An Earthen Ethic

Using the Earth’s Example to Solve Plastic & Guide Petro-Capital Transition

by

Russell Maier

Bandung Spirit Conference Edition

This is a limited edition publication for presentation at the

THE RISE OF ASIA IN GLOBAL  HISTORY AND PERSPECTIVE  /  LA MONTEE  DE  L’ASIEEN  HISTOIRE  ET  PERSPECTIVE  GLOBALES

Bandung Spirit Conference

Paris, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne,  February 10, 2021

Le Havre, Université Le Havre Normandie,  February 11 -12, 2021

Version 0.9.1

Published from Banjar Sumampan, Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia

To access the latest developments manuscript please see the author’s site:

www.russs.net/earthen

Dedication

To my Mum & Dad;

 who let me play in the forest.

About the Author

Russell Maier is based in Banjar Sumampan, Bali, Indonesia, where he and his partner tend a food forest garden that provides their fruit and greens.  Together they track their household plastic and CO2 impacts.  Their monthly household plastic consumption of 0.6kg/month is 10.3% of the Indonesian per capita average¹.  Over 2020, their ecobricking and offsetting of 212.5 Kg secured 2200% more plastic out of the biosphere than they consumed (5.5Kg) while helping them build their furniture and garden.  In 2020 their household CO2 emissions of 2046 Kg was 46.5% of the Indonesian per capita average².  Meanwhile, their trees, bamboo, ecobricking and offsetting enabled them to secure 286% more CO2 (5851 kg of  CO2 ) than they produced in 2020.³  This essay was written over the last six months from the author’s home.  An accounting of the creative enterprise can be found at the end of this book.

¹Science Advances, The United States’ contribution of plastic waste  to land and ocean, Kara Lavender Law et al, 30 Oct 2020: Vol. 6, no. 44, eabd0288:  Indonesian 2016 per capita consumption is 34.6Kg.  The author’s household consists of two persons with a net consumption of 7.2 kg year.  7.2/ (34.6 x 2) = 10.3%.  

²Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, United States. The author’s household of two persons in contrast emitted 2046Kg of CO2 in 2021, in contast to the per capita CO2 of Indonesia of 2200 Kg per year (or 4400Kg for two people).  2046 / 4400 = 46.5%.  

³For more information see the ‘About this Book’ section at the end of the book or www.russs.net/pdfs/earthen-ethic-ebook-impact-report.pdf

Epigraph

"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it."

– Albert Einstein

“The problem is always the solution”
– Bill Molinson

“Tout savoir c’est tout pardoner”

–  French expression

Table of Contents

Cover Page

An Earthen Ethic

Bandung Spirit Manuscript

Dedication

About the Author

Epigraph

Abstract

Table of Contents

...

Imagine

Plastic 1.0

The Long Story of Plastic

Learning from the Earth

Earthen Ways

Green 2.0

Plastic 2.0

Plastic Sequestration

1. Circular Cycling

2. Indefinite Storage

3. Net Greening

4. Consciousness Raising

5. Cultivating Biodiversity

6. Biosphere Benefit

 Petro-Capital Transition

The New World

 The Problem is Always the Solution

...

About this Book

Learn More

Access

Glossary

Proceed

Footnotes

Imagine

Imagine a world where the very way we live is steadily enriching the ecosystems around us.  It is a world where our households and communities, just by thriving, make the biosphere a greener, more abundant and more livable place for us and our fellow species.  It is a world where every company and corporation, just by doing business, is subtracting CO2 and plastic from the biosphere.  It is a world in which all our enterprises, large and small, account for not just their financial expenses and revenues, but also their gray and green ecological impacts.  Here, concepts such as ‘minimizing footprints’, ‘net-zero’, ‘zero waste’ and ‘carbon-neutral’ are relics.  No longer do we strive to minimize our gray harm, instead we strive to maximize our greening contributions.  In this world, our culture and economy are like voices syncing in song with the planet’s cycles; a chorus of ecological harmony rising up with us towards the stars.

I believe that to the extent you and I can imagine this world, it is not nearly as distant as many despair.   I also believe that this is a vision we all long for and aspire to.  Like our love of a song well sung, of coordinated colors or of symmetrical shapes, the call to harmony unites us across continents and cultures.  Whether it is our voice in a choir, our role in a community or our part in the the biosphere, we long to contribute.  Indeed, I have come to see that our transition to authentic ecological contribution is part an epic planetary story whose direction is literally in our hands.

So, how do we get to this beautiful world we all long for?

I've got one word for you:  "Plastic".

It is said in permaculture that the problem is always the solution.  Through my personal plastic journey⁴, I have come to see that our every day plastic is in fact a grand opportunity for awakening.  

That ubiquitous material we all love to hate, is in fact a portal.   

By looking at it closely and stepping through, a great ethical advance awaits us.  Up until now, our understanding of how to contribute to ecological harmony has been juvenile-- our notions vague, incomplete and human-centered.  Our definition of ‘greening’ has been limited to simply reducing harm.  However, through insights gleaned from plastic’s ancient-Earth story, we can gain unprecedented clarity and confidence into the fundamental principles of biosphere enrichment.   With this foundation we can reorient our current enterprises and technologies and build new one’s from the ground up.

But first, let’s address the hate.

⁴I am indebted to the Igorot people, the unconquered indigenous people of the Northern Philippines, whose ancestral Ayyew wisdom tradition deeply inspires this essay.  During a five year period stranded in their great green land, I had a chance to experience their culture, language, and traditions first hand.  As an example of a thriving non-petro-capital culture and economy, we have much to learn from them the heights of ecological harmony they have achieved.  You can read the full story at www.russs.net/fuckup and read my reflections on their concept of Ayyew at www.russs.net/ayyew

Plastic 1.0

Plastic has garnered a bad rap over the last decades and the ire of us all.  It has been pilling up, clogging ecological cycles, polluting and contaminating.  The consequences of our last century of plastic play is the focus of great consternation and condemnation.  While, it may not be the most dire of our ecological crises, as we look out upon the polluted beaches, ruined rivers and suffering turtles, it certainly causes us the most shame.⁵

However, an awakening has begun.

Around the world we’re realizing where our plastic, oh-so carefully segregated and recycled, is actually ending up.   The latest investigative journalism and documentaries are making it clear:  no matter what bin we put it in, plastic’s current inevitable destiny is the biosphere.   Our observation of the ensuing pollution has evoked a collective despair.   It has led to a harsh judgment of ourselves as a ‘destructive’ species and of plastic as innately ‘bad’.

However, as you you will see, these two judgments are misplaced.  

Although, we’re now seeing clearly where our plastic ends-- that is only half the story.  Until now, we haven’t truly grasped where plastic begins.  Our century story of plastic as human-made and managed has been woefully short-sighted.   To the extent we haven’t understood the full Earthen⁶ cycle of plastic we have been blind to some startling insights.  

Although our awakening has come from our understanding of plastic’s destiny, I believe that the wisdom to move forward comes from understanding its origins.  As you will see, plastic is innately and tremendously valuable-- in ways that we have completely overlooked.

To understand plastic’s true value, we must transcend our self-judgments and condemnations. To do so we must go back and look at how humanity got plastic into its hands in the first place.  

Let's start from the beginning.

⁵Since 1950 an estimated 8300 million metric tons (Mt) of virgin plastics have been produced worldwide; 9% of which have been recycled, 12% were incinerated and 79% have accumulated in landfills or the natural environment.1  This production trend is set to continue and increase from 2019 on:  according to the American Chemistry Council, since 2010 $186bn dollars is being invested in 318 new projects to fuel a 40% increase in plastic production over the next decade.  

⁶I use the term “Earthen” in the sense of belonging to the entity of the planet Earth-- in the the same way we speak of “Canadian people” or “Canadian companies”.  The term is in contrast to “earthen” (no capitalization) which refers to the earth as the ground or as soil.

