| | June 7th Nature issue contains a report from "...scientists from around the world is warning that population growth, widespread destruction of natural ecosystems, and climate change may be driving Earth toward an irreversible change in the biosphere, a planet-wide tipping point that would have destructive consequences absent adequate preparation and mitigation."****Here are their recommendations summarized in the UCB letter: "[The scientists] concluded that there is an urgent need for global cooperation to - reduce world population growth and per-capita resource use, - replace fossil fuels with sustainable sources, - develop more efficient food production and distribution without taking over more land, and - better manage the land and ocean areas not already dominated by humans as reservoirs of biodiversity and ecosystem services." The human mind can accomplish these goals in cultivating one's own honesty and non-harmful conduct. The alternative is to understand what children and grandchildren, other sentients, are likely to experience, even returning oneself to suffering conditions and what is happening already in resource-depleting/warring areas (some of which my tax dollars are causing). A tall, worthwhile order, but that's life ****Competing financial interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Authors:
Affiliations Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA Anthony D. Barnosky, Charles Marshall & Nicholas Matzke Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA Anthony D. Barnosky & Charles Marshall Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA Anthony D. Barnosky Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA Elizabeth A. Hadly Integrative Ecology Group, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC, Calle Américo Vespucio s/n, E-41092 Sevilla, Spain Jordi Bascompte TRU NORTH Labs, Berkeley, California 94705, USA Eric L. Berlow Department of Biology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA James H. Brown Department of Geosciences and Geography and Finnish Museum of Natural History, PO Box 64, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland Mikael Fortelius Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA Wayne M. Getz, John Harte, Rosemary Gillespie & Justin Kitzes Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA John Harte Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616, USA Alan Hastings Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile Pablo A. Marquet Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Casilla 653, Santiago, Chile Pablo A. Marquet The Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA Pablo A. Marquet Facultad de Ciencias Biologicas, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile Pablo A. Marquet Pacific Ecoinformatics and Computational Ecology Lab, 1604 McGee Avenue, Berkeley, California 94703, USA Neo D. Martinez Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada Arne Mooers California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive, San Francisco, California 94118, USA Peter Roopnarine Department of Geology, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616, USA Geerat Vermeij Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA John W. Williams Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, University of California, San Francisco, California 94102, USA David P. Mindell Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC, Calle Américo Vespucio s/n, E-41092 Sevilla, Spain Eloy Revilla Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development, Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, Saint Louis, Missouri 63110, USA Adam B. Smith
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