Reminder to the People of Earth: We Still Have A Chance to Survive and There Is A Plan
Be it known, on this day of February 8, 2020, we still had a chance to begin the real work on the human race’s greatest Hail Mary in our very short history on this planet. This article serves as record, for anyone who may find it 500–1000 years from now, that we still had a chance to save ourselves and a plan for how it could be done.
However infinitesimal this chance, world leaders could still heed the warnings and de-escalate the new nuclear buildup. We could halt the mass slaughter of wildlife, destruction of habitat, and protect our remaining biodiversity. We could amass a global campaign to Rewild the entire planet.
If you’re up to date on the state of geopolitics, industrial agriculture, fossil fuel use, continuing wasteful energy consumption, and our ongoing mulching of the natural world for short-term profits, you know we’re standing in front of the point of no return.
You may chuckle at the idea that we could stop it now. All I’m recognizing here is that we still have a chance, however impossible it may seem. A chance that we might come to our senses enough to at least put up a fight.
That fight must include:
- Stopping Earth’s 6th mass extinction. The only mass extinction caused by a single species: Humans.
- Restoring wildlands, rivers, lakes, and oceans in order to put Earth’s climate regulating pieces back that humans have destroyed or degraded.
- Restoring biological diversity with species reintroductions and habitat restoration as quickly as possible.
- Strong protection of at least half the planet for wilderness, restoration zones, corridors and buffers to connect and protect vast wild areas on land and vast protected areas of oceans and coastlines.
- Changing to a steady-state economy that relies on a fixed model, rather than the endless growth model responsible for our current state of ecological affairs. Picture the land ethic shared among the inhabitants of Pandora in the movie Avatar.
Countless articles have been written about the folly of hope at this point.
Many people are already going into the fetal position. Others are buying bug out bags and survival gear. Readying for the end.
I argue that it is a valuable exercise to stop for a moment to recognize that it doesn’t have to be this way. And most importantly, that technically we could begin today to heal the wounds that our species has inflicted upon the only life-giving planet in our solar system.
Our current state of panic is doing nothing but generating myriad complicated ideas to solve the major threats. People are confused by the disaster porn saturating the internet right now. And so, the only thing that confused people can do is what they’ve always done. This is why nothing ever seems to change.
Which is precisely why we need an umbrella cause under which everything else falls in line. Otherwise, the mass adoption of anything meaningful to slow Earth’s descent into full mass extinction will be impossible.
A Moonshot to Rewild the Planet
If any overarching theme could unite progressive world leaders and citizens, it would have to be a message about putting the pieces back that humanity has degraded and destroyed. Restoring nature on a massive scale is captivating audiences. (An example is how well the giant tree-planting projects are being received.)
We need a simple message about something that people really believe can be done. They don’t have to know about the finer details of it anymore than they needed to know about the massive complexity of putting a man on the moon when Kennedy announced our country’s intention to do just that.
People are captivated by big, bold, hopeful ideas. Not an endless sea of hand-wringing over myriad issues; all symptoms of the great malady of the Anthropocene.
The Plans Are Already In Place
We only need a champion. Once our intention to rewild the planet has been convincingly announced by a charismatic leader who can pull together the largest global coalition in human history, we can get to work.
Randy Hayes, founder of Rainforest Action Network and board member of Nature Needs Half, has laid out A Seven-Point Plan For A Deep Planetary Emergency.
Countless organizations and individuals have, for decades, been putting together their Earth restoration wish lists, based on science and strong land ethic, that would come to play here.
Rallying around the movement initially will be organizations with pieces of the puzzle and thought leaders in conservation biology who have their own plans for how we can begin putting the pieces back together.
Things can begin to change almost immediately
Daily news will begin to shift from endless stories on the decline of biodiversity, climate stability, and civilization itself, to updates on ambitious rewilding projects taking place around the world.
Eventually, even news stories about the Earth stabilizing will begin to appear. We will begin to see the fruits of our labor and the massive investment in the planet; our future.
The conservation education and literacy of the average human being will be much higher than today, resulting in less and less poaching, illegal wildlife trade, and myriad other small individual acts that, collectively, are driving the 6th mass extinction event.
Why? Because we will collectively be more focused on conservation issues. More eyes on the ground that know what to look for and put a stop to destructive practices of all kinds. An all-hands-on-deck situation where everyone is watching out for the planet.
While at the same time we are working collectively to bring the Earth’s climate regulating systems back online.
- Huge natural forest recovery projects to buffer and protect old growth forests.
- Cleaning up the oceans, restoring and protecting marshes, swamps, coral reefs, and mangroves.
- Dam removals to allow ancient watersheds to flow freely once again.
- A shift away from the runaway capitalism and incorrect economic theory that growth can be endless, to a steady state economy.
- Species reintroduction programs for hundreds of large, connected, protected areas on every continent.
The actual list of to-dos is quite massive. We’ve done a lot of harm to the planet during the industrial age. In actuality, though the idea is simple, the task is quite complex. Just like nature.
And instead of thousands of engineers and rocket scientists for the moon landing, we are talking about hundreds of millions of scientists, activists, laborers, engineers, conservation biologists, teachers, businesses, and political leaders to pull this off.
Putting the pieces back and rewilding Earth should become the single greatest focus of the human race.
Nothing less will do. All the reports are in. There’s nothing left but to decide whether to go forward with a plan backed by action, or to continue stomping on the gas pedal and steering our car toward the cliff’s edge at blinding speed.
Organizations you can follow for more information on the biggest ideas to save the planet as we know it:
