An Invisible Chain of our Time, Page 3

  Chapters

  Imagine that those who you must persuade do not need money, no religion, no wage: they only need space and be able to eat someone or something, are not humans and only know react to natural laws: they cannot be purchased. You depend from altogether them, and all together. You should be "very cogent”; they will not understand anything other than natural laws. Hence, the chapter one “The Baseline from scratch” collects the operating bases of living beings and natural systems which form, and belong all of them, and a few points that permit understand how is coordinated our life with its environ. They all together are the partners we have to persuade. There is a lot written in black over white, and a lot is being rewriting continuously; but focusing on some issues from a distant point of view, looking for the whole forest, it allows settle pillars and references that due their weight, define and draw clearly how runs the life. Is it unnecessary? I do not think so, I am tired to hear stupid ideas, like this one of have converted one-third of the Earth in a surface of dead ground, and more by seeing it.

  Once we have touched this basis with the hands dirty, then will appear all those enormous things with we are enjoyed in the Earth (with a sting of a bug, I am sorry): all the wildlife. Over all this, like an arrogant king, one day appeared the mankind as such -the older bones have 200,000 years but we could have presented here 1,000,000 years ago-, and started to change some things. From there, this is the moment for see what we have done. The chapter two “The color of our human world” points to the ensemble of processes, phenomena and resources that have been of human interest, in front of those others that being part of the system were forgotten, pushed aside or undervalued. Our attention has been focused in only some issues by some motif, and others are been scorned despite it contradicts the definition of a system, which is formed by all the pieces, relations and processes that belong to the defined system. To note this deviation may light up and make touchable the purpose of the book and questions posed. It is remarkable for me the idea that launched one day a biologist: "who exerts pressure, the crowd or the dominnt minority? The ants are neither intelligent nor disorganized”.

  After doing all this transformations that we call always proudly development, we build for us an image of the world, our actions, and our footprints, neither always reasonable nor logical. The chapter three “Trying connecting the strings” is a proposal of relationship between the bases, all changes performed and factors which press over us, and our present and future lifestyle and purposes that at least we assume have in our modern societies. From this relationships should appear questions and conclusions, understandable for anyone, especially all those issues that are squeaking shockingly. Certainly, I am not neither a magician nor a genius, simply are squeaking in my ears the words of so many people responsible, who see from the distance the same stupid situation. And there are a lot of people responsible.

  The chapter four “I am a little puzzled by all this” is a personal confession about the feeling that one environmentalist scientist may have keeping the feet on floor, knowing only a few about facts but rejecting to die saying yes to so many contradictions, nonsenses, hand games and beautiful words. All said of course with politeness and sense of humor (is that I wish), this wonderful pill that our body provides us. Are collected a list of possible amends and corrections: of actions, self-criticism, approach of technologies, and a criticism of the same scientific notion, questions that could not continue being indefinitely forgotten, at least consciously. I guess that a biologist, an agronomist, a physician or engineer could have a feeling akin. At the end, some stories and links that I think can offer something positive to all this.

  The reader would ask how I am letting aside the great amount of references that habitually go with this sort of texts and are needed: well, I thought keep the obvious ones -I should include as necessary at least 1,300-, but could be it understandable and useful for a shepherd, just when what must be valid for a microbiologist who traces the genetic map finally must be also valid for him? Perhaps have we assumed some kind of difference between them? It is not necessary anyone can understand it?

  I do not agree that thinking way. Because all this, I will mark some references that there are aside in the web. One day I was on the countryside talking with a herder, and after almost two hours listening to him, I learnt how much can understand a man who never gone to the school, and reason out when he is not polluted with TV and press (he has not the time to waste on this). The tricks are not valid with these people, and that is good. Many decades ago that which was a sort of Kabbalah knowledge, today is nothing absolutely, everybody understands that the Earth is round. And the herders, they understand immediately every true explanation about nature, if it is simple and direct. No more references here, that is for projects or papers.

  Some explanations are attached to graphics or pictures, including links to websites (always safe), to the extent that allow to visualize things or phenomenon that are invisible, are so distant, or we cannot see directly, despite being part of our lives all of them.

  The Baseline from scratch.

  We already have knowledge about our relationships between beings, those big and those small; we are not utterly ignorant. We are not paying attention to this, because almost two-third of us have moved to live within cement beehives, and at least one generation has not smelled a blade of wildlife. How will understand we that we depend from Nature as other beings if yet we do not know how it smells?

  If a bird is quacking, it only crosses our mind that the bird will attack us. And the free fields seem to us to be as gardens forsaken. We are misguided, clueless and brainless.

  The further away we are, the less we know.

  The less we know, the more we need believe.

  The more we believe, the less we need to know.

  The less we want know, more we belong to other.

  The more we belong to others, less we do in the life.

  1. The basis for almost everything: the soils.

  A meeting point, the soils.

  Likely we could say that the most important of ever elements that belong the Earth system is the water, but the soil is the most important for us, is the place where the water can run. The soils hold the processes which allow us feeding and living, and depend on them if not two, one of the vital needs that we have: eat. Here meet all the important phenomena, which altogether allow and provoke the life. That probably which seems you do not have sense (then you belong to 50% of population who thinks so), do not serves to nothing than produce food, seems to do not need care, is being in fact the base for all the life and resources we enjoy, except the seas. As the two-thirds of population only live surrounded of sidewalks, roads, and parks for leisure, all these dwellers of towns consider this goods as natural, and so they only ask to have parks. Thus, the state and importance of soils is an invisible issue.

  (The expected evolution of surfaces uses and state in the coming decades)

  The soils have been continuously degraded, unconsciously, in a steady rhythm for centuries, what is today unacceptable, not only as theory but as a fact. Just in a few years it will be reached the point of inflection in the extension of surfaces in the Earth that could be exploited by the first time: along the wealthy extensions of Amazonia, Indonesia, Borneo, and Africa, has been developed a massive transformation of pristine and primitive forests into crops and pastures for livestock (not really for saving nobody from hunger), while the total surface of degraded and abandoned lands has had a continued increase. By so, it continues being profitable the first action (the logging) in front of the second action (the restoration) for the loggers and industrialized farmers.

  Let me point out a first key point; this profit will not be for you, the rest of humans. The maximum edge, the pinnacle, the peak in numbers will be roughly the 2040: on this date some trends will reverse the global stage (as shows the chart below). Until now, the arable surfaces have increased thanks to surfaces from emerging logged forests, and at the same
time the bad use and overuse of lands has turned out in the increasing of degraded lands, which already have reached a 30%. Despite the afforestation in some countries, the total forest surface decreases steadily. As forests cannot be completely cleared (I guess the governments understand), more new lands will not be available for longer; the total surface of arable lands will be starting to decrease whilst the degraded lands will continue increasing as result of those aggressive practices promoted from big companies and followed by big and medium farmers; and the total surface of forests either will continue declining or barely will keep stable (I am sorry, I fear not be sure at all of the second guess).

  And all this while we are on the way to be 9,000 million inhabitants, all hoping and wanting to eat. In fact, the lands that have been so exploited will end belonging to the group of degraded lands: then it will start a new business, the recovering of lost lands, and this will be announced and presented as a great action, humanitarian, salvation, in spite of have been made consciously. Between other "nuances” within this, one of them will not have the humanitarian nature: get ready for it, the price for the recovering will belong to a new model of