seeds of freedom -or insanity
December 20, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Stop! take the 30-min to tune into this vital look at the story of seeds from GAIA FOUNDATION and AFRICAN BIODIVERSITY NETWORK, narrated by jeremy irons . . .
( be sure to watch in full-screen. click on expand arrows between “HD” and “vimeo”, lower right corner of video window )
check the site SEEDS OF FREEDOM
The nonhuman world was seen as a collection of objects to be exploited not as subjects to be communed with. We have continued this exploitation in these past four centuries with such passion that the devastation has flowed over into the larger dimensions of the planet, and now we are at a planetwide impasse as regards human consumption and Earth limits. These two are on a collision course. ( thomas berry’s THE SACRED UNIVERSE: EARTH, SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY, ipad kindle loc 1572/2110 )
from shattering earth mother warning . . .
December 12, 2012 § 1 Comment
This moving invitation to all the Americas -south, central, north- from the indigenous kogi people of colombia’s sierra nevada de santa marta, on this special calendar date of 12/12/12.
close by mother-in-full
( gift from amparo -my special gang-of-six colombian friend, i pass along this special invitation to you, dear blog reader, as my own pagamento in our mirroring internet firmament )
We Mamos ( shamans ) of the Kogi people invite you to sow Anugwe with us in Mother Earth (Seynekan), and deeply in our very selves too. It is our pagamento ( offering ) to her.
Anugwe cannot be maintained if it is not accompanied by commensurate behavior on our part. The spirituality that reigns in our Mother impregnates us and is tinged in turn by our own actions.
Plants or animals are not the ones that distort that spirituality, because they follow her naturally. We can too through our coherence, our unconditional love, our adherence to the word, our intentions, and our attitudes. When we sow the Anugwe in Mother Earth we harmonize with her, express our inner love -the unconditional one, the one that respects her laws of nature.
We align mind, soul, and inner self. We take an amethyst stone in one hand and an ambar stone in the other. We invoke Arwaviku, Father of Intuition; I’narwa, Father of Food; Sokakurwa, Father of Plants & Animals; and Geinigeka, Father of Energy and Spiritual Strength -present altogether in Kankurwa, our cosmic universal temple.
We ask these spiritual masters to cleanse and harmonize the energies of Mother Earth in the four directions, the four colors, the four elements, and the four essences of being- physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
We invite you to follow this our Mamos ritual with us. Or prepare your own pagamento for Mother Earth using fruits, seeds, flowers, and / or personal belongings of your own choosing. During your meditation, keep that pagamento close. After the ceremony, sow it in the ground -your very own Anugwe- where it can remind you of the presence of Mother Earth- her harmony and her unconditional love.
watch BBC’s 1990 one-&-a-half hour from the heart of the world – the elder brothers warning, a deeply meditative consideration of kogi earth-wisdom.
watch the three-&-a-half minute preview of ALUNA, BBC’s updated 2012 production of the kogi lost civilization and their message to us, their ” younger brothers “.
Now we find ourselves in a period of the greatest disturbance that the Earth has ever known, a period when survival of both the human and natural worlds in their present modes of being is threatened. The identification of our human fate with the destiny of the planet was never more clear. . … Now a new sequence of liturgical celebrations is needed. Even more than moments of seasonal renewal, these moments of cosmic transformation must be considered sacred. … First among these celebrations might be a celebration of the emergent moment of the universe itself. This was the beginning of religion just as it was the beginning of the world. The human mind and all its spiritual capacities began with this moment. ( ipad kindle loc 1477/2110 in thomas berry’s THE SACRED UNIVERSE: EARTH, SPIRITUALITY, AND RELIGION IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY )
come home, earthlings!
