Earth provides. I hope you will find it natural to join with me and countless others both “in search of what is true” and in “learning to be visionary restorers of life”.
For Life, Health and Regeneration,
Don Weaver
Acknowledgments
The indispensable ingredient in the publishing of this book is a 115-pound miracle named Anita. For forty years she has supported my efforts in every conceivable way, not to mention keeping me alive.
The book’s editor (and I think all the editor’s friends and relations), the typesetters and the printer all pitched in to get the book out in creditable condition, under the pressure of time. Time is slipping away from all of us.
My friend, the artist, did the artwork on the cover and the portrayal of the tectonic system components on page 132. I don’t have to have artistic talent to see that he has added some “class” to the book.
The difficulty in writing about a multi-disciplinary subject—a synthesis of many subjects—is that the reader almost never has the background education and experience in all of the subjects that would enable him to make a reasoned evaluation of the synthesis. For this reason, it seemed advisable to include a review of previous studies in the various disciplines in the form of a few lines distilling the essence of their findings.
Of course you know I don’t like to brag; but when I asked Don Weaver to take on the monumental task, I committed a “sheer stroke of genius.” The reader will get a wealth of information from Don’s “Perspectives”—I did.
This book exists because a small group of people thought it was worth their best efforts. I think there are many millions of people across the land who will join this attempt to insure that human progress and human life shall continue into the future.
John D. Hamaker
Contents
page
v i i i
T H E S U R V I V A L O F C I V I L I Z A T I O N
Introduction
Since the late 1960’s, John D. Hamaker has published articles directed to the theme that the health of an individual, a society and a planetary ecology can thrive only as an integrated, interdependent whole.
He has applied a highly gifted and disciplined mind to seeing and understanding the facts and principles of nature operating on this Earth, and in recognition of these life principles, has been developing and communicating practical and comprehensive approaches to our many urgent, long-evolving problems. As most people are aware of to some degree, numerous problems, all interrelated, are reaching the crisis stage.
The Survival of Civilization presents the profound synthesis of thought and principle that has emerged from John Hamaker’s studies, and is found to be supported by advanced research proceeding from all the scientific disciplines he draws upon—from soil microbiology to nutritional science, glacial geology to palynology, pedology (soil science) to paleoclimatology, etc.
A very good sense of the real and potential significance of John Hamaker’s message for the world of the 1980’s is given through the words of Hazel Henderson, internationally respected author of Creating Alternative Futures (1978), The Politics of the Solar Age (1981), and co-founder of both Environmentalists For Full Employment and the Princeton Center for Alternative Futures. She has helped begin a wide distribution of Hamaker’s writings, and in a cover letter (4/21/80) to Gus Speth (Council on Environmental Quality), Douglas Costle (Environmental Protection Agency), Dennis Hayes (Solar Energy Research Institute), Ann Cheatham (Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future), Amory Lovins, Norman Myers, Marilyn Ferguson, Jacques Cousteau, the Club of Rome, New Age, and others, Ms. Henderson placed John Hamaker’s message in this perceptive context: Hamaker’s thesis, for which he presents much evidence here, is that another crucial contributor (to atmospheric CO build-up) is the progressive 2
soil demineralization that runs on a long cycle from glaciation to glaciation (glaciation being the natural remineralization process). If he is correct, this means we can expect a continuous rate of increase of CO build-up, and that 2
climatologists were in error in advising the Administration that we had 50
years to complete the solar/renewable resource transition, before weather and climate changes would interfere with crops, etc. . . . I have heard, for example, that the committees of the National Academy of Sciences have been worried about the general issue of destruction of topsoils, but that they have not chosen to share their concern very widely. Thus, this material is potentially a very big story.
However, I do not see it as one more apocalypse story, to add to those of genetic diversity loss in plant and animal species, adulterated food and water, nuclear proliferation and all the rest. It is obvious to me that if one uses a model of morphogenetic change to view all these simultaneous-sub-systems-going-critical, as well as the acceleration of all these processes, then the pattern is clear: a total system global transformation is already taking place—also pushing changes in social systems, e.g. the tables are turning all over the world, from the crack-up of the world monetary system, a new international economic order, and various other social upheavals now visible. The point is, is it good news or bad news? Order and chaos are two sides of the same coin—and imply an observer. If you are on the outside in one way or another, marginalized by the existing system: e.g. women, minorities, Third World country peoples (not their leaders), citizen and public interest movements, etc., you may see the new order emerging (birth is a painful process, as women know).
