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Bringing Food Home
Food has been a life-changer for me. The first big shift was not a result of eating a particular food, but from reading a book about food, namely Diet For a Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappé. The second time when food sent me on a new course was gulping down two helpings of bland, pale scrambled eggs at my mother’s house, which mysteriously triggered a food addiction that lasted several years and launched me on a quest to free myself from addiction. That search became a journey to find my true self and God. (Read Bicycling Home, My Journey to Find God for the recounting of my quest and the happy ending.)
The topic of food seems to fall into three areas of exploration: the politics of food, food for the spirit and sensual food. Here is a brief look at each.
THE POLITICS OF FOOD
I read Diet For a Small Planet in 1975 when I was 26. The book shines light on all aspects of food, but what was a startling eye-opener was about how our food is produced. Lappé described and documented the enormous inefficiency, waste and ecological destruction of the meat-based Western diet, a diet that many other cultures now aspire to. The most striking of many facts is that it takes 16 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of beef. This diet is now untenable, unsustainable, and even bordering on criminal because of its waste of land, water and energy, destruction of natural habitat, and contribution to food scarcity, poverty and global warming. Climate change demands that we also look at where our food comes from: is it locally grown or has it been shipped thousands of miles from its source? I try to buy locally but I have to confess that one of my favorite of all foods is Atlantic Salmon—from Norway. I imagine nearby catfish and trout will be the future fish in my diet.
Lappé and Joseph Collins have just published a definitive work on world hunger entitled World Hunger: 10 Myths. For example, Myth #1 is “Too Little Food, Too Many People:” Myth #6, “The Free Market Can End Hunger.” These books, and many others, give us all we need to change to a more plant-based diet, and enjoy it too.
FOOD FOR THE SPIRIT
We feed our minds and spirits every bit as much as we feed our bodies. Are the thoughts, the information and images we take in all day long nourishing for us? Are they toxic or cause us indigestion? Apparently, neuroscience can now demonstrate the brain has a negative bias; it prefers to constellate around negative, fearful or problematic situations. I have to say that’s true for me, though I do my best to fill my mental plate with positive food. It’s almost impossible to watch network news without getting depressed. That’s why we need to get a balanced diet of information, and especially take in a generous helping of positive news, which is one reason I subscribe to The Optimist Daily and YES! magazine. I want to know what’s going on in the world but I want to give my energy to people who are upbeat and who are working on positive solutions rather than dwelling on bad news and what doesn’t work.
SENSUAL FOOD
Lent is now with us and people are encouraged to give up something for Lent to emulate the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting and sparring with the Devil. I find it far easier to give up a particular food, like chocolate, than to give up a particular habit. For the record, this Lent I am giving up inner whining and complaining about what doesn’t suit or please me, or what’s inconvenient. But as I said, it’s easier to give up chocolate; I gave up the same complaining bit last year for Lent.
Now let’s get on to the topic of tasty, wonderful, savory food we love. I’ve had fun asking friends what they would order for a last meal. My farrier would have Elk Wellington (tenderloin of elk wrapped in puff pastry). One friend would have “tacos, tacos, tacos!” stuffed with black beans and veggies. Another would fast to keep his mind clear. Makes sense, but I would strive for a clear mind and also unquestionably order that favorite Norwegian Salmon and maybe Tiramisu for dessert. Or how about Cornish Game Hens with traditional stuffing followed by apple pie?
Whatever your favorite dish, I offer our favorite cookie recipe for dessert:
The 129-Calorie Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookie.
Please enjoy, and just think, two cookies are only 258 calories!
The topic of food seems to fall into three areas of exploration: the politics of food, food for the spirit and sensual food. Here is a brief look at each.
THE POLITICS OF FOOD
I read Diet For a Small Planet in 1975 when I was 26. The book shines light on all aspects of food, but what was a startling eye-opener was about how our food is produced. Lappé described and documented the enormous inefficiency, waste and ecological destruction of the meat-based Western diet, a diet that many other cultures now aspire to. The most striking of many facts is that it takes 16 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of beef. This diet is now untenable, unsustainable, and even bordering on criminal because of its waste of land, water and energy, destruction of natural habitat, and contribution to food scarcity, poverty and global warming. Climate change demands that we also look at where our food comes from: is it locally grown or has it been shipped thousands of miles from its source? I try to buy locally but I have to confess that one of my favorite of all foods is Atlantic Salmon—from Norway. I imagine nearby catfish and trout will be the future fish in my diet.
Lappé and Joseph Collins have just published a definitive work on world hunger entitled World Hunger: 10 Myths. For example, Myth #1 is “Too Little Food, Too Many People:” Myth #6, “The Free Market Can End Hunger.” These books, and many others, give us all we need to change to a more plant-based diet, and enjoy it too.
FOOD FOR THE SPIRIT
We feed our minds and spirits every bit as much as we feed our bodies. Are the thoughts, the information and images we take in all day long nourishing for us? Are they toxic or cause us indigestion? Apparently, neuroscience can now demonstrate the brain has a negative bias; it prefers to constellate around negative, fearful or problematic situations. I have to say that’s true for me, though I do my best to fill my mental plate with positive food. It’s almost impossible to watch network news without getting depressed. That’s why we need to get a balanced diet of information, and especially take in a generous helping of positive news, which is one reason I subscribe to The Optimist Daily and YES! magazine. I want to know what’s going on in the world but I want to give my energy to people who are upbeat and who are working on positive solutions rather than dwelling on bad news and what doesn’t work.
SENSUAL FOOD
Lent is now with us and people are encouraged to give up something for Lent to emulate the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting and sparring with the Devil. I find it far easier to give up a particular food, like chocolate, than to give up a particular habit. For the record, this Lent I am giving up inner whining and complaining about what doesn’t suit or please me, or what’s inconvenient. But as I said, it’s easier to give up chocolate; I gave up the same complaining bit last year for Lent.
Now let’s get on to the topic of tasty, wonderful, savory food we love. I’ve had fun asking friends what they would order for a last meal. My farrier would have Elk Wellington (tenderloin of elk wrapped in puff pastry). One friend would have “tacos, tacos, tacos!” stuffed with black beans and veggies. Another would fast to keep his mind clear. Makes sense, but I would strive for a clear mind and also unquestionably order that favorite Norwegian Salmon and maybe Tiramisu for dessert. Or how about Cornish Game Hens with traditional stuffing followed by apple pie?
Whatever your favorite dish, I offer our favorite cookie recipe for dessert:
The 129-Calorie Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookie.
Please enjoy, and just think, two cookies are only 258 calories!
Inner Fireworks: Changing How We See
We've all had flashes of inspiration, bright ideas, moments of clarity, realizations that the old way of thinking or seeing something isn't "it" anymore. Sometimes this new insight comes from within; sometimes it comes from hearing or reading someone else’s perspective. I want to focus on two big topics: our economy and violence. The two seem to be separate subjects, but turn out to be very interrelated.
A growth or no-growth economy?
We’ve all been told that our economy is healthy when it grows, ideally in leaps and bounds. But lately we’ve also been hearing people advocate a “no-growth” economy as we realize that we are outstripping our planet’s capacity to sustain life. So which is it going to be? A growth or a no-growth economy?
One of my favorite visionary activists and author is Frances Moore Lappe´ who presents another way of describing our situation that embraces both ideas. She points out in this excellent interview with Conversation Earth, that the idea of growth is usually seen as positive—we want our gardens to grow, our kids to grow, our wisdom to grow. So when folks talk about “no growth,” people can get confused and worried. What’s wrong with growth? Instead of a “growth economy,” Lappe´ would like us to call our present system an “Economy of Waste and Destruction.” She argues that we can have a vibrant economy without the destructive elements like pollution, greenhouse gasses, etc. We have what she terms a “one-rule economy;” that is, the highest return for existing wealth. It leaves a vast majority of people not making any gains in enhancing their lives, or barely getting by. She says, “This brutal form of capitalism creates suffering and deprivation.” The system has to change. We have to change.
Is Consumerism the problem?
We often hear that rampant consumerism is the problem, and indeed it’s essential that we curb our appetite for stuff and to be mindful of the source of our purchases. But we must consider that many people who feel ignored and marginalized and generally unfulfilled in their lives often turn to buying stuff to feel a sense of dignity, to be part of the culture, to not be left behind. People need to express themselves, to feel a sense of connection and acceptance, to feel more security and powerful in a culture that has deprived people of meaning, power and connection. Given such unfavorable conditions who can blame people for wanting and buying more toys and more stuff? Consumerism is a symptom and we’d best address the roots of the “dis-ease” if we are to save our species and save our planet. Lappe´ advocates a system of dispersed power, transparency and mutual accountability. She urges us to resist “the blame game” and acknowledge we have all contributed to the dire state of affairs we find ourselves in. Lappe´ says people have three essential needs: power, meaning and connection. Without meeting these needs we will continue to see more destruction of the planet and more miserable human existence. It will also lead to more violence. Read more of how Lappe´ speaks of what brings out the worst of us, and what brings out the best. "Growing up as a Species, Accepting the Worst, Realizing the Best."
We also must recognize and accept the biophysical limits of our Earth as we consider what we buy. We in wealthier countries can follow Eleanor Roosevelt’s motto, “Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Do without,” so that those who have so little can at least have their basic needs met.
How does violence relate to the economy? Injustice begets violence
Our present political and economic systems sow the seeds of violence. It’s easy to see the violence of a gun shooting, a bomb exploding into a crowd, war, rape. We are most horrified, repulsed, shocked and saddened to witness such violence perpetrated by a person or group of people against other people. But we typically don’t think of the harm done by cutting services for the poor or health care for millions, or removing benefits of food and shelter for the needy, or dismantling environmental protections as violence, but many consider these to be acts of institutional violence.
It seems inevitable that the more inequality and injustice there is in the world, the more we destroy and degrade our life support systems the more we will see increasing violence. People who are deprived, depressed and angry will resort to violence if there is no other outlet for their frustration. In his article,"Violence Begets Violence," Rabbi Michael Lerner writes “It is predictable that those who are using violence worldwide to achieve their policy goals and to protect American corporate interests, will face more violence from random individuals incensed by the hypocrisy that they hear from elected officials and media personnel pretending that America is an exception to, rather than a perpetrator of, the violence that is poisoning our world.” As Lerner says, “We also need compassion for the deeply misguided among us who, in moral outrage at the violence of this system, resort to violence.”
Why are more and more people turning to violence? We should condemn all acts of violence—personal and institutional—and do what we can to prevent them. We also urgently need to look more deeply at the roots of violence, at the roots of any dysfunctional and harmful behavior really: alcohol and drug addiction, obesity, suicide, depression and despair, to name a few.
Terrorism grows when there is no other option, and as long as the world economy has at its center the god of money and not the person. This is fundamental terrorism, against all humanity. —Pope Francis
Related Articles and Resources
The Small Planet Institute, Frances Moore Lappe´
Network of Spiritual Progressives, Rabbi Michael Lerner
If you're seeking more understanding of the roots of terrorism and violence, there are several excellent articles listed under Favorite Articles to Inspire Change — "Terrorism" on this website. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
A growth or no-growth economy?
We’ve all been told that our economy is healthy when it grows, ideally in leaps and bounds. But lately we’ve also been hearing people advocate a “no-growth” economy as we realize that we are outstripping our planet’s capacity to sustain life. So which is it going to be? A growth or a no-growth economy?
