again shall there be flood to destroy the earth” (Gen. 9:8-11). All of creation itself is included in the covenant. Shallow ecology is anthropocentric, or human-centred. It views humans as above or outside of nature, as the source of all value, and ascribes only instrumental, or ‘use’ value to nature. Deep ecology model of spirituality does not separate humans— or anything else—from the natural environment. It does see the world not as a collection of isolated objects but as a network of phenomena that are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent. Deep ecology model spirituality recognizes the intrinsic value of all living beings and views human beings as just one particular strand in the web of life. Mahatma Gandhi gave meaning to self-realization in various contexts: “Life is an aspiration, and its mission is to strive after perfection, which is self-realization.” Commenting on the Bhagavad Gita, he said: “Man is not at peace with himself till he has become like unto

190See the official website of World’s Pantheistic Movement at www.www.pantheism.net. 86 Rush to Riches

God. The endeavour to reach this state is the supreme, the only ambition worth having. And this is self-realization. This self- realization is the subject of the Gita, as it is of all scriptures... To be a real devotee is to realize oneself. Self-realization is not something apart.” As Arne Naess, the chief proponent of Deep Ecology, notes, for Gandhi “to realize God,” “to realize the Self,” and “to realize the Truth” are three expressions of the same development.191 Camped out in Death Valley, California, during 1984, George Sessions and Arne Naess drew up eight basic principles that describe Deep Ecology: First, the wellbeing and flourishing of human and nonhuman life on earth have value in themselves and these values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for human purposes. Second, richness and diversity of life forms contribute to the realization of these values and are also values in themselves. Third, humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity to satisfy their vital needs. Fourth, the flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantial decrease of the human population and the flourishing of nonhuman life demands such a decrease. Fifth, present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening. Sixth, policies must, therefore, be changed and these policies affect basic economic, technological, and ideological structures and the resulting state of affairs will be deeply different from the present. Seventh, the ideological change is mainly in appreciating life quality rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living. There will be a profound awareness of the difference between big and great. Eight, those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly or indirectly to try to implement the necessary change. Besides anthropocentric encyclicals, I always wondered, when would popes include frogs, snakes, ants, bees, trees and

191See www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/deep-eco.htm. War on Noosphere 87 microbes in their social teachings of the church? At last, time has arrived! Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), a very sensational encyclical from Pope Benedict XVI, has satisfied some of my expectations. Most of the eastern great faiths such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism have been advocating deep ecology model spirituality for thousands of years. We have enormous amount of potentiality in deep ecology model, not only for the ecological and environmental benefits, but ecumenical benefits as well, if we follow their path of wisdom. We may not follow blindly the part of pantheistic notion of deep ecology; on the other hand, we can always be justified for following our own version of panentheistic notion of deep ecology: God in All and All in God. Caritas in Veritate is the masterpiece on social teachings of the church. Integral human development in charity and truth is the theme of this encyclical. It touches upon all aspects of organized and unorganized labour. It provides moral and ethical guidelines for the welfare of the workers and promotion of their rights all over the world. More than two years in the making, “Caritas in Veritate is Benedict’s third encyclical, since he became pope in 2005. Filled with terms like “globalization,” “market economy,” “outsourcing,” “labour unions,” and “alternative energy,” it is not surprising that the Italian media reported that the Vatican was having difficulty translating the 144-page document into Latin. Benedict also called for a reform of the United Nations so that there could be a unified “global political body” that allowed the less powerful of the earth to have a voice, and he called on rich nations to help less fortunate ones.192 “In the search for solutions to the current economic crisis, development aid for poor countries must be considered a valid means of creating wealth for all,” he wrote.193 Pope Benedict XVI, arguably the most environmentally conscious pope in history, wrote: “One of the greatest challenges 192See Caritas in Veritate, §§91-93 for a discussion on Fraternity, Economic Development, and Civic Society. 193See Caritas in Veritate, chapter 4 on “Development of People, Rights and Duties,” §§105-110. 88 Rush to Riches facing the economy is to achieve the most efficient use—not abuse—of natural resources, based on a realization that the notion of ‘efficiency’ is not value-free” (§112). Pope seems to follow the theme of John Donne that “no man is an island, entire of itself; everyman is a piece of the continent.” We are not alone, we are all somehow connected. The tone of Caritas in Veritate apparently looks like dominion model document, but at depth it browses a lot with deep ecology model spirituality. The four pillars of Catholic Social Doctrine are human dignity, subsidiarity, solidarity, and the common good. Caritas in Veritate places wellbeing of the global humanity at the top of their agenda. Furthermore, what being ‘human’ means has changed. Central to the new understanding is ‘rationality’; the recognition of our inherently human social relationships, human relationship with nature, and its consequences. Caritas in Veritate seeks to define the conditions for what it calls the “development of the whole man and of all men” and holds that this must be based upon “a deeper critical evaluation of the category of relation.”194 We continue to neglect our relationship with nature and God, because homo economicus is anthropocentric and homo sociologicus is socio-centric; there is no place in either for transcendence. Caritas in Veritate affirms that “one of the deepest forms of poverty a person can experience is isolation,” isolation from God and nature for which man has been designed to relate. It is what St. Augustine meant by “our hearts are restless” until we realize the relationships that divine revelation offers us: with father, mother, brother, and friends and the document recommends to add, also planet, animals, plants, environment and ecology.195 What Caritas in Veritate invites us to do is to sanctify every human encounter with ‘fraternity’ and to extend this to the whole of humanity and whole of creation, making it

194Caritas in Veritate, chapter 5 on “The Cooperation of the Human Family,” §§125-131. 195Caritas in Veritate, chapter 6 on “Development of peoples and Technology,” §§150-153. War on Noosphere 89 one global family through “relational inclusion,” of nature and environment.196 Another brilliant example of deep ecology model of spirituality is also from Pope Benedict XVI, a document, written for the celebration of the world day of peace on 1 January, 2010.197 Pope argues that the quest for peace by people of good will surely becomes easier if all acknowledge the indivisible relationship among God, human beings, and the whole of creation. Benedict notes that threats to global peace many a time arise from misuse or neglect of the earth’s resources, as they do from man’s inhumanity to man. Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change, desertification, the deterioration, and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers, and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes, and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions?198 He argues that responding appropriately to our ecological crisis will aid in addressing the spiritual and moral crisis which propels over-consumption and indifference and challenges the global leaders to reconsider long-held beliefs about the role and nature of economic development: It also advocates an inter-generational solidarity: ”Natural resources should be used in such a way that immediate benefits do not have a negative impact on living creatures, human and not, present and future; that the protection of private property does not conflict with the universal destination of goods; that human activity does not compromise the fruitfulness of the earth, for the benefit of people now and in the future.”199

196Caritas in Veritate, chapter 4 on “The Environment,” §§115-124. 197Pope Benedict XVI, “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation,” dated 1.1.2010. 198Pope Benedict XVI, “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation,” 21- 29. 199Pope Benedict XVI, “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation,” 28- 30. 90 Rush to Riches

Overall, Pope Benedict XVI seems to appreciate the global environmental crisis as something of an opportunity to promote solidarity and address industrialized society’s compulsion for consumption, call it a global deadly sin of gluttony that trickles down unpleasantly into individual morality. “The ecological problem must be dealt with not only because of the chilling prospects of environmental degradation on the horizon; the real motivation must be the quest for authentic worldwide solidarity inspired by the values of charity, justice and the common good.”200 ”It is becoming more and more evident that the issue of environmental degradation challenges us to examine our lifestyle and the prevailing models of consumption and production, which are often unsustainable from a social, environmental, and even economic point of view. We are all responsible for the protection and care of the environment. This responsibility knows no boundaries. In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, it is important for everyone to be committed at his or her proper level, working to overcome the prevalence of particular interests.”201 Church leadership has done a remarkable job when it comes to the social teaching of the popes. When it comes to the dignity of man, creation, peace, and justice, undoubtedly some of the brilliant documents are papal encyclicals. Some of these encyclicals have shaped the political outcome in some countries and changed the course of world’s history for good. In fact, two forces that have guided human social development through the ages have been economic growth and religion (spirituality). The distinction—between religion as ‘organized’ and spirituality as involving one’s deepest moral values and most profound religious experiences—is probably the most often cited difference between the terms. Economy and religion are the two engines that have developed and forced us into where we are today, or shaped us into what we are today. However, when it

200Pope Benedict XVI, “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation,” 7-8. 201Pope Benedict XVI, “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation,” 9-10. War on Noosphere 91 comes to ecology and environment, still, we find a bit of struggle and uncertainty in the social teachings, perhaps, due to misinformation or lack of information. Yet, religions continue to play a bigger and more vocal role in talking about protecting God’s creation and we wholeheartedly welcome that engagement. If they say, “do this,” they are going to be listened to in a way that no government and certainly no NGO, is going to be listened to. In my opinion, the last two models, creation- centred model spirituality and the deep ecology model spirituality should play a bigger role in the future. These two models have the ability to convince humanity, not only the Catholic community, but also other religions, especially eastern religions. I think it is absolutely imperative for anyone in a position of religious responsibility in the western world to hammer on these two models loudly and consistently as they possibly can.

Prescription for a Wounded Noosphere As Emperor Asoka felt after the War of Kalinga, every one of us should feel the devastation and distress caused on land, water, air, and life. The noosphere admits the crime, holds each of us responsible. If the state of the earth is wounded, naturally the state of the noosphere is also involved. The war fought outside, gradually, draws the war inside, the noosphere; it is only a matter of time. At this point in history, it is essential that we ask difficult and searching questions about the place of technology in our lives. What is the essence of modern technology? How does it structure our lives, politics, and perceptions? How does it shape our noospheres? What does it say about our relationship to our humanness and to the earth? Unfortunately, obstacles to answers are entrenched, like concrete piers at a freeway exchange, in both our social and psychological reality. I always believed that eastern religions have nurtured nature through their earth-centred philosophies and teachings. These cultures are nurtured by nature-based people, with their primitive technologies such as, animal farming, animal-drawn 92 Rush to Riches transportation, and animal-drawn irrigation systems; with their sustainable resource management tactics they have supported more than half of the world’s population for at least two millennia, when nature was not always benevolent to them. Nature-based people lived every day of their lives in the wilderness. We are only beginning to grasp how such a life served the inherent expectations of the human psyche or noosphere for development to full maturation and health. In nature-based people, who today maintain some vestiges of their relationship to the earth and their earth-based cultures, we can discern a decided sense of ease with daily life, a marked sense of self and dignity, a wisdom that most of us can admire only from afar, and a lack of the addiction and abuse that have become systematic in civilization. The loss of these psychological and cultural experiences in the face of an increasingly human- constructed and eventually technology-determined reality and the loss of living in fluid participation with the wild constitute the trauma we have inherited. As human life comes to be structured increasingly by mechanistic means, the noosphere restructures itself to survive. The technological construct erodes primary sources of satisfaction once found routinely in life in the wilds, such as physical nourishment, vital community, and fresh food, continuity between work and meaning, unhindered participation in life experiences, personal choices, community decisions, and spiritual connection with the natural world. These are the needs we were born to have satisfied. In the absence of these, we will not be healthy. In their absence, bereft and in shock, the noosphere finds some temporary satisfaction in pursuing secondary sources like drugs, violence, sex, material possessions, and machines. While these stimulants may satisfy in the moment, they can never truly fulfil primary needs. So, the addictive process is born. We become obsessed with secondary sources as if our lives depended on them. In her book Co- Dependence, psychotherapist Anne Wilson Schaef points out that War on Noosphere 93 beneath these behaviours lies an identifiable disease process “whose assumptions, feelings, behaviours, and lack of spirit lead to a process of nonliving that is progressively death-oriented.”202 While her words describe the addictive process of individuals, they also characterize the techno-addiction of a civilization. Society is addicted to specific technologies like cars, super computers, and biological weapons, all of which facilitate an unhealthy propensity to control, numb the noosphere from pain, and momentarily feed a craving for power. Techno-addiction is also an addiction to a way of perceiving, experiencing, and thinking. As the world has become less organic and more dependent on techno-fixes for problems created by earlier techno-fixes, humans have substituted a new worldview for one, once filled with clean rushing waters, coyotes, constellation of stars, tales of the ancestors, and people working together in sacred purpose. On the opposite side of the world, with their modern technology western nations have achieved enormous amount of development in a short span of time: but, achievement at what cost? The cost is very high, as industry and technology have left dangerous impacts on humanity and the whole creation. Evolutionary philosopher Gregory Bateson points out that addictive behaviour is consistent with the western approach to life that pits mind against body.203 The socially structured western-technological reality that now threatens to determine every aspect of our lives and encases the entire planet is out of control. People on the planet everywhere are getting sick from technological exposure. The ancestors of the western world took on the crucial task of redefining their worldview in a state of noospheric dislocation and, so, they ended up projecting a worldview that reflects the rage, terror, and dissociation of the traumatized state. They dreamed a world not of which humans are fully part, but one that we can define, compartmentalize, and

202“Technology, Trauma, and the Wild” at www.primitivism.com. 203“Technology and Trauma” at www.jesusradicals.com. 94 Rush to Riches control. They created linear perspective, the scientific- technological paradigm, and the mechanistic worldview. Westerners have the ability to admit their misdeeds and they try to warn the developing countries not to do the same, while the former still continue to do the same thing. After weighing the pros and cons, I would like to recommend the following prescription. It would be wise for the westerners to adapt the eastern primitive technologies which have been guaranteed, sustainable, for hundreds and thousands of years. I always wondered why United Nations does not make any effort to recommend to western nations, the nature-based lifestyle or eastern system of technology and development which is sustainable; instead, it still continues to recommend the capitalistic system which is based on anti-ecological anthropology that is not sustainable! Obviously, even most of the pontiffs recommend capitalistic or western economic notions of technology and development in their social teachings, instead of recommending eastern technologies and eastern theologies, which have been handed down through millennia as efficient means. Eastern theology speaks of the goodness of creation, the motherhood of God, and compassion “understood as interdependence and justice making.” Eastern religions honour a creation-centred tradition in their approach towards creation, which considers the environment itself to be a divine womb, holy, worthy of reverence and respect. The theology of Eastern religions is not anthropocentric. Time has arrived that we have to rethink about our dangerous attachments: our addiction to western technology and development. As a Catholic priest, I believe that addressing this imbalance at its roots requires more than public policy, regulation, or legislation. It will require a collective psychological process (a global consciousness or noosphere) to heal us, technological peoples, who, through a mechanized culture, have lost touch with the natural world. I believe in the power of noosphere or the human psyche; as global War on Noosphere 95 consciousness makes its way into the mainstream politics, there may be a possibility of bringing back good old times of bullock carts, horse and buggies, horse and plough, wine and song, love and leisure. We seek to reclaim the wisdom of native peoples and reconnect the noosphere to the primal matrix of the earth. A species smart enough to discover the double helix should be wise enough to leave unsustainable western technology and development more or less alone. Chapter Seven

