The Earth's Commodification Has Consequence
The human commodification of nature often overlooks small, seeming inconsequential values, someday leading to the earth’s foreclosure and unavoidable eviction.
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Wildlife Crossings: Animals Survive with Bridges and Tunnels
Henry Miller’s Free Association into the Surreal
La Loba: Wild Woman, Luminous Wolf
Vandana Shiva: Maintaining Biodiversity and the Seeds of Freedom
African Garden Cities: Urbanization Without Planning for People
Arctic Melting Before Our Eyes - In his new film on the disappearance of Arctic glaciers, “Chasing Ice,” author, award-winning photographer and reformed climate-change denier James Balog used time-lapse photography to capture global warming in progress.
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A City Green Re-Imagination - We must demand an ecological retrofitting of our urban environments to live together more efficiently, giving credence to community, allowing space for the open wild.
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A Meditative Journey - This is John Cage’s 1948 magnum opus for prepared piano, considered by many his first masterpiece. Influenced by the Hindu aesthetic theory of rasa, or emotional character, it intones a journey toward tranquility.
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The Legend of the Rainbow Serpent - In Dick Roughsey's 1975 story, the Rainbow Serpent meanders snake-like creating hills and valleys like a river, sunlight reflecting the spectrum of colors. Unpredictable, he vies with the ever-burning Sun, replenishing stores of water, forming gullies and deep channels as he slithers across the land, collecting and distributing the rivers of life.
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Wildlife Crossings: Animals Survive with Bridges and TunnelsProviding crossing infrastructure at key points along transportation corridors is known to improve safety, reconnect habitats and restore wildlife movement. Throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North American, wildlife crossing structures have been implemented with demonstrable success.
Read More Henry Miller’s Free Association into the SurrealIn 1934, Henry Miller, then aged forty-two and living in Paris, published his first book. In 1961, finally published in his native land the book promptly became a best-seller and a cause célèbre. By now, the "controversies" dominate his legacy, including issues of censorship, obscenity, misogyny and anti-Semitism, clouding the import of Henry Miller's words. "Tropic of Cancer" broke literary ground, mixing novelistic forms with autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, and surrealist free association.
Read More La Loba: Wild Woman, Luminous WolfClarissa Pinkola Estés retells the Tarahumara story from the deserts and mountains of Northern Mexico, about a wolf woman, a collector of bones, who resurrects the wild spirit of life from the depths of the Underworld.
Read More Vandana Shiva: Maintaining Biodiversity and the Seeds of FreedomHistorically, farmers have stored, traded and shared choice seed from one season to the next. According to Dr. Vandana Shiva, this practice ended with the introduction of patented genetically engineered seeds. Saving seeds now exposes the farmer to costly fines and lawsuits for patent infringement and has resulted in many farmer suicides.
Read More African Garden Cities: Urbanization Without Planning for PeopleMaster planned, self contained New Cities have appeared all over Africa. Emulating models from the global north, private-sector boosters advance them without considering factors such as environment, economy, context and even poverty. Nairobi-based urban practitioner Jane Lumumba argues they might only make social and economic problems worse.
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Earth Sheltered Homes: Energy-Efficient, Living With the LandEarth Sheltered, energy-efficient houses are bright, airy, dry and quiet. Though popular now among advocates of passive solar and sustainable architecture, Earth Sheltering has been around for nearly as long as humans have constructed their homes.
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Robert Haw: Overcoming Climate Disaster with a Carbon TaxEarth's climate is changing rapidly posing grave concerns for sustaining life on the planet. We must first drop the denial of scientific evidence and mounting climate disasters, and adopt a Carbon Fee and Dividend, which will spur a transition to clean, renewable energy.
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End Corporate Personhood: LA Joins National Movement to Repeal Citizens UnitedWe, the People of the USA, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling and other related cases, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights. Join the National Day of Action on May 10th with two marches in Los Angeles.
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Haitian Vodou: Summoning the SpiritsLike several West African religions, Vodouisants believe in a supreme being called Bondyè, from bon "good" + dyè "God." Because Bondyè is unreachable, Vodouisants aim their prayers to lesser entities, the spirits known as Lwa (Loa), contacted and served through possession. In turn, the Lwa confer material blessings, physical well-being, protection, abundance.
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Edison’s Reef: A Not So Glowing Report — By Jerry CollamerWhile large fish fail to thrive at Southern California Edison's artificial reef off the coast of San Clemente, California, mitigation mandated by the California Coastal Commission to repair destroyed kelp beds at their San Onofre Nuclear Plant (called SONGS), a wider marine mammal crisis is ongoing. Could radiation released from SONGS be the culprit in both cases?
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The tree is crying and dying, the birds are suddenly homeless: will this be our fate, too, if we do not change our destructive behavior?
This poignant article drives home the fact that we have nowhere else to go. If we trash our habitat, then we are the next of the endangered species along with the rest of the Earth.
We are overwhelmed by the sheer scale of how big the environmental problems are. We feel powerless, but there is hope. Each one of us has the power and the ability within reach to do our share to not only save many species of the earth from extinction, but prevent our own extinction as well.
It is easy to do, just by doing a few simple things to change our lifestyle to become more sustainable. Recycling helps, as does reuse and reducing wastes. In fact adapting Zero Waste goals are a great start. Moreover, reducing consumption and especially over-consumption, before we even make purchases is critical. Reducing the use of toxic products is also very necessary, though not a total solution, it still contributes greatly toward the solution.
It is the simple act of having mindfulness with every decision that we make: from making everyday food choices to deciding where and how we will live. It is a fine-tuning of our lives that can cause a dramatic change for the better for all of us. We are empowered. We can change the world for the better, each and everyone of us. Just think: if each one of us were pennies in a ten billion dollar bank account, then we all add up. All of us, though we are individual pennies, are important. Like the pennies, all of our behaviors on this planet of nearly ten billion people are like those pennies that all add up to thousands, millions, and billions in that bank account that we call Planet Earth. Don’t overdraw upon your environmental account! Be responsible and sustainable. Your very life depends upon it. If we loose our Earth Home, then we have no other place to go. Don’t close out your Earth Bank Account. Learn how to do more to help protect your habitat and save the Human Species from extinction along with the rest of the planet from extinction as well!
Refuse to engage in over-consumption.
Reduce Reuse Recycle and UP-Cycle!
Thank you so much, Green Fairy, for your thoughtful comment. Words to live by…