The Long Story of Plastic

About four billion years ago, the Earth was a barren desolate place.  The atmosphere was full of CO2 and the climate was harsh and unstable.  Even when life did emerge, for the first two billion years, only single celled organisms scurried about.

However, slow and steady, life figured out how to use the light of the sun for energy.  And things began to change.  

Plants emerged and took over the planet’s surface by sucking CO2 out of the air.  They broke CO2 into it’s oxygen and carbon molecules and used the latter as blocks to build.  Plants began to compose leaves, flowers and towering trunks. Soon forests and fields covered the planet.  Animals, algae and dinosaurs-- all made from carbon blocks-- emerged.  As these amazing creatures lived and died, their carbon was cycled one into the other.

As time passed, one generation of fallen life was covered up by the next.  Be it at the bottom of the ocean or the floor of a forest, sure and steady, layers of life we’re buried under silt and sediment.   Over hundreds of millions of years, the Earth compressed and compacted these deposits in a process of sequestration--  indefinitely securing the carbon of these ancient organisms deep underground.

Although these organisms all breathed out CO2, the net impact of their lives was to return to the earth a little more than they put back out.  With so much carbon stored out of the atmosphere, and more being sequestered all the time, the Earth's climate stabilized.⁷ And life flourished!  Unprecedented biodiversity over the last 65 million years enabled the calmest period in the Earth's history.  Never before had the biosphere been so livable and green. Cradled by the abundance, sapiens shuffled onto the scene. With the planet’s climate stable within 1-2 degrees, human society  emerged.

And humans figured out how to burn carbon for energy.  

First, we started by burning wood to warm our caves.  Then we discovered the Earth’s carbon stores.  We realized that they were far richer in energy and potential.  We began to unearth this ancient carbon-- what we came to know as coal, petroleum and natural gas.  As we got better and better at extracting and burning, they came to heat our stoves, fuel our factories and power our machines.  As this carbon came to drive our entire economies, we gave it a new name: fossil fuels.

However, despite the catchy name, compacted carbon deposits were never really meant to be fuel.  In the process of refining petroleum, there was a left over residue (4-13% depending on the crude oil being used⁸) that just couldn’t be used or burned.  With no where to go, these chemicals began to pile up.⁹

Humans soon realized, that the leftovers could be used to make stuff.  With a little chemistry polymers could be produced-- and with a little more, polymers could be turned into all sorts of new materials with an endless array of properties.  

Plastics had arrived!

Soon, humans were solving all sorts of problems by making all sorts of amazing things.  No longer did elephants need to be killed for their ivory to make billiard balls.  No longer did you need expensive silver plates to take a photograph.  No longer did food need to shipped fresh.  Plastics enabled more products, more value, and more capital to flow.  

Powered by abundant ancient carbon energy, human industry grew and grew.  As industry extracted and refined more and more petroleum for power, there was always that little bit that couldn’t be processed.  This lead to industry producing more and more plastic at lesser and lesser cost.  As industry expanded, so did petroleum refinement, capital surplus and the economies based on it all-- what I call the petro-capital economy.

The more these petro-capital economies grew, the faster industry spun and the more petroleum was extracted and refined. This made plastic so cheap and so abundant that it began to spill out into the biosphere.  Humans tried their best to manage their plastic by putting it back into industry.  However, the economy already had so much cheap new plastic, that there was no-profit in recycling the old.  It was easier to burn it, dump it or send it somewhere else.

Soon humans came to see that industrial recycling wasn’t working.  It became clear that dumpling, burning and exporting created more problems than were solved.  In order for the petro-capital economy to continue growing, industry tried hard to hide its ecological impacts and to convince itself and everyone else that there was a solution just around the corner.

Yet, after turning many corners, the gray flow into the biosphere continued to increase.  There was now so much burning and dumping, so much CO2 and so much plastic getting loose, that the ecological impacts were in dire discord with our longings for harmony.  Shamed and determined, humans worked passionately to improve their technologies-- to make them less polluting and less damaging.  

But still the gray flow of plastic and emissions continued to grow.

We began to realize that there was a problem with an economy and lifestyle that had to be powered by ‘fossil fuels’.  

Humans began to see that the solutions weren’t going to be industrial.  Nor were they going to be found within the paradigm of the petro-capital economy.

Figure 1: Illustrated are the changes in the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations
over three time periods. The left plate shows long-term decreases in atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels over the last 550 million years and the role of the biota in significantly
decreasing carbon dioxide levels when plants invaded land. The middle plate shows the
variations in carbon dioxide levels over the last 400,000 years. The right plate shows the
imprint of humans over the last half century, increasing carbon dioxide levels signifi-
cantly well above interglacial levels. - From A History of Atmospheric CO 2 and Its Effects on Plants, Animals, and Ecosystems, by James R. Ehleringer, M. Denise Dearing, Thure E. Cerling, University of Utah, 2005

⁷NewScientist 9 January 2019, Michael Marshall, In the beginning: The full story of life on Earth can finally be told  “The events of the first 3.5 billion years of evolution are coming to light at last and they include far more drama and intrigue than we ever imagined”  https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132120-300-in-the-beginning-the-full-story-of-life-on-earth-can-finally-be-told/

⁸British Plastics Federation, 'Oil consumption' , http://www.bpf.co.uk/press/oil_consumption.aspx (Ref PD/LFH/19/8/08)

⁹“Oil refineries run 24-7 and are continuously generating by-roducts that must be disposed of, such as ethylene gas… Ethelyne gas, as British chemists discovered in the early 1930’s can be made into the polyemer polyethylene… another by-product propylene, can be redeployed as a feedstock for polypropylene, a plastic used in yogurt cups, microwaveable dishes, disposal dieapers, and cars.  Sill another is acrylonitrile, which can be made into acylic fiber… for astroturf and more...  Plastics are a small piece of the petroleum inudstry, representing a minor fraction of the fossil fuels we consume.  But the economic imperatives of the petroleum industry have powered the rise of Plasticville.” Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, Susan Freinkel, Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company, 2011, p. 7

Learning from the Earth

It is a grand story.  Even more so, that us, the tellers, are thoroughly part of it!  This particular telling, is only possible through the Earth’s billion year management of carbon; through its million year cultivation of consciousness; through our last millennia of carbon de-compaction; through our the last century of industry; through our last decades of paleobiology, and, for you and I, through this last year of Covid quarantine reflection.

Only through this epochal unfolding, can we look out with this vast vantage upon the Earth’s and our own story!  Rather than be mired in self-judgment at our play with carbon, we can be dazzled by the Earth’s.  The way the Earth has processed its carbon has greened its surface, steadily cultivating ever higher livability, biodiversity, harmony and consciousness.  And finally, with the Earth’s prescient carbon storage, consciousness ignited-- propelling us the last of the way to the telling and pondering of the story itself.  

So, where do we go from here?  

First, let us hold fast to our hard earned vantage and the sweeping view it affords!  From here we can observe another pivotal phenomenon.  Aside from some meteor strikes and massive volcanoes, it is a phenomenon unseen on the planet for hundreds of millions of years.

Thanks to the doings of us and our ancestors, never before has the Earth’s atmospheric balance of CO2 jumped upwards so quickly.  Never before has there been processes that so rapidly added more carbon to the biosphere than they removed.  The ensuing ecological disturbances directly challenge our current play with carbon.

It’s all a little familiar.

If you’ve ever seen a child play at blocks for the first time, you will recall that the results are remarkably the same.  After the thrill of assembling a grand creation, when the pieces come tumbling down, when things don’t turn out as desired, the upset youngster invariably blames themselves and the blocks.  Of course, neither the blocks nor the child are to blame!  Only through that first play can the child grasp that the goal of the game.  

There is no other way.

Likewise, our disruption of ecological cycles is not a consequence of our ‘nature’ any more than it is the nature of carbon.  Rather, the issue is the way we have used carbon in comparison to the way that the Earth has used carbon.  For the Earth it has never been about a final creation, but rather the creative process.

