Earth thought 132 of 365: I'm made like thunderclouds on days when my loved-ones hurt. Inner ecology -our heart-webbed realness.
Earth thought 133 of 365: 1970, 80, 90. We must come to terms with the impression that big universities and intellectuals have been as alive to the environment as drunken partygoers, puking with laughter in the bowl.
Earth thought 134 of 365: I am surprised that I have not heard more about the insurance industry being proactive about protecting the environment. You'd think it were in their interest to avoid environmental risk.
Earth thought 135 of 365: Allen Thompson talks about the importance of adapting humanity. He means adapting who we take ourselves to be -our self-conception composed of ideals and values. This needs adapting in the coming century to the new ecological limits we've encountered and will.
Earth thought 136 of 365: The issues that interest me most about Earth ethics concern how Earth's size, duration and intricacy pose a complex problem that exceeds us. Beyond my concern, I think I respect the intellectual challenge. There is also a kind of humility that interests me, although I am lacking the right word for it. This "humility" strikes me as wise, as the hook for much meaning even beyond its prudential nature.
Earth thought 137 of 365: The macro-perspective of geological time and global ecology makes it hard to keep in view, simultaneously, the human perspective. I look at a book bag I bought alongside my father –from Strand Books. On it, profiles of all different sorts of people. The warmth of that memory, which goes back to when I was young. The thought that every one of those faces has similar memories. From within each of our worlds, our loves are so intense, and it would be inhuman to forget them.
Earth thought 138 of 365: For the last two nights and tonight, the temperature has dipped, and will dip, below freezing. Three weeks ago, April saw the hottest day on record, at some 91 degrees. I have no idea if these extremes are climate change related -and we are forewarned not to generalize from such local fluctuations. But I am using what's happened to imagine what the Earth will be like: more extreme. And let's be real -these extremes this month are minor compared to what grandchildren of my generation will face when they are forty.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Earth thoughts 122-131
Earth thought 122 of 365: A person comes into the world. Plants unfurl, push, pod their way through the soil down and up. Wasps cycle out from winter into the open. Cats cry in heat. Small birds appear on branches next to big ones.
Earth thought 123 of 365: Like life, I am taking a break from thinking today.
Earth thought 124 of 365: There must be ecosystem know-how similar to handyman know-how. I'm not saying that ecosystems can simply be fixed by going to Ace Hardware and knowing how to "change them out". I mean that people who know lands must have a sense of how they fit together and of how to bring them back. This eco-handyman knowledge is the cool, practicalness of the 21st century. "Let's help the watershed in our neighborhood by building a rain-water catch."-?
Earth thought 125 of 365: George Vaillant summarizes the wisdom of the Harvard happiness study in his book, Aging Well. The Harvard happiness study is among the longest longitundinal studies of a single cohort in the world. Emotional and social maturity are the surprise keys to happiness in old age, not physical health, money, career success or social status in your community. Ecological connection is completely absent from the book, except in the case of one subject whose environmentalism is discussed under the rubric of his spirituality. One wonders about this -how can we count ourselves happy without feeling a part of our home, the Earth?
Earth thought 126 of 365: I sat on the floor with students last night, revising their semester-long work. Harried and laughing, once near tears, they tumbled out of the system with no time to lose. And we are like that, we post-students, with our home improvements and loan improvements, our tasks, competition, and dinners. We tumble out of life with barely time to lose. The Earth's lost in all this. So it is really on us, really our thing, to build in time to think about the Earth. If we don't put the Earth into our school systems, students will cascade beyond it. And so, too, with the big people, we so-called adults, who are supposed to be responsible for our generation.
Earth thought 127 of 365: Goodbyes are important, and we don't do them enough, even to the seasons, and certainly to species. Leopold made a famous goodbye to the passenger pigeon. I wonder if it would help, or be good, to have a goodbye center for lost species?
Earth thought 128 of 365: Some environmentalists used to say that we -Westerners- are being aggressive with the Earth. But that's too easy. It would assume we *recognize* a personal relationship with the Earth. And that has often been missing in modern life. So, no, not aggressive -oblivious.
Earth thought 129 of 365: The view from the top of my house is different than the view from the sidewalk. Things flatten out and expand at once. New details emerge - the patchwork of roofs, and the shuffle of trees in stretches of seamless canopy. Now imagine you go up, up, to migratory height. Cold air all about you. Swoosh!
Earth thought 130 of 365: I worked outdoors all day yesterday, which was good for my vitamin D. Because many moderns don't spend time outside, many of us are vitamin D deficient. This is one of those cases where the evolved body suggests a healthier way of life -outdoors, some, each day. The post-modern world should have space for life outside each day.
Earth thought 131 of 365: Last summer, I saw the strata that were once alive where I live now. Here was once under water -an ocean with strange, shelled life. These overlays are compelling in a way advertisements are not, for they do not seduce desire; they are coolish fact, simple in their objectivity; they say, "the world doesn't spin around you". They say, "you are becoming, and many of your desires are mistakes". They say, "settle down, settle down now, and be awash".
Earth thought 123 of 365: Like life, I am taking a break from thinking today.
Earth thought 124 of 365: There must be ecosystem know-how similar to handyman know-how. I'm not saying that ecosystems can simply be fixed by going to Ace Hardware and knowing how to "change them out". I mean that people who know lands must have a sense of how they fit together and of how to bring them back. This eco-handyman knowledge is the cool, practicalness of the 21st century. "Let's help the watershed in our neighborhood by building a rain-water catch."-?
Earth thought 125 of 365: George Vaillant summarizes the wisdom of the Harvard happiness study in his book, Aging Well. The Harvard happiness study is among the longest longitundinal studies of a single cohort in the world. Emotional and social maturity are the surprise keys to happiness in old age, not physical health, money, career success or social status in your community. Ecological connection is completely absent from the book, except in the case of one subject whose environmentalism is discussed under the rubric of his spirituality. One wonders about this -how can we count ourselves happy without feeling a part of our home, the Earth?
Earth thought 126 of 365: I sat on the floor with students last night, revising their semester-long work. Harried and laughing, once near tears, they tumbled out of the system with no time to lose. And we are like that, we post-students, with our home improvements and loan improvements, our tasks, competition, and dinners. We tumble out of life with barely time to lose. The Earth's lost in all this. So it is really on us, really our thing, to build in time to think about the Earth. If we don't put the Earth into our school systems, students will cascade beyond it. And so, too, with the big people, we so-called adults, who are supposed to be responsible for our generation.
Earth thought 127 of 365: Goodbyes are important, and we don't do them enough, even to the seasons, and certainly to species. Leopold made a famous goodbye to the passenger pigeon. I wonder if it would help, or be good, to have a goodbye center for lost species?
Earth thought 128 of 365: Some environmentalists used to say that we -Westerners- are being aggressive with the Earth. But that's too easy. It would assume we *recognize* a personal relationship with the Earth. And that has often been missing in modern life. So, no, not aggressive -oblivious.
Earth thought 129 of 365: The view from the top of my house is different than the view from the sidewalk. Things flatten out and expand at once. New details emerge - the patchwork of roofs, and the shuffle of trees in stretches of seamless canopy. Now imagine you go up, up, to migratory height. Cold air all about you. Swoosh!
Earth thought 130 of 365: I worked outdoors all day yesterday, which was good for my vitamin D. Because many moderns don't spend time outside, many of us are vitamin D deficient. This is one of those cases where the evolved body suggests a healthier way of life -outdoors, some, each day. The post-modern world should have space for life outside each day.
