CONNECTING THE "HERESIES": AN UNEXPECTED SUCCESS

Public lectures, articles, etc. that discuss the impact of humans on the environment primarily attract members of the “choir”. A successful approach to some of the “non-choir” has been accomplished through lectures at Rotary clubs in Colorado. The 1990 theme for Rotary International, “Preserve Planet Earth” resulted in many community projects related to the environment, but no apparent larger appreciation of the importance of the theme. By presenting a program, ”Preserve Planet Earth: why bother?”, audiences of business and civic leaders, not all of whom are “choir” members, have been introduced to the historical succession of “heresies” that lead to the unavoidable conclusions (also “heresies”) that we are an integral part of the global ecosystem and not, in the literal sense, special creations.

The concept of historical succession of “heresies” is key. Copernicus is the example of the first “heresy”. The next two “heresies”, are geological: Earth has a history (late 18th century) and Life has a history (early 19th century). Evolution, rooted in the earlier “heresies”, was reinforced by later recognition of genes, and the discovery of the structure of DNA. By mid-20th century, geochronologists solidly established a numerical time scale and anthropologists showed that modern humans, as hunter-gatherers, were all over the planet 15,000 years ago. The oldest remains of Homo sapiens were recently dated at nearly 200,000 years so that only the last 5% of Homo sapiens' history is represented by the agricultural revolution. Exploitation of the planet since then has led to the crisis represented by the present century. The human population curve and the curve of hydrocarbon production, both on a 10,000 year time scale, illustrate the core of our problem. The message from this presentation is: Honor our ecological context, and learn to live within the limits of our renewable resources if we wish to have sustainable future for humanity. This approach works!!