Please notice that I didn’t say that there was no threat of a dark age for human civilisation. I said that this concern is “hysteria-media-driven”. “It sells newpapers”, as they used to say.

The answers to these global problems lie the world’s 1st sustainable land development best practices system – where good land development standards are based on good science. Check it out…

The SLDI CodeTM – http://www.sldi.org/images/Research/sldi%20in%20focus%20-%20world%5C%27s%20first%20sldbp%20system%20introduced.pdf

As far as the relative importance of ecosystem services to sustain civilization, I think that this is what you are looking for…

Biodiversity is the Living Foundation for Sustainable Development – http://www.sldtonline.com/content/view/120/

Best,

Terry Mock
Executive Director
Sustainable Land Development International
http://www.SLDI.org

I notice on your website you speak of “equal emphasis on economy, environment, and social equity.” Those are the expressed sentiments of senior members of our current government (minus the social equity bit, though they might add that if pressed). They won’t do in the face of climate change and species extinction. The environment has to come first. This is not a death knell for the economy, just the driver of a somewhat different kind of economy.

It’s not clear from your generalised statements how seriously you take the science of such major environmental issues as climate change and biodiversity. If your optimism is built on an acceptance of what the science presents good luck to you. If it is an attempt to bypass that reality it won’t lead anywhere promising.

…Having taken an early environmentally defensive position on land development issues in the past, I now find myself in the position of defending our industry in the face of recent publicly reported criticism and dire predictions which have outlined a very bleak future for humanity as a consequence of the collective eco-sins of present and preceding generations. While the consequences of bad environmental practices are now evident and obvious to any rational observer, I now offer an opinion contrary to the current hysteria-media-driven fear of a coming “Dark Age” for civilization.

The key to my optimism is the belief that inevitably the movement of human emotion between the extremes of confidence in human dominance over nature, and the fear of nature punishing us for our exploitive tendencies, will result in a more balanced view that as part of nature, humans have the capability to be a positive evolutionary force and to learn from and influence the natural world around us, for the benefit of society today, as well as future generations of all species.

…there has been an amazing burst of new technology on the scene, with much more on the way, that will enable our species to not only survive, but to thrive as the stewards of a restored planet.

The cornerstone of our new-found knowledge of sustainability is the philosophy of “doing more with less,” and the best sustainable models to study are the earth’s natural systems. By emulating the efficiency of nature, we can sustain our species at a desirable standard of living and at long last, the often repeated cycle of natural resource exploitation, and the rise and fall of civilizations from the dawn of human time, will be broken.

Terry Mock
Executive Director
Sustainable Land Development International
http://www.SLDI.org