Role of Religion on the War on Creation

As I write this book, followed by Anna Hazare’s (a social activist) episode against corruption, Hindu religion in India led by Baba Ramdev (Yoga Guru) upon the nation through a fast unto-death has vowed to root out all forms of ‘corruption’ from the political system which devalues Indian politics. If it turns out to be successful, it can attest that religion is a powerful tool to bring out change and transformation. Religion is a huge part of our history. Religion is used as a tool for many wrongs. Indeed, war mongers, paedophiles, and people who wish to promote their own agendas stand behind religion to promote such agendas too. Every disagreement seems to be backed by 98 Rush to Riches someone’s interpretation of the holy books, which need not always go by their true meaning. People have always been repressed by religious beliefs of one group or another. It is sick practice, but it has no place especially in today’s society. As we have now moved into the twenty-first century, there are over four-and-a-half billion adherents of the world religions. Christianity, a proselytizing tradition, has spread globally until there are nearly two billion Christians today, over half of whom are Roman Catholics, while about a quarter of Christians are in various Protestant denominations and half of the remainder are in the traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy. The other actively proselytizing world religion, Islam, has a billion adherents around the globe with Indonesia being the most populous Islamic nation. Hinduism itself has nearly one billion adherents, while Buddhism has about three hundred and fifty million. Important, smaller traditions in the world today include approximately twenty million Sikhs, fourteen million Jews, six million Baha’is, and perhaps four million Jains, not to mention the indeterminate millions who are influenced today by Confucian thought. Indigenous traditions, such as those originating in Africa, make up the remainder. This remarkable panoply of living traditions, with their central resources to the question of the meaning of life, carry wisdom which has been tempered by centuries and strengthened by the testament of devout lives. Today, all religions are addressing more consistently and faithfully how to protect God’s creation and the environment that sustains the human family and all the earth. It is beliefs that impart meaning to social and individual religious actions, whether ethical or ritual in nature and to personal experiences and narratives identified as religious. Religions cannot be reduced to beliefs, but religious beliefs are especially important to questions of the meaning of life. These belief-systems are sustained by communities drawing on particular sources of authority, including religious teachers and canonical scriptures, Role of Religion on the War on Creation 99 the whole of the tradition developing over time, as new interpretations are needed to address changing circumstances and knowledge. Religious experiences give authority and lived reality to intellectual affirmations of belief, whether that experience is one of awe before a transcendent deity or of mystical union or the passing away of the very self itself. We show our respect for our Creator by our care for His creation. As people of faith, we are convinced that “the earth is the Lord’s and all it holds…” (Psalm 24:1; also 1 Corinthians 10:26). We believe that our response to global climate change should be a sign of our respect for God’s creation. As people of faith, we have a rich heritage of faith, tradition, and social teaching to draw upon as we seek to live the faith in our own time and situation. As a community of faith, we seek to protect the dignity of every person and promote the common good of the human family, particularly the most vulnerable among us. All religions champion the rights of the unborn, seek to bring dignity to the poor, work to overcome the scourge of racism and welcome the stranger among us. Today, there is a particular and pressing responsibility to examine and act on the growing challenge of global climate change and its implications for God’s creation. During his Angelus Address, on 27 August 2006, Pope Benedict XVI called for a commitment to care for creation. He said that creation is “exposed to serious risks by life choices and lifestyles that can degrade it.” In particular, he said: “environmental degradation makes the lives of the poor especially unbearable.”204

Religion: The Most Powerful Tool Religion can be a powerful tool to protect ecology, environmentalists very strongly believe. Religion can be used to mobilize people to protect the environment because spirituality is closely linked to nature, members can do it more efficiently in

204Angelus Address on 27 August 2006: “Faithful Stewards of Creation” at www.home.catholicweb.com. 100 Rush to Riches a faith-based conservation. Some “earth-keeping churches” in Africa hold services outdoors and baptize their members in running rivers, which strengthens their dependence on and respect for the environment. Faith can be used to mobilize people to take care of nature through their belief system. If people have to be baptized in running rivers, it will cause members not to pollute their waters so they can be baptized in running water which is clean. If people have to have their services under trees, it will cause members not to deforest their areas. Poor people often do not have very much faith in their governments and leaders, but they do have faith in their religious leaders, so it is clear to me that this is an area which can do more for the nature. Environmental stewardship is at the heart of Christian faith, which is tragically forgotten by many Christian groups, particularly in the western world. There is this feeling—particularly in the Christian communities—that environmentalism is somehow hostile to Christian belief. Some conservative Christians associate the environmental movement with progressive political activism to which they are unsympathetic. Because of the divide, many Christian leaders are failing to engage with the very communities who are actually doing good work for environmental protection. Here I am concerned about war on creation. The target of this war is— Creation— the Kingdom of God. Every believer is drawn into this war. The war between believer and creation include destruction of land, water, air, and life. Biosphere suffers the most; millions of animals are slaughtered just to fill the bellies of humans, over-fishing leaves predatory fish to die of hunger. People or groups that use religion to make this war justified put me off. Biggest war on creation is perpetrated by meat industry, killing millions of chickens, cows, pigs, and fish. Most of the people say that even gods ate fish and meat; holy books do not condemn carnivore habits; so, killing animals is justified. I never have and will never see the killing of others (animals included) in the name of God, Role of Religion on the War on Creation 101 no matter what beliefs or religions say. I always thought God’s law was “thou shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13). I don’t ever remember seeing an exception to this commandment, saying except for this or that. People will use religion as a tool for excuses for war. War on creation is the biggest war ever fought in human history with 7 billion soldiers, still increasing; by the turn of this century there will be 10 billion soldiers on this fragile planet, very few casualties on the human side, but hundreds and thousands of species casualties on the part of nature, along with the loss of life support systems, which is more dangerous. The irony of all these is that almost all the soldiers except a few, are believers, belonging to the organized religions like Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other beliefs. War on creation, obviously, can be branded without any doubt in my mind as “religious war.” The war on creation is the longest war fought in human history, almost 200 years since Industrial Revolution, and suffered hundreds and millions of dollars in damage; this war uses the ultimate high-tech-weapons of mass destruction: greed, arrogance, and hate. As a result, this war has produced billions of “ecological refugees,” like the poor, sick, and hungry, along with the countless fallen species of animals and plants; they are still falling! This war has inflicted a kind of ‘post-war syndrome’, on biosphere, loss of life, and disease, and so much of pain, grief, depression, disillusionment, and trauma on the rest of us. The bad news is I don’t see any end coming!

Appeal from Religions: Stop Messing with Mother Nature Of course, today every religion is desperately flagging up its green credentials, just like every transnational corporation is suddenly a friend of the earth. Clearly that is not enough. The last two decades have seen the emergence of a new field of academic study that examines the interaction between religion and ecology. Theologians from every religious tradition have confronted world religions past attitudes towards nature and acknowledged their own faiths’ complicity in the environmental crisis. Out of this confrontation have been born vital new 102 Rush to Riches theologies based in the recovery of marginalized elements of tradition, profound criticisms of the past, and ecologically oriented visions of God, the Sacred, the Earth, and human beings. Latest scientific studies explore traditional religious concepts and attitudes towards nature and how these have been changed by the environmental crisis; they continue to look carefully at larger conceptual issues that transcend individual religious traditions; and they also examine the participation of great religions in environmental politics around the world. Theologians will welcome any supporting environmental measures as a rich, and accessible ecological remedies worthy of attention on questions related to religious traditions and environmental issues. What are the relationships among human beings and what are variously understood by the terms such as ‘religion’ and ‘nature’? What constitutes ethically appropriate relationships between our species and the places, including the entire biosphere, which we inhabit. All religious traditions without exception are liable to fall into life denying traps: succumbing to anthropocentric prejudices, fetishizing the spiritual and remaining confused by residual beliefs in an otherworldly salvation, a somewhere else nirvana, and failures to resolve the split between the spiritual and the material, between mind and body, humanity and nature. But even a critical and cautious awareness reveals a wealth of inspiration and vision within the religious traditions that supports an ecological awareness. Hinduism: Hinduism contains numerous references to the worship of the divine in nature in its Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Sutras, and other sacred texts. Millions of Hindus recite Sanskrit mantras daily to revere their rivers, mountains, trees, animals, and the earth. Hinduism is a remarkably diverse religious and cultural phenomenon, with many local and regional manifestations. Within this universe of beliefs, several important themes emerge. The diverse theologies of Hinduism suggest that the earth can be seen as a manifestation of the goddess, and must Role of Religion on the War on Creation 103 be treated with respect. The five elements - space, air, fire, water, and earth—are the foundation of an interconnected web of life. Dharma—often translated as ‘duty’—can be reinterpreted to include our responsibility to care for the earth. Simple living is a model for the development of sustainable economies. Moreover, there is a strong belief that our treatment of nature directly affects our karma. Jainism: Although the final goal of Jainism transcends earthly concerns, Jainism is, in essence, a religion of ecology, of a sustainable lifestyle and of reverence for life. Their religion’s entire emphasis is on a life consonant with ecology. Jain people can use their experience of applying non-violent principles in meeting the present ecological needs. Their religion presents a worldview that stresses the interrelatedness of all forms of life (Jiva). Its attendant ethics, which is based on obligations, might easily be extended to embrace an earth ethics. The Jiva is to be respected. As a highly evolved form of life, human beings have a great moral responsibility in their mutual dealings and relationships with the rest of the universe. It is this ethical responsibility that made the Jain tradition a cradle for the creed of environmental protection and harmony. Buddhism: Buddhists believe that the reality of the interconnectedness of human beings, society, and Nature will reveal itself more and more to us as we gradually recover, as we gradually cease to be possessed by anxiety, fear, and the dispersion of the mind. Among the three—human beings, society, and Nature—it is we who begin to effect change. But in order to effect change we must recover ourselves, one must be whole. Since this requires the kind of environment favourable to one’s healing, one must seek the kind of lifestyle that is free from the destruction of one’s humanness. Efforts to change the environment and to change oneself are both necessary. But we know how difficult it is to change the environment if individuals themselves are not in a state of equilibrium. 104 Rush to Riches

Judaism: Humanity is appointed as a steward of God’s world. This stewardship is implied in various places including Genesis 2:15, according to which “God … put him [man] into the Garden of Eden to till it and to keep it.” The Torah is filled with rich language which describes and glorifies nature. For example, in Deuteronomy 20:19 we read: “Do not cut down trees even to prevent ambush, do not foul waters, or burn crops even to cause an enemy’s submission. Job 12:7-9 reads: “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth and it will teach you; the fish of the sea, they will inform you.” These passages specifically imply that all beings, not just humans are part of creation, and that it is possibly only humans who question the authority or likelihood of God. Judaism stresses that wisdom is to extend acts of love toward everything, including plants and animals. Christianity: As Pope John Paul II said, “respect for life and for the dignity of the human person extends also to the rest of creation, which is called to join man in praising God.”205 Christianity places a great deal of emphasis on the idea of reverence to life. The conclusion of esoteric Christianity is that what religions are seeking for as an invisible being (God) in an invisible plane is actually very visible here and now. It is God (or the spirit) that sparkles as consciousness in the eyes of every living thing. It is God that appears as the universe and it is God that becomes more visible as all living things. The most transparent manifestation of God is men and women. The way we acknowledge this is by showing reverence for all life. This teaching gives the highest dignity to mankind as it equates men and women to God. Islam: The Islamic faith lays great stress on improving the condition of the earth at the hands of humans as humans are described as the vice-regents of God on earth. The human is the most favoured of God’s creation. Everything in existence was

205“Stewardship of Creation” at www.osjspm.org. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 105 created by Allah for the use of humans. Allah has made subservient to humans all animal life, bird life, plant life, water bodies, inanimate objects, and other creations. The human’s duty is to deal with these as a loving and caring friend would deal with another friend, so that he can benefit from it, without stopping others from this benefit, and to put forward the common good ahead of personal benefit. Islam considers the creation of the universe as an open book, a guide inviting observation which increases the faith of the observer, and takes him to the point of unshakeable faith in the Great Creator of this existence. Islam also considers that all the creatures in the universe have their own lives, their own procreation, their own language and mode of communicating, and their own senses, which are particular to each kind of creature. So, it all glorifies and worships its Lord in its own special way.

Old Man of Conservation: Noah One old man thought of conservation when the great flood threatened to wipe out all life on Earth. He must have thought about the future younger generations when he was building the ark. He wanted to preserve and hand down to future generations, the joy of living with all animals and plants. Noah was to build a boat that could accommodate his extended family and a lot of animals and plants. There were no insurmountable problems, however, according to Max D. Younce, who says by his calculations from Genesis 6:15 that the ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet deep. He says this is equivalent to “522 standard stock cars or 8 freight trains of 65 cars each.”206 By some divine calculation he figures that all the insect species and the worms could fit in 21 box cars. In the book of Genesis, the God of the ancient Hebrews is depicted as regretting that he had created such wicked creatures as human beings. The story is that God was displeased with all of his human creations except for Noah and his family. He favours Noah and his family but destroys

206“How Long in Feet Was Noah’s Ark?” at www.wiki.answers.com. 106 Rush to Riches most other living creatures, not just the humans whose wickedness offended him, but all animals and presumably all plants as well. God plans to drown the whole world in a flood. To save his family and other animal species, Noah is directed to build a big boat that will save them from the flood. According to the story told in chapter 7 of Genesis, Noah, his crew, and the animals lived together for more than 6 months before the floodwaters receded. How many species of plants and animals did Noah haul on board? Some say that the number of species needed ranged from 1.5 million to 4 or 5 million. Of course, we include insects and maybe a few bacteria or viruses. Anyway, the craft had to be big and had to be constructed to endure the divinely planned universal flood aimed at destroying every other person and animal on earth. Aquatic animals pose a minor problem since most can live only in sweet water or salt water but not both. A universal flood would mix the seas with the sweet water lakes, rivers, and streams. Using Younce’s figures, the ark displaced just under 76,000 cubic feet of water. Assuming further that the water was nearly as dense as seawater, we get 2430 tons for the vessel’s gross weight, presumably about 1600 tons of cargo, including people, animals, and food for all of them. A cow weighs about half a ton; so, for the clean cattle alone, we are talking 3.5 tons. Ditto for camels, perhaps 3/4 ton for sheep, and 1/2 ton for goats. Add in all the marsupials, bison, rhinoceroses, elephants, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and so on, and we quickly exceed 1600 tons for animals alone, let alone their feed. As for kinds, the Bible makes it clear that doves and crows are different ‘kinds’, suggesting that at best, kinds are roughly equivalent to genus. That is a huge number of ‘kinds’ to be accommodated. For the box to founder, it could support somewhat less than about 3200 tons of cargo. What about the food for animals on board? They must have carried hundreds and thousands of tons of food. But since ungulates mostly eat grass or hay, we are talking a lot more food—each elephant consumes 65+ kg of forage a day and other Role of Religion on the War on Creation 107 large ungulates consume some tens of kg of food per day, the four elephants (two genera) alone would consume 260 kg daily, or more than 50 tons during six months. For that matter, since the flood followed the fall, many ‘kinds’ would have to consume meat, which you can’t preserve that long except by drying, requiring enormous amounts of fresh water in addition to that consumed by most animals—mammals require perhaps three litres of water per 100 kg per day. Those poor elephants have to consume among them some 750 litres (200 gallons) of water per day. Noah did something remarkable: he saved all life on earth. How far would you really go to save ants and bugs, when your own life is in jeopardy? One old man Noah cared for the planet and its biodiversity. Today, we have life in abundance, because someone cared!

Lost Sheep: Jesus the Conservationist Lost sheep symbolizes the extinction of species in general. The New Testament portrays Jesus as interpreting it that “there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:10). This emphasis on the lost, the hurting, the disadvantaged, and marginalized is seen throughout the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. Jesus likens a ‘sinner’ to one who is lost. Finding him is more important than many who are not lost. In modern times, we often see many men and women risking their lives to try to save one person. The person in peril is at that moment more important than those who are not. If the ‘sinners’ are people in peril, then it makes sense that Jesus spends more time with them. Extinction is the death and disappearance of a species. The fossil record shows that extinctions have been frequent in the history of life. Mass extinctions refer to the loss of a large number of species in a relatively short period of time. Episodes of mass extinction occur at times of rapid global environmental change. Overexploitation of biological resources has continued to the present time, and numerous species have disappeared in regional environments as a consequence. The 108 Rush to Riches wholesale loss of species in some twenty-five hotspots around the world, as a consequence largely of habitat modifications, such as clearing tropical forests for agriculture and construction of dams, road, and houses. Biodiversity loss is one of the most consistent signs of ecosystem distress syndrome (EDS). Estimates range widely, but generally current estimates of species losses are tenfold to one thousand-fold greater than historic levels, leading some to speculate that the earth is already entering a period of the sixth major extinction of life on the planet. This extinction, however, differs from the past 5 mass extinctions, in that the primary cause appears to be the effects of human activity. By saving the lost sheep from the Bible, Jesus points out the necessity and importance of conservation. Conservation is the protection of natural resources from loss, change, or damage. Natural resources include ecosystems, communities, species, soil, water, air, and energy. How to conserve? Resources are protected through several broadly overlapping approaches. First, sustainability is the management of natural resources without depleting and saving the resources for future generations. Sustainability is approached by maximizing efficiency of use, including reduction of consumption and eliminating waste. Second, preservation is the perpetuation of natural resources by maintaining them in a natural state; in many senses a synonym of conservation. Preservation, as distinct from sustainability, commonly implies more of a “setting aside.” This way, natural resources are managed more for longevity than for sustainable production. Biodiversity is heavily dependent on maintenance of large areas of natural environment. Third, restoration of habitat or resource to a natural condition may also be a component of conservation, but it is more difficult because it requires that human use be reduced from previous levels or geographic expanse. Bible talks about the joy of conservation. “When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to Role of Religion on the War on Creation 109 them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance” (Luke 15:3-7). Why conserve? Motivation for conservation generally can be attributed to one or two broad reasons, apart from moral and ethical. First is human- oriented. We are all interested in ways to keep our own species alive and to ensure each individual’s ability to maintain his life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Maintenance of biodiversity preserves potentially useful food and medicinal source, it possibly contributes toward stability of ecosystems, and many of us find that the existence of at least partial elements of a diverse natural world contributes to our own sense of wellbeing. Second is the other-oriented. Many species of organisms, probably a majority of them are evolutionarily older than humans and it can be argued that they have at least an equal right to continued existence. Human population growth and activity will be responsible for an extinction of many species, and it can be the responsibility of only humans to stop the loss of life.

