The Ecosystems Revolution: Co-creating a Symbiotic Future
The Ecosystems Revolution: Co-creating a Symbiotic Future
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生态系统革命：共同创造共生未来
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发表时间：
2016
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通讯作者：
M. Everard
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作者：
M. Everard
《生态系统革命：共创共生未来》讲述了人类与自然世界的关系、它在我们的进化历程中如何发生变化，以及我们如何迫切需要在更加共生的基础上加速其进化。该书借鉴并整合了许多主题——进化和决策中的自然和人工选择过程、革命是如何构建和感知的、定向变化与随机变化、人类故事的历史和必要的未来轨迹——寻求指导，以通过与构成其重要基础的生态系统的共生关系来实现可持续的未来。
第二章“关于这个地球”，考虑了从微生物到人类以及整个生物圈的运作的所有生命整体共同进化和相互依存的本质，强调了所有人类活动与自然其他部分的不可分割性。这种相互依赖是当今多样化且紧迫的可持续发展挑战的基础，包括其原因和潜在的解决方案。这种认识阐明了“生态系统革命”的必要性，逐步将自然支持过程的运作重新定位到治理系统中，以建设一个更加安全、福祉和机会的未来。
第三章，人类崛起的突破，通过我们为进一步发展自己的前景所利用的材料和技术的镜头，描绘了人类发展的轨迹。这些被描述为一系列所谓的自然资源操纵“革命”。普遍狭隘地关注主要是偶然的“进化”创新所产生的直接优势，也经常产生多种意想不到的后果，强调需要更多地认识到对人类的系统性影响，并支持生态系统作为下一次社会革命的基础。
第四章“机会还是选择？”回顾了自然选择的本质，这是进化论中的一个主要概念，包括选择原理在思想、技术和产品进化中的应用。它将自然选择的多因素性质与人工选择的狭隘框架进行了对比，人工选择将人类创新对生态系统的许多影响外化，从而损害了生态系统作为自然选择过程的一种形式维持人类需求的能力。这凸显了人类发展需要进行一场新型革命，这种革命是有方向的，而不是依赖偶然的创新，并且以更广泛的“人工选择”原则框架为指导，更贴近自然世界的复杂性。它还挑战了当前的可持续发展概念，这些概念隐含地假设了静态，而事实上，生态系统持续衰退的速度要求我们将我们的愿景提高到包含逐步重建生态系统能力和复原力的愿景。
第五章“恢复景观”借鉴了发展中国家一系列鼓舞人心的社区项目，在这些项目中，退化景观的恢复以积极的强化循环再生了生态系统和人类生计。与以日益综合、基于自然的方式恢复集水区及其污染控制、水资源保护、洪水管理和其他成果的功能的新兴方法相似。世界各地的例子表明，生态系统恢复正在保护和增加人类安全、经济利益和机会，凸显了投资自然基础设施的重要性，这对于确保人类未来的福祉至关重要。然而，向更广泛的系统范式过渡的困难是巨大的，具有威胁性，因为这种概念的拓宽可能看起来像是基于当前既定规范和建立在更简化的观点基础上的既得利益所形成的思维定势。
第六章“革命之旅”探讨了生态系统革命是如何正在进行的，过去一个多世纪以来发达国家更广泛的正式和非正式政策环境的形成就证明了这一点。通过选定的例子审查了主要政策领域对生态系统及其服务的依赖性和影响，强调如果要确保人类持续的机会，就需要进一步内部化支持生态系统的效益和脆弱性，跨政策领域和社会部门进行整合。
第七章，共同创造共生世，认识到人类的压力将继续对全球生态系统产生重大影响，无论我们选择走一条进步的道路还是允许因不作为而继续衰退。如果可持续性成为我们的指导原则，毫无疑问需要的是在自然过程及其相关的“自然选择”力量与人类用于引导其走向所选未来的选择和“人工选择”标准之间实现日益增强的共生。这场定向革命旨在实现塑造全新世的自然过程与目前处于未重建状态的人类压力之间的共生，这些压力塑造了人类世，将构成一个新的协同和可持续的时代：共生世。提出了一个决策框架，并以一系列跨政策领域的实例为支持，然后总结了我们通过日常选择和行动所产生的独特影响，所有这些都在不可预测的程度上影响着我们共同创造的未来。
《生态系统革命：共同创造共生的未来》充满了实际和积极的例子，启发我们，尽管存在所有随之而来的负面趋势，一场革命是可能的。这不会是一场由武力或暴力带来的革命；相反，它是我们将通过共同理解、愿望和对我们渐进决策和行动的影响的考虑来共同创造的，实际上是共同创造的。这是关于旅程中的赋权和参与，因为需要革命的不是生态系统；而是生态系统。他们一直并将永远适应并生存。这是关于我们共同创造一场革命，逐步将繁荣、再生的生态系统的多重价值观和重要性融入到我们思考、行动和生活方式的方式中，从而潜在地扩大机会和实现。
The Ecosystems Revolution: Co-creating a Symbiotic Future is all about humanity’s relationship with the natural world, how it has shifted throughout our evolutionary journey, and how we urgently need to accelerate its evolution on a far more symbiotic basis. The book draws upon and integrates a number of themes – natural and artificial selection processes in evolution and decision-making, how revolutions are constructed and perceived, directed versus random change, and the history and necessary future trajectory of the human story – seeking guidance on achievement of a sustainable future secured by a symbiotic relationship with the ecosystems that constitute its vital underpinnings.