November 25, 2012 § 2 Comments
SACRED UNIVERSE shows the way like none other i’ve read
one must-read
this is hard
yes of course, she moves me
beautiful shots of mother -the colors,
textures, sweep who can ignore
then those places loosely heard tell
someone now describing in moving detail
places where ma most hurts -those melting poles
there’s been undeniable science
pointing to horrendous overstepping
facts hard-&-fast, the evidence ever mounting
so much of all of that
to blog about here
to take in, digest
even breakthrough guides
like brave go-it-aloner james lovelock
father of holy cow, she’s alive!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
and then there’s thomas berry
1st thought: my god!
how come so long to hear this prophet?
talk about she moves me!
does mother ever move him!
words rung clear as chiming matins
THE SACRED UNIVERSE to be sure, but
not just religion any more
not even earth by herself
let’s start with alienation
ok, one hellofa way to start
but clearly the one we chose
here in the west straight from day one
say, so-called enlightenment day. and on those heels
industrial revolution: enslavement days
thence our god, our land
even our constitution, our very one-another
look around to see -what’s left??
but berry doesn’t leave us there
takes us back to places deep-known
a great looking back w/o going back!
no way i can summarize this work for you
so here on out, in blog posts to come
rattling-pillar quotes -as they have my own
meantime please, if you haven’t already, and
if still hobbling on this trek with me
do pick up thomas berry and see for yourself
insights original, work that glows
sure to change your life on earth
can’t now imagine other way to get going . . . !
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The future must be felt as already present. Humans cannot long sustain ecstatic bliss that is the culmination of all great cultural traditions. If this is not granted in the immediacy of the present in its legitimate reality then we will seek illusory fulfillment in whatever ways are available to us. We must live in paradise not tomorrow but today.
. . . The primordial symbolism and the spiritual disciplines of the ancient traditions were not ephemeral productions of passing human fancy. They are tough and enduring realities capable of carrying the weight of the centuries and the larger hopes and destinies of humankind. They are more real and more needed today than ever before if human life is to have the serenity and vigor required to move the peoples and civilizations of the world into deeper integration with earth processes.
( loc 575-579/2110 on my ipad kindle )
What is needed is a new pattern of rapport with the planet. Here we come to the critical transformation needed in the emotional, aesthetic, spiritual, and religious orders of life. Only a change that profound in human consciousness can remedy the deep cultural pathology manifest in such destructive behavior.
. . . The poets and artists can help restore this sense of rapport with the natural world. It is this renewed energy of reciprocity with nature in all its complexity and remarkable beauty that can help provide the psychic and spiritual energies necessary for the work ahead.
( loc 634-637/2110 )
five bold ways to build a new world
May 25, 2012 § Leave a Comment
we can do this thing . . .
* small is beautiful
* marx 2.0
* systems work
* webbish world
* reform, revolt, or evolve
A MUST-READ FOR US ALL, last in alternet’s 5-arcticle series by sara robinson.
there is a way ! . . .
May 22, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Beyond the big, bad corporation
. . . and what’s happening to change this arrangement
six films for earth day
April 22, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Here reviewed by scot thill of alternet 4/19/12 . . .
surviving progress
Co-executive produced by Martin Scorsese and co-directed by Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks, this meditative documentary examines humanity’s currently crucial crossroads between self-wrought runaway consumption, rapacious economics and natural resource exhaustion through the prism of so-called technological progress. Anchored in author Ronald Wright’s 2004 Massey Lectures series A Short History of Progress and fleshed out by theoretical physicist cyborg Stephen Hawking, dystopian sci-fi author Margaret Atwood, famed primatologist Jane Goodall and others, the visually impressive Surviving Progress analyzes what it will take to dodge a global collapse that is priced into the future thanks to short-sighted past and present mistakes.
