the web of life
    interconnectedness
space ship Earth
    closed systems
    limited resources
evolution
    survival of the fittest [only for a particular set of circumstances]
    ecological niche
    disaster / catastrophe
    disease
the value of diversity
    survival of some after catastrophic change
recent world-wide extinction of most mega-fauna
    existence of land bridges between continents
    kill theory
        over hunting
    chill theory
        environmental changes due to weather
    ill theory
         species-barrier, crossing diseases
death
    the food chain
decay
    recycling
Gaea
    earth goddess
Healing Gaia
    James Lovelock - maverick
    the Gaia hypothesis
        life modifies its environment
        super-organism
            an entity with some of the properties of living organism
        the people plague
        the value of acting as if it were "true"
water cycle
oxygen cycle
nitrogen cycle
carbon / carbon dioxide cycle
sulfer cycle
symbiosis
chaos theory and complex systems [see Chaos Theory]
Ecological Imperialism
    animals, plants & diseases
The First Eden
    1) the making of the garden
    2) the gods enslaved
    3) the wastes of war
    4) strangers in the garden
Ishmael
    the law - defines limits of competition
        natural law
    the knowledge of the gods
        of who shall live & who shall die
    mother culture
    takers:
        unlimited growth
        monolithic
        the world belongs to humans
        farmers plus food equals too many farmers
            constant expansion
        society
        socially experimental
            rapid rate of change
        those who "know" good & evil
        taker myths:
            humans as exempt from the law
            all food belongs to humans
            the one right way
            as bad as things are now, they're infinitely preferable to what came before
                hunter-gatherers on the "knife-edge" of survival
            humans should not be subject to the "will of the gods"
            humans are the pinnacle of evolutions
    leavers:
        don't exceed the bearing capacity of your territory
        diversity
        humans as animals
        humans subject to evolution
        humans belong to the world
        community
        socially conservative - slow rate of change
        those who live in the "hands of the gods"
    the world as a taker prison
        prison industry [consume the world]
 
Ecological Imperialism - Alfred W. Crosby
The First Eden - David Attenborough
Healing Gaia - James Lovelock
Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
Nature and Madness - Paul Sheppard
The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game - ibid