One of my favorite visionary activists and author is Frances Moore Lappe´ who presents another way of describing our situation that embraces both ideas. She points out in this excellent interview with Conversation Earth, that the idea of growth is usually seen as positive—we want our gardens to grow, our kids to grow, our wisdom to grow. So when folks talk about “no growth,” people can get confused and worried. What’s wrong with growth? Instead of a “growth economy,” Lappe´ would like us to call our present system an “Economy of Waste and Destruction.” She argues that we can have a vibrant economy without the destructive elements like pollution, greenhouse gasses, etc. We have what she terms a “one-rule economy;” that is, the highest return for existing wealth. It leaves a vast majority of people not making any gains in enhancing their lives, or barely getting by. She says, “This brutal form of capitalism creates suffering and deprivation.” The system has to change. We have to change.
Is Consumerism the problem?
We often hear that rampant consumerism is the problem, and indeed it’s essential that we curb our appetite for stuff and to be mindful of the source of our purchases. But we must consider that many people who feel ignored and marginalized and generally unfulfilled in their lives often turn to buying stuff to feel a sense of dignity, to be part of the culture, to not be left behind. People need to express themselves, to feel a sense of connection and acceptance, to feel more security and powerful in a culture that has deprived people of meaning, power and connection. Given such unfavorable conditions who can blame people for wanting and buying more toys and more stuff? Consumerism is a symptom and we’d best address the roots of the “dis-ease” if we are to save our species and save our planet. Lappe´ advocates a system of dispersed power, transparency and mutual accountability. She urges us to resist “the blame game” and acknowledge we have all contributed to the dire state of affairs we find ourselves in. Lappe´ says people have three essential needs: power, meaning and connection. Without meeting these needs we will continue to see more destruction of the planet and more miserable human existence. It will also lead to more violence. Read more of how Lappe´ speaks of what brings out the worst of us, and what brings out the best. "Growing up as a Species, Accepting the Worst, Realizing the Best."
We also must recognize and accept the biophysical limits of our Earth as we consider what we buy. We in wealthier countries can follow Eleanor Roosevelt’s motto, “Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Do without,” so that those who have so little can at least have their basic needs met.
How does violence relate to the economy? Injustice begets violence
Our present political and economic systems sow the seeds of violence. It’s easy to see the violence of a gun shooting, a bomb exploding into a crowd, war, rape. We are most horrified, repulsed, shocked and saddened to witness such violence perpetrated by a person or group of people against other people. But we typically don’t think of the harm done by cutting services for the poor or health care for millions, or removing benefits of food and shelter for the needy, or dismantling environmental protections as violence, but many consider these to be acts of institutional violence.
It seems inevitable that the more inequality and injustice there is in the world, the more we destroy and degrade our life support systems the more we will see increasing violence. People who are deprived, depressed and angry will resort to violence if there is no other outlet for their frustration. In his article,"Violence Begets Violence," Rabbi Michael Lerner writes “It is predictable that those who are using violence worldwide to achieve their policy goals and to protect American corporate interests, will face more violence from random individuals incensed by the hypocrisy that they hear from elected officials and media personnel pretending that America is an exception to, rather than a perpetrator of, the violence that is poisoning our world.” As Lerner says, “We also need compassion for the deeply misguided among us who, in moral outrage at the violence of this system, resort to violence.”
Why are more and more people turning to violence? We should condemn all acts of violence—personal and institutional—and do what we can to prevent them. We also urgently need to look more deeply at the roots of violence, at the roots of any dysfunctional and harmful behavior really: alcohol and drug addiction, obesity, suicide, depression and despair, to name a few.
Terrorism grows when there is no other option, and as long as the world economy has at its center the god of money and not the person. This is fundamental terrorism, against all humanity. —Pope Francis
Related Articles and Resources
The Small Planet Institute, Frances Moore Lappe´
Network of Spiritual Progressives, Rabbi Michael Lerner
If you're seeking more understanding of the roots of terrorism and violence, there are several excellent articles listed under Favorite Articles to Inspire Change — "Terrorism" on this website. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
Drawdown: Game Over or Game On?
What is Drawdown? “Drawdown is that point in time when the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere begins to decline on a year-to-year basis.” This is the point, the purpose, and the plan of Project Drawdown—the book, the website and the 100 solutions presented to us to reverse global warming by cutting CO2 emissions. The book, edited by Paul Hawken in collaboration with 70 professionals, researchers and scientists from 22 countries, describes in great but accessible detail 100 solutions to effectively address climate change. These are regenerative and substantive projects and ideas already underway
Referring to this graph of CO2 emissions, Hawken says, “No human has ever existed on Earth (primates included) when CO2 has been greater than 300 ppm. We are now at 402 ppm. We need to drawdown our CO2 emissions if we are to continue as a productive, creative civilization.”
Hawken considers language such as “mitigate,” “slow down” or “stabilize” climate change to be counterproductive because, as he says, “If you’re going over a cliff and you slow down, you’ll go over the cliff more slowly. If you’re going down the wrong road and you slow down, it’s still the wrong road.” He says that, “It’s really important to name the goal. If you don’t know the goal you’re not going to hit it.”
It is difficult to watch the accelerating breakdown of our environmental systems or witness the breakdown of civility into camps, ideologies, and wars. What stands before us, however, is not the choosing of sides but the gift of seeing who we are as stewards of the planet. We will either come together to address global warming or we will likely disappear as a civilization. —Paul Hawken
Do you believe in climate change? This is a complicated question because, as Hawken points out, science is not a belief system. But suppose you disagree with or dispute the science that documents our CO2 levels? It doesn’t really matter because I’m sure we can all agree that we want clean air, clean water, healthy food, a healthy biosphere, basic needs met for all. We can cooperate to solve problems such as conserving water to mitigate drought or reducing air pollution or reducing food waste whether or not we call it global warming or climate change.
Climate change refers to the many changes that will occur with increases in temperature and greenhouse gases. That is why the UN climate agency is called the International Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, and not the IPGW. It studies the comprehensive impacts of climate change on all living systems. What we measure and model in Drawdown is how to begin the reduction of greenhouse gases in order to reverse global warming. —Paul Hawken
Global warming and climate change are happening for us, not to us. . . Game over or game on? This is the challenge Hawken puts to us and how we can rethink our situation.
If we consider that global warming is happening for us instead of to us—that is, an atmospheric transformation that inspires us to change and reimagine everything we make and do, we begin to live in a different world. We take 100% responsibility and stop blaming others. We see global warming not as an inevitability but as an invitation to build, innovate, and effect change, a pathway that awakens creativity, compassion, and genius. This is not a liberal agenda, nor is it a conservative one. This is the human agenda.
If what we tell ourselves is that we’re screwed, it destroys our imagination, our creativity and innovation for solutions. We’re screwed if we believe there’s nothing we can do. —Paul Hawken
More excerpts from the book and talk by Paul Hawken
To be effective, we require and deserve a conversation that includes possibility and opportunity not repetitive emphasis on our undoing.
The profit that can be achieved by instituting regenerative solutions is greater than the monetary gains generated by causing the problem or conducting business-as-usual.
We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future rather than stealing it.
Movements are dreams with feet and hands, hearts and voices.
Resources
Drawdown.org
A video presentation of Project Drawdown by Paul Hawken
Pie chart showing how different solutions contribute to reducing CO2 emissions
Thanks to Paul for providing the graph and pie chart.
Referring to this graph of CO2 emissions, Hawken says, “No human has ever existed on Earth (primates included) when CO2 has been greater than 300 ppm. We are now at 402 ppm. We need to drawdown our CO2 emissions if we are to continue as a productive, creative civilization.”
Hawken considers language such as “mitigate,” “slow down” or “stabilize” climate change to be counterproductive because, as he says, “If you’re going over a cliff and you slow down, you’ll go over the cliff more slowly. If you’re going down the wrong road and you slow down, it’s still the wrong road.” He says that, “It’s really important to name the goal. If you don’t know the goal you’re not going to hit it.”
It is difficult to watch the accelerating breakdown of our environmental systems or witness the breakdown of civility into camps, ideologies, and wars. What stands before us, however, is not the choosing of sides but the gift of seeing who we are as stewards of the planet. We will either come together to address global warming or we will likely disappear as a civilization. —Paul Hawken
Do you believe in climate change? This is a complicated question because, as Hawken points out, science is not a belief system. But suppose you disagree with or dispute the science that documents our CO2 levels? It doesn’t really matter because I’m sure we can all agree that we want clean air, clean water, healthy food, a healthy biosphere, basic needs met for all. We can cooperate to solve problems such as conserving water to mitigate drought or reducing air pollution or reducing food waste whether or not we call it global warming or climate change.
Climate change refers to the many changes that will occur with increases in temperature and greenhouse gases. That is why the UN climate agency is called the International Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, and not the IPGW. It studies the comprehensive impacts of climate change on all living systems. What we measure and model in Drawdown is how to begin the reduction of greenhouse gases in order to reverse global warming. —Paul Hawken
Global warming and climate change are happening for us, not to us. . . Game over or game on? This is the challenge Hawken puts to us and how we can rethink our situation.
If we consider that global warming is happening for us instead of to us—that is, an atmospheric transformation that inspires us to change and reimagine everything we make and do, we begin to live in a different world. We take 100% responsibility and stop blaming others. We see global warming not as an inevitability but as an invitation to build, innovate, and effect change, a pathway that awakens creativity, compassion, and genius. This is not a liberal agenda, nor is it a conservative one. This is the human agenda.
If what we tell ourselves is that we’re screwed, it destroys our imagination, our creativity and innovation for solutions. We’re screwed if we believe there’s nothing we can do. —Paul Hawken
More excerpts from the book and talk by Paul Hawken
To be effective, we require and deserve a conversation that includes possibility and opportunity not repetitive emphasis on our undoing.
The profit that can be achieved by instituting regenerative solutions is greater than the monetary gains generated by causing the problem or conducting business-as-usual.
We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future rather than stealing it.
Movements are dreams with feet and hands, hearts and voices.
Resources
Drawdown.org
A video presentation of Project Drawdown by Paul Hawken
Pie chart showing how different solutions contribute to reducing CO2 emissions
Thanks to Paul for providing the graph and pie chart.
What inspires us to love the Earth? What moves us to see and feel Earth as our source, or as some say, our Mother Earth? I don’t know the answer to that—it’s such a personal question—but I can see things that keep us from that kind of close, loving relationship which we need to have if the planet is to be healthy, and, consequently, if we are to be healthy.
What keeps us from loving Earth?
Aversion to looking deeply, facing reality and feeling pain: When asked what people could do to heal the Earth, Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh replied, “Hear the cry of the Earth.” That is painfully difficult because we are not encouraged or well-trained to look within. We don’t want to look at pain, our own or others' pain, or the pain of the Earth. We avoid grieving, or don’t know how to grieve without staying stuck in depression or despair. Yet if we looked at and felt the pain of the world, allowing our hearts to “break open,” as Joanna Macy says, we would release an enormous amount of energy that could be transformed into action on Earth’s behalf.
Our aversion is fueled by distractions: For many people computers, tablets and cell phones have an appropriate, useful and beneficial place in our lives. For many, however, our devices, and our focus on them, keeps us unaware and ignorant of all that isn’t healthy and just in our societies and environment. Thus we don’t get to the work that needs to be done to heal our world. If we are not practiced or helped in the work of looking squarely and deeply at our reality, it is understandable to seek refuge in our devices. No one wants to look at or feel pain. It is inconvenient and it hurts like hell. But unless we do we have little chance of creating a world that works for all, let alone a habitable planet.
