Earth: A users' manual ...
1. The planet has been delivered in perfect working condition and cannot be exchanged for a new one.
2. Please don't adjust the thermostat or the atmosphere - controls were preset at the factory.
3. The biosphere was thoroughly tested and developed during a three-billion-year break-in period and is powered by a maintenance-free fusion reactor that will supply energy for another five billion years.
4. Air and water are in limited supply and are not replaceable; they will cycle and purify themselves automatically if there are not too many aboard.
5. There is only one life per passenger and it should by treated with dignity. Instructions covering the birth, operation and maintenance, and disposal of each living entity have been thoughtfully provided, encoded in a computer language whose operation is fully automatic. If these instructions are lost or damaged, the filling of reorders is subject to long delays.
6. If there are too many passengers and conditions get crowded, read the emergency load manual and be ever more diligent that no foreign or toxic substances are introduced into the air, food and water.
David Brower, an important figure in the United States environmental movement in the 20th century, proposed such a manual in 1975. He obviously thought that with users' manuals available for just about everything from golf and dominoes to judo and war but none for how to live and operate on the earth, there was need for one.
These principles are only common sense. However, common sense is not necessarily common, and people are reluctant to read manuals.
This is beginning to show in the state of our planet.
Our mistakes are everyone's problem, and range from local (slips, polluted waterways and possums) to global issues (acidification of the oceans and climate change). A detailed account of the state of our planet's ecosystem can be found online at http://www.maweb.org.
The benefits for acting according to Brower's principles are enormous. Paul Hawken and others, in their 1999 book Natural Capitalism, calculate that there could be a 90 to 95 per cent reduction in material and energy use, through prolonged product lifespans, recycling materials and manufacturing innovations, with little or no diminishing of the quality or quantity of services people in developed nations want. This might be optimistic, but it is an indication of what could be done.
Also, it is gradually being realised that there is money to be made, from savings in energy, material and waste, and from investing in firms and technology to counter our profligate approach to the planet.
It is encouraging that, increasingly, individuals and businesses are taking matters into their own hands, even if their motives may not be completely altruistic.
There is a need for both carrots and sticks to accomplish most things, and this is such an important task that motives are irrelevant as long as the job gets done.
Ian Sutherland is a retired pathologist with a lifelong interest in natural history and concern for the environment.