Shrinking forests, expanding deserts, failing water, eroding soils, collapsing fisheries, rising temperatures, melting ice, rising seas, and increasingly destructive storms. Humanity is fucked. It is bad, really bad. The Earth is being roiled by humanity's ill-conceived procreation and destruction of ecosystems. The biological fabric of being is being trashed as the human impact festers and spreads like a deadly disease.

The quest for more stuff is destroying the atmosphere, water, forests and oceans we need to live. We already as a species and planet are in ecological overshoot - whereby our impacts exceed the Earth's regenerative capacity. Deaths from Haiti to Indonesia to New Orleans are precursors to complete ecosystem and societal collapse, though it is not recognized by the growth machine's media and political apologists.

To be frank it is difficult to imagine how a way will be found to overcome individual human avarice, to develop a concept of humanity limiting itself to maintain its habitat. Pigs know not to shit where they sleep, but not humans. Most humans are automatons with tunnel vision, incognizant of their role in Gaia - the global ecological system. If one rules out coercion, the question I frequently grapple with is how to reach such ecologically challenged beings through persuasion?

I would suggest an Earth Revolution, lawful if possible - that reforms the economy to sustainability, limits population while aiding the poor, and establishes the basis for sustainable energy, ecosystems and living - is an absolute necessity. What is required is known and ready: renewable energy, alternative transportation, a rejection of militarism, diversion of resources towards basic human and ecosystem needs.

What is needed is a vast movement of global citizens to overthrow the whole rotten Earth destroying system and replace it with a green, just and equitable utopia. Given trends, and knowing doing nothing leads inevitably to ecosystem collapse and mass death, we must try. Or we can wait for the Earth to shrug humanity off like a bug and biological evolution to be set back by hundreds of millions of years. It is even possible all of the Earth's life may be lost.

Achieving global ecological sustainability is the challenge and promise of our age. We must live simply, laugh often, and love deeply - undergoing a profound transformation in our relation to the Earth and each other - or we shall all die a grisly death.

A Life of Sacrifice and Devotion to the Earth

I am not particularly likeable but I know truth when I see it. The Earth is dying, and this makes me feel depressed. Recently when considering my sour moods, it came to me that despite having made my share of mistakes and a troubled family history, that I am successfully living a life of sacrifice for the benefit of the Earth and humanity. How better to live a life?

For the last fifteen years I have consistently worked 100+ hour weeks educating myself on the Earth's ecological crisis in order to then do something about it. My interest and knowledge regarding ecology began around the kitchen table listening to drunken relatives and family friends discussing the environment in the 1970s. My family was part of the era's back to the Earth movement, and we practiced homesteading for much of our food.

Following a stint in the Peace Corps in Papua New Guinea where I fell in love with the rainforests, which coincided with the advent of the Internet in the late 1980s, I began conceiving and then preparing novel methods to use this global network on behalf of ecological systems. During these years I helped stop or delay logging of millions of hectares of PNG rainforest.

Somewhere along the line I guess you could say I became obsessed. I was extremely angry with what was happening to the Earth, and could think of or talk about little else. I worked several jobs at a time as I put myself through graduate school, starting what would later become Ecological Internet, while supporting a new family. Despite being plagued by depression, anxiety, anger, abuse and chemical dependence, I persisted.

Unfortunately, sacrifice for the cause meant I began to alienate friends and family that were not interested in much beyond their own gratification, and thought it strange that someone would work and sacrifice as I did for the ideal of global ecological sustainability. And frankly, while frequently I may have been unbearable, commitment was just as often mistaken for egotism.

Having paid my dues and having achieved modest success, I am putting my personal life back together. Now after a painful divorce, buying my childhood home (now with a flooded basement under 8" of water, but that is another story), and quitting a cushy University job to work on Ecological Internet; I find myself in rural Wisconsin practicing ecological living, while making and running the world's largest environmental portals.

The world headquarters of Ecological Internet is a 140 year old log farmhouse on seven acres. There I spend my days getting up at six and usually working until eleven. This requires about 5 hours a day to gather news and update websites. I usually work on one big project for another 5 hours - recently the new rainforest site and version 2.0 climate, water and environment portals. There is usually an hour of two of email. And then there are all the other chores to run a one person non-profit - bookkeeping, coordinating volunteers, fund-raising, etc.

Am I happy? Yes, mostly. But more importantly as far as I am concerned, does my life matter in regard to the Earth? Yes, I believe so, though more could be done given proper resources. It is gratifying to feel that you are making a difference in the name of truth, ecology and human survival. Do I worry? Yes, about my health, about whether my daughter knows how much I love her and my ability to be a father from afar, about whether I can make a living doing this, about whether I will grow old alone, and about whether climate change and ecological collapse will kill us all quickly or slowly.

The sacrifice entailed in devotion to the Earth has definitely been worth it. Much has been achieved as ecological advocacy systems are now fully in place, yet much remains to be done.

Ecological Internet

Ecological Internet takes a biocentric, uncompromising position; espousing policies sufficient to achieve global ecological sustainability. Lots of environmental efforts play it safe; building their little empires from the crisis, espousing what is easy and inadequate. Others like myself throw their whole being such as it is at the problem every day. You must decide whether your charitable giving will support an environmental bureaucrat or a lawful revolutionary with a powerful vision.

Ecological Internet believes in speaking ecological truth and using the Internet to achieve environmental conservation. We are almost entirely supported by small donors, as the foundation grant-making process is so time-consuming and stifling of rigorous grassroots efforts adequate to solve environmental problems.

During our last fund-raiser, Ecological Internet exceeded our goal. The plethora of recent environmental victories and new web site development over the past six months shows what we can do when we have adequate resources. This fund-raiser's $25K goal will cover my salary of about $3K a month, and our basic networking and other expenses. If Ecological Internet is to be sustained, we simply need you, and the tens of thousands of others with whom we interact every day, to donate.

Even after achieving the goal we will still be under-financed and need additional funding for part-time staff and computer server upgrades. I would love to have more time writing and campaigning and less time doing repetitive tasks that could be done by staff. To this end we must pursue more small and mid-sized grants and sponsorships. Any ideas?

I will continue to soldier on as long as I can, but even my personal sacrifice has limits. I draw the line at going further into debt, as I already owe $40K from student loans, much that was spent for this project's incubation. Either Ecological Internet will learn to stand on its own, or I will quit and become a network administrator somewhere. Please save the Earth, reward my sacrifice and help me make a living, and make a gift to Ecological Internet at ecoearth.info/donate.

–  Glen Barry

Earth Meanders Earth Meanders is a series of personal essays that places questions of environmental sustainability within the context of other contemporary issues. Comments can be made, and past writings can be found, at: http://earthmeanders.blogspot.com. Emailed comments will be posted there as well. Permission is granted to reprint this essay provided it is properly credited. This article was first run on Sunday, May 14, 2006.

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