A misguided pursuit of happiness: our spiritual crisis:
Advertisers tells us that stuff will bring us happiness, dignity, self-respect, acceptance, status, power, good looks, sexual gratification, relationships and connections. All advertising for stuff implies gratification and fulfillment of some kind. We all have human needs which advertisers take full advantage of, but they mislead us into thinking material stuff will fill spiritual needs. For a very extensive list of those needs—some you might not have even thought about—check out this "Needs Inventory" from the Center of Nonviolent Communications. The needs fall into categories such as Connection, Physical Well-Being, Honesty, Peace, Play. I also appreciate what Frances Moore Lappe´ calls our three essential needs: agency, meaning and connection. She says, “In societies fulfilling these needs, fear subsides and trust expands, enabling continuing growth for individuals and communities.” Trying to fill these needs with material stuff gratifies the senses but only for a short time. We need to find spiritual fulfillment to create “sustainable happiness” and a healthy Earth. (See this article by Sarah van Gelder, “A Brief History of Happiness, How America Lost Track of the Good Life—and Where to Find It Now.
Not only will the acquisition of the kind of material stuff advertisers tempt us with not be deeply satisfying, but it’s also ruining the planet. We’ve already passed Earth Overshoot Day on August 2, which designates what the Earth can produce for us in one year.
For those of us who are in comfortable material situations, I believe our task is to assess what it is that we want or need and make wise choices. Can we “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without”? as Eleanor Roosevelt said. Another choice could be buying something and simultaneously giving away something. Everything we buy costs the Earth something in terms of resources, energy, people power. We often don’t know the source of those products, and who has made them and whether those companies are environmentally and socially conscious. Every choice needs to be informed by love of Earth and all life.
Seeing the Earth as a lifeless commodity that we have “dominion” over, and ourselves as separate from Earth and everything else.
Perhaps the most unfortunate language in the Bible is Genesis 1:26 where we are “to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” We have come to interpret this has dominating and commodifying every living thing, including the planet. We have given ourselves permission to do whatever suits our fancy, and our bottom line, no matter what the consequences are to living systems and other living beings. Bad Bible! Ellen Davis, Professor at Duke Divinity School offers us another translation of dominion: “to exercise skilled mastery among, or with respect to.” We could also substitute the word stewardship or partnership for dominion and it would change everything.
How can we rekindle our connection to and relationship with Earth?
Here is a beautiful poem written by Clifford Burke (yes, the very same Clifford I am blessed to partner with in this lifetime!) that for me embodies our connection to and relationship with the Earth. It goes to the heart and soul of how we need to be in relation to all life.
Song for Salmon-babies
We never see them going out,
To sea,
Nor swim the tiny rivulets, wetlands—
Irrigation ditches! Field drains!
Doing what our own kids do,
Explore, eat constantly, & grow.
If we could pat their scaley butts
as they hit the mighty Skagit
for the first time,
how gently would we take them
to our hands & mouths & bodies
on their one trip home.
The Great Turning, the Sixth Extinction, a crossroads, a tipping point: These are ways that spiritual leaders, scientists, economists, systems thinkers and visionary leaders have described this evolutionary time in our history marked by radical changes of heart, perception, values and priorities. We are now aware of our wasteful, destructive and unjust policies and ways of living. We need to admit we’ve done many things wrong and be able to adjust and change. Millions of people all over the world are engaging in a variety of forms of activism to create a peaceful, thriving, sustainable world that works for all of us, and the planet. Millions more need to join the party. (See my columns in July 2016 and May 2017 to inspire your unique contribution to this new world.) So for the love of all life let us love Earth. Let us regain our sense of awe, wonder, delight, respect and gratitude, for the love of Earth.
Love for the world is what will save us.
—Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
[See our monoprint letterpress broadside of "Song for Salmon-babies" at Desert Rose Press.)
What keeps us from loving Earth?
Aversion to looking deeply, facing reality and feeling pain: When asked what people could do to heal the Earth, Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh replied, “Hear the cry of the Earth.” That is painfully difficult because we are not encouraged or well-trained to look within. We don’t want to look at pain, our own or others' pain, or the pain of the Earth. We avoid grieving, or don’t know how to grieve without staying stuck in depression or despair. Yet if we looked at and felt the pain of the world, allowing our hearts to “break open,” as Joanna Macy says, we would release an enormous amount of energy that could be transformed into action on Earth’s behalf.
Our aversion is fueled by distractions: For many people computers, tablets and cell phones have an appropriate, useful and beneficial place in our lives. For many, however, our devices, and our focus on them, keeps us unaware and ignorant of all that isn’t healthy and just in our societies and environment. Thus we don’t get to the work that needs to be done to heal our world. If we are not practiced or helped in the work of looking squarely and deeply at our reality, it is understandable to seek refuge in our devices. No one wants to look at or feel pain. It is inconvenient and it hurts like hell. But unless we do we have little chance of creating a world that works for all, let alone a habitable planet.
A misguided pursuit of happiness: our spiritual crisis:
Advertisers tells us that stuff will bring us happiness, dignity, self-respect, acceptance, status, power, good looks, sexual gratification, relationships and connections. All advertising for stuff implies gratification and fulfillment of some kind. We all have human needs which advertisers take full advantage of, but they mislead us into thinking material stuff will fill spiritual needs. For a very extensive list of those needs—some you might not have even thought about—check out this "Needs Inventory" from the Center of Nonviolent Communications. The needs fall into categories such as Connection, Physical Well-Being, Honesty, Peace, Play. I also appreciate what Frances Moore Lappe´ calls our three essential needs: agency, meaning and connection. She says, “In societies fulfilling these needs, fear subsides and trust expands, enabling continuing growth for individuals and communities.” Trying to fill these needs with material stuff gratifies the senses but only for a short time. We need to find spiritual fulfillment to create “sustainable happiness” and a healthy Earth. (See this article by Sarah van Gelder, “A Brief History of Happiness, How America Lost Track of the Good Life—and Where to Find It Now.
Not only will the acquisition of the kind of material stuff advertisers tempt us with not be deeply satisfying, but it’s also ruining the planet. We’ve already passed Earth Overshoot Day on August 2, which designates what the Earth can produce for us in one year.
For those of us who are in comfortable material situations, I believe our task is to assess what it is that we want or need and make wise choices. Can we “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without”? as Eleanor Roosevelt said. Another choice could be buying something and simultaneously giving away something. Everything we buy costs the Earth something in terms of resources, energy, people power. We often don’t know the source of those products, and who has made them and whether those companies are environmentally and socially conscious. Every choice needs to be informed by love of Earth and all life.
Seeing the Earth as a lifeless commodity that we have “dominion” over, and ourselves as separate from Earth and everything else.
Perhaps the most unfortunate language in the Bible is Genesis 1:26 where we are “to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” We have come to interpret this has dominating and commodifying every living thing, including the planet. We have given ourselves permission to do whatever suits our fancy, and our bottom line, no matter what the consequences are to living systems and other living beings. Bad Bible! Ellen Davis, Professor at Duke Divinity School offers us another translation of dominion: “to exercise skilled mastery among, or with respect to.” We could also substitute the word stewardship or partnership for dominion and it would change everything.
How can we rekindle our connection to and relationship with Earth?
Here is a beautiful poem written by Clifford Burke (yes, the very same Clifford I am blessed to partner with in this lifetime!) that for me embodies our connection to and relationship with the Earth. It goes to the heart and soul of how we need to be in relation to all life.
Song for Salmon-babies
We never see them going out,
To sea,
Nor swim the tiny rivulets, wetlands—
Irrigation ditches! Field drains!
Doing what our own kids do,
Explore, eat constantly, & grow.
If we could pat their scaley butts
as they hit the mighty Skagit
for the first time,
how gently would we take them
to our hands & mouths & bodies
on their one trip home.
The Great Turning, the Sixth Extinction, a crossroads, a tipping point: These are ways that spiritual leaders, scientists, economists, systems thinkers and visionary leaders have described this evolutionary time in our history marked by radical changes of heart, perception, values and priorities. We are now aware of our wasteful, destructive and unjust policies and ways of living. We need to admit we’ve done many things wrong and be able to adjust and change. Millions of people all over the world are engaging in a variety of forms of activism to create a peaceful, thriving, sustainable world that works for all of us, and the planet. Millions more need to join the party. (See my columns in July 2016 and May 2017 to inspire your unique contribution to this new world.) So for the love of all life let us love Earth. Let us regain our sense of awe, wonder, delight, respect and gratitude, for the love of Earth.
Love for the world is what will save us.
—Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
[See our monoprint letterpress broadside of "Song for Salmon-babies" at Desert Rose Press.)
Why does this old expression—See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil—come to mind when I think about our multiple planetary challenges and crises? The main reason is that for a variety of reasons many of us don't want to look, hear or talk about the problems we face. Who does?! We can feel helpless, hopeless and powerless in the face of all the social and environmental crises before us. These are scary times we live in. Fear can impel us to fight, flee or freeze. In all cases we tend to not want to see or hear or speak about how awful it is. But unless we take the clouds from our eyes, remove the hands from our ears and open our mouths to talk about what we face, we have little chance of solving our problems.
Sometimes it is hard to bear the constant barrage of news about the violence, suffering, deaths and destruction in all parts of the world without becoming immobilized with grief, helplessness and despair. Doing something—anything—is about the furthest thing in our minds. It almost seems counterintuitive to take action, but that is exactly what we are called to do now. I often turn to the work and wisdom of well-known activist and teacher, Joanna Macy, for direction. She calls us to the first, and hardest, step—acknowledging and expressing “our pain for the world;” anger, fear, guilt, grief, confusion, helplessness. Allowing our hearts to break open connects us with compassion for all who are suffering, which paradoxically brings us more inner peace and energy for doing something to alleviate suffering. I invite you to read this brief interview with her for more understanding of her teaching. I’ve written more about coping with despair in my February 2015 post, “Transforming Despair.”
How do we stay informed and positive, and take effective action to share our gifts and energies to create the world that is caring, just and sustainable?
Inform: We each have an area or areas we’re most passionate about: climate change; single-use plastic; zero waste; clean energy; immigration; education; animal rights; social justice. Whatever it may be, go there. Get engaged there. Educate yourself about the issues.
Stay positive: Keep a balanced diet of news so the negative is matched by the positive. Engage with others who share your passion. It helps to know others feel as you do. We are not alone. We are strongest in community. Know what boosts your spirits when you feel hopeless and despairing. We can get worn down and worn thin by personal and global life circumstances so we need to know what keeps us in good spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health. We need to give ourselves plenty of nurturing, loving self-care.
Take effective action: Know what our goals are. For me the short answer is creating a world that works for all of us—the planet first and foremost. We often think that the most effective action is petitioning and marching and voting—that sort of obvious action. But it’s important to remember that connecting with people, listening and caring about their situation, and being kind is a big action. We need to see and act toward people as fellow and sister human being apart from our superficial identities of gender, ethnicity, age, whatever. Follow your heart. Or as Andrew Harvey says, "Follow your heartbreak" and put energy there with "joyful responsibility and exertion." Small things count: an email or call to a member of Congress, a letter to the editor, folding paper cranes with your intention of flying peace over the world.
We are all in the same boat. We all need to see what's going on and pick up our collective oars to get where we want to go. Personally I want to build a caring, compassionate, kind, generous, just and sustainable culture. I want to build a true democracy. I know I am not alone, and that keeps me pulling on my oar.
