Upcoming Presentations By Tom Wessels and Gus Speth
The Salisbury Conservation Commission is proud to bring you two outstanding presentations on Economic Sustainability via Zoom this fall. The first presenter is Tom Wessels. Three weeks later, Gus Speth will be our guest. At a time when many of our Vermont politicians and candidates seem to believe that we need to bring in more people, create more development, and increase consumption; environmental economists, ecologists, wildlife biologists (and David Attenborough), tell us that those actions are not sustainable and they are inconsistent with maintaining the healthy ecosystems that all living things (including us) require. Town Wessels and Gus Speth will help explain the issues and the solutions.
I suspect that many of you are familiar with Tom Wessel's book "Reading the Forested Landscape". It sets the standard for understanding the history of northeastern woodlands. Later Tom wrote "The Myth of Progress" that deals more directly with sustainability and needed change. Both books are impressive. We will forward more information on Gus Speth's presentation later. Both presentations are free and open to anyone. Please do forward this e-mail to anyone or any list or group that seems appropriate.
Pre-registration is required for both presentations.
Tom Wessels presentation is entitled: Self-organization: The Key to a Sustainable Economy on Wednesday, October 28th at 7 PM
Tom Wessels is a terrestrial ecologist and Professor Emeritus at Antioch University where he founded the Master's Degree program in Conservation Biology. Aside from writing books, Tom has conducted programs and workshops on ecology and sustainability throughout the United States for over three decades.
Tom says: At some point in time, our current economic system will fail us since it runs absolutely counter to basic scientific laws such as the Law of Limits to Growth, the Second Law of Thermodynamics and it relationship to entropy, and the Principle of Self-organization. I will focus on the principle of self-organization and how it works in the natural world to create incredibly diverse ecosystems that are energy efficient and resilient due to the robust network of mutually beneficial interrelationships that form between species. I will then apply this principle to our current economic system to show how it works in just the opposite fashion, and as such is terribly energy wasteful. As a result, it is the major contributor to global environmental degradation.
To pre-register for Tom Wessels' presentation visit:
https://forms.gle/btM9dNDhmDU7NkXD7
To pre-register for Gus Speth's presentation on Wednesday, November 18th at 7 PM visit: