An Ecological Internet Prophet Soothsaying Doomsday
Posted by pwl on October 18, 2010
The Facebook user “Ecological Internet” makes some rather alarming statements:
“Earth poised to ecologically collapse bringing down biosphere, humanity & most if not all creatures. Avoidable but requires increase in knowledge & immediate biocentric action. – Ecological Internet on Facebook”
“We know Earth dying and being for all creatures coming to an end – deal with it and commit to reversing – or you are the problem.” – Ecological Internet on Facebook
I came across a rather alarming group on Facebook called “Ecological Internet” which seems to be connected to the web sites:
“Eco-news micro-blog & community for biocentric thought & action from home of Earth’s largest & most used rainforest, climate, water & environmental web portals including: http://www.climateark.org http://www.ecoearth.info
http://forests.org “.
But wait, there’s more, much more info: “Ecological Internet’s projects include:
EcoEarth.Info — http://www.EcoEarth.Info
Climate Ark — http://www.climateark.org
Forests.org — http://forests.org
Water Conserve — http://www.waterconserve.org
Rainforest Portal — http://www.rainforestportal.org
Ocean Conserve — http://www.oceanconserve.org
My.EcoEarth.Info — http://My.EcoEarth.info
New Earth Rising e-zine — http://www.newearthrising.orgEarth Action Network Current Alerts: http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/
Subscribe to low volume, highly effective “Earth Action Network” at: http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/subscribe/
Campaigns: http://www.ecoearth.info/campaigns/
Earth’s Newsdesk: http://www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/
Sustainability Solutions Initiative — http://www.ecoearth.info/ssi/
Dr. Glen Barry, President, bio: http://www.ecoearth.info/staff/glen.asp”
Ok let’s read about Dr. Glen Barry.
“Dr. Glen Barry is the President and Founder of Ecological Internet (EI). He is recognized internationally by the environmental movement as a leading global visionary, environmental policy critic and public intellectual committed to communicating the severity of global ecological crises and actively organizing with others sufficient responses. He is an independent political ecologist, a writer of essays and blogs, and a computer specialist and technology researcher.
Dr. Barry’s tireless use of the Internet to address global ecological change has been described as providing “the global ecological conscience” necessary to pursue and achieve global ecological sustainability. He has specialized for years in the use of the Internet to facilitate environmental conservation, where his many innovations include inventing blogging in 1993 (for which he is deepy sorry 😉
Ecological Internet specializes in the construction of environmental portals with unique information retrieval tools and original analysis. EI’s web sites (Climate Ark, Forests.org, EcoEarth.Info, Water Conserve, Ocean Conserve, Rainforest Portal and New Earth Rising) are widely recognized as premier environmental news, information and analysis web sites, and enjoy wide use from around the world. As EI’s President, Dr. Barry carries out a range of duties requiring disparate proficiencies including ecological research, campaign strategizing, computer programming and NGO management.
Dr. Barry holds a Ph.D. in “Land Resources” from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Masters of Science in “Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development” also from Madison, and a Bachelor of Arts in “Political Science” from Marquette University. His research has been into use of the Internet to facilitate conservation outcomes, where his scholarly insights have been repeatedly tested through years of observation of actual Internet campaigns he has organized on behalf of the Earth. As an independent ecological scientist deeply committed to environmental sustainability, his rainforest conservation, climate protection and Internet campaigning have been supported by the MacArthur Foundation, Google Grants and many others. He has worked within academia, multi-lateral organizations and non-governmental organizations.
Dr. Barry is married, with two well trained golden retrievers. He lives in rural Wisconsin where he practices green living. He enjoys walking, reading, tree planting, gardening, traveling and movies. He frequently speaks publicly and to the media on global environmental issues, having been featured recently in interviews by sources as diverse as the LA Times, BBC, Iranian Press TV, Voice of America and many local radio programs. Please contact Dr. Barry for interviews regarding forest, climate, water and environmental conservation and sustainability.”
Ok, Dr. Barry is a prophet of doom given his message.
What got my attention was some of the statements about the Earth and it’s state of health on the face book “Ecological Internet” page which you can read and follow here: facebook.com/ecointernet if you’re brave enough or have the stomach strong enough for a constant diatribe of a prophet of doom soothsaying doomsday with almost every post.
“Earth poised to ecologically collapse bringing down biosphere, humanity & most if not all creatures. Avoidable but requires increase in knowledge & immediate biocentric action.” – Ecological Internet
“Read the science: Planetary Boundaries http://bit.ly/cESQGe [http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/docfeed/planetary_boundaries.pdf] – 3 of 9 critical thresholds for planetary survival – climate, biodiversity & nitrogen – found to have already been surpassed. EI’s ecological-science based apocalyptic predictions of global ecosystem collapse are knowledge based, visionary and not exaggerated. Ignore at own peril.”