Sometimes it is hard to bear the constant barrage of news about the violence, suffering, deaths and destruction in all parts of the world without becoming immobilized with grief, helplessness and despair. Doing something—anything—is about the furthest thing in our minds. It almost seems counterintuitive to take action, but that is exactly what we are called to do now. I often turn to the work and wisdom of well-known activist and teacher, Joanna Macy, for direction. She calls us to the first, and hardest, step—acknowledging and expressing “our pain for the world;” anger, fear, guilt, grief, confusion, helplessness. Allowing our hearts to break open connects us with compassion for all who are suffering, which paradoxically brings us more inner peace and energy for doing something to alleviate suffering. I invite you to read this brief interview with her for more understanding of her teaching. I’ve written more about coping with despair in my February 2015 post, “Transforming Despair.”
How do we stay informed and positive, and take effective action to share our gifts and energies to create the world that is caring, just and sustainable?
Inform: We each have an area or areas we’re most passionate about: climate change; single-use plastic; zero waste; clean energy; immigration; education; animal rights; social justice. Whatever it may be, go there. Get engaged there. Educate yourself about the issues.
Stay positive: Keep a balanced diet of news so the negative is matched by the positive. Engage with others who share your passion. It helps to know others feel as you do. We are not alone. We are strongest in community. Know what boosts your spirits when you feel hopeless and despairing. We can get worn down and worn thin by personal and global life circumstances so we need to know what keeps us in good spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health. We need to give ourselves plenty of nurturing, loving self-care.
Take effective action: Know what our goals are. For me the short answer is creating a world that works for all of us—the planet first and foremost. We often think that the most effective action is petitioning and marching and voting—that sort of obvious action. But it’s important to remember that connecting with people, listening and caring about their situation, and being kind is a big action. We need to see and act toward people as fellow and sister human being apart from our superficial identities of gender, ethnicity, age, whatever. Follow your heart. Or as Andrew Harvey says, "Follow your heartbreak" and put energy there with "joyful responsibility and exertion." Small things count: an email or call to a member of Congress, a letter to the editor, folding paper cranes with your intention of flying peace over the world.
We are all in the same boat. We all need to see what's going on and pick up our collective oars to get where we want to go. Personally I want to build a caring, compassionate, kind, generous, just and sustainable culture. I want to build a true democracy. I know I am not alone, and that keeps me pulling on my oar.
FACTORY FOOD / FACTORY FARMING
Not everyone can drive an electric car, take public transportation, walk or bike to where they want to go, but all of us can affect the health of our planet with our diet. We’re now coming to terms with the huge and dire consequences of our meat and dairy diet on global warming and climate change. What we eat can be nourishing or harmful or neutral to our own health. Our diet has the same consequences for Earth. How is that?
Raising animals for food produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, planes and other forms of transportation combined. (Read below: "Are Cows the Cause of Global Warming?" A staggering reality. I’ve focused on factory farming and our meat and dairy-heavy diet these last two months. This month I want to look at another unhealthful aspect of our diet—processed food.
Most of our food is processed to some degree with the exception of fruits, veggies, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds. Many food products have a low level of processing, like natural fruit juices, bread, tomato sauce, natural jams. Pretty hard not to have some processed foods in our kitchens. But then there’s a level of processing that takes food and turns it into non-food. I’m talking about made-up food, factory food, junk food.
Take an Apple Pop Tart for example. If there was once nutritional value in the apple it is mostly destroyed in the process of making up the Pop Tart. The process wastes the nutrients taken from the soil. On top of that cost, processing, packaging and shipping contribute to air and water pollution. This sort of “food” is made up of assorted chemicals and additives in order to give it texture and flavor and shelf life. This factory food is handy and convenient. It tickles our taste buds which have been trained to crave salt, fat and sugar. The only beneficiary is the food company.
To buy or not to buy? Imagine you’ve gone to the store and on your list is a favorite—natural corn chips. The label says there are no unhealthy ingredients so as a product it gets good marks. You reach for the package and then realize you won’t be able to recycle this. It doesn’t fall into any acceptable category at the recycling center. Do you buy it or not? Now you have to consider every item on your grocery list not only in terms of health value to you, but the environmental cost as well. Damn!
This same scrutiny must apply as well to some of the new products aimed to give us alternatives to meat and dairy products. Beyond Burgers from Beyond Meat comes to mind. So now you’re at the refrigerator case next to the meat department and you feel righteous and excited that you can avoid a meal of beef by buying a Beyond Burger which has no beef in it at all. But wait! Check out the label. It’s not unlike the Pop Tart in that it contains all kinds of ingredients that have been concocted in a lab. (See the “Health Detective” in Resources). And then there’s the packaging conundrum again! Disappointment and dismay replace your enthusiasm.
What about the affect of our food on our spiritual life? I believe that the further away we eat from the original source of the food the less connected we feel to the Earth which has provided the food. What’s the spiritual value of an apple versus the Apple Pop Tart?
Our diet is shaped by our family, our culture and by advertisers. Advertisers working for big food companies really want us to eat their processed food. They are not unlike the tobacco industry which is not at all concerned with human health. They had to be regulated. Ditto for big agriculture and fast food and processed food companies.
We have to ask ourselves important questions:
What is the level of processing of the product I want to buy?
What are the ingredients and how many have been concocted in a lab? How many are ok?
What’s the overall value of the food? What are the hidden costs?
Who benefits from my purchase?
Where is it coming from, how is it grown and by whom?
Will this food purchase enhance or harm me and the Earth?
We can change how we eat. We can change guidelines and regulations so that our food is healthful to people and the planet. We can steer clear of meat and dairy by cutting back on the meat in our diet, eating lower on the food chain, and if we do eat meat then let it be meat from animals who have lived a high quality life. We can shape our diet the way we want in keeping with our values and visions for a healthy world. Starting now.
RESOURCES
The Health Detective. Is Beyond Meat Burger Good for You?
"Are Cows the Cause of Global Warming?"
Raising animals for food produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, planes and other forms of transportation combined. (Read below: "Are Cows the Cause of Global Warming?" A staggering reality. I’ve focused on factory farming and our meat and dairy-heavy diet these last two months. This month I want to look at another unhealthful aspect of our diet—processed food.
Most of our food is processed to some degree with the exception of fruits, veggies, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds. Many food products have a low level of processing, like natural fruit juices, bread, tomato sauce, natural jams. Pretty hard not to have some processed foods in our kitchens. But then there’s a level of processing that takes food and turns it into non-food. I’m talking about made-up food, factory food, junk food.
Take an Apple Pop Tart for example. If there was once nutritional value in the apple it is mostly destroyed in the process of making up the Pop Tart. The process wastes the nutrients taken from the soil. On top of that cost, processing, packaging and shipping contribute to air and water pollution. This sort of “food” is made up of assorted chemicals and additives in order to give it texture and flavor and shelf life. This factory food is handy and convenient. It tickles our taste buds which have been trained to crave salt, fat and sugar. The only beneficiary is the food company.
To buy or not to buy? Imagine you’ve gone to the store and on your list is a favorite—natural corn chips. The label says there are no unhealthy ingredients so as a product it gets good marks. You reach for the package and then realize you won’t be able to recycle this. It doesn’t fall into any acceptable category at the recycling center. Do you buy it or not? Now you have to consider every item on your grocery list not only in terms of health value to you, but the environmental cost as well. Damn!
This same scrutiny must apply as well to some of the new products aimed to give us alternatives to meat and dairy products. Beyond Burgers from Beyond Meat comes to mind. So now you’re at the refrigerator case next to the meat department and you feel righteous and excited that you can avoid a meal of beef by buying a Beyond Burger which has no beef in it at all. But wait! Check out the label. It’s not unlike the Pop Tart in that it contains all kinds of ingredients that have been concocted in a lab. (See the “Health Detective” in Resources). And then there’s the packaging conundrum again! Disappointment and dismay replace your enthusiasm.
What about the affect of our food on our spiritual life? I believe that the further away we eat from the original source of the food the less connected we feel to the Earth which has provided the food. What’s the spiritual value of an apple versus the Apple Pop Tart?
Our diet is shaped by our family, our culture and by advertisers. Advertisers working for big food companies really want us to eat their processed food. They are not unlike the tobacco industry which is not at all concerned with human health. They had to be regulated. Ditto for big agriculture and fast food and processed food companies.
We have to ask ourselves important questions:
What is the level of processing of the product I want to buy?
What are the ingredients and how many have been concocted in a lab? How many are ok?
What’s the overall value of the food? What are the hidden costs?
Who benefits from my purchase?
Where is it coming from, how is it grown and by whom?
Will this food purchase enhance or harm me and the Earth?
We can change how we eat. We can change guidelines and regulations so that our food is healthful to people and the planet. We can steer clear of meat and dairy by cutting back on the meat in our diet, eating lower on the food chain, and if we do eat meat then let it be meat from animals who have lived a high quality life. We can shape our diet the way we want in keeping with our values and visions for a healthy world. Starting now.
RESOURCES
The Health Detective. Is Beyond Meat Burger Good for You?
"Are Cows the Cause of Global Warming?"
What does a line in the sand mean? Why does the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) describe our present Earth situation this way? On the one hand if we cross the line and continue as we are we will face irreversible and dire consequences because of increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Or, if we don’t cross the line and make addressing climate change and reversing global warming our top priority, we can minimize the already serious consequences of our excessive CO2 emissions.
First let’s look at some terms.
Climate change: This refers to the many changes that will occur with increases in temperature and greenhouse gases. That is why the UN climate agency is called the International Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, and not the IPGW. It studies the comprehensive impacts of climate change on all living systems. Paul Hawken, Drawdown.org
Drawdown: We hear more and more of this term that refers to that point in time when the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere begins to decline on a year-to-year basis. Project Drawdown is the book and website presenting the 100 solutions to reverse global warming by cutting CO2 emissions. The book, edited by Paul Hawken in collaboration with 70 professionals, researchers and scientists from 22 countries, describes in great but accessible detail 100 solutions to effectively address climate change. These are regenerative and substantive projects and ideas already underway.
Here’s an important question: Do you believe in climate change? This is a complicated question because, as Hawken points out, science is not a belief system. But suppose you disagree with or dispute the science that documents our CO2 levels? It doesn’t really matter because I’m sure we can all agree that we want clean air, clean water, healthy soil and food, a healthy biosphere, and basic needs met for all. We can cooperate to solve problems such as conserving water to mitigate drought or reducing air pollution or reducing food waste whether or not we call it global warming or climate change.
It is difficult to watch the accelerating breakdown of our environmental systems or witness the breakdown of civility into camps, ideologies, and wars. What stands before us, however, is not the choosing of sides but the gift of seeing who we are as stewards of the planet. We will either come together to address global warming or we will likely disappear as a civilization. —Paul Hawken
Global warming and climate change are happening for us, not to us.
If we consider that global warming is happening for us instead of to us—that is, an atmospheric transformation that inspires us to change and reimagine everything we make and do, we begin to live in a different world. We take 100% responsibility and stop blaming others. We see global warming not as an inevitability but as an invitation to build, innovate, and effect change, a pathway that awakens creativity, compassion, and genius. This is not a liberal agenda, nor is it a conservative one. This is the human agenda. If what we tell ourselves is that we’re screwed, it destroys our imagination, our creativity and innovation for solutions. We’re screwed if we believe there’s nothing we can do. —Paul Hawken
Our task: Because so many of our legislators are bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry, big agribusiness, and other corporations who are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions, getting action from our current government will require massive public outcry and action. As Hawken says, We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future rather than stealing it.
We need to take steps in our personal lives to reduce our impact on the Earth, and we need to demand immediate action from government leaders, banks and corporations to support positive climate action.
The challenge that Hawken puts before us is “Game on or game over?”