Earth thought 131 of 365: Last summer, I saw the strata that were once alive where I live now. Here was once under water -an ocean with strange, shelled life. These overlays are compelling in a way advertisements are not, for they do not seduce desire; they are coolish fact, simple in their objectivity; they say, "the world doesn't spin around you". They say, "you are becoming, and many of your desires are mistakes". They say, "settle down, settle down now, and be awash".
Friday, April 23, 2010
Earth thoughts 111-121
Earth thought 111 of 365: Our dream-like states spread out, and don't matter, on ecological time. Bad weather in our head clears into clear skies. The shakes run and tumble and then are part of rough nature, roped and rooted as it is. Our characters smooth out over decades, like rocks under water.
Earth thought 112 of 365: Powering down means living simply. This is not so hard to do, but it involves some tricks. One of them is to live in a big city. That shares services and reduces total transportation. Another is to fly less. A third is to have fewer kids. A fourth is to demand that law make industry pay for every bit of pollution it generates -to internalize the cost of pollution in our prices.
Earth thought 113 of 365: Today's a day I thank all the people who've helped me become who I am. Gratitude is an ecological virtue, too, because not only people but our planet have helped us become who we are.
Earth thought 114 of 365: Moral heroism needs new categories when it comes to environmental problems. Many come from tragedies of the commons, or from organizational decisions that put the future incrementally at risk. Moral environmental heroes need not to stop a bullet with their bodies or risk danger to protect human dignity -although they might. They need to be the ones who unlock the patterns imprisoning us, design responsible institutions and make laws in the complex practicality of politics. Our heroic categories are not yet suited to find such people, although they must be if we are to face the greatest risks to human flourishing in our future.
Earth thought 115 of 365: Small houses / live in big ones. / Take the room / upon the room, / your washed bowls / airing nightly on the rack. / Outside, the soil is made of histories, / speechless and unending / for all of human time. / Midnight's chime.
Earth thought 116 of 365: And now by the lake. Someone I love loves lakes. And so I am going to sit by a lake in her honor. So we honor the lake, that is, thank it, unassumingly.
Earth thought 117 of 365: Some days, there's no better way to feel part of the planet than to exercise.
Earth thought 118 of 365: Headaches -the internal ecology clogged in some way.
Earth thought 119 of 365: A loss is a vacuum. Rush to fill it. A loss is a gain.
Earth thought 120 of 365: The Earth seeps into music. We know that. Song & birdsong. But what are the ethical implications of this?
Earth thought 121 of 365: We are, sometimes sadly, sometimes happily, and mostly beautifully, like weather. Character is made by resisting it, but our moods are real, and, just as clouds swirl in or clear later, so small things can suddenly aggregate in our souls and become fast moving systems. Love is made of this, and also anger at the diffuse nuttiness of life, and also foreboding, and sometimes -more often than foreboding- the bright salvation of the day, groundless and optimistic like the sun.
Earth thought 112 of 365: Powering down means living simply. This is not so hard to do, but it involves some tricks. One of them is to live in a big city. That shares services and reduces total transportation. Another is to fly less. A third is to have fewer kids. A fourth is to demand that law make industry pay for every bit of pollution it generates -to internalize the cost of pollution in our prices.
Earth thought 113 of 365: Today's a day I thank all the people who've helped me become who I am. Gratitude is an ecological virtue, too, because not only people but our planet have helped us become who we are.
Earth thought 114 of 365: Moral heroism needs new categories when it comes to environmental problems. Many come from tragedies of the commons, or from organizational decisions that put the future incrementally at risk. Moral environmental heroes need not to stop a bullet with their bodies or risk danger to protect human dignity -although they might. They need to be the ones who unlock the patterns imprisoning us, design responsible institutions and make laws in the complex practicality of politics. Our heroic categories are not yet suited to find such people, although they must be if we are to face the greatest risks to human flourishing in our future.
Earth thought 115 of 365: Small houses / live in big ones. / Take the room / upon the room, / your washed bowls / airing nightly on the rack. / Outside, the soil is made of histories, / speechless and unending / for all of human time. / Midnight's chime.
Earth thought 116 of 365: And now by the lake. Someone I love loves lakes. And so I am going to sit by a lake in her honor. So we honor the lake, that is, thank it, unassumingly.
Earth thought 117 of 365: Some days, there's no better way to feel part of the planet than to exercise.
Earth thought 118 of 365: Headaches -the internal ecology clogged in some way.
Earth thought 119 of 365: A loss is a vacuum. Rush to fill it. A loss is a gain.
Earth thought 120 of 365: The Earth seeps into music. We know that. Song & birdsong. But what are the ethical implications of this?
Earth thought 121 of 365: We are, sometimes sadly, sometimes happily, and mostly beautifully, like weather. Character is made by resisting it, but our moods are real, and, just as clouds swirl in or clear later, so small things can suddenly aggregate in our souls and become fast moving systems. Love is made of this, and also anger at the diffuse nuttiness of life, and also foreboding, and sometimes -more often than foreboding- the bright salvation of the day, groundless and optimistic like the sun.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Earth thoughts 104-110
Earth thought 104 of 365: "From predicting inevitabilities to shouldering responsibilities." That should be the title of a chapter on the next decade. Well, we should make it so. It's not enough to “dict” around anymore with what will and will not happen to the environment. Time to change who we are.
Earth thought 105 of 365: "Let cards drop in responsibility!" So says a vivacious five year old I know. We've left it up to chance long enough, haven't we? Roller-coasting it along as if something *up ahead* would save us. But joyride existence doesn't make it into the adult camp. Don't count on some discovery, some engineering pulling us out of overshooting the Earth's ability to sustain us. It's not responsible.
Earth thought 106 of 365: It's not uncommon to hear young people blame technology for things such as climate change and the sixth mass extinction. But blaming technology mislocates our flaw as a species. Our flaw is our shortsightedness and potential to defect from cooperative action -in a way, how we become a here and now self, rather than a "we" that becomes a "humanity" across generations. And this is a more traditional flaw -selfishness, although not malicious selfishness. I call it "futz and impatience selfishness, with a dash of genuine 'me, me, me'"! We will need even technology to get out of it -to plan ahead and obtain long-range and wide information.
Earth thought 107 of 365: What many people seem to want, even need, is clear, practical advice concerning the environment. Not something preachy, but consultative. And based less on "shoulds" than on "goods". More than anything -advice that is mostly informative, with an edge of "if you want this, then do that".
Earth thought 108 of 365: The jump from issues of recognition to issues of environmental health can be jarring. We've become used to worrying about our identities, about whether people see us, or respect us, or understand each other. And then environmental concerns are like brute facts, like fixing the plumbing -they summon pragmatic attitudes and seem to pull us out of the dreamy and hurt state of focusing on human slights.
Earth thought 109 of 365: (I drove back to New York State today.) A State starts to fit you like broken in jeans. How can lands do that?
Earth thought 110 of 365: Powering down. When we've been taught to "power up" by our educational systems, media, and career expectations, it is hard to power down. But that is what our ecological task is for this century -to power down. Perhaps I should do a series of these thoughts on what it feels like, and is, to "power down".
Earth thought 105 of 365: "Let cards drop in responsibility!" So says a vivacious five year old I know. We've left it up to chance long enough, haven't we? Roller-coasting it along as if something *up ahead* would save us. But joyride existence doesn't make it into the adult camp. Don't count on some discovery, some engineering pulling us out of overshooting the Earth's ability to sustain us. It's not responsible.