– Ecological Internet
http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/docfeed/planetary_boundaries.pdf
Ok, let’s look at the Abstract from the above linked paper:
“ABSTRACT. Anthropogenic pressures on the Earth System have reached a scale where abrupt global environmental change can no longer be excluded. We propose a new approach to global sustainability in which we define planetary boundaries within which we expect that humanity can operate safely. Transgressing one or more planetary boundaries may be deleterious or even catastrophic due to the risk of crossing thresholds that will trigger non-linear, abrupt environmental change within continental- to planetary-scale systems.”
Ok, hold on. They are the ones “defining” these alleged “planetary boundaries”. The are proposing imaginary lines drawn in the sand and then saying that if these lines are crossed we’re doomed to abrupt catastrophic change. Wow, that’s certainly alarmist but not in the sense that a known asteroid is going to hit the Earth, more in their imagination.
Let’s see the rest of the abstract.
We have identified nine planetary boundaries and, drawing upon current scientific understanding, we propose quantifications for seven of them. These seven are climate change (CO2 concentration in the atmosphere <350 ppm and/or a maximum change of +1 W m-2 in radiative forcing); ocean acidification (mean surface seawater saturation state with respect to aragonite ³ 80% of pre-industrial levels); stratospheric ozone (<5% reduction in O3 concentration from pre-industrial level of 290 Dobson Units); biogeochemical nitrogen (N) cycle (limit industrial and agricultural fixation of N2 to 35 Tg N yr-1) and phosphorus (P) cycle (annual P inflow to oceans not to exceed 10 times the natural background weathering of P); global freshwater use (<4000 km3 yr-1 of consumptive use of runoff resources); land system change (<15% of the ice-free land surface under cropland); and the rate at which biological diversity is lost (annual rate of <10 extinctions per million species). The two additional planetary boundaries for which we have not yet been able to determine a boundary level are chemical pollution and atmospheric aerosol loading. We estimate that humanity has already transgressed three planetary boundaries: for climate change, rate of biodiversity loss, and changes to the global nitrogen cycle. Planetary boundaries are interdependent, because transgressing one may both shift the position of other boundaries or cause them to be transgressed. The social impacts of transgressing boundaries will be a function of the social–ecological resilience of the affected societies. Our proposed boundaries are rough, first estimates only, surrounded by large uncertainties and knowledge gaps. Filling these gaps will require major advancements in Earth System and resilience science. The proposed concept of “planetary boundaries” lays the groundwork for shifting our approach to governance and management, away from the essentially sectoral analyses of limits to growth aimed at minimizing negative externalities, toward the estimation of the safe space for human development. Planetary boundaries define, as it were, the boundaries of the “planetary playing field” for humanity if we want to be sure of avoiding major human-induced environmental change on a global scale.
“Our proposed boundaries are rough, first estimates only, surrounded by large uncertainties and knowledge gaps.” – Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity.
Indeed, no doubt about “rough”. Certainly nothing that predicts the end of the world as Dr. Barry claims in his Ecological Internet posts.
“UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment http://bit.ly/EI_MA [http://www.maweb.org/en/index.aspx] – 15 of 24 ecosystems essential to life beyond sustainable limits. EI is not alarmist, read the global ecological change scientific literature.” – Ecological Internet
This particular posting was such an alarm ringer that I was stunned by it’s sheer prophetic audacity:
“Ecological and global change science’s predictions are not alarmism, rather are best knowledge available regarding collapsing climate, biodiversity, ecosystem, ocean & water. We know Earth dying and being for all creatures coming to an end – deal with it and commit to reversing – or you are the problem.” – Ecological Internet
What? Wow. That’s quite the statement. “We know Earth dying”?
Please. Please. Please. Provide hard evidence, not just stories, but actual hard scientific evidence for your wild alarmist claim – and that for sure is what it is, alarmist and wild and certainly extraordinary.
“extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” – Carl Sagan
So please stand and deliver.
Also you don’t know much about predictions it seems. Let’s have a professional educate you.
“None of the models used by IPCC are initialized to the observed state and none of the climate states in the models correspond even remotely to the current observed climate.” – Roger A. Pielke Sr., Meteorology, Climatology, Earth System Science
There is also the philosophy of science that you’re ignoring Dr Barry.
“The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.” – Thomas Henry Huxley”
You guys [Ecological Internet aka Dr. Barry, et. al.] are scaring yourselves and alarming others with “could be’s” and “may be’s” of dubious quality. Conjecture is not factual hard science with hard evidence.