RESOURCES AND EXCELLENT ARTICLES
Project Drawdown
Drawdown.org
A video presentation of Project Drawdown by Paul Hawken
Pie chart showing how different solutions contribute to reducing CO2 emissions
IPCC Summary Report
The Main Points to Take In
"The UN warns we have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe."
"Military experts say climate change poses significant risk to security."
"There's one key takeaway from the IPCC Report."
The Economy and Climate Change
"Hitting toughest climate target will save the world $30tn in damages."
"World economy can reap $226tn in a decade fighting climate change."
We the People and Climate Change
"What You Can Do About Clmate Change."
"3 Things You Can Do To Help Avoid Climate Disaster."
"How to Get Carbon-Free in 10 Years."
"What We Eat is Crucial to the Climate Change Question."
The Bigger Picture
"100 Companies Who Are Responsible for 71% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions."
A Big Picture of Movements and How They Relate to Clmate Change.
My Thoughts
My December Newsletter on Climate Change
Read "What You Can Do" in Inspired Action on this site.
First let’s look at some terms.
Climate change: This refers to the many changes that will occur with increases in temperature and greenhouse gases. That is why the UN climate agency is called the International Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, and not the IPGW. It studies the comprehensive impacts of climate change on all living systems. Paul Hawken, Drawdown.org
Drawdown: We hear more and more of this term that refers to that point in time when the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere begins to decline on a year-to-year basis. Project Drawdown is the book and website presenting the 100 solutions to reverse global warming by cutting CO2 emissions. The book, edited by Paul Hawken in collaboration with 70 professionals, researchers and scientists from 22 countries, describes in great but accessible detail 100 solutions to effectively address climate change. These are regenerative and substantive projects and ideas already underway.
Here’s an important question: Do you believe in climate change? This is a complicated question because, as Hawken points out, science is not a belief system. But suppose you disagree with or dispute the science that documents our CO2 levels? It doesn’t really matter because I’m sure we can all agree that we want clean air, clean water, healthy soil and food, a healthy biosphere, and basic needs met for all. We can cooperate to solve problems such as conserving water to mitigate drought or reducing air pollution or reducing food waste whether or not we call it global warming or climate change.
It is difficult to watch the accelerating breakdown of our environmental systems or witness the breakdown of civility into camps, ideologies, and wars. What stands before us, however, is not the choosing of sides but the gift of seeing who we are as stewards of the planet. We will either come together to address global warming or we will likely disappear as a civilization. —Paul Hawken
Global warming and climate change are happening for us, not to us.
If we consider that global warming is happening for us instead of to us—that is, an atmospheric transformation that inspires us to change and reimagine everything we make and do, we begin to live in a different world. We take 100% responsibility and stop blaming others. We see global warming not as an inevitability but as an invitation to build, innovate, and effect change, a pathway that awakens creativity, compassion, and genius. This is not a liberal agenda, nor is it a conservative one. This is the human agenda. If what we tell ourselves is that we’re screwed, it destroys our imagination, our creativity and innovation for solutions. We’re screwed if we believe there’s nothing we can do. —Paul Hawken
Our task: Because so many of our legislators are bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry, big agribusiness, and other corporations who are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions, getting action from our current government will require massive public outcry and action. As Hawken says, We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future rather than stealing it.
We need to take steps in our personal lives to reduce our impact on the Earth, and we need to demand immediate action from government leaders, banks and corporations to support positive climate action.
The challenge that Hawken puts before us is “Game on or game over?”
RESOURCES AND EXCELLENT ARTICLES
Project Drawdown
Drawdown.org
A video presentation of Project Drawdown by Paul Hawken
Pie chart showing how different solutions contribute to reducing CO2 emissions
IPCC Summary Report
The Main Points to Take In
"The UN warns we have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe."
"Military experts say climate change poses significant risk to security."
"There's one key takeaway from the IPCC Report."
The Economy and Climate Change
"Hitting toughest climate target will save the world $30tn in damages."
"World economy can reap $226tn in a decade fighting climate change."
We the People and Climate Change
"What You Can Do About Clmate Change."
"3 Things You Can Do To Help Avoid Climate Disaster."
"How to Get Carbon-Free in 10 Years."
"What We Eat is Crucial to the Climate Change Question."
The Bigger Picture
"100 Companies Who Are Responsible for 71% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions."
A Big Picture of Movements and How They Relate to Clmate Change.
My Thoughts
My December Newsletter on Climate Change
Read "What You Can Do" in Inspired Action on this site.
Do you need reasons to stay hopeful right now?
Then please read “Here’s Why You Should Stay Hopeful Right Now,” by John Pavlovitz. I’ve reprinted his essay below because it is one of the most powerful, poetic and compelling writings on hope I’ve ever read.
"HERE'S WHY YOU SHOULD STAY HOPEFUL RIGHT NOW," by John Pavlovitz
Every day in my travels around this country (both in person and online) people ask one question:
“How do you stay hopeful right now; how do you keep going when there is so much to grieve over, so much cruelty in front of you, when there is such daily violence to contend with?”
I often tell them I stay hopeful for Anne Frank.
The Jewish teenager wrote these words in the early 1940s, while confined within the cramped upper rooms above an Amsterdam business, that became the entire world for three years of her far too brief life while her family hid from the Nazis:
It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.
Every time I read or I think of those words, I remember why I stay hopeful right now.
I stay hopeful because she stayed hopeful. Despite every reason to abandon the will to continue or the optimism to sustain her, she refused to. The beautiful defiance of her young heart revealed in those words is reason enough to keep going.
I stay hopeful because hopeless is not an option. Hopelessness is defeat and resignation; it is a willing surrender to darkness that insults the memory of so many who have courageously made this planet their home long before we ever showed up here.
I stay hopeful because people of every nationality, religious affiliation, and life circumstance who have preceded us, have experienced all manner of hell during their lifetimes: unspeakable suffering and unthinkable fear—and would not relent. They faced genocide and slavery and war; endured murderous regimes and malignant dictators and corrupt governments and yet chose to persevere. They made the daily, sometimes hourly decision to speak and live and create and work and resist and love when it proved difficult. We need to do that now.
We who inhabit this planet in these days have inherited it from them: the children, activists, caregivers, soldiers, helpers, and parents—the ordinary people who would not allow themselves to become so despondent or so weary in their present circumstance that they stopped giving a damn or making a life or bending the arc of the moral universe toward justice in any way they were able.
Now it’s our turn. This is our moment to spend our fragile and fleeting sliver of space and time here, and for the sake of our predecessors in humanity and for our descendants who will be here after we’re gone—we can’t blow it.
We can’t allow our present troubles to overcome us.
We cannot be overwhelmed by the pain in our path, to the point where we are no longer willing to feel it or respond to it.
We can’t wilt in the face of hateful, fearful people who would make the world less diverse and less equitable.
We can’t become apathetic or stay silent or sidestep the turbulence of engaging the ugliness outside our doors or on our social media feeds—because the multitudes whose feet traversed this place previously, refused to.
So stay hopeful:
for Anne Frank,
for Rosa Parks,
or Mahatma Gandhi,
?for the Suffragettes,
for the Little Rock Nine,
For Harvey Milk,
For Malala Yousafzai,
for Syrian refugees,
for the Parkland Students,
for Greta Thunberg.
For them, for the other recorded heroes of our shared story, and for the billions of human beings whose names and faces and stories you’ll never know, who refused to lose hope even as all hell broke loose around them, and allowed you to inherit a world worth saving.
Anne Frank believed that people are really good at heart. Nearly 70 years later, you get to prove her right. You get to be the good people. You get to hold on to your ideals and you get to carry them out even in days when it feels and seems impossible.
Stay hopeful because you have breath in your lungs and a working heart planted firmly in your chest, and you have this day in which you can speak and live and create and work and resist and love.
You’re here and alive.
Don’t waste your chance.
I intend to return to this often to stay hopeful,
and to remember all the reasons there are to be hopeful.
My May Newsletter, "Solutions Multiplier"
John Pavlovitz
Then please read “Here’s Why You Should Stay Hopeful Right Now,” by John Pavlovitz. I’ve reprinted his essay below because it is one of the most powerful, poetic and compelling writings on hope I’ve ever read.
"HERE'S WHY YOU SHOULD STAY HOPEFUL RIGHT NOW," by John Pavlovitz
Every day in my travels around this country (both in person and online) people ask one question:
“How do you stay hopeful right now; how do you keep going when there is so much to grieve over, so much cruelty in front of you, when there is such daily violence to contend with?”
I often tell them I stay hopeful for Anne Frank.
The Jewish teenager wrote these words in the early 1940s, while confined within the cramped upper rooms above an Amsterdam business, that became the entire world for three years of her far too brief life while her family hid from the Nazis:
It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.
Every time I read or I think of those words, I remember why I stay hopeful right now.
I stay hopeful because she stayed hopeful. Despite every reason to abandon the will to continue or the optimism to sustain her, she refused to. The beautiful defiance of her young heart revealed in those words is reason enough to keep going.
I stay hopeful because hopeless is not an option. Hopelessness is defeat and resignation; it is a willing surrender to darkness that insults the memory of so many who have courageously made this planet their home long before we ever showed up here.
I stay hopeful because people of every nationality, religious affiliation, and life circumstance who have preceded us, have experienced all manner of hell during their lifetimes: unspeakable suffering and unthinkable fear—and would not relent. They faced genocide and slavery and war; endured murderous regimes and malignant dictators and corrupt governments and yet chose to persevere. They made the daily, sometimes hourly decision to speak and live and create and work and resist and love when it proved difficult. We need to do that now.
We who inhabit this planet in these days have inherited it from them: the children, activists, caregivers, soldiers, helpers, and parents—the ordinary people who would not allow themselves to become so despondent or so weary in their present circumstance that they stopped giving a damn or making a life or bending the arc of the moral universe toward justice in any way they were able.
Now it’s our turn. This is our moment to spend our fragile and fleeting sliver of space and time here, and for the sake of our predecessors in humanity and for our descendants who will be here after we’re gone—we can’t blow it.
We can’t allow our present troubles to overcome us.
We cannot be overwhelmed by the pain in our path, to the point where we are no longer willing to feel it or respond to it.
We can’t wilt in the face of hateful, fearful people who would make the world less diverse and less equitable.
We can’t become apathetic or stay silent or sidestep the turbulence of engaging the ugliness outside our doors or on our social media feeds—because the multitudes whose feet traversed this place previously, refused to.
So stay hopeful:
for Anne Frank,
for Rosa Parks,
or Mahatma Gandhi,
?for the Suffragettes,
for the Little Rock Nine,
For Harvey Milk,
For Malala Yousafzai,
for Syrian refugees,
for the Parkland Students,
for Greta Thunberg.
For them, for the other recorded heroes of our shared story, and for the billions of human beings whose names and faces and stories you’ll never know, who refused to lose hope even as all hell broke loose around them, and allowed you to inherit a world worth saving.
Anne Frank believed that people are really good at heart. Nearly 70 years later, you get to prove her right. You get to be the good people. You get to hold on to your ideals and you get to carry them out even in days when it feels and seems impossible.
Stay hopeful because you have breath in your lungs and a working heart planted firmly in your chest, and you have this day in which you can speak and live and create and work and resist and love.
You’re here and alive.
Don’t waste your chance.
I intend to return to this often to stay hopeful,
and to remember all the reasons there are to be hopeful.
