Ecological Equity

Ecological equity is a central concept of the new ecology. It embodies the notions of diversity and sustainability. It has a strong root in evolution and it has related concepts that are associated with all aspects of the universe.

Cosmic equity results from the in formation created from the flowering of the cosmos which resulted from the big bang. Our cosmic equity is to be a part of the cosmos and our cosmic polity is to know that we are apart of it. The cosmos is a self-generating decision system.

Our physical and chemical equity relate to the characteristics of our bodies and their physical and chemical properties. We are chemical/molecular machines with certain physical properties. We can't take any more heat than the proteins that make us up and we can't be subjected to temperatures colder than those necessary to keep our metabolism going.

Our genetic equity determines what ranges of environmental conditions we can withstand, what kinds of food we can eat, our longevity, the general size and shape of our bodies, and myriad other things. All our genetic potential, modified by our training as biological organisms, is the determiner of our ecological spectrum—the number and kinds of niches we can occupy.

Our genes have their own game plan and we are the vessel that contains them while they carry it out. If we look at the broad picture of the genes without regard to the secondary structures (species) carrying them we will see that the most fundamental and absolutely the most widely distributed are those that carry out the process of DNA, RNA replication with their attendant proteins. (Some viruses may be able to replicate their RNA without the aid of protein and therefor could logically be said to be the most primitive.) We share this property of DNA replication with absolutely every other cellular organism. As we move to specialization we share fewer and fewer genes on a wide scale level and share them with closely related species. Reproductive compatibility (or incompatibility) further reduces the mixing. Its as if each higher species is working itself into its own dead end twig on the evolutionary tree.

Our biological equity places us in the family of great apes, our closest living relatives, the gorilla and chimpanzee and we share many physical and chemical characteristics, because we share a common genetic heritage—98% similar with the chimpanzee. We differ from the great apes in our expression of neoteny—the prolongation of childhood. We have a longer childhood than most other higher animals. The fully developed human form is an immature phase of development in comparison to the Chimpanzee and other higher apes. We spend more time in developmental stages and we do not attain the same level of biological maturity as other great apes.

Language is developed early in the life cycle of humans and if the window for language is passed without the child having learned language the child will never learn language. Since the human childhood is longer than childhood in all the great apes and the window of time for language development is part of that childhood, it stands to reason that if childhood were significantly shortened that the opportunity to learn language would also be for shortened. Humans are the naked apes, as one anthropologist put it, but we must add with language.

All the living organisms in a contiguous area taken together with the factors of their environment make up the ecosystem. Organisms take up niches and create niches. All the organisms in all their niches constitute the infrastructure of the ecosystem. The green plants—the primary producers—provide the general matrix and the most fundamental source of food. They support the entire ecosystem with the energy they trap from the sun and convert to useable food sources.

Large plants provide the megastructure of the forest ecosystem and by their aspect define it. Secondary green trees and shrubs make up interior layers of the forest ecosystem, taking advantage, of their ability to grow in less light. On the forest floor, herbaceous plants thrive in low light. In the deciduous forest, the herbs flower when the trees are bare of leaves, and continue vegetative growth in the summer under the full canopy and in full shade. Weeds—fast growing annual plants—thrive on the forest border and in forest clearings, produced by lightening, fire and wind. Large animals-herbivores and carnivores—abound. The canopy of the forest is alive with birds. In all the levels of the forest ecosystem, insects teem. They eat plants and other insects and are eaten by birds and small mammals.

Microorganisms are ubiquitous. They are on and in other organisms. They abound in the soil and in water. They are airborne. Considering the biosphere as a whole, the microorganisms make up 2/3 of the bulk of living substance of the Earth. They are the all important recyclers. There is no waste in the mature ecosystem, for in the last analysis, the microorganisms are capable of reducing any organic chemical complex to its constituent substances—carbon dioxide and water. The green plants at the other end of the ecological spectrum can reconstitute carbon dioxide and water into the complex carbohydrates, fats and proteins the rest of the ecosystem needs.

