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Apr 28, 2023
Earth vs. The Universe: Biosphere Wins
A reading of The Value of Biosphere Earth, part 4: "Earth vs. The Universe" by researcher/author, Chris Searles. In two short paragraphs, and with two simple graphics, Chris dismantles the idea that science fiction is real. In other words, We cannot "live" in any normal sense of the word, on another planet for the foreseeable future. Those planets with life-potential are so far away it will take thousands to millions of years to actually get the first probes there, with current technology. As far as Mars goes: it will be robots, not humans, who go to Mars for the foreseeable future. Anything else is just inhumane.
This series seeks to connect people of all backgrounds to a better understanding of what Earth's life-support system is to us today -- Earth's planetary-scale composition of diverse-life and living ecosystems, Earth's biosphere. The research in this series then goes further to show how "Biosphere Earth"'s quality and integrity are Civilization's #1 priority. In this episode, author Chris Searles, synopsizes how Earth's biosphere compares that of +4,500 other planets scoped by NASA. Scroll down for program and citations.
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Read The Value of Biosphere Earth, part 4: Earth vs. The Universe
* by Chris Searles, on Google Drive: https://tinyurl.com/VOBE4-evu
* Read Chris' essay on this topic.
* Visit our website for more: https://biointegrity.net/value
About Chris Searles
* director, BioIntegrity.net / exec. editor, AllCreation.org
* other notable research: The Systemic Climate Solution
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Citations
1 Earth from 3.75 billion miles away.
• Kooser. NASA remasters Voyager 1’s famous “Pale Blue Dot” image. CNET (2020). https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-remasters-voyager-1s-famous-pale-blue-dot-image
2 Of the more than 4,500 planets surveyed.
• NASA. NASA Exoplanet Archive. Infrared Analysis and Processing Center, California Institute of Technology. https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu [Retrieved 10/20/21].
• Planetary Habitability Laboratory. Habitable Exoplanets Catalog. University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo. http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog [Retrieved 10/20/21].
• NASA. How many exoplanets are there? NASA Exoplanet Exploration. https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/faq/6/how-many-exoplanets-are-there/ [Retrieved 8/17/20].
3 “No life beyond Earth has ever been found.”
• Kaufman. Life, Here and Beyond. Astrobiology at NASA. https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/about/ [Retrieved 08/17/20].
4 Mars, the dead planet.
• Wade, et al. The divergent fates of primitive hydrospheric water on Earth and Mars. Nature 552, 391–394 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25031
5 Is more than 73,000 years away from Earth.
• Byrd. How long to travel to Alpha Centauri? EarthSky (2017). https://earthsky.org/space/alpha-centauri-travel-time/
6 Proxima Centauri b is a deathtrap, receives regular radiation blasts 14,000X stronger than Earth.
• Carter. Our Neighbors Are Probably Dead. The Closest Earth-Like Planet To Us Is Being Thrashed By 7-Second ‘Death Rays’. Forbes Magazine (2021). https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2021/05/04/our-neighbors-are-dead-the-closest-earth-like-planet-to-us-is-being-thrashed-by-7-second-death-rays/?sh=1a483d37cff2
7 Teegarden’s b is 12 light years from Earth.
• Press Release. Teegarden's Star: A Nearby System with two Potentially Habitable Worlds. Planetary Habitability Catalog, University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo (2018). http://phl.upr.edu/press-releases/teegarden
8 None of the "most Earth-like" planets have been proven to have rocks, water, or an atmosphere.
• Planetary Habitability Laboratory. Habitable Exoplanets Catalog. University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo. http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog [Retrieved 10/20/21].
9 Top 5 Relocation Candidates.
Planets chosen according to Earth "similarity," according to NASA's data.
Top 5 planets.
• Planetary Habitability Laboratory. Habitable Exoplanets Catalog. University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo. http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog [Retrieved 10/20/21].
• Travel time estimates computed according to the formula: 1 Light Year requires +17,000 years of current technology space travel. Source: Byrd. How long to travel to Alpha Centauri? EarthSky (2017). https://earthsky.org/space/alpha-centauri-travel-time/
Proxima Centauri b.
• Tasker. Does Proxima Centauri Create an Environment Too Horrifying for Life? NASA Astrobiology. https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/does-proxima-centauri-create-an-environment-too-horrifying-for-life/ (2018)
Teegarden’s b.
• Exoplanet Catalog, Teegarden’s Star b. NASA Exoplanet Exploration (2019). https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet catalog/7423/teegardens-star-b/
Trappist 1-d.
• Press release. Study brings new climate models of small star TRAPPIST 1’s seven intriguing worlds. University of Washington (2018). https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/467604
TOI 700-d.
• Kazmierczak. NASA Planet Hunter Finds its 1st Earth-size Habitable-zone World. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (2020). https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-planet-hunter-finds-its-1st-earth-size-habitable-zone-world
K2-72 e.
• Reference article. Astronomy: K2-72e. Handwiki. https://handwiki.org/wiki/Astronomy:K2-72e [Retrieved, 8/01/21].
10 11 reasons Mars will never be a life-support system.
* No oxygen. Reference article. Comparing the atmospheres of Mars and Earth. European Space Agency (2018). https://esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2018/04/Comparing_the_atmospheres_of_Mars_and_Earth
* No atmosphere. Ibid.