For us, it has been about making castles-- end-products:  Single-use plastics, oils, fuels, etc.  When our creations come to their end, whether burnt or disposed, the leftovers do not easily fit back into ecological cycles.  The more we have used the carbon as ends, the more the cycles have gotten clogged.  In comparison, the Earth has used carbon as a means: building blocks that are reusable over and over again--  proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids (i.e. DNA).  When one organism comes to an end, another begins by building itself with the first’s carbon blocks-- ad indefinitum.  Whereas our linear and additive usage of carbon has destabilized ecologies, the Earth has enriched them. 

Like a determined child on a second-go at blocks, we’re trying harder than ever before.  With things not going as we desired, we’ve got our heads down, striving diligently  to make our technologies less polluting, less damaging, less gray. Although there has been some progress, on the whole our ecological disruption continues unabated.

I believe it is time to raise our heads from the toil.  And in particular the judgment.  Again, rather than despair, we can be amazed.  

Our once-in-a-million-years phenomenon of additive carbon usage is in fact a tremendous opportunity.  

For the first time, with our usage of carbon as a foil, we can discern the wisdom of the Earth.  Rather than simply learning from our mistakes, we can learn from a master.  

Earthen Ways

In the past we have used the example, ways and wisdom of great human teachers as means of discerning good and bad, right and wrong.  However practical this has been for making sense of human living, it is insufficient for the ecological discernment we need today.  When it comes to making sense of our place in the biosphere and managing our carbon, human centered ethics, are de-facto, inadequate.  

However, another great teacher awaits our attention-- and we have no further to look than our feet.

In our entire galaxy we know of no other entity that has been so successful in cultivating the very ecological harmony we so long for and aspire to.  As such, I believe that the Earth provides a magnificent example to follow.  

From our billion year vantage of the Earth’s biosphere cultivation and carbon management, we can observe fundamental principles in the cumulative history of the planet.

1.  Observe, the way the Earth has used its carbon as short-term circular building blocks.

2.  Observe, the way the Earth has concentrated, compacted, secured and stored carbon for the long-term.

3.  Observe the way the Earth has subtracted more carbon into storage than it has added back to the biosphere.

4.  Observe the way the Earth has raised the consciousness of ecological interconnection.

5.  Observe the way the Earthen has increased biological diversity.

6.  Observe the way the Earth has circulated surpluses from the organism to the ecology, to the biome, to the biosphere.

If we compare the bare and desolate ancient Earth to the Earth of today, the play of these principles is incontrovertible.  However, these principles are clear from not just from the widest view, but also in the closest.  Upon inspection, we can see that every and each Earthen process is a microcosm of the macro.   Just as the whole biosphere embodied these six ways, so does each of its biomes, each biome’s ecology and the organisms of these ecologies to the extent it is contributing to enrichment of the whole.  From the forest, to the tree, to the bird, to the flea we see the cycling of carbon inexorably moving towards subtraction and storage in all their net-subtractive life-cycles.   Meanwhile those very cycles are pushing the organism towards diversity, consciousness and biosphere benefit.  Whether the process is minute or massive, ancient or ongoing, in looking closely, we see the same principles at play.

Indeed, all around us, we are engulfed by it all-- a vast symphony of contributing biomes, resulting in a biosphere livable, biodiverse, stable, and conscious.  It is a grand testament to Earthen principles applied.i  

This extraordinary proof of principles, avails us a commanding clarity in the character of contribution.  We are assured that by following the Earth’s ever-contributing ways, our like processes will have like consequences.  And by using the Earth’s ways to evaluate our current processes, we can discern what is an authentic contribution to the biosphere, and, what is not.  With unprecedented confidence we can use this ethical evaluation to move forward and align our modern living with our ecological longing.

This is what I call an Earthen ethics.

Thus, using Earthen ethics, we can confidently discern of what is green (what is an ecological contribution) and what is gray (what is not contributing).   What is green is that which embodies the six Earthen principles and leads to a more livable, biodiverse, stable, abundant and conscious biosphere.  What is gray is that which conflicts with any of one of the Earthen principles, leading to the opposite-- lowering consciousness, reducing biome stability, and livability, and decreasing biodiversity.  

In this way, the example of the Earth can give us clarity on the processes of our modern world.  

iIt is important to note that our observation and definition of principles does not lay any claim to why or how.  We are simply observing the net change of the planet from its barren state to its biosphere state.  Whether the principles themselves were laid by luck, by a sentient planet, by a divine being, or by many divine beings is a separate matter. Likewise, the great plunges in diversity, stability and consciousness (i.e. mass extinctions) that seem at odds with our principles--  these are  separate from our observation of net consequence of the singular Earthen process.

Green 2.0

Up until now, within the confines of our current petro-capital economy, authentic ecological contribution, authentic greening of the biosphere, has been all but impossible.

This is not for lack of our trying.  Today, the word ‘green’ is used all the time by people and enterprises striving to be, well… green.  While many are cynical about the frivolous uses of the term, I am not.  Rather, I believe the wide use of the term, points to a deep desire to meaningfully contribute to the biosphere’s greening.  However, given the wanting ways the term is used, it is clear that up until now, we have lacked a grounded, principled and impartial definition of what green means. Rather, than question intentions I believe we need question our context.  

As we have seen, we’re in that part of the Earth’s story where we’ve just started to play with carbon.  Our economy, and every process within it, is based on extracting, refining and de-compacting the Earth’s carbon stores loose into the biosphere.  As such, all processes within the petro-capital economy are de-facto CO2 and plastic net-additive and in violation of at least one Earthen principle-- that of being net-subtractive.

Take the purchase of a single organic apple.  

When we pick an apple up in a store, it seems innocent enough.  The apple’s organic sticker seems to suggest that it might even be ‘green’.  However, when we hand our capital over to pay for it, a vast chain of processes are vitalized.  Although it may not have been grown with petroleum based fertilizer like its non-organic brethren, it is picked and processed by petroleum powered tractors, shipped with petroleum powered transportation, and stickered and packaged with petroleum made plastic.  The store itself is powered by electricity that in most countries is coal fired-- while the drive home on the scooter is powered by gasoline.

At every stage of the apple’s journey, the de-compaction of ancient carbon stores are happening.  It is the same with almost all of the other purchases and process within the petro-capital economy.  Every expenditure of capital is tied to the release of CO2 and the use of plastic.   Even the most well intentioned ‘sustainable’ enterprises, in so far as they are within the petro-capital economy, are fundamentally additive.

We see this in the sustainability virtues of the petro-capital economy.  

Goals such as ‘zero-waste’, ‘reducing footprints’, ‘carbon neutral’ and ‘net-zero’ are not about greening the biosphere, but simply reducing gray additive impacts.  Their goal is not actually the benefit of the biosphere, rather minimizing damage to it.  Even with the best intentions, their very definition precludes the concept of enriching the biosphere.  Without embodying any authentic ecological contribution, “sustaining” these enterprises actually means sustaining processes that by definition harm the biosphere.   

Though the economy may be filled with countless enterprises and folks who genuinely long to contribute to the biosphere, to be green however, the system’s additive inclination makes authentically doing so exceptionally challenging¹⁰.   

Until now.

With an unprecedented clarity on what is green and what is not, the Earth’s example can assist us in not just reorienting our lives, homes, gardens, enterprises and technologies but creating new net-subtractive systems from the ground up.  

Let’s start with our plastic.

¹⁰This fundamental inability to imagine anything beyond ‘reducing harm’ or ‘minimizing our footprints’ is precisely why plastic pollution has inexorably increased over the last decades despite massive environmental campaigns.

Plastic 2.0

From our billion year vantage we can see our plastic in a whole new light.  That plastic bag, straw or bottle we used yesterday connects us to a billion year trajectory.  It embodies the very Earthen processes and principles that made the biosphere our thriving common home today.  

