Wake up and smell the oneness!

What is the strange disconnect that makes people think that the office of President is anything more than symbolic? "My team is better than yours!" The real power, behind the scenes, stays the same from administration to administration--the banks and financiers, oil companies, defense contractors, insurance companies, etc. At this point in our "union", democracy is a joke. This isn't to say we can't take saving the world into our own hands, in fact it is the only sane course that I see.

It seems to me that we should all be getting concerned with water security, food security and the building of non-toxic housing. For those tired of isolationism and alienation, community is the obvious solution. Sustainability, environmentally and economically, should always be at the forefront of our thinking processes and ways of living. Unsustainable systems and behaviors are obviously doomed to failure and collapse. Many great nations and empires have collapsed, usually brought down by inward corruption and egocentricity. Unsustainable farming practices alone have destroyed many proud and powerful societies.

Time to wake up and smell the oneness! We aren't apart from the Earth or each other, only a part of it!

If you'd like to change your way of living to be more at peace with the planet I suggest these systems and techniques:

http://humanurehandbook.com/

http://earthship.com/

http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/

http://ases.org/

There is also a sustainability degree available at AB-Tech in Asheville, this is so cool! http://www1.abtech.edu/academic-programs/engineering-and-applied-technology/sustainability-technologies/sustainability-tech

Humans need to get together as a species

We humans need to get together as a species and get some shit figured out. We need to put aside all traditions and outmoded belief systems and look at the sobering facts before we overpopulate and pollute ourselves to death. Are we ready to "grow up" and realize our oneness with the rest of the planet and quit being moved by the unconscious whims of biology and primate politics? Maybe it's a pipe dream but it would be nice to put some thought into taking our foot off of the gas and applying the brakes before our runaway "civilization" flies off the cliff. Relating to life with anything other than a sustainable way of being is, obviously, unsustainable--meaning it is doomed to failure and ultimate collapse. Are we ready to "get real" or should we just carry on in an ignorant, destructive way, heads buried in the sand of the nightmare of isolation?

 

Can we pull our fat out of the fire?

I say "yes!" It's just time to quit believing in the vested interests that seem to be implying that fossil fuels are forever or even a good choice. I read this excellent article from Rolling Stone ( http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719) talking about the level of climate change we're looking at if we burn the remaining fossil fuel reserves, not to mention how many mountains would be leveled, and it is quite sobering. We are "looking down the barrel" of extreme changes on this planet. The polar ice is melting at an alarming rate. If it all melts, as it did many millions of years ago, the ocean levels would be over 400 feet higher than they are now. Many islands and coastal areas and, yes, even some entire countries would simply become ocean floor, not to mention higher temps causing crop failures and more severe wildfires. There is a lot of coal left to burn but this isn't really a "good thing" because coal is the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, putting more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which will amplify the already staggering amount of global warming, and toxic substances such as mercury which poison the air, water and soil.

The only problem I find with most approaches to environmental destruction is that they try to legislate a better future but take our individual life style out of the equation. In the area where I live (Western North Carolina), every time you flick the lights on, you are burning coal that is coming from mountaintop removal in West Virginia, unless you are using renewable energy such as solar, wind or hydroelectric. These are all viable options. Solar panels can be bought at astonishingly low prices now, I've seen them for around 75 cents a watt on this website. When I first started buying solar panels 4 years ago, three dollars and change was a cheap price. What I am saying, and I am largely proving this by my own lifestyle, is that living a sustainable life is fully possible now and for much less than a conventional, more destructive way of living.

If we hope to see civilization as we know it survive, we need to become serious about LOCAL food production NOW. If the gas supply was interrupted for even a short amount of time, as I saw it here in the mountains in 2008, food supplies would run low quickly as we depend on constant shipment from remote sources to stock our groceries. Buy and encourage local food. Grow your own garden. Now is the time for urban permaculture. We human beings are fully capable of living a sustainable life NOW, we just have to see the need for it. The need is there. Let's don't wait until an interruption in the supply chain or a solar flare frying the electrical grid shows us, let's start making the transition to a more sane, less oil dependent way of living now.

The oil, coal, tar sands, natural gas and other fossil fuel companies aren't going to tell us the "hard truth" about what's going on and the high toll that their energy takes on the planet and personal health. They aren't going to tell us that this gluttonous, drunken orgy of energy squandering we've been taking part in is going to lead to a hangover that may kill us. It's time to take it upon ourselves to start living a life that isn't at war with our larger body, the Earth. Everything we do that harms it is visited directly back on ourselves because we are not apart from it, not one bit. One day soon we may awake to find that our bed is burning and our house is in flames, some in Colorado would say this is already happening. Let's take action to make our dreams come true before our reality becomes a nightmare.