My May Newsletter, "Solutions Multiplier"
John Pavlovitz
WHAT WE CAN DO
We all need to come to grips with the climate crisis, and reckon with the reality that it is our growth-oriented, profit-driven economic system and consumer culture that has caused this and other crises we face today. We live on a finite planet with limited resources for nearly 8 billion people to share. We cannot expect this endless cornucopia of abundance to continue. If we carry on with business as usual it will cost us our lives, and the lives of millions of other species.
To avert the worst emergencies we need to come together. We need to simultaneously take serious, disciplined personal responsibility to shift our lifestyles in the right direction, and also to make strong efforts for our public policies to shift towards our long-term survival on the planet, which means engaging in politics with a new vision of our future.
SOME SPECIFIC THINGS WE CAN DO IN OUR PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE LIVES FOR POSITIVE CHANGE:
Eat less meat and junk food. If every American were to eat just ONE less hamburger a week, it would be the equivalent of taking 10 million cars off the road each year. Be mindful of waste. Food waste accounts for 8% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Consume less and consume wisely. Buy local. Everything we buy requires carbon as it is created and then moved to your home or refrigerator. As best you can know how and where the item you buy is made. Buy from companies who have policies and practices that are socially and environmentally responsible. Buy things that are of good quality that will last and / or can be repaired.
Cut energy consumption at home.
See this homeowner’s guide to going solar.
Drive and fly less. Drive thoughtfully. Driving 60 mph instead of 80 mph uses 30% less fuel. Remember the days when President Nixon mandated the 55 mph speed limit?! Use public transportation where possible.
Support tree-planting and reforestation efforts. {See links below for recommended projects.)
Check out Project Drawdown, the book and the website to learn of the 100 solutions to reduce carbon emissions.
Electric cars? If you need a new car consider a used hybrid or an electric one, but keep in mind that the production of any new car requires natural resources and energy. It may be better from the planet’s point of view to preserve your old car.
Use our power. Support political leaders and candidates for elected offices who are actively engaged in dealing with environmental and social justice issues. Likewise, withhold support from those who are in climate denial. We need to think about the pressure we can exert on governments. All our politicians need to hear that we insist on effective and strong climate policies. And given the lack of progress to date, each of us has to be considering how and where to take to the streets. The Global Climate Strike September 20th is a start.
Support campaign finance reform: Most of our government leaders are bought and paid for by corporations and special interest groups. We must get MONEY OUT OF POLITICS.
Be kind to yourself. “Very few of us are squeaky clean in carbon terms. You don’t have to become so overnight but most of us do need to make serious changes over the next few years. It’s important to keep moving in the right direction and enjoy the process of cutting carbon out of our lives. Don’t beat yourself up, but don’t let yourself off the hook either.” This quote is from the article “What can I do to stop climate change?”
Doing nothing is no longer an option because there is no Planet B. We wouldn't stand around and watch as our house was burning. Let's not stand around now and pretend that everything is normal while our common home is burning.
Our time to effectively address our crises and build a new vision for our future starts . . . now. As Bill McKibben says, "We need to be honest about the scale and pace of the problems we face so that the scale and pace of our solutions have some hope of matching them." 350.org
We can do this.
RESOURCES AND GOOD READING
GLOBAL CLIMATE STRIKE
Find an event near you.
“What can I do to stop climate change?”
“How planting a trillion trees could stop climate change”
Tree Sisters
Stand For Trees
To avert the worst emergencies we need to come together. We need to simultaneously take serious, disciplined personal responsibility to shift our lifestyles in the right direction, and also to make strong efforts for our public policies to shift towards our long-term survival on the planet, which means engaging in politics with a new vision of our future.
SOME SPECIFIC THINGS WE CAN DO IN OUR PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE LIVES FOR POSITIVE CHANGE:
Eat less meat and junk food. If every American were to eat just ONE less hamburger a week, it would be the equivalent of taking 10 million cars off the road each year. Be mindful of waste. Food waste accounts for 8% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Consume less and consume wisely. Buy local. Everything we buy requires carbon as it is created and then moved to your home or refrigerator. As best you can know how and where the item you buy is made. Buy from companies who have policies and practices that are socially and environmentally responsible. Buy things that are of good quality that will last and / or can be repaired.
Cut energy consumption at home.
See this homeowner’s guide to going solar.
Drive and fly less. Drive thoughtfully. Driving 60 mph instead of 80 mph uses 30% less fuel. Remember the days when President Nixon mandated the 55 mph speed limit?! Use public transportation where possible.
Support tree-planting and reforestation efforts. {See links below for recommended projects.)
Check out Project Drawdown, the book and the website to learn of the 100 solutions to reduce carbon emissions.
Electric cars? If you need a new car consider a used hybrid or an electric one, but keep in mind that the production of any new car requires natural resources and energy. It may be better from the planet’s point of view to preserve your old car.
Use our power. Support political leaders and candidates for elected offices who are actively engaged in dealing with environmental and social justice issues. Likewise, withhold support from those who are in climate denial. We need to think about the pressure we can exert on governments. All our politicians need to hear that we insist on effective and strong climate policies. And given the lack of progress to date, each of us has to be considering how and where to take to the streets. The Global Climate Strike September 20th is a start.
Support campaign finance reform: Most of our government leaders are bought and paid for by corporations and special interest groups. We must get MONEY OUT OF POLITICS.
Be kind to yourself. “Very few of us are squeaky clean in carbon terms. You don’t have to become so overnight but most of us do need to make serious changes over the next few years. It’s important to keep moving in the right direction and enjoy the process of cutting carbon out of our lives. Don’t beat yourself up, but don’t let yourself off the hook either.” This quote is from the article “What can I do to stop climate change?”
Doing nothing is no longer an option because there is no Planet B. We wouldn't stand around and watch as our house was burning. Let's not stand around now and pretend that everything is normal while our common home is burning.
Our time to effectively address our crises and build a new vision for our future starts . . . now. As Bill McKibben says, "We need to be honest about the scale and pace of the problems we face so that the scale and pace of our solutions have some hope of matching them." 350.org
We can do this.
RESOURCES AND GOOD READING
GLOBAL CLIMATE STRIKE
Find an event near you.
“What can I do to stop climate change?”
“How planting a trillion trees could stop climate change”
Tree Sisters
Stand For Trees
A Gift for the Earth
It’s a poignant time of year to be writing about how we need to be changing our consumption habits and buying less stuff. We’re thinking about what we will buy for our friends, family and co-workers to show our appreciation and love for them. It’s just that we can no longer ignore the evidence that we are, and have been for almost 50 years, consuming more of our Earth’s resources that can be regenerated in that year. It’s called “Earth Overshoot.” In 2019 Earth Overshoot Day was July 29.
Since the 50’s we’ve been programmed to buy stuff not only to provide basic necessities, but also o fulfill our emotional and spiritual needs as well. Here’s what economist and retail analyst Victor Lebow said at that time of emerging abundance:
Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate.
You may be asking how consumerism relates to our current social, political and environmental crises? Everything we produce and buy has an environmental cost because all products require energy to make. So whatever we buy has emitted CO2 into the atmosphere. It is likely to have been shipped great distances which adds to greenhouse gas emissions. Whatever we buy has used Earth resources that may or may not be renewable.
Everything we create and buy has a social cost as well. It’s likely that the thing we buy, especially if it is “cheap,” has been made in a country where wages are minimal and working conditions are unhealthy. The quality of the product is consequently low and will end up in the landfill in a very short time, further polluting our planet. Then we have to go buy another similar product. The only benefit is to the bottom line of the company who makes this stuff.
Simply put: Every bit of avoided consumption is a positive for the planet. We have to break the spell that the consumer culture has wafted over us, driving us to “shop till we drop.” What’s going to drop is the Earth, and we along with her.
So as we think of gifts for folks this Christmas let us think of gifts that express our affection and have minimal impact on the Earth. Let us give gifts to the Earth by buying less stuff!
Here’s what I wrote two years ago which further elaborates on this all-consuming topic:
Do you know the Story of Stuff? It begins with the Earth. The short version is that we exploit and extract all kinds of natural resources that we then turn into all kinds of stuff often with the use of toxic chemicals and cheap, hard labor. The result is stuff that is “designed for the dump.” We are glad our stuff is so cheap, but usually that is because the invisible costs to our health, the well being of workers and the vitality of the Earth are not counted when our stuff is rung up at the cash register.
The saddest part of this story is that we are led to believe, and told over and over by advertising, that it is this very stuff that will make us happy, that will satisfy our need for acceptance, self-esteem, connection, power and meaning in our lives. We’re led to believe that our primary value in society is to drive the growth economy forward by being active consumers. Unquestionably we have to consume to live, to provide essentials for ourselves and our family. But to think of ourselves just as consumers is a) demeaning, and b) destructive. It completely disregards our personal talents, gifts, creativity and true human needs for the sake of economic growth that favors only a few of us at the expense of people and the Earth.
How do we write a new story? Once we recognize the fallacy and the con job of this story we can choose to change how we live personally and change the policies that drive this wasteful and destructive system. We can change our values and priorities from worshipping money and economic growth at any price to caring for all life. In the words of the Network of Spiritual Progressives we can adopt a New Bottom Line.
A New Bottom Line is one that judges the success of every sector, system and institution of our society (economy, government, schools, health care, the legal system) based not on the old bottom line of whether they maximize money, profit and power, but instead by the extent to which they maximize love and caring, kindness and generosity, empathy and compassion, social, economic and environmental justice, peace and nonviolence, and protection of the life support system of our planet, as well as encourage us to transcend a narrow utilitarian approach to nature and other human beings and enhance our capacity to respond with awe and wonder to the universe and to see the sacred in others and in all sentient beings.
This New Bottom Line prioritizes the well-being of the planet and all its inhabitants, as well as justice and peace, over money, profit and power. We call this a New Bottom Line – Caring for Each Other and Caring for the Planet. See the Network of Spiritual Progressives for more about "A New Bottom Line."
The bottom line is that where we can consume less we should. Every thing we buy has a history of resources, labor, manufacturing methods and greenhouse gas emissions. We can learn that history and make wise choices when we shop. We also need to see the bigger picture: many people can only afford to buy cheap stuff because the system is not designed to support our collective well being. As citizens of the world we can become aware of the policies and practices that support an untenable story, work to change those that do not support Life, and advocate for those that do.
People wrote this story. People can write a new story. We are already doing just that and everyone is invited and needed to create the story the works for all.
RESOURCES ABOUT STUFF
"The Story of Stuff," by Annie Leonard. An essential film.
"Conscious Consumerism is a Lie—Here's a Better Way to Save the World."
For the Love of Earth
The Next System Project
Doughnut Economics
Local Futures—The Economics of Happiness
A New Bottom Line—The Network of Spiritual Progressive
Since the 50’s we’ve been programmed to buy stuff not only to provide basic necessities, but also o fulfill our emotional and spiritual needs as well. Here’s what economist and retail analyst Victor Lebow said at that time of emerging abundance:
Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate.
You may be asking how consumerism relates to our current social, political and environmental crises? Everything we produce and buy has an environmental cost because all products require energy to make. So whatever we buy has emitted CO2 into the atmosphere. It is likely to have been shipped great distances which adds to greenhouse gas emissions. Whatever we buy has used Earth resources that may or may not be renewable.
Everything we create and buy has a social cost as well. It’s likely that the thing we buy, especially if it is “cheap,” has been made in a country where wages are minimal and working conditions are unhealthy. The quality of the product is consequently low and will end up in the landfill in a very short time, further polluting our planet. Then we have to go buy another similar product. The only benefit is to the bottom line of the company who makes this stuff.
Simply put: Every bit of avoided consumption is a positive for the planet. We have to break the spell that the consumer culture has wafted over us, driving us to “shop till we drop.” What’s going to drop is the Earth, and we along with her.
