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Quotes about Ecosystems from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"Fungi occur in every environment on Earth and play very important roles in most ecosystems, including the internal ecosystem of the body. Along with bacteria, fungi are the major decomposers in most terrestrial and some aquatic ecosystems. As decomposers, they play an indispensable role in nutrient cycling, especially as saprotrophs and symbionts, degrading organic matter to inorganic molecules. They become essential when the body accumulates organic waste matter, heavy metals and chemical compounds." - Andreas Moritz, Cancer Is Not A Disease - It's A Survival Mechanism (Get the book.)

"As resources become less plentiful and social tensions increase, wars of one kind or another become ever more likely, and the weaponry now at our disposal can destroy ecosystems as easily as people. Any catastrophe, "natural" or otherwise, that destroyed the infrastructure of contemporary civilization could send humanity into a new Dark Age. Serious as that may seem to us, it would be a relatively minor setback for the rest of life. The consequences would be much more serious if, for instance, the greenhouse effect were to become a runaway effect." - Peter Russell, Waking Up In Time: Finding Inner Peace In Times of Accelerating Change (Get the book.) "There may be unforeseen flips in the weather, unexpected changes in ecosystems, surprising responses by other species, or unpredicted earthquakes in significant locations. All we can say with certainty is that change will come —and more and more rapidly. The winds of change are brewing into a storm of change—perhaps a hurricane of change. How can we cope with such change? For me, trees provide a good lesson. If a tree is to withstand a storm, it must be flexible, able to bend with the winds. A rigid tree will soon blow down." - Peter Russell, Waking Up In Time: Finding Inner Peace In Times of Accelerating Change (Get the book.)

"Turner, an ethnobiologist specialized in aboriginal ecosystems and plant resources, "foraging for wild crops satisfies some instinctive yearning left over from man's evolutionary past when this occupation was essential for survival." When I first saw that Brazilian paradise nut tree, covered in muffins, it jolted me with a hardwired sense of excitement. The same neural circuits flash to life when I taste these jungle fruits: it's not only a sense of hope, it's an intimation of self-preservation, the knowledge that we'll remain alive for another day." - Adam Leith Gollne, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession (Get the book.)

"Our bodies are actually vast ecosystems for these organisms, many of which we could not live without because they contribute to the vital functioning of our bodies.11 It only makes sense that with so many trillions of cells in our bodies, cells are indeed tiny things. How tiny? About twenty microns wide, on average. To appreciate just how small the average human cell is, imagine marking off one inch on a piece of paper. If you laid average-size cells side by side, you would be able to fit 1,270 into that inch.12 If you are like most people, you can hardly conceive of anything so small." - Peter h. Fraser and Harry Massey, Decoding the Human Body-Field: The New Science of Information as Medicine (Get the book.)

"These life-course hazards are aspects of our interactive and integrative worlds, our ecosystems, that can powerfully influence our biology and, thereby, our fate. Much of this is captured by measures of socioeconomic status (ses). There is an incontrovertible relationship between ses and longevity. But do not be misled into assuming ses is simply a measure of income status. Longevity is more dependent on how poor you are relative to those who are advantaged in your ecosystem." - Nortin M. Hadler MD, Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America (Get the book.)

"Our cities eat into the countryside, eradicating natural ecosystems, spreading deserts of sand and concrete. We allow our toxic wastes to flow into our surroundings, poisoning other species, with hardly a thought. And we too are somewhat stupid; if we continue along this path, we are likely to cause irreversible damage to the biosphere, and will probably destroy ourselves. But the parallels go deeper than surface appearances and behavior. When we look at what underlies cancer and at what underlies humanity's malignant tendencies, we again find remarkably similar patterns." - Peter Russell, Waking Up In Time: Finding Inner Peace In Times of Accelerating Change (Get the book.)

"Without a doubt, the state of our planet's well-being, including its climate and ecosystems, has a measurable impact on our health, and that impact has prompted countless concerns about the level of toxicity that surrounds us each day and the ever-growing toxic burden with which our bodies must contend. Individuals, as well as health and government agencies, have begun to acknowledge this alarming reality and take steps to change it." - Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith, The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps (Get the book.) "THE WASTE IN WATER Water is essential to life, the life of the planet's ecosystems as well as to the human body. The pollution and toxicity of our oceans, lakes, waterways, ground water, and drinking water is having a devastating impact on our health and the health of our planet and wildlife. And you don't have to live near a beach that has closed down due to a toxic spill to be aware of the dangers or experience the effects of contaminated water." - Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith, The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps (Get the book.)

"Perhaps most important, in the ancient ecosystems of mountains we also see the need for our species to keep adapting as we move into the future. But what humans have over mountains is our creativity, ingenuity, and agency—the capacity to influence our environment and take some control of our own aging process. Ever so slowly, the landscape of aging is evolving. As we embark on the path of our own brain aging—individually and collectively—we must look ahead to the changes that await us so that we can best adapt." - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.)

