THREE: THE CARBON CYCLE METHODOLOGY.

i) A Geophysiological Analysis of the Damage Being Inflicted on the Earth.

If humans are to survive on Earth then it is imperative to develop a geophysiological analysis to provide an understanding of the following issues:-

* the Earth value of each species;

* which human activities are causing the most geophysiological destruction;

* who is causing the most geophysiological damage;

* the scale of the geophysiological devastation taking place around the Earth;

* the rate at which this destruction is taking place;

* the position of regions, countries and the Earth in regard to their geophysiological limitations;

* which ecological calamity poses the biggest, and most immediate, threat to the Earth's life-sustaining processes, e.g. acid rain, ozone depletion, global warming, etc.; and,

* finally, the proximity to the collapse of the Earth's life-support system.

Answering such questions might seem an insurmountable problem. Take for example the issue of which human activity causes the most geophysiological damage. There are two problems. Firstly, how is it possible to measure all of the geophysiological destruction caused by a particular type of human activity - such as the animal exploitation industry? It is difficult enough measuring the damage caused by one human action let alone measuring every single aspect of the ecological and geophysiological destruction caused by one type of human activity. The Planet's life-sustaining processes consist of dozens of natural cycles so trying to measure the damage to each one would be a complex, difficult and highly time-consuming endeavour. The Planet would long be bereft of life before such an analysis provided the answers needed to stop the destruction. The second problem is comparing the ecological destruction inflicted on the Earth by different human activities. Comparing the damage to the Planet's cycles caused by two different human activities would give a wide range of different answers and it would be difficult to know which one was significant.

ii) The Carbon Cycle Methodology as an Approximation to a Geophysiological Analysis.

The way to overcome these difficulties is to concentrate upon measuring the damage inflicted on one Planetary cycle. This would not only make it easier to measure the impact of a particular human activity it would also make it possible to compare the damage caused by different activities. There are a number of reasons why the best cycle to use would be the global Carbon cycle.

Firstly, although it is not the biggest, it is one of the most pervasive cycles on Earth;

Secondly, it is a critical cycle since, in essence, it is the life-cycle. Measuring the changes in this cycle would give a direct and immediate assessment of the sustainability of most life-forms and even life itself;

Thirdly, it inter-reacts with most of the Planet's other natural cycles so that on the one hand, if serious damage was being inflicted on one of these cycles this would be detected through its impact on the Carbon cycle . This would enable more attention to be given to that particular ecological problem. On the other hand, the contribution which the non-Carbon cycles make to various ecological phenomena could be converted into Carbon equivalents to get a more accurate understanding of what was happening to the Earth's geophysiology - for example, non-Carbon greenhouse gases can be converted into Carbon equivalents to give a more accurate understanding of the threat posed by the greenhouse effect.

Finally, and perhaps even more importantly, as has been seen above, the global Carbon cycle is the second most important contributor to global warming. A global Carbon cycle analysis could not merely enable comparisons to be made into the relative ecological destructiveness of different human activities, it could also indicate just how much they are responsible for exacerbating/moderating global warming.

Since it is not possible to measure every single aspect of the damage which a particular human activity inflicts upon the Earth's geophysiology, the use of a Carbon cycle methodology should give the best approximation. A Carbon cycle analysis not only measures the ecological damage caused by a particular human activity, it enables a direct comparison to be made between the damage caused by most human activities.

There is no getting away from the fact that the Green party is going to have to carry out this type of scientific work if it is to present itself as a credible organization which understands the Planet's geophysiology and knows how to protect the Earth. Either the Green party carries out this research before it gets into power or it will find itself being told what to do by civil servants who have developed their own green agenda and Earth-free environmental policies. It is imperative for the Green party to adopt a Carbon methodology.