(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Actually, it's quite simple. When we poison agriculture by using chemicals, we also poison the insects, birds, animals and ourselves. When microplastics find their way to the ocean, they end up in our blood. When we poison the air, we breathe it in and get it in our lungs. It's that simple. Both common sense and research tell us this basic fact – that the earth's health is our health. But such an insight is far from the basis of our lives and how we organize our societies. The time is ripe to compost the wild idea that humans are separate from nature – we must break it down and transform it into a nourishing ecological imperative. This is the essence of Fred Hageneder's book Healthy Planet,
Why have we ended up here, and how can we get out of this?
His view is this: Human health, animal health, plant health and ecosystem health are linked. One planet, one health. We cannot separate ourselves from life on the planet. What hurts one bit hurts another bit. An old European proverb among the forest rangers goes like this: Where the wolves go, the plants grow. This was also experienced in the USA when the gray wolf Canis lupus was reintroduced in January 1995 in several areas of the northern Rocky Mountains. The behavior of the wolf's prey changed, they stopped going through valleys and canyons where wolves could easily ambush, thus the original flora was given the opportunity to re-establish itself, and biodiversity increased. The flora provided food and shelter for an increasing number of plants and animals. With the wolf, the vegetation along the river bank also returned, and erosion was reduced. Where wolves go, plants grow. This is ecological thinking.
The Gaia Theory
Healthy Planet is a rare thorough book. An eco-bible for our time. Like the Bible, it is at times heavy, difficult to read and full of detail, but it is also poetic and beautiful, a book you can return to and leaf through. But leaf through quickly, for time is short.
Where wolves go, plants grow.
The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, Hageneder brushes the dust off the Gaia theory, which was developed by James Lovelock in the early 1970s. Here, the author goes into depth about how a healthy planet works, how ecosystems have developed, and how they affect each other. The Gaia theory centers around the hypothesis that our blue globe is a self-regulating system, where life itself plays the most decisive role. Did you know, for example, that 99 percent of the atmosphere is created by living creatures? Everything that lives creates the air we breathe in, and without everything that lives, the air could not be breathed and used as a basis for life, but would rather be useless and poisonous. The book is full of such astonishing facts, presented with great love for all living things, including the human animal who is the cause of the great eco-crises we are in the middle of.
Ecosphere and pollution
The second part of the book describes the catastrophic state the planet is in – as we know, it is enough to deal with. Before the author sets up the crisis list, he has a timely review of the language we use about this. Take the word "environment", for example, which presupposes an anthropocentric view of the world – man at the center and the environment around man. Hageneder suggests using the word "biosphere" or "ecosphere" instead. In order to combat what he calls the earth's three main problems, we must take language back. In his opinion, the three main problems are: mass extinction of species, pollution and climate disturbances. All three of these are huge, complex and potentially deadly to life on Earth. Only under the topic of pollution we find plastics, microplastics, nano-rubbish, genetic modification, chemicals, radioactivity, sound noise (above and below water), light pollution, electromagnetic radiation, overpopulation and overconsumption. If it weren't for the fact that after each topic the author has an overview of what can be done, and what is actually done, it would have been unbearable reading.
The climate breakdown chapter is even more depressing. Perhaps the scariest thing is gaining in-depth knowledge of the unpredictable and doomsday nature of tipping points. Reaching a tipping point in this context means that a temperature limit is breached on the planet, after which a cascade of negative effects is triggered. The result is what is called "hothouse Earth", where the Earth's ability to sustain life is destroyed. An uninhabitable earth.
Human psyche
Why have we ended up here, and how can we get out of this? This is the subject of the third part of the book. Hageneder highlights the human psyche as a fundamental reason. As a species, we are not at all rationally oriented, but on the contrary are governed by emotions and that is immediately satisfying. This, in addition to the fact that we have a collective tendency to want to cement our beliefs by seeking and getting confirmation of what we already believe, means that we have not been able to turn around, even if the facts are obvious. The solution, according to Hageneder, is to actively incorporate an ecocentric view of the world by counteracting the notion of separation. We are not detached from nature. We are part of it. We must cherish the attitude that everything is connected to everything. When one bit is damaged, another is damaged. Where the wolf goes, the plants grow. It is not necessarily the hope we need, because that may have been lost for many, but the courage to do the right thing, and that is to continue and fight for the rights of Mother Earth and all her inhabitants.