* No macro life. Wade, et al. The divergent fates of primitive hydrospheric water on Earth and Mars. Nature 552, 391–394 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25031
* No known micro life. Ibid.
* -81 F. Reference article. Mars Facts. NASA Mars Exploration Program. https://mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/facts/ [Retrieved 8/01/21].
* Soils not conducive to life. Fackrell, et al. Development of Martian regolith and bedrock simulants. Icarus 354, 114055 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2020.114055
* Not enough carbon. Jakosky, Edwards. Inventory of CO2 available for terraforming Mars. Nat Astron 2, 634–639 (2018). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-018-0529-6
* Not enough water. Fedorova, et al. Stormy water on Mars: The distribution and saturation of atmospheric water during the dusty season. Science 367, 6475, 297-300 (2020). https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6475/297
* Deadly radiation, frequently. Webster, et al. Large Solar Storm Sparks Global Aurora and Doubles Radiation Levels on the Martian Surface. NASA 2017-254 (2017). https://nasa.gov/feature/jpl/large-solar-storm-sparks-global-aurora-and-doubles-radiation-levels-on-the-martian-surface, Williams (2016). How bad is the radiation on Mars? PHYS ORG (2016). https://phys.org/news/2016-11-bad-mars.html
* Planet-covering dust storms, often. Malik. Epic Dust Storm on Mars Now Completely Covers the Red Planet. Space.com (2018). https://www.space.com/40952-mars-dust-storm-2018-covers-entire-planet.html
* Earth’s biosphere took +4 billion years of growth to host humans.
* 3.5 billion years ago. Sim, et al. Role of APS reductase in biogeochemical sulfur isotope fractionation. Nat Commun 10, 44. (2019) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07878-4.
* 4 billion years ago. Penninsi. Life may have originated on Earth 4 billion years ago, study of controversial fossils suggests. Science: Biology, Chemistry, Earth. doi:10.1126/science.aar7944 (2017).https://sciencemag.org/news/2017/12/life-may-have-originated-earth-4-billion-years-ago-study-controversial-fossils-suggests
* 4.47 billion years ago. Service, R. How an ancient cataclysm may have jump-started life on Earth. Science: Chemistry, doi:10.1126/science.aaw606 (2019). https://sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/how-ancient-cataclysm-may-have-jump-started-life-earth)
11 “Not being…
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Apr 14, 2023
Civilization’s Life-Support System: Biosphere Earth
A reading of The Value of Biosphere Earth, part 3: "Ecosystem Services" by researcher/author, Chris Searles. From brain formation to oxygen supply, Earth's other life is responsible for just about everything that makes our lives possible. (Scroll down for citations.) Earth's composition of life and living ecosystems is everything to us humans. "Ecosystem services" -- the academic term for Earth's literal, planetary life-support system services, are the products, conditions, bodies, functionalities, services, communities, other companions, and more we typically take for granted, which are generated by the Life before and around us today.
Earth’s global life-support system is composed of a continuous life-interaction of water-based/atmospheric/landscape/and subterranean micro and macro organisms. Please check out the prior two podcasts in this series for more info. Biosphere Earth provides for just about every aspect of human identity and existence. This series seeks to connect people of all backgrounds to a better understanding of what our life-support system is and how its integrity is our #1 economic and shared priority. This episode synopsizes what Earth's complex biosphere does for us.
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Read The Value of Biosphere Earth, part 3: Ecosystem Services
* by Chris Searles, on Google Drive: https://tinyurl.com/VOBE3-ecoservices
* Read Chris' essay on this topic.
* Visit our website for more: https://biointegrity.net/value
About Chris Searles
* director, BioIntegrity.net / exec. editor, AllCreation.org
* other notable research: The Systemic Climate Solution
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Citations
Map of Earth’s vertebrate biodiversity concentrations on land.
• Data: Jenkins, Pimm, Joppa. Global patterns of terrestrial vertebrate diversity and conservation. PNAS 110 (28) E2602-E2610; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1302251110
• Image: Globaia / ESO Supernova. Biodiversity on Earth. European Southern Observatory. https://supernova.eso.org/exhibition/images/0514_F_biodiversity_bearbeitet-CCfinal/ (Retrieved 2021)
1. “Ecosystem Services” is irrelevant to the average human being.
• Thompson, et al. Ecosystem – What? Public Understanding and Trust in Conservation Science and
Ecosystem Services. Front. Commun., 1. (2016) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2016.00003/full
2. Some definitions of Ecosystem Services.
• Intergovernmental Panel on Science Policy and Ecosystem Services. Core Glossary. IPBES. Retrieved
10/7/2021. https://ipbes.net/glossary/ecosystem-services
• Danley, Widmark. Evaluating conceptual definitions of ecosystem services and their implications.
Ecological Economics 126, 132-138. (2016) https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800915300549
• Antle, et al. Ecosystems and their goods and services. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. AR5
2014: Climate Change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. (2014)
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/wg2TARchap5.pdf
• Uncredited authors. Ecosystem services for human well-being. The Secretariat of the Convention on
Biological Diversity. (2008) https://www.cbd.int/doc/bioday/2008/ibd-2008-factsheet-01-en.pdf
• Uncredited authors. Ecosystems and their wellbeing, Chapter 02: Ecosystems and their services.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. (2005) http://millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.300.aspx.pdf
3. Ecosystem services keep humans alive and make possibility possible.
• Daily, G., editor. Nature's Services: Societal Dependence On Natural Ecosystems. Island Press. ISBN:
1559634766. (1997) https://islandpress.org/books/natures-services
4. “Are these not of the living Earth?”
