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ABSTRACT: Eugene Geis (2008) pointed out a
serious deficiency in my previous post "Is the
'Skills Slowdown' the Biggest Issue Facing the
Economic Competitiveness and Preservation of Life
on Planet Earth," writing: "You could've
attempted a paraphrasing of your concept of the
'Threat to Life on Planet Earth'.. ." Rather than
attempting to paraphrase the 22 references to
"Preservation of Life on Planet Earth" (as a
driver of education reform and gender equity) in
Part 2 of Hake & Mallow (2008), I list seven of
those references that reflect the work of Al
Bartlett, James Duderstadt, Arjun Makhijani,
Bill McKibben, Craig Nelson, Gus Speth, and
Edward Wilson.
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In my post "Is the 'Skills Slowdown' the Biggest
Issue Facing the Nation?" [Hake (2008)], I wrote:
"But, in my view, a BIGGER ISSUE. . . .[than the
'Skills Slowdown']. . . . and a more menacing
tectonic plate is the 'Threat to Life on Planet
Earth,' seldom mentioned by educational leaders.
. . . . . see e.g., "Drivers Of Education Reform
and Gender Equity: Economic Competitiveness and
Preservation of Life on Planet Earth" in Part 2
of Hake & Mallow (2008)."
In a PHYSOC post, Eugene Geis - aka "Quickness" (2008) responded:
"You could've attempted a paraphrasing of your
concept of the 'Threat to Life on Planet Earth'.
It might motivate me to download your 13 MB's of
pdf... Especially since it's the BIGGER ISSUE
alluded to in your abstract. . . . . And the
litany of subjects in Part 2 do not hint at a
synthesis into the apocalyptic phrase "Threat to
Life on Planet Earth." Please explain."
GOOD POINT! In Section C of "Drivers Of Education
Reform and Gender Equity: Economic
Competitiveness and Preservation of Life on
Planet Earth" in Part 2 of Hake & Mallow (2008),
(4.8 MB - not 13 MB), we give 13 references to
"Economic Competitiveness" (Section C1, pp.
14-20) and 22 references to "Preservation of Life
on Planet Earth" (Section C2, pp. 21-27 ) as
drivers of education reform and gender equity.
Rather than attempting to paraphrase the 22
references to "Preservation of Life on Planet
Earth," here are seven of those references that
reflect the work of Al Bartlett, James
Duderstadt, Arjun Makhijani, Bill McKibben,
Craig Nelson, Gus Speth, and Edward Wilson:
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111
1a. Bartlett, A.A. , edited by R.G. Fuller, V.P.
Clark, & J.A. Rogers. 2004. "The Essential
Exponential! For the Future of Our Planet,"
Center for Science, Mathematics, and Computer
Education, Univ. of Nebraska - Lincoln
<http://scimath.unl.edu/csmce/exp.php>:
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is
our inability to understand the exponential
function." - A.A. Bartlett
1b. Bartlett, A.A. 2004. "Thoughts on Long-Term
Energy Supplies: Scientists and the Silent Lie:
The world's population continues to grow -
shouldn't physicists care?" Physics Today 57(7);
53-55; online at
<http://fire.pppl.gov/energy_population_pt_0704.pdf>
(336 kB). See also (a) the companion Physics
Today article by Paul Weisz (2004); (b) the
ensuing criticism of the views of Bartlett and
Weiss (and counters by those authors) in the
Letters section of Physics Today 57(11): 12-20,
online to all at
<http://scitation.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_57/iss_11/12_1.shtml>;
Bartlett (2004) wrote:
"The most sacred icon in the 'religion' of the US
economic scene is steady growth of the gross
national product, enterprises, sales, and
profits. Many people believe that such economic
growth requires steady population growth.
Although physicists address the problems that
result from a ballooning population-such as
energy shortages, congestion, pollution, and
dwindling resources- their solutions are starkly
deficient. Often, they fail to recognize that the
solutions must involve stopping population
growth."