St. Francis of Assisi: Meek Francis to Mutineer Francis Possibly we should ponder over the greatest radical in Christian history since Christ: Saint Francis of Assisi, the first great Christian naturalist. The key to an understanding of Francis is his belief in the virtue of humility—not merely for the individual but for man as a species. Francis tried to depose man from his monarchy over creation and set up a democracy of all God’s creatures. The greatest spiritual revolutionary in western history, Saint Francis, proposed what he thought was an alternative Christian view of nature and man’s relation to it; he tried to substitute the idea of the equality of all creatures, including man, for the idea of man’s limitless rule of creation. He recognized the interconnectedness of all life on earth, that each creature and plant and human is connected and is essential. With him the ant is no longer simply a homily for the lazy, flames a sign of the thrust of the soul toward union with God; now they are Brother 110 Rush to Riches

Ant and Sister Fire, praising the Creator in their own ways as Brother Man does in his. It is what has come to be known as the “web of life.”207 This deep idea grew out of St. Francis’s love for God. Because God deserves to be respected and honoured, he believed that we should love and respect all that he created. He saw God in all of creation. Franciscan ecological enlightenment cannot be understood historically apart from distinctive attitudes toward nature which are deeply grounded in Christian dogma. The fact that most people do not think of these attitudes as Christian is irrelevant. No new set of basic values has been accepted in our society to displace those of Christianity. Hence, we shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man. Not only the Church, but also the scientific community chose St. Francis as the patron saint of animals and the environment. Because of people like Saint Francis, we will find alternative ways to live in the twenty-first century. May this be a blessed century where more people take up the green fight and more breakthroughs for eco achievements come true! In the time of St. Francis, wolf was considered a kind of ‘demonic’, called ‘Werewolf’208 branded by anti-ecological religions and endorsed by some famous writers of that time, as the goat was victimized in Judaism as ‘scapegoat’.209 Forced by

207An ecosystem is made up of all the living animals and plants and the non- living matter in a particular place, like a forest or lake. All the living things in an ecosystem depend on all the other things—living and non-living for continued survival—for food supplies and other needs. The idea of the web of life is shown by the interdependence within an ecosystem. Animals and plants depend on a complex system of food for survival. 208The legend of the werewolf is one of the most ancient and widespread. Stories of werewolves can be found as far back as history has been written. A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope, is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shape shift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf- like creature, either purposely, by being bitten by another werewolf, or after being placed under a curse. 209Scapegoat is a goat upon whose head Aaron confessed all the sins of the children of Israel on the Day of Atonement, and symbolically placed the sins Role of Religion on the War on Creation 111 religion, without any choice, even Jesus condemns goat to hell in his eerie narration of the last judgment. These innocent animals are abused by some religions endorsed by some unreliable myths and philosophies. Besides, living in the time of St. Francis, where there was war and famine at large, people treated animals with horrible cruelty—there was unnecessary infliction of pain and suffering on animals and it was considered social norm; but St. Francis stood against it. Francis believed that as nature was created by God, we are to love it and appreciate it, not harm or cause destruction and abuse it. This is what St. Francis wanted to defy, defining the importance of life, the sacredness of all creation, and defending the intrinsic value of all life which forced him to go strong as a rebuke to the anti-ecological perception of creation induced by religion and lead him toward a new ideological shift—from Meek Francis into Mutineer Francis —branding bad wolf to “Brother Wolf,” bad goat to “Sister Goat or Lamb.” In many ways, St. Francis was ahead of his time, perhaps a thousand years ahead! It is said that Francis could speak to animals and he had several noted encounters with them. One concerned a wolf in the town of Gubbio. The land around Gubbio in the Apennines was ravaged by a fierce wolf. The townspeople asked Francis for help. He tracked the wolf and came upon him in the hills beyond the town. He demanded it to stop killing and not to hurt anyone. He talked to the wolf and persuaded him of the error of his ways. The wolf listened and lay down at Francis’s feet. To the amazement of the people, Francis returned to Gubbio with the wolf at his side and he then fed the animal. The wolf repented, died in the odour of sanctity, and was buried in consecrated ground. Another time Francis and his followers were travelling when the trees surrounding them were abruptly filled with birds. He took the opportunity to actually preach to the birds. They stayed and listened, not one flew away! Later commentators have said that Francis preached of the people after which he is sent into the wilderness in the biblical ceremony for Yom Kippur. It is an expression that is made to bear the blame of others. 112 Rush to Riches to the birds as a rebuke to men who would not listen to him. The records do not read so: he urged the little birds to praise God, and in spiritual ecstasy they flapped their wings and chirped rejoicing. Saint Francis’ teachings are designed to attract attention to the earth’s environment and to honour the diversity of life on our planet. Francis’ theology has mammoth application to the twenty-first century. He recognized that we are all interdependent and equally responsible for all life on earth. He spoke out against the destruction of the planet. I am not suggesting that many contemporary folks who are concerned about our ecologic crisis will be either able or willing to counsel with wolves or exhort birds. However, the present increasing disruption of the global environment is the product of a dynamic technology and science which were originating in the western medieval world against which Francis was rebelling in so original a way. Eastern religions honour a creation-centred tradition in their approach towards creation, which considers the environment itself to be a divine womb, holy, worthy of reverence and respect. But Francis’ view of nature and of man rested on a unique sort of panpsychism210 of all things animate and inanimate, designed for the glorification of their transcendent Creator, who, in the ultimate gesture of cosmic humility, assumed flesh, lay helpless in a manger, and hung dying on a scaffold. Born in Assisi, Italy, in the house of a wealthy merchant, fought in the Crusades, he lived a carefree, fun-loving life in his youth, enjoying the company of other young people in Assisi at that time. In the year 1204, he suffered a severe sickness and it was during this time that his conversion to a more spiritual life began to germinate. He even fought in the war with the neighbouring town of Perugia, and on capture

210Panpsychism is a philosophical theory which holds that everything in the universe, the inorganic world as well as the organic, has some degree of consciousness. Panpsychism is the doctrine that mind is a fundamental feature of the world which exists throughout the universe. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 113 spent about a year as a prisoner of war. However, the focus of his attention gradually changed as he experienced a series of mystical visions with the Lord Jesus Christ in dreams, in the silence of a cave in prayer before the San Damiano crucifix, in hearing a passage from the Gospel and in meeting a leper on the road. Indeed, it was while he was praying in an abandoned church dedicated to St. Damian (San Damiano) that he heard the figure on the cross say to him, “go repair my house which as you can see is falling into ruin.”211 This mysterious voice, at first impression, suggested a repairing of a brick structure which was in bad condition. But carefully listening to the voice implied its mysterious demands. I bet it took a long time for Francis to understand the hidden ecological perceptions of the mysterious voice. At last, Francis found enlightenment; he understood that it was not the building that needed repair, but the Creation—the ‘oikos,’ our house or earth which is falling. His mendicant life on the streets of Assisi symbolized his restless quest for the true meaning and interpretation of the mysterious voice from San Damian. On turning his attention to God the Father, overwhelmed by His infinite love revealed in creation, Francis gave up his inheritance and devoted his life to think, talk, and sing about Creation and its creatures and he was on the vanguard of helping the poor and the sick. Francis showed his love for God through his deep love and reverence for all of God’s creation. His prayers such as “The Canticle of the Creatures” (Canto dell’Amore),212 express his brotherly relationship with all

211“The History of St. Francis and the Crucifix of St. Damian” at www.totustuusonline.org. 212“The Canticle of the Sun,” also known as the Laudes Creaturarum (Praise of the Creatures), is a religious song composed by Saint Francis of Assisi. It was written in the Umbrian dialect of Italian but has since been translated into many languages. It is believed to be among the first works of literature, if not the first, written in the Italian language. “The Canticle of the Sun,” in its praise of God, thanks Him for such creations as “Brother Fire” and “Sister Water.” It is an affirmation of Francis’ personal theology as he often referred 114 Rush to Riches created things. Men and women joined him, and together they prayed and praised God in all His creation. He died in Assisi in 1226 AD. Due to his brotherly care for all creation including nature St. Francis was named Patron Saint of Ecology by Pope John Paul II.

An Appeal from Rhineland Mystics Mathew Fox, a Dominican scholar and Director of the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names College, Oakland, champions four western medieval “Rhineland mystics”—Meister Eckhart, Hildegard of Bingen, Mechtild of Magdenburg, and Julian of Norwich—whom he finds to share six ecological themes: the goodness of creation, the goodness and blessing that earth itself is, cosmic awareness, panentheism, the motherhood of God, and compassion understood as interdependence and justice-making.

to animals as brothers and sisters to mankind; he rejected material accumulation and sensual comforts in favour of “Lady Poverty.” Role of Religion on the War on Creation 115

Goodness of Creation: Meister Eckhart (1260-1329) The examination of creation shows the goodness of the creation. The way in which man can most readily arrive at the knowledge of God is by a critical study of the works of creation in general, and of man in particular. The result of this examination will be to show you that the Creator is not only wise but infinitely good and beneficent, and that His goodness is over all His works. When you understand the mystery of movement and the dynamic laws of the universe, and realize how these, in their working, are among the greatest wonders of the wisdom of God, and you recognize how great has been the mercy of the Creator to His creatures in the operation of these laws, then it will be clear to you that all your movements are bound and controlled by the pleasure of the Creator, blessed be He, and His providence, and His will—the smallest and least important as well as the greatest, the obvious as well as those that are hidden. Reason obliges us to do good to all who do good to us; the recognition of the existence and unity of God and of His beneficence shows the duty of serving Him. “God loves all creatures equally and fills them with His being and we should lovingly meet all creatures the same way. Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things. Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God. If I spent enough time with the tiniest of creatures, even a caterpillar, I would never have to prepare a sermon, so full of God is every creature…”213 These profound words come from Meister Eckhart. Meister Eckhart von Hochheim is a mystical Dominican theologian from Germany with enormous relevance for our time. He was a proto-revolutionary. The German Dominican’s core vision and prophetic message, especially now, a period of the birth-pangs of change, offer a way through many spiritual, religious, and political crises. It seems that he enjoyed a relatively successful academic life and was considered to be an able orator and preacher.

213“The Christian Naturalist” at www.hummingbirdworld.com. 116 Rush to Riches

The existing works are in the form of sermons and fragments of a more substantial three-part work called the Opus tripartitum.214 Eckhart’s views may have teetered toward heresy at times. There is no doubt that it caused him a little trouble, though all the details are not clear. Overall, he seems to have inspired both admiration and suspicion in various factions. Though not a systematic philosopher, Eckhart’s insights and contributions remain a source of curiosity to modern readers both inside and outside of the academy. Eckhartian theology resonates with liberation theology, a contemporary movement usually identified with the “Third World” perspectives and the aspirations of oppressed, dispossessed people. Eckhart has been called a forerunner to a number of diverse movements and ideals, and if not a direct influence, a foreshadowing. Many recurring themes in Eckhart speak of the boundless energy and interplay with the human that characterizes the divine. All creation essentially shares in divinity, as the following passage maintains: “Consider the divine spirit in the human soul. The spirit is not easily satisfied. It storms the firmament. And scales the heavens; Trying to reach the spirit that drives the heavens.”215 Because of this energy, everything in the world grows green, flourishes, and bursts into leaf. But the spirit is never satisfied. It presses on deeper and deeper into the vortex216

214In 1305, he began composing the Opus tripartitum, his major work, comprising three parts: the Opus propositionum (Work of Theses), with over 1,000 theses in 14 treatises, the Opus quaestionum (Work of Problems), and the Opus expositionum (Work of Interpretations). Much of the Opus tripartitum remained incomplete. What we have are the Prologus generalis in opus tripartitum, the Prologus in opus propositionum, the Prologus in opus expositionum I and II, and various commentaries (above all the Expositio sancti evangelii secundum Iohannem). Also preserved is an Opus sermonum containing drafts of Latin sermons. 215“Eckhart Creation Spirituality” at www.creationspirituality.info. 216A vortex is the funnel shape created by the motion of spiralling energy. The vortexes in Sedona, USA, are swirling centres of subtle energy coming out from the surface of the earth. They characterize Sedona as a spiritual power centre. The energy is not exactly electricity or magnetism, although it does Role of Religion on the War on Creation 117 further and further into the whirlpool, the primary source in which the spirit has its origin. This spirit seeks to be broken through by God. God leads this spirit into a desert into the wilderness and solitude of the divinity where God is pure unity and where God gushes up within himself.

Goodness and Blessing of Earth: Julian of Norwich (1342–1417) “If we really know the great Love of God, we will also Love all his wonderful creatures and we will try to protect, preserve. People will eventually not greedy, selfish and we will love each other, care about others, not discriminate, above all love God. God is love. In that love we see beauty, awesome power, authorship and compassion. I believe that this is what this ‘ground of all being’ that we call God really is. Beyond this it is incomprehensible. We don’t really know what this otherness really is. We can’t prove the existence of this awesome mystery that we call God. Yet intuitively deep within ourselves we know this powerful essence [God] is with us,” wrote Julian of Norwich.217 She really understood some fascinating things about the Love of God. Julian of Norwich had visions and heard God well before she had herself confined to the cell in which she lived her life, approximately for last 26 years, emerging only for morning mass in the church to which her tiny abode was attached. Though she is one of the most influential figures in the history of medieval spirituality, remarkably little is known about Julian of Norwich—even her very name and whether she was a laywoman or a nun are uncertain.

leave a slight measurable residual magnetism in the places where it is strongest. The energy of the vortexes interacts with whom or what a person is in their inner self. It resonates with and strengthens the Inner Being of each person who comes within about a quarter to a half mile of it. This resonance occurs because the vortex energy is very similar to the subtle energy operating in the energy centres inside each person. 217“English Mystic Julian of Norwich Understood That God Is Love” at www.catholicherald.co.uk. 118 Rush to Riches

“Julian of Norwich understood the central message of spiritual life, that God is love,” Pope Benedict XVI said recently.218 Continuing his catechesis around women who shaped the Church, the Holy Father focused on Julian of Norwich. Julian was an English woman who was suddenly struck down by a serious illness, which in three days appeared to be fatal. When the priest came to her bedside he showed her a crucifix which not only immediately restored her health but also gave her the 17 visions which she wrote down. He said: “Inspired by divine love, Julian took a radical decision. Like an ancient anchoress, she decided to live inside a cell, near a church dedicated to St. Julian, within the city of Norwich, an important urban centre in her time, near London. Perhaps she assumed the name of Juliana after the saint to whom the church was dedicated and where she lived for so many years until her death. The decision to live a life of a ‘recluse’ might surprise and even leave us perplexed as it must have done in her day. But she was not the only one to take such a decision; in those centuries, a considerable number of women opted for this sort of life. They dedicated themselves to prayer, to mediation, and to study. In this way, they matured a human sensibility and a subtle religiosity which made people revere them. Men and women of every state and condition, in need of counsel and comfort, received them with devotion. Therefore, it was not an individualistic decision; even with this closeness to God there matured in them also the capacity to be councillors for many, to help those who lived in difficulty in this life.”

