A New Frame for This Moment on Earth - From Crash-and-Burn to Bypassed Bottleneck
Yes, there is a flourishing planet ahead. Really.
Updated 9/6, 2:05 pm - I hope you’ll watch and share this hope-filled but reality-based conservation conversation with two veteran sustainability scientists, focused on Bottleneck to Breakthrough, a provocative paper and emerging non-calamitous model for a human journey in which the imperiled biological bounty around us actually ends up with room to bloom in the centuries ahead. The paper was published in 2018 and we explored how the idea has faring amid the portentous discourse around climate and ecosystem collapse these days.
My guests were Bottleneck to Breakthrough co-author Joe Walston, the executive vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, whose 4,000 staff work worldwide to save space for nature; and my friend Nancy Knowlton, a lifelong marine scientist, Heinz Award laureate and Earth optimist.
You can watch on YouTube below, Facebook, LinkedIn or by clicking on my X/Twitter account. And please SHARE the links with others!
Post reactions or followup questsions here. I’ll send them to Walston and Knowlton to keep the dialogue going.
There’s enormous work to be done right now to secure today’s biological diversity (in the current bottleneck) to be sure there’s something left to expand as trends in human development play out - particularly urbanization and declining poverty and population paths. But there is a bright prospect ahead. Read Jeremy Hance’s Mongabay story on the paper for a good independent view.
This discussion relates to a recurring theme in my reporting over the decades. I’ve been asking earth system scientists, demographers, historians and futurists about the shape of this moment on Earth. Is the surging human influence on climate and ecosystems like a wave about to crash destructively on a beach, or - with work - could it be more of a powerful swell that dissipates without leaving catastrophic damage.
I’ll append some relevant reading and video links after our conversation today.
Here’s a view of a former quarry near my former home in the Hudson River Valley that is being reclaimed steadily now that it is protected parkland.
All,
Thank you for a truly uplifting discussion! It was refreshing to drink in the long view perspective that we all need in order to persevere. Now, the challenge of finding ways to effectively communicate this information in order to raise support for environmental concerns above the current (dismal) level of 2% of philanthropic giving!
Re: incorporating indigenous perspectives, attorney Amy Bowers Cordalis https://waterfdn.org/team/amy-cordalis/of the Yurok tribe in Northern California, has successfully worked on Klamath River restoration. Incredible victory!