2222222222222222222222222222222222222222
2. Duderstadt, J.J. 2000. "A University for the
21st Century." Univ. of Michigan Press; for a
description see <http://tinyurl.com/9lhpl >. On
pages 20-21 Duderstadt wrote:
SPACESHIP EARTH: There is mounting evidence that
the growing population and invasive activities of
humankind are now altering the fragile balance of
our planet. The concerns are both multiplying in
number and intensifying in severity: the
destruction of forests, wetlands and other
natural habitats by human activities leading to
extinction of millions of biological species and
the loss of biodiversity; the buildup of
greenhouse gases such a carbon dioxide and their
possible impact on global climates; the pollution
of our air, water, and land.
With the world population now at 6 billion, we
are already consuming 40% of the world's
photosynthetic energy production. Current
estimates place a stable world population at
about 8 to 10 billion by the late twenty-first
century, assuming fertility rates continue to
drop over the next several decades. Yet even at
this reduced rate of population growth, we could
eventually consume all of the planet's resources,
unless we take action. BECAUSE OF THIS OVERLOAD
OF THE WORLD'S RESOURCES, EVEN TODAY, OVER 1.2
BILLION OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION LIVE BELOW THE
SUBSISTENCE LEVEL, AND 500 MILLION BELOW THE
MINIMUM CALORIC INTAKE LEVEL NECESSARY FOR LIFE.
[Our CAPS.]
It could well be that coming to grips with the
impact of our species on our planet, learning to
live in a sustainable fashion on spaceship earth,
will become the greatest challenge of our
generation. This will be particularly difficult
for a society that has difficulty looking more
than a generation ahead encumbered by a political
process that generally functions on an
election-by-election basis, as the current debate
over global change makes all too apparent.
UNIVERSITIES MUST TAKE THE LEAD IN DEVELOPING
KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATING THE WORLD'S CITIZENS TO
ALLOW US TO LIVE UPON OUR PLANET WHILE PROTECTING
IT. [Our CAPS.]
"In a world confronting global climate change,
political turmoil among oil exporting nations,
nuclear weapons proliferation, nuclear plant
safety and waste disposal issues, the United
States must assume a leadership role in moving to
a zero-CO2-emissions energy economy. At the same
time, the U.S. needs to take the lead in reducing
the world's reliance on nuclear power. This
breakthrough joint study by the Institute for
Energy and Environmental Research and the Nuclear
Policy Research Institute shows how our energy
needs can be met by alternative sources. Wind,
solar, biomass, microalgae, geothermal and wave
power are all part of the solution. "Carbon-Free
and Nuclear-Free" is must reading for people
concerned with energy politics and everyone who
wants to take action to protect the planet's
future."
Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/3l6jd6>.
444444444444444444444444444444444444444444
4. McKibben, B. 2008a. "Civilization's last
chance: The planet is at a tipping point on
climate change, and it gets much worse, fast,"
Los Angeles Times, 11 May; online at
<http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-mckibben11-2008may11,0,7434369.story>.
McKibben wrote:
". . . . .all of a sudden, those grim Club of
Rome types who, way back in the 1970s, went on
and on about the "limits to growth" suddenly seem
... how best to put it, RIGHT (emphasis in the
original).
All of a sudden it isn't morning in America, it's dusk on planet Earth.
There's a number -- a new number -- that makes
point most powerfully. It may now be the most
important number on Earth: 350. As in parts per
million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
A few weeks ago, NASA's chief climatologist,
James Hansen, submitted a paper to Science
magazine with several coauthors. The abstract
attached to it argued -- and I have never read
stronger language in a scientific paper -- that
"IF HUMANITY WISHES TO PRESERVE A PLANET SIMILAR
TO THAT ON WHICH CIVILIZATION DEVELOPED AND TO
WHICH LIFE ON EARTH IS ADAPTED, PALEOCLIMATE
EVIDENCE AND ONGOING CLIMATE CHANGE SUGGEST THAT
CO2 WILL NEED TO BE REDUCED FROM ITS CURRENT 385
PPM TO AT MOST 350 PPM." [Our CAPS.]