Cosmic Awareness: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) The following words are from Hildegard of Bingen: “There is no creature that does not have a radiance. Holy persons draw to themselves all that is earthly. I welcome every creature of the world with grace.”219 Some 850 years ago, Hildegard von Bingen 218“Pope Benedict XVI Speaks of Julian of Norwich” at www.contemplativehaven.wordpress.com. 219“Hildegard of Bingen” at www.chippit.tripod.com. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 119 described in her visionary book about cosmic psychotherapy. In her visionary illuminations, we see that everything is inseparably connected in the cosmic web of the universe. We also see that all of our deeds have a cosmic impact, either life- restoring or life-destroying. The universe is the target of our doing, which reflects back the positive or negative energy into all creatures. Hildegard foresees a time, when the universe will have to heal itself by way of natural catastrophes, because humanity has damaged and polluted the four life elements—fire, air, water, and the earth. We are actually witnessing cosmic healing in the form of tornadoes, earthquakes, and flooding as a result of our progress-at-any-price mentality in the western society. Today’s ecological collapse is the helplessness of our western rationalism to understand life and the universe as one. In contrast to the mystical wisdom and knowledge of the East, western science has, in the past few centuries, abandoned any spiritual dimension and is responsible for the environmental disaster plaguing this fragile planet. Through the wisdom of Hildegard of Bingen, we begin to understand the deeper nature of the human soul and its relationship with the human body, in particular the autonomic nervous system. With this wisdom we understand that for a complete holistic healing, it is not enough to treat diseases solely on a physical level. Holistic healing always requires a search for the spiritual risk factors that caused the disease and the help of the corresponding spiritual healing factors for the soul in order to overcome sickness of body and soul. Any attempt to suppress only the symptoms leads inevitably to an armada of sicknesses and symptoms that are usually chronic and incurable. Ignorance of spiritual wisdom is very expensive for patients and beneficial only to the medical community and for the profit of the pharmaceutical industry. Hildegard’s understanding of cosmic awareness helps us to acquire the spiritual wisdom and understanding to become personally responsible for ourselves and our sicknesses, so that we stay well and in good spirits. The 120 Rush to Riches growing awareness of nuclear and ecological threats to continued human existence brings into focus Hildegard’s vision of God the Creator and the working of the universe as a unity. Hildegard’s wisdom can heal the split between science and spirituality, as it provides a synthesis of science and nature with religion. The illuminations by Hildegard of Bingen show the soul’s journey through life in harmony with nature and God, which we must hope will become mainstream thinking in the West in this new millennium.

Panentheism: Mechtild of Magdenburg (1210-1280) Panentheism means “all things in God and God in all things.” This is the way mystics envision the relationship of world, self, and God. Mechtild of Magdenburg says: “The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God and God in all things.”220 Panentheism melts the dualism of inside and outside; like fish in water and water in the fish, creation is in God and God is in creation. Meister Eckhart says that “ignorant people falsely imagine that God created all things” in such a way that they are outside divinity. For, “God is in all things… The more divinity is in things, the more divinity is outside of things” (See 1 John 4:16).221 Translated into ethical principles, panentheism embraces the principles of ahimsa or nonharming, of ethical consistency in our treatment of others, and obedience to the Golden Rule, which is, in turn, linked with the belief that all living beings are worthy of equal and fair consideration. Politically, therefore, panentheism is the essence of a kind of democracy that is based on concern and respect for others’ wellbeing. Since this concern includes nonhuman creations and species, it implies humane planetary custodianship. Panentheism, therefore, represents the spiritual basis not simply of the “deep ecology” and animal rights movements, but also of the global human community. As yet this 220“Monasteries of the Heart: A New Movement for a New World” at www.monasteriesoftheheart.org/awareness. 221“The Mending the World” at www.project2000.ca/research/mending.htm. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 121 potential community of spirit is separated by political, religious, and other attitudes, conflicting and competing factions of the world community can be united through panentheism. Related to pantheism is panentheism. Panentheists believe that a conscious, usually personal God is not only present in the sensible universe, but also extends beyond it. These include the neo-Platonist Plotinus and most Christian and Islamic panentheists. Native panentheistic spiritualities see world in the following way: “Every seed is awakened and so is all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we, therefore, yield to our animal neighbours the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land.”222 Plotinus sees all life as ultimate Union with the One: “A symphony pervades this single universe, like a single living creature, and the distant is near. Every interval, both large and small, is filled with soul.” Taoist and Confucian panentheists: Lao Tzu says: “There is a thing, formless yet complete. Before heaven and earth is existed, we do not know its name, but we call it Tao. It is the Mystery of Mysteries.” Hindu panentheists say in the Upanishads: “Thou art the dark-blue bird and the green parrot with red eyes. Thou hast the lightning as thy child. Thou art the seasons and the seas” (Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.2.4). Bhagavad Gita says: “I see thee, Whose face is flaming fire, Burning this whole universe with Thy Radiance” (XI:12-19). A Buddhist panentheist says: “I have visited in my wanderings shrines and other places of pilgrimage, but I have not seen another shrine blissful like my own body.”223

Motherhood of God: Julian of Norwich “God’s goodness fills all his creatures. All creatures of God’s creation that can suffer pain suffered with him. The sky and the earth failed at the time of Christ’s dying because he too was a part of nature. Those who have universal love for all their fellow

222“Native American: Chief Seattle” at www.pantheism.net. 223“Background Information on Tibetan and North Indian Vajrayana Buddhism” at www.stevetibbetts.com. 122 Rush to Riches

Christians in God have love towards everything that exists,” wrote Julian of Norwich.224 She is rightly famous in our time for her development of the theme of the Motherhood of God, a theme that has been so conspicuously absent in the patriarchal spiritualities that have dominated the West in the past few centuries. While this theme is by no means original in Julian—it is present in the Hebrew Bible, in the New Testament, in numerous medieval thinkers like Anselm, St. Francis of Assisi, Mechtild of Magdenburg, and Meister Eckhart—no one has developed it more deeply or more broadly than has Julian of Norwich. Julian ascribes motherhood to God, to the Trinity, to Christ, and to the Church. She says, for example: “In our making, God almighty is our loving Father and God all wisdom is our living Mother.”225 We were created “by the motherhood of love, a mother’s love which never leaves us,” she declares. Julian refers to the Trinity as Mother when she says “the deep wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother, in whom we are enclosed” and that “the property of motherhood” is found in the Trinity. The most prominent and most developed theology of motherhood is found in Julian’s treatment of Jesus Christ. Though there is a long tradition in medieval literature on this topic, no one develops it as fully as Julian. “Our saviour is our true Mother, in whom we are endlessly born and from whom we shall never part.” The second person of the Trinity “is our Mother” who by taking on our humanity “has now become our mother sensually. Who is our true mother?” Jesus Christ, who opposes good to evil, is our true Mother. Julian wrote about her mystical visions in Revelations of Divine Love.226 She lived during troubled times for the Church, 224“The Christian Naturalist” at www.hummingbirdworld.com. 225“Julian’s God, Our Mother” at www.gloriana.nu/mother.htm. 226Written in the fourteenth century, Revelations of Divine Love is a powerful work of English mysticism. After falling deathly ill, St. Julian received sixteen different mystical revelations; in this splendid work, she describes and reflects upon those revelations. Having received these revelations at a time of great pain for herself, as she lay ill, she focuses on the mysteries of Role of Religion on the War on Creation 123 which was torn apart by schisms following the pope’s return from Avignon to Rome, while her own country England was engaged in a long war with France. Revelations of Divine Love has “an optimistic message based on the certainty that we are loved by God and protected by His Providence.”227 For Julian, divine love compares to maternal love. This is one of the most characteristic messages of her mystical theology. The tenderness, solicitude, and sweetness of God’s goodness towards us are so great that to us, pilgrims on the earth, they seem as the love of a mother for her children. Julian of Norwich understood the central message of spiritual life: that God is love. Only when we open ourselves totally to this love, only when we allow it to become the one guide to our existence, does everything become transfigured and do we find true peace and joy which we can pass on to others. Julian is venerated by both Catholics and Anglicans. In Julian’s theology, we find the fullest expression of the concept of the femininity of God: “God is really our Mother as he is Father.” She writes: “Our precious Mother Jesus brings us to supernatural birth, nourishes and cherishes us by dying for us, giving us the sacrament.” Her mysticism brings tenderness and ‘homeliness’ to the understanding of God our Mother. According to Beer, “the message of the revelations is that we are always protected and kept secure by the absolute power of divine love. And this is wholly egalitarian: in Julian’s understanding there is no hierarchy.”228 Even Hell, in Julian’s opinion, hides behind it some aspect of God’s loving kindness. It is in this philosophy of the motherhood of God that Julian of Christianity, in particular, the vast love of God and the existence of evil. She describes the “motherhood” of God, depicting how God suffers with his creation as it experiences great and multifaceted evil. Nevertheless, she also emphasizes the need to follow God in order to receive the beautiful vision of God in the afterlife. For her deep and penetrating descriptions of God and love, countless readers have found St. Julian’s work uplifting, encouraging, and challenging. Revelations of Divine Love astounds readers, engulfing them in a powerful revelation of God’s love. 227“Julian of Norwich: Primacy of Divine Love” at www.opw.catholic.org.au. 228“Julian of Norwich” at www.suite101.com. 124 Rush to Riches

Norwich is so unique. Since the fifth century, this had been unthinkable, and God had always been masculine. God was always a ‘he’, and it was ever God the Father and God the Son.

Compassion Understood as Interdependence by Mystics The Path of Compassion has been walked by many throughout the history of humankind. Jesus, Buddha, and many other great spiritual teachers and leaders understood that the whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another. They understood that on some level what happens to one affects us all. They understood that the only way of eliminating the idea of ‘otherness’ was by being able to ‘see’ all life as ‘one’. With compassion, looking at pain and suffering is not something happening outside us, but something happening to a part of us; compassion is a human emotion that is experienced by the perceived pain and suffering of others. Compassion and caring are the ties that bind us together in mutual understanding and in the unified attempt to uncover the Divinity in each other. Compassion is the most gentle of all human virtues, for it is the outpouring of the Divine Giving through all. Compassion can be offered in many ways for many reasons. We can offer compassion to those with illnesses, the elderly, the unprotected; we can offer it in times of loss and hurt, to those without food and water, to those without rights, the beggar on the street, the animals in the world, and yes even to those in the world and in our lives who act in ways that we might not. We all have personal opinions and may have or feel more compassion for one thing or another, but the path of compassion itself must go beyond the personal attachments. “Compassion is not religious business, it is human business; it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability; it is essential for human survival,” wrote Dalai Lama. The wisdom of emptiness refers to a lack of something: ‘inherent existence’. ‘Inherent existence’ means that things Role of Religion on the War on Creation 125 appear to exist independently, in-and-out of themselves from the side of the object, by way of its own character, self-powered, autonomous. Ultimately, however, things exist in dependence upon causes and conditions. For example, a human being ceases to exist in a vacuum; we would instantly die when all conditions for life are suddenly gone. On another level, a human being needs to come into existence by the combination of a sperm from the father joining an egg from the mother and all the right conditions to grow into an embryo. So, considering ourselves as independently existing, fully autonomous is a mere illusion, which does not accord with ultimate reality. Ultimate wisdom can be compared to eco-thinking in biology: a century ago, biology focused mainly on categorizing species of animals and plants and describing their specific aspects. Plants and animals were cut to ever smaller pieces to analyze how they function. However, nature also functions at a completely different level; as relations and processes between living beings. Ecology appeared as a new branch of biology, more dealing with relations, cycles and interdependence of animals, plants, and surroundings. This is somewhat similar to the view of emptiness. Instead of focusing on differences and individuality, the realization of emptiness is about realizing that nothing exists by itself alone, but depends on other things. Just as all living beings rely on other living beings, at least their ancestors, so do even inanimate objects depend on other objects, conditions, parts, and processes to arise and disappear. The fact that we normally do not realize emptiness and the relatedness of things is directly related to our perception. As soon as we perceive something in the outside world, it feels different from our own body or mind. We feel as if other things are ‘out there’, separate from ‘my self’, which is “in here.” But are they really separate? To begin with, if the outer object would not somehow ‘relate’ to us in the form of sound, smell, light, etc., we would be unable to perceive it. So, our perception of objects depends on interaction, rather than the fact that we are separate. 126 Rush to Riches

That is, our perception of the world is only possible because of interaction, interrelation, dependence, and exchange of information. All events and incidents in life are so intimately linked with the fate of others that a single person on his or her own cannot even begin to act. Many ordinary human activities, both positive and negative, cannot even be conceived of apart from the existence of other people. Even the committing of harmful actions depends on the existence of others. Because of others, we have the opportunity to earn money if that is what we desire in life. Similarly, in reliance upon the existence of others it becomes possible for the media to create fame or disrepute for someone. On your own you cannot create any fame or disrepute no matter how loud you might shout. The closest you can get is to create an echo of your own voice. Thus, interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Not only higher forms of life but also many of the smallest insects are social beings who, without any religion, law, or education, survive by mutual cooperation based on an innate recognition of their interconnectedness. The most subtle level of material phenomena is also governed by interdependence. All phenomena, from the planet we inhabit to the oceans, clouds, forests, and flowers that surround us, arise in dependence upon subtle patterns of energy. Without their proper interaction, they dissolve and decay.

A Generational Mission: Restoring the Earth A shared a common vision, a generational mission of humanity is not merely a theoretical possibility. The notion of restoring earth is inspiring a shift to live on earth in ways that honour the web of life, each other, and future generations. Known as Bioneers, they work very hard to restore the dignity and prestige of the earth. American ecologist Kenny Ausube coined the word bioneers in 1990 to describe an emerging culture of social and scientific innovators who are mimicking natures operating instructions to serve human ends while enriching the web of Role of Religion on the War on Creation 127 life.229 We take a “solve-the-whole-problem” approach: Taking care of nature means taking care of people and taking care of people means taking care of nature. It is part of our mission. Ignore the small evils in our way of life and they will merge to form greater evils. Wilful ignorance can cost lives. Because global warming is a collective problem, it can be solved collectively and it needs your co-operation. It is our generational mission. We have already crossed the threshold to disaster, which is why we need to step back, to form the right critical mass to reverse the situation. Which critical mass are you in, the apathetic or the concerned? As Al Gore said, this is a moral and spiritual issue.230 It doesn’t even matter what faith you are of, because even the faithless need to heal the world they and their grandchildren live in. This is the opportunity to rise. In the book An Inconvenient Truth, which is an expanded version of the Academy Award-winning film, Al Gore makes the following inspiring statement: “The climate crisis also offers us the chance to experience what very few generations in history have the privilege of knowing: a generational mission; the exhilaration of a compelling moral purpose; a shared and unifying cause; the thrill of being forced by circumstances to put aside the pettiness and conflict that so often stifle the restless human need for transcendence; the opportunity to rise. When we do rise, it will fill our spirits and bind us together. Those who are now suffocating in cynicism and despair will be able to breathe freely. Those who are now suffering from a loss of meaning in their lives will find hope. When we rise, we will experience an epiphany as we discover that this crisis is not really about politics at all. It is a moral and spiritual challenge.” For those unaware, he is talking about countering the worldwide phenomenon of global warming, which threatens all life forms. Global warming is intriguing as a major environmental disaster because it is the culminative “collective karmic effect” of

229“What Is Bioneers?” at www.bioneers.org/about. 230“Moving beyond Kyoto” at www.nytimes.com. 128 Rush to Riches numerous other ‘minor’ environmental disasters. We are dependent on the earth’s natural systems for goods, ranging from building materials to seafood, as well as services, ranging from flood control to crop pollination. If croplands are eroding and harvests are shrinking, if water tables are falling and wells are going dry, if grasslands are turning to desert and livestock are dying, we are in trouble. If civilization’s environmental support systems continue to decline, eventually civilization itself will follow. Ecological and social collapses have reinforced each other in a downward spiral into poverty, environmental degradation, social injustice, disease, and violence. Unfortunately, the situation is what lies ahead for more and more countries if we do not restore the earth’s health. Restoring the earth will take an enormous international effort, one far larger and more demanding than the often-cited Marshall Plan that helped rebuild war-torn Europe and Japan. Such an initiative must be undertaken at wartime speed lest environmental deterioration will translate into economic decline and state failure, just as it did for earlier civilizations that violated nature’s thresholds and ignored its deadlines. Protecting the earth’s nearly 4 billion hectares of remaining forests and replanting those already lost are both essential for restoring the earth’s health, an important foundation for the new economy. Reducing rainfall runoff and the associated flooding and soil erosion, conserving soils, rebuilding soils, regenerating fisheries, protecting plant and animal diversity, planting trees to sequester carbon, recycling rainfall inland, restoring aquifer recharge depend on simultaneously reducing pressure on forests and on reforestation. There is a vast unrealized potential in all countries to lessen the demands that are shrinking the earth’s forest cover. In industrial nations, the greatest opportunity lies in reducing the quantity of wood used to make paper, and in developing countries it depends on reducing fuelwood use. The rates of paper recycling in the top 10 paper-producing countries range widely, from China and Finland on the low end, recycling 33 and Role of Religion on the War on Creation 129

38 percent of the paper they use, to South Korea and Germany on the high end, at 77 and 66 percent, respectively. The USA, the world’s largest paper consumer, is far behind South Korea, but it has raised the share of paper recycled from roughly one fourth in the early 1980s to 50 percent in 2005. If every country recycled as much of its paper as South Korea does, the amount of wood pulp used to produce paper worldwide would drop by one third. The use of paper, perhaps more than any other single product, reflects the throwaway mentality that evolved during the last century. There is an enormous possibility for reducing paper use simply by replacing facial tissues, paper napkins, disposable diapers, and paper shopping bags with reusable cloth alternatives. The largest single demand on trees—the need for fuel—accounts for just over half of all wood removed from forests.

