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The Viridian RevolutionBy Thor Janson

The religion of our present capitalistic andmaterialistically oriented civilization is “economic growth.” Itis estimated that the world economy will expand fourfold inthe next forty years. The fuel for this economic growth stillcomes from nature and natural resources. Already we havedestroyed more than half of all the planets tropical andtemperate forests. Half of all the wetlands and a third of theworld’s mangrove forests are gone. Twenty percent of thecoral reefs are gone and another twenty percent areendangered. And right now we are poised for the biggestboom in world economic expansion in history with theinevitable proportionate acceleration of the holocaust of thenatural world. My dictionary defines the word holocaust as:destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especiallycaused by fire or nuclear war. The use of this wordpushes buttons but nevertheless I think that it isappropriate to describe our acceleration of thedestruction of nature to provide the raw materials forexponential economic growth.

In the year 1000 the human population wasabout 270 million souls and the world economicoutput was about $120 billion. By 1820 thepopulation had grown to about a billon people andoutput was around $690 billion. Over this eighthundred year period per capita income had onlyincreased by several hundred dollars. But then theindustrial revolution exploded upon the scene andrapid economic growth –along with increasingexploitation of our natural resources- took off. It tookall of human history to arrive at the 7 trillion dollar



world economy of 1950 and from there theexponential acceleration of these trends hascontinued with little hesitation. Since then all themajor charts showing global change have gone intoan accelerating acceleration curve: water use, paperconsumption, fertilizer consumption, atmosphericcarbon dioxide concentrations, ozone depletion, lossof tropical rainforests, great floods, loss of biodiversity, and on and on.

By the year 2000 the human population hadswelled to 6 billion and economic output had

increased to an amazing forty trillion dollars. The sizeof the world economy had doubled since 1960, andthen doubled again. Economic output was at 55trillion in 2004 and economic activity is projected toquadruple by 2050. There is no doubt about it: weare in an exponentially accelerating accelerationcurve towards some kind of cosmic moment of truth.In the year 1800 nature was perceived to be vast and

virtually limitless. During that century we managedto extinguish the great herds of buffalo and the sky-darkening mega-flocks of passenger pigeons.Steller’s sea cow went extinct –due to humanpredation- within years of its discovery. As we arepropelled into the 21 st Century species extinctionsalso become exponential. The planet has not seensuch destruction in sixty-five million years, since the

dinosaurs disappeared. The great question for us today, greater even

than how to win the worldwide war against terror, ishow can we continue on our present path of economic expansion without ruining our planet?



Needed: A Green “Manhattan Project” for the 21 st

Century

Manhattan Project was the code name for theAmerican project set up in 1942 to develop an atombomb. The project culminated in 1945 with thedetonation of the first nuclear weapon, at WhiteSands in New Mexico. Fear that the Nazis might soondevelop an atomic bomb motivated the USA to investthe huge resources necessary to develop it first, andin a hell of a hurry. And we did it. Fear that the

Russians would dominate the USA in space causedPresident John F. Kennedy to allocate the massivefunds required to put a man on the Moon, and to doit quickly! We don’t spend the big money to pushforward technological advances until we are in fear of being destroyed or of being invaded by thebarbarians. Now we are in danger of destroying theecological support systems of our planet, the life

system upon which human civilization is built, thefoundation of our economy. What kind of globalecological calamity will have to happen before wefeel the FEAR of imminent annihilation that will causeus to allocate the funding necessary for ourecological Manhattan Project? Katrina was notenough. The tsunamis and earthquakes have notbeen enough. We are so deeply in love with oureconomic growth that I fear that only a planetaryemergency on a vast scale will be able to slap usawake and make us see the insanity of our presenthell bent destruction of nature to power exponentialeconomic growth. What might that be? Scientistswarn that the Greenland glaciers are moving toward



the coast at three times their normal speed. TheGreenland ice shelf sliding off into the sea causingthe inundation of all the worlds coastal cities wouldprobably do the trick. That would be a calamity of truly biblical proportions. Fear would grip the heartsof all humans. We would be forced then to re-thinkour way of living and to re-evaluate the way humansrelate to our planet.

A Design Science Revolution for Planet Earth:The Tellurian Transformation

“ There’s enough for all our needs, but not for all our greed” - Lee “Scratch” Perry

OK. Finally humanity understands that we simplycannot continue to destroy nature if we are tosurvive here on Planet Earth. The Earth has shown usthat there truly are limits to our growth. The Earthhas shown us that She also needs to be taken intoconsideration. She needs Her forests and jungles.She needs her rivers to run clear and clean. Sheneeds Her oceans to be teaming with fish and free of toxic human-generated pollutions. The Earth willteach us that humans are not here to dominate Her.Humans were not designed to “manage” the planetas if it were an industrial factory. The Earth is a livingbeing. She has Her own way of managing thePlanet’s metabolism. Of course, humans must eat,must cloth themselves, and must have housing.

Question: How can we provide for ourselveswhile at the same time halt all further destruction of nature? Answer: Only by way of a technological



revolution whereby we transform our presentecocidic civilization into a biogenic one, whichoperates in harmony with the living Planet Earth. Atpresent our civilization is addicted to fossil fuels andwe are drinking ourselves do death. We need a “12step program” to help us to free ourselves from ourpresent slavery to nature-destroying lifestyles. Allour resources must be focused on developing a newclean source of energy to power civilization. We mustfind a way to recycle ALL our wastes and completelyend pollution of the environment. We mustrevolutionize agriculture to make it fully sustainable

while at the same time phase out all polluting agro-chemicals. We have to develop a whole newphilosophy about our place here on the Earth andwrite a new story about humans who love, cherishand protect nature.

Our planet is designed to be solar powered. Ithas been operating that way for a long, long time.

We must develop all our solar resources to providethe energy for humanity’s economic metabolism. Aworldwide energy grid to use our electrical powermore efficiently would be part of this transformation.As part of our revolution we can eliminate poverty,which is the root cause of most human conflicts. Wecan develop worldwide housing industries, which canprovide descent dwellings for all people. New ultra-

efficient and clean methods of providing food, suchas the cultivation of spirulina, can be vastlyexpanded.

Only God knows what we are capable of if wereally roll up our sleeves and get to work. That we

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