At the dawn of the 21st century, human civilization now stands on the brink of its own self-destruction and probable extinction, systematically failing to come to grips with the absolute scale and horror of the ongoing ecological degredation and destruction of the planet's biosphere and how this will affect the future well-being of the human enterprise.

The battle to save the planet requires first and foremost the immediate termination of a bloated annual $1 trillion dollar global military budget. Funds instead must be immediately re-directed towards building an environmentally sustainable global economy which will revolutionize every facet of human existence.

The United States of America, a flagrant violator of human rights and international law, assumes direct responsibility for consistently working against the very people, institutions and nations of the world who are at the forefront of implementing desperately needed global change.

Second, the current human population explosion on Earth- 6 billion and counting- must be brought under control immediately. World population pressure is the prime force behind every level of social and environmental destruction we are witnessing on our planet today; increased hydrocarbon emissions, water scarcity, deforestation, desertification, topsoil loss, ozone depletion, species loss, urban sprawl, ocean pollution, global warming, poverty, disease, pestilence, famine, war etc... To compound the problem, masses of desperate people are given no choice but to consume the very resource bases on which they depend, further eroding the means by which sustainable planetary livelihoods can function properly.

Third, the effort to create an international sustainable society is more like mobilizing and preparing for war against the worldviews, policies, interests and ideologies of corporations, industries and governments alike. Time itself is the scarcest resource there is in the struggle to save the planet. In addition to axing the global military budget and confronting the global population explosion, waking up to the dimensions of the world's environmental crises' and creating- and implementing- the necessary solutions are absolutely paramount.

Starting with the UN Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972, to the Rio Summit held in Brazil in 1992, to the upcoming Johannesburg Earth Summit in South Africa, all efforts must be made immediately to establish and institutionalize decentralized energy independence through free energy sources (solar, wind, fuel-cell, anti-gravity etc). We must enact sustainable, organic, vegetarian values and agricultural practices, develop alternative independent non-polluting transportation modes, enforce sustainable water and soil use practices, mandate finite resource recycling, proliferate global information exchange largely through the expansion of the Internet, and institutionalize, as well as legitimize, "green businesses" throughout the world who are creating sustainable alternatives and solutions to the highly exploitative, largely failing, unsustainable and environmentally damaging world economic system that we now have.

On these 3 pillars; global demilitarization, global population control and the building of an environmentally sustainable global economy, can the planet be saved. Mankind must begin to move away from just responding to global disasters, and instead move towards shaping and building an ecologically healthy and sustainable- as well as survivable- advanced world civilization for the 21st century. The environment, on which we all depend, will move to the center of all social, economic and political decision-making, where it belongs.

From this Earth Base, the human enterprise, with proper vision, management, courage, care, compassion, justice and intelligence can move victoriously through the most tumultuous crisis in its entire history and evolve into the thriving family of advanced civilizations throughout the cosmos...

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Steve Jones
P.O. Box 1141
Boulder, Colorado
80306
USA

E-Mail: earthbase4@yahoo.com

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SOURCES:

1. ***Book- Saving the Planet
by Lester Brown, Christopher Flavin, Sandra Postel
The World Watch Institute, 1776 Massachussetts Ave- NW, Washington, DC 20036 USA
Website: http://www.worldwatch.org

2. PlanetSave Network
P.O. Box 11282, Portland, Maine 04104 USA
Website: http://www.planetsave.com

3. UNESCO Courier
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
7, Place de Fontenoy, F-75352 Paris 07-SP, France, European Union
Website: http://www.unesco.org/courier

4. Earth Summit 2002
Website: http://www.geocities.com/lionofjudah2021/earth.html

5. Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology
Attn: Vananda Shiva
A-60, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, India 110016
Website: http://www.vshiva.net/Nine.htm

6. ***Book- If You Love This Planet
by Dr. Helen Caldicott
Website Search: http://www.amazon.com

7. State of the World Forum
The Presidio, P.O. Box 29434, San Francisco, California 94129 USA
Website: http://www.worldforum.org

8. Green Belt Movement
Attn: Wangari Maathai
P.O. Box 67545, Nairobi, Kenya, Africa
Website: http://www.wangarimaathai.com

9. Population Connection (formally Zero Population Growth)
1400 16th St- NW, Suite 320, Washington DC 20036 USA
Website: http://www.populationconnection.org

10. International Earth Day
Attn: Earth Trustees, 1933 Woodbine St, Ridgewood, New York 11385 USA
Website: http://www.earthsite.org

11. Global Exchange
2017 Mission St- #303, San Francisco, California 94110 USA
Website: http://www.globalexchange.org

12. The Bioneers Project
Collective Heritage Institute
901 W. San Mateo Rd- Suite L, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505 USA
Website: http://www.bioneers.org

13. Global EcoVillage Network
P.O. Box 1410, Bristol, United Kingdom BS99 3JP European Union
Website: http://www.gaia.org

14. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Signalistgatan 9, SE-169 70 Solna, Sweden
Website: http://www.sipri.org

15. Hague Appeal for Peace
c/o IWTC, 777 UN Plaza, New York, New York 10017 USA
Website: http://www.haguepeace.org

16. **Article- The Nuclear Threat (Re-Visited)
Website: http://www.geocities.com/jonah576/nuke.html

17. Radio for Peace International
P.O. Box 88-6150, Santa Ana, Costa Rica
In the USA: P.O. Box 1094, Eugene, Oregon 97440 USA
Website: http://www.rfpi.org

18. Earthscan Radio
United Nations Bureau, 777 UN Plaza, New York, New York 10017 USA
Website: http://www.warpeace.org

19. Earthscan Publications
120 Pentonville Rd, London, United Kingdom, N1 9JN, European Union
Website: http://www.earthscan.co.uk

20. National and International Environmental and Development Organizations
Website: http://www.venue.co.uk/global/national.htm

21. Strategic Environment Initiative/Mission to Planet Earth
Website: http://www.geocities.com/sapphire2029/sei.html

22. Jeremy Rifkin
Foundation on Economic Trends
1660 'L' St- #216
Washington, DC 20036 USA
Website: http://www.foet.org

23. Planet Earth Links
Website: http://www.yourplanetearth.org/links

24. The Earth Institute at Columbia University
405 Low Library, MC 4335
535 West 116th St, New York, New York 10027 USA
Website: http://www.earth.columbia.edu

25. ***Book- Limits to Growth: 30 year Update
by Donella and Dennis Meadows
Website: http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/products/137

26. International Forum on Globalization
1009 General Kennedy Ave- #2
San Francisco, California 94129 USA
Website: http://www.ifg.org