A life on our planet – review

By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth

Because the film is so compelling and Attenborough such a sympathetic person, viewers may accept all of its statements and arguments. This would, however, be a mistake in my opinion.

“How Did This Class Prepare You for Extinction?”

By Luis I. Prádanos, Resilience.org

I believe that higher education would better serve students in particular and all humans in general if our teaching and research methods stop perpetuating the cultural paradigm that brought us to the brink of extinction and start encouraging students to imagine and create alternatives to it.

‘Revolutionary Change’ Needed to Stop Unprecedented Global Extinction Crisis

By Michelle Lim, The Conversation

We are also undermining the capacity of the Earth to sustain thriving human societies. We have the power to change this – but we need to act now.

The Great Thinning and How it Impacts the Imagination

By Rob Hopkins, Rob Hopkins blog

Our imaginations are rooted in the natural world.  They formed in the natural world.  They took their metaphors and similes from the natural world.  It’s from the natural world that we thought that something might be strong as an oak tree or as fragile as a reed.

Climate Change is Killing off Earth’s Little Creatures

By Bill Laurance, The Conversation

The bottom line is: we’re changing our world in many different ways at once. And the myriad little creatures that play so many critical roles in the fabric of life are struggling to survive the onslaught.

I’m Sorry for Your Loss

By Brian Miller, South Roane Agrarian

Today the monarchs are all but gone. That sad fact hit home this week as I read of the 97 percent collapse of the Western monarch population. No number of inspired “Ten Things You Can Do” articles, no amount of milkweed replanting, will revive a species once it falls into the past.

UK Scientists Risk Prison to Urge Action

By Alex Kirby, Climate News Network

Today sees the launch of ExtinctionRebellion, which describes itself as an international movement using mass civil disobedience to force governments to enter World War Two-level mobilisation mode, in response to climate breakdown and ecological crisis.

Extinction is a Natural Process, But it’s Happening at 1,000 Times the Normal Speed

By Elizabeth Boakes, David Redding, The Conversation

Extinction is, after all, inevitable in the natural world - some have even called it the “engine of evolution”. So should extinction matter to us?

The Death of the Last Male Northern White Rhino: Father and Daughter Reflect

By Skya Dietz, Rob Dietz, Resilience.org

On a typical school night, I was relaxing in the living room in front of the TV when my mom told me the last male northern white rhino had died.  The news didn’t officially register until I started talking to my dad.  When I told him what had happened, I just started crying. 

Insects are Disappearing. Why Should We Care? What Can be Done?

By Ryan Sandford-Blackburn, Permaculture Association

The sudden loss is a sign of ecosystem health, or should that be illness? A warning sign. So, why should we care? Plain and simply, as far as we know, this planet is the grand sum of life in the universe. We have a duty to cherish and nurture it.

What, Me Worry? Humans Are Blind to Imminent Environmental Collapse

By William E. Rees, The Tyee

A curious thing about H. sapiens is that we are clever enough to document — in exquisite detail — various trends that portend the collapse of modern civilization, yet not nearly smart enough to extricate ourselves from our self-induced predicament.

Biological Annihilation and the Sixth Mass Extinction

By Robert J. Burrowes, Open Democracy

We might be annihilating life on earth but this is not something about which we have no choice. In fact, each and every one of us has a choice: we can choose to do nothing, we can wait for (or even lobby) others to act, or we can take powerful action ourselves. But unless you search your heart and make a conscious and deliberate choice to commit yourself to act powerfully, your unconscious choice will effectively be the first one