Chapter 2, Of this Earth, considers the integrally co-evolved and interdependent nature of all life, from microbes to humans and the workings of the entire biosphere, highlighting the indivisibility of all human activities from the rest of nature. This interdependence underlies today’s diverse and pressing sustainability challenges, including both their causes and their potential solutions. This recognition illuminates the need for an ‘ecosystems revolution’, progressively repositioning the workings of nature’s supportive processes into governance systems to build a future of greater security, wellbeing and opportunity.
Chapter 3, Breakthroughs in the ascent of humanity, plots the trajectory of human development through the lens of the materials and technologies we have harnessed to further our own prospects. These have been characterised as a series of so-called ‘revolutions’ in the manipulation of natural resources. A generally narrow focus on immediate advantages accruing form a largely fortuitous ‘evolutionary’ innovations has frequently also generated multiple unintended consequences, emphasising the need for greater cognisance of systemic ramifications for people and supporting ecosystems as a basis for the next societal revolution.
Chapter 4, Chance or choice?, reviews the nature of natural selection, a primary concept in the theory of evolution, including the application of selection principles to the evolution of ideas, technologies and products. It contrasts the multi-factorial nature of natural selection with the often narrow framing of artificial selection, which externalises many of the impacts of human innovations on ecosystems that, in turn compromise their capacities to sustain human needs as a form of natural selection process. This highlights the need for a new type of revolution in human development that is directed rather than relying on fortuitous innovations, and is also guided by a broader framework of ‘artificial selection’ principles more closely aligned to the complexity of the natural world. It also challenges current conceptions of sustainable development that implicitly assume stationarity when, in fact, the ongoing pace of ecosystem decline requires us to raise our vision to one that encompasses the progressive rebuilding of ecosystem capacity and resilience.
Chapter 5, Reanimating the landscape, draws upon a range of inspiring community-based projects across the developing world where restoration of degraded landscapes have regenerated ecosystems and human livelihoods in a positively reinforcing cycle. Parallels are drawn with emerging approaches to restoration of catchments and their functions for pollution control, water resource protection, flood management and other outcomes on an increasingly integrated, nature-based way. Examples are drawn from across the world where ecosystem restoration is protecting and increasing human security, economic benefits and opportunity, highlighting the importance of investment in the natural infrastructure vital for securing human wellbeing into the future. However, the difficulties of navigating a transition to a broader, systemic paradigm are significant, threatening as this broadening of conception may appear to mind sets formed on currently established norms and vested interests founded on more reductive perspectives.
Chapter 6, A revolutionary journey, explores how an ecosystems revolution is already under way, as evidenced by the shaping of the broader formal and informal policy environment of the developed world over the past century and more. The dependencies and impacts of major policy areas on ecosystems and their services are reviewed through selected examples, emphasising the need for far greater internalisation of the benefits and vulnerabilities of supporting ecosystems, an integrated across policy spheres and societal sectors, if continuing human opportunity is to be secured.
Chapter 7, Co-creating the Symbiocene, recognises that human pressures will continue to exert significant influence on global ecosystems, whether we chose to direct ourselves on a progressive path or permit continuing decline through inaction. What is undoubtedly required if sustainability becomes our guiding principle is to achieve increasing symbiosis between natural processes, with their associated ‘natural selection’ forces, and the choices and ‘artificial selection’ criteria that humanity applies to direct it towards that chosen future. This directed revolution to achieve symbiosis between the natural processes that shaped the Holocene with the human pressures that currently, in their unreconstructed state, shape the Anthropocene, would constitute a new synergistic and sustainable epoch: the Symbiocene. A framework for decision-making is presented, backed up by a range of worked examples across policy areas, before then concluding with thoughts on the unique influences we all bring to bear through our day-to-day choices and actions, all of which influence, to unpredictable degrees, the kind of future we are co-creating.
The ecosystems revolution: co-creating a symbiotic future is packed with practical and positive examples, inspiring us that, for all the attendant negative trends, a revolution is possible. This will not be a revolution brought about by force or violence; rather, it is one that we will co-create, indeed are co-creating, through shared understanding, aspiration and consideration of the ramifications of our incremental decisions and actions. It is about empowerment and engagement in a journey, for it is not the ecosystems that require a revolution; they have always and will always adapt and survive. It is about us co-creating a revolution that progressively embeds the multiple values and importance of thriving, regenerating ecosystems into the ways that we think, act and live lives of potentially expanding opportunity and fulfilment.