It’s a poetic analysis, with a spare score that cedes ground to its visionary subjects, and their destabilizing subject matter. But it’s also an optimistic exploration, holding out hope that humanity’s exponential technological development can discover solutions to stave off what Hawking calls the next two centuries of natural and social disasters we’ll have to negotiate to survive as a species. Some answers come from Craig Venter’s Synthetic Genomics, which is scouring the planet’s oceans for microbes whose genes can help us “write software for life.” Others can be found in the internet, which Surviving Progress posits as our interconnected planetary brain. If you’re looking for a fiery polemic, Surviving Progress, opening in April, is not the film for you. But if you’re looking for a sweeping think piece, welcome to the machine.
the island president
Earlier this February, Mohammed Nasheed — the Mandela of the Maldives, who like his forebear has spent much of his life being tortured in prison — was allegedly forced from his presidency by gunpoint. A month later, The Island President, a documentary exploring Nasheed’s campaign to reverse climate change in order to save the low-lying Maldives from being swallowed by inevitable sea rise, finally debuted in a United States that probably couldn’t even locate his country on a Google map. Even so, The Island President’s award-winning political and environmental intrigue still managed to capture the consciences of its viewers, critics and even his own country.
Although director Jon Shenk’s documentary takes place in a remote corner of climate change’s evolving dystopia, it remains a cautionary tale for any nation that thinks its elections are clean and its political and economic priorities are being properly addressed and administered. And the show goes on with Nasheed’s one-time ally, vice-president and Stanford graduate Mohammed Hassan — whose own brother fingered him for helping oust Nasheed in a coup — now sweating uncomfortably in global warming’s hot seat. He’ll soon be joined by politicians at the center of power webs in places Americans do know, like Miami, New York and others subject to the ravages of sea rise.
bidder 70
( see also my blog entry on tim de christopher, 8/1/11 )
After bidding on 14 parcels of pristine Utah public land near national parks and landmarks during a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction, Tim DeChristopher was taken into custody by federal agents and sentenced to two years in prison by judge Dee Benson, a controversial George H.W. Bush appointee.
Award-wininng director team Beth and George Gage’s Bidder 70 tells the compelling, infuriating tale of DeChristopher’s conscientious civil disobedience, and the ludicrous legal ruling that has kept him behind bars for longer than anyone involved in the Deepwater Horizon spill or the global economic recession, tragedies much more deserving of judicial overreach. Despite the fact that his brilliant stunt allowed the incoming Obama administration to invalidate the auction altogether in lieu of adequate environmental review, the uncompromising DeChristopher is still unfairly incarcerated, awaiting his moment of triumphant redemption. One fervently hopes that Bidder 70 brings that moment much closer than his scheduled release date of April 21, 2013, which is perhaps not accidentally a day shy of Earth Day.
( no trailer; linked movie site viewed separately )
You’ll have a hard time finding the sobering Chasing Ice in the malls, as it’s still on the competitive documentary circuit. But one thing is for sure: There’ll be even less ice to find when director Jeff Orlowski’s documentary about climate change and vanishing glaciers finds foreign and domestic theatrical distribution later this year. Chasing Ice is produced by the team that brought you the dolphin horror documentary The Cove, and it’s just as arresting, as it follows acclaimed National Geographic photographer James Balog to the Arctic in search of something that won’t melt away before our eyes.
Balog’s project to photograph the region’s warming climate is not called the Extreme Ice Survey for nothing. For the last five years, it has mounted 30 time-lapse cameras across three continents to chronicle the jaw-dropping loss of Arctic sea ice, drawing a sharp, immediate focus on the ramifications of that nearly unprecedented warming. The EIS has published these results in National Geographic, but the still photographs are nothing compared to the existential terror and environmental beauty of Chasing Ice, one of 2012′s most important documentaries. Watch it by any means necessary.
( linked trailer viewed separately )
Chasing Ice may be a more wide-ranging documentary analysis of the entire Arctic region, but it is To the Arctic’s tale of a mother polar bear and her twin cubs that is getting the 70mm IMAX treatment this April. It’s also boasting narration from Meryl Streep, as well as songs from Paul McCartney, in case you were looking for further pop crossovers. But this is not to say that To the Arctic is a lightweight crowd-pleaser.
Directed by outdoor IMAX filmmaker Greg MacGillivray, To the Arctic is an eye-popping exploration that hangs its environmental message on three live animal leads, hoping their modest story of solitary survival can teach us all a lesson about living in an interdependent system at the mercy of the natural world’s disruptively real-time changes. That it does so in stunning visual fashion doesn’t derail that message, so much as couch it in an empathy perhaps more suitable to a much less cynical era. But if every parent in the world took their kids to see To the Arctic instead of The Lorax, the world might be in a lot less of a mess.