Earth thought 106 of 365: It's not uncommon to hear young people blame technology for things such as climate change and the sixth mass extinction. But blaming technology mislocates our flaw as a species. Our flaw is our shortsightedness and potential to defect from cooperative action -in a way, how we become a here and now self, rather than a "we" that becomes a "humanity" across generations. And this is a more traditional flaw -selfishness, although not malicious selfishness. I call it "futz and impatience selfishness, with a dash of genuine 'me, me, me'"! We will need even technology to get out of it -to plan ahead and obtain long-range and wide information.
Earth thought 107 of 365: What many people seem to want, even need, is clear, practical advice concerning the environment. Not something preachy, but consultative. And based less on "shoulds" than on "goods". More than anything -advice that is mostly informative, with an edge of "if you want this, then do that".
Earth thought 108 of 365: The jump from issues of recognition to issues of environmental health can be jarring. We've become used to worrying about our identities, about whether people see us, or respect us, or understand each other. And then environmental concerns are like brute facts, like fixing the plumbing -they summon pragmatic attitudes and seem to pull us out of the dreamy and hurt state of focusing on human slights.
Earth thought 109 of 365: (I drove back to New York State today.) A State starts to fit you like broken in jeans. How can lands do that?
Earth thought 110 of 365: Powering down. When we've been taught to "power up" by our educational systems, media, and career expectations, it is hard to power down. But that is what our ecological task is for this century -to power down. Perhaps I should do a series of these thoughts on what it feels like, and is, to "power down".
Monday, April 5, 2010
Earth thoughts 96-103
Earth thought 96 of 365: When our life on Earth was sustainable (because we didn't have the technology or population to do much damage), a cyclical sense of time made sense. The seasons endlessly came and went. Species died of their own course. We were embedded in a universe of life that transcended us, timelessly circling.
Earth thought 97 of 365: Even though you may have had bad times in life, failed relationships, lost friends, bitter fights, ambivalent seasons - you can see all these as part of your life's play. Then, even the bitter is dear, not to repeat it, but because it belonged to your time. ... So, too, an ecological attitude hovers over all that have lived with us, doves and feral cats, red maple trees and brown grass -and clings to their meaning, both melancholy, and transcendent.
Earth thought 98 of 365: It is dark now, and beautiful. The rain ticks as the radiators click, bending slightly from the heat. I can hear small rivers outside.
Earth thought 99 of 365: The rise of romantic environmentalism coincided with the industrial revolution. Both were equally separated from ecology. The romantics made nature into a passive fantasy meeting our need for rest. And industry chugged on, confident in its exploitative technology. But there is the dynamic reality of life on Earth - only through our technology can we do anything like rest. Only on Earth's scales and cycles can we eventually work. Romantics and industrialists -two sides of a coin whose name is "ignorance".
Earth thought 100 of 365: I saw the bees yesterday. Dozens of them, toiling around a circular patch of yellow and purple Crocuses. Now I know that when the bees are out, the ecosystem is healthy. They will pollinate and pollinate, such as they do. It's Spring!
Earth thought 101 of 365: James Lovelock -without whom we wouldn't have stopped the ozone hole from widening. Discoverer that Earth is a self-regulating system of integrated feedback loops. He's telling us to sit back and enjoy ourselves, because we can't save the planet. Extreme global warming is foregone. But Lovelock's authority concerns what we can't do, not what we should. In his 90 years, he's had the chance to see that ethics is as subtle as ecology. Dr. Lovelock, now tough questions start, and they concern the quality of life -no thing we can find with an equation.
Earth thought 102 of 365: Surely, the best thing that happened to us as a result of evolution is not that we can think, but that we feel joy in relating.
Earth thought 103 of 365: I am beginning to look at the current world of life as a strangely empty version of what was here before humans developed such population and power. A few large animals live wild in New York State -a fragment of what lived here thousands of years ago, once the glaciers receded.
Earth thought 97 of 365: Even though you may have had bad times in life, failed relationships, lost friends, bitter fights, ambivalent seasons - you can see all these as part of your life's play. Then, even the bitter is dear, not to repeat it, but because it belonged to your time. ... So, too, an ecological attitude hovers over all that have lived with us, doves and feral cats, red maple trees and brown grass -and clings to their meaning, both melancholy, and transcendent.
Earth thought 98 of 365: It is dark now, and beautiful. The rain ticks as the radiators click, bending slightly from the heat. I can hear small rivers outside.
Earth thought 99 of 365: The rise of romantic environmentalism coincided with the industrial revolution. Both were equally separated from ecology. The romantics made nature into a passive fantasy meeting our need for rest. And industry chugged on, confident in its exploitative technology. But there is the dynamic reality of life on Earth - only through our technology can we do anything like rest. Only on Earth's scales and cycles can we eventually work. Romantics and industrialists -two sides of a coin whose name is "ignorance".
Earth thought 100 of 365: I saw the bees yesterday. Dozens of them, toiling around a circular patch of yellow and purple Crocuses. Now I know that when the bees are out, the ecosystem is healthy. They will pollinate and pollinate, such as they do. It's Spring!
Earth thought 101 of 365: James Lovelock -without whom we wouldn't have stopped the ozone hole from widening. Discoverer that Earth is a self-regulating system of integrated feedback loops. He's telling us to sit back and enjoy ourselves, because we can't save the planet. Extreme global warming is foregone. But Lovelock's authority concerns what we can't do, not what we should. In his 90 years, he's had the chance to see that ethics is as subtle as ecology. Dr. Lovelock, now tough questions start, and they concern the quality of life -no thing we can find with an equation.
Earth thought 102 of 365: Surely, the best thing that happened to us as a result of evolution is not that we can think, but that we feel joy in relating.
Earth thought 103 of 365: I am beginning to look at the current world of life as a strangely empty version of what was here before humans developed such population and power. A few large animals live wild in New York State -a fragment of what lived here thousands of years ago, once the glaciers receded.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Earth thoughts 88-95
Earth thought 88 of 365: What can one sacrifice to help leave the world undisrupted by our collective myopia? Of course, goods. Yet more importantly, what time? Ethicists talk about redistribution and frugality. They'd do better to discuss vocation.
Earth thought 89 of 365: And now the U.S. is about to have health care. It is about time! But will the U.S. also have environmental health? Not so long as the human world entire can spew more than 8 gigatonnes of C02 into the atmosphere yearly. Health care is a great victory. But the future health of hundreds of millions depends on climate legislation.
Earth thought 90 of 365: You say you have to think of your children, but you ignore your children by thinking they do not want a dad who has his heart on the Good.
Earth thought 91 of 365: So, is vice symmetry? (cf. 61) Is it holding others to what I should demand only of myself? True, it is my fault if I'm not conserving life. But without law, environmental problems won't be solved. The evolutionary record is clear -humans have a tendency to wipe out species around them and to overuse resources for present interests. Laws correct this tendency and introduce foresight. So, vice is a kind of asymmetry. It's a world where people can exploit the present to the detriment of species and the future.
Earth thought 92 of 365: "Law", however, needn't be what the State calls law. The ancient Greeks had a category called "nomos" -it included city law and also custom. And before nations arose, societies all around the world regulated their shared environment through customs. Eleanor Ostrom won the Noble Prize studying modern and local versions of customs used in some places long ago.
Earth thought 93 of 365: For at least ten thousand years -some say fifty- we have been eradicating species with our technology. _Homo sapiens_ thinks time and again for present gain, whatever our race, culture or civilization. Technology + population = dead species.
