An Amazing Time to be Alive

The last time I posted, I was really depressed and angry about the irreparable anthropogenic destruction of our amazingly beautiful, abundant planet . . . but that isn't the whole story. There is a lot of good stuff going on, too -- and it heartens me every time I turn on the computer and read about another individual or group that is out there working toward a better future. So today, I'm sharing a few of the 'positives.’ Some of these are repeats, but well-worth the revisit.

Peak Moment TV is one of my favorites:

An online television series featuring people creating resilient communities for a more sustainable, lower-energy future. Programs range from permaculture farms to electric bikes, ecovillages to car-sharing, emergency preparedness to careers for the coming times. As of May 2010, over 170 half-hour programs are available online.

Peak Moment highlights the people here and now who are changing the world. The change we need is not going to trickle down -- it is going to come from the people themselves -- living more sustainably, more authentically, more joyfully, and serving as the role models of a new paradigm. Peak Moment gives us a preview of what that life could be.

Permies.com is another favorite. Paul Wheaton, the self-described dictator of the empire, oversees a network of forums, videos, articles and podcasts. There is more information at Permies than I could absorb in a lifetime, and a wealth of people who have been there and done that and are willing to help anyone who asks. As a resource, it can be a bit overwhelming, but if you want to know about rocket stoves, Hugelkultur, or WOFATI's, this is the place to go!

Then there is the Transition Initiative:

Whether we like it or not, over the next decade or two, we'll be transitioning to a lower energy future - essential because of climate change and inevitable because of diminishing supplies of fossil fuels (particularly oil). There are a variety of possible outcomes depending on whether we stick our heads in the sand or whether we start working for a future that we want. Transition Initiatives, community by community, are actively and cooperatively creating happier, fairer and stronger communities, places that work for the people living in them and are far better suited to dealing with the shocks that'll accompany our economic and energy challenges and a climate in chaos. And here's how they're doing it...

The Transition Initiative brings people together to do what individuals alone cannot do -- transform entire neighborhoods, towns, and even cities. It addresses concerns such as zoning laws and codes, the commons, public transportation, and local government.

Some of the good stuff has been around for some time, now. An old-time favorite of mine is Michael Reynolds, the Garbage Warrior who builds beautiful, self-contained living spaces that provide their own energy, water, and food, and are built of cast-off materials. If Earthships are not your thing, Dan Phillips at Phoenix Commotion can show you how to build a house from rescued building materials and what others consider junk. Be sure to check out his Budweiser and Bone houses. Then there is Sunray Kelley who has been creating soaring, whimsical structures for a life-time. And Lloyd Kahn, former contributor to Whole Earth catalog, a seventy-something skate-boarder and homesteader in his own right, is a chronicler extraordinaire of the alternative shelter movement, or Roger Dean who envisions fantasy homes that would not look out of place in a sci fi setting. (There seems to be something about gray-headed men with long hair -- perhaps they are the real embodiment of mythological wizardry).


There is a growing network of organic farmers, farmer’s markets, CSA’s, co-ops, restaurants, and natural food stores. Check out Local Harvest for a place near you. Or go to Global Ecovillage Network for a list of ecovillages, co-housing projects, and sustainable start-ups the world over.

I won’t go into the long list of individual bloggers out there -- people who are documenting the changes in their own lives, both physical and spiritual -- there are just too many. The wealth of inspirational books, DVD’s, CD’s, artwork and photography, is astounding. This is an amazing time to be alive and today, I feel thankful and privileged to be a part of this incredible moment of history.

Forgive Me My Trespasses

I don't know if I am trespassing on forbidden lands by copying and pasting the following article in its entirety, but somehow, I don't think Derrick would mind me giving his words another nudge. I thought about copying just a few lines and providing a link to the longer article, but which lines to choose? Rarely have I read anything more true . . . and so, I am passing this along whole cloth:

From DERRICK JENSEN
The Occupied Wall Street Journal

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

That the real, physical world is the source of our own lives, and the lives of others. A weakened planet is less capable of supporting life, human or otherwise.

Thus the health of the real world is primary, more important than any social or economic system, because all social or economic systems are dependent upon a living planet.

It is self-evident that to value a social system that harms the planet’s capacity to support life over life itself is to be out of touch with physical reality.

That any way of life based on the use of nonrenewable resources is by definition not sustainable.