From Neighbour to Cosmos: A Good Samaritan All religions unanimously make only one appeal: save planet earth our true ‘oikos,’ and only ‘home’. A wounded man from Jerusalem to Jericho from the Bible symbolizes the ‘wounded cosmos,’ looking for a Good Samaritan. A caring neighbour, who consciously attends to the need of cosmos, becomes the Good Samaritan. The spreading ecological crisis demands that we take responsibility for the house we live in, which is this planet where we live side by side with all our neighbours—all other living and non-living creatures. From the matrix of this material cosmos human beings emerged according to God’s plan, many millions of years ago. The second account of creation in Genesis describes in its own way how humanity was formed from the reddish clay of the earth. In some sense the earth is our common mother. The commandment to honour our father and mother can be extended to include our mother earth in all her materiality. Today this maternal earth is nurturing and sustaining each of us in life; some day the same earth will receive back our lifeless bodies and incorporate them once again into the flux of elements and particles that make up the cosmos, until the final resurrection. 130 Rush to Riches

Humankind has a biblical mandate to exercise dominion over all creation as God’s administrators (Gen. 1:26). As Pope John Paul II pointed out in On Social Concern, “this dominion is not an absolute power, nor can one speak of a freedom to ‘use and misuse’ or to dispose of things as one pleases.”231 Instead, we are called to administer wisely so as to foster life and development, and not to destroy the Creator’s work. The Lord’s Prayer—with its petition “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth”— can be a prayer for healing, life, justice, and harmony on earth, brought about by God’s power through ourselves as God’s instruments or co-creators. Our generation has a moral responsibility for the future, to leave to the next generation something more that a barren, depleted wasteland. Just as Catholic spirituality now finds a revelation of God in our own male or female bodily reality and in our neighbour, especially the poorest, so will we find a revelation of God in the physical universe around us. “Since the creation of the world, invisible realities—God’s eternal power and divinity—have become visible, recognized through the things he has made” (Rom. 1:20). All dimensions of reality, whether human or non- human, belong to the kingdom of God and manifest the Creator- king. God’s kingdom links all reality together in such solidarity that we can hope, with St. Paul, “that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). Each created being in its own way reflects and images its Creator. Each was created through the Word that is present to God from the beginning. “Through him all things came into being and apart from his nothing came to be” (John 1:3). Because of the Word, all creation speaks of God to those who have ears to hear. Humans are the ears and eyes of the cosmos, gifted with the ability to read the magnificent book of creation. Teachers of spirituality, without slighting the divine transcendence, can awaken people to the

231“Catholic Social Teaching,” Sollicitudo Rei Sociaslis, §34, at www.ccctx.org. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 131 presence of God immanent within the cosmos, in trees and flowers, in plants and animals. In this way people will grow in reverence for the cosmos as a place of divine revelation, concealing at the same time as it reveals the divine. In the period of theological renewal since Vatican Council II, the cosmic or ecological dimension of spirituality has not been a priority. Ecology may at first seem foreign to spirituality or theology. It is when we begin to grasp the proportions of our ecological crisis that we sense the underlying spiritual problems. It becomes evident that some of the basic concerns of spirituality —conversion of heart, respect for life, etc.—are basic to the healing of this injured planet. At the same time, the love for the earth shown by many environmentalists reminds us that contemplation often springs from an appreciation of beauty and an experience of wonderment. The ecological movement is fighting to preserve a world where a revelation of God’s eternal power and divinity can be found. Ecology and spirituality can be allies in a common cause. Eco-spirituality, as it has been called, is far from being a type of armchair spirituality. For some, eco- spirituality will mean a “mysticism of service.” As Albert Fritsch writes, “The mysticism of service is a plunging into the most humble of callings, that of getting one’s hands dirty in loving service: this means not a floating in the air, but a working on the earth.”232 For others it will mean a conversion to a simpler style of living. For still others it may mean a contemplative awareness of the beauty and fragility of our planet, and a sense of solidarity with all living and non-living beings. For all of us, a commitment to eco-spirituality is like the leaven that will slowly raise human consciousness in our post-industrial age. In this way, we may be able to transmit a truly human quality of life, both interior and external life, to future generations.

232“Exploring Eco-Spirituality” at www.patheos.com. 132 Rush to Riches

Anthropocentric Approaches: The Death of Spirituality I doubt whether people will ever drop the notion that they are superior to all other animals. It is the idea that humans are the crown of God’s creation, that we are not animals but something different, created by God in his image. But that doesn’t make us superior. Birds also have the capacity to fly, fish have the capacity to stay under water whole their lives, and every creature has its ‘special’ powers. Man’s development, man’s salvation, man’s redemption, and man’s future, no doubt, the statement that man is the aim-in-itself of the ‘development’ of everything on our planet has a strong appeal for every human being, as it promises him or his offspring something fascinating; this idea brings in the top priority and the pivot around which all the rest, all the subordinate, practically all usable things, should revolve. Such a claim made in the name of large groups of people will result in imperialism if made in the name of a state or religion; in other words, anthropocentrism, if it dominates the mind of a separate person or a group of people, a class, a state, a religion, a nation, or a race, it will inevitably lead to a certain kind of social discrimination, for, as much as human needs are contradictory, unpredictable, and frequently unjustifiably enormous. The approach that sees the environment only in terms of what in the environment can benefit humans is called the anthropocentric approach. Anthropocentrism is a major concept in the field of environmental ethics and environmental philosophy, where it is often considered to be the root cause of problems created by human interaction with the environment. The emergence of anthropocentrism heralded the death of spirituality, rejected the timeless wisdom of our ancestors that everything in Nature is built on relationships. On the other hand, an ecocentric or biocentric approach that requires us to give moral consideration to every living thing on the planet would be too broad to be of any practical value, since inevitably certain human requirements will come into conflict with some parts of the environment. If mosquitoes carry Role of Religion on the War on Creation 133 diseases that kill humans (malaria, for instance), it is not practical nor would it be acceptable to claim that we should not try to eradicate the disease-carrying mosquitoes, because they deserve the same moral consideration as humans. From a biological viewpoint, the aim-in-itself of the development on our planet is the biosphere, not man, i.e., all the living beings with all their great diversity, which maintains a hardly attainable equilibrium with the environment. Man is merely a part of this great diversity which has been created not by him and, therefore, does not belong to him and man must bow to it and serve the purpose of its preservation. Nothing is so small and unimportant but it has a spirit given by God. The spiritual worldview of panentheism leads naturally to all natural entities being treated with equal respect, since they are as much an integral part of the community of life as we are. The non-anthropocentric approach, conversely, considers the intrinsic value in every part of the environment, from the oceans to bacteria. I believe nowadays antropocentrism is going out of fashion. In the Netherlands, there is already a political party for animals. Symbiosis is very important in nature, as it involves giving and taking. All we do is take and take, and then take some more. Anthropocentric approaches have to retire and biocentric approaches have to emerge and it is the beginning of a new spirituality or a new religion. To apply the new biocentric approaches and to determine the priorities, it will be necessary to engage specialists with biological background who will hold, in the future, a biological civilization, the position of guardians of the diversity of life, the position of the ‘priests’ of the new confession, the aim- in-itself of the great development of all processes on the earth.

Desire: The Root of All Evil Desire is a state of lack, need, and want. It is always seeking fulfilment and lasting satisfaction, but its drive is inherently insatiable and, thus, as long as it endures, it maintains the sense of lack. The Buddha has taught that there are three roots of evil: greed, hatred, and delusion. These three states comprise the 134 Rush to Riches entire range of evil, whether of lesser or greater intensity, from a faint mental tendency to the coarsest manifestations in action and speech. In whatever way they appear, these are the basic causes of suffering. The root of ‘desire’, is attachment to an outcome of the expression of a conceived desire in the belief that you or your life will somehow be better for it, thus, creating an attachment which imprisons us and causes suffering. Freedom from attachment allows us to experience without suffering so that the expression of a desire comes free of worry about whether or not we have it which, in turn, means we are infinitely patient and then able to enjoy whatever abundance (material or otherwise) that may come to us as a result. The root of desire is in the fact that, according to the Buddha, we don’t really understand the real predicament that we are in. Living is suffering. Everything we do, no matter how pleasing it is, must end. This is the suffering. The Buddha feels that because of this suffering, we must escape it. Now here comes the desire: desire is actually a misunderstanding of what is good. Most understand it to be things like friends, money, success, and marriage, but according to him, it is not the good. What is good is to escape this world completely into nothingless-ness (sunyata). The root of desire is ignorance or wrong views. From ignorance or wrong view comes desire, lust, greed, attachment, ego, etc. Technically, the Buddha never said that desire was the root of all suffering, although it is true that desire and attachment certainly do us harm and cause lower or unpleasant rebirths, according to the Buddha.

Conservation: A Best Investment for Future Biodiversity is one of nature’s support systems. Through Biodiversity, natural systems grow stable, yet are resilient enough to withstand most disturbances that nature can throw at them, from disease to ice to fire. The genetic and ecological diversity existing in earth’s environments today took billions of years of evolution to develop. Like other ecosystem services, biodiversity provides these enormous benefits free of charge. It is Role of Religion on the War on Creation 135 up to humans to learn to perceive biodiversity not merely as a fascinating display of nature’s weird and wonderful imagination, but as the safety net that will keep our species alive and well through eons to come. Studies show that investing in the environment is a good way to fight poverty around the world. Environmental sustainability is an essential part of ending global poverty, according to the United Nations, which has made sustainability one of the top priorities for reducing global poverty. Education, health, clean water, and drip irrigation—investments in all these ecological areas can help fight poverty in a way that reinforces the importance of healthy ecosystems. Investment in this antipoverty development should involve local people who will be affected. Environmental restoration and preservation should be part of any economic development plan. Agricultural investment should support biodiversity and improved soil, not only new crop varieties. Investment in infrastructure, such as wells, communications, and roads, should support change that is ecologically sustainable. Investment in new energy sources is essential for economic growth in developing countries, but carbon levels in the atmosphere must be controlled. A village that can cook with solar ovens will have no reason to cut down its surrounding forests for firewood. Preserving biodiversity hotspots is crucial to avoiding major species loss in the coming decades. Poor people who live in or near endangered places must have a way to earn a living that does not involve degrading or destroying the land. Conservation money, rather than trying to keep people away from sensitive lands, can be spent on creating jobs and teaching methods of land management that help people to value their local ecology. Meanwhile people in the richest countries must change behaviours and policies that are causing long-term damage to earth’s climate and ecosystems. Sustaining the planet’s life-giving ecosystems, which are threatened by construction, agriculture, deforestation, mining, and other 136 Rush to Riches activities of man, is as important as preserving species. Lowering carbon emissions by burning fewer and cleaner fossil fuels is just one place to start. As we have seen earlier, it is inner spirituality, connectedness to all creatures, call for preservation and conservation that enables man to connect with nature. Without animals and plants, our place would resemble hellish. The same breath of God that gave rise to humans is present in all animals and plant kingdoms. Religions should play a bigger role in saving life and preserving nature. Religion is a powerful tool in conservation. Religion gives value and credibility to philosophies and assumptions. Our ‘spirit-spirit’ relationships are not only extrinsically meaningful; they are intrinsically valuable, as they connect us to other persons and to the Transcendent. As Buber nicely puts it, “As soon as we touch a You we are touched by a breath of eternal life… The lines of relationships intersect in the Eternal You.” But I want to go beyond this conclusion about meaning and value to make a point about metaphysics: the interconnected web of personal relations is part of the fundamental structure of the universe. As Nammalvar, the ninth century CE Indian poet-singer, writing about Krishna, says: “My little girl says: ‘I’ve no relatives here and everyone here is my relative. I’m the one who makes relatives relate,’ she says. Can it be the Lord of illusions beyond all relations has come and taken her over?” One ought to take the religious point of view, if he wants to be effective; it is the path of wisdom, because taking the religious point of view will give ultimate value for life, for to do so one has to integrate the self through integration with the structure of reality: this is the root notion of following the dharma in all religions. This argument leads to the metaphor of Cosmic Christ, which is associated with the responsibility of preservation, conservation, and restoration. The world in our thinking is the sacrament of God, the visible, physical bodily presence of God. The Cosmic Christ metaphor suggests that Jesus’ paradigmatic Role of Religion on the War on Creation 137 ministry is not limited to the years 1-30 CE, nor to the Church, as in the model of the Church or as the mystical body of Christ, but is available to us throughout nature. It is available everywhere, it is unlimited—with one qualification—it is mediated through bodies. The entire cosmos is the habitat of God, but we know this only through the mediation of the physical world. The world as sacrament is an old and deep one in the Christian tradition, both eastern and western. The sacramental tradition assumes that God is present not only in the hearing of the word, in the preaching and reading of scripture, and not only in the two (or seven) sacraments of the Church, but also in each and every being in creation. The Christian tradition is rich and powerful, epitomized in a sensibility that sees God in everything and everything full of the glory of God: the things of this earth are valuable principally as vehicles for communication with the divine. A different sensibility is evident in this Navajo chant:233 May it be delightful my house; From my head may it be delightful; To my feet may it be delightful; Where I lie may it be delightful; All above me may it be delightful; All around me may it be delightful.234

35 Hot Spots: Nature’s Gift to Future Generations The distribution of species on earth is quite uneven. Some places, such as the Arctic tundra, are native territory to very few species. Tropical rain forests—in India, Indonesia, the Amazon, or Hawaii—are home to the highest density of species. Most land- dwelling species have small ranges. A great part of those land- dwelling species—around half of land plants and two fifths of

233Navajo (people), Native Americans of the Athapaskan language family and of the Southwest culture area. The Navajo are one of the largest tribes in the USA. Their homelands are in what is now north-eastern Arizona, north- western New Mexico, south-eastern Utah, and south-western Colorado. In the Navajo language their name is Diné or Dineh, meaning “The People.” 234“Night Chants of Navajo People” at www.score.rims.k12.ca.us. 138 Rush to Riches land-dwelling vertebrates—are concentrated in small areas that together make up only a tiny portion of earth’s visible surface. These regions, called “biodiversity hotspots,” are dotted around the world from Indonesia to Ecuador. The term “biodiversity hotspot” was introduced by Norman Myers in 1988.235 He designated ten tropical forests as hotspots of biodiversity. However, in the use of the term hotspot, Myers meant more than just that they were sites of high species that were found nowhere else (endemic) but he also defined them in terms of how threatened they were. So, instead of a ‘hotspot’ being a term for high species richness, merely describing a natural pattern, from its inception it was wedded to conservation and identifying conservation priorities. Most references to hotspots in the scientific literature follow Myer’s usage. In fact, there is now a formal definition of hotspot in that it must be an area which contains at least 1500 species of plant and must have lost at least 70 percent of its original habitat. Hotspots tend also to be defined using larger organisms such as mammals, birds, and plants. Hotspots use to constitute nearly 12 percent of earth’s land, but they have been logged and built on and degraded by human populations until they now constitute only 2.3 percent of earth’s land surface, an area about the size of India. Our responsibility compels us to save these pristine places, the last strongholds of the wild; it is our moral duty and it is an obligation that we owe to our future generations. Recent inventories of hotspots identified 25 to 35 different regions worldwide. While these hotspots once covered about an eighth of our planet’s surface, an area roughly the size of Russia and Australia combined. The following are the 35 hotspots around the world: 1. New Zealand; 2. New Caledonia; 3. Polynesia-Micronesia; 4. East Melanesian; 5. Southwest Australia; 6. Wallacea; 7. Philippines; 8. Japan; 9. Sundaland; 10. Indo-Burma; 11. Indian Western Ghats; 12. Himalaya; 13. Tropical Andes; 14. Sundaland; 15. Mountains of South-Central

235“Biodiversity Hotspots” at www.eoearth.org. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 139

China; 16. Mountains of Central Asia; 17. Madagascar and Indian Ocean Islands; 18. Horn of Africa; 19. Irano-Anatolian; 20. Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany; 21. Cape Floristic Region; 22. Succulent Karoo; 23. Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa; 24. Eastern Afromontane; 25. Caucasus; 26. Mediterranean Basir; 27. Atlantic Forest; 28. Sri Lanka; 29. Chilean Winter Rainfall Valdivian Forest; 30. Cerrado; 31. Caribbean Islands; 32. Tumbes- Choco-Magdelena; 33. Mesoamerica; 34. Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands; 35. California Floristic Province.