Genetics determines the potential of each of the organisms in the ecosystem, the environment determines the extent to which that potential can be developed. The genetics, necessary to survive and thrive, is the genetic equity of the individual organisms involved. If organisms find themselves unable to compete, they must adapt, migrate, or die. Genetic systems are self-generating, self-replicating decision systems.

Taken together—recognizing competition, predation, parasitism, et al—the organisms of the ecosystem determine its structure, define its niches, and define the processes by which it generates itself, and by which it is replicated in space and time. Ecosystems modify the climate near the ground creating unique habitats.

The equity of organisms in an ecosystem is to be a part of the ecosystem taking advantage of the unique set of conditions brought about by the aggregation of disparate organisms into a self-generating, self-replicating decision system with discernable structure and function. For many organisms, the ecosystem provides the only environment in which they can survive and thrive. Deprived of the benefits of the ecosystem they perish. Each organism in an ecosystem contributes to its structure and function and benefits from its structure and function. Taken together the organisms of the ecosystem form a community. The community is synergistically more than the sum of its parts, since communities can affect the weather and further benefit from their togetherness.

Life on Earth is a byproduct of the work of the universe. The universe is a smart universe. Not only were time, information, matter, energy, and space (TIMES) created as the result of the big bang, the entities so created did and do work in the strict physics sense of the word, entropy was created and time's arrow was set. The universe represents quite a few horsepower all working to do the things we see happening. From the beginning of the big bang, work, and entropy (randomness and normality) together with time and space created information. Matter and energy and their associated forces performed work in accordance with the information in the system. Work is the translation, transformation, or interconversion of matter and energy in space and time and that is what the universe has been doing big time since the big bang. Information arises as a result of work. Since the universe is a probabalistic universe, getting work accomplished also has a probability. At all levels of development, from the chilling out of the primordial fire ball to the creation of life, work is accomplished with tools. Tools are any mechanism, process, or device that increases the probability of doing work. Electrons are tools for absorbing and emitting photons. An electron spinning in an orbit around the nucleus of an atom is a tool. It increases the probability of forming molecules. Catalysts are tools. Tools are ordering factors. As ordering factors, tools are decision factors.

Entropy is normally thought of as the energy that is not available to do work and therefore is wasted energy. Entropy is defined in the closed systems of thermodynamics where it is seen as the factor of disorder and randomness, ultimately condemning the system that produces it to death through disorder. In open systems entropy plays a different role. Without the heat of entropy many reactions simply would not proceed. Imagine the engine in your car. Now imagine that the engine block is at absolute zero, that is it has no heat. Your car is not going to start. If you get the block hot enough to sustain the chemical reaction of burning fuel the car will run nicely. The heat of the running engine block is entropy. Your body temperature is the same as the heat of the engine block. Without body heat, metabolism doesn't happen and your dead. The light reactions of photosynthesis are independent of temperature because they are photochemical reactions. The dark reactions of photosynthesis are temperature dependent. (You can take a picture with your camera when its cold because the photography is photochemical, but you have to take the film to a warm darkroom to develop it.) The temperature of the surface of the Earth has to be above 40° F or 4° C for the dark of photosynthesis of reactions to occur. That is the reaction vessel—the Earth—has to be above a certain minimum temperature for the dark reactions of photosynthesis to work and below a certain maximum or the metabolic apparatus is destroyed by heat. The proteins denature. The entropy of one process is the energy source for another. The sun is a hydrogen fusion furnace. It's making helium. The waste energy of the process is showered all over the universe in the form of radiation some of which falls on the Earth. It is the entropy of hydrogen fusion that provides the energy for almost every thing that happens on Earth. Photosynthesis in green plants is energized by photons that are "waste energy"—entropy of the sun. In a closed system, entropy causes the system to run down to equilibrium. In an open system the entropy from one reaction, say, photons from the sun are recycled and becomes the energy of other systems, like photosynthesis, causing the systems to run up to a steady state.