Earth thought 94 of 365: There is nothing misanthropic in telling it like it is. Any value judgment or hatred implies a second argument beyond the facts. Besides, it's misanthropic to deceive ourselves about ourselves. Love of humans depends on being truthful about ourselves. Such love is humble, and starts from where we really are.
Earth thought 95 of 365: The simplest way to not see change is to sit inside yourself and worry. The simplest way to see change is to start talking to friends, family and neighbors to find practical ideas that are such low-hanging fruit, you'd be silly not to pluck them. So, talk!
Earth thought 89 of 365: And now the U.S. is about to have health care. It is about time! But will the U.S. also have environmental health? Not so long as the human world entire can spew more than 8 gigatonnes of C02 into the atmosphere yearly. Health care is a great victory. But the future health of hundreds of millions depends on climate legislation.
Earth thought 90 of 365: You say you have to think of your children, but you ignore your children by thinking they do not want a dad who has his heart on the Good.
Earth thought 91 of 365: So, is vice symmetry? (cf. 61) Is it holding others to what I should demand only of myself? True, it is my fault if I'm not conserving life. But without law, environmental problems won't be solved. The evolutionary record is clear -humans have a tendency to wipe out species around them and to overuse resources for present interests. Laws correct this tendency and introduce foresight. So, vice is a kind of asymmetry. It's a world where people can exploit the present to the detriment of species and the future.
Earth thought 92 of 365: "Law", however, needn't be what the State calls law. The ancient Greeks had a category called "nomos" -it included city law and also custom. And before nations arose, societies all around the world regulated their shared environment through customs. Eleanor Ostrom won the Noble Prize studying modern and local versions of customs used in some places long ago.
Earth thought 93 of 365: For at least ten thousand years -some say fifty- we have been eradicating species with our technology. _Homo sapiens_ thinks time and again for present gain, whatever our race, culture or civilization. Technology + population = dead species.
Earth thought 94 of 365: There is nothing misanthropic in telling it like it is. Any value judgment or hatred implies a second argument beyond the facts. Besides, it's misanthropic to deceive ourselves about ourselves. Love of humans depends on being truthful about ourselves. Such love is humble, and starts from where we really are.
Earth thought 95 of 365: The simplest way to not see change is to sit inside yourself and worry. The simplest way to see change is to start talking to friends, family and neighbors to find practical ideas that are such low-hanging fruit, you'd be silly not to pluck them. So, talk!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Earth thoughts 79-87
Earth thought 79 of 365: "The message sent / was of discontent, / from incline to incline." Broadcast, "Echo's Answer", The Noise Made by People, 2000 (see Earth thought 73.)
Earth thought 80 of 365: In 0 A.D., the idea of unconditional love was radical and unprecedented. In 2010, sustaining the diversity of life is as radical as unconditional love. Give the ones up ahead many chances to be who they are, to not be shrunken by conditions.
Earth thought 81 of 365: The modern era was substantially defined by the ascendancy of physics. Physics was the norm of nature. But in the 21st century, Earth science matters more and should be our reference point, our privileged science. Physics is indifferent to life.
Earth thought 82 of 365: If communism had not messed up our minds, and capitalism hadn't wrecked our hearts, we would be able to grasp the Winter Asymmetry [cf. 61]. I am part of a process, and to give myself to it is the human thing to do. Of course, I won't force others to.
Earth thought 83 of 365: "I want Goodness in the world, for all." "I oppose the invisible assaults." "I will not sacrifice the future on the mechanized bureaucracy of the present." "I will not sacrifice children to my own selfishness or nationalism." These were true against totalitarianism; they are still true regarding the environment.
Earth thought 84 of 365: Food revolution or population devolution? The Green Revolution said we can find a way to feed everyone. But greens today speak differently: "Increasing our numbers won't do. We've overshooting Earth's ability to sustain our way of life, and each new life adds to climate change over its lifetime. Time for fewer new born, no more than two per couple on average. But how to bring that about, fairly?"
Earth thought 85 of 365: What joys are more powerful than a warm, sun-lit day after months of gray winter?
Earth thought 86 of 365: It's ironic how I always have an excuse for an airplane ride.
Earth thought 87 of 365: A conceivable human future is not one in which Earth's diversity of life can recover from a mass extinction. The last recovery took tens of millions of years. All of recorded human history is just ten thousand years.
Earth thought 80 of 365: In 0 A.D., the idea of unconditional love was radical and unprecedented. In 2010, sustaining the diversity of life is as radical as unconditional love. Give the ones up ahead many chances to be who they are, to not be shrunken by conditions.
Earth thought 81 of 365: The modern era was substantially defined by the ascendancy of physics. Physics was the norm of nature. But in the 21st century, Earth science matters more and should be our reference point, our privileged science. Physics is indifferent to life.
Earth thought 82 of 365: If communism had not messed up our minds, and capitalism hadn't wrecked our hearts, we would be able to grasp the Winter Asymmetry [cf. 61]. I am part of a process, and to give myself to it is the human thing to do. Of course, I won't force others to.
Earth thought 83 of 365: "I want Goodness in the world, for all." "I oppose the invisible assaults." "I will not sacrifice the future on the mechanized bureaucracy of the present." "I will not sacrifice children to my own selfishness or nationalism." These were true against totalitarianism; they are still true regarding the environment.
Earth thought 84 of 365: Food revolution or population devolution? The Green Revolution said we can find a way to feed everyone. But greens today speak differently: "Increasing our numbers won't do. We've overshooting Earth's ability to sustain our way of life, and each new life adds to climate change over its lifetime. Time for fewer new born, no more than two per couple on average. But how to bring that about, fairly?"
Earth thought 85 of 365: What joys are more powerful than a warm, sun-lit day after months of gray winter?
Earth thought 86 of 365: It's ironic how I always have an excuse for an airplane ride.
Earth thought 87 of 365: A conceivable human future is not one in which Earth's diversity of life can recover from a mass extinction. The last recovery took tens of millions of years. All of recorded human history is just ten thousand years.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Earth thoughts 70-78
Earth thought 70 of 365: Do parents of the Big Cause sacrifice their children to It's More Important? O.k.: what cause is the grandchildren of your children's children's children?
Earth thought 71 of 365: In the future, one way to have a morally acceptable large family is by adoption. The children are already alive; better to care for them. To those couples wishing large families, then, we might say, "Have your two biological children, which is sustainable, and then adopt as many more as you can handle well."
Earth thought 72 of 365: When Christ went wild into the wilderness after being dunked into the river by the madman John the Baptist (Mark 1:9-13), he lived for "forty days" with "the wild beasts" and was finally ministered to by "angels". Here's a story of how wilderness calms the soul. The rhythms of beasts returned heart to the massively anxious breast. After that, Christ found his calling.
Earth thought 73 of 365: "The mountain mind / from invisible time. / I am next in line." - Broadcast, "Echo answers", The Noise Made by People, 2000
Earth thought 74 of 365: When I was a teenager, hanging out in the May air with nothing major to do and enjoying the sound of trees, I didn't realize that we were wrecking the environment. Its transcendence was a vast assumption.
Earth thought 75 of 365: Is it insignificant that you don't walk to work, or don't turn the thermostat to 62 instead of 67 degrees? Well, it won't make a noticeable difference in the climate. And yet, because millions don't do what you won't do, we do make a noticeable difference in the climate. The key is to think of yourself as part of a group, even a team. And you are failing the group's responsibility to others if you don't do your part. Slacker. You should be benched!
Earth thought 76 of 365: Being sick is a reminder of how our bodies are ecosystems organized by our form. The virus upsets the interdependences and disorganizes us.