We also see that plastic is an artifact of our current play at carbon.

Every piece of plastic that we handle is like a ‘petro-berg’--  invisible beneath its temporal surface is a colossal and momentous dimension¹¹.  Plastic allows us to physically touch the otherwise hidden petro-capital economic machine that looms large and unseen around us, directing so much of our lives.  Our every plastic choice, from to purchasing to disposing, results in factories spinning, trucks transporting, and oil refined-- or, not.  What we do with our plastic, as it adds or decreases the momentum of the petro-capital economy has imminent additive and subtractive ecological consequence.

However, of petroleum products, plastic is unique.  Whereas fuels are shortly burned and their carbon added into the atmosphere, plastic retains its chemical stability and density throughout its use.  Roughly three times as dense as wood, plastic remains a form of compacted carbon and a remnant of the ancient subtractive work of the Earth.  

Learning from the Earth’s example, I believe the course forward is clear.

Rather than attempt additional industrial transformations of plastic we can continue the Earth’s arc of carbon sequestration-- the ecological contribution of securing and storing carbon-- and apply it to our plastic.  

Keeping plastic as plastic, compacting and securing it, enables us to continue the Earth’s work of indefinite carbon storage.  As a direct representative of the petro-capital economy, it also allows the opportunity to remove it, and ourselves, from the system thus discouraging and diminishing the extractive momentum of the economy thus discouraging and diminishing the extractive momentum of the economy.  By both securing plastic out of the biosphere and by removing it from industry we can provide a valuable ecological contribution.  

This is what I call plastic sequestration.

I propose plastic sequestration as a means of processing our used plastic that, in contrast to our industrial attempts of doing so, fully embodies the Earth’s ways and powers petro-capital transition in a way that is massively net-subtractive.  I believe that by securing our plastic out of the biosphere and out of industry we can provide a valuable and greening ecological contribution to the biosphere.

Of course, we’ve attempted to manage our plastic in a green ways before.  How do we know that this time it will in fact be an ecological contribution?   

In the next chapters, we will examine the industrial processing of plastic by asking six questions that correspond to the six Earthen principles.  I hope that this will provide an example of how any technology or enterprise can be evaluated.  In contrast, we will also look at how plastic processing can embody each of the six Earthen principles.  In this way we will establish the criteria of plastic sequestration as an ecological contribution and I hope, provide an example of building an Earthen Enterprise from the group up.

¹¹The petro-capital economy is is what Timothy Morton calls a ‘hyper-object’-- a conceptual object “that are so massively distributed in time and space as to transcend spatiotemporal specificity, such as global warming, styrofoam, and radioactive plutonium”.  One of the properties of hyper-objects is their ‘viscousness’, the phenomenon that “meaning that the more an object tries to resist a hyperobject, the more glued to the hyperobject it becomes”.  However, plastic I believe, in so far as we can touch it, enables the unfathomanabled to be grasped, loved and valued overcoming the viscosity.

1  |  Circular Cycling

Observe, the way the Earth has concentrated, compacted, secured and stored carbon for the long-term.

The Serengeti Volcanic Grasslands lie just south of the Tanzanian/Kenyan border close to the African equator.  This vast area of over 30,000 km2 is home to one of the most enduring large mammal dominated ecosystems on the planet that sees each year the migration of hundreds of thousands of wildebeest, zebra, gazelle, and accompanied predators.  As the blades of the grasslands absorb carbon from the air to build their stalks, they are grazed by the gazelle and the wildebeest which use the nutrients to build their bodies.  When one of these herbivores falls prey, it is the lion and its pride that grows strong on the same molecules.  In the dung of all these creatures, the grasses grow anew.  A molecule of carbon grabbed out of the air by a stalk of grass, can go onto build glucose, lipids, proteins, and DNA that are cycled thousands of times before it is cycled into the Earth.

As we saw earlier, the Earth has been using carbon as building blocks since the outset of multicellular organisms.  It is a phenomenon seen not just in the net biosphere but that characterizes all biological processes.  In fact, we can observe that the health, vitality and livability of any biome, ecosystem or organisms are directly correlated to cycling.ii  As in ecosystems such as the Serengeti, rain-forests and reefs, we see a correlation between how frequently carbon is cycled one organism to the next and its greeness-- its tangent towards  biodiversity, stability, and consciousness.  

In this way, emulating circularity in our enterprises and technologies is key.  A process that does not have the plan nor the result of carbon cycling cannot be considered an ecological contribution.iii  In this sense, driving a car using gasoline cannot be an ecological contribution-- there is no allowance for the reuse of the CO2 that is released from combustion.  However neither would the process of turning used PET bottles into fabric-- as this allows only one cycle and is hardly indefinite.  Whereas  a restaurant’s process of composting its leftovers to fertilize its garden to grow more food could be a contribution (if it meets our remaining criteria).  

When evaluating human processes that use carbon (i.e. organic materials, plastics, fuels, etc.) we must inquire as to what happens to it at the end of the process.  Does the process have a route for cycling of the carbon involved once the process is complete?iv Only processes that have the plan and result of nutrient circulation can be considered an ecological contribution.  

Industrial Plastic Processing

Does the process enable the indefinite cycling of the carbon it uses?

For the last five decades plastic has been designed as ‘disposable’, ‘throwaway’ and ‘single-use’.  After its use, plastic was either dumped or burned, leading to matter that was incompatible with ecological systems¹².   There it degraded into smaller and smaller pieces while releasing greenhouse gases¹³.  As we know all too well, these microplastics don’t fit into the cycles of life and have been causing a plethora of ecological problems.¹⁴  In this way, our useage and processing of plastic had neither the plan nor the result of cycling.

Of course, today industrial plastic processing strives to “recycle” plastic.  The latest enterprises aim at a ‘circular economy’.  William McDonough speaks of ‘industrial nutrient cycles’ and the concept of cradle to cradle designv.  Indeed, in so far as these methods plan for the cycling of materials they are in an Earthen direction.  However, if the net result is in fact that plastic is recycled only several times before it can no longer be cycled again (as research seems to show¹⁵) then it does not have the result of indefinite cycling and the credibility of ecological contribution is significantly impaired.  

Plastic Sequestration

In order for the process of plastic sequestration to be of ecological contribution it must enable the indefinite cycling of its outputs in the short term.  In this way, when our sequestration of plastic leads to short-term creations (i.e. bricks, tiles, bales, blocks, etc.), they must be by circular by design– with their next life built in.  Fortunately, one of the principal properties of plastic is its longevity and durability.  Putting plastic to use into enduring building blocks that can be re-used over and over, is a relatively simple matter.

But we’ve just begun.  Just because a process meets this one criteria, doesn’t mean that it is green.  It must still embody the other five.  As our plastic transitions from short term cycling to its long-term fate, we must be sure it continues to follow the Earth’s way.

iiResearchers observed that the decimation of wildebeest populations during the mid-20th century allowed ground vegetation to flourish, eventually promoting wildfires that consumed 80 percent of the ecosystem annually and led to a net release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; when disease management and anti-poaching efforts helped animal populations recover, a greater share of the carbon stored in vegetation was consumed by wildebeest and released as dung, keeping it in the system and restoring the ecosystem’s vitality

https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/climate-players-animals-can-swing-a-landscapes-capacity-to-store-carbon/

iiiFurthermore, the ecological benefit of the process can be evaluated by just how readily and frequently the carbon is cycled.  However this is beyond the scope of this essay.  For the moment we simply making a boolean evaluation if there is any cycling planned and resulting from the process.

ivIt is important to note, that this cycling of carbon.  Although, there is an important limiting lesson-- as we will see the rate of carbon subtraction and storage must always too much of good thing-- the carboniferous age remove so much carbon so fast, that it set off an ice age!)ugh indefinite, is not infinite.  At a certain point, the carbon blocks inevitably find a fate outside of these cycles.  In Earthen cycles this always leads to our next principle-- the long-term storage of carbon.

