To rescue the human enterprise in the long run requires strong action in the short run directed toward saving biodiversity and bringing the human enterprise within sustainable limits — Paul Ehrlich
What is the decision-making that is creating the planet’s ecological crises?
The decision-making that is creating the planet’s ecological crises is a decision-making system that may be called the “Human Enterprise.”
What is the Human Enterprise?
The Human Enterprise is …
… the sum of all the human decisions to extract things from the biosphere …
… things like forests, fresh water, wildlife, soils and minerals — that may be called the “Things-We-Extract” …
… plus all the physical flows of all those Things-We-Extract — things like forests, freshwater, wildlife, soils and minerals — from the biosphere and into the Human Enterprise …
… plus all the human decisions to use all those Things-We-Extract — in the forms of energy, water, materials & chemicals, food & fiber and manufactures & structures …
… things like energy, water, materials & chemicals, food & fiber and manufactures & structures that may be called the “Things-We-Use” …
… plus all the physical flows of all those Things-We-Use — things like energy, water, materials & chemicals, food & fiber and manufactures & structures — within the Human Enterprise …
… plus all the physical flows of pollution from all those Things-We-Use from the Human Enterprise back into the biosphere …
The map of the Human Enterprise depicts the entire physical relationship between human beings and the biosphere as:
- the sum of all the human decisions to adopt Things-We-Extract options and Things-We-Use options for meeting human physical needs, plus
- the sum of all the physical flows of Things-We-Extract (extraction flows), Things-We-Use (things-we-use flows) and pollution (pollution flows) created by all the human decisions to adopt Things-We-Extract options and Things-We-Use options.
Because human beings need both Things-We-Extract and Things-We-Use for meeting their human physical needs, the sum of all the human decisions to adopt Things-We-Extract options and Things-We-Use options may be called “Human Enterprise Decision-making” for meeting human physical needs.
The exponential growth of the Human Enterprise …
… has reached a point where the exponential damage to the biosphere from the extraction flows and the pollution flows of the Human Enterprise is outstripping the biosphere’s capacity to regenerate itself …
This exponential damage to the biosphere’s regenerative capacity is showing up as the big nine global ecological crises identified by the Stockholm Resilience Centre. These big nine planet-scale eco-crises are mapped as the orange areas beyond the Doughnut created by humanity’s “overshoot” of “planetary boundaries” …
The exponential damage to the biosphere from the extraction flows of the Human Enterprise (shown in blue-gray) …
.. is showing up as …
… eco-crises of freshwater depletion …
… eco-crises of deforestation and expanding deserts …
… and eco-crises of species extinctions and biodiversity loss …
The exponential damage to the biosphere from the pollution flows of the Human Enterprise (shown in orange) …
… is showing up as …
… eco-crises of global warming and climate change …
… eco-crises of synthetic pollutants such as herbicides, pesticides and microplastics …
… eco-crises of ozone layer depletion …
… eco-crises of aerosol pollutants such as dust, smoke and sulfates …
… eco-crises of ocean acidification …
… and eco-crises of phosphorus and nitrogen pollutants in rivers and coastal seas …
The human decision-making that is creating the planet’s eco-crises can be mapped — within the doughnut-shaped space — as the Human Enterprise Decision-making for meeting human physical needs, which is creating the planet’s ecological crises …
In the next chapter, you will learn how to map the decision-making system — called “Political Economic Decision-making” for deciding who-gets-what — that is creating human society’s who-gets-what crises.
I’m currently publishing We Can Reverse the Planet’s Eco-crises in series format: one chapter at a time starting with Chapter 1 and continuing through Chapter 10 plus a chapter-length Appendix.
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