"This creates a plethora of "side effects," such as the degradation of water, air, and soil, the alteration of the climate, and the impairment of local and continental ecosystems. The myth that nature is like a mechanism, although not as old as the myth that it is inexhaustible, is becoming just as dangerous. 3. Life is a struggle where only the fittest survive. This myth dates from the nineteenth century, a consequence of the popular understanding of Darwin's theory of natural selection." - Ervin Laszlo, Quantum Shift in the Global Brain: How the New Scientific Reality Can Change Us and Our World (Get the book.)

"But it is in the bodies of organisms and their interactions with other organisms and the physical world, in the context of ecosystems, where all that matter and energy flows. Genes, in contrast, are about storage and utilization of information." Researching genes without looking at the energy component of DNA is like studying a computer hard drive without plugging in the power cable. Hard drives are composed of thousands of sectors, substructures that store information." - Dawson Church, The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention (Get the book.)

"Cox of the Hadley Centre and coresearchers tell us, "About half of the current [greenhouse] emissions are being absorbed by the ocean and by land ecosystems."50'51 By 2050, his team expects that if we continue to release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at current and projected rates, the rain forests will be afflicted with drought. At that point, the vast amounts of carbon dioxide being stored in rain forests like the Amazon will be released. This could lead to global warming increases of 1.5 degrees C, which would cause tremendous climate change. " - David Steinman, Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Get the book.)

"For instance, it is well documented by ecologists and evolutionary biologists that ecosystems tend to become more complex; since the time of Darwin, evolution has been associated with the increase in complexity. Physicists have also cited complex evolution, showing that physical and chemical systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium tend to self-organize by exporting entropy and forming "dissipative structures." - Gary E. Schwartz and Linda G. S. Russek, The Living Energy Universe (Get the book.)

"In his writing Wilber has clearly shown why social holons cannot be seamlessly grafted on top of individual holons in a continuous holarchical line of development (i.e., ecosystems are not simply "higher-level organisms"), but he has not yet recognized how a similar problem arises when you try to stack the noosphere on top of the biosphere within the interobjective quadrant of development." - Steve McIntosh, Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution (Get the book.)

"It is morally reprehensible that America's second largest bank is connected with corrupt timber cartels that are directly responsible for the wholesale destruction of the most fragile and endangered forest ecosystems on Earth. JP Morgan Chase's involvement in the illegal timber trade is not only a national scandal, but further proof that the company must put renewed effort into matching the environmental commitments of industry peers such as Citigroup and Bank of America." In an e-mail to me, BlueLinx's Ashley E. Freer forwarded a message from Steven C." - David Steinman, Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Get the book.)

"As dynamic systems, modernist economies are similar to ecosystems in the way they can be easily destroyed by too much external pressure. And this is even more true in the case of most individual companies, which exist within a narrow and fragile balance of supply and demand. However, due to the culturally ingrained bias against business held by many postmodernists, it is as difficult for them to see the fragile ecology of markets as it is for traditionalists to see the fragility of the natural environment." - Steve McIntosh, Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution (Get the book.)

"Living Machines are hothouses and artificial marshes in which sewage runs through a series of small faux ecosystems —tanks of bacteria, algae, plants, crustaceans, and fish. The plants and animals break down, filter out, or absorb some part of the sewage and turn it into living matter. What comes out the other end, after it is fed on by all these living components, is water (sometimes cleaner than the water in our taps) and biomass (living matter that can be composted for soil, fed to livestock, or otherwise returned to nature)." - Alex Steffen, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century (Get the book.)

"Their suppliers' forestry practices are certified by the prestigious Forest Stewardship Council and guarantee a perpetual yield of high-quality timber while maintaining or restoring healthy, self-regenerating forest ecosystems. They also offer wood that is reclaimed from old buildings and wood alternatives such as bamboo. www.ecotimber.com Forbo If you are looking for a healthy petrochemical-free solution for floor coverings, look no further than Forbo, best known for their Marmoleum linoleum that has an excellent record of causing no adverse health issues." - David Steinman, Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Get the book.)

"The report, released in 2005, evaluates the condition of earth's ecosystems, details how ecosystem changes may impact human life, and suggests tools for improving ecosystem management to alleviate poverty and enhance well-being. Overall, the story isn't good: of the twenty-four ecosystem services evaluated by the MEA, fifteen have deteriorated over the last half century. Services in decline include capture fisheries, water purification, natural control of pest species, and the capacity of mangroves, wetlands, and other natural systems to buffer against hazards like storms and tsunamis." - Alex Steffen, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century (Get the book.) "According to the Organic Trade Association, producing a single cotton T-shirt takes approximately one-third of a pound of pesticides and fertilizers—chemicals that permeate the soil, run into the water, and pollute entire ecosystems with heavy toxins. So what can you choose instead? Sweatshop-free Labor: It's not enough to simply buy clothing labeled Made in the USA. There are a number of U.S.-controlled regions in other parts of the world where sweatshop laborers turn out garments that can be legally called American-made. There are also sweatshops right here in the United States." - Alex Steffen, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century (Get the book.)