That any way of life based on the hyper-exploitation of renewable resources is by definition not sustainable: if, for example, fewer salmon return every year, eventually there will be none. This means that for a way of life to be sustainable, it must not harm native communities: native prairies, native forests, native fisheries, and so on.

That the real world is interdependent, such that harm done to rivers harms those humans and nonhumans whose lives depend on these rivers, harms forests and prairies and wetlands surrounding these rivers, harms the oceans into which these rivers flow. Harm done to mountains harms the rivers flowing through them. Harm done to oceans harms everyone directly or indirectly connected to them.

That you cannot argue with physics. If you burn carbon-based fuels, this carbon will go into the air, and have effects in the real world.

That creating and releasing poisons into the world will poison humans and nonhumans.

That no one, no matter how rich or powerful, should be allowed to create poisons for which there is no antidote.

That no one, no matter how rich or powerful, should be allowed to create messes that cannot be cleaned up.

That no one, no matter how rich or powerful, should be allowed to destroy places humans or nonhumans need to survive.

That no one, no matter how rich or powerful, should be allowed to drive human cultures or nonhuman species extinct.

That reality trumps all belief systems: what you believe is not nearly so important as what is real.

That on a finite planet you cannot have an economy based on or requiring growth. At least you cannot have one and expect to either have a planet or a future.

That the current way of life is not sustainable, and will collapse. The only real questions are what will be left of the world after that collapse, and how bad things will be for the humans and nonhumans who come after. We hold it as self-evident that we should do all that we can to make sure that as much of the real, physical world remains intact until the collapse of the current system, and that humans and nonhumans should be as prepared as possible for this collapse.

That the health of local economies are more important than the health of a global economy.

That a global economy should not be allowed to harm local economies or land bases.

That corporations are not living beings. They are certainly not human beings.

That corporations do not in any real sense exist. They are legal fictions. Limited liability corporations are institutions created explicitly to separate humans from the effects of their actions—making them, by definition, inhuman and inhumane. To the degree that we desire to live in a human and humane world—and, really, to the degree that we wish to survive—limited liability corporations need to be eliminated.

That the health of human and nonhuman communities is more important than the profits of corporations.

We hold it as self-evident, as the Declaration of Independence states, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness], it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it. . . .” Further, we hold it as self-evident that it would be more precise to say that it is not the Right of the People, nor even their responsibility, but instead something more like breathing—something that if we fail to do we die.

If we as a People fail to rid our communities of destructive institutions, those institutions will destroy our communities. And if we in our communities cannot provide meaningful and nondestructive ways for people to gain food, clothing, and shelter then we must recognize it’s not just specific destructive institutions but the entire economic system that is pushing the natural world past breaking points. Capitalism is killing the planet. Industrial civilization is killing the planet.

Once we’ve recognized the destructiveness of capitalism and industrial civilization—both of which are based on systematically converting a living planet into dead commodities—we’ve no choice, unless we wish to sign our own and our children’s death warrants, but to fight for all we’re worth and in every way we can to overturn it.

America the Ugly

Last night, we watched the documentary, "Gasland." It was filmed by a young man who lives in the woods of Pennsylvania and whose very way of life, the woods and streams he loves, may be destroyed if the gas and oil companies have their way. He set off on a journey across America, visiting others who have had to deal with the threats to health and home, the devastation of the environment, the ugliness and pollution of gas extraction. I knew that fracking was a terrible problem, but I didn't know how widespread that damage already is. It is a heart-breaking story -- and the images of America the beautiful being transformed into America the ugly and toxic are really hard to take.

It's not just fracking that is destroying the few pristine places we have left and leaving a polluted mess in their wake. It's mountain top removal in the Appalachian mountains.


And it's laying waste to the ancient boreal forests of Canada to squeeze oil out of the tar sands.


It's thousands of miles of vulnerable pipeline across the heartland of our country and risky oil drilling thousands of feet below the waters of our oceans. It's putting people and nations at risk with dangerously lethal nuclear power plants. We are making changes to this world that can never be undone and we are leaving an incredibly toxic, impoverished world for generations to come. We are like the drug addict who is so hooked that he will do anything -- lie, cheat, steal, murder his own children if he has to -- to support his habit. People are literally dying now to support our energy habit and yet we show no signs of remorse, no inclination to enter rehab.