“I’m trying to find out NOT how Nature could be, but how Nature IS.” – Richard Feynman
“Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.” – H. L. Mencken
Let’s look at this gem: “Ignore at own peril.” – Ecological Internet
That sounds like a threat of some kind. I gather Dr. Barry that you’re of like mind as the 10:10 Eco-Terrorists who recently put out a ECO-SNUFF video mass murdering people who asked questions and didn’t immediately believe your wild claims.
“collapsing climate” sure sounds “alarmist”.
“We know Earth dying and being for all creatures coming to an end – deal with it and commit to reversing – or you are the problem.” – Ecological Internet
That statement certainly IS alarmist beyond any doubt.
Dr. Barry, you’re saying that you “believe” that the Earth is “dying” and that “being for all creatures [is] coming to an end“. Dr. Barry you’re soothsaying doomsday without a doubt. Don’t even bother to deny that, you’re saying the Earth is dying and that all life will come to an end. Wow. That’s quite the extraordinary statement, the end of life on Earth. Alarmist beyond any doubt. You’re attempting to raise the alarm so I don’t see why you’d not say, “Yes it is alarmist”.
Please provide any evidence that any peer reviewed scientific paper is saying that the “Earth is dying” or that “being for all creatures [is] coming to an end“. Thanks.
Me thinks you’ve been drinking too much of your own cool-aid there doc Barry and are now running around with placards saying it’s the end of the world and end of all life.
“We know Earth dying and being for all creatures coming to an end – deal with it and commit to reversing – or you are the problem.” – Ecological Internet
If that statement isn’t the alarmist drum beat of blame I don’t know what is.
Please don’t blame people for not understanding your alarmist soothsaying of doomsday end of the world all life is ending message Ecological Internet, er Dr. Glen Barry. When you claim the world is ending and that all life on Earth will die as if it’s a certainly next week you loose any credibility you might have. Maybe that is why people don’t get your message since it’s obviously is just so absurd given the varied history of the planet (with higher temps multiple times in the past ~8,200 years, or much higher levels of CO2 with life flourishing for example).
How about you learn to communicate without the alarmism drumbeat and doomsday is here bad attitude?
How about you learn to calmly present facts or alleged facts you can back up and let others independently verify?
Just because you believe it’s the end of the world and the death of all life on Earth doesn’t make it true Dr. Glen Barry.
Anyway, Ecological Internet on face book seems to be one alarming propaganda front with very alarming statements made by an ecological internet prophet soothsaying doomsday. It certainly has the if you don’t agree you’re “the problem” meme going on. With 19,836 people liking it (at the time of this post) maybe it needs a few voices of sanity to challenge their “wild claims soothsaying doomsday”.
Paths To Knowledge (dot Science) 
pwl said
”There’s an absolutely clear scientific consensus.”
“The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.” – Thomas Henry Huxley
Consensus is purely political and an Argument from Authority which proves nothing about the actual claims being made.
“And a big well-funded lobbying campaign to discredit it.”
Again that is a political statement about your conspiracy theory, and not relevant.
I’m a very well educated person and am following my duty to think and do the research Karolina. So far I’ve found ZERO evidence that would even come close to any of the wild alarmist claims presented here by Dr. Barry or others.
The “romantic ideological scepticism” that you claim is “dangerous” is called the Scientific Method. Learn about it. Those making the positive claims of, in this case, doomsday, the end of Earth, the end of life on Earth, are the ones who must provide the hard evidence. So far just conjecture with Nature constantly falsifying their projections of doom.
The Scientific Method is the bedrock of the success of our modern civilization.
“I’m trying to find out NOT how Nature could be, but how Nature IS.” – Richard Feynman
So far just over the top conjecture from Dr. Barry et. al., and conjecture is not hard science which has been proven. Conjecture is just one possible future out of many. The conjectural future presented by Dr. Barry is extremely alarmist and also carries an explicit threat with it that borders upon, well let’s just say it’s not a healthy or wise message from him.
pwl said
Yikes, more endarkend alarmism from Dr. Barry’s fb wall.
Some sample comments.
“The study is mistaken for it assumes that the alleged “basics” of “climate science” have anything to do with the objective reality in which we actually live. There in is the problem.
For example there are very serious problems with the current state of the alleged climate science. The public is learning of these problems and now no longer “trusts” the “authorities” and that is ENTIRELY appropriate and consistent with the Philosophy of Science.
