Do Ecosystems Have Rights?

Why do corporations have rights when living ecosystems do not?

Please watch this very important, interesting, and powerful speech by Mari Margil.

Mari Margil speaks to the 2009 Bioneers conference in the spirit of The Lorax:
Protecting Against Environmental Degradation by Recognizing the Rights of Nature

I am also reminded about another set of important videos that have powerful ideas to share.

The Story of Stuff. And also The Story of Cap and Trade.

There are also a couple other videos in the production queue.

This is really really awesome work by Annie Leonard. Please also take time to see these important videos. http://www.storyofstuff.com/

It's all good food for thought.

Ecopsychology

I am profoundly affected by the environment. Environmental degradation makes me sad. Environmental degradation makes me sick.

I am signed up on an eco-psychology listserve, so I receive articles forwarded from similarly minded and interested people all around the world. That's how I was alerted to the following article in the NYT Magazine. I haven't read the whole article, but it's nice to see the field of eco-psychology in the somewhat mainstream press (not that the NYT Mag is exactly mainstream.) Well you get the idea.

Here's a link: Is there an ecological unconscious?

Olympia Harbor in 1856

view larger: Olympia Harbor

Washington did not become a state until 1889. Washington was the 42nd state to become part of the United States.

In 1856, over 30 years prior to Washington becoming a state, the landscape around Olympia was very different than it is today, in 2010.

I imagine that the environment was much healthier back then, with great flocks of wild birds, and a bounteous feast accessible for harvest from the waters of the Salish Sea.

David Korten on Time of Useful Consciousness Radio

Hi All,

I want to plug this excellent speech by David Korten. It was delivered in March 2009 at the Northwest Regional Veterans for Peace Conference. I heard it the evening of Wednesday, December 30, 2009, on KAOS 89.3 FM Radio. The speech is in two parts, and both are excellent. The speech is titled, "Community and the New Economy: Why Wall Street Can't be Fixed, and How to Replace it."

In the speech Korten very clearly talks about what's happening in our world in relation to corporate power, militarism, policies of dominance, economics of growth and profitability, violence, poverty, socio-economic inequality and exploitation, and environmental degradation (among other topics.)

Korten also addresses the hopeful and great potential that exists for change to a society (and a money system) that would serve life (rather than profit) - a society that would be cooperative, consensual and mutually beneficial for all people.

I think the speech is a very worthwhile listen.

Korten is the Chair of the Board of Yes! Magazine.

Here are links to the streaming audio, in two parts; an excerpt (that I transcribed,) and a link to the Time of Useful Consciousness Radio Program website.

Please enjoy!

Part One: http://www.tucradio.org/090429_Korten_ONE.mp3

Part Two: http://www.tucradio.org/090506_Korten_TWO.mp3

excerpt:

"...replacing the culture and institutions of an economy devoted to the service of money, with the culture an institutions of an economy devoted to the service of life...

"War is an outmoded institution that serves no beneficial purpose other than to enrich the unscrupulous - and it has become an act of global scale collective suicide."

links to the mp3s can also be found here: http://www.tucradio.org/

Kindly,
Berd

The Story of Cap and Trade Video

This is a great video. A must see.

Here's a comment I left on youtube:

The wealth of developed nations is based not only on ingenuity and hard work. The wealth of developed nations is also critically based on oppression and violence, including slavery and environmental degradation (greenhouse gas pollution very much included.)

The myth of meritocracy runs rampant in American culture.

It's important to realize that much of our material "success" is based not on merit - but instead on oppression and violence, on expropriation and exploitation.

The video:

The Story of Cap and Trade

Hope for the Earth and Moon

March 10, 2009
nearly full

What a special planet is this — this planet Earth...and with that big old moon going around — Wow!

Astounding to think of the planetary physics involved - and surely the moon has played in integral role in the development of life on Earth.

What a magical place, this planet Earth, with so much diverse life teeming about its surface.

I hope we can truly protect all life on Earth, and not squander the wealth of diversity...

(Did you know that there is currently a mass extinction in process - relating to human activities?)

Human beings are sacred. Part of that sacredness are the tremendous powers, which we bear: phsyical, emotional and mental (spiritual.)

Let's worship ourselves and each other, as the illumined beings we are - and recognize our power, our potential, our promise, and our responsibility.

Humanity has so much potential, it is sad to see the condition of humanity today. It is sad to see the destruction, the oppression, the exploitation (of Earth and each other), the violence, the various profligacies and tyrannies.

There is another way. I believe that humanity is capable of change. A world of peace, justice, sustainability, dignity and respect awaits.