"Regardless of how we view such things, the changing climate of the last two million years rearranged the world's ecosystems time and again. The Ice Age was not a single event. More than twenty major glaciations repeatedly buried North America and Europe under ice, defining what geologists call the Quaternary—the fourth era of geologic time. At the peak of the most recent glaciation, roughly 20,000 years ago, glaciers covered almost a third of Earths land surface. Outside of the tropics even unglaciated areas experienced extreme environmental changes." - David R. Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (Get the book.) "Soil organic matter is essential for sustaining soil fertility not so much as a direct source of nutrients but by supporting soil ecosystems that help promote the release and uptake of nutrients. Otganic matter helps retain moisture, improves soil structute, helps liberate nutrients from clays, and is itself a source of plant nutrients. Loss of soil organic matter reduces crop yields by lowering the activity of soil biota, thereby slowing nutrient recycling. Different soils in different climates can sustain agricultute without supplemental fertilization for different periods of time." - David R. Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (Get the book.) "Tucked away out of sight, soil-dwelling organisms account for much of the biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems. Plants supply underground biota with energy by providing organic matter through leaf litter and the decay of dead plants and animals. Soil organisms, in turn, supply plants with nutrients by accelerating rock weathering and the decomposition of organic matter. Unique symbiotic communities of soil-dwelling organisms form under certain plant communities." - David R. Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (Get the book.) "Despite their active manipulation, small human populations and mobile lifestyles left little discernable impact on natural ecosystems. Transitions from a glacial to interglacial world occurred many times during the last two million years. Through all but the most recent glaciation, people moved along with their environment rather than staying put and adapting to a new ecosystem. Then, after living on the move for more than a million years, they started to settle down and become farmers. What was so different when the glaciers melted this last time that caused people to adopt a new lifestyle?" - David R. Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (Get the book.)

"Warming in the Arctic will continue to accelerate rapidly in the one-degree world, with temperatures soaring far higher than the global average and tearing apart the fabric of landscape and ecosystems alike. In Barrow, Alaska, snowmelt now occurs ten days earlier on average than in the 1950s, and shrubs have begun to sprout on the barren, mossy tundra. Scientists based in Fairbanks, Alaska, have documented a sudden thawing of underground ice wedges on the state's normally cold North Slope, with new meltwater ponds dotting the landscape." - Mark Lynas, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet (Get the book.) "Whilst I and many people feel that natural life and biodiversity have an intrinsic value, separate from their use to humans, all of human society is at root dependent on natural ecosystems. This might come as news to the average city dweller tucking into a ready meal in front of the TV, but it doesn't make it any less true. From fish to fuel wood, nature's bounty feeds us, houses us, warms us and clothes us. Soils wouldn't support agriculture were it not for the organic matter broken down by bacteria. Crops wouldn't set seed unless pollinated by bees." - Mark Lynas, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet (Get the book.) "Functioning ecosystems cannot be created artificially. Life keeps us alive, and we lay waste to it at our peril. 3° THREE DEGREES What every Botswanan wants Botswanans have a major national obsession. It isn't dancing: the rather drab capital Gaborone is not known for its wild parties or nightlife. Nor is it sport - Botswanans excel at neither football nor athletics, and patriotic citizens often lament that the country's national anthem has still never been heard at the medal-giving ceremony of any major sporting competition." - Mark Lynas, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet (Get the book.) "The changes described here would be in place a few decades from now - a pace of warming much too rapid for substantial adaptation either by natural ecosystems or human civilisation. This may indeed, as suggested earlier, be the fastest large-scale climate warming the world has ever experienced - faster even than climate changes which caused catastrophic mass extinctions, as the following chapter will show. Particularly deceptive may be the impression that the PETM hot spell was well watered, with heavy monsoon rains quenching the thirst of places which are now semi-arid." - Mark Lynas, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet (Get the book.)

"We aren't dealing with an insignificant change to our diets here, we're dealing with a revolutionary technology being used in our food supply—affecting us, future generations, and the ecosystems on which we depend." —David Suzuki, geneticist PART 1 The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods Section 1: Evidence of reactions in animals and humans....................................................................................21 1.1 GM potatoes damaged rats............................................ ......................................................................." - Jeffrey M. Smith, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods (Get the book.)

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