the web of life
    interconnectedness
space ship Earth
    closed systems
    limited resources
evolution
    survival of the fittest [only for a particular set of circumstances]
    ecological niche
    disaster / catastrophe
    disease
the value of diversity
    survival of some after catastrophic change
recent world-wide extinction of most mega-fauna
    existence of land bridges between continents
    kill theory
        over hunting
    chill theory
        environmental changes due to changes in weather
    ill theory
        lowered species-barriers causing more crossing diseases
        new animals introducing diseases
death
    the food chain
decay
    recycling
Gaea
    earth goddess
Healing Gaia
    James Lovelock
        maverick
    the Gaia hypothesis
        life modifies its environment
        super-organism
            an entity with some of the properties of living organism
        the people plague
        the value of acting as if it were "true"
water cycle
oxygen cycle
nitrogen cycle
carbon / carbon dioxide cycle
sulfer cycle
symbiosis
chaos theory and complex systems [see Chaos Theory]
Ecological Imperialism
    animals, plants & diseases
The First Eden
    1) the making of the garden
    2) the gods enslaved
    3) the wastes of war
    4) strangers in the garden
Ishmael
    the law
        defines limits of competition
        natural law
    the knowledge of the gods
        of who shall live & who shall die
    mother culture
    takers:
        unlimited growth
        monolithic
        the world belongs to humans
        farmers plus food equals too many farmers
            constant expansion
        society
        socially experimental
            rapid rate of change
        those who "know" good & evil
        taker myths:
            humans as exempt from the law
            all food belongs to humans
            the one right way
            as bad as things are now, they're infinitely preferable to what came before
                hunter-gatherers on the "knife-edge" of survival
            humans should not be subject to the "will of the gods"
            humans are the pinnacle of evolutions
    leavers:
        don't exceed the bearing capacity of your territory
        diversity
        humans as animals
        humans subject to evolution
        humans belong to the world
        community
        socially conservative - slow rate of change
        those who live in the "hands of the gods"
    the world as a taker prison
        prison industry [consume the world]
 
Ecological Imperialism - Alfred W. Crosby
The First Eden - David Attenborough
Healing Gaia - James Lovelock
Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
Nature and Madness - Paul Sheppard
The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game - ibid