Thus, the hopeful side of this CO build-up story is that if Hamaker is right, 2
i.e. that we have not 50 years, but only 10 years to make the solar transition, and that we can remineralize the soil with our existing resources and technology (without waiting for nature’s glaciation method) then it means that not only is the transition to the renewable-resource based societies of the Solar Age economical, politically advantageous as a potential de-centralizer, good technologically, etc., etc., but that it is also absolutely necessary for our survival. Thus this new threat to our atmosphere—which we can deal with, might provide a very credible “external threat” which social scientists and philosophers have always maintained would be needed for the human species to act co-operatively. This threat is external, not in space (as the old idea of invasion from another planet) but in time (i.e. it is outside of human time, being part of a 100,000 year climatic cycle, to which we have contributed, to be sure, with fossil fuel combustion and ecosystem destruction). Thus, in principle, leaders from Jimmy Carter to all others in industrial countries of East and West (equally worried about CO build-up), could sound the alarm and start joint 2
emergency programs that would supersede in importance all the sub-games of competition and conflict over ideology, the idiotic discussions about the
“economy,” the banality of the electoral political process, etc. I am only saying that this is possible, as a scenario and that the world will only get more dangerous if we don’t shift our attention soon from the insane political discourse (amplified by mass media) over non-issues, to some real issues. This might be one—and what is there to lose?
John Hamaker gave a simple answer to that question, when he said in a letter to Vice President Mondale: “We have everything to gain by remineralizing the soil, and everything to lose by failing to do so.”
* * *
The Survival of Civilization is organized into 7 chapters; the first 6 representing a series of Hamaker’s papers written from January 1979 to May 1981, and the seventh, minus the newly added preface, written in 1972.A brief introduction and/or preface accompanies each paper, and each paper save the last is followed by an in-depth perspective that is intended to provide additional insight and overview on the preceding article. This is accomplished, in part, by calling upon some of the most relevant scientific contributions that have been made in many fields over the past century, i.e., bringing to practical focus key findings and information serving to verify or refute the main thesis of this book—which obviously demands verification or refutation.
For easy documentation and reference, we adopted the system of noting published sources by author’s name and year of publication, or name of periodical and date of issue, with a single alphabetical reference listing to be found in the back of the book. Pictures, tables, graphs, etc., plus quotes from various governmental and other sources are included where appropriate in illustrating a point or an important principle. Also, where fitting, are included reviews of recent news reports and events of obvious importance to our subject—especially in identifying what is now actually taking place as our biosphere changes.
The Survival of Civilization is offered for careful consideration to every political representative, farmer and gardener, forester and scientist from all disciplines—plus people in all businesses and services. It is not by any means intended to be a book of sensationalism or some pointless literary “harbinger of doom.” Any experienced ecologist, or other aware individual, is by now acutely aware that life and the balance of nature is very fragile, and that
“doom” for any life form may result from destruction or over-exploitation of its environment.
For humanity this principle applies to the socio-economic as well as the natural environment, as the last chapter indicates.
This book is intended to express only truth, to the best of our understanding and ability. It is released into our semi-chaotic world in the belief that it is essential to do so, that the great principles and wonderful re-creative potential discernible through its chapters may be grasped by everyone seriously concerned with removing the causes of malnutrition and disease, starvation, poverty and unemployment and the destruction of the natural world—which must inevitably include the human race.
* * *
As the final preparations for publishing this book were being made, I asked John Hamaker what might be told to readers about his background, as I assumed there would be some interest in it. “You don’t need to say anything,” he told me. “You and I don’t matter in this book—getting out the facts to people is all that matters.”In essence, I fully agree with him on this point. Nevertheless, some readers may benefit from even a very limited preliminary sense of the intelligence and life perspective of the man behind this book’s message. A separate book would be needed to do John Hamaker full biographical justice, with chapters on the generous heart and deeply penetrating mind which motivate him, on his very subtle yet warm, self-effacing sense of humor, and on his highly stubborn refusal to accept the unnecessary self-destruction of the human race.
Therefore, to provide a brief insight into his background, and conclude this introduction, it is fitting to excerpt part of a short autobiographical sketch written on request of Michigan Congressman Howard Wolpe’s office in early 1980:
I have observed the things of the world for almost 66 years. The luck of the genes equipped me to observe and learn. I had the highest mechanical aptitude test score in a class of 110 Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering students majoring in Industrial Engineering at Purdue University (class of 1939). In a Motor Maintenance Battalion of 650 men and officers in WWII, I had the highest army test score. So I became a “90-day wonder” and was discharged with a superior officer rating. In every engineering office where I have worked, the jobs requiring the most synthesis generally wound up on my drawing table. On the four occasions when I could not work because of chemical contamination, I have either worked on the problems that afflict humanity or I have spent time on inventions. I have found that the solutions to the problems of the economy and the environment can be found by the same rigid attention to facts and established principle which yield solutions to problems of machine design.
In my 66 years I have seen more history made than any generation has seen before. Now it appears that I will see one more thing—the end of civilization as we know it during this interglacial period. For 10 years I have known the soils of the world were running out of minerals and that glaciation was inevitable. For 10 years warnings and the solution have been ignored by people in government. Now hard evidence insures that by 1995 the temperate zone will become a subarctic zone and the world will have lost its food supply.