Change begins within. Within the heart and mind of each one of us. Peace be with you on this journey.

inthecourseofevents.blogspot.com/2009/03/stimulating-economic-change.html

The Billionaires for Coal, yahoo!

The Billionaires for Coal: "It's not my problem!


Dispatches from the Coal Finance Day of Action Front (Updated 11-19-07)

Thoughts on Harmful Economic Activities

written on the sky:

I think it is wrong to reap private profit off of destructive activities. What do you think?

It's wrong to reap private gain from harmful activities. Sounds crazy, right? But it's really not. Maybe the reason it sounds extreme is because of how our society has turned into an incredibly harmful beast - a beast that it capable of destroying all life on the planet. That's a tremendous feat of engineering. We, as a society, are going in the wrong direction - and majorly so. We are hurting life, and those who live. Instead of damaging nature and hurting living creatures, we ought to be going in the direction of protecting and serving all life.

It's common sense. We're all part of one human family. Indeed, we are all part of one interconnected web, of which all life is part. So when there is imbalance in one area, there is imbalance in all areas.

I think that it is time for humanity to right its wrongs, to restore harmony in its relationships: in its relationships with itself, as well as in its relationship with the planet and all living creatures.

There is a strong need for balance. We all suffer while the fates of life on Earth and future generations of human beings hang in the balance.

Petroleum Water Pollution

In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of Indian Nations, by Jerry Mander

I am plugging this book because it is important, and it has significantly influenced my view of the world. In the book the author, Jerry Mander, delivers a skillful critique of technological culture and industrialized society. The basic thesis is that society lacks the philosophical underpinnings to be appropriately skeptical of the effects of technology - and therefore also lacks the perspective to be appropriately protective of itself (and of individuals) against the harmful effects of technology (and industrialization.) Modern industrialized society has taken the sacredness out of our social and individual relationships with the Earth. This has been detrimental to ourselves, to our societies, and to the Earth...

It doesn't have to be like this. Another way is possible. Check it out!

In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of Indian Nations, by Jerry Mander.

Here's a link to an interview that appeared in a 1991 issue of The Sun Magazine: "The Sun" interview with Jerry Mander, author of In the Absence of the Sacred

That's all for now.

A Sustainable Prosperity for All People

It is so sad that people put economic self-interest ahead of concern for the well-being of others. It has always been immoral to oppress, to exploit, to harm and injure, to enslave, to in any way put down others - either for economic self-interest or otherwise.

But while it has always been immoral and problematic - these injustices, however intolerable they were at the time, have never been a threat to the survival of human beings on the planet in the same way that they are now.

Ever since the industrial revolution, the impact of human activities on the world has increased at an ever expanding rate. The human population has grown many times over in the past 200 years. The level of human technology has developed at a phenomenal rate. So that now we are at a place in our development where we very seriously face a level of environmental degradation that has the potential to cast our very own species into a very problematic place.

Members of our species are engaged in fighting wars on massive scales, killing each other over control of land and resources.

In the past these wars were certainly destructive. But until the last few decades, these wars and industrial activities have not borne the capacity to put the survival of the human species in their cross-hairs of destruction.

What we have now is not only immoral, but impending economic/ecological disaster on a large scale. The air, water and land upon which we depend are being polluted. The pollution is of a scale that is threatening - it is threatening our survival on a very real level.

So change is no longer only a moral imperative. It's not only a matter of ethical values. It's not only about kindness and reciprocity. It's about economic reality. It's about survival.

It's sad that it has come to this. People are dying. If humans are so smart, why isn't society set up to serve life - and to serve people? Why do we have a society that is designed to serve capital? Why are we slaves to capital. It's bogus. And the only reason it's like this is so that some few can have power over so many.

People, we need to stand up and learn to take back control of our governmental institutions. We need to take our government, our society, our community, our culture, our lives, our loves, and our families back, to take it back from the giant corporations.

It's not just about morality and doing what is right. It's about survival. I want to confront the tyranny in our society. To confront the tyranny that is killing people, killing eco-systems, killing plant and animal species. Lay it out bare.

This society is a killing society, this economy is a killing economy. This culture is laying waste to the resources of this planet. Mineral resources are being consumed at an astronomical rate. Will our gifts to future generations survive a legacy of profligacy and tyranny?



The moral argument is strong. Society should never have gotten to this point - where people lie, and cheat, and steal from each other - where people abuse, and threaten, and beat up on, and kill each other. It shouldn't be this way. But now there is an economic imperative. There is the pressure of survival. There is the reality of pending energy shortages.