Save the Earth from Human Beings: Ecosophy The common belief in our culture is that human beings are superior to nature. It is an “us and them” mentality: us living in our world with nature being somewhere out there. This view generally comes from one of two belief systems: Humans began their time on earth as an animal, like all the rest, but then due to their superior brain capacity and the two thumbs they evolved into Homo sapiens, discovered civilization and took the rightful place as superior to the natural world; Plants and animals were created as the natural world and that humans were created as a higher order of being, above the natural world. According to this belief, we are separate from nature; that means, in reality, I can tell you that 200 species are becoming extinct everyday without alarm bells going off. “So what if 200 species are dying. It is not us, it is them.” The ecosophy (ecophilosophy) of Deep Ecology asserts that whatever human origins may have been, we are nevertheless a creature of the planet earth. We belong to the community of life; we are part of this ecosystem. Every part of creation is deeply interconnected and interrelated. If we destroy the ecosystem, we will ultimately destroy ourselves. In order to live in a way that works, it requires us to recognize that other living and non-living things have value in themselves, regardless of their benefit to us. The ecosystem functions for the benefit of all the participants, not just the one on the top. There is a common misunderstanding about Deep Ecology and ecophilosophy. People perceive it to be anti-human; they believe 140 Rush to Riches that supporters of Deep Ecology don’t think very highly of humans or that we think the world would be better off without us. Deep Ecology or Ecosophy is not a religion or way of life in itself. It is a lens through which anybody from any belief system can view the world; it is a movement through which one can take positive action. Arne Naess, the man who coined the term ‘Deep Ecology’ believed that a person’s beliefs and actions do influence his or her relationship with nature. There is nothing wrong with the fact that people go in different directions or that people come from different backgrounds. That is, in fact, the whole idea: Deep Ecology is not a comprehensive belief system. Rather it is a piece of common ground where a wide variety of people can meet. Deep Ecology is a principle that is able to be held whether someone believes in evolution or creationism, whether they believe human beings are merely the most evolved of all animals or whether we are the only creatures made in the image of God. The crux of the matter is that, regardless of our origins and purpose, we are destroying the ecosystem in which we live because we have a false belief that we do not actually live there. We do not eat angel food. We belong to the food chain. We must accept our place there. The rest of nature has a right to live and to flourish. It is not acceptable that we consume all the world’s resources in order to create more humans. We are wonderful and glorious creatures, but so is every other creature. We may or may not be the creature with the highest consciousness and we may or may not be the only creature made in God’s image, but we have no right to deny other creatures their right to life. Broadly speaking there are two types of human cultures to have ever existed. The first and oldest culture believed that man was a part of the world. This culture believed that man belonged to the world but never owned it. The people that hold this view are the indigenous peoples from all across the globe that have existed for millions of years and still exist today. The Role of Religion on the War on Creation 141 second and human culture to have existed is relatively a newcomer. This is the culture that believes that humans are separate from the rest of nature. This culture believes that playing fair is beneath us and that we should subdue the rest of nature so that it can serve us. People of this culture first emerged in the Near East somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000 years ago. By bending nature to its will this culture produced a lot of food and, thus, a lot of people. It gradually spread across the planet and by the twenty-first century we have reached a point where 99 percent of human beings live in this culture. Ecophilosophy recognizes the distinction between the two different ways of life. Deep Ecology does not criticize humans. It criticizes the culture we live in. Humans are an integral and valued member of the ecological community on the planet earth. Deep Ecology is very much pro-human. As humans, we must put humans first. But putting humans first does not equal wanton destruction of other species, even for food. Among many contenders of ecological choices vegetarianism and veganism emerge as the most efficient lifestyle choices, consistent with the notion that animals have right to existence, and animals are not ours to use.

Vegetarianism and Veganism Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, or poultry. A vegan is someone who, for various reasons, chooses to avoid using or consuming animal products and vegans also avoid dairy and eggs, as well as fur, leather, wool, down, and cosmetics or chemical products tested on animals. Veganism is an integral component of a cruelty-free lifestyle. Living vegan provides numerous benefits to animals’ lives, to the environment, and to our own health– through a healthy diet and lifestyle. People choose to be vegan for health, environmental, or ethical reasons. For example, some vegans feel that one promotes the meat industry by consuming eggs and dairy products. That is, once dairy cows or egg-laying chickens are too old to be productive, they are often sold as meat; and since male calves do not produce milk, they usually are raised for veal or other products. Some people avoid these 142 Rush to Riches items because of conditions associated with their production. Many vegans choose this lifestyle to promote a more humane and caring world. They know they are not perfect, but believe they have a responsibility to try to do their best, while not being judgmental of others. The key to a nutritionally sound vegan diet is variety. A healthy and varied vegan diet includes fruits, vegetables, plenty of leafy greens, whole grain products, nuts, seeds, lentils, chickpeas, tofu, peas, peanut butter, soy milk, almonds, spinach, rice, potatoes, broccoli, and kale. Vegan diets are free of cholesterol and are generally low in saturated fat. Thus, eating a vegan diet makes it easy to conform to recommendations given to reduce the risk of major chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. High-fat foods, which should be used sparingly, include oils, margarine, nuts, nut butters, seed butters, avocado, and coconut. Vitamin D is not found in the vegan diet but can be made by humans following exposure to sunlight. At least ten to fifteen minutes of summer sun on hands and face for two to three times a week is recommended for adults so that vitamin D production can occur. Food sources of vitamin D include vitamin D-fortified orange juice and vitamin D-fortified soy milk and rice milk. Calcium, needed for strong bones, is found in dark green vegetables, tofu made with calcium sulphate, and many other foods commonly eaten by vegans. For the Environment: If you switch to vegetarianism, you can shrink your carbon footprint by up to 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide a year, according to research by the University of Chicago.236 Animal agriculture takes a devastating toll on the earth. It is an inefficient way of producing food, since feed for farm animals requires land, water, fertilizer, and other resources that could otherwise have been used directly for producing human food. Animal agriculture’s dependence on higher yields accelerates topsoil erosion on our farmlands, rendering land less productive for crop cultivation, and forcing the conversion of

236“Skip the Steak” at www.time.com. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 143 wilderness to grazing and farm lands. Animal waste from massive feedlots and factory farms is a leading cause of pollution in our groundwater and rivers. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has linked animal agriculture to a number of other environmental problems, including: contamination of aquatic ecosystems, soil, and drinking water by manure, pesticides, and fertilizers; acid rain from ammonia emissions; greenhouse gas production; and depletion of aquifers for irrigation. In a time when population pressures have become an increasing stress on the environment, there are additional arguments for a vegan diet. The United Nations has reported that a vegan diet can feed many more people than an animal- based diet. For the Animals: Despite the common belief that drinking milk or eating eggs does not kill animals, commercially-raised dairy cows and egg-laying chickens, whether factory-farmed or ‘free range’, are slaughtered when their production rates decline. The same factory farm methods that are used to produce most meats are also used to produce most milk and eggs. These cows and chickens live their short lives caged, drugged, mutilated, and deprived of their most basic freedoms. On farms, several egg-laying hens spend their entire lives in a battery cage with a floor area the size of a vinyl record cover. Living on wire floors that deform their feet, in cages so tiny they cannot stretch their wings, and covered with excrement from cages above them, these chickens suffer lameness, bone disease, and obsessive pecking, which is curbed by searing the beaks off young chicks. Although chickens can live up to 15 years, they are usually slaughtered when their egg production rates decline after two years. Hatcheries have no use for male chicks, so they are killed by suffocation, decapitation, gassing, or crushing. As with any mammal, cows produce milk only when pregnant and stop after their calves have been weaned. When a dairy cow delivers a female calf, the calf becomes a dairy cow herself, born to live in the same conditions as her mother. But when a dairy cow 144 Rush to Riches delivers a male calf, the calf is sold to a veal farm within days of birth, where he is tethered to a stall, deprived of food and exercise, and soon slaughtered for meat. Life is only a few years longer for the mother. Because it is unprofitable to keep cows alive once their milk production declines, dairy cows are usually slaughtered at 5 years of age. Thus, a cow’s normal lifespan of 25 years is cut 20 years short just to cut costs and maximize production. Today’s farms are not like the ones most of us learned about in school; they are mechanized factories where an animal’s welfare is of little concern compared to profit. For Our Health: The consumption of animal fats and proteins has been linked to heart disease, colon and lung cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, obesity, and a number of other debilitating conditions. Cows’ milk contains ideal amounts of fat and protein for young calves, but far too much for humans. Eggs are higher in cholesterol than any other food, making them a leading contributor to cardiovascular diseases. The World Dietetic Association reports that vegetarian/vegan diets are associated with reduced risks for all of these conditions.237

Non-Vegetarian Habit: A Schism in Human DNA Makeup When you look at the comparison between herbivores and humans, we compare much more closely to herbivores than meat eating animals. Humans are clearly not designed to digest and ingest meat. Although some historians and anthropologists say that man is historically omnivorous, our anatomical equipment teeth, jaws, and digestive systems favour a fleshless diet. The World Dietetic Association notes that “most of mankind for most of human history has lived on vegetarian or near-vegetarian diets.” Much of the world still lives that way. Even on most industrialized countries, the love affair with meat is less than a hundred years old. It started with the refrigerator, car, and the twentieth-century consumer society. But even with the twentieth

237“Vegan Earth for Your Health” at www.veganearthus.org. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 145 century, man’s body hasn’t adapted to eating meat. The prominent Swedish scientist Karl von Linne states: “Man’s structure, external and internal, compared with that of the other animals, shows that fruit and succulent vegetables constitute his natural food.”238 Clearly, if humans were meant to eat meat we wouldn’t have so many crucial ingestive or digestive similarities with animals that are herbivores. Many people ask, “If we weren’t supposed to eat meat then why do we?” It is because we are conditioned to eat meat. A popular statement that meat eaters say is, “In the wild, animals kill other animals for food. It is nature.” First of all, we are not in the wild. Secondly, we can easily live without eating meat and killing, not to mention we would be healthier. Third, we weren’t meant to eat meat. Meat and seafood putrefies within 4 hours after consumption and the remnants cling to the walls of the stomach and intestines for 3-4 days or longer than if a person is constipated. Furthermore, the reaction of saliva in humans is more alkaline, whereas in the case of flesh-eating or preying animals, it is clearly acidic. The alkaline saliva does not act properly on meat. All omnivorous and carnivorous animals eat their meat raw. When a lion kills an herbivore for food, it tears right into the stomach area to eat the organs that are filled with blood (nutrients). While eating the stomach, liver, intestine, etc., the lion laps the blood in the process of eating the dead animals flesh. Even bears that are omnivores eat salmon raw. However, eating raw or bloody meat disgusts us as humans. Therefore, we must cook it and season it to buffer the taste of flesh. If a deer is burned in a forest fire, a carnivorous animal will not eat its flesh. Even circus lions have to be fed raw meat so that they will not starve to death. If humans were truly meant to eat meat, then we would eat all of our meat raw and bloody. The thought of eating such meat makes one’s stomach turn. This is my point on how we as humans are conditioned to believe that animal flesh is good

238“How Humans Are Not Physically Created to Eat Meat” at www.celestialhealing.net. 146 Rush to Riches for us and that we were meant to consume it for survival and health purposes. If we are true carnivores or omnivores, cooking our meat and seasoning it with salt, ketchup, or tabasco sauce would disguise and we as humans would refuse to eat our meat in this form. The international meat industry generates roughly 18% of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions—even more than transportation—according to a report, published last year, from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.239 If you switch to vegetarianism, you can shrink your carbon footprint by up to 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide a year. Vegetarianism—or flexitarianism —is cheaper. Flexitarianism means occasional meat eating practices. The ‘Cave Man’ diet was low-fat or vegetarian. Our cavemen were hunter-gatherers, and two schools of thought have developed as to what their diet was like. One group argues for a high-fat and animal-based diet supplemented with seasonal fruits, berries, nuts, root vegetables, and wild grasses. We know that most apes eat mostly plants, but the consensus among the anthropologists is that meat allowed the leap in brain size that brought us to where we are now. The common ancestor we share with gorillas and chimpanzees was likely herbivorous and, thus, that primate was intended not to eat meat. But humans are omnivorous, and meat is part of some of our diet. It would be nice if people would acknowledge that vegetarianism has been an established dietary culture for thousands of years. The idea of it as some sort of modern contrivance is honestly just ignorant. Humans evolved eating a diet comprised primarily of vegetable matter, with meat where we could get it. There is a class of animals, obligate carnivores that require meat in their diet. Cats, for example, do not produce the amino acid taurine, which is found in meat. You cannot put a cat on a vegetarian diet, or it will eventually die. Humans can synthesize taurine in our bodies, and all essential amino acids for a human diet can be found in a vegetarian diet.

239“Statistics” at www.alighterfootprintfilm.com. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 147

As far as the best diet is concerned, the following could be stated: if you are speaking in terms of moral quality, it seems to me that veganism wins out in most estimation. Even if you are like me, and you eat meat and believe that it is possible to eat meat while remaining morally in the right, eating meat always offers the temptation to do wrong, especially in our day. It is possible to be a carnivore without cruelty or maliciousness, but it is difficult. However, veganism is free of this temptation. The advantages of meat include a high energy density, and a relatively high proportion of protein. The disadvantages of meat include high proportions of fat, including saturated fat, as well as cholesterol. Economically and environmentally, meat takes more money and energy to produce per-calorie, and as such should be considered a luxury rather than the staple that it has become in the modern diet. I am personally a vegetarian for my own reasons, but if you like meat, I would say just eat it. Your reasons are your own business, and you shouldn’t feel guilty for enjoying it. I would urge you, if possible, to consider patronizing local farms where you know the animals are well treated and fed. Although it might cost more, grass-fed cows are said to produce tastier meat anyway. Reduce your consumption of meat; it really is kind of a ‘sometimes food’, but if it is something you want to eat, go for it. For many years I have had great difficulty understanding why God would teach one thing in one place—originally telling man he was to be a raw vegetarian as he did in Genesis 1:29— and then telling man it was ‘OK’ to eat meat as he did in Genesis 9:3. If we took these two teachings at face value, it would certainly appear to be a contradiction. However, I do not believe there is any contradiction in the Bible! It is only our inability to understand. So, here is my personal belief based on years of searching the Bible. First, there is no question that God’s diet for mankind was completely vegetarian as clearly set forth in Genesis 1:29! Why did God add meat to man’s diet in Genesis 9:3? Was it because all vegetarian had been destroyed by the 148 Rush to Riches flood and man had nothing else to eat or is there possibly another reason? My personal belief is that man was living too long, getting into too much trouble and, thus, God used the consuming of flesh to shorten man’s lifespan. To support this speculation I offer the following: It is interesting to note that God originally created man to live forever (Genesis 3:22) and on this raw vegetarian diet, man lived an average of 912 years prior to the flood without a single recorded instance of sickness. Yet, in Genesis 6:3, God said he was going to shorten man’s lifespan to 120 years. How was God going to accomplish this? If you look at the dramatic consequences the addition of meat had on the human race in the book of Genesis, it certainly causes one to do some serious thinking! Because, after meat was added to the diet, man’s lifespan rapidly started to decline from an average of 912 years on the raw vegetarian diet prior to the flood, to 100 years by the time you reach the end of the Book of Genesis on the meat-based, cooked food diet. This rapid decrease in man’s life span took place in just ten short generations after meat was added to the diet. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 149

The three issues to consider in regard to vegetarianism are the following: spiritual, mental, and physical (nutritional). The spiritually aspiring person attempts to work on his/her self. The purpose of spiritual growth is to move away from the animal nature into the more human nature that God intended for us to have. Meat eating inhibits this. Again, the same science that sometimes attempts to ignore the existence of a force higher than man also has proved, in the laboratory, that aggression levels are higher in meat eaters than non-meat eaters! The animal instincts become more powerful every time you eat meat. Another spiritual aspect of being a meat eater is when one must question the necessity and the method as well as the karma of killing animals. However, everyone has his or her own mores which one must determine for oneself. It is not the purpose of this study to force a specific moral behaviour on anyone. Most spiritual people believe auras. Kirilian photography240 shows us that a force field remains around dead or amputated tissue. You adopt that animal aura when you eat a dead animal. Fruits and vegetables have a higher vibrational aura than animal products. If so, meat eating is urgently prohibited. “You are what you eat,” is a slogan that I love to use to show the mental aspect of vegetarianism. When animals are slaughtered, fear and aggression enzymes are shot into their cells from their glands and other organs, just as in humans, and are part of the dead carcass that goes on to the food store. They remain in the meat

240Kirlian photography allegedly depicts the body’s ‘aura’, the so-called “human energy field” that is said to be not ordinarily visible. During the procedure, the object, such as a person’s hand, is placed on a photographic emulsion within an apparatus that generates a high-voltage (15,000 to 100,000 volts), low-amperage, high-frequency electric current. The resulting photo shows a fuzzy glow surrounding the outline of the object. Kirlian photography is named after Semyon Davidovich Kirlian (1900-1980), a Russian electrician who observed that an electric spark can “take its own picture” as it passes through a photographic emulsion. This phenomenon had been well known to physicists and electrical engineers since the earliest days of photography. But, in 1939, Kirlian proclaimed that he was photographing a supernatural human energy field. 150 Rush to Riches until the consumer ingests those same enzymes, which are molecularly very similar to those found in humans. Fruits and vegetables do not have emotions; therefore, when they are picked they do not release any emotion cells prior to digestion. The enzymes within fruits and vegetables supply the body with sufficient nutrients that will always uphold a healthy state of mind.

