John Harte. A planet on the verge of death

John Harte. A planet on the verge of death

"The earth is in a state of balance. It is balancing on a point of equilibrium. Now we can go one way or the other, but the fact is that we do not have much time. If we don't start making the right choices in the next few years, it will be too late. And then the whole system will collapse. Civilization would stop existing.”

These words were John Harte's main message at the international online conference "Global сrisis. This already affects everyone" held on July 24, 2021.

John Harte is an American physicist, ecologist, Professor of the Graduate School in the Energy and Resources Group and the Ecosys­tem Sci­ences Divi­sion of the Col­lege of Nat­ural Resources in California, Berkeley, and author of books. In his report "The Irreversible Loss of the Ecosystem," he gave the facts of the deplorable state of our planet. And the reason for that is us – humans. We as humanity have overstepped the boundaries of what is allowed and doomed ourselves to a path of inferior quality of life because we have destroyed much of the wilderness.


  • For example, in the United States, in all habitat categories: old-growth forests, coastal sands, dunes, freshwater and brackishwater wetlands, free-flowing rivers - humans have destroyed about 90% of what was there 500 years ago.
  • According to the latest figures, in the Amazon, about 30% of the rainforest has been destroyed. And the rate of deforestation is only increasing.
  • Madagascar has now lost more than 80% of its original forest, with many plants and animals disappearing along with it. 
  • Europe has destroyed most of its original forest.
  • The Middle East has destroyed the Lebanese cedars. 
  • In Africa, forests are being rapidly destroyed.

People should understand that the destruction of the forest leads to weathelation, drought, the death of plants and animals living in it. It is impossible to restore a forest that has been growing for 1000 years in three generations, which means that if it disappears, it is irrevocable. It turns out that humanity itself “hewing down a bough" on which it sits. According to John Harte: "About half of all the medicines we use in the world today are derived from wild plants and animals.”

"We accelerate the extinction of about 1000 or more times faster than it happens naturally. Thus, we intentionally, consciously and roughly cause extinction of a huge number of plants and animals at a rate significantly exceeding the so-called natural background of extinction, without the possibility of recovery."

Statistical data are disappointing. There is not a single place left on Earth that has not been affected by human activity. This is already a global problem for the entire world community, requiring the maximum unification of people and immediate action to solve it.

John Harte emphasized that we humans have very little time left. The fate of the planet and all life on it depends on our choices today. And if we do nothing right now, in a few years it may be too late - the world will simply disappear. The Earth will not be able to keep its balance and the whole ecosystem will collapse. And with it, our civilization will cease to exist.

The recent conference "Global Crisis. This already affects everyone" revealed the magnitude of the global problems and issues that mankind is facing today.  An important unifying aspect of the conference was the idea of building a Creative Society. Creative society is the format of relationships in which humanity will be able to unite and jointly find a way out of the catastrophic situation that covers the entire world. This is the fundamental vector of development and the foundation that will allow all mankind during global changes not just to survive, but also to start a new era of evolutionary development.


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