In our universe, information results from work. Tools in this dynamic decision system contain information that increases the probability of accomplishing work. A mature ecosystem is doing lots of work. It has myriad tools at its disposal. The work results in the structure of the ecosystem. Nearly, but not, all the information the ecosystem uses to do work is contained in the genetics (molecular tools) of the individual organisms. (The information in the photon, its wavelength and energy for instance, are independent of the genetics of the organisms of the ecosystem. The genetic system of each organism in the context of its environment fulfills its potential as best it can. A great abundance of propragules—spores, pollen, seeds, eggs, sperm-—are produced. Most do not survive the status of propagules, but the reproductive pressure is great and those that do survive produce the structure and function of the ecosystem. Numerous mechanisms have developed to avoid unfavorable conditions and to flourish under favorable conditions.

The ecological equity of the organisms of the natural ecosystem is to fulfill their genetic potential, as biological organisms, limited only by environmental circumstances, enhanced by the synergism of their ecological relationships. The ecological equity of biological organisms of natural ecosystems is maintained through biodiversity and sustainability. Biodiversity and sustainability were flourishing long before humans evolved from lower life forms. Sustainability is another name for self-replicating, self-generating decision system. Biodiversity results, when by mutation or other causes reproducible change is introduced into the genetic blueprints for organisms causing new varieties and species to arise.

Technological ecosystems, while they contain elements of natural ecosystems, differ significantly from natural ecosystems. The principal difference lies in the information available to each of these ecosystems. Natural ecosystems are self-generating, self-replicating decision systems based primarily upon genetic information taken in the context of physical and chemical systems. Technological ecosystems also depend upon genetic information systems to maintain the biological portions of the technological ecosystem, but in addition utilize language based information and technology. Technological ecosystems are also self-generating, self-replicating decision systems taken in the context of language based technology.

The traditional definition of "tool" comes from anthropology where humans have been described as "tool makers." The definition is much too narrow to be useful and is highly anthropocentric. Many animals use tools in the anthropological sense, for instance birds use sticks to get ants. Bird and termite nests and bee hives are rudimentary technologies. Biological organisms are great tools and humans with language excel at being tools. Consider Michelangelo as a stone carver? Michelangelo is the ultimate tool, cum stone carver. The "tools" without Michelangelo are pieces of iron and Michelangelo without the iron tools is helpless even with language. Without language Michelangelo is just another Homo sapiens L.—an animal. With iron tools and language Michelangelo is the divine tool. Language is the mother tool in the technological ecosystem. Technological ecosystems are systems that are based upon language based-technology that use natural ecosystems for place, materials and supplies, or ornamentation. The Indians of North America were part of a technological ecosystem in which the natural portion was used for hunting and fishing and place, but in which the humans were the top predators by virtue of their tools, including language. Indians devoid of language and its consequent tools in North America would be part of a natural ecosystem. With language and other tools they are able to use the ecosystem exclusively their own purposes. By virtue of language and tools they removed themselves from real time living and instead of being prey in the predator-prey relationship, they became the top predators using the plants and animals of the natural ecosystem at their discretion. Language and tools gave them the power to control their own destiny. and that of the ecosystem in which they resided.

Hunting and gathering was succeeded by agriculture. Agricultural surpluses gave rise to leisure, the development of technology, humans as beasts of burden, property and slavery, and civilization was well on its way. At the base of civilization is language and language based technology. Since language gave rise to the future it made it possible to invent planning which is the real heart and soul of human technological ecosystems. No matter how simple or complex human settlements are, they are planned. Planning combined with other technology is the force that drives the development of civilization. The importance of planning in our modern life is paramount for without planning the allocation of resources would be impossible. Language and technology give rise to knowledge. Knowledge and resources give rise to wealth. This characteristic feature of technological ecosystems arises very early in the history of humans.

The accumulation and distribution of wealth and the allocation of labor are two very ancient problems that remain with us in modern times. The institution of slavery, early on, solved the labor problem and humans in one sort of bondage or an other was the human condition from time immemorial. Technological ecosystems with slave labor flourished throughout the world throughout time. The struggle for personal freedom and democracy is a characteristic of human progress.

