The Ecological Citizen Vol 2 No 1 2018 Contents
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The Vol 2 No 1 2018 Ecological ISSN 2515-1967 A peer-reviewed journal Citizen www.ecologicalcitizen.net Advancing ecological knowledge | Championing Earth-centred action | Inspiring ecocentric citizenship IN THIS ISSUE Thinking about death Why living ecologically means dying ecologically Page 23 Lies, misconceptions and global agriculture One of the issue’s several food-themed articles Page 77 AN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL No article access fees | No publication charges | No financial affiliations About the Journal www.ecologicalcitizen.net The An ecocentric, peer-reviewed, Ecological free-to-access journal EC Citizen ISSN 2515-1967 Cover photo A vegetable farmer watering Aims Copyright plants on an organic farm 1 Advancing ecological knowledge The copyright of the content belongs to in Boung Phao Village, Lao 2 Championing Earth-centred action the authors, artists and photographers, People’s Democratic Republic 3 Inspiring ecocentric citizenship unless otherwise stated. However, there is (ADB; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0; 4 Promoting ecocentrism in political debates no limit on printing or distribution of PDFs https://creativecommons.org/ 5 Nurturing an ecocentric lexicon downloaded from the website. licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/). Content alerts Translations Sign up for alerts at: We invite individuals wishing to translate www.ecologicalcitizen.net/#signup pieces into other languages, helping enable the Journal to reach a wider audience, to contact Social media us at: www.ecologicalcitizen.net/contact.html. Follow the Journal on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EcolCitizen A note on terminology Like the Journal on Facebook: Because of the extent to which some non- www.facebook.com/TheEcologicalCitizen ecocentric terms are embedded in the English language, it is sometimes necessary Editorial opinions for a sentence to deviate from a perfectly Opinions expressed in the Journal do not ecocentric grounding. The ‘natural world’ necessarily reflect those of each member of and ‘environment’, for instance, both split the Editorial Board. humans from the rest of nature but in some cases are very difficult to avoid without Advertising creating overly complex phrases. For usage No money is received for the placement of notes relating to terms such as these, when advertisements in the Journal. they appear in the Journal, along with other language considerations, please visit: Finances www.ecologicalcitizen.net/lexicon.html. The Journal is run with minimal costs by a staff of volunteers. The small costs that do Typesetting exist are covered by small, unrestricted, The Journal is typeset in Merriweather private donations. There are no charges for and Merriweather Sans, both of which are publication and no fees to access any of the typefaces with an Open Font Licence that content. have been designed by Eben Sorkin. “The health of the planet is not endangered by the small stuff. The major peril for Earth is high-energy industrial activity of one kind or another paired with population growth.” Stan Rowe 2 The Ecological Citizen Vol 2 No 1 2018 www.ecologicalcitizen.net Contents The Ecological Citizen | Vol 2 No 1 2018 Editorial Life’s catastrophe: An angry editorial 5 Ian Whyte Opinions How the deep-snow caribou’s plunge towards extinction reveals Canada’s conservation hypocrisy 11 Anne Sherrod and Trevor Goward Can edible insects really reduce our ecological footprint and save wild species? 13 Charlotte LR Payne Why I’m vegan 15 Michael Anderson Reflections Ethical responsibilities in invasion biology 17 Emily C Parke and James C Russell Long articles On dying ecologically in the Anthropocene 23 Joshua Trey Barnett Eating animals: An ecocentric perspective 33 Rob Percival Transforming human life on our home planet, perennially 43 Wes Jackson, Aubrey Streit Krug, Bill Vitek and Robert Jensen Immigration and population: The interlinked ecological crisis that dares not speak its name 51 Colin Hines The insanity of endless growth 57 Haydn Washington and Helen Kopnina The economic legacy of the Holocene 67 Lisi Krall Lies, misconceptions and global agriculture 77 Colin Tudge The pricing of everything 89 George Monbiot Featured artists Book and culture reviews This issue also features Being Salmon, Being Human: Encountering the wild in us and us in the wild, by Martin Lee Mueller 97 artworks by Ben Walker, John J Piccolo Jake Grewal, Randy Cutler, Sylvia Grace Borda Poetry and prose section and Wassili Lepanto, as well as the collective Works by Robinson Jeffers, Walt Whitman, William Blake, Pablo Neruda, Ray Keenoy, Squirrel Nation and the Gina Marie Bernard, Patrick Curry, Rachel White and Victor Postnikov. 