• Orange, T. There There. Vintage. ISBN: O525520376. (2019) https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/563403/there-there-by-tommy-orange
5. Ecosystems and their biodiversity have generated the platform for all known physical, emotional, mental, psychological, spiritual, conscious, and subconscious experiences for organisms.
• European Commission. Ecosystem Goods and Services. European Commission Publications Office. (2009)
https://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/info/pubs/docs/ecosystem.pdf
6. All ecosystems interact to create Earth’s life-support system.
> Ocean life integration
• Friendlingstein, et al. Global Carbon Budget 2020. Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3269–3340. (2020) https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3269-2020
• Rasher, et al. Keystone predators govern the pathway and pace of climate impacts in a subarctic marine ecosystem. Science Vol. 369, 6509, 1351-1354. (2020) https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6509/1351
• Behrenfeld, et al. Global satellite-observed daily vertical migrations of ocean animals. Nature 576, 257–261. (2019) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1796-9
• Basu, Mackey. Phytoplankton as Key Mediators of the Biological Carbon Pump. Sustainability, 10, 869. (2018) https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030869
• Delevaux, et al. Scenario planning with linked land-sea models inform where forest conservation actions will promote coral reef resilience. Sci Rep 8, 12465. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29951-0
• Graham, et al. Seabirds enhance coral reef productivity and functioning in the absence of invasive rats. Nature 559, 250–253. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0202-3
• Barbier. Marine Ecosystem Services. Current Biology, Vol. 27, Issue 11, R507-R510. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.03.020
• Howard, et al. Clarifying the role of coastal and marine systems in climate mitigation. Frontiers in Ecology 15 (1), 42-50. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1451
• Leigh, et al. Seagrass digestion by a notorious carnivore. The Royal Society 285, 1886. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.1583
> Atmospheric life integration
• Hayden. The role of the biosphere in the Earth-atmosphere system. Encyclopedia Britannica online. [Retrieved 1 January 2021] https://www.britannica.com/science/climate-meteorology/The-role-of-the-biosphere-in-the-Earthatmosphere-system
• Green, et al. Regionally strong feedbacks between the atmosphere and terrestrial biosphere. Nature Geoscience 10(6):410-414. (2017) https://nature.com/articles/ngeo2957
• Wilson, et al. A marine biogenic source of atmospheric ice-nucleating particles. Nature 525, 234–238. (2015) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14986
• Katul, et al. Evapotranspiration: A process driving mass transport and energy exchange in the soil-plant-atmosphere-climate system. Reviews of Geophysics, Vol. 50, Issue 3. (2012) https://doi.org/10.1029/2011RG000366
• Lelieveld, et al. Atmospheric oxidation capacity sustained by a tropical forest. Nature 452, 737–740. (2008) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06870
> Freshwater life integration
• Migliorini, Romero. Warming and leaf litter functional diversity, not litter quality, drive decomposition in a freshwater ecosystem. Sci Rep 10, 20333. (2020) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77382-7
• Silknetter, et al. Positive biotic interactions in freshwaters: A review and research directive. FreshwaterBiology 65, 4: 811-832. (2020) https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13476
• Grossart, et al. Fungi in aquatic ecosystems. Nat Rev Microbiol 17, 339–354. (2019) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-019-0175-8
• National Research Council. Valuing Ecosystem Services: Toward Better Environmental Decision-Making. National Academies Press. ISBN: 978-0-309-09318-7. (2005) https://doi.org/10.17226/11139
• Ushio, et al. Fluctuating interaction network and time-varying stability of a natural fish community. Nature 554, 360–363. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25504
> Landscape life integration
• Liu, et al. A latitudinal gradient of plant–insect interactions during the late Permian in terrestrial ecosystems? Global and Planetary Change Vol. 192, 103248. (2020) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2020.103248
• Watson, et al. The exceptional value of intact forest ecosystems. Nature Ecol & E…
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Mar 31, 2023
The Life Timeline: Biosphere Earth
A definitive summary of the history of Life on Earth, according to the scientific record, from our series, The Value of Biosphere Earth. (Scroll down for citations.) What is the value of Earth's biodiversity to modern Civilization, technology, and human beings in general? This series seeks to connect people of all backgrounds to a better understanding of what our life-support system is and how its integrity is our #1 economic and shared priority. This episode synopsizes the history of Life’s deveopment.
Each segment synopsizes the latest science in two to five paragraphs. Researcher/author, Chris Searles (director, BioIntegrity), is host. Sections 1-4 talk about “the biosphere.“ Sections 5-8 present a “biospheric climate solution“ and outline how restoring Earth's biospheric integrity is, according to the Science cited in each segment, far more valuable to human beings and our future than a tech-centric civilization and/or climate solution.