I don’t think I care to see the tragedy which is scheduled to unfold in this decade.
The following preface by the author continues this amazing “story.”
Donald A. Weaver
T H E S U R V I V A L O F C I V I L I Z A T I O N
Preface
On July 4, 1776, fifty-five representatives of the people of the thirteen colonies dedicated "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor" to the purposes stated in the Declaration of Independence. The problem in 1776 was political freedom; the problem today is far greater--the very survival of civilization. Yet it is doubtful if there is one legislator in the entire Congress of the caliber of the men who led the revolution. Congressmen, in their compulsion to do what they have to do to get re-elected, continue to serve the interests of the proprietors of an economic system which has ruined the land, impoverished the people and bankrupted the government. Meanwhile, the underlying causes of these problems are ignored as we move from crisis to crisis.
The attitudes of the people of the nation toward Congress cover a broad spectrum.
There are those who are angry for a variety of reasons. There are those who feel no hope of any improvement. There are even a few who out of ignorance of the facts still express confidence in the government. If these divergent attitudes can he quickly mobilized toward those neglected issues which directly affect the earth's capability to provide, and our subsequent ability to survive, there may still be time to prevent the impending starvation of almost all of the world's people. Therefore this book presents a basis in truth around which a consensus can be built to solve the problem of our very survival.
x v i
It is useless to state a problem without also stating the solution. There are three problems which must be solved if civilization is to survive. The three problems are shown on the book cover. As indicated by the curves, they are all increasing at an accelerating rate towards immediate crises.
The increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is man’s most urgent problem. In order to save civilization, we will have to take immediate action on a worldwide scale of a magnitude never before undertaken by mankind. The carbon dioxide curve must be reversed and started downward by about the middle of this decade. It is so urgent because crop losses due to the carbon dioxide-induced severity of weather conditions are creating a world that has virtually no food surplus for customers who can pay, let alone for those who are hungry and those who are now starving to death. The daily reports of harsh and enduring weather extremes around the world assure us that it won’t be just the Poles and the Russians who are short of food by 1985. The stress of general famine will produce chaos and anarchy before the decade is over. Under those conditions we cannot do the job that must be done. There is also a point of no return at which the natural process of glaciation cannot be stopped by human efforts.
Our second problem is the money crisis. We can’t function to accomplish the solution to the first problem with a dollar that is rapidly becoming worthless. The trouble is that the wealth of this nation (and that of most of the other nations) has become concentrated in investment funds, the income from which is put back into the funds to “make” more money.
The doubling rate for such funds is now somewhere in the 6- to 8- year range and the time is constantly getting shorter as interest rates go up. Financial crisis will occur in this decade.
We cannot avoid the strong measures and the economic reform necessary to establish a sound economy and a social order which makes peace instead of war.
The third problem has become critical because world population has outstripped world resources. At the present rate of increase, population will double in about 30 years. It will not happen–in fact, population will decrease drastically by 1990 due to famine.
Decreasing food supply, increasing population, and the inevitable result, are about as simple a set of facts as one can imagine. Voluntary birth controls efforts are failing due to lack of education, funding and personal responsibility. Can this rapidly change, or must we have the alternative of laws to limit offspring? If humanity cannot face up to these simple facts, then there is no chance that civilization is capable of effecting its survival.
x v i i
This collection of papers was not written to please anyone. It was written as a search for truths upon which a peaceful and successful world civilization can be based. The broad truth is that without radical and immediate reform (particularly in this nation), civilization will be wrecked by 1990 and extinct by 1995. I resent the fact that my two children and three grandchildren have no future. If there are enough people who feel the same way, then perhaps we can effect our survival and establish a far better future for civilization than it has yet known.
John D. Hamaker
T H E S U R V I V A L O F C I V I L I Z A T I O N
Chapter 1
Our 100 Percent Junk Food Supply
Is Destroying Us
1
Introduction
This chapter is a composite of two of Hamaker’s writings from 1979; most of it was published in the Lansing State Journal (1/21/79) as “Americans Must Accept Food For Thought.” The paper stands as a short and powerful summary of humanity’s crisis of social-ecological well-being and survival—as perceived by one individual—yet potentially obvious to all who will look and understand.
As always, Hamaker writes with an awareness that our problems can be resolved, if we will flexibly apply what is already known of how to work with and accentuate the natural operational principles of the Biosphere–the living Earth.
Because we have not fully recognized and applied these principles in key areas of our daily lives, Hamaker points out, we have brought ourselves to the point where we must now courageously face the totality of our problems.