103 technoanimal avatar Selected by Victor Postnikov Alien Ontology. The Ecological Citizen Vol 2 No 1 2018 3 Editorial Board www.ecologicalcitizen.net Editor-in-Chief David Blackwell John J Piccolo Patrick Curry Educator and Nature-lover Associate Professor in Writer and Scholar Halifax, NS, Canada Environmental and Life Sciences London, UK Susana Borràs Pentinat Karlstad, Sweden Lecturer in Public International Law Deborah Rose Associate Editors Tarragona, Spain Adjunct Professor in Eileen Crist Tom Butler Environmental Humanities Writer and Teacher Writer and Activist Sydney, NSW, Australia Blacksburg, VA, USA Huntington, VT, USA Coyote Alberto Ruz Buenfil Adam Dickerson Nigel Cooper Environmental and Social Activist Writer and Gardener Chaplain and Biologist Huehuecoyotl Ecovillage, Mexico Gundaroo, NSW, Australia Cambridge, UK Vandana Shiva Joe Gray Paul Cryer Scholar and Environmental Activist Naturalist and Researcher Conservationist Delhi, India St Albans, UK Hillcrest, South Africa Steve Szeghi Ian Whyte Cormac Cullinan Professor of Economics Field Naturalist Environmental Attorney and Author Wilmington, OH, USA Ottawa, ON, Canada Cape Town, South Africa Bron Taylor John Davis Professor of Religion, Nature Wildways Trekker and Environmental Ethics Art Editor Westport, NY, USA Gainesville, FL, USA Stephanie Moran Alan Watson Featherstone Andrew Walton Artist and Librarian Founder and Visionary – Trees for Life Bioregionalist London, UK Findhorn, UK Birmingham, UK Mumta Ito Haydn Washington Art Advisor Lawyer, Zoologist and Environmental Scientist Salomón Bazbaz Lapidus Founder – Nature’s Rights and Activist Director – Cumbre Tajín Festival Forres, UK Sydney, NSW, Australia Papantla de Olarte, Mexico Marjolein Kok Rachel Waters Environmental Activist and Researcher Academic and Advocacy Journalist Poetry Editor Utrecht, the Netherlands Brooklyn, NY, USA Victor Postnikov Helen Kopnina Fiona Wilton Poet, Essayist and Translator Environmental Anthropologist Programme Coordinator Kiev, Ukraine Leiden, the Netherlands – Gaia Foundation Joseph Lambert Colombia/Uruguay Consulting Editors Researcher in Earth Jurisprudence Doug Woodard Sandy Irvine Brighton, UK Environmentalist Political Activist Sandra Lubarsky St Catharines, ON, Canada Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK Scholar in Sustainability George Wuerthner Ted Mosquin Flagstaff, AZ, USA Photographer, Author and Activist Naturalist Michelle Maloney Bend, OR, USA Lanark, ON, Canada Lawyer and National Peter Jingcheng Xu Convenor of AELA Researcher in Literature Editorial Advisors Brisbane, QLD, Australia Beijing, China David Abram Alexandra Marcelino Mersha Yilma Cultural Ecologist and Geophilosopher Jurist in Environmental Law Practitioner of Earth Jurisprudence Upper Rio Grande Valley, NM, USA Lisbon, Portugal Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Melinda Alfano Maria Carolina Negrini Suzanne York Graduate in Water Resources Lawyer Director – Transition Earth New York, NY, USA São Paolo, Brazil San Francisco, CA, USA Oussou Lio Appolinaire Vanja Palmers Practitioner of Earth Jurisprudence Buddhist Teacher promoting Animal Rights Avrankou, Benin Lucerne, Switzerland María Valeria Berros Alessandro Pelizzon Researcher in Rights of Nature Researcher in Earth-Centred Law Santa Fe, Argentina Lismore, NSW, Australia 4 The Ecological Citizen Vol 2 No 1 2018 www.ecologicalcitizen.net EDITORIAL Life’s catastrophe: An angry editorial “There is no right way to do a wrong thing.” editorial I’ll focus on agriculture, and “the Ian Whyte – An old saying used by Doug Tompkins erasure of non-human life from the land by farming,” as George Monbiot puts it About the author (Monbiot, 2017). Ian is a naturalist who lives he human enterprise is eradicating Before I begin, I’d like it to be clear that I in Ottawa, ON, Canada. He non-human life on Earth. The WWF’s write, unapologetically, as an amateur field is Associate Editor of the TLiving Planet Report 2016 reveals that, naturalist and specifically not as an academic, Journal. worldwide, wildlife populations declined scientist or environmental professional. Citation by 58% between 1970 (itself too late for As such, I feel no compulsion to restrict Whyte I (2018) Life’s a proper base year) and 2012, with the myself to statements that can be ‘rigorously catastrophe: An angry expectation that this decline will reach 67% proved’. My personal observations, the editorial. The Ecological Citizen by 2020 (W W F, 2016). In Canada, my home, weight of evidence, and the precautionary, 2: 5–10. the situation is similar: half of 903 species reverse-onus, creeping-baseline, and least- monitored saw population declines over the harm principles are some of my guiding Keywords same period, and the average for half of these lights. I interpret these through the lens of Agriculture; sixth mass was a population loss of 83% (WWF-Canada, an ecocentric value system. extinction; societal change 2017). Recent reports from Germany