Towards a Global Ethics: Connection to Mother Earth Parliament of the World’s Religions drafted, initially by Hans Küng, and Trustees and experts drawing on many of the world’s religious and spiritual traditions, Towards a Global Ethic. This declaration identifies four essential affirmations as shared principles essential to a global ethic: affirming respect for all life, economic justice and solidarity, tolerance and truthfulness, and equal rights and partnership between men and women. The document eloquently elaborated on the significance of each value for our modern world. Endorsed at the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, USA, Towards a Global Ethic urges all men and women of good will to join in the commitment to these vital shared principles. Used throughout the world by universities, religious, and spiritual communities and interfaith organizations, Towards a Global Ethic has emerged as one of the most significant building blocks in the continuing process of creating global ethical understanding and consensus. “The world is in agony. The agony is so pervasive and urgent that we are compelled to name its manifestations so that the depth of this pain may be made clear. Peace eludes us... The planet is being destroyed... Neighbours live in fear... Women and men are estranged from each other ... children die! This is abhorrent! We condemn the abuses of earth’s ecosystems. We condemn the poverty that stifles life’s potential; the hunger that weakens the human body; the economic disparities that threaten so many families with ruin. We condemn the social disarray of the nations; the disregard for justice which pushes citizens to the margin; the anarchy overtaking our communities; and the insane Role of Religion on the War on Creation 151 death of children from violence. In particular we condemn aggression and hatred in the name of religion. But this agony need not be. It need not be because the basis for an ethic already exists. This ethic offers the possibility of a better individual and global order, and leads individuals away from despair and societies away from chaos. We are women and men who have embraced the precepts and practices of the world’s religions: We affirm that a common set of core values is found in the teachings of the religions, and that these form the basis of a global ethic.”241 We affirm that this truth is already known, but yet to be lived in heart and action. We affirm that there is an irrevocable, unconditional norm for all areas of life, for families and communities, for races, nations, and religions. There already exist ancient guidelines for human behaviour which are found in the teachings of the religions of the world and which are the condition for a sustainable world order. Therefore, we declare that we are interdependent. Each of us depends on the well- being of the whole, and so we have respect for the community of living beings, for people, animals, and plants, and for the preservation of earth, the air, water and soil. We take individual responsibility for all we do. All our decisions, actions, and failures to act have consequences. We must treat others as we wish others to treat us. We make a commitment to respect life and dignity, individuality and diversity, so that every person is treated humanely, without exception. We must have patience and acceptance. We must be able to forgive, learning from the past but never allowing ourselves to be enslaved by memories of hate. Opening our hearts to one another, we must sink our narrow differences for the cause of the world community, practising a culture of solidarity and relatedness. We consider humankind our family. We must strive to be kind and generous. We must not live for ourselves alone, but should also serve others, never forgetting the children, the aged, the poor, the suffering, the disabled, the refugees, and the lonely. No person

241“The Declaration of a Global Ethic” at www.markfoster.net. 152 Rush to Riches should ever be considered or treated as a second-class citizen, or be exploited in any way whatsoever. There should be equal partnership between men and women. We must not commit any kind of sexual immorality. We must put behind us all forms of domination or abuse. Earth cannot be changed for the better unless the consciousness of individuals is changed first. We pledge to increase our awareness by disciplining our minds, by meditation, by prayer, or by positive thinking. Without risk and a readiness to sacrifice there can be no fundamental change in our situation. Therefore, we commit ourselves to this global ethic, to understanding one another, and to socially beneficial, peace-fostering, and nature-friendly ways of life. We invite all people, whether religious or not, to do the same.

Sacrifice/Sharing: Two Contenders of Conservation Sacrifice is the law of creation, manifestation, life and love. It is at the very root of the idea of evolution. The minerals sacrifice to evolve the vegetable kingdom. The animals sacrifice to create human kingdom. Men sacrifice to become gods. The higher the sacrifice, greater is the approach to God. It means atonement— at-one-ment with humanity and God. Christ’s teaching, when viewed from the esoteric point of view, is nothing but “Oneness with God,”242 through sacrifice, through love, through life. If we are to imagine a future worth fighting for, our progress has to be defined ecologically and culturally, not purely in politics and economics. Our future depends on the wise decisions we make in this generation. Sacrifice and Sharing—these are the two winning contenders of conservation, standing out as binary stars against the black space, endorsed by all religions, especially Christianity, proved to be very effective. The cross in Christianity is symbolical of sacrifice. The life of Christ illustrates how man can become perfect only through sacrifice. In fact, the whole teaching of Christianity is based on the idea of sacrifice.

242“Essences, Essence Teachings and Essence Theology” at www.thenazareneway.com. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 153

This fact of sacrifice is the pivotal point in all religions of the world. The manifestation of God itself is a sacrifice. When the Unknown limits Himself by creating the universe, when He descends into matter, and becomes the Logos, it is God’s Self- limitation and, therefore, a great sacrifice. Must we sacrifice consumerism? Many liberal environmentalists say that people must sacrifice some luxuries to save the environment or help the world’s poor. A more equitable sharing of the world’s resources means some will have to give up a bit. For the well-off, sacrifice is like charity: giving up a few privileges to make themselves feel better. For such people, the idea of sacrifice tends to reinforce an elitist mentality. But for poorer, working-class people, sacrifice has a different connotation. They have made sacrifices for the boss and the government, sacrifices that are never repaid. ‘Sacrifice’ has been the neoliberal mantra of the last three decades of falling standards of living, longer work hours, lower wages, and social service cutbacks. Sacrifice should be incorporated into political systems, capitalism, for example. If we sacrifice the thrill and excitement of capitalism, half of the problem is solved. Capitalism is not just something that occurs when a boss exploits a worker, even though that is central. It is a global economic system. The continuation of the system relies on workers accepting the part they play in it. Ideology is, therefore, a key and consumerism is the ideology of modern capitalism so much so that consumer capitalism is a new stage surpassing industrial capitalism. We cannot wait for the impoverished Third World masses to beat down the doors of imperialism and destroy it from the outside. Nor can we expect spontaneous uprising against capitalism in the heartlands of imperialism and consumerism. We have to organize struggles that break out of the logic of capitalism while providing real benefits to sustain people in the struggle. In order to save the environment, we need to sacrifice economic growth. We are, indeed, going to significantly reduce 154 Rush to Riches the economic growth and quality of life, or we need to dramatically reduce the world’s population. Sustainable development is the need of the hour. Sustainable development is defined as balancing the fulfilment of human needs with the protection of the natural environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future. It means development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Thus, to save the environment, it is not necessary to sacrifice our economic growth but it is necessary to adapt our economic growth in order to protect the environment. For example, we need electricity on a daily basis. This electricity can be produced in the environmentally friendly method using renewable sources of energy like sunlight, wind, and water through solar panels, wind mills, and hydroelectric power stations. This protects the environment unlike the commonly used thermal power stations that utilize fossil fuels and produce high amounts of CO2. Thus, through simple changes in the direction of development, we can enjoy growth and a good environment. If you are wondering how can, a single unimportant individual make a change? Let me tell you, you don’t need to be the prime minister to take a decision about how your electricity is produced. If you, as a consumer, refuse to buy or utilize electricity produced through non-sustainable methods, the producers are forced to change their methods of production. The economy functions when products that are produced are sold. If no one is willing to buy the product, then no one will produce it. But that does not mean that there will not be any products produced. Thus, sustainable development = economic prosperity + development + healthy environment. The ultimate miracle from the Bible, which endorses “the virtue of sharing,” the multiplication of the loaves is reported in John 6:1-15. The multiplication of loaves is the only miracle told in all four Gospels. It was considered important enough to include in all four. But read the Gospel accounts of the Role of Religion on the War on Creation 155 multiplication of loaves and fishes, and see if you can find even a hint of this “sharing interpretation.” Nothing is said about Jesus teaching the crowds at this point, much less that he taught them about sharing. Scripture never mentions or even hints that Jesus exhorted everyone to pull up their robes to reveal their hidden stashes of food. In fact, it is never even implied. Here we come to the next big problem. If these events were so important, why do the writers not offer the slightest clue that sharing was the primary import of the event? Interestingly, Jesus does not address the crowd at all. He speaks only to his disciples. The dialogue goes on between Jesus and his disciples. The only time the crowd is addressed is when they are told to sit down in groups—not to teach them generosity. So, where are we told that Jesus taught them about sharing? If he did teach them to share their hidden food, why did the Gospel writers fail to inform us— in six separate accounts? If this was the main point of the story, shouldn’t it show up at least once? The boy who had five loaves and two fish became the source of inspiration to others, perhaps he started it all and sharing became a chain reaction with others. ‘Sharing’ becomes the humanity’s answer to some of the biggest ecological problems of our times: poverty, environmental degradation, social injustice, violence, hunger, famine, disease, healthcare, housing, conservation and preservation. Sharing food with one another is significant. Jesus makes sharing food on an equal footing with everyone, one of the key points in his way of relating to the world. Just think of the groupings who will normally not eat together, but who sit down together here: men eating with women, those who are ritually pure with those who are unclean, Jews with Gentiles, peasants with those of a higher social order. The Eucharist is essentially a meal, like the one that Jesus shares with the people in today’s miracle. It intends to bring together not only us with God, but us with one another. Our communion means that we receive the body of Christ in the Eucharist and perceive the body of Christ in our neighbour. We cannot share fruitfully in the first if we are unmindful of the 156 Rush to Riches second. The miracle proved that with the use of sharing element, man is also capable of doing miracles. Miracles will happen if you believe in them and ready to share.

Earth, the Bountiful: Regenerating a Healing Matrix In our zeal to build and possess, we may lose all that we have, marble, gold, and other natural resources, a beautiful and bountiful part of nature. We want to rob them and keep them as possessions in our houses as jewels, decorations, and commodities. They all become private properties, where they lose the community, planetary, and ecological value. With all these natural resources in their places intact, earth will be rich forever, but our desire to own them would impoverish the planet earth. Return soil where it belongs. Return stones and marble where they belong. Return gold, silver, iron, and minerals where they belong. Return coal and fossil fuels where they belong. Remember they don’t belong to us in the first place; in fact, we belong to the earth. Therefore, return yourself where you belong! You are dust and to dust you shall return. In the mid-1850s when the government in Washington, DC, wanted to buy the lands of the exhausted and defeated people, the chief responded in his native tongue, with a natural eloquence stemming from his oral tradition. This letter would undoubtedly change present perceptions of our relationship with nature. Titled, “Chief Seattle’s Letter to All the People,” chief of the Suquamish Indians allegedly wrote to the American Government in the 1800s, in which he gave the most profound understanding of God in all things. Here is his letter, which should be engraved in the hearts and minds of everyone in all the nations of the world. I would like to quote the entire text:243 “The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky and the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of

243“Chief Seattle’s Letter to All People” at www.barefootsworld.net/seattle.html. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 157 the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people: every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, the mist in the dark woods, every meadow, and every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people. We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all belong to the same family. The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each glossy reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father. The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So, you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother. If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life that it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So, if we sell our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers. Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator. Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen 158 Rush to Riches when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt? The end of living is the beginning of survival. When the last red man has vanished with this wilderness and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left? We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it, as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children, and love it, as God loves us. As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know - there is only one God. No man, be he Red man or White man, can be apart. We are all brothers after all.” If we allow these profound words to sink deep in our hearts, they can surely become “the regeneration healing matrix,”244 for the planet. Planet earth can gradually recalibrate herself from the collapsed condition and rebuild a healthy planetary immune system. The origins of Chief Seattle’s words are partly obscured by the mists of time. Some call his words a letter and some a speech. What is known is that Chief Seattle was a respected and peaceful leader of one of the Northwest Indian Nations. What matters is that Chief Seattle’s words inspired— and continue to inspire—a most compelling truth: In our zeal to build and possess, we may lose all that we have. We have come late to environmental awareness, but there was a thundering

244Tissue repair can take the form of regeneration, in which injured parenchymal cells are replaced with cells of the same type, sometimes leaving no residual trace of previous injury, or it can take the form of replacement by connective (fibrous) tissue, which leads to scar formation or fibrosis in organs such as the liver or lung. For many types of common injuries, both regeneration and connective tissue replacement contribute to tissue repair. Role of Religion on the War on Creation 159 message delivered a century ago by many of the great Native American chiefs, among them Black Elk, Red Cloud, and Seattle. To all of the Native American people, every creature and part of the earth was sacred; it was their belief that to waste or destroy nature and its wonders is to destroy life itself. Their words were not understood in their time. Now, however, they haunt us. Now they have come true, and before it is too late we must listen.

Man, the Creator: The Image of God Though the theory of evolution contends that man has arisen from the animal creation, nevertheless science does not provide any evidence to contravene the implication of Scripture that this is not so. As we have seen in previous studies, such a concept is purely a scientific guess which is without any adequate evidence to support it; therefore, it is perfectly proper for us to maintain the position of Scripture and to recognize that both scientists and Biblicists proceed on the basis of faith, in this area. We know that the basic difference in man is that he is made in the image of God. This image is the spirit which is in man—not his body or soul, the possession of which he shares to some degree with the animal creation. However, God loves to generalize and the body of man is part of that generalization. But the spirit of man is something quite unique, something quite different from anything the animals have. It is this spirit which renders man creative, moral, and communicative. These qualities reflect the image of God in man. Man can create and invent. All man’s marvellous inventiveness is involved in that one word, creativity. Man can also communicate; there is the possibility of the free flow and interchange of ideas among us, vocally, which no animal possesses. We also are moral beings. Though there may be wide differences as to what constitutes right or wrong, there is never a man or woman made who does not have a sense of right and wrong. Therefore, we are all moral beings. God has imparted his image to us and we, thus, share these faculties. 160 Rush to Riches

We know also that man, having these godlike capacities, has been commanded to rule over nature, to be in dominion over the animal kingdom. But his authority and position, which is one of great prestige and dignity, is a derived authority. Man is only able to exercise his authority over the animal world and the world of nature to the degree that man himself is subject, in turn, to the authority of God. This is inherent in every passage of Scripture that deals with the relationship of God to man. It is man’s departure from this obedience to the God who indwelt him which renders him unable to fulfil his function of dominion over the world around. Whenever man does fulfil this, then he is godlike, as well as, to coin a word, ‘God-able’. Man has the capacity to be godlike (that is the image of God), but the likeness of God, the actual manifestation of godlikeness, has been lost and is found again only in the new creation. Without godlikeness, man becomes the most dangerous animal on the face of the earth. Postscript

Let me briefly review what we have previously learned from these seven chapters. We live on the most diverse planetary solar system. Its vast richness is revealed when we explore the variety of our world’s landscapes. Some five billion years ago our solar system took form. More than two hundred million years ago earth’s super continent Pangaea began to separate. New coast lines, continents, islands, and mountain ranges were formed in massive upheaval. The greatest places began to take shape. This rich variety of landscapes is found only on the planet earth. To explore these greatest places is to recognize our common bond that we share a miraculous home, the most diverse planet in the solar system, perhaps the most diverse in the whole universe. Only on this planet have elemental processes combined to create so many great places, life forms, water, and air. The unending partnership of predator and prey, forming one life, gives way to many others. Here in the Cradle of Life and everywhere we are both witness and participant in the earth’s most intricate patterns of the land and life. Everywhere the procession of life is the reflection of the landscape. You and I, and all the species on earth reflect a piece of earth. You are a piece of earth! Everything is interrelated. In dynamic equilibrium one generation follows another. In this Eden of life, as in all places diversity of life is 162 Rush to Riches linked to the land, air and water and the patterns of landscape they form. When man first appeared on earth he realized very little the role of the environment surrounding him. Based on the then existing knowledge, he lived within the provisions of earth’s natural surroundings. This, in effect, did not disturb the equilibrium between man and the planet earth. Perhaps this could have been due to the absence of scientific knowledge and technologies then! As millenniums moved ahead, man on earth grew curious of his surroundings and started exploring, which finally ended up in exploiting or plundering the planet. Such explorations increased curiosity more and more. Unfortunately, this kind of approach leads to technological inventions, many a time serving only the greed. Greed ushered in racism, slavery, territories, kingdoms, mining, transportations, modernization industrialization, consumption, warfare, and advancements in all associated areas of man’s greed. Human beings multiplied and their curiosities increased, leading to discoveries and developments in all areas surrounding his living on the planet earth! To an extent these developments that we see today on this planet were almost beyond the imagination of men living in the seventeenth or the eighteenth century. In the course of development, ultimately, man declared war on creation. During the start of this warfare, man did not realize that he was disturbing the environment equation of planet earth. The natural world will only be more secure when humanity, collectively, treats all of creation with respect and ethical sensibility of panentheism. We must look to our hearts and learn to responsibly respond to life and with love, not with fear or anger or power and control gained through new theories, policies, laws, drugs, technological innovations, and military weapons. By living in reverence for the sanctity and dignity of all life (including fish, chicken, beef, pork, etc.) of the God within all that is, we may become whole and enjoy a healthy and fulfilling life. In working toward assuring this for others, we may be more Postscript 163 certain in securing it for ourselves. In recognizing and respecting the kinship and personhood of all natural creations, ethical conduct toward them is to be held as a sacred obligation, a duty based not upon some legal or moral code, but upon a deeply felt and experienced spiritual connectedness with the entire creation. This was the conscious basis for lawful and moral behaviour. Reverence for life and the necessity to exploit life for our own wellbeing are not mutually exclusive. Rather our wellbeing is dependent upon both. A society that chooses to preserve Nature, to protect endangered species or a wilderness area for aesthetic or utilitarian reasons is acting out of self-interest. But a society that chooses to give Nature and the rights of animals equal and fair consideration, out of love and respect—rather than out of fear of divine retribution or of ecological catastrophe—would be very different. Humanity and the earth only can be saved when people wake up and see that they are causing the destruction of our planet, the health of all and of all being. As long as people stay in dependency and not change their attitude, behaviour and their worldview, there is little hope left that anything will change. I come to the conclusion that we do not need to save our planet, only ourselves. If humans disappear from earth, because of effects of climate change, the planet will recover, even after million years. This planet will not just die without fighting back. In order to deserve living here in the future, we need to change. Think about this, and if you feel like changing something on your way of living, start today, now by stopping the war on creation. If we take care of earth, it will take care of us. Earth is a creator and provider. “God has pitched His tent among us” (John 1:14), that makes Earth—a habitat of God, a place where God lives among His people and Nature—and all life, move and have their being in God. Nature has everything to sustain life with itself; it is right here with us. Earth is a miracle, if we believe in it. Indeed, Earth—is the Greatest Place of All. 164 Rush to Riches

For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering (Romans 8:19-23). Bibliography

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A Artisanal Mining, 92 Abdul Kalam, 84, 85, 129 Asoka, 86, 305, 306, 307, 349 Acid Mine Drainage, 95 Assyrian state, 115 acid rain 37, 44, 46, 142, 143, Auschwitz, 74, 208, 219, 220, 144,, 204, 226, 280, 332, 400 230, 267 Adaptation, 241 Additional processing, 89 B Aeronomy, 238 Babel, 118 African slave trade, 256 Bali dances, 51 agricultural revolution, 295 Bank Erosion, 154 Agriculture, 127, 266, 287, Barents Sea, 165, 166 337, 400, 403 Benedict XVI, Pope, 50, 345, Ahimsa, 329 347, 348, 357, 375 Alaska, 148, 163, 211 Bengal Tiger, 187 aquifers, 104, 105, 178, 185, Bhagavad Gita, 344, 379 186, 189, 190, 331, 347, 400 Biodegradable wastes, 133 172 Rush to Riches biodiversity hotspots, 393, Caspian Sea, 277 395 Centesimus Annus, 27, 50 Biodiversity loss, 14, 366 Chardin, Teilhard de, 302, biological extinctions, 331 308, 310, 313 Biomass Energy, 294 Charles Dickens, 24 biomass, 119, 157, 223 Chief Seattle, 378, 413, 414, 416 Bioneers, 384 chlorofluorocarbons, 196, 203, blue whale, 245 209, 232 boundless energy, 374 Christian dogma, 368 breathing of the earth, 196, Christian naturalist, 367 198 Christopher Columbus, 256 British East India Company, 262, 265 Churchill, Winston S., 37 buffering capacity, 144 City culture, 126 Business Week, 46 Coal Mining, 90 Cold War, 161, 162, 163, 164, C 168, 259 colonial era, 256 capitalism, 25, 27, 43, 47, 49, 50, 63, 66, 141, 305, 321, Communism, 56, 59, 208 410 Concentration Camps, 218, carbon debate, 240 259 carbon footprint, 59, 293, 400, Congo Basin, 276 403 Conservation, 79, 85, 87, 106, Carbon Rush, 42 150, 182, 187, 191, 277, 278, 363, 366, 392, 393, 409 carbon sink, 188 consumer capitalism, 410 Caritas in Veritate, 50, 345, 346, 347 Index 173

Consumption, 45, 48, 79, 97, desertification,30, 271, 374 100, 111, 116, 119, 127, 131, dharma, 305 140, 141, 229, 252, 254, 293, 296, 348, 366, 401, 403, 405 Dutch Disease, 27 Copenhagen, 188 dysfunction, 48 coral bleaching, 169, 170 cosmic awareness, 372, 377 E Cosmic Christ, 394 Easter night, 137 cosmic orphan, 73, 319 Eastern religions, 349, 350, 370 cosmic redemption, 310 Eckhart, Meister, 372, 373, cosmo-terrestrial field, 196, 378, 379 199 Ecological Footprint, 293 Crematorium, 229, 231 ecological refugees, 268 cyanobacteria, 239 ecological stewardship, 338 D ecophilosophy, 397 Ecosophy, 396, 397 Danilov-Danilyan, 31, 32 Eco-Spirituality, 331, 389 Dark Night of the Soul, 316, 317, 318 Ecosystem people, 69, 268 deep ecology, 343, 345, 346, Effluents, 113, 141, 142, 206, 347, 349, 378 207 Deforestation, 59, 87, 121, El Niño, 169, 170 126, 149, 151, 181, 194, 223, empty-forest syndrome, 276 271, 273, 275, 283, 285, 332, 334, 347 Enola Gay, 260 Dendrochronology, 214, 215, environmental degradation, 216 50, 51, 314, 331, 334, 348, 357, 385, 412 174 Rush to Riches

Environmental Protection future generations, 206, 327, Agency, 221 342 Environmental Protection, 221, 358, 361 G Environmental Revolution, Gaian homeostasis, 240 294 Gas Chambers, 217, 218, 219 Erosion, 41, 46, 70, 74, 93, 94, 95, 149, 150, 152, 153, 154, gathering force, 73 155, 156, 237, 386, 400 General Dyer, 261, 262 ethical capitalism, 40, 41 Gita, Bhagavad, 344, 379 Ethnosphere, 51 global dimming, 204, 234, Eugenics, 265 235, 236 excessive consumption, 56, 57 Global Ethic, 407, 408 Extermination Camps, 206 global poverty, 392 extraction, 39, 206 global superstorm, 32 Exxon Valdez, 148 global village, 76 Globalization One, 15, 26, 29 F Globalization Three, 27,28 fascism, 41 Globalization Two, 21, 27 First nature, 64 Gold Rush, 42 first world, 67, 68, 206 Great Depression, 21, 26, 258 Foreign Affairs, 97 Greatest Britons, 37 foundry waste, 113 green budgets, 41 Fourth World, 68 Greenland, 161, 163 Francis of Assisi, 367, 371, 379 Greenland, 193, 212, 213, 214, 237 Gulf of Mexico, 42 Index 175

Gulf Stream, 214 inorganic substances, 142 interdependence, 339, 353, 368, 372, 381, 383, 384 H inter-generational solidarity, habitat of God, 394 348 high global warming Iron Ore, 99, 102 potential, 227 irresponsible stewardship, Hildegard of Bingen, 372, 338 376, 377 Hiroshima, 74 J Holocaust, 74, 206, 207, 208, 218, 220, 230 Jesus Christ, 13, 80, 371, 380 Homo absurdus, 77 John of the Cross, 317 Homo novus, 75 John Paul II, Pope, 26, 50 human culture, 117, 126, 320, Julian Huxley, 308, 311 242, 329, 337, 398, 406, Julian of Norwich, 372, 374, Hunters and Gatherers, 71, 375, 379, 380, 381 306, 321, 390, 411

K I Kalam, Abdul, 84, 85, 129 Indigenous traditions, 356 Karl Marx, 26, 50 Indus Valley Civilization, 193 Kerala, 100, 172 industrial effluent, 142 kingdom of God, 14, 15, 388 Industrial Revolution, 21, 22, Kirilian photography, 406 25, 66, 174, 359 Kursk, 165, 166, 168 industrial waste, 141, 142 Kyoto Protocol, 35 Inflated Lifestyles, 37 176 Rush to Riches

Montreal Protocol, 209, 229, 232 L Motherhood of God, 379 landfill, 131, 132, 135 Mountaintop Removal landslide, 152 Mining, 91 liberation theology, 374 Movement, 22, 27, 29, 152, 197, 227 , 261, 265, 267, lithosphere, 137 269, 294, 298, 332, 358, 372, Lithosphere, 78, 96, 97, 129, 374, 389, 397 130, 134, 135, 137 London, 116, 375 N natural ore, 99 M Navajo chant, 395 Madagascar, 149, 396 Necropolis, 116, 120, 122, 124 malaria, 158, 396 neodymium, 109, 110 mangrove forest, 187, 188 New World, 378 Manufactured Sand, 112 Nile Virus, 158 Mars, 139, 158 non-biodegradable waste, Marshall Plan, 386 133 Marx, Karl, 26, 50 Norman Myers, 395 Mathew Fox, 372 nuclear war, 162 Mechtild of Magdenburg, O 372, 377, 379 obesity, 51 Mediterranean Sea, 165 ocean currents, 33 Meister Eckhart, 372, 373, 378, 379 Ocean Energy, 294 mine closure, 88 oil spill, 42, 145, 146, 147, 148 Index 177

Old World, 15,16 Placer Mining, 91 Oliver Twist, 24 plastic bags, 131 omnivores, 254, 268 plate tectonics, 138, 139 Open Pit Mining, 90 Pokhran, 95, 96 Operation Enduring Polar Ice, 160 Freedom, 86 polar ice, 233 Operation Reinhard, 207, 220 Pope Benedict XVI, 50, 345, Opus tripartitum, 373 347, 348, 357, 375 Organic wastes, 133, 142 Pope John Paul II, 26, 50 Ottoman Empire, 257 population growth, 51, 139, 189, 255, 367 Overfishing, 36, 181, 182, 183 Population Reference Bureau, overpopulation, 59, 151 129 ozone layer, 13, 40 Populorum Progressio, 26, 27 Ozone Layer, 13, 229, 231, 233 Powerful Tool, 357 Prince William Sound, 148 P proselytizing tradition, 356 panpsychism, 370 Protean man, 74, 77 Patron Saint of Ecology, 372 Publican, 315 Pentagon, 87 Pygmies, 71 permafrost, 156, 157 Permafrost, 210 Q permafrost, 271 Quadragesimo Anno, 26 Pharisee, 315, 316 photosynthesis, 139, 160 R photosynthesis, 244, 271 178 Rush to Riches radioactive tailings, 105 Russian Ecological Union, 31 Rare Earth Metals, 106 Raymond Dasmann, 268 S Raymond Dasmann, 58 sacrifice, 314 recycling, 103, 108, 133, 134, sacrifice, 409, 410, 411 135 San Damiano, 371 Recycling, 142 scapegoat, 368 recycling, 286, 386 second nature, 64 Redemptor hominis, 339 Second World, 66, 67, 68 renewable energy, 293 Sequoia tree, 245 reptilian brain, 282, 319, 320, 321 Serengeti Plain, 151 reptilian trait, 80 sharing, 14, 28, 82, 98, 249, 409, 410, 412 Rerum Novarum, 25, 26, 27 Shark Finning, 253 resource curse, 37, 39, 89 Sheet Erosion, 152 Respiratory problems, 159, 204 silicosis, 94 Rhineland Mystics, 372 six ecological themes, 372 Rill Erosion, 153 slavery, 19, 20, 61, 127, 254, 257, 321, 334, 335, 388 Romanus Pontifex, 18, 19 Slumping, 152 Rowllat Act, 261 societal addiction, 57 Runaway economic growth, 47 societal disorder, 57 runoff, 135, 143, 150, 152, 157, soil microorganisms, 133 178, 280, 386 solar energy, 233, 294 Rush to Riches, 127, 321 solar radiation, 216, 225, 226, Index 179

234 Third World, 17, 66, 67, 95, 111, 141 Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 27, 339 toxic sewage, 142 South Pole, 231, 233 toxic wastes, 35 Spanish colonialism, 255 toxification, 13 Stephen Hawking, 32 tropical forest, 149 stratosphere, 216, 231 Strip Mining, 90 U stromatolites, 239 UN’s Intergovernmental Sublimus Dei, 19 Panel on Climate, 32, 233 Successful adaptation, 242 United Kingdom’s Hadley Sunderbans, 187, 188, 277 Center, 34 Super Organism, 199 United Nations Environment Surface Creep, 152 Program, 36, 54 survival of the fittest, 321 V symbiosis, 79 Vasco da Gama, 20 T vegetable matter, 71 Taj Mahal, 144 Vernadsky, 301, 302, 308 Teilhard de Chardin, 302, volcanism, 138 308, 310, 313 The biological pump, 176 W The Environmental Kuznets Theory, 30 water stress, 139, 189 The Mission, 19 web of life, 14, 52, 291, 323, 339, 344,360, 368, 384, 415 Thermal Erosion, 156 Werewolf, 368 180 Rush to Riches western medieval world, 370 Zaire, 286 western rationalism, 376 William Shakespeare, 325 Wind Energy, 294 Wind erosion, 155 Winston S. Churchill, 37 world community, 378, 409 World Dietetic Association, 402 World population, 31 World War I, 261, 334 World War II, 43, 66 255, 257, 259, 260, 265, 334 World Wide Web, 21, 311, 313 wounded cosmos, 387 Wounded Noosphere, 314, 349

Y Yangtze River, 151 Yellow River, 151 Younce, 363, 364

Z