So as we think of gifts for folks this Christmas let us think of gifts that express our affection and have minimal impact on the Earth. Let us give gifts to the Earth by buying less stuff!
Here’s what I wrote two years ago which further elaborates on this all-consuming topic:
Do you know the Story of Stuff? It begins with the Earth. The short version is that we exploit and extract all kinds of natural resources that we then turn into all kinds of stuff often with the use of toxic chemicals and cheap, hard labor. The result is stuff that is “designed for the dump.” We are glad our stuff is so cheap, but usually that is because the invisible costs to our health, the well being of workers and the vitality of the Earth are not counted when our stuff is rung up at the cash register.
The saddest part of this story is that we are led to believe, and told over and over by advertising, that it is this very stuff that will make us happy, that will satisfy our need for acceptance, self-esteem, connection, power and meaning in our lives. We’re led to believe that our primary value in society is to drive the growth economy forward by being active consumers. Unquestionably we have to consume to live, to provide essentials for ourselves and our family. But to think of ourselves just as consumers is a) demeaning, and b) destructive. It completely disregards our personal talents, gifts, creativity and true human needs for the sake of economic growth that favors only a few of us at the expense of people and the Earth.
How do we write a new story? Once we recognize the fallacy and the con job of this story we can choose to change how we live personally and change the policies that drive this wasteful and destructive system. We can change our values and priorities from worshipping money and economic growth at any price to caring for all life. In the words of the Network of Spiritual Progressives we can adopt a New Bottom Line.
A New Bottom Line is one that judges the success of every sector, system and institution of our society (economy, government, schools, health care, the legal system) based not on the old bottom line of whether they maximize money, profit and power, but instead by the extent to which they maximize love and caring, kindness and generosity, empathy and compassion, social, economic and environmental justice, peace and nonviolence, and protection of the life support system of our planet, as well as encourage us to transcend a narrow utilitarian approach to nature and other human beings and enhance our capacity to respond with awe and wonder to the universe and to see the sacred in others and in all sentient beings.
This New Bottom Line prioritizes the well-being of the planet and all its inhabitants, as well as justice and peace, over money, profit and power. We call this a New Bottom Line – Caring for Each Other and Caring for the Planet. See the Network of Spiritual Progressives for more about "A New Bottom Line."
The bottom line is that where we can consume less we should. Every thing we buy has a history of resources, labor, manufacturing methods and greenhouse gas emissions. We can learn that history and make wise choices when we shop. We also need to see the bigger picture: many people can only afford to buy cheap stuff because the system is not designed to support our collective well being. As citizens of the world we can become aware of the policies and practices that support an untenable story, work to change those that do not support Life, and advocate for those that do.
People wrote this story. People can write a new story. We are already doing just that and everyone is invited and needed to create the story the works for all.
RESOURCES ABOUT STUFF
"The Story of Stuff," by Annie Leonard. An essential film.
"Conscious Consumerism is a Lie—Here's a Better Way to Save the World."
For the Love of Earth
The Next System Project
Doughnut Economics
Local Futures—The Economics of Happiness
A New Bottom Line—The Network of Spiritual Progressive
NO GOING BACK TO THE WAY THINGS WERE
It’s a no-brainer that we shouldn’t go back to the way things were. The pandemic has made it clear that it’s the whole system—economic, political and social—that is unhealthy and fails to provide for the common good and the health of the planet. Do we need any more evidence that the way we humans live is unsustainable?
A system that is based on extraction, exploitation and waste by advancing consumerism and growth on a finite planet is stupid. A system that only benefits a few cannot and should not last. Not long ago a correspondent said she wanted “evidence” that corporations were not sustainable. Don’t we all see that production of plastic packaging is filling and killing rivers and the ocean? Did I really need to describe how our current industrial agribusiness depletes and poisons our topsoil and pollutes waterways? Did I need to point out that industrial factory farming meat production likewise pollutes the water and adds methane to the atmosphere, which is worse than CO2, and raises animals in inhumane conditions? Doesn’t everyone know that companies destroy forests to raise more beef and to grow food for those cattle when that corn should be /could be feeding hungry people?
No human being should be hungry! On my weekly grocery shopping trip I pass a Lutheran Church in Santa Fe. At 8 in the morning cars are beginning to park along the side streets and by the time I head home an hour and a half later, those streets are full, lined with dozens of cars as they wait for the church to begin distribution of food boxes. This scene is playing out all over this country. It is an outrage that in the wealthiest country in the world people go hungry, not just because of COVID-19, but all the time. One thing that reveals our failed food system is that food has had to be thrown out right now because there is no way to distribute it to people who need it. Read the “Sickness of Our Food Supply.”
Added to the gross social injustice of food insecurity in the U.S. we should look at the extent of other social ills like extreme poverty, addiction, drug abuse, suicide, depression, racial and wealth inequality.
We must also look at life-destroying environmental injustice: climate change, deforestation, toxic pollution of land and waters, loss of topsoil, plastic pollution, excessive greenhouse gas emissions, destruction of species.
Let’s not overlook political injustice while we’re surveying what doesn’t work. There are way too many issues to deal with here but essentially it has to do with corporate and special interest money running our government. And most recently, in dealing with the pandemic, we see how leadership in this country is playing politics with public safety and human lives. It is unconscionable. This article explains.
So if we don’t want to go back to the way things were, where do we go? Here are a few ideas:
Measure economic progress not by GDP and growth, but by well-being, good and useful jobs, environmental sustainability, happiness, good health, inclusion of everyone. A "New Bottom Line" based on caring, generosity, cooperation and responsibility to the good of all and the Earth.
Build a circular economy and follow the Doughnut Model. Many companies are reinventing themselves in this light.
Improve energy efficiency and further develop renewable energy sources.
Practice conscious consumption: Reduce. Reuse. Repair. Recycle.
Reduce food waste and eat less meat.
Reduce our carbon footprint.
GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS
Adopt a Global Marshall Plan
CLEAN THE FISH TANK: This refers to the analogy of not just saving the sick fish in our fish tank as we are doing with COVID-19 patients, but let’s clean up our environment and how we practice our lives so that the fish don’t get sick in the first place. It’s like watching dead bodies coming down a river and not bothering to go back upstream to find out why they are dying.
I want to conclude this piece with a quote from Bruce Berlin in his blog “The Struggle for the Soul of America:
This time of reflection led me to ask: How are we doing as a society? Why have we gotten so divided? Why can’t we live together? Why are people so driven to get as much as they can for themselves with no or little concern for how the less fortunate among us who are hurting, hungry, some homeless, are getting by or not?
It’s time for us to take a long, hard look at ourselves and our country. How can we inspire our country to live up to its honored values and highest potential for all Americans? We are in the midst of a spiritual crisis, as well as a health crisis and an economic crisis. Our country is at a moral crossroads: Will we take the highway to a better life for all, or the low road where it’s each one out for one’s self? This is the question we will answer in the fall election. But we can’t wait. Now is the time we must pave the way for a brighter, more equitable society. Read "The Struggle for the Soul of America, Going Within," May 22.
MORE GOOD RESOURCES HERE
A New Bottom Line, by the Network of Spiritual Progressives
Global Marshall Plan, by the Network of Spiritual Progressives
"The Story of Stuff
The Story of Solutions
The Story of Change
A system that is based on extraction, exploitation and waste by advancing consumerism and growth on a finite planet is stupid. A system that only benefits a few cannot and should not last. Not long ago a correspondent said she wanted “evidence” that corporations were not sustainable. Don’t we all see that production of plastic packaging is filling and killing rivers and the ocean? Did I really need to describe how our current industrial agribusiness depletes and poisons our topsoil and pollutes waterways? Did I need to point out that industrial factory farming meat production likewise pollutes the water and adds methane to the atmosphere, which is worse than CO2, and raises animals in inhumane conditions? Doesn’t everyone know that companies destroy forests to raise more beef and to grow food for those cattle when that corn should be /could be feeding hungry people?
No human being should be hungry! On my weekly grocery shopping trip I pass a Lutheran Church in Santa Fe. At 8 in the morning cars are beginning to park along the side streets and by the time I head home an hour and a half later, those streets are full, lined with dozens of cars as they wait for the church to begin distribution of food boxes. This scene is playing out all over this country. It is an outrage that in the wealthiest country in the world people go hungry, not just because of COVID-19, but all the time. One thing that reveals our failed food system is that food has had to be thrown out right now because there is no way to distribute it to people who need it. Read the “Sickness of Our Food Supply.”
Added to the gross social injustice of food insecurity in the U.S. we should look at the extent of other social ills like extreme poverty, addiction, drug abuse, suicide, depression, racial and wealth inequality.
We must also look at life-destroying environmental injustice: climate change, deforestation, toxic pollution of land and waters, loss of topsoil, plastic pollution, excessive greenhouse gas emissions, destruction of species.
Let’s not overlook political injustice while we’re surveying what doesn’t work. There are way too many issues to deal with here but essentially it has to do with corporate and special interest money running our government. And most recently, in dealing with the pandemic, we see how leadership in this country is playing politics with public safety and human lives. It is unconscionable. This article explains.
So if we don’t want to go back to the way things were, where do we go? Here are a few ideas:
Measure economic progress not by GDP and growth, but by well-being, good and useful jobs, environmental sustainability, happiness, good health, inclusion of everyone. A "New Bottom Line" based on caring, generosity, cooperation and responsibility to the good of all and the Earth.
Build a circular economy and follow the Doughnut Model. Many companies are reinventing themselves in this light.
Improve energy efficiency and further develop renewable energy sources.
Practice conscious consumption: Reduce. Reuse. Repair. Recycle.
Reduce food waste and eat less meat.
Reduce our carbon footprint.
GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS
Adopt a Global Marshall Plan
CLEAN THE FISH TANK: This refers to the analogy of not just saving the sick fish in our fish tank as we are doing with COVID-19 patients, but let’s clean up our environment and how we practice our lives so that the fish don’t get sick in the first place. It’s like watching dead bodies coming down a river and not bothering to go back upstream to find out why they are dying.
I want to conclude this piece with a quote from Bruce Berlin in his blog “The Struggle for the Soul of America:
This time of reflection led me to ask: How are we doing as a society? Why have we gotten so divided? Why can’t we live together? Why are people so driven to get as much as they can for themselves with no or little concern for how the less fortunate among us who are hurting, hungry, some homeless, are getting by or not?
It’s time for us to take a long, hard look at ourselves and our country. How can we inspire our country to live up to its honored values and highest potential for all Americans? We are in the midst of a spiritual crisis, as well as a health crisis and an economic crisis. Our country is at a moral crossroads: Will we take the highway to a better life for all, or the low road where it’s each one out for one’s self? This is the question we will answer in the fall election. But we can’t wait. Now is the time we must pave the way for a brighter, more equitable society. Read "The Struggle for the Soul of America, Going Within," May 22.
MORE GOOD RESOURCES HERE
A New Bottom Line, by the Network of Spiritual Progressives
Global Marshall Plan, by the Network of Spiritual Progressives
"The Story of Stuff
The Story of Solutions
The Story of Change
WHAT DOES AN ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION LOOK LIKE?
What are the most needed changes we must make to create a world that ensures that basic needs are met and that people, and all life, thrive? For me one of the most critical needs is to change the way we think about our economy and our consumer habits. We are told that the only way to prosperity, security and happiness is to GROW the economy. But as economist David Korten says, ". . . children and adolescents grow. Adults mature. It is time to reframe the debate to recognize that we have pushed growth in material consumption beyond Earth’s environmental limits. We must now shift our economic priority from growth to maturity—meeting the needs of all within the limits of what Earth can provide." Read his article,"Why the Economy Should Stop Growing and Grow Up."