Earth thought of 365: "I like it when I'm simple." Her thought after watching ice break off on the shore of Lake Ontario.
Earth thought 78 of 365: Many philosophy books are like kids with toys, forgetting that they are like kids with toys. Better either to be the kid or to be the adult. But how do adults write? "Adult" is an ethical category. It implies maturity. Adults have a life that they soak in, which is bigger than them, and which they have acquired the responsibility to protect. It is not a matter of toying with that life, but of discerning the many-textured meaning in it that should be enjoyed and preserved, and sometimes developed. Life is like a calm morning, then, in the sun; philosophy like the light that seeps through shutters and rests on the wall in warm patterns.
Earth thought 71 of 365: In the future, one way to have a morally acceptable large family is by adoption. The children are already alive; better to care for them. To those couples wishing large families, then, we might say, "Have your two biological children, which is sustainable, and then adopt as many more as you can handle well."
Earth thought 72 of 365: When Christ went wild into the wilderness after being dunked into the river by the madman John the Baptist (Mark 1:9-13), he lived for "forty days" with "the wild beasts" and was finally ministered to by "angels". Here's a story of how wilderness calms the soul. The rhythms of beasts returned heart to the massively anxious breast. After that, Christ found his calling.
Earth thought 73 of 365: "The mountain mind / from invisible time. / I am next in line." - Broadcast, "Echo answers", The Noise Made by People, 2000
Earth thought 74 of 365: When I was a teenager, hanging out in the May air with nothing major to do and enjoying the sound of trees, I didn't realize that we were wrecking the environment. Its transcendence was a vast assumption.
Earth thought 75 of 365: Is it insignificant that you don't walk to work, or don't turn the thermostat to 62 instead of 67 degrees? Well, it won't make a noticeable difference in the climate. And yet, because millions don't do what you won't do, we do make a noticeable difference in the climate. The key is to think of yourself as part of a group, even a team. And you are failing the group's responsibility to others if you don't do your part. Slacker. You should be benched!
Earth thought 76 of 365: Being sick is a reminder of how our bodies are ecosystems organized by our form. The virus upsets the interdependences and disorganizes us.
Earth thought of 365: "I like it when I'm simple." Her thought after watching ice break off on the shore of Lake Ontario.
Earth thought 78 of 365: Many philosophy books are like kids with toys, forgetting that they are like kids with toys. Better either to be the kid or to be the adult. But how do adults write? "Adult" is an ethical category. It implies maturity. Adults have a life that they soak in, which is bigger than them, and which they have acquired the responsibility to protect. It is not a matter of toying with that life, but of discerning the many-textured meaning in it that should be enjoyed and preserved, and sometimes developed. Life is like a calm morning, then, in the sun; philosophy like the light that seeps through shutters and rests on the wall in warm patterns.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Earth thoughts 62-69
Earth thought 62 of 365: Youth is self-assertion. It will give nothing up. But in mid-age, different thoughts scramble through the night, like bones. What good will I have done by being alive? Then conscience is more important than mineness. Then the I identifies with the process of life that has existed more than a billion years.
Earth thought 63 of 365: Hold both the child I love and The Long It Matters in my mind? In an unhelpful culture, one thinks of one's own with a selfish voice. The child, though, knows better. "What if the world is sick, mama? I don't want the world to be sick, mama."
Earth thought 64 of 365: It's hard to know whether ecological literacy or cultivating responsibility in students is more important to the Earthliness of our educational system, but I would side with the latter.
Earth thought 65 of 365: Individualism in the 70's made the world inside the rage. Meanwhile, around us all, industrial production spewed junk into the sky.
Earth thought 66 of 365: "All one needs is a system. Once a day, to do some small thing. Fill a glass of water from the tap. Flush it down the toilet -only that. The world would have to change." (Tarkovski, The Sacrifice). Inner work changes outer life, indirectly.
Earth thought 67 of 365: "What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality." ~Plutarch
Earth thought 68 of 365: These thoughts are a glass of rain poured down a storm drain daily. Writing should shape me, slowly, across the year. How? I catch the self drizzling down from my consumeristic culture ... and let it go.
Earth thought 69 of 365: When youth protects intrinsic value and old age sees beyond itself, the two are one.
Earth thought 63 of 365: Hold both the child I love and The Long It Matters in my mind? In an unhelpful culture, one thinks of one's own with a selfish voice. The child, though, knows better. "What if the world is sick, mama? I don't want the world to be sick, mama."
Earth thought 64 of 365: It's hard to know whether ecological literacy or cultivating responsibility in students is more important to the Earthliness of our educational system, but I would side with the latter.
Earth thought 65 of 365: Individualism in the 70's made the world inside the rage. Meanwhile, around us all, industrial production spewed junk into the sky.
Earth thought 66 of 365: "All one needs is a system. Once a day, to do some small thing. Fill a glass of water from the tap. Flush it down the toilet -only that. The world would have to change." (Tarkovski, The Sacrifice). Inner work changes outer life, indirectly.
Earth thought 67 of 365: "What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality." ~Plutarch
Earth thought 68 of 365: These thoughts are a glass of rain poured down a storm drain daily. Writing should shape me, slowly, across the year. How? I catch the self drizzling down from my consumeristic culture ... and let it go.
Earth thought 69 of 365: When youth protects intrinsic value and old age sees beyond itself, the two are one.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Earth thoughts 57-61
Earth thought 57 of 365: "Managers think in the short run[,] because they are evaluated by both their superiors and peers on their short term results." (R. Jackall, Moral Mazes, 2010, p. 89). So managers exploit the present, often to the detriment of the future. Until we plan for profit beyond the quarterly return, will our system run the Earth down?
Earth thought 58 of 365: Cormac McCarthy's The Road is supposed to show Old Testament toughness, and I've likened it to a premonition of environmental apocalypse. But to look on the future that pessimistically is just as sinful as to think everything will be hunky-dory.
Earth thought 59 of 365: "Industry and real estate are equally part of nature." Yes, physically. Seen by Earth science, however, they use and are used up on a different temporal scale than life. They don't take part in many positive feedback loops found in the wild, either. They are not yet, geobiologically, natural.
Earth thought 60 of 365: The pragmatists hold sway. How will conserving life serve us? Even the "virtue theorists" sound similar. Why is goodness beneficial? Does it fill out a narrow life's sense? I give up.
Earth thought 61 of 365: The Winter Asymmetry*. "I will not sacrifice another, nor let others sacrifice me, but I choose to make sacrifices." [*The expression is in honor of my grandma Keymer; see Earth thought 54.]
Earth thought 58 of 365: Cormac McCarthy's The Road is supposed to show Old Testament toughness, and I've likened it to a premonition of environmental apocalypse. But to look on the future that pessimistically is just as sinful as to think everything will be hunky-dory.
Earth thought 59 of 365: "Industry and real estate are equally part of nature." Yes, physically. Seen by Earth science, however, they use and are used up on a different temporal scale than life. They don't take part in many positive feedback loops found in the wild, either. They are not yet, geobiologically, natural.
Earth thought 60 of 365: The pragmatists hold sway. How will conserving life serve us? Even the "virtue theorists" sound similar. Why is goodness beneficial? Does it fill out a narrow life's sense? I give up.
Earth thought 61 of 365: The Winter Asymmetry*. "I will not sacrifice another, nor let others sacrifice me, but I choose to make sacrifices." [*The expression is in honor of my grandma Keymer; see Earth thought 54.]
