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GAIA LIBERATION FRONT
Statement of Purpose (A Modest Proposal)
The Gaia Liberation Front is a concept, not an organization. You become a
member of the GLF by joining us in carrying out our mission, which is the total
liberation of the Earth.
The first thing is to get our message out:
1. Our object is not merely the continuation of life on Earth--which is,
for all we know, the only life in the universe--but the preservation of the
planetary ecosystem (Gaia) with as much of its integrity and variety as can be
saved.1
2. The Humans have been usefully compared to a cancer2 or a virus.3 But it
seems to us that the must fruitful way of viewing the Humans is as an alien
species (which is why we use the definite article and the capital H). The
Humans evolved on the Earth, but have become alienated from it. They are
conscious of their alienation, drawing a distinction between the Human and the
natural, and proud of it.
Like the alien invading species of science fiction, the Humans possess a
superior technology (superior, in this case, to any of the defenses that Gaia
can throw up against them).
Every species tends to multiply, but while every other species stops
multiplying when it overshoots the carrying capacity of its ecosystem, the
Humans use their technology to keep raising the planet's carrying capacity for
their own species (and a few other species that they exploit),4 at ever higher
levels of consumption. They are even able to ward off infectious diseases,
which keep every other species from attaining overly high population densities.
3. The planet's carrying capacity for a few species can be raised only at
the expense of other species, and, eventually, only at the risk of a general
ecological collapse. Cumulatively, the evidence is overwhelming that we are
rapidly approaching that stage. For all we know, we may have already passed
the point of no return.
The Humans' technological propensities are probably genetic, because their
basic technologies--agriculture animal husbandry, metallurgy, writing and
mathematics, hierarchy and bureaucracy--have all appeared independently more
than once. The Humans come into full view, then, as a _hostile_ alien species,
_programmed_ to kill the planet.
4. Because of the uncertainties involved, we can ensure Gaia's survival only
through the extinction of the Humans as a species.
Q. But don't you believe in the interconnectedness and inherent worth of
everything in nature?
A. Yes, but the Humans have disconnected themselves from everything else in
nature, so that principle no longer applies to them. Anyway, there's no way to
preserve a species that's programmed to kill the planet. The only question is
whether that species can become extinct before it takes the planet with it.
Q. Wouldn't it be enough to reduce the Human population to some optimum
level?
A. No, because the first chance it got it would bounce right back. The
cancer analogy is useful here: what's the optimum number of cancer cells in a
body?
Q. But what if the Humans went back to a paleolithic way of life?
A. You're forgetting that the paleolithic experiment has already been
tried, and that about ten thousand years ago it failed. Their technology,
after all, is in their genes. The technologies that have appeared in the past
could be expected to appear again, and this time their reappearance would be
accelerated by any surviving knowledge of formerly existing technologies.
But the appearance of _specific_ technologies is less predictable. In
particular, the specific technology that now makes it possible for us
to--assuming we still have time--head off this crisis (more on this below)
might not be available for dealing with the next one.
Q. Shouldn't we make an exception for tribal peoples, who are living in
harmony with nature? (Another version: Shouldn't we make an exception for
non-Europeans, who were corrupted by Europeans?)
A. No, because they're all Humans. Remember that those basic technologies
were invented independently by Humans of different races, in the new world as
well as in the old. And remember that the Humans, Europeans included, were all
tribal once. Anyway, there are no Humans left on the planet who are still
totally ignorant of those technologies. Sure, some Humans picked up certain
technologies from other Humans, but that doesn't matter to the Earth.5 If
_any_ Humans are left, they'll start the whole thing over again. Our policy is
to take no chances.
That's it. You can be sure that the Humans won't like it. They'd much
rather listen to somebody telling them how wonderful they are:
What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty!
in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in
apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!
-_Hamlet_, II, ii
They're not only in denial about what they're doing to the planet, they firmly
believe that the death of the planet would be a small price to pay for a few
more years of life for their species.
You may even lose a few friends. But somebody has to tell it like it is.
Appendix
Here are some of the methods that have been suggested: (But first, this
disclaimer: We don't advocate anything illegal, because it's illegal to
advocate anything illegal and we don't want to get busted.)
1. Nuclear war.6 (Too much collateral damage. Definitely not
recommended.)
2. Sterilization. (Too slow: even if we managed to sterilize every Human
on the planet the species would still be around for another hundred years. And
they might figure out some way of reversing the procedure.)7
3. _Voluntary_ Sterilization.8 (Even slower, and therefore even riskier.
But anything is better than nothing, so this is worth working on while we're
spreading the word and waiting for something else.)
4. Suicide. (In theory, faster, but how do you get them to do it? so in
practice, probably even slower. Still, you never know. If they could do it in
Jonestown...) [We can, and we will. -Ed.]
5. Bioengineering. Fortunately, we now have the _specific_ technology for
doing the job right--and it's something that could be done by just one person
with the necessary expertise and access to the necessary equipment.
Genetically engineered viruses are already being custom-designed for use in
"pest" control. These viruses have the advantage of attacking only the target
species. To complicate the search for a cure or a vaccine, and as insurance
against the possibility that some Humans might be immune to a particular virus,
several different viruses could be released (with provision being made for the
release of a second round after the generals and the politicians had come out
of their shelters). Of course, natural viruses, such as the smallpox virus,
that attack only Humans could be used as well.9 (but don't, for goodness'
sake, go around saying that you're actually advocating any of this. We can get
our message across just as effectively by, for example, campaigning to make it
_legal_ to exterminate the Humans.)
Notes
1. In his essay "The Land Ethic" Aldo Leopold says: "A thing is right when
it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." (Stability here should be
understood as embracing such dynamic processes as succession and evolution.)
2. See, for example, Frank Forencich, "Homo Carcinomicus: A Look at
Planetary Oncology," _Wild Earth_, 2:4 (Winter 1992/93), pp. 72-74. But
Forencich fails to take his argument to its logical conclusion: what does a
surgeon do with a cancer?
3. Even a computer virus. Stephen Hawking once remarked (he had been
arguing that computer viruses fit the definition of living systems): "I think
it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created
so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image."
4. It seems to us to make more sense to say that the Humans have raised the
planet's carrying capacity for their own species than to say that the Human
population has been exceeding the planet's carrying capacity at least since the
invention of agriculture. Carrying capacity, by definition, can be exceeded
only briefly.
5. Any more than it mattered to the buffalo that the Indians who were
helping to massacre them had been "corrupted" by whites.
6. Proposed, for example, by Finnish writer Pentti Linkola-but as a way of
only reducing the Human population, in order to _save_ the species.
7. An even riskier variation on this method, suggested by Australian
environmental activist Helen Caldicott, would be to put contraceptives in the
water supply.
8. The leading voice for this method is the Voluntary Human Extinction
Movement (P.O.Box 86646, Portland OR 97286-0646).
9. Our experience with AIDS suggests that these viruses should be airborne.
AIDS, which once offered so much hope, has proved to be just too easy to avoid.
For a tip on how to produce an airborne version of AIDS, see Jean Marx,
"Concerns Raised about Mouse Models for AIDS," _Science_, vol. 247 (16 Feb.
1990), p. 809.
Winter Solstice 1994
GLF, P.O.Box 127, Station P, Toronto, Ont. M5S 2S7
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