Read The Value of Biosphere Earth, Earth’s Life Timeline:
* by Chris Searles, on Google Drive: https://tinyurl.com/VOBE1-timeline
* Visit our website for more: https://biointegrity.net/value
Citations
Earth graphics
* “The Pale Orange Dot” (Microbial Earth circa three billion years ago) -- Zubritsky (2017). NASA Team Looks to Ancient Earth First to Study Hazy Exoplanets. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Retrieved online, 2021. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-team-looks-to-ancient-earth-first-to-study-hazy-exoplanets
* “The Blue Marble” (Biosphere Earth, circa the year 2000) -- Stockli, Nelson (2000). Earth The Blue Marble. NASA Visible Earth. Retrieved online, 2021. https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/54388/earth-the-blue-marble
Timeline graphic
* Microbes – citation [1] below
* Protista – Early Eukaryotes. (2020, August 14). Retrieved September 24, 2021, from https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/13577 (also https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/eukaryotic-origins-2/)
* Fungi – Lutzoni, F., et al. Contemporaneous radiations of fungi and plants linked to symbiosis. Nat Commun 9, 5451 (2018).
* https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07849-9; Berbee, M.L., et al. Genomic and fossil windows into the secret lives of the most ancient fungi. Nat Rev Microbiol 18, 717–730 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-020-0426-8
* Plants & Animals – citation [2]
* Modern humans – citation [6]
1. First Microbes
* “3.5 Billion years ago.” Sim, M.S., et al. Role of APS reductase in biogeochemical sulfur isotope fractionation. Nat Commun 10, 44. (2019) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07878-4 Science: Biology, Chemistry, Earth. doi:10.1126/science.aar7944. (2017) https://sciencemag.org/news/2017/12/life-may-have-originated-earth-4-billion-years-ago-study-controversial-fossils-suggests
* “4.47 Billion years ago.” Service, R. How an ancient cataclysm may have jump-started life on Earth. Science: Chemistry, doi:10.1126/science.aaw606. (2019) https://sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/how-ancient-cataclysm-may-have-jump-started-life-earth
2. First plants & animals
• “Around 600 million years ago.” Bobrovskiy, I., et al. Ancient steroids establish the Ediacaran fossil Dickinsonia as one of the earliest animals. Science 361 (6408), 1246-1249. (2018) DOI: 10.1126/science.aat7228. From “Confirming the identity of early animals” inset. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6408/1246
3. Earth’s biosphere has taken form several times, last 600 million years
• Dutfield, S. The 5 mass extinction events that shaped the history of Earth — and the 6th that's happening now. Live Science. Retrieved online. (2021) https://www.livescience.com/mass-extinction-events-that-shaped-Earth.html
4. Greater diversity & attributes with each iteration
• Eisenberg, L.The Tree of Life. Evogeneo. (2017) https://www.evogeneao.com/en
5. Forming roughly 65 million years before the first homo sapiens
• Penninsi, E. How Life Blossomed After the Dinosaurs Died. Science: Evolution, Palentology, Plants & Animals. Retrieved online. doi:10.1126/science.aaz9741. (2019) https://sciencemag.org/news/2019/10/how-life-blossomed-after-dinosaurs-died
6. First Homo sapiens
* Hublin, J., et al. New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens. Nature 546, 289–292 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22336 (Overview here: https://sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/world-s-oldest-homo-sapiens-fossils-found-morocco#)
* Stringer, C. The origin and evolution of Homo sapiens. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1698 Jul 5; 371(2016): 20150237. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0237. ttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4920294/
7. Migrated out of Africa 180,000 years ago
• Callaway. Israeli fossils are the oldest modern humans ever found outside of Africa. Nature 554, 15-16. (2018) doi:
https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-01261-5
Last ice age ended
• Clark, et al. The Last Glacial Maximum, Science 325, Issue 5941, pp. 710-714 (2009). doi: 10.1126/science.1172873
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/325/5941/710.full
8. The economic society
• Daly, Farley. (2011) Ecological Economics, Second Edition: Principles and Applications. Island Press. ISBN: 9781597269919. https://islandpress.org/books/ecological-economics-second-edition
9. Material Wealth monarchies and oligarchies began approx. 6,000 BCE.
* Speiser, E. A. “Ancient Mesopotamia and the Beginnings of Science.” The Scientific Monthly, 55(2), 159–165. (1942) https://www.jstor.org/stable/17767
* Reference article. Monarchy History. The International Commission and Association on Nobility. https://www.nobility-association.com/monarchyhistory.htm [Retrieved 2021]
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Mar 17, 2023
It Builds Itself: Biosphere Earth
We are rebooting The Value of Biosphere Earth podcast series, starting with a focus on the meaning of the word, biosphere. In this episode, author/researcher Chris Searles reads an extremely-well cited synopsis of the academic research on why other-Life, Earth’s biodiversity of plants, animals, fungi, microbes, etc., is the most valuable and intelligent thing in the known universe. (Citations below.) A STACK… all of the elements of a system, creates our ability to live in the universe. More on this in podcast #3 in this series, Ecosystem Services.
Defining the "Software Stack" analogy
The Human Life-Support System is essentially (top down):
a) Stuff we need: Food, Clothes, Fuel, Atmosphere, Freshwater, etc., generated by:
b) Other macro life: Plants, Animals, Wilderness Ecosystems, and
c) Micro life: Protista, Soils, Fungi, Microbes, Microbiomes, and their interactions with
d) The geosphere: Rocks, Minerals, Chemicals, Climate Conditions (non-living elements).
Read The Value of Biosphere Earth, A Self-Generating Stack:
* by Chris Searles, on Google Drive: https://tinyurl.com/VOBE2-stack
* Visit our website for more: https://biointegrity.net/value
About Chris Searles
* director, BioIntegrity.net / exec. editor, AllCreation.org
* other notable research: The Systemic Climate Solution
Program
0:00 Welcome
1:30 Paragraph 1, Biosphere Earth
3:00 Paragraph 2, Smarter than our Computers (the software stack analogy)
"Stack" visual: https://tinyurl.com/VOBE2-stack
5:00 Life itself is miraculous. The life-support system built itself over the last 4 billions of years
6:25 Chris goes through the diagram in paper. Our life-support system = inanimate elements of Earth (minerals & climate conditions) + interactive, intelligent, relational life-layers, which ultimately led to and presently create our everyday life-support system, (aka. Nature, as we know it).
7:45 This planetary life-support system is EXCEPTIONALLY RESOURCEFUL: self-integrating, adaptive, self-healing, self-correcting. It appears to always be going towards more diversity of life (more biodiversity) when climate conditions are favorable.
Citations
Images and Oxford
• “The Pale Orange Dot” (Microbial Earth circa three billion years ago) – Zubritsky. NASA Team Looks to Ancient Earth First to Study Hazy Exoplanets. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. (2017) https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-team-looks-to-ancient-earth-first-to-study-hazy-exoplanets
• “The Blue Marble” (Biosphere Earth today) -- Stockli, Nelson. Earth The Blue Marble. NASA Visible Earth. (2000) https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/54388/earth-the-blue-marble
• “Definition of biosphere”. Oxford University Press. Lexico.com. 30 September 2021. https://www.lexico.com/definition/biosphere
No other planet known to contain organisms after thousands surveyed
• NASA Exoplanet Archive. Infrared Analysis and Processing Center, California Institute of Technology. [Retrieved 20 August 2021.] https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu
• University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo. Habitable Exoplanets Catalog. Planetary Habitability Catalog, University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo. [Retrieved 29 September 2021.] http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog.
• Kaufman, M. Life, Here and Beyond. Astrobiology at NASA. [Retrieved 17 August 2020.] https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/about/
Science has established that the foundation for human existence is simple and complex life
• Chimeleski, Kolter. Microbes gave us life. Stat. (2017) https://www.statnews.com/2017/12/21/microbes-human-life/
• Ellison, et al. Trees, forests, water: Cool insights for a hot world. Global Environmental Change 43: 51-61. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.01.002
• Malmstrom, C. Ecologists Study the Interactions of Organisms and Their Environment. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):88. (2010) https://nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/ecologists-study-the-interactions-of-organisms-and-13235586/
• Gilbert & Neufeld. Life in a world without Microbes. PLoS Biol. 12(12):e1002020. (2014) doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002020
• European Commission publication. Ecosystem Goods and Services. European Commission
Publications Office. (2009) https://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/info/pubs/docs/ecosystem.pdf
• Convention on Biological Diversity. Sustaining Life on Earth. CBD. (2009) https://www.cbd.int/convention/guide/
• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Ecosystems and human well-being: Biodiversity synthesis. World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C. (2005) http://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.354.aspx.pdf
Everything we have is a result of living inside of Biosphere Earth
• Isbell, et al. Linking the influence and dependence of people on biodiversity across scales. Nature 546, 65–72. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22899
• Rojstaczer, Sterling, Moore. Human appropriation of photosynthesis products. Science Vol 294, Issue 555, 2549-2552 (2001) https://science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.1064375
• Williams. A modern Earth Narrative: what will be the fate of the biosphere? Technology in Society 22, Issue 3, 303-339. (2000) https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-791X(00)00012-9
• Daily, G., editor. Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Island Press. (1997) https://islandpress.org/books/natures-services
Definition of “software stack”
• “Definition of software stack”. Semilof, S. Tech Target: SearchApp Architecture. Searchapparchitecture.techtarget.com. [Retrieved 29 September 2021.] https://searchapparchitecture.techtarget.com/definition/software-stack
Biosphere Earth is self-creating, self-organizing, more complex and varied than we can visualize.
> Self-creating and self-organizing
• Morozov, et al. New paradigm of state policy in the field of ecology and environment climate protection. Energy: Economics, Technology, Ecology. Vol. 8, 7-14. (2019) https://www.bioticregulation.ru/life/paradigm.php
• Ellison, et al. Trees, forests, water: Cool insights for a hot world. Global Environmental Change 43: 51-61. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.01.002
• Brose, Hillebrand. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in dynamic landscapes. The Royal Society 371, 1694. (2016) https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0267
• Rutledge, et al. Biosphere. National Geographic: Resource Library. (2011) https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/biosphere/
• Stachowiz, Bruno, Duffy. Understanding the Effects of Marine Biodiversity on Communities and Ecosystems. Annual Review of Ecol, Evol and Sys 38: 739-766. (2007) https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.38.091206.095659
> Ocean life integration
• Friendlingstein, et al. Global Carbon Budget 2020. Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3269–3340. (2020) https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3269-2020
• Rasher, et al. Keystone predators govern the pathway and pace of climate impacts in a subarctic marine ecosystem. Science Vol. 369, 6509, 1351-1354. (2020) https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6509/1351
• Behrenfeld, et al. Global satellite-observed daily vertical migrations of ocean animals. Nature 576, 257–261. (2019) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1796-9
• Basu, Mackey. Phytoplankton as Key Mediators of the Biological Carbon Pump. Sustainability, 10, 869. (2018) https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030869
• Delevaux, et al. Scenario planning with linked land-sea models inform where forest conservation actions will promote coral reef resilience. Sci Rep 8, 12465. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29951-0
• Graham, et al. Seabirds enhance coral reef productivity and functioning in the absence of invasive rats. Nature 559, 250–253. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0202-3
• Barbier. Marine Ecosystem Services. Current Biology, Vol. 27, Issue 11, R507-R510. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.03.020
• Howard, et al. Clarifying the role of coastal and marine systems i…
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Jul 22, 2022
Harrison's Week & Big Picture
We're helping "Permaculture Man" Harrison Aron, founder of K'Aron Community Farm in Kenya, raise funds for a fence this week and we need your help! He's very happy after all the support our community has given in the last two weeks. This audio is a segment from this week's interview with Harrison by BioIntegrity founder/director Chris Searles. Unfortunately, that video and audio were again too inconsistent to present, so we share this important piece: Harrison updating us on some of what he's done just since receiving funding for seeds, including already purchasing and planting new seeds, digging a very large, natural seep well for the new expansion garden, and continung to harvest from their already functioning gardens. Harrison also shares some of the regenerative, permaculture techniques he's using to eliminate hunger and malnutrition in his community. "(Our malnutrition problem is) Mostly from dirty water and the type of food we are eating." (Harrison Aron)
Harrison is a Permaculture designer / regenerative farmer working to feed his whole community in ways that eliminate food shortages, regrow ecosystems, restore local biodiversity, cool the local micro-climate, improve local water supplies... It's truly exciting.
