Southern Conservation Partners
  • Home
  • What We Do
  • Fiscal Sponsorships
  • Partnerships
  • Resources
  • Defense
  • Viewpoint
  • Contact

Viewpoint

What We Do Right Now, or Fail to Do, Will Determine the Future

4/5/2017

0 Comments

 
Renowned journalist and commentator Thomas Friedman published “Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations” last year. After reviewing the accelerating environmental damages, stresses, and desperate condition of the Earth (“Mother Nature,” in his terminology) and its ecological systems and climate, Friedman quotes oceanographer Sylvia Earle’s succinct summation: “What we do right now, or fail to do, will determine the future—not just for us, but for all life on Earth.”
Picture
Photo by Laura Cotterman
     Friedman’s own conclusion, upon reviewing our current state of phenomenal, unparalleled accelerations in technological, socio-economic, and environmental changes, is that, with our insults to the natural environment and human population TRIPLING in size in only 60 years (and with, currently,  1 of every 122 people on Earth a displaced refugee), we are on the verge of irreversible alteration of the Earth’s ecological balances and are at risk of wrecking our global climate, biodiversity, oceans, and ecosystem stabilizers and boundaries. "Without compounding, multiplicative commitments along all fronts that are commensurate with the magnitude of the challenge we face, we stand NO chance –zero--of preserving a stable planet when there will be so many more people, armed with so many more powerful tools, propelled by a supernova [that of electronic and digital technologies; and the internet information cloud] … I will keep saying … as long as I have the breath: we are the first generation for whom ‘later’ will be the time when all of Mother Nature’s buffers, spare tires, tricks of the trade, and tools for adapting and bouncing back will be exhausted or breached. If we don’t act quickly together to mitigate these trends, we will be the first generation of humans for whom later will be too late.”
      
Friedman directs us to use Mother Nature as a mentor for societal and political adaptation and resilience, and to embrace diversity and change. With hopeful optimism he suggests we can learn from and employ experiences from local communities, such as his home town in Minnesota, that have overcome challenges effectively and have embraced and grown from social, ethnic, and economic diversity. There is no better time than now to pause, find your community and place in which to join with others, and get to work.
                                                                    --Chuck Roe, President, Southern Conservation Partners
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    Conservation, viewed in its entirety, is the slow and laborious unfolding of a new relationship between people and land.
    --Aldo Leopold
    ​There is in fact no distinction between the fate of the land and the fate of the people.  When one is abused, the other suffers.
    --Wendell Berry

    From the President

    SCP President Chuck Roe looked at land conservation along the route of John Muir's "Southern Trek."​
    ​READ ABOUT IT


    About Viewpoint

    This blog offers views of our Board and partners. We invite  your viewpoint on the following questions:
      --How can we work together to overcome isolation among groups working to protect and conserve land, water, wildlife, biodiversity, urban green spaces, productive farms and forests, and communities?
      --How can we devise means to conserve more natural and rural land resources in corporate ownership (even in "syndicated" partnership ownership)? Can that be done ethically, responsibly, effectively?
      --Is there substantive interest in creating a new regional association of nonprofit groups engaged in land conservation and environmental protection in the southern U.S.--for mutual support and exchange ?
      --Is there a need for a regional approach to promote, assess, recognize, and certify operational standards and practices, and performance excellence for nonprofit environmental resource conservation groups?

        Your thoughts on other topics are welcome as well. Email us to submit a "Viewpoint" essay.

    Archives

    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    November 2021
    August 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All
    Aldo Leopold
    Anthropocene
    Biodiversity
    Book Review
    Clean Water Act
    Climate Change
    Coastal Systems
    Conservation
    Conservation Easements
    Cultural Heritage
    Ecological Catastrophe
    Ecological Restoration
    Education
    Environmentalist
    Extinction
    Extractivism
    Forest Ownership
    Forest Products Industry
    John Muir
    Land And Water Trust Funds
    Land Ethic
    Landowner Recognition
    Land Trusts
    Land Trust Tools
    Natural Resource Protection
    Nature Connection
    Partnerships
    Registry
    Resilience
    Southern Forests
    Tax Incentives
    Water Pollution
    Wildlife Trade
    Zoonotic Pandemic

    RSS Feed

Southern Conservation Partners
​P.O. Box 33222,  Raleigh N.C. 27636-3222
    Phone: 919-500-6598
  • Home
  • What We Do
  • Fiscal Sponsorships
  • Partnerships
  • Resources
  • Defense
  • Viewpoint
  • Contact