We are the Earth

The Earth is our larger body. Modern people are out of touch with both bodies--the smaller and larger, and are self destructive. We pollute our bodies with bad food and bad chemicals, pharmaceutical drugs and the products of industry. The larger body is exploited, trees cut, mountaintops removed and poisoned with smog, pesticides and the byproducts of fossil and nuclear energy. We are at war with our self.

Tribal people knew of their direct connection with the Earth but we have forgotten it. Ironically, even though we identify with the smaller body, we treat it negligently just as we do the larger body. Even the thing we identify with and call "me" we don't treat with care. How strange.

There seems to be an awakening happening. While most still sleep soundly in the nightmare of separation, some are waking up to the fact that the way we have been relating to our bodies is insane and changing that self-destructive pattern. God bless us all and give us the vision and heart to walk away from a system that is destroying itself. Grace can happen NOW when the idea of isolation is seen through. Isolation just simply isn't real on any level. Our fate is that of the planet. It's time to realize that WE ARE THE EARTH.

Thelma and Louise

I've been reading a book called "The End of Fossil Energy and the Last Chance for Survival" by retired engineer John G. Howe and, in it, he is talking about the difficult situation we are in with fossil fuels, particularly oil. As we know, the American way of life is built around oil. We drive to a supermarket with our gas powered cars to buy products and food that, in many cases, have been shipped thousands of miles. The materials we use to build our houses and the goods we fill them with have also usually been shipped long distances and often the majority of these are made from plastics and other petroleum based materials. So, imagine all of this being gone. It is inevitable that it will happen in the not-too-distant future.

The things I've already mentioned aren't even the most troubling aspects of peak oil and post oil. Right now, the human population is around 7 billion people. The only things that have allowed us to reach these astonishing numbers is the defeat of many infectious diseases that used to keep the population in check and oil based agriculture. Without the power of oil, we wouldn't be able to grow nearly as much food as we do now. Also, some projections say that we may reach a population of 10 billion by 2040. Without oil, we won't be able to feed nearly this many people and there will be mass hunger and starvation as oil becomes scarcer and runs out UNLESS we can start purposely reducing our numbers now. Humans have forgotten that we are subject to the same rules that all other species are--a certain amount of resources and space can only feed a certain population.

Reading Mr. Howe's book, it occurred to me that our society is at a point like the end scene of Thelma and Louise. The car (a petroleum based lifestyle) is already racing towards the cliff (post oil) and Louise (our society, including the government and corporate interests) has the pedal to the metal and isn't considering letting up. The fact that oil is going to run out at all has been kept secret so folks will keep happily consuming and not interfere with oil company profits. You and I are in the passenger seat and see the cliff coming. What will you do? There is still time to act. I don't know about you but I'm in the process of jumping out!

How does one jump out? To start, quit relying on fossil fuels so much. Drive as little as possible and go solar, wind or hydro electric for your home power. Coal is an extremely dirty power source and mountains are being leveled to get to it. Nuclear power has horrible waste products and a checkered, at best, safety record (Fukishima, anyone?). Compost using the humanure system so we can start recycling our organic matter instead of flushing it and ruining it and fresh water in the process. Learn how to grow your own food or, at least, buy locally. Many cities now have transition movements which have also seen "the cliff" and are changing their wasteful ways. Being sustainable and self-sufficient is going to become a necessity in the coming years, if we start now, we may be ready by the time we need to be. Don't wait!

Occupy your life to make a lasting difference

I have been observing and participating in the "occupy" movement with hope and fascination. Will it amount to anything? If so, I think it's important to remember that it's not what we do in the short term--setting up camps in public places, etc--that is going to make changes but it's the decisions we make every day.

When we flick a light switch in our area (Western North Carolina), we either "vote" for coal power which means mountaintop removal, polluted air and slag ponds or we "vote" for clean air, keeping the mountains and no toxic waste by using renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro-electric, geothermal, etc). When we drive our cars instead of biking and walking, we vote for our dependence on foreign oil to continue and the pollution, wars, oppressive governments and occupations that go along with it. When we have our money in a mega-bank, we vote for more mergers and centralized control of money, when we put our money in a credit union we vote for the people being in control of their money and friendlier terms. When we buy produce and products shipped from half way around the world, we vote for air pollution (from all of the fuel it takes to ship these things) and unfair trade. When we buy locally, we support the economy and craftspeople in our area.

Almost every action we take and the choices we make form the kind of world and social landscape we live in. THIS is extremely empowering to realize. We can and do create a saner or more ruthless world by our daily decisions.

I urge everyone who reads this to realize that nature is our greatest treasure. If we and all other life on the planet are to survive, we must change our relationship to resources, energy and each other. The war against nature waged by ego-centric, modern, industrialized humans will stop if we realize that we are nature and to destroy it is to destroy ourselves.

Sustainability

The infinite is my god,
Nature is my chapel,
Sustainability is my worship.

There is no lasting success without sustainability.