Our community just raised $1,260.00 (US) for for Harrison's 1-acre expansion garden: first ploughing and seeding, then purchasing rainwater collection/distribution equipment. We've also funded half a fence. We are now trying to raise just an additional $500 US (for a grand total of $1,750) to fund the other half of the fence. You can help! These donations will help feed +1,000 people in Homa Bay. With support like ours, Harrison believes he can feed all 5,000+ people in his community within a few years. He then wishes to teach and expand his community-based, Permaculture farming across East Africa. Help Harrison, Help Kenya!
More info: https://mailchi.mp/biointegrity/070822
More info part 2: https://mailchi.mp/biointegrity/071422
Donate here: https://flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MTU1MDAx
Contact us: biointegrity.net/contact-us
Thanks!
PROGRAM
0:00 Check In
Harrison Aron and Chris Searles (director, BioIntegrity):
* Natural seep well: is dug!
* New seeds: some already planted and germinating
* Ploughing was a good decision
* Community is happy (so are we)
* K'Aron Farm has been harvesting a lot of food varieties this week
4:00 Rebuilding the Soil Naturally
Harrison:
* Composts & mulches
* Lasagna layers
* What destroyed the soil? Inorganic Fertilizers
* Adding-back Organic Fertilizers: manures, plants & layers
8:00 Some Soil-Building Food Plants
Harrison:
* Pea Plant ("Jelo Peas")
* Chop & drop leaves for natural mulch
* Ground cover foods: squash, pumkpins, beans
* Nutrition & drought
12:00 Eradicating Malnutrition with Permaculture
Harrison:
* Diverse food plantings to create a balanced diet
* Overcoming many diseases
* Squash leaves & nursing mothers, Beet root & blood health
* Installing "Kitchen Gardens" in Homa Bay
* "CBO": Community-Based Organization, here is K'Aron
Lilsten to the first podcast in this series
Help Harrison Expand His Community Garden Project to Feed +1,000 People, Cool the Climate, Restore Biodiversrity, and More -- by clicking this long sentence (click here).
Thanks again!
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Jul 14, 2022
Harrison Aron on Water Tanks, Pipes, and a Fence
This audio is a segment from several hours of interviews with Harrison Aron, by BioIntegrity founder/director Chris Searles. Unfortunately the video and audio were too inconsistent to present as a whole, so instead we share this important piece: Harrison talking about the water infrastructure they need in his community and some of the ways having it will greatly help.
Harrison is a Permaculture designer / regenerative farmer working to feed his whole community in ways that eliminate food shortages, regrow ecosystems, restore local biodiversity, cool the local micro-climate, improve local water supplies... It's exciting: You can help.
We just raised $250 US for seeding Harrison's expansion garden. Our goal now is to raise an additional $500 to help fund Harrison's water infrastructure asks. He also talks here about needing a fence to protect the community garden from livestock, chickens, and wild animals. That cost is estimated to be an additional $1,000 US (for a grand total of $1,750). You can help. Do it!
More info: https://mailchi.mp/biointegrity/070822
Donate here: https://flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MTU1MDAx
Contact us: biointegrity.net/contact-us
Thanks!
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Apr 28, 2022
What Do We Do Now?
From the Austin Community College Honors Program and Office of Sustainability's Earth Week celebrations, in Austin, TX, Earth Day, 2022: "What do we do now?" presented by Chris Searles, director of BioIntegrity.net. [Watch the Zoom video of this podcast on Facebook or YouTube.]
This Zoom is QUITE noisy for the first 5 minutes, thanks for your patience!
PROGRAM: WHAT DO WE DO NOW
0:00 Intro
0:25 What is “the biosphere”?
I. Some Good News
0:50 What you can do now:
1:15 Tropical Forests
2:20 The Systemic Climate Solution: http://tinyurl.com/systemic-cs
3:45 Our Life-Support System
4:45 BioIntegrity’s planetary impacts
6:45 Ecosystems over Technology
7:00 Protect Tropical Forest: biointegrity.net/solutions ($2/acre)
II. What’s Going On Here
7: 45 No Reason to Care?