Early Christianity held three propositions which are still worthy of our attention today. They believed that all humans were sentient beings capable of making their own decisions; that left to their own devices humans would tend to democratic institutions; and that since we are all one in the Body of Christ, material possessions would not be an important factor in our lives, i.e. there would be an abundance for all. The adoption of Christianity by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great submerged this philosophy and replaced it with an authoritarian one that could accommodate the emperor, not as an equal but as the emperor.

It was not until the idea of progress established a secure foothold in human knowledge that the idea of the rights of humans surfaced in history. Commenting on the worth of new knowledge, Roger Bacon (1214?-1294) opined that the purpose of new knowledge was to increase the happiness of the people. Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746), in the Scottish Enlightenment, stated that the purpose of government was to provide for the happiness of the peoples. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), even though he was a slave owning oligarch, stated clearly that, "Life, liberty, and happiness," were among the several unalienable rights that people established governments to obtain. Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), the architect of the American republic, stated that the reasons for government were three: Provide for the happiness of the people, foster commerce and trade to provide an abundance. for all, and provide for the national security. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States both declare the people to be the sovereign. What then is the ecological equity of persons living under and bound by the provisions of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States?

The United States is a continental ecosystem larger than a plant association, a biome, or a physiological province since it contains several of those bioecological entities. As a technological ecosystem the United States is made up of political entities that range from townships towns and cities, counties, to States, which taken together form the political structure of the nation as a technological ecosystem. Remember, the technological ecosystem is created with language based information in a matrix of genetic information by organisms who have a knowledge of the future and the historic past.

Had we been born in America, at the time the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were created, we might have been born free persons or slaves. In spite of the 18th Century enlightenment and the Age of Reason, in spite of the wonderful words of the Declaration and the Constitution, the several States of the nation chose to solve a labor problem with slavery. Slavery predated both our founding documents and is referred in a veiled manner in the Constitution. The question: What are the unalienable rights? if asked in early years of the nation, could have been answered with Chief Justice Taney's majority opinion in Scott v. Sanford, 1857, the Dred Scott Case. The only people who had rights under the United States were those European people who were here when the Constitution was written and their descendants. Freed slaves did not have rights as free people, and slaves were slaves, The State of Virginia had a law that required freed slaves to leave the State or be re-enslaved.

The people who adopted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were not duplicitous. They believed in hegemonic liberty. They believed they were free by right of their authority to rule. Kings, Princes, Dukes, Barons and slave owners have hegemonic freedom. They don't have to share it with their serfs, bondsmen or slaves, any more than they have to share their authority. The slave oliogarchs, including Jefferson, firmly believed in hegemonic freedom. The amazing thing is that by adopting the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and accepting the proposal of James Madison (1751-1836) to base the sovereign powers on Us the People, the Founders and the Framers endowed us all with hegemonic, freedom. We the People are the sovereign—the citizens sovereign. The ultimate authority of the government rests with us, at all levels of our local, State, and Federal government. We are the sovereign of the State governments (those of us who live in States) and we are the sovereign of the Federal government. We have a Federal Republic of State republics. Our States are organized around a republican principle as is our Federal government. In a republic the ultimate authority rests with the people and their elected representatives. Our elected representatives can act for us but they are not the sovereign. We they People as the citizens sovereign are the starting conditions of the American nation.

These principles were not exactly the operating mode of the nation after Independence and were not the driving sentiment even after the Constitution was adopted. Many States refused to accept the leadership of the Federal government. The disagreements turned into regional differences, largely over the organization of the labor force into slave labor in the South and free labor in the North.

A Civil War was fought to resolve the problem but only delayed it when the post-Reconstruction South chose to resubmerge the blacks and poor whites in economic bondage. With the post Civil War Constitutional Amendments and the Civil Rights acts of the 1870s and 1960s the nation is well poised to take up the matter of human rights' again, this time with more thorough going and lasting results. The new situation is largely the result of empowering minorities and the poor and making political participation a reality for all citizens of the nation.

