Conservationism versus Environmentalism

In simplest terms, conservationism includes environmentalism and not the opposite.

Self interest groups which include political ideoligies, many NGOs (Non Government Organizations, out of the United Nations, etc.) and a pleathra of non profit organizations constantly manipulate, skew and out right lie for monetary gain, political power and ideological influence. (note: the average non profit organization keeps 95% of donations for administration and expenses! The most recent atrocity has been censored by media and social media. The leader of the the group BLM has purchased multi millions in real estate mostly in white neighborhoods!)

I am a practicing lay Buddhist since 1974. I am a scientist. I worked on the largest oil clean-up project there has ever been helping to reduce more atmospheric pollutants than anytime in himan history!

In the early 1990s we provided oil skimmer technolgy to the CIS (Russia) to clean up massive oil spills from leaky pipelines in the Western Siberia oil fields. When I say “massive” I am talking about hundreds of oil spills many square miles wide. Before oil skimmer technolgy was implemented the spills were burned off. Satelite photographs showed the plumes of smoke pouring carbon into the atmosphere at that time. Interestingly enough, this simple example of “Free Market Capitolism” ie oil skimmers invented by an American Company (not Government) in response to the Exon Valdez oil spill, and then copied by the oil oligarchy in Russia had lasting beneficial effects for earths environment. Oil spills can now be cleaned fairly quickly. The ones in Western Siberia were cleaned and most of the oil preserved, not burned, thus increasing profit to be used to replace the leaky pipelines. Another side note, is that Putin, who was involved in the oil clean up project, developed his affinity for conservationism.

Conservationism is part of Buddhism. Nichiren Daishonin clarified this in the 1200s in Japan by emphasizing the concept of “The Oneness of Life and It’s Environment”

Environmentalism was a concept started by John Muir in the 1800s in California. Environmentalism is the concept simply of “bioreserves” or land untouched by humans, whereas Conservationism, which includes environmentalism, is man living in harmony with nature, preserving and recycling resources. Unfortunatly many people confuse the two concepts! Certain areas such as rain forests, like coastal ones on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and other wet areas like the US South are suited for bioreserves. Dry areas like Southern California are not as well suited for bioreserves because of fire threats.

The idea some have that ALL indigenous peoples were conservationists or environmentalists is just plain false. Many indigenious peoples either were forced to migrate or became extinct because they DID NOT practice conservatioism! In like manner the narrative that all “Western or European” cultures did not practice conservationism is also false. Many European countries have practiced sustainable forestry and agriculture for nearly 1000 years! Actually the United Nations recent report on the the condition of the worlds forests shows that almost every nation on earth is practicing sustainable foresty. Ancient or Original Forests are still being cut, but at a decelerating rate mainly because of technological advances in sustainable forestry. We can now grow bigger, faster growing and healthier trees than any time in human history.

Plato coined the phrase “Man the Thinker.” In reality history has shown it is “Man the Destroyer” Humans have caused the destruction of more species of plants and animals in 10,000 years than evolution caused in 1,000,000 years. That statistic is often cited by groups and organizations portending doom and gloom. What is rarely if ever stated is that it is estimated we have only discovered 3% of all species on earth and that 99.9 percent of ALL species on earth 1,000,000 years ago are already extinct. Still, as a Buddhist, I strongly feel, respecting the concept of Esho Funi is very important.

So what is an optimisic view?

How about the reality that more of humanity is aware of the need for conservation. Also 5G technology will make it easier to monitor our environment and earths species. Add the fact that we are on the verge of being able to bring back extinct species with gene cloning.

Ironically, today, contrary to the continual parroted propaganda by the aforementioned self interest groups crying doom and gloom, it is, with one glaring exception, the wealthy and the democractic nations on the forefront of conservationism. Socialist, Communist, Religious Oligarchies are not only the biggest polluters of our land and air but they are also causing the extinction of the most species!

The USA contributes only 3% to ocean plastic pollution while using the most plastics. This is because of recycling laws! China, Indonesia, Latin America are the biggest polluters of our oceans!

The NRA is the biggest non-profit conservation organization in the world having lobbied the USA Government for limits on hunting and only seasonal hunting.

Putin of Russia has mandated similar laws in Russia.

Wealthy Swiss, Brazilian and other European families purchased massive tracts of land in Brazil and lobbied the government for other lands to create the largest bio reserves on earth. Brazil has more bio reserves per land area than any other nation and that does not include over 80% of all of Brazil’s portion of the amazon basin which is indigenous reservation land. Few people realize that plastic straws were banned in nearly all Braziluan cities many years ago! Fewer people know that plastic bottles have been banned on the Amazon River!

Canada under Macron recently set aside a massive portion of land as bio reserves.

Esho Funi - The Oneness of Life and Its Environment.

Living beings and their environment are not separate. They are dependent on one another. We are able to change our own life condition by practicing the true Law, and this brings about the transformation of our environment. This concept is called the “oneness of life and its environment.”

This signifies that life (a sentient being) and its environment (the external, insentient world where the sentient being lives) are not two, but one, contained in a single life-moment. Both life and its environment are the resultant manifestation of karmic causes accumulated from past existences.

All living beings and their environments in any of the ten worlds are, without exception, the manifestations of Myoho-Renge-Kyo. (Nichiren Daishonin, 13th century Japan)

Let’s look at what is being presented now as “Climate Change” and what is factual and what is not. Readers can decide on their own why “facts” are being manipulated and for what reasons.

Contrary to what is being presented as “all scientists agree” that is far from the truth.

Quite often fake or cherry-picked data conflate weather with climate to evoke emotional responses. This tactic has been obvious and very successful. We have all watched as pundits an so called “experts” call any major weather event the effect of “climate change.” Non-profits, politicians and others flood social media and the news during these weather events to raise money with absolutly no scientific proof and they are very successful. To the vast majority of scientists they view this approach as pure propaganda.

Another interesting topic that is skewed for self interest groups is, “why do sea levels rise and fall?

So let’s look at the actual facts and fill in what is often intentially skewed or cherry picked.

Here is the list of reasons that ocean levels rise.

Ice Caps melting, freezing and annual snowfalls. The fact that the coined phrase had to change from “global warming” to “climate change” is actually very revealing because the past 10 years or so show that actual “global warming” has actually decellerated back towards the mean. Also the past 5 years of extreme snowfall will trend ice caps back towards their mean.

Expansion of water due to temperature. Mean temperature simple is the average temperature over extended periods of time. The longer the time period the more accurate the mean. If there is an extended period of temperatures above the mean ocean levels will rise slighlty. Geothermal events can also contribute.

Erosian & man made filling in coastal areas is almost never considered as a factor to rising bodies of water. It is a difficult factor to measure but can actually be a fairly large contributing factor. Man’s advent from hunter and gather to agrarian socities has definatly caused massive amounts of erosion from fields to river to the ocean.

Tectonic plates & geothermal events are continually but nearly impossible to measure as to how much they contribute to rising oceans but geologists have discovered massive landslides from earthquakes, volcanic erruptions snd other events that have drastically changed coastlines and oceans.

Ice caps have fluxed for millions of years.

Nearly all predictions for ocean mean levels use +/- 35 years of accurate NASA data & 500 yrs +/- of data measured from harbors. The data from harbors has a minimal statisical accuracy.

Claims that "experts" of climate science have more credible “opinions” insults many scientists from other fields. Predictions from skewed or manipulated data is not an emperical scientific method. Those who review data of climate scientists are often apalled at the conclusions and predictions.

Agricultural runnoff, manmade coastal filling even sun flare cycles (causing more energetic storms) do result in small amounts of sea level rise. When self interested groups use “steep” graphs presented as “evidence” for future trends is misleading.

The past few years sea levels have gone down slightly and global mean temp has droped slightly, thus like we pointed out a change in narrative from “Global Warming to “Climate Change.”

Short term rates of paleo sea level rise of 2.8mm/yr from NASA data is close to the average 1.2 mm/yr from the 500 yr bay and harbour data. 1mm is the width of a fingernail! Measurements by satellite data shows both accelerating & decelerating micro trends. Predictions based on short term data used for political reasons is pure propaganda.

Probably more important is that there is NO DATA that correlates rises in CO2 to long term effects of sea level change or ambient warming. Actually the only accurate scientific data which comes from ice core samples distinctly shows CO2 increases lag mean global warming by an average of 2000 years! In simple layman language that means the term “carbon footprint” is mainly just propaganda to intiate “carbon taxes” so that governments can collect money.

I believe in recycling, conservationism, sustainibilty, and strongly believe that 5G technolgy will dramatical benifit all fields of science so humanity can monitor our environment with the goal of living in the spirit of “Esho Funi”, The Oneness of Man and the Environment.