Reason #1 Humans over Nature?
8:00 Genesis 1:26, “the dominion verse”
8:50 “Dominionism”: https://tinyurl.com/allcreation-domin...
9:15 Jewish dominion: “Humans are God’s partners in bettering the creation.”
9:45 Islamic dominion: “You are answerable to God for what you do with the animals, the plants…”
11:00 Christian dominion: “To figure out how to live well in our places with each other.”
11:30 Reclaiming Genesis “dominion”: 1) Agrarian context, 2) Theocentric identity, 3) Christians are care providers, 4) Discipleship of caring change.
Reason #2 50,000 more years?
14:10 We could have 50,000 more years of a stable climate
Reason #3 “The environment” is our life-support system
14:30 The forgotten memory
15:00 Biosphere Earth = Life & living systems
15:55 The Value of Biosphere Earth: https://www.biointegrity.net/value.html
16:00 The quick history of Life
16:40 The value of ecosystems: Life, life-support & ecosystem services
Reason #4 We are collapsing our Life-system now
18:00 Bad news science: A top 10
20:00 Rapid growth of a biospherically-destructive system
21:00 Biodiversity is in the greatest crisis of all things today
III. Recenter on the Biosphere
21:30 Biospheric Reformation: 2 Priorities
23:10 One question: “Does it strengthen or weaken the life-support system”
IV. The Biospheric Climate Solution
(Fixing Agriculture + Ending Deforestation + Restoring Land Biosphere)
23:30 Looking at what we gain by regrowing the most bio-productive ecosystems Earth
24:20 This strategy could take us out of the climate crisis within 10 to 30 years
25:45 Carbon
32:40 Sponge
33:30 Cooling
35:20 Irrigation
36:15 Self-care
37:45 Weaves
38:20 The lymphatic system of the planet
39:30 Circulation
41:00 We have the potential to stop & reverse Climate Change
41:20 The main priorities
V. Necessity & Promise
42:00 Reversing our collapse
42:45 Biospheric Reformation
43:45 Indigenous People 1st
44:30 Even “clean tech” must fit into biospheric reality
45:00 Add these values
45:25 How to support systemic changes (slide): 1) Indigenous Rights, 2) Regenerative Agriculture, 3) Globally-strategic protection & restoration of biodiversity
45:45 Technology
VI. Wrap Up
45:55 What We Covered
46:45 Upward Spiral Economics
“Forests bring the rain.”
47:00 Q&A
(Questions)
47:15 Citizen Climate Lobby & carbon fees good?
48:15 What’s more viable for carbon capture: nature or technology?
“We need to make our economics empower Nature to be the solution.”
52:45 What can we do at home?
55:00 How can the environmental movement learn from its mistakes and connect better with more people?
58:30 Who do we reach out to help support Indigenous people in stewarding the land?
####
Thanks for watching.
Visit biointegrity.net to learn more.
Visit biointegrity.net/solutions to help protect tropical forests
Visit biointegrity.net/donate to make a tax deductible gift in support of our work.
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Sep 2, 2021
Janene Yazzie on Next Steps
Janene Yazzie is an entrepreneur, community organizer and human rights advocate from the Navajo Nation. She has an extensive bio. Janene is perhaps best known as co-founder/CEO of Sixth World Solutions, a consultancy focused on rights-based approaches to development, which center on Indigenous Peoples rights and traditional ecological knowledge, and as the International Indian Treaty Council's co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group to the United Nation's High Level Political Forum on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
About this podcast
Janene is interviewed here by Cherokee citizen Vance Blackfox. This segment comes from the Fall 2021 issue of AllCreation.org guest edited by Vance and presented by BioIntegrity. Learn more about the issue here.
Quotes"For everything we have done wrong, we are capable of creating a solution to heal that, to address it, to take responsibility for it, and to create a new way.”
“When we invest in right relationship with those around us and with other forms of sacred life, non-human life, that’s how we win.”
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Aug 24, 2021
"The Value of Biosphere Earth"
BioIntegrity founder / director, Chris Searles, reads his paper, "The Value of Biosphere Earth" -- an academic consideration of Earth's life-support system as our primary economic, social, climate, and cultural-advancement priority this decade. This is the first draft. We are welcoming all forms of feedback at this time. Send your comments to chris "dot" searles "at" biointegrity.net.
Link
Read the full paper, The Value of Biosphere Earth = All Economic Value + All Life Value, here: https://mcusercontent.com/4f8c6cb2fda71eae586f9b913/files/1e76a561-2f4c-cd92-e3ec-a1576df7484d/The_Value_of_Biosphere_Earth_Searles_Draft_1_8_20_21_.pdf
Contents
The paper contains 13 pages of citations and just eight pages of text. Here is how the paper is organized::
* Abstract
* I. There's Only One Life-Support System
* II. How Our Life-Support System is Constructed.
* III. The Value of Biosphere Earth.
* IV. The Most Valuable Thing in the Universe.
* V. Biospheric Rescue as Our #1 Priority.
* Epilogue
* Citations
* Addendum
Addtional Info
We are planning on publishing the final draft of this paper on Sept. 20.
Visit biointegrity.net to learn more about our work.