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Earth thoughts 49-56
Earth thought 49 of 365: The Ignatian approach to sin asks the self-examiner to discover missed opportunities in life. "Sin", after all, is from a humble Greek word meaning "off the mark". It's no diabolic word. An interesting thing is that the environment is the opportunity that makes most opportunities possible. So to mistreat the environment and make it unhealthy is to sin many sins.
Earth thought 50 of 365: Is it human nature to be short-sighted, to think mostly of one's own life and those of one's kids or grandkids? How do we think ten generations ahead? Human creativity is meant for problems like these.
Earth thought 51 of 365: My end is another's beginning.
Earth thought 52 of 365: A city of open houses. Life passes through, like utopia. And yet this city is real, over a billion years old. The doorway is the species. A species is evolution's doorway for the ongoing stream of life. It is where evolution happens, what lets evolution through. When we make species extinct, we slam doors shut. Mass extinction closes most of the city for millions of years.
Earth thought 53 of 365: Every environmentalist should love valentine's day, for it is when we feel loved, and so fulfilled, that we stop chasing after material things and turn our minds to things that matter and outlast us, like the Earth.
Earth thought 54 of 365: Clarity. Planning and calculating and working the books are irrelevant. I look at life after remembering my grandmother, who died 9 years ago and whom I loved very much. Only the pure things stand out now, like branches in winter.
Earth thought 55 of 365: Has there ever been a movie about the environmental destruction caused by real wars?
Earth thought 56 of 365: Did we fully see the environmental devastation caused by "Shock and Awe" in Iraq? You would think, too, that sometimes the crater in the palm orchard shows how little we care about the palms of people's hands.
Earth thought 50 of 365: Is it human nature to be short-sighted, to think mostly of one's own life and those of one's kids or grandkids? How do we think ten generations ahead? Human creativity is meant for problems like these.
Earth thought 51 of 365: My end is another's beginning.
Earth thought 52 of 365: A city of open houses. Life passes through, like utopia. And yet this city is real, over a billion years old. The doorway is the species. A species is evolution's doorway for the ongoing stream of life. It is where evolution happens, what lets evolution through. When we make species extinct, we slam doors shut. Mass extinction closes most of the city for millions of years.
Earth thought 53 of 365: Every environmentalist should love valentine's day, for it is when we feel loved, and so fulfilled, that we stop chasing after material things and turn our minds to things that matter and outlast us, like the Earth.
Earth thought 54 of 365: Clarity. Planning and calculating and working the books are irrelevant. I look at life after remembering my grandmother, who died 9 years ago and whom I loved very much. Only the pure things stand out now, like branches in winter.
Earth thought 55 of 365: Has there ever been a movie about the environmental destruction caused by real wars?
Earth thought 56 of 365: Did we fully see the environmental devastation caused by "Shock and Awe" in Iraq? You would think, too, that sometimes the crater in the palm orchard shows how little we care about the palms of people's hands.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Earth thoughts 38-48
Earth thought 38 of 365: Environmental problems are well suited to Immanuel Kant's 'categorical imperative'. "What if everyone did that?" is the kind of thought that leaps from S.U.V. driving straight to global warming without any questionable causality in between.
Earth thought 39 of 365: What candle on what boat do you float out into the future? Will the trees be entwined around your love? Lake and shore, forest and night.
Earth thought 40 of 365: A clear face in fresh water, Lake Ontario. She's happier than I've ever seen her. Don't say the elements have nothing to do with this. Don't stop your identity at your body's edge. The lake swells as you in it, and drift clouds shift inside you in the sun.
Earth thought 41 of 365: Believing that virtue will one day bring happiness, for Kant, is an article of rational faith. Being reasonable, we must believe in a world where good people are happy -rather than the irresponsible hedonists. Or reason is senseless. A thought worth holding out as we head into the environmental chaos of this century.
Earth thought 42 of 365: Travel has become about friends and about sights. But what if travel were also an opportunity for world-mapping? Take your maps and internal maps with you next time, and see if you can feel the stretch of the Earth.
Earth thought 43 of 365: I don't know about you, but on very cold nights, I wonder how well the homeless are doing.
Earth thought 44 of 365: Would we be more concerned about our health in the environment if we were less enveloped by machines that make most of our functions seem smooth and effortless? If we had to fix broken things more often with our own hands?
Earth thought 45 of 365: The old, old things will calm you down.
Earth thought 46 of 365: Emotion, and music, and air, and rhythm - these can open a void for words, a ripening void, for words.
Earth thought 47 of 365: "Everything is backwards now. The true life is out there, while in here is the dream." (Avatar). This is the sensibility of someone who becomes aware of his alienation from all of life.
Earth thought 48 of 365: The surface. Human selfishness and self-absorption are a normal part of life. The undertow. No, they are not. They are part of a fundamentally alienated culture, a world of machines bent on exploitation of people, planets, and time. The pebble bottom. What is deepest in being human, our potential for connection with the world of life and with each other...
Earth thought 39 of 365: What candle on what boat do you float out into the future? Will the trees be entwined around your love? Lake and shore, forest and night.
Earth thought 40 of 365: A clear face in fresh water, Lake Ontario. She's happier than I've ever seen her. Don't say the elements have nothing to do with this. Don't stop your identity at your body's edge. The lake swells as you in it, and drift clouds shift inside you in the sun.
Earth thought 41 of 365: Believing that virtue will one day bring happiness, for Kant, is an article of rational faith. Being reasonable, we must believe in a world where good people are happy -rather than the irresponsible hedonists. Or reason is senseless. A thought worth holding out as we head into the environmental chaos of this century.
Earth thought 42 of 365: Travel has become about friends and about sights. But what if travel were also an opportunity for world-mapping? Take your maps and internal maps with you next time, and see if you can feel the stretch of the Earth.
Earth thought 43 of 365: I don't know about you, but on very cold nights, I wonder how well the homeless are doing.
Earth thought 44 of 365: Would we be more concerned about our health in the environment if we were less enveloped by machines that make most of our functions seem smooth and effortless? If we had to fix broken things more often with our own hands?
Earth thought 45 of 365: The old, old things will calm you down.
Earth thought 46 of 365: Emotion, and music, and air, and rhythm - these can open a void for words, a ripening void, for words.
Earth thought 47 of 365: "Everything is backwards now. The true life is out there, while in here is the dream." (Avatar). This is the sensibility of someone who becomes aware of his alienation from all of life.
Earth thought 48 of 365: The surface. Human selfishness and self-absorption are a normal part of life. The undertow. No, they are not. They are part of a fundamentally alienated culture, a world of machines bent on exploitation of people, planets, and time. The pebble bottom. What is deepest in being human, our potential for connection with the world of life and with each other...
Friday, January 29, 2010
Earth thoughts 28-37
Earth thought 28 of 365: "In what sorts of places do they sleep?" (Bernard Williams, Truth & Truthfulness, p. 24). Covered from the elements, or open to them, on occasion. In climes they make livable, if they can. In areas free of disruption, when possible, with their suckling young.
Earth thought 29 of 365: Earthgirl/Earthboy -the new punk. S/he cuts the bullshit on Mom & Dad's dumb world. Thinks, "Cosmokids are stupid: they ride too many planes. (And live online, not on Earth.)" S/he eats local, patches her own clothes. Adopts-a-species. Acoustic poets vote drives against sell-out politicians.
Earth thought 30 of 365: Find your body like it is. Why do you abuse it? It is clear with elements, funny, sticky, sweet. When your mind runs calm like water, why do you pour any other liquid in? Or movement, your animal friend, why do you leave it out? Away from the consumer world! Toward the origin body!