¹²Ansje Lohr, Heidi Savelli, Raoul Beunen, Marco Kalz, Ad Ragas, Frank Van Belleghem, 'Solutions for global marine litter pollution',  (sciencedirect.com, Current opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Vol 28, October 2017) 90-99

¹³Anthony L. Andrady,'Microplastics in the marine environment', (sciencedirect.com, Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol 62, issue 8, August 2011), 1596–1605.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.

¹⁴Webb, Arnott, Crawford and Ivanova, 'Plastic Degradation and Its Environmental Implications with Special Reference to Poly(ethylene terephthalate),', (Faculty of Life and Social Sciences)

vCradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, Michael Braungart, William McDonough, April 22, 2002

¹⁵ 'Recycling, The Evil Illusion', www.russs.net/recyclig, Russell Maier, 30 June 2016

2  |  Towards Indefinite Securing & Storage

Observe, the way the Earth has subtracted, concentrated, compacted and secured carbon for the long-term.

The Crassostrea virginica oyster produces over its life-time a thick and solid shell made of calcium carbonate.  The shell is formed over its life cycle through the biosynthesis of calcium and carbon in its environment.  During the course of its life, oysters deposit their faesces and also their shells, which sink to the bottom of the sea floor.  An oyster shell’s net weight, like that of other mollusks, is 12.5% carbon.vi  There at the bottom of the ocean the shell is covered by ever accumulating layers of other shells, feces and organic matter where over time its carbon is concentrated, compacted and stored.  

We see the possibility and result of carbon storage in every Earthen ecology, organism and process.  Whether it is the organic matter of a forest or an oyster reef; or the fallen carcasses of a bacteria or a body, the process can and does lead to its carbon mass being concentrated, compacted and secured for the long-term.  As we saw earlier in the long story of the Earth, the gradual removal and reduction of carbon out of the atmosphere (see figure 1) was an essential part of greening the biosphere.  By accumulating carbon from organic processes atmospheric CO2 was reduced, the climate was stabilized, life prospered and the biosphere took off.

For our human processes and enterprises to be considered an ecological contribution, they must likewise have a plan and a result of carbon concentration and storage. In particular, when using fossil carbon, we must ensure that we have allowed for the long-term fate of carbon used (non-fossil carbon lends itself to earthen cycles of biodegradation).  For example, putting our left over plastic into dump sites where it is mixed with organic material is not concentrated nor secure-- there plastic degrades and it generates methane, a green house gas.  In contrast, offsetting processes that protect and vitalize forests and mangroves keeps carbon safely secured and stored in the root systems of these ecologies.  We must thus ask, does our process compact and store carbon directly?  Does the process do so indirectly (by supporting other subtractive processes that do so)?  Only processes that lead to the long-term storage of carbon can be considered ecological contributions.   We can sum up the question as such:

Industrial Plastic Processing

Does the process lead to the concentration, compaction, securing and storage of carbon over the long-term?

When it comes to our industrial plastic processing technologies we see that they do not embody this dynamic.  Like the petro-capital economy of which they are part, they have had no goal of compacting, securing and indefinitely storing plastic/carbon.  The incineration or burning of plastic leads to the dispersal of carbon in the atmosphere.  The dumping of plastic in land fills leads to non-concentrated mixtures of plastic and organic matter.  If plastic does get compacted and stored it is so that it can be shipped and processed-- the global transport of plastic from facility to facility, further dispersing plastic widely-- usually to recycling centers.  Meanwhile the recycling of plastic leads to short-term creations that are less-recyclable.  These short term creations are prone to degradation.  The degradation of plastic leads to full dispersal as micro-plastics and greenhouse gases into the biosphere.  

Even when plastic has the goal of being used cyclically, we observe that when its cycling is up, it is scattered loose into the biosphere-- whether is this is through incineration (into CO2) or littering or dumping, the result is the same:  carbon scattered into the biosphere where it degrades into micro-plastics and greenhouse gases.

Plastic Sequestration

In the same way that the Earth sequestered carbon by compacting and protecting it to achieve indefinite long-term storage, our plastic sequestration must achieve the same. When the Earth sequestered carbon it ensured that it was fully protected from all forms of solar, chemical and organic degradation, keeping it out of the atmosphere for a virtually indefinite period of time.  Plastic, as it is largely carbon, can be processed the same way to the same effect.  In this way, units of compacted and concentrated plastic can be intentionally put into conditions that ensure protection from all forms of degradation-- and like ancient carbon stores, endure for the long-term.   When standards of density, protection and indefinite storage are met, can we say that an ecological contribution has been made and can we consider plastic to be sequestered.  

vihttps://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2017.0891

3  |  Net Subtraction

Observe the way the Earth has subtracted more carbon into cycling and storage than it added back to the atmosphere.

Sixty million years ago the Earth entered the Carboniferous age.  At the outset, plants had yet to develop leaves.  Nearing the end of the age, not only did vast leafy forests and swamps cover the planet, the Earth’s atmospheric carbon had been reduced 10 fold.  At this stage of their evolution, plants had just developed lingin, the sturdy stiff mass that made their trunks and bark, makes their trunks.  Meanwhile, fungi had yet to catch up and develop the mechanism to dispose of it.   When a tree fell, it was buried by the falling of others before it had a chance to be decomposed and its carbon cycled back to the atmosphere.  Thus entombed, the biomass was completely secured from light, oxygen and bacteria.  Compacted by the layers being added above it, the ancient carbon was compacted and stored for millions of years.  Meanwhile, as unprecedented amounts of carbon were removed from the atmosphere the conditions were such that life flourished in epic abundance-- giant dragon flies 70cm across, three meter long salamanders and grasses of great heights over 10 meters are recorded in the fossil records of the age.

The Carboniferous age is a dramatic example of the principle of net-subtraction that we see in the Earth’s process of enriching the planet.  Indeed, it is the massive amounts of subtracted, concentrated and compacted carbon from this age that is our coal of today.  With Earthen ecologies always storing more carbon than they release back into the atmosphere the result has been the gradual reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere.  This in turn helped stabilize the climate and allow the conditions for life to flourishvii.  

Looking at the sure and steady reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere over the Earth’s history (see figure s 1 and 4) we see that this net subtraction is an essential component of greening the biosphere.  A similar net-subtraction can be seen in the most abundant, diverse and conscious biomes of the planet-- from the Carboniferous rain forests to the coral reefs of today.   

When we examine our own enterprises and technologies we must ask if the net-result is the subtraction of CO2 from the biosphere.  For example an enterprise that balance off 1 ton of CO2 outputs with 1 ton of CO2 offsetting, would not yet be an ecological contribution.  However, a household that sequesters more CO2 than it produces, would be.  We must ask, when  one adds up the total subtractive impacts and the total additive impacts of the process, which is higher?  

Industrial Plastic Processing

Is the process net subtractive?  

The shipping, transport and processing of used plastic in municipal waste systems results in the burning of fuels and the use of large quantities of electricity¹⁶.  This has a large additive C02  impact.  Eventually when the plastic is dumped, or incinerated, yet more CO2 and greenhouse gases are release.  With no CO2 subtraction to balance it off, the net process is net additive.   In addition, the illusion that the processing is a solution, enables and encourages the continued consumption of plastic, generation of plastic, and all of its attendant gray impacts.¹⁷

Plastic Sequestration

In the same way that the Earth’s net use of carbon was subtractive rather than additive, plastic sequestration must be the same.  Of course, as a process of compacting, securing and storing plastic, which is largely carbon, it is in and of itself is a subtractive process!  In addition, by establishing the criteria and metrics of plastic sequestration as a local and manual process, we can we prevent the release of large amounts of CO2 through transportation and petro-energy intense industrial processes.