It is glaring omission that no matter how well-intended our leaders are to serve the common good, they rarely mention to necessity of NOT GROWING the economy because doing so has already gone beyond the capacity of the Earth to fulfill our continual and ever-growing material desires.
What can we do?
We can do the math and see that we've already bypassed our limits. You've probably heard of Earth Overshoot Day, the date that marks when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. It was August 22 in 2020. In 1990 it was October 11. In 1970 it was December 29. The math is clear.
The excerpt below is taken from The Guardian, an excellent article about building a circular economy and avoiding ecological disaster.
"We can starve the beast of consumerism, by buying less and reusing more of everything. We must change consumer habits and attitudes to consumption. . . It calls for a circular economy based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution by keeping products and materials in use.
"Can consumption ever be contained? Easily. Stuff can be designed better to last longer; food chains and toy makers don’t have to make poor quality goods; producers can use fewer virgin raw materials; waste can be made a resource; the circular economy can be developed. Tax can make corporations more responsible; excess can be discouraged in schools and homes; identities do not have to be based on how much we buy. We can shop hyper-locally, frequent secondhand shops, grow more food ourselves, become more self-sufficient. But above all, we can learn to just say no to buying ever more new stuff."
We can, as Korten points out, rebuild the strength and power of living communities. We can create a culture of mutual caring and responsibility. We can assure that the legal rights of people and communities take priority over those of government-created artificial persons called corporations, as well as require corporations to take environmental and social responsibility.
There are many areas of need we can, and must, engage in, like restoring our democracy, ending racism, stopping climate change, providing basic health care, education, housing and food for all. For me, respecting and living within the Earth's limits is perhaps top of the list.
Our time starts now.
Read "What Does an Ecological Civilization Look Like," from YES! magazine.
It is glaring omission that no matter how well-intended our leaders are to serve the common good, they rarely mention to necessity of NOT GROWING the economy because doing so has already gone beyond the capacity of the Earth to fulfill our continual and ever-growing material desires.
What can we do?
We can do the math and see that we've already bypassed our limits. You've probably heard of Earth Overshoot Day, the date that marks when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. It was August 22 in 2020. In 1990 it was October 11. In 1970 it was December 29. The math is clear.
The excerpt below is taken from The Guardian, an excellent article about building a circular economy and avoiding ecological disaster.
"We can starve the beast of consumerism, by buying less and reusing more of everything. We must change consumer habits and attitudes to consumption. . . It calls for a circular economy based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution by keeping products and materials in use.
"Can consumption ever be contained? Easily. Stuff can be designed better to last longer; food chains and toy makers don’t have to make poor quality goods; producers can use fewer virgin raw materials; waste can be made a resource; the circular economy can be developed. Tax can make corporations more responsible; excess can be discouraged in schools and homes; identities do not have to be based on how much we buy. We can shop hyper-locally, frequent secondhand shops, grow more food ourselves, become more self-sufficient. But above all, we can learn to just say no to buying ever more new stuff."
We can, as Korten points out, rebuild the strength and power of living communities. We can create a culture of mutual caring and responsibility. We can assure that the legal rights of people and communities take priority over those of government-created artificial persons called corporations, as well as require corporations to take environmental and social responsibility.
There are many areas of need we can, and must, engage in, like restoring our democracy, ending racism, stopping climate change, providing basic health care, education, housing and food for all. For me, respecting and living within the Earth's limits is perhaps top of the list.
Our time starts now.
Read "What Does an Ecological Civilization Look Like," from YES! magazine.
There are pros and cons to plastic, which is why Plastic: A Toxic Love Story is such a great title for a book by Susan Freinkel. After watching an interview with her, and thoroughly reading the recent issue of YES! magazine, “Solving Plastic,” I come away with these main thoughts.
The benefits of plastic:
Plastic has been a boon to many, making some products that were previously available only to the rich, such as tortoise shell or mother of pearl combs, accessible to those of modest or minimal wealth.
Plastic gives us things we need, want and love. Plastic is incredibly convenient. We have only to notice how many things we use everyday that are plastic, or put on a CD, to get that.
Plastic has revolutionized medicine, and generally been the “transformational material of modern times.”
The costs of plastic are as dramatic as the benefits:
People are paying for plastic with their lives as pollution from industrial plastic plants poisons marginalized communities where plastic is produced. (Companies don’t put their plants in Southampton or Beverly Hills, but in places like St. James Parish in New Orleans, home to low income people of color.)
By 2050 it is estimated there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. We see horrific images of huge amounts of plastic waste in rivers, oceans and on beaches all over the world.
Dangerous toxic chemical additives in plastic used in food packaging end up in our bodies.
CONCLUSION
Durable, reusable, long-lasting plastic is a useful product.
There are always tradeoffs. For example, we might select a glass jar of mayonnaise because we know it can be recycled, but because it is heavier than plastic transportation costs will be higher, hence more emissions.
It is plastic pollution that is the focus of the Break Free From Plastic movement. We must demand that producers take responsibility for all the costs of their products. They need to cease producing, packaging and marketing tiny amounts of snack foods, etc. in cute little wrappers that are tossed.
Governments on local, state and national levels, must set policies that, for starters, ban single-use plastic, improve recycling infrastructure, and require “extended producer responsibility.”
People and planet must be the priority over profits!
RESOURCES
YES! magazine, "Solving Plastic"
"The Story of Plastic"
Break Free From Plastic
The benefits of plastic:
Plastic has been a boon to many, making some products that were previously available only to the rich, such as tortoise shell or mother of pearl combs, accessible to those of modest or minimal wealth.
Plastic gives us things we need, want and love. Plastic is incredibly convenient. We have only to notice how many things we use everyday that are plastic, or put on a CD, to get that.
Plastic has revolutionized medicine, and generally been the “transformational material of modern times.”
The costs of plastic are as dramatic as the benefits:
People are paying for plastic with their lives as pollution from industrial plastic plants poisons marginalized communities where plastic is produced. (Companies don’t put their plants in Southampton or Beverly Hills, but in places like St. James Parish in New Orleans, home to low income people of color.)
By 2050 it is estimated there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. We see horrific images of huge amounts of plastic waste in rivers, oceans and on beaches all over the world.
Dangerous toxic chemical additives in plastic used in food packaging end up in our bodies.
CONCLUSION
Durable, reusable, long-lasting plastic is a useful product.
There are always tradeoffs. For example, we might select a glass jar of mayonnaise because we know it can be recycled, but because it is heavier than plastic transportation costs will be higher, hence more emissions.
It is plastic pollution that is the focus of the Break Free From Plastic movement. We must demand that producers take responsibility for all the costs of their products. They need to cease producing, packaging and marketing tiny amounts of snack foods, etc. in cute little wrappers that are tossed.
Governments on local, state and national levels, must set policies that, for starters, ban single-use plastic, improve recycling infrastructure, and require “extended producer responsibility.”
People and planet must be the priority over profits!
RESOURCES
YES! magazine, "Solving Plastic"
"The Story of Plastic"
Break Free From Plastic
Food and Climate Change
Can industrial agriculture provide food for our growing world population without grossly contributing to climate change? I believe the answer is no.
Current ways of producing food account for 24% of our CO2 emissions, which is equal to the amount coming from the generation of electricity. The main sources of greenhouse gas emissions related to agriculture are from deforestation (for animal use and animal food production and palm oil), methane emissions from cows, nitrous oxide released from fertilizer, transportation and food waste.
There are ways to draw down these emissions.
1) We can adopt regenerative farming practices to build soil health and sequester carbon. Industrial agriculture notoriously uses enormous amounts of energy and toxic chemicals that are degrading and depleting arable soul. It is estimated that we have 60 years of farmable soil left if this degradation continues.
2) We can eat a more plant-based diet, and eat less meat.
3) We can protect our ecosystems and stop burning our forests.
4) We can support local food growing operations.
5) We can rethink our global economy. Did you know that it is common practice for fish caught in Norway or Ireland to be shipped to China for deboning, and then shipped back to those countries for sale? This is “Insane Trade.” Read this Factsheet from Local Futures which describes this wasteful, insane practice.
Check out my September newsletter for descriptions of urban farms, food parks and community gardens that exist all over the world. The goal is common to all of them: to provide healthy food to local communities, foster environmental and economic resilience, be models for sustainable agriculture, and create natural spaces for urban dwellers.
For an excellent brief description of how our current food practices adversely impact our climate, look at Climate Solutions 101,Unit 3, Reducing Sources, starting at minute 8:10 through 13:06. The whole program is clear about the problems, and the solutions, but this portion applies specifically to food. It’s worth your time to watch the whole course.
Solutions abound. Let’s muster the will and courage to make change!
Current ways of producing food account for 24% of our CO2 emissions, which is equal to the amount coming from the generation of electricity. The main sources of greenhouse gas emissions related to agriculture are from deforestation (for animal use and animal food production and palm oil), methane emissions from cows, nitrous oxide released from fertilizer, transportation and food waste.
There are ways to draw down these emissions.
1) We can adopt regenerative farming practices to build soil health and sequester carbon. Industrial agriculture notoriously uses enormous amounts of energy and toxic chemicals that are degrading and depleting arable soul. It is estimated that we have 60 years of farmable soil left if this degradation continues.
2) We can eat a more plant-based diet, and eat less meat.
3) We can protect our ecosystems and stop burning our forests.
4) We can support local food growing operations.
5) We can rethink our global economy. Did you know that it is common practice for fish caught in Norway or Ireland to be shipped to China for deboning, and then shipped back to those countries for sale? This is “Insane Trade.” Read this Factsheet from Local Futures which describes this wasteful, insane practice.
Check out my September newsletter for descriptions of urban farms, food parks and community gardens that exist all over the world. The goal is common to all of them: to provide healthy food to local communities, foster environmental and economic resilience, be models for sustainable agriculture, and create natural spaces for urban dwellers.
For an excellent brief description of how our current food practices adversely impact our climate, look at Climate Solutions 101,Unit 3, Reducing Sources, starting at minute 8:10 through 13:06. The whole program is clear about the problems, and the solutions, but this portion applies specifically to food. It’s worth your time to watch the whole course.
Solutions abound. Let’s muster the will and courage to make change!
Do you know the Story of Stuff? Watch this 21-minute film to find out. In this upbeat, blunt, simple and often humorous presentation, Annie Leonard graphically unfolds the story we've bought into for several decades; namely, that our main value and purpose as human beings is to consume stuff. We have believed that growing the economy is the number one priority for our being here on Earth. The big problem is that this linear system of exploitation and extraction of natural resources, cheap labor to make cheap goods for the profit of a few does not work on a finite planet. I wish everyone could watch this! It's worth the time you feel you don't have. Then go to my November Column for more good ideas and resources for how we can rewrite a good story for people and the planet.
Here's a bit of what you'll learn in this film. Shortly after WWII, when big business wanted to ramp up the economy, economist and retail analyst Victor Lebow said,
Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. . . . We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing pace. We need to have people eat, drink, dress, ride, live, with ever more complicated and, therefore, constantly more expensive consumption. We've consequently created and bought into a system that is "designed for the dump." It has created an environmental and social wasteland.
The film is a crash course, a primer with animated, audio Cliffs Notes about what our present economy looks like and why it doesn't work. It goes to the heart of why we urgently need a new system, a new story for humanity and Earth. The new story is circular, a closed loop, a doughnut.