"For a variety of reasons, it is becoming much
clearer that major real world problems are
collectively worse than most faculty have
previously realized. These include global
climatic change, social inequity, national and
international disease situations and geopolitical
problems. Public discourse in a nation's capital
on these issues can be seen as a collective final
exam for the institutions of higher education in
that country. Most of the major players in the
national government, at least in the US, have an
undergraduate degree and many have a graduate or
professional degree. BUT POLICIES AND PUBLIC
DISCOURSE RARELY SEEM TO ADEQUATELY GRASP THE
COMPLEXITIES AND TRADEOFFS. [Our CAPS.] Perhaps I
am being too optimistic in suggesting that more
than a few faculty see SOTL . . . .[Scholarship
of Teaching and Learning]. . . . as a way of
focusing higher education on finding more
effective ways to foster fundamental outcomes
like critical thinking, engagement with the real
world and sophisticated ethical judgment. I, for
one, certainly hope that the effects of SOTL will
extend this far."
666666666666666666666666666666666666666666
6. Speth, J.G. 2008. "The Bridge at the Edge of
the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and
Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability." Yale
University Press, publisher's information at
<http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300136111>.
"How serious are the threats to our environment?
Here is one measure of the problem: if we
continue to do exactly what we are doing, with NO
growth in the human population or the world
economy, the world in the latter part of this
century will be unfit to live in. Of course human
activities are not holding at current levels-they
are accelerating, dramatically-and so, too, is
the pace of climate disruption, biotic
impoverishment, and toxification. In this book
Gus Speth, author of "Red Sky at Morning" and a
widely respected environmentalist, begins with
the observation that the environmental community
has grown in strength and sophistication, but the
environment has continued to decline, to the
point that we are now at the edge of catastrophe.
Speth contends that this situation is a severe
indictment of the economic and political system
we call modern capitalism. Our vital task is now
to change the operating instructions for today's
destructive world economy before it is too late.
The book is about how to do that."
See also Speth's website
<http://www.thebridgeattheedgeoftheworld.com/>:
"My point of departure in this book is the
momentous environmental challenge we face. But
today's environmental reality is linked
powerfully with other realities, including
growing social inequality and neglect and the
erosion of democratic governance and popular
controlŠ As citizens we must now mobilize our
spiritual and political resources for
transformative change on all three fronts." - Gus
Speth
"When a figure as eminent and mainstream as Gus
Speth issues a warning this strong and profound,
the world should take real notice. This is an
eloquent, accurate, and no-holds-barred brief for
change large enough to matter." - Bill McKibben
"The global population is precariously large, and
will become much more so before peaking some time
after 2050. Humanity overall is improving per
capita production, health, and longevity. But it
is doing so by eating up the planet's capital,
including natural resources and biological
diversity millions of years old. Homo sapiens is
approaching the limit of its food and water
supply. Unlike any species before, it is also
changing the world's atmosphere and climate,
lowering and polluting water tables, shrinking
forests, and spreading deserts. Most of the
stress originates directly or indirectly from a
handful of industrialized countries. Their proven
formulas for prosperity are being eagerly adopted
by the rest of the world. The emulation cannot be
sustained, not with the same levels of
consumption and waste. Even if the
industrialization of the developing countries is
only partially successful, the environmental
aftershock will dwarf the population explosion
that preceded it."
Eugene Geis (aka "Quickness). 2008. Re: Is the
"Skills Slowdown" the Biggest Issue Facing the
Nation? PHYSOC post of 5 Aug 2008 00:33:46-04;
online at <http://tinyurl.com/55etkh>. To access
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