We can ensure that it is a net-green process by accounting for all the gray impacts of plastic sequestration to be sure that they are not more than amount of plastic/carbon sequestered and Co2 prevented..  Only when our sequestration of plastic results in less CO2 emissions and less plastic being produced can it be considered an ecological contribution.  

vii Documenting a significant relationship between macroevolutionary origination rates and Phanerozoic pCO2 levels

James L. Cornette, Bruce S. Lieberman, Robert H. Goldstein

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2002, 99 (12) 7832-7835; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.122225499 https://www.pnas.org/content/99/12/7832.full?sid=18792141-67ed-4cbd-b907-e81fcf2ff217#xref-ref-2-1

¹⁶Plastic & Climate: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet, Center for International Environmental Law, May 2019

¹⁷See my essay Recycling: The Evil Illusion, Russell Maier, 2016, www.russs.net/recycling

4  |  Consciousness Raising

Observe the way Earthen processes raise the consciousness of ecological interconnection.

Across North America temperate forests of Douglas fir, Birch, Spruce and other tree species are interconnected by networks of mycorrhizal fungal growth.viii  Beneath thousands of different species of fungi sheath and intertwine the roots systems of the trees.  These mycelial networks enable plants to share nutrients such as sugar, phosphorus and nitrogen between each the other.  Affectionately known as the Wood Wide Web, it also enables the exchange of information.  A tree attacked by insects can warn others, precipitating the release of defensive toxins throughout the rest of the forest.  As the forest network expands,  its awareness of itself, its members and its environmental expands with it.ix  

Plants have come along way since their early multicellular begins to become increasingly aware of each other and their environments.  The Earth’s cultivation of ever greater and diverse ecological networks has led to ecological systems ever more aware of their environment and the spread of this inter-connectivity around the planet.  Forest biomes, such as those in North America exemplify the connection of consciousness to ecological contribution.  Research shows that forests lacking mycorrhizal connection, do not thrive, survive or contribute stability in the same way that connected and aware forests do.  The evolution of these ecological networks as well as the development and spread of human civilization society (despite its current  adverse ecological effects) represent a crescendo in consciousness on the planet.x

Of our own processes, we must thus inquire if they have they plan and the result of increasing consciousness.  Only process that make those involved more aware of their interconnection to human and to ecological systems can be considered an ecological contribution.  

An apple, grown on an organic farm, and sold at a market 1km away from the orchard, yet which does not educate the buyer about its story, gray and green impacts is not an ecological contribution.  An apple grown 1000km away from the supermarket where it is sold, yet tagged with a full accounting of its gray and green impacts, could be a greening contribution (if it meet our other principles).  An apple grown 10km away and sold by a farmer who tells its story, would on the other hand, most likely be a greening contribution!  The process of tagging and telling raises not just the consciousness of the consumer, but that of the producer who is compelled to keep and refine their impact accounting.

We must thus ask of our processes:  Does the process account for its ecological impacts and aware those it touches of them?  Is the awareness of the interconnection of those involved raised?  Only if a process raises consciousness can it be considered an ecological contribution.

Industrial Plastic Management

Does the process raise the consciousness of those involved of their interconnection?  

As we have seen in principle three, the net ecological impact of industrial plastic processing is gray-- resulting in the release of plastic and CO2 loose into the biosphere.  In order to continue under the guise of a ‘greening’ and ‘sustainable’ enterprise, the recycling and plastic waste disposal industries invest heavily in marketing to emphasize their greening attributes (circularity) to conceal their gray (substantial additive impacts)¹⁸.  In addition, most industrial management process rely on the export of plastic to distant locations around the world.  Without local processing, individuals and communities are insulated from the ecological effects of factories, dump sites.  These two dynamics result in a steady  lowering of consumer and producer awareness of the impacts of their choices.¹⁹  

Plastic Sequestration

In the same way that the Earth has cultivated ever greater consciousness with its cycling of carbon, we must do the same with our plastic sequestration.    In the same way, the process of plastic sequestration must involve an awaring of its ecological impacts.  Only if plastic sequestration raises individual and collective consciousness is it an ecological contribution.

In order to be a process of ecological contribution, plastic sequestration must raise the consciousness of those involved.  This must involve an open, transparent accounting of the green and gray impacts of the process.  Statistics, results and reports of the process must be readily available and simple to understand (for example, see the impact accounting at the end of this essay).  Likewise, the next life of the compacted plastic (i.e. brick or module) should be planned for and openly declared.  

The process must also involve those households, communities or companies who are responsible for the consumption of the plastic in the first place.  By ensuring that the process involves those consuming they are immersed fully in the issues of the short-term and long-term local management.   In this way, rather than decrease ecological consciousness, plastic sequestration can raise it.

viiiGorzelak MA, Asay AK, Pickles BJ, Simard SW. Inter-plant communication through mycorrhizal networks mediates complex adaptive behaviour in plant communities. AoB Plants. 2015;7:plv050. Published 2015 May 15. doi:10.1093/aobpla/plv050

ix E.I. Newman, Mycorrhizal Links Between Plants: Their Functioning and Ecological Significance, Advances in Ecological Research, Academic Press,Volume 18, 1988

xAn argument can be made that the advent of human civilization and the rise of consciousness that it represents is in fact detrimental to the biosphere and its greening.  While this may be so at the moment, the thesis of this paper proposes to enable just the opposite-- that in fact human civilization (through a further rise in consciousness) can indeed become a great force of biosphere greening.

¹⁸How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled,  NPR, September 11, 2020, Laura Sulivan

¹⁹ 'Recycling, The Evil Illusion', www.russs.net/recyclig, Russell Maier, 30 June 2016

5  |  Supporting Biodiversity

Observe how the Earth has increased biodiversity.

In 1998 paleontologist Joseph Sepkoski completed a database compilation of over 30,000 fossil genera with their time of first appearance and time of disappearance.  Using this database he charted the rise and fall of diversity over the last 541 million years.  Whereas, Sepkoski was mainly interested in showing the rise and fall of different phases of diversityxi, such as extinction events, his curve shows something else far more fundamental.  Over the history of the planet the Earth has steadily increased the biodiversity of the biosphere.  While his graph has been revised and expanded on since, the general upward increase in diversity remains consistent in new models.

This rise in biodiversity correlates directly with the greening of the biosphere.  Over the last four billion years, the Earth has gone from a barren planet with only single celled organisms to the thriving, stable, and immensely diverse biosphere of today.  We see this dynamic at play in every biome.  As Sarkowski showed in the paleo-marine biome, sure and steady over time, biological systems that thrive also move towards more and more diversity.

To ensure our processes are inline with the Earth’s ways, we must ask ourselves whether our enterprises supports the flourishing of other related and non-related species.  Only if this principle is fulfilled can the process be an ecological contribution.  For example, a palm plantation that replaces a grassland or a forest cannot be considered an ecological contribution, no matter how verdant the canopy, if the ecology it replaced had more species and diversity in it.  However, a palm plantation that takes over a desert could be!  A bridge over a freeway that lets animals cross to migrate, could also be an ecological contribution in that it supports the maintenance of biodiversity.  

Only if a process does not focus exclusively on one species, biome or enterprise and rather on the collective can it be considered an ecological contribution. We must thus ask of the process:  Does the process support the current diversity?  Does it vitalize the increase of diversity?  

Industrial Plastic Processing

Does the process support biological diversity?

Industrial processes are by default focused on serving one species: humans.  Within the context of human society, the surplus profits further focus on benefiting one group-- those owning the enterprise.  As such, with no biological component, recycling, incineration and dumping do not contribute to sustaining more than one species nor do they vitalize the humans in the industry and their social diversity.  Notably, the forest and fields that are now the sites of recycling factories, incineration facilities and dump sites are no longer able to support their local ecologies.  Furthermore the effects of the industrial processing results in adverse effects for the ecosystems around the facilities, dumpsites and factories.