Earth thought 31 of 365: One view of Haiti is that the people are mostly peaceful while the aid agencies are fearful, afraid to distribute aid. (Matthew Price, BBC, 22 Jan.). What are the grounds for assuming environmental disaster will occasion vicious behavior?
Earth thought 32 of 365: On busy days, the Earth is hard to remember. Who has time for space & time, when you have no space & time? That is why habits are important: turning off lights, shutting off water, not idling or gunning the car. And these habits mold your mind: out with the wasteful companies and politicians!
Earth thought 33 of 365: Save yourself a child now, and you save a future child.
Earth thought 34 of 365: "I heard the ocean on the shore. The ruins of Europe in back of me." (Heiner Muller, Hamletmaschine) Self-destructiveness can take many forms. One is intentional -the most infamous. But another is unintentional, the result of omission. Our environmental situation is like that form.
Earth thought 35 of 365: "Environmental crisis" -shouldn't we be impatient? Yet, in a way, impatience is a cause of the crisis. Patience with what really sits well in our consciences, settling into home, will create a more careful world.
Earth thought 36 of 365: Now is a day for experience. When have you last spent an hour in water? If you can reach an ocean, do it. Or a lake. Even a pool. Or a small tub, letting your foot float in its original element.
Earth thought 37 of 365: And water. Drink it from the tap, if you can, or a bottle. It tastes clear. ... Many people today cannot find clean water. In the future, even more will be unable to, due to water shortages from climate change.
Earth thought 29 of 365: Earthgirl/Earthboy -the new punk. S/he cuts the bullshit on Mom & Dad's dumb world. Thinks, "Cosmokids are stupid: they ride too many planes. (And live online, not on Earth.)" S/he eats local, patches her own clothes. Adopts-a-species. Acoustic poets vote drives against sell-out politicians.
Earth thought 30 of 365: Find your body like it is. Why do you abuse it? It is clear with elements, funny, sticky, sweet. When your mind runs calm like water, why do you pour any other liquid in? Or movement, your animal friend, why do you leave it out? Away from the consumer world! Toward the origin body!
Earth thought 31 of 365: One view of Haiti is that the people are mostly peaceful while the aid agencies are fearful, afraid to distribute aid. (Matthew Price, BBC, 22 Jan.). What are the grounds for assuming environmental disaster will occasion vicious behavior?
Earth thought 32 of 365: On busy days, the Earth is hard to remember. Who has time for space & time, when you have no space & time? That is why habits are important: turning off lights, shutting off water, not idling or gunning the car. And these habits mold your mind: out with the wasteful companies and politicians!
Earth thought 33 of 365: Save yourself a child now, and you save a future child.
Earth thought 34 of 365: "I heard the ocean on the shore. The ruins of Europe in back of me." (Heiner Muller, Hamletmaschine) Self-destructiveness can take many forms. One is intentional -the most infamous. But another is unintentional, the result of omission. Our environmental situation is like that form.
Earth thought 35 of 365: "Environmental crisis" -shouldn't we be impatient? Yet, in a way, impatience is a cause of the crisis. Patience with what really sits well in our consciences, settling into home, will create a more careful world.
Earth thought 36 of 365: Now is a day for experience. When have you last spent an hour in water? If you can reach an ocean, do it. Or a lake. Even a pool. Or a small tub, letting your foot float in its original element.
Earth thought 37 of 365: And water. Drink it from the tap, if you can, or a bottle. It tastes clear. ... Many people today cannot find clean water. In the future, even more will be unable to, due to water shortages from climate change.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Earth thoughts 20-27
Earth thought 20 of 365: Beyond the ego, there is the vastness of the universe and the beautiful anonymity of life that exceeds anyone's identity.
Earth thought 21 of 365: As Bruce Sterling -and Norbert Elias- noted, we think pre-modern man was foul and dirty -unhygienic. But in the 23rd century, if civilization hasn't collapsed, people will look back and think us filthy. We wallow in our own, invisible pollution. Hide it. Ship it to poor countries. Let it float through air unseen.
Earth thought 22 of 365: The devastation in Haiti is a reminder of how the environment can exceed us and of how we can be tested to show common humanity when it does. So let us show common humanity.
Earth thought 23 of 365: "Next to [the] living are the dead. Covered in blankets, their ash-covered limbs poke from beneath makeshift shrouds." (Nick Davis, BBC, 14.1.10) Ashes to earthquakes, ashes. And in the middle, the chance to help others now and up ahead. The sobering interval of Earth life.
Earth thought 24 of 365: The paradox of cities. They are the most sustainable: services shared, density reducing transportation. Yet our mentality in them stands in the way of sustainability, living as if the Earth is invisible -finding our biggest problem by fashion, art, money, relationship, even tolerance. But none of these can be without the Earth. So we need cities. Yet their society absorbs us.
Earth thought 25 of 365: Knife fights in Haiti over food, water. Darfur broken open by desertification -genocide overlying scarce land. These worry me when I think of how climate change hits the world system. That some guy like me, somewhere even now, will think he must learn how to defend his family with a gun.
Earth thought 26 of 365: For all the talk of fear and disaster, perhaps the best way to focus ourselves on the future, and on goodness, is to cultivate our love for specific people now. For who would want her child to suffer, or her grandchild? And looking into someone you love erases vice better than terror.
Earth thought 27 of 365: I need a literature that speaks to me and makes me feel at home on Earth. Neither philosophy, which argues impersonally, nor poetry, which fantasizes, nor religion, which preaches. A voice like a family member's, reflective at the pace of Earth time, arising with the part of us that isn't destructive or blind.
Earth thought 21 of 365: As Bruce Sterling -and Norbert Elias- noted, we think pre-modern man was foul and dirty -unhygienic. But in the 23rd century, if civilization hasn't collapsed, people will look back and think us filthy. We wallow in our own, invisible pollution. Hide it. Ship it to poor countries. Let it float through air unseen.
Earth thought 22 of 365: The devastation in Haiti is a reminder of how the environment can exceed us and of how we can be tested to show common humanity when it does. So let us show common humanity.
Earth thought 23 of 365: "Next to [the] living are the dead. Covered in blankets, their ash-covered limbs poke from beneath makeshift shrouds." (Nick Davis, BBC, 14.1.10) Ashes to earthquakes, ashes. And in the middle, the chance to help others now and up ahead. The sobering interval of Earth life.
Earth thought 24 of 365: The paradox of cities. They are the most sustainable: services shared, density reducing transportation. Yet our mentality in them stands in the way of sustainability, living as if the Earth is invisible -finding our biggest problem by fashion, art, money, relationship, even tolerance. But none of these can be without the Earth. So we need cities. Yet their society absorbs us.
Earth thought 25 of 365: Knife fights in Haiti over food, water. Darfur broken open by desertification -genocide overlying scarce land. These worry me when I think of how climate change hits the world system. That some guy like me, somewhere even now, will think he must learn how to defend his family with a gun.
Earth thought 26 of 365: For all the talk of fear and disaster, perhaps the best way to focus ourselves on the future, and on goodness, is to cultivate our love for specific people now. For who would want her child to suffer, or her grandchild? And looking into someone you love erases vice better than terror.
Earth thought 27 of 365: I need a literature that speaks to me and makes me feel at home on Earth. Neither philosophy, which argues impersonally, nor poetry, which fantasizes, nor religion, which preaches. A voice like a family member's, reflective at the pace of Earth time, arising with the part of us that isn't destructive or blind.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Earth thoughts 1-19
Earth thought 1 of 365: Our moral thought is too individualistic. It lacks economic, organizational, and ecological context.