Vapor from the sea; rain, snow, and ice on the summits; glaciers and rivers—these form a wheel that grinds the mountains thin and sharp, sculptures deeply the flanks, and furrows them into ridge and canyon, and crushes the rocks into soils on which the forests and the meadows and gardens and fruitful vine and tree and grain are growing.
—John Muir,
John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir There is a nutritional basis for modern physical, mental, and moral degeneration.
—Weston A. Price,
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration , 1945
P . 2
T H E S U R V I V A L O F C I V I L I Z A T I O N
NOTE:
NOTE:
Glaciation is an acceleration of the normal
A U.N. report estimates that by the year 2000,
31%
380
process of using evaporated water to carry
90% of the agricultural land and two-thirds of
1995
excessive heat energy from warm zones to cold
the forests will be destroyed in the tropics.
380 ppm
zones. The greenhouse effect of an increase in
atmospheric CO2 is to increase cloud cover over
Temperate zone forests and crops will be
370
polar latitudes. The clouds have a cooling effect
destroyed by disease, insects, drought, wind,
as well as providing the snow for glaciation.
and fire.
The energy is dissipated in arctic space.
Glaciation occurs whenever the soil minerals
By 1990 the 50 to 100 mph winds of 1980 will
360
left by the last glacial period are used up and
increase to 100 mph and up.
the plant life can no longer regulate the CO2 by
22%
growing faster in response to an increase in
For these and other reasons agriculture and
1990
CO2 in the air. Forests are the major factor in
industry will be so crippled that the effect
350
CO
354 ppm
2 control.
of man on the CO2 curve will be nullified
FOR SURVIVAL
and the rise in CO2 will take place as a
IN ATMOSPHERE
result of uncontrolled forest fires.
18%
2
1985
340
342 ppm
15.5%
1980
330
335 ppm
Ice Age begins.
Hawaiian weather
320
station has recorded
1700 1800 1900 2000
CO2 since 1958.
8.25%
PARTS PER MILLION CO
Average CO2 (290– ppm) during interglacial
314 ppm
310
period. CO2 fluctuates about 10 ppm above and
below average with volcanism of 100 year cycle
CIVILIZATION WILL BE DEAD BY 1990—
4.75%
of tectonic systems.
Unless we stop the increase of atmospheric CO2 by:
1. Remineralizing the surface of the earth.
300
2. Stopping the use of fossil fuels and the destruction of
1940, 304 ppm, 4.75%
forests.
increase over 290 ppm.
WE MUST DO THESE THINGS IN 6 TO 8 YEARS.
2901890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
Fig. 1.1 Parts per million CO2 in Atmosphere, original Hamaker CO2 curve projection 1
Our 100 Percent Junk Food Supply
Is Destroying Us
The American people have so many disease problems that the costs of medical care have gone beyond the financial means of most citizens. It is not coincidence that livestock are also suffering from a variety of diseases. Clearly, the food supply as it is grown is unable to supply the nutrients needed to maintain a state of good health in man or animal.
Yet we still observe how many university professors of agriculture and of nutrition miss no opportunity to defend the food supply, including the devitalizing methods of processing.
Such “experts” seem to be too busy propagandizing for the food industry to have time for science, so I will review some recent findings.
In the last year numerous studies have been reported by behavioral researchers relating the quantity and kinds of brain compounds to behavioral variations from normal. Whether or not those compounds are present in normal amounts depends on the proper function of numerous enzyme systems which are involved in the fabrication of all the body production, maintenance, and control systems. Whether or not there is an adequate supply of enzymes present depends on the food supply. In particular, it depends on an adequate soil mineral supply in the food, because it has been observed by microphysicists that the soil elements are required in the enzyme molecules. All of this has been established by direct laboratory methods.
P . 4
T H E S U R V I V A L O F C I V I L I Z A T I O N
So close is the relationship between human behavioral performance and the compounds in the brain that one science writer stated flatly, “You are what you eat.” The laboratory proof is done. Thus the many behavioral problems of epidemic proportions in this country are primarily caused by malnutrition. Thirty percent functional illiteracy, crime, alcoholism, dope addiction, cultism, the killing of babies in the womb—all of these marks of a degenerate society are inflicted on us because we have permitted the food supply to become 100 percent junk food.
In the summer of 1977 a corn crop was grown on soil which was mineralized with glacial gravel crusher screenings. The corn was tested along with corn from the same seed grown with conventional chemical fertilizers. The mineralized corn had 57 percent more phosphorous, 90 percent more potassium, 47 percent more calcium, and 60 percent more magnesium than the chemical-grown corn. The mineral-grown corn had close to 9 percent protein, which is very good for a hybrid corn. All of the nitrogen in the mineral-grown corn (whose content in the food is the indicator for protein) came from the atmosphere by way of biological processes and was in the amino acids of the corn protoplasm. None of it was raw chemical nitrate, the precursor of the ca