Plastic Sequestration

In order to be an ecological contribution, plastic sequestration must support biodiversity.  By designing and ensuring the usage of the short-term creations of plastic sequestration (i.e. bricks, blocks, bales, etc) in such a way that they promote the flourishing of other species (structures, walls, bedding for gardens, forests and reefs) this can be attained.  By minimizing the barriers to participating in the process of sequestration, the social benefits of making and application can be shared among a diverse swath of human society.  Finally, through the long-term sequestration of plastic, the absence of micro-plastics and the avoided CO2 emissions are of benefit to all species.

Figure 2: Marine Biodiversity Increase over Earth's history

xi Mass Extinctions in the Marine Fossil Record, By DAVID M. RAUP, J. JOHN SEPKOSKI JR., Science19 Mar 1982 : 1501-1503

6  |  Biome Benefit

Observe how the surpluses of ecological cycling are distributed upwards from organism to ecosystem, biome to biosphere.

In the land of the Wetʼsuwetʼen people, in Northwestern Canada, the pacific salmon and the abundance its migration bring is revered.  In a lifespan of seven years, these remarkable creatures are born in small forest creeks, then journey thousands of kilometers to the ocean.  A long the way, tiny fry (baby salmon) transform into magnificent and powerful creatures that can thrive in the vast waters of the Atlantic.  5-7 years later, the salmon retrace their first routes, navigating the ocean, rivers, and streams to return to their birthplace.  Their drive to survive and reproduce is immense as they swim upstream, navigate dams and rapids to return home.  There the females lay their eggs, the males fertilize them, and they die-- and the next cycle begins anew.

It is an incredible life, notable not just for the life-cycle itself, but the way that it contributes to both the marine and inland biomes.  A plethora of other species, benefit from the salmon at every stage of its life-cycle.  Bears, eagles, humans and more gain a seasonal feast from the returning fish.  Often the salmon are brought by birds and other creatures deep into the forest to be consumed.  There the carcasses of the fish, and the excrement of those that consumed them, fertilize the forest with a unique blast of nutrients from a far.  And at the end, with the last of their life energy, the salmon enable another cycle to spin.   The way in which the salmon’s life-cycle contributes nutrients, food and energy upwards to the surrounding ecosystem is revered by the Wet-suweten as a virtue-model to follow.  While every stage an individual salmon’s life is driven by the desire to thrive it’s living is guided by the parameters of its seven year life-cycle.  These parameters, its journey from inland to ocean to return, have developed over millions of years to be an exceptional example the Earth’s principle of biome benefit.  

Like the Wetʼsuwetʼen, we can learn much from the Salmon.  Over the long story of the Earth we can see that its biomes, ecologies and organisms directed their surpluses upwards to the whole of the biosphere.  In other words we see how every creature, from salmon to lions, take only what it needed.  There is no hoarding or saving beyond the organisms life-cycle, rather any surplus is passed on or left behind for the benefit of the ecosystem.  The same is seen in ecosystems as a whole-- rain-forests and river ecosystem provide ecological services that benefit their entire continent (biome) and the planet (biosphere).  

For the last thousand years this principle and its greening consequences were so ubiquitous and immersive we took it for granted.  However, never before has its been clearer.  For the last centuries, humans within petro-capital economies have gradually re-directed the surpluses of their economic activities from benefiting the community to benefiting the enterprise-- in particular owners and shareholders.  With this downward and inward spiraling of profits, enterprises have become increasingly extractive.  Likewise economies dominated by for-profit enterprises have come to concentrate wealth in the hands of few-- rather than distribute it back to the society and ecosystems in which the enterprise operates.  Today, we are able to observe the graying ecological consequences of for-profit processes in contrast to the ecological consequences of profits-for-Earth processes-- like that ofthe Salmon.

It is clear then, that if our processes are to be authentic contributions they must follow the Earth’s example.  Only processes that have the goal and the result of circulating surpluses upwards can be considered greening contributions.  When evaluating our human processes, we must examine both intention and consequence.  

We must ask:  who profits from the profits?  Is the primary objective and consequence of the process an upwards or downwards contribution?  In other words does the process contribute to the biome or to those who instigated the process.  Only if a process has no goal or motivation that overrides the goal of contributing to the biome can it be considered an ecological contribution.

Industrial Plastic Processing

Is the goal of the process the benefit of the biome?

Industrial plastic processing is largely a for-profit enterprise-- meaning that the benefit of the biosphere comes second to capital generation.  The objective of the business is the maximization of profits.  These profits are returned to the business owners or shareholders.  The primary objective is not an ecological mission beyond itself.  

Plastic Sequestration

In order for the process of plastic sequestration to be an authentic ecological contribution it must have the primary objective of benefiting the biosphere. In the same way that the Earth’s processes enriched the biosphere over its biomes, we must ensure that the process itself is not-for profit.  In other words, the enterprise of sequestration must be for-Earth and not-for-profit (what we call an Earth Enterprise²⁰).  Meanwhile, the actual process of sequestration should be such that it favors small scale processing over large scale-- thus avoiding the perils of industrialization or corporatization.  In this way, the processes of sequestration must not be patented or restricted, but instead open source, freely and easily replicable. Finally, the process must ensure financial surpluses from the process are distributed widely among those doing the work and not liable to be concentrated in the hands of owners or managers.

²⁰For more on the development of the Earth Enterprise concept, see Ecobricks.org - About the Global Ecobrick Alliance Earth Enterprise: www.ecobricks.org/about

Petro-Capital Transition

Through the light of the earth’s example and guided by earthen principles we see our challenges anew and craft solutions from the ground up.  Only when one answer all of these questions about a process affirmatively, can we be confident that the Earth’s example is being followed.  If any of the questions cannot be answer affirmatively, then the process is not a greening, ecological contribution.   If it is not, and one’s intention is to be of greening contribution, then the process must be reevaluated accordingly-- oriented appropriately, abandoned completely or re-crafted from the ground up.

We see this clearly in our evaluation of our Industrial Plastic processing. Even if an enterprise of recycling plastic manifests the principle of short-term cycling, if it does not lead to the raising of conscious (to reduce further plastic consumption) nor is net-subtractive (it creates more Co2 and plastic than it subtracts) then it is not an authentic greening contribution.  Likewise an enterprises to remove plastic from the ocean to make sneakers, that fulfills only four of the six principles is neither an ecological contribution as it does not raise consciousness (thus inspiring no reduction in consumption or petrol-capital transition) and it is not indefinitely circular or storing (the plastic from the surf short cannot be recycling and ends up in biosphere again at the end of its life).

However, by applying Earthen principles to plastic management and delineating the principles of plastic sequestration, something extraordinary happens.  We ushers in an ecological opportunity unseen in the last century.  For the first time, a petro-capital artifact has the potential to be an authentic ecological contribution.  

With no new technology, investment, or capital required by definition, our plastic need no more to be destined an ecological toxin; rather it can be a way to secure carbon out of the biosphere.  Our plastic flow need no more decrease our collective ecological consciousness, rather it can accelerate its rise.  Our use and disposal of plastic need no more propel our troubled play with carbon blocks.  Rather it can empower our shift to authentic ecological contributions-- to petro-capital transition.

After all, it is important to remember that even in our ecological disruption and carbon addition humans are not unique.  Volcanoes have been erupting and meteors have been hitting.  Vast amounts of CO2 have been emitted, while ecosystem populations and diversity have crashed.  In many of these primordial cases, great desolation ensued for millions of years.  However, in all cases, the Earth learned valuable lessons and, propelled by the persistence of its principles, leaped into a new age of ecological innovation and abundance.  

Following in the Earth’s footsteps, I believe this is where we are headed.

The New World

Most of us, in this day and age, have experienced nothing but a petro-capital economy.  However, countless non-petro-capital economies have thrived over the course of civilization-- and are thriving now.  The Igorot people of the Northern Philippines, are an example.  As one of the few unconquered indigenous peoples in South East Asia, their chief cultural virtue was of ecological contribution.  In so far, as a man, woman or household enriched the local communities biome, they were respected and valued members of the community. Walking the thin paths between their gardens and homes is like walking through a forest of food and abundance.

 I believe that the value of true ecological contribution is becoming more and more apparent to us all.  And so too the value of petro-capital transition.  As our understanding and consciousness increases, I believe it is inevitable that ecological contribution will be come the definitive criteria of a respected, valued and admired household, company, or corporation.  Already a growing movement of not-for-profit businessxii are leading the way with mission driven mandates that seem them redistributing surpluses to society and the ecosystems.

Through earthen ethics we can reboot our current living, technology and enterprises to point them towards authentic ecological contribution.  As our processes and technologies move into the green zone, their contributions will grow in value not just ecologically, but in in terms of capital.

Plastic sequestration is just the first example of how this can happen.  Already, I hope you can begin to imagine what this will look like:  solid bricks of concentrated, compacted plastic that can be used to build green spaces and fence and foster forests, and then safely secured under the Earth for the long-term.  This sequestered plastic, as a solid mass with a set density, lends itself easily towards quantification and commodification. As such it can be valued in capital currency, as its ecological value is recognized.  Already, in countries around the world, plastic sequestration is growing in value and provide a bridge between the gray and green worlds.  

Because authentic plastic sequestration can only be such if it meets the criteria of earthen ethics, it would by definition be a non-industrial, non-petro-capital process.  Meanwhile, those of us still operating with net gray impacts, will be able to purchase the services and work of those of doing the hard work of ecological service.  It is crucial, however to see how this is different from previous ‘green consumerism’ which has simply sustained petro-cpatial, extractive and additive ‘business a usual’.  Given the fourth principle of biosphere-benefit over profit, investing in such processes means a priori investing in petro-capital transition.  

Around the world, we are united in the daily experience of handling plastic. As it passes through our hands we have a magnificent opportunity to make small yet consequential decisions about our participation in the petro-capital economy.  Each time we do so, our choice echoes on-wards through time.

Plastic sequestration however, is just the beginning.  

In humanity’s past, needs have been imposed on us by the world around us.  It is now time for us to consciously choose our constraints-- confident in the direction they will take us.  In so doing, with these principles as our parameters, we can devise new technologies and processes from the ground up.  The clearer the constraints, the more creativity and invention can blaze.  With the earth as our guide we can transform our problems into solutions.  The stars are the limit to the greening contributions that we can make!

Like the oysters we can ensure that our own households to drawn down, sequester and store.  Like the salmon we can orient our technologies and enterprises to be of grand biosphere benefit.  Like the Carboniferous age, we can preside over an epoch of unprecedented abundance, liveability and biodiversity on the planet-- and enable other great ages to follow.  Although, we do not have the luxury of a billion years of drifting in space to master our carbon-- we now have a galactic example to follow.  And, unlike our common home, alone in space, we have a billion of us to take action.  Multiplied day in and day out, replicated by each of us, a trillion greenings by a billion actors isn’t just a transition...  

Its a green new world.

xiiSee the work of the post growth institute and their development and promotion of the not-for-profit (NFP) enterprise.  See in particular How on Earth, Flourishing in a Not-for-Profit World by 2050, Jennifer Hinton

Donnie Maclurcan

About this Book

During the six-month process of writing this book, the author accounted for the gray and green ecological impacts of the enterprise (see figure 1).  Over the course of the writing, his household produced approximately 3.6 Kg of plastic while ecobricking 5.2 Kg and offsetting another 300 kg.  Through allocation of 2000 copies of this book on the GoBrik store²¹ for Brikcoin purchase, the book will offset another 6200Kg of AES plastic²².  This will lead to a net subtraction of 6205 Kg of plastic from the biosphere²³.

During the writing and publishing produced a total of approximately 1023 Kg of CO2 over the last six months were generated by his household (see figure 2).  Presiding over the growth of trees in his garden, bamboo cultivation the author’s household sequestered 675 Kg of CO2.   Through the equivalent CO2 of his ecobricking and plastic offseting 3.6 tons of CO2 were sequestered²⁴.  This led to a subtraction of 200 Kg of Co2 from the biosphere.

The book was written and published using 100% open source hardware and software developed by not-for-profit enterprises.  Written using Libre Office 7, on a Purism Librem 3 laptop, running Ubuntu while hosted on an Ubuntu server running NextCloud.  The book is for sale on the GoBrik store where it’s sale in Brikcoins directly corresponds to the sequestration of plastic out of the biosphere.

A full breakdown of this accounting can be found at:  www.russs.net/pdfs/earthen-ethic-ebook-impact-report.pdf

²¹The ebook is not yet listed on the GoBrik store as it is not yet ready.  Www.gobrik.com/shop

²²Learn more about plastic offsetting through Brikcoins at:  www.ecobricks.org/brikcoins

²³Learn more about the subtraction of plastic from the biosphere through sequestration at www.ecobricks.org/sequest

²⁴For more about plastic sequestration CO2 equivalency see https://www.ecobricks.org/aes/

More About the Author

This essay is deeply inspired by the author’s time living among the Igorot people of the Northern Philippines and their ancestral concept of Ayyew.  Russell helped found global ecobrick movement along Ayyew and regenerative principles.   As one of the principals of the Global Ecobrick Alliance, he has spearheaded the development of the Brikcoin manual block chain which enables the not-for profit authentication of ecobricked plastic as sequestered.  The global ecobrick movement counts tens of millions of ecobrickers around the world striving towards petro-capital transition.  

Learn more about Russell’s work at www.russs.net and www.ecobricks.org and about the Ayyew concept at www.russs.net/ayyew

Access

An Earthen Ethic is coming soon to the GoBrik Store!  A printable PDF and e-reader EPUB will be purchasable brikcoins and petro-capital at https://www.Gobrik.com/shop

Glossary

Ayyew:  The Igorot virtue of ever richer synking with ecological cycles.

Biome:  An ecosystem of ecosystems.  A principal ecosystem of a biosphere.  

Biosphere:  The all encompassing ecology of the earth.

Biodiversity:  The variety and plurality of biological specification.

Ecology:  A biological system.  A part of a biome.

Green:  A carbon subtractive ecological contribution to the harmony of ecological cycles.

Grey:  An carbon additive process that does not contribute to the harmony of ecological cycles.

Earth:  The third planetary entity orbiting the sun.

Earthen:  [Capital ‘E’] Of the planet Earth.

Earthen:  [lowercase ‘e’] Of the earth (i.e. soil or ground)

Earthen Ethics:  A framework for evaluating green and grey ecological impacts based on the example of the Earth’s cultivation of the biosphere.

Earth Enterprise:  An enterprise that strives first and foremost to enrich the biosphere by following the Earth’s example.

Ecological Contribution:  A process that fully embodies the principles of Earthen ethics.

Ecological Consciousness:  An awareness of one’s interconnection to the cycles of life near and far, old and new, local and global.

Fossil Fuels: The term used by humans to described the Earth’s ancient compacted carbon stores.

Petro-Capital Economy:  An economy whose flow and generation of capital is powered by petroleum energy.

Planentity:  A planet to which agency is attributed.

Plastic Sequestration:  Plastic sequestration is the process of concentrating and compacting plastic to create short term building blocks that secure and store plastic over the long-term, in a not-for-profit process that raises consciousness, supports biodiversity and is net-subtractive.

The Long Story of Plastic:  The four billion year view of plastic as carbon sequestered by the Earth, and decompacted by humans.

Plastic 1.0:  The paradigm of plastic as human made and managed.

Plastic 2.0:  The paradigm of plastic as a part of the Earth’s billion year process of cultivating the biosphere and as representation of our petro-capital economy.

Regenerative:  A greening process whose subtractive impact is over twice that of its additive impact.

Proceed