Something must be done.

A friend lent me a book I that I am interested in exploring in detail, it's called THE TRANSITION HANDBOOK: From oil dependency to local resilience, by Rob Hopkins, who is the Founder of the Transition movement.

I tend to think that the solution exists on the local level. So I probably already agree with most of what Hopkins has to say on this matter.

Well that's my socio/political/economic rant for the day.

To Save Our Republic: Stop Our Empire!

Precautionary Principle

According to Wikipedia, there are already some jurisdictions in Europe use the precautionary principle as a matter of policy. It would be great to get the precautionary principle into the legal structure here in the USA. I was alerted to this concept most recently by reading this article, First, Do No Harm, in the January/February 2006 issue of World Watch Magazine.



I found this copy of the magazine at the Free Store, which has all sorts of stuff that people drop off and leave for others to pick up for free.

Here's the Wikipedia precautionary principle article introduction:

The precautionary principle is a moral and political principle which states that if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of a scientific consensus that harm would not ensue, the burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking the action.[1] The principle implies that there is a responsibility to intervene and protect the public from exposure to harm where scientific investigation discovers a plausible risk in the course of having screened for other suspected causes. The protections that mitigate suspected risks can be relaxed only if further scientific findings emerge that more robustly support an alternative explanation. In some legal systems, as in the law of the European Union, the precautionary principle is also a general and compulsory principle of law.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle
date accessed: July 23, 2009

Stamets on Mycoremediation: Six Ways that Mushrooms Can Save the World

Stamets: "Save the old growth forest as a matter of national defense."



Using fungi to ameliorate toxins in the environment. That's Awesome!

Computers

I recently got a new computer. It's great. It's so much faster than my old one, which is about 5 years old now. Last night I was up late, enjoying the new processing power. Before going to sleep, I went outside. It was very late at night (or early in the morning.) The air smelled so good. It was like perfume. Amazing. Wonderful! It was like there were flowers everywhere.

Then I thought of my new computer, which was the reason I was up so late. I thought of what it might smell like outside of the factory in China where it was made. What does it smell like, I wonder. I wonder what it smells like inside the factory too, and also in the neighborhoods and homes where people who work in the factory live.

Anyway, I am thankful for the new computer, and I only hope that I can use it for truly beneficial purposes, for the benefit of myself, as well as the benefit of all humankind and the planet. Toward sustainability, health, and reconciliation - in peace - Berd

Photos from Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

79 images from an afternoon at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge on the Brown Farm Loop Trail

A Low Impact Woodland Home

Check out this awesome eco-engineering home building project: A Low Impact Woodland Home

Wildlife Refuge on the Nisqually

This is from a very beautiful area of the Puget Sound, where the Nisqually river, which originates upon the majestic snow-clad slopes of Mount Rainier, meets the salt water of the Puget Sound, connecting with the world Ocean beyond...

There is a wonderful 5.5 mile loop trail around what was once a farm. The loop trail is scheduled to close in an effort to further ecological restoration. Gorgeous place.

Bursting Flower

"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." - Aldo Leopold

Water World

I had hoped to attend tonight's City Council Meeting to talk about a couple different topics related to water. Well there wasn't a meeting. Anyway, the water related topics: one relates to the maintenance of an Artesian Well in downtown Olympia. The other relates to the restoration of the Deschutes River Estuary.

The Artesian Well is used by a wide variety of community members. It is an attractor, serving to bring people to downtown Olympia. It is also a critical resource for people who need access to the water, for whatever reason. I believe that access to safe, clean, potable water is a human right. The well is important for a number of reasons. Water is a critical element in life, including that of humans. Protecting this community resource, this tremendous community asset, is important. Water is a symbol of our common humanity. It is something we all share. Our bodies are composed of roughly on the order of 70% water. Many people from all socio-economic strata and backgrounds use the well. So let's honor this important community resource and do what it takes to ensure continuing open and free access to this wonderful and magical free-flowing Artesian well water.

Secondly, on the issue of the CLAMP, I am curious about how the City of Olympia is approaching the matter of the Capitol Lake. My understanding is that some deliberations are taking place, or did take place, last week. On this issue I feel it is the right move to work toward restoration of the estuary. This society has committed massive damages against the natural environment. For example, wild salmon runs are decimated. The opportunity to restore the estuary is just that, an opportunity—and an excellent way to move forward as a community in terms of environmental remediation, restoration of an important natural ecosystem, and amelioration of harms relating to our relationship with the natural world.

Peace, Berd