Bio-ethics in the age of extinction

Regarding averting the 6th mass extinction event, which would be the first to be caused by another species, namely us, the work of Edward O. Wilson immediately comes to mind with his recent book entitled Half Earth which was published in 2016. One of the arguments put forward in the book is that if we managed to change our diet by reducing meat intake on a global scale we could potentially liberate enough land from agricultural production for ecosystem restoration to prevent the 6th mass extinction. Another argument put forward in the book is that if everyone put half of whatever land, roof-space, window box, allotment, balcony or garden into use for biodiversity conservation, there would be enough space for wildlife to continue to live alongside our species, in both rural and urban settings. In other words relevant to both sustainable diets and ecosystem services. The philosophical ideas of E.O. Wilson were first put forward in his book Biophilia which argues that all humans have an innate urge to identify with and to ultimately protect nature. He argues that therefore the door (to a sustainable society) is already half open, we only need to fully embrace this at philosophical, political, economic, and at local and international governance levels (e.g. through the education and planning systems). Another ecological philosopher you may be interested in looking up is Alan Rayner, an evolutionary mycological ecologist turned philosopher and (bio)artist. His idea of the philosophy of natural inclusion allows us to re-orientate our identities and relationships around and into symbiosis with nature. He has several books, one called Degrees of Freedom - living in Dynamic Boundaries is published by Imperial College Press. Chapter 8 of this book includes how human society, economically and politically, can learn from mycosophy so that a sustainable society might inevitably emerge. Another book of his is called Nature Scope - which develops Natural Inclusion into a formal body of philosophy and ethics around protecting nature. Another book called The Origins of Life Patterns, published by Springer develops these ideas further. A famous Canadian bio-ethicist is David Suzuki who has written many works including the book Genethics - the ethics of engineering life (relevant to the sustainable diets pathway). A further ethics for nature advocate is Joanna Macey in her many works including her book World As Lover, World as Self, published by Parallax Press, Berkeley, California. Another writer on these themes, particularly ethics regarding biodiversity conservation and agriculture is Vandana Shiva in her many works including the book Staying Alive - women, ecology and development, published by Zed books. There is also Stewart Brand's book Whole Earth Discipline - an eco-pragmatist manifesto, published by Atlantic Press, London. Of course, there is also the wonderful Lynn Margulis with her body of works on the endosymbiont theory, which embraces the symbiotic partnership of species as the main way in which evolution operates. Her works would fit well into thinking about ecosystem services, but could also link to sustainable food production regarding the design of agricultural systems that enhance the co-habitation (symbiosis) of species in benefitial partnerships such as is practiced in Permaculture (the agricultural system that uses ecological design principles to integrate biodiversity and food production). Permaculture uses 3 ethics that feed into its design principles; these being Earth Share, People Care and Fair Share. Lynn Margulis was married briefly to Carl Sagan who wrote the book Cosmos - the story of cosmic evolution, science and civilisation, published by Abacus. In the final chapter, like in the first book I mentioned above by Alan Rayner, he sets out how human society can emerge ethically to embrace a sustainable epoch. Happy reading!

New Hope

After nearly two decades, thanks to the global youth climate strikes and extinction rebellions, the tide finally turns back towards positive global action for humanity and our planet. Our global civilisation now has a chance to deliver the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot make short film on the climate crisis

Carbon cycle and climate

The climate is warming fast around the World due principly to human industrial development that has caused a new loop to be added to the carbon cycle; one of our planet's major mineral and energy cycles. The new loop, which was absent until fossil fuels started to be burnt, causes reserves of carbon held deep underground to be released into the atmosphere. The burning of these fuels, starting with coal and ending with gas, has raised atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations which has effected the insulation and thickness of the atmosphere that traps heat energy which enters it; just like how a thicker duvet will trap more body heat. Heat gets into the atmosphere from two sources - not only from the sun (as has always been the case) but also from burning of fuels in the industrial era. The question is what can be done about it. This is the subject of much debate internationally within the IPCC, UN and within environmental organisaitons and universities. Mitigation and adaptation are both required. Sea level rise is occurring. Mean Pacific sea temperature is rising and species are going extinct 1000 times faster than the background rate of extinction without human impacts. Meanwhile political interests with multinational corporations are creating unhelpful system of alliances which include the media - which seek to confuse, delay and derail those measures so urgently needed and desired by international civil society. Meanwhile local weather patterns across the World, species migration patterns and species reproductive cycles have become often drastically interrupted and disrupted - contributing further to the rapid decline in global biodiversity. Other unhelpful aspects of the current situation remain ongoing wars over the control of oil fields, explored or to be discovered. Since 2001 the most positive political agendas of the late 1990's have nearly all been dropped from the international political agenda, kept alive now within NGO and UN bodies. This includes aspects of keeping to UN deadlines on halting losses to biodiversity, reducing cost of medication in developing countries and keeping to UN climate treaties e.g. Paris accord, Kyoto protocol and targets to introduce renewable energy and substitute fossil fuels for biologically derived and ecologically sustainable energy sources. The ongoing "war on terror" which itself is an infinite oxymoron, will eventually yield to a movement of people of the world who yearn to put their nationalities behind them in the humanitarian mission to find sustainable ways to live with their families in democracies linked through the UN. What is interesting about the "national interest" (so long confused with an industrial corporate agenda) is that it often blocks the pathways by which citizens of the world can learn to exist sustainably in just and peaceful societies.

research interests

* Biodiversity mapping & surveying
* Biodiversity monitoring
* Biodiversity Action Planning for farms
* Community Links To Land
* Releasing agriculture from fossil fuel dependence
* Comparison between organic, biodynamic and permaculture methods
* Effects of grazing on biodiversity of grassland habitats
* The efficiency of food production with or without livestock
* Use of farms as local education catalysts for the arts and sciences

The Conservation Conversation

I am interested in conversations around molecular ecology, environment and evolution.

Where to start? Well how about the molecular reality we are living in! Each one of us consist of about 200 billion cells living in metazoan community. Each cell contains millions of macro-molecules recognised as part of the biochemical cyctoplasmic metabolism. Each protein may chaperone or direct the reactions of thousands of much smaller molecules which form part of the earth's natural atmospheric, aqueous and mineral environment. These small molecules criss cross between the dynamic context of membranes between cells, tissues, individuals, populations and the abiotic and biotic factors of our planet. Due to counterbalancing positive and negative feedback effects, subtle changes to the concentrations of any of these components can effect large or micro changes to the overall balance of these systems - at vastly differing scales. Understanding how these processes have contributed to evolution may enable us to better conserve the diversity of species we share our beautiful planet with.

Ecology as a branch of biological science

Here is a link to a document I once wrote for some Masters Students who had all done Arts degrees but were interested to find out more about the scientific method.