FACING THE STORM: STORY OF THE AMERICAN BISON
( linked trailer viewed separately )
Being extraordinarily large nomads who like to graze on open land, bison stick out of our light-speed 21st-century technopolis like sore reminders of times long past. For this reason and others, we haven’t been able to stop killing them. Or worse, privileging the unsustainable factory-farming of cattle, consumption of which drastically raises our chances of illness and death, all while hypocritically crying about the tragic loss of the West in the process. This April, Public Broadcasting System’s Independent Lens series airs High Plains Films’ Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison as a timely remainder of this historically problematic human-animal relationship.
It’s an intricate analysis, brought to life by archival imagery, original animation and wildlife photography that will hopefully compel its viewers to get out of their cubicles into open spaces where existence takes on more dimensional meaning. Facing the Storm also examines not just the ages-old battle between cattle ranchers and Native Americans and like-minded conservationists, but also suspicious domestication strategies designed to strip bison of their nomadic instincts altogether, so that we may better contain and eat them.
another movie must-see . . .
April 12, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Robert Kennedy Jr, with a lifetime of environmental protection, takes on Massey Coal in West VA.
here is one powerful, if last-minute, bid for Mother
THE LAST MOUNTAIN
rich nations: stop subsidising fosfuel industry!
December 8, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Now here’s an idea whose time’s definitely overdue . . .
Lord Stern: rich nations should stop subsidising fossil fuel industry | Environment | The Guardian.
just who feeds who?
greenhouse gasses soar
November 22, 2011 § Leave a Comment
. . . No signs warming is slowed
terse, shocking update by AP reporter seth borenstein
WASHINGTON (AP) — Heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are building up so high, so fast, that some scientists now think the world can no longer limit global warming to the level world leaders have agreed upon as safe.
New figures from the U.N. weather agency Monday showed that the three biggest greenhouse gases not only reached record levels last year but were increasing at an ever-faster rate, despite efforts by many countries to reduce emissions.
As world leaders meet next week in South Africa to tackle the issue of climate change, several scientists said their projections show it is unlikely the world can hold warming to the target set by leaders just two years ago in Copenhagen.
“The growth rate is increasing every decade,” said Jim Butler, director of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Monitoring Division. “That’s kind of scary.”
Scientists can’t say exactly what levels of greenhouse gases are safe, but some fear a continued rise in global temperatures will lead to irreversible melting of some of the world’s ice sheets and a several-foot rise in sea levels over the centuries — the so-called tipping point.
An artist specialised in aerial art, John Quigley, travelled to the region on board a Greenpeace ice breaker and reproduced da Vinci's most famous drawing -- depicting a man in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart -- some 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the North Pole. The artwork, which Quigley entitled "Melting Vitruvian Man", measures the equivalent of four Olympic-size swimming pools. The man's two arms and one leg have been cut off, symbolically melting into the sea to illustrate the disappearing ice. Quigley used copper strips normally used to create solar panels to recreate the 500 year-old drawing. "Literally climate change is eating into the body of our civilisation," the artist explained in a video clip published by Greenpeace.
The findings from the U.N. World Meteorological Organization are consistent with other grim reports issued recently. Earlier this month, figures from the U.S. Department of Energy showed that global carbon dioxide emissions in 2010 jumped by the highest one-year amount ever.
The WMO found that total carbon dioxide levels in 2010 hit 389 parts per million, up from 280 parts per million in 1750, before the start of the Industrial Revolution. Levels increased 1.5 ppm per year in the 1990s and 2.0 per year in the first decade of this century, and are now rising at a rate of 2.3 per year. The top two other greenhouse gases — methane and nitrous oxide — are also soaring.
The U.N. agency cited fossil fuel-burning, loss of forests that absorb CO2 and use of fertilizer as the main culprits.