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Jul 23, 2021
Thoughts on Bezos & the Biosphere (A Fundraising Ask)
"We have built our society on a number of paradigms that are not rooted in Life-support system reality." In this podcast, BioIntegrity founder Chris Searles shares on the idea that wealth monarchies have propagated the paradigms that whatever's best for those who have the most is best for society, and society can live on material wealth alone. Recorded on a morning walk across a 3,000 acre pecan farm in West Texas about 100 miles from Jeff Bezos' recent launch into space.
References
* Bezos in space
* Branson in space
* A draft of the paper, "The Value of Biosphere Earth"
* No other planet has even one microbe (NASA)
* NASA has explored +4,400 planets
* Proxima Centauri B, "our best hope", is deadly and 73,000 years away
* Wealth monarchy has been good to me, but not my friends
* UN Convention on Biodiversity, first draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
* Cover photo credit: NASA Flight Opportunities
Quotes"Biodiversity is the biosphere. Biosphere is everything to us."
"The guardians of the biosphere are not the nations, it's the Indigenous people who still have occupation of their ancestral lands. The paradigm shift that we need to make is to empower indigenous leadership, on Earth, especially for those who are on their ancestral lands now -- they are the guardians of our Life-support system."
"We must call on private wealth to be the change. Every entity that has a net worth of $30 million or more should put a small portion of their wealth right now into advancing humanity by protecting the remaining wilderness, by regrowing the wilderness continuum, and transitioning the economy away from being self-destructive."
"Everything is possible. We have the mathematics. We just have to focus that ingenuity on biospheric reality, Life-support system reality."
"Living in the life-support system paradigm has embedded in it the resolution of a lot of the negativities that have come from the wealth monarchy system; the racism, the mysogyny, the subjugation of people who have less than... There is really a requirement that we employ the best of ourselves in the project of caring for the only life-support system in the known universe, and restoring Earth's biointegrity."
Thank you to all 'the supporters of BioIntegrity!
To support our work, donate here.
Help take these messages to the next level.
Watch last week’s video ask.
Learn more about what BioIntegrity has accomplished so far.
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Jul 8, 2021
BioIntegrity's Six-Legged Table
In this podcast BioIntegrity director Chris Searles provides a brief overview of what each table leg means to BioIntegrity's new organizational model and identity, and proposes the world's .1% wealthiest entities (individuals, corporations, funds, institutions, etc.) invest 5% of their net worths in rescuing the only life-support system's remaining old growth wildernesses and transitioning today's economy into a regenerative economy. The rest of this decade should be focused on successfully achieving this paradigm change in order to overcome today's global challenges. Our primary goal: de-fragmentation of the global wilderness continuum by 2040; emergency-scale protection, regrowth and integration of wilderness integrity on Earth.
The Six Table Legs
* Life-support system
* Biodiversity relationships
* Life force reality
* Personal healing
* Indigeneity
* Advancement of humanity
Quote"The next eight years should be focused on successful paradigm change."
"Science shows u…
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Jul 8, 2021
Fundraising Ask + Big Thoughts on Drought Response
Donate to BioIntegrity
Donate to BioIntegrity here!
Covered in this podcast
* Thank you Jane Lowrimore, Linda Miller-Raff and Dr. Anne-Marie Thomas for their recent donations! Thank you also to CJ Abdo, new monthly contributor!
* The fundraising ask (short)
* We need something we can all agree on, how about continuation of the only Life-Support System?
* We are now living in the era of the broken climate system.
* Think in decades for the solution to take shape: next eight years (the 2020s), next ten after that (2030s), and the next ten (2040s): Regrow stability. Transition out of life-support system destruction economics and practices. The next 8 years should be focused on successful paradigm change: Optimizing our Life-Support System's integrityProtect, Regrow, and Integrate the Wilderness Continuum, some rationale:
* Our most reliable social and environmental solution
* Our quality of life determiner
* Our continuation determiner
* Our best response to Climate C…
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Mar 11, 2021
Response to "The Amazon used to be the lungs of the planet. Not anymore"
Thoughts on the severity of the day — biospheric recession and becoming the “next” generation. This podcast is re: the recent Fast Company article, "The Amazon used to be 'the lungs of the planet.' Not anymore" and related academic research. Scientifically, the Amazon is the heart of our life support system and the greatest of the productive ecosystems. It is no doubt in retreat and radically threatened today by global warming and human abuse. How do we respond? This isn't just an Amazon problem..... This podcast identifies the basis for change from the top and advancing our known future with biospherically-led economic revolution. Let us embrace biospheric realism today and the opportunities it brings even in nascent form. Let us call for real change now. This is BioIntegrity 2.0.
Citations for this episode (view on Google docs):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kPbe1TFsOGQbNhLDqjOySCxF1cycpmqc/view?usp=sharing
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Mar 4, 2021
Response to "UN says World has 10 months," and an update on BioIntegrity 2.0
On Feb. 26, 2021, The United Nations published a report which clarified that nations have 10 months to get serious on their climate pledges. Here's a response to that, for the BioIntegrity community, from BioIntegrity founder/director, Chris Searles. In this podcast, Chris talks about the urgency of shifting our focus onto the biosphere, as we endeavor to sort-out how to stop and reverse multiple, urgent, planetary crises.
Show notes, with citations, here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T6Cv_N3B66ycEqKUrXx0aYwSUxYQGlio/view?usp=sharing
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