I don't understand it. I really, really don't. We are turning our earth into an ugly, toxic wasteland. Dick Cheney, who engineered an exemption for gas and oil companies from the clean water and clean air acts, is a human being, and a reasonably intelligent one. Gas and oil executives have to live on this planet, too and I assume they all love their children and grandchildren. Can they not see what they are doing? Have they no concerns for the death and destruction that is their legacy?

I feel like we are living in a bad sci fi movie and there's no way out.

You've Got to Have a Dream

I like to play the What If? game every once in a while. What if I had a magic wand and could create any kind of future I wished, what would that future look like?

In my fantasy future, permaculture would be the norm -- from its concepts of living simply, working with instead of against nature, and recognizing the interconnections of the natural world -- to its ethics of sustainability, respect for all life, human and otherwise, and culture of sharing. Urban and suburban neighborhoods would be transformed into human scale villages and communities. Existing homes would be retrofitted with straw bale wraps, earth plastered walls and/or living roofs. Recycled bottles and bits of discarded materials would be artistically incorporated into the transformed living spaces, while the ingenuity of creative minds unleashed would find inventive uses for old ‘junk.' Parking lots and driveways would become urbancrete and the liberated land put to better purposes. Malls and big box stores would be dismantled for their building materials or converted to community gathering places. In wooded areas, tree houses connected with aerial walkways and zip lines would free up the forest floor for nature to reclaim its own, while in cleared areas, stone cottages or hobbit houses would gradually be surrounded by food forests and disappear into the landscape. Some people would live and travel in variations of gypsy caravans, facilitating trade while spreading news from one locale to another. Others would travel the coasts in sailing ships or ply the interior waterways in their houseboats. There would be a richness and diversity to life -- no two communities would be quite the same, and solutions, while local, would be respectful of the greater environment.

Okay, it’s just a fantasy -- but it seems to me that the first step in creating a better world is imagining what it would look like. In the words of Rodgers and Hammerstein, "You've got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?"

Today, I am thankful for the power of creative imagination and for dreams of a better world. And who knows, dreams do sometimes come true.

Life on a Small Boat

Oriah Mountain Dreamer had an interesting post yesterday, one that I think will be worth recalling in times to come. She talks about not being able to find solid ground under her feet with all that has happened to her in the past eighteen months. Then she came across a passage in a book by Pema Chodron about the futility of trying to do just that. Oriah concludes:

I’ve been thinking of moving through life as less about finding solid ground and more about learning to walk across the deck of a small boat on the open seas. Sometimes the waters are rough, sometimes they’re calm. Sometimes you keep your balance. Sometimes you fall overboard, and hopefully a fellow seafarer is there to throw you a line, as you will throw one to them when the time comes.

Hoping and trying to control the weather or the sea is a futile waste of energy that can wear us out. Learning to walk and rest, dance and dream on a rolling deck is a far more useful skill.

I really like that image -- and so, for today, I am thankful for Oriah, for Pema, and for the bits of wisdom shared across the miles of cyberspace.

Worth Repeating

This from Lloyd Kahn. With thanks for a bit of beauty in my day.

Cats Don't Die

I'm beginning to believe that cats, when left to end their lives naturally, do not die in the same way that other animals do. They rapture.

For the past few months, I have watched the health of my nineteen-year-old cat decline inexorably. He lost weight, his fur became increasingly ratty looking, and his teeth started falling out. Then he stopped eating. On Saturday, he was so weak and frail that he could barely walk. I held him in my lap and infused him with Reiki to ease the transition; I told him what a wonderful companion he had been and assured him that life would be even better on the other side. Then I put him in the shade of an azalea bush and gave him some time alone. When I came back to check on him, he was nowhere to be found. I searched the yard, checking all his favored spots. No cat. My husband searched the neighborhood even though it had been years since he had strayed from our vicinity. No cat. The neighbors, out walking their dogs, joined in the search. No cat. I can only conclude that he raptured -- and I know of two other cats that have done the same.

It's been several days now, but I keep checking the front door to see if he might have, after all, found his way home. I know it's irrational, but we are not rational beings for all that we believe ourselves to be. I've been surprised, too, at the depth of the emotional hole I've been thrown into. He was never a lap cat -- always too independent to want to be held -- but he was there, a serene, calm presence in the household -- a shadow who followed me around the yard, watching with curious, non-judgmental eyes, the activities of a human. And he is missed.

Today, I am thankful for nineteen years of cat.