“Nullis in verba. Take no one’s word for it.” – Motto of the Royal Society
“None of the models used by IPCC are initialized to the observed state and none of the climate states in the models correspond even remotely to the current observed climate.” – Roger A. Pielke Sr., Meteorology, Climatology, Earth System Science
“The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.” – Thomas Henry Huxley
So the article is just whining about people being skeptical about the constant drum beat of the soothsayers claims of doomsday when clearly there are very valid concerns about the serious problems in the alleged claims of climate scientists.
It is the responsibly of those advocating the claims of doomsday to provide the extraordinary evidence of their claims and they have failed to do so for a number of reasons, chief among them the use of the Argument By Authority that the article laments is not working anymore.
If there is actual hard evidence that can be tested then please by all means present it. Otherwise please stop the soothsaying of doomsday. Thanks.
“It seems very revealing that you equate the skepticism of the general public with your own skepticism.”
No I don’t imply that. You read that into it. I didn’t say that.
“And it is interesting You seem to think there is only one level of debate about this — the opinion of the man in the street, whether he has studied the subject or not, equals the career scientist, you seem to say.”
No I didn’t say that either. You read that into it, I didn’t say that.
As for the “Guarani” I’m not sure what you’re talking about, their culture seems to have been decimated by the Christians that they came into contact with, since the 1500’s, as has been the case of many Native cultures around the world.
“There’s an absolutely clear scientific consensus.”
“The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.” – Thomas Henry Huxley
Consensus is purely political and an Argument from Authority which proves nothing about the actual claims being made.
“And a big well-funded lobbying campaign to discredit it.”
Again that is a political statement about your conspiracy theory, and not relevant.
I’m a very well educated person and am following my duty to think and do the research Karolina. So far I’ve found ZERO evidence that would even come close to any of the wild alarmist claims presented here by Dr. Barry or others.
The “romantic ideological scepticism” that you claim is “dangerous” is called the Scientific Method. Learn about it. Those making the positive claims of, in this case, doomsday, the end of Earth, the end of life on Earth, are the ones who must provide the hard evidence. So far just conjecture with Nature constantly falsifying their projections of doom.
The Scientific Method is the bedrock of the success of our modern civilization.
“I’m trying to find out NOT how Nature could be, but how Nature IS.” – Richard Feynman
So far just over the top conjecture from Dr. Barry et. al., and conjecture is not hard science which has been proven. Conjecture is just one possible future out of many. The conjectural future presented by Dr. Barry is extremely alarmist and also carries an explicit threat with it that borders upon, well let’s just say it’s not a healthy or wise message from him.
pwl said
What if’s and could be’s are conjecture Dr. Barry as you well know. Conjecture are possible futures. All the futures I’ve seen you write about are all soothsaying doomsday with little but conjecture and no hard evidence. You’re attempting to scare people. It won’t work anymore. People want facts that can be proven not conjecture of endarkened futures that you’re seemingly so set upon happening.
I read the quoted paper. Nothing but the drawing of fake arbitrary lines in the sand. Conjecture is not reality, it’s dreaming, and in this case dreaming of dark scenarios divorced from the hard facts of the objective realty wherein we actually exist.
Richard Feynman says it best: “I’m trying to find out NOT how Nature could be, but how Nature IS.” – Richard Feynman
What IS trumps conjecture EVERY TIME.
‘The correlation between CO2 and Temperature is very weak and certainly does not show causation. The central claim of catastrophic climate alarmism is falsified by the actual temperature and CO2 observations in Nature.”
Investigating the Climate of Doom
jill barnes said
PLEASE EDUCATE YOURSELF ABOUT THE HOSTAGE SITUATION OF THE GUARANI BY THE BRAZILIAN RANCHERS
http://www.survivalinternational.org
jill barnes said
This week, Alternative Nobel Prize winner, Bishop Erwin Kräutler, described the Guarani situation as a ‘cruel genocide in progress’ which the government is ‘ignoring… before their eyes’.
Guarani spokesman Anastácio Peralta is currently in Europe, denouncing this critical situation. He said, ‘They have stolen our lands, they have destroyed nature, they have polluted our rivers, they stained our ground with the blood of my people. But they didn’t manage to destroy our language, our prayer, our culture, our history and our resistance’.
jfb2112 said
Guarani Update~over 40 masked gunmen entered a Guarani camp and killed a leader as tribe members attempted to shield his body.
here is an english version of the many reports~
http://news.mongabay.com/2011/1128-hance_murder_guarani.html
jbarnes said
Guarani Update~over 40 masked gunmen entered a Guarani camp and killed a leader as tribe members attempted to shield his body.
here is an english version of the many reports~
http://news.mongabay.com/2011/1128-hance_murder_guarani.html
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