Earth thought 2 of 365: Our actions are inconsequential, but our patterns are not. To think of our action as part of a pattern that leads to ecological stress or collapse.
Earth thought 3 of 365: Promissory justice -the Earth's given us a chance to live; do we act to show we deserve it? (Compare: You're given a job; does your work show you are deserving of it?)
Earth thought 4 of 365: We used to experience the sky's vastness as unaffected by us. Now its vastness is different -a slow moving effect we can't really steer, although we can steer ourselves.
Earth thought 5 of 365: There is a gap between character and consequence. Decent, responsible people produce horrible consequences (the sixth mass extinction, toxicity, climate change).
Earth thought 6 of 365: We focus on things like this ("Israel resembles a failed state", Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 27 December 2009), instead of on the ecological threat to billions in the future, because injustice now cries out. But what if we -even Israel and oppressed Palestine- heard the far future cries?
Earth thought 7 of 365: It is foul weather. Do I stop to think how lucky I am when it's good weather? But even foul weather is still livable. How can gratitude for the livable permeate my day?
Earth thought 8 of 365: A symptom of philosophy's blindness -the question, who am I?, has been asked for thousands of years, mainly without starting from the environment.
Earth thought 9 of 365: "My head is on fire.". Why not, "My head is a radiator"? Elements are smoother in their analogies, more evocative. Why?
Earth thought 10 of 365: Some say the Earth has a fever, caused by us. It will sweat us out. We warm the globe, the Gulf Stream stops, Europe gets covered in ice. Why aren't these nursery rhymes a part of everyday life?
Earth thought 11 of 365: Identification and ecological knowledge are different. We identify with the Earth in countless ways; we scarcely understand it.
Earth thought 12 of 365: Is it a waste to scale ourselves back, to be generous to the future? "Invest now, count on the market to adjust. We will profit, fund innovation." But generosity isn't a small virtue, like thrift. It is a great one. Focus on the loss there'd be to children years from now in a dead planet.
Earth thought 13 of 365: When environmental refugees stream over the border into the United States, as countless as drops of water in a stream, it will be too late to halt runaway climate change. Let us stop it now, then, so those poor people do not suffer.
Earth thought 14 of 365: The look on my parents' faces the night before their 45th anniversary. People who have grown together into Love. And money makes little difference beyond modest means, and status likewise is only moderately important. And, and. You would think we'd approach our planet like this, from the perspective of the memorable and the Significant.
Earth thought 15 of 365: People today hold so many different views of the good life. Still, the Earth is the biggest overlapping consensus. Everyone with a life plan needs it -whatever one's view. Shouldn't it, then, be basic to a theory of justice? Communists, liberals, capitalists, religious fanatics, even slackers all need the Earth.
Earth thought 16 of 365: "I heard kids playing today in the playground next to traffic. They were saying, 'One skip, two skip, three skips warm. All our towns are under storms. Oceans up, oceans down, oceans everywhere we drown.'" Then I woke up in the pollution-filled morning.
Earth thought 17 of 365: A society of organized irresponsibility is ill-fit to deal with the environment. When the economy is milked to death by leaders who are bailed out, given bonuses, and who then become the leaders of bail out corporations, and when the government encourages this, how can we count on foresight? People are reckless with impunity.
Earth thought 18 of 365: Thrift and generosity align in your loins. The thrifty loin gives the future a chance. Overpopulation strangles the Earth's ebullient life.
Earth thought 19 of 365: The sixth mass extinction is caused by us. How should we represent the loss in it? Not just the loss of this species or that. The loss of families and genera of species -unlike the extinctions in the history of life on Earth. A species is like a poem. But we are erasing whole genres of genetic creativity. We are burning whole sections of nature's library.
Earth thought 2 of 365: Our actions are inconsequential, but our patterns are not. To think of our action as part of a pattern that leads to ecological stress or collapse.
Earth thought 3 of 365: Promissory justice -the Earth's given us a chance to live; do we act to show we deserve it? (Compare: You're given a job; does your work show you are deserving of it?)
Earth thought 4 of 365: We used to experience the sky's vastness as unaffected by us. Now its vastness is different -a slow moving effect we can't really steer, although we can steer ourselves.
Earth thought 5 of 365: There is a gap between character and consequence. Decent, responsible people produce horrible consequences (the sixth mass extinction, toxicity, climate change).
Earth thought 6 of 365: We focus on things like this ("Israel resembles a failed state", Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 27 December 2009), instead of on the ecological threat to billions in the future, because injustice now cries out. But what if we -even Israel and oppressed Palestine- heard the far future cries?
Earth thought 7 of 365: It is foul weather. Do I stop to think how lucky I am when it's good weather? But even foul weather is still livable. How can gratitude for the livable permeate my day?
Earth thought 8 of 365: A symptom of philosophy's blindness -the question, who am I?, has been asked for thousands of years, mainly without starting from the environment.
Earth thought 9 of 365: "My head is on fire.". Why not, "My head is a radiator"? Elements are smoother in their analogies, more evocative. Why?
Earth thought 10 of 365: Some say the Earth has a fever, caused by us. It will sweat us out. We warm the globe, the Gulf Stream stops, Europe gets covered in ice. Why aren't these nursery rhymes a part of everyday life?
Earth thought 11 of 365: Identification and ecological knowledge are different. We identify with the Earth in countless ways; we scarcely understand it.
Earth thought 12 of 365: Is it a waste to scale ourselves back, to be generous to the future? "Invest now, count on the market to adjust. We will profit, fund innovation." But generosity isn't a small virtue, like thrift. It is a great one. Focus on the loss there'd be to children years from now in a dead planet.
Earth thought 13 of 365: When environmental refugees stream over the border into the United States, as countless as drops of water in a stream, it will be too late to halt runaway climate change. Let us stop it now, then, so those poor people do not suffer.
Earth thought 14 of 365: The look on my parents' faces the night before their 45th anniversary. People who have grown together into Love. And money makes little difference beyond modest means, and status likewise is only moderately important. And, and. You would think we'd approach our planet like this, from the perspective of the memorable and the Significant.
Earth thought 15 of 365: People today hold so many different views of the good life. Still, the Earth is the biggest overlapping consensus. Everyone with a life plan needs it -whatever one's view. Shouldn't it, then, be basic to a theory of justice? Communists, liberals, capitalists, religious fanatics, even slackers all need the Earth.
Earth thought 16 of 365: "I heard kids playing today in the playground next to traffic. They were saying, 'One skip, two skip, three skips warm. All our towns are under storms. Oceans up, oceans down, oceans everywhere we drown.'" Then I woke up in the pollution-filled morning.
Earth thought 17 of 365: A society of organized irresponsibility is ill-fit to deal with the environment. When the economy is milked to death by leaders who are bailed out, given bonuses, and who then become the leaders of bail out corporations, and when the government encourages this, how can we count on foresight? People are reckless with impunity.
Earth thought 18 of 365: Thrift and generosity align in your loins. The thrifty loin gives the future a chance. Overpopulation strangles the Earth's ebullient life.
Earth thought 19 of 365: The sixth mass extinction is caused by us. How should we represent the loss in it? Not just the loss of this species or that. The loss of families and genera of species -unlike the extinctions in the history of life on Earth. A species is like a poem. But we are erasing whole genres of genetic creativity. We are burning whole sections of nature's library.
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