Since 1990 — a year that international climate negotiators have set as a benchmark for emissions — the total heat-trapping force from all the major greenhouse gases has increased by 29 percent, according to NOAA.
The accelerating rise is happening despite the 1997 Kyoto agreement to cut emissions. Europe, Russia and Japan have about reached their targets under the treaty. But China, the U.S. and India are all increasing emissions. The treaty didn’t require emission cuts from China and India because they are developing nations. The U.S. pulled out of the treaty in 2001, the Senate having never ratified it.
While scientists can’t agree on what level of warming of the climate is considered dangerous, environmental activists have seized upon 350 parts per million as a target for carbon dioxide levels. The world pushed past that mark more than 20 years ago.
Governments have focused more on projected temperature increases rather than carbon levels. Since the mid-1990s, European governments have set a goal of limiting warming to slightly more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above current levels by the end of this century. The goal was part of a nonbinding agreement reached in Copenhagen in 2009 that was signed by the U.S. and other countries.
Temperatures have already risen about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius) since pre-industrial times.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors Ron Prinn, Henry Jacoby and John Sterman said MIT’s calculations show the world is unlikely to meet that two-degree goal now.
“There’s very, very little chance,” Prinn said. “One has to be pessimistic about making that absolute threshold.” He added: “Maybe we’ve waited too long to do anything serious if two degrees is the danger level.”
Andrew Weaver at the University of Victoria, Granger Morgan of Carnegie Mellon University and Gregg Marland of Appalachian State University agreed with the MIT analysis that holding warming to two degrees now seems unlikely.
“There’s no way to stop it. There’s so much inertia in the system,” Morgan said. “We’ve committed to quite a bit of warming.”
Prinn said new studies predict that if temperatures increase by more than two degrees, the Greenland ice sheets will start an irreversible melting. And that will add to sea level rise significantly.
“Over the next several centuries, Greenland slowly melts away,” Weaver said.
___
Online:
World Meteorological Organization’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin: http://bit.ly/vu04vB
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Annual Greenhouse Gas Index: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/aggi/
we’ll get thru this too
November 21, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Some good news about what’s ahead
in the very long run! . . .
crossing the bering strait
by Daily Mail Reporter, 11/20/11
Climate change over the past two million years has boosted human evolution by forcing us to adapt to changing conditions and allowing us to migrate to new areas. Researchers found that far from hindering our development, periods when the earth is either cooling or warming up have actually been highly beneficial. As well as prompting us to migrate, changes in climate have also forced humans to evolve culturally by encouraging us to learn to work together.
Far from hindering human development scientists now believe periods of climate change helped us evolve. Experts from the National History Museum and Cambridge University have identified five key time periods when shifts in global climate have resulted in accelerated social and genetic evolution.
The first began around two million years ago when a prolonged dry period caused forests to disappear leading to the emergence of Homo erectus – an early human adapted to running and hunting on the grassy plains.
The next major development came during the ice age which began 450,000 years ago during which scientists believe human beings were split into three separate groups. European humans evolved into Neanderthals while Asian humans evolved into Denisovans.
Those remaining on the African subcontinent evolved into modern human beings but this group had to wait until around 60,000 years ago when a prolonged warm spell allowed them to spread north. Then a sustained cold period between 25,000 and 15,000 years ago caused further changes as the freezing temperatures caused a 330ft drop in sea levels allowing humans to cross the Bering land bridge into North America.
Wild fluctuations in climate between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago prompted another period of change by forcing humans to develop agricultural techniques which enabled them to stabilise food supplies.
Chris Stringer of London’s Natural History Museum and author of The Origin of Our Species told the Sunday Times: ‘Climate change has been a major player in our evolution.’ The Royal Society is holding a conference this week where details of recent research will be released. The scientists are keen to point out they are not suggesting that modern global warming is beneficial. Rhiannon Stevens of Cambridge University who is co-organising the conference told the newspaper: ‘What intrigues them is the growing evidence that human evolution and climate change have been inextricably linked for hundreds of thousands of years.’