What is the equity—the stake—of the average citizen—the citizen sovereign—in, the United States? We have said, repeatedly that the equity of an organism in an ecosystem is whatever it takes to survive and thrive in that ecosystem. The potential to survive and thrive being inherent in the genetics of the organism subject only to the limitations of the environment. The ecological equity of the citizen sovereign—the average Joe and Jane Blow—is whatever it takes to survive and thrive in the technological ecosystem we call the United States taking into account only the limitations imposed by environment.

Thomas Jefferson said we were all created equal and endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. Its been said that means we are equal before the law. That of course is not true. We should be equal before the law, but wealthy people are more equal as evidenced by the fact that they are seldom executed for a capital crime, whereas poor folks and blacks are regularly executed. Biologically—genetically—we are not equal. What should be equal across all differences of race, wealth, sex, intelligence, is access to the unalienable rights. The unalienable rights are the basic positive rights we created the government to obtain and what we get in exchange for granting the authority to be governed. We the citizens sovereign agree to be governed upon the condition that the government secure to us the unalienable rights. It is that simple. Read it in the Declaration of Independence, "to secure these rights governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." The Declaration of Independence is the source of our liberty and the Constitution is the source of order.

Just so the government doesn't get carried away with this grant of authority, a Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution as it's first ten amendments. The Bill of Rights is more aptly called, "A Bill of Restraints," because for the most part it says what the government can not, arbitrarily and capriciously, do to us. We look to the government to be an authority in our life, to regulate the events of our daily activity. We expect the government to act fairly, not arbitrarily or capriciously and we expect the government to use its authority in accordance with the highest moral and ethical legal procedures and standards. We expect to have our privileges and immunities, (derived from time immemorial), honored. We expect to have the government honor due process and all the other privileges that hundreds and thousands of ordinary people gave their lives to obtain. We expect to be the beneficiary of the process of natural law. We expect to worship as we please. We expect to say and write what we please and to conduct our daily lives and our business free from the restraint of an arbitrary and capricious government. We expect to benefit from the Bill of Rights. In return we agree to abide by the law, pay our taxes and exercise our, opportunities through the unalienable rights.

We expect the Congress of the United States to represent us fairly and honestly, with compassion and enlightenment. We expect the United States Supreme Court to protect our rights, privileges and immunities, including the unalienable rights. We expect the President of the United States to execute the laws so that all benefit and all share. We look to the President to lead us in peace and in war, and in foreign and domestic affairs. We especially expect the President to right wrongs and assist the oppressed and depressed. We expect the President to represent the American republic to the world.

So what are the things necessary for the citizens sovereign to survive and thrive in the technological ecosystem we call the United States of America? The unalienable rights. What are the obligations of the citizens sovereign? To act as responsible citizens, pay taxes and vote, but, more importantly, the citizens sovereign is obligated to utilize the unalienable rights to prepare themselves to be economically and politically viables quanta in the American ecosystem; to maintain their health, promote a healthy environment, participate in free enterprise, in short to be an active player in and a member of the system—a citizen sovereign. Contribute and benefit. For the record, here are the unalienable rights:

Our government, the entity for which we have, given our consent to be governed is obligated to provide the environment in which all citizens sovereign have access to their unalienable rights. What it is especially important for the government to do is to remove environmental restraints that arbitrarily limit the genetic potential of the citizens sovereign.

The citizens sovereign is obligated to participate in the system and prepare themselves for productive participation in the free enterprise economy and in the social and legal responsibilities of being a citizens sovereign. We must be mutually pledged to protect the system for ourselves and make it available to all other citizens sovereign, without fail or exception. We have a right to share in the abundance that is the United States because we are the citizens sovereign, and through the exercise of our unalienable rights, we earn the right do so. Our ecological equity in the technological ecosystem called the United States of America is our unalienable rights. Our ecological polity is to be the citizens sovereign in that technological ecosystem.

...Ted Sudia...

© Copyright 1993
Institute for domestic Tranquility