Nature: The Universal Soul Salve

Out in nature is where I feel the best. All is as it should be here.

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens and nature. 

Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.”

- Anne Frank

Pity The Poor Billionaires

Pity the poor billionaires. The world is not as enamoured with them as it once was, and the moneyed are upset that they don't know where they stand any more. Are they winners, or wicked? 

Even though we traditionally measure success by how much money you have amassed, and they have more than anyone, a shift has occurred. We are starting to see these funded folks more as a global liability than the blessing that they consider themselves to be.

Show me a billionaire and I will show you someone that got to the top of the heap by way of tax evasion, environmental destruction, corruption, low paid workers, and a host of other questionable and outright criminal behaviours.

One study found that if the 3000 largest corporations had to pay for all the damage they were responsible for, none of them would be profitable. 

The companies in question were responsible for $2.15 trillion dollars in environmental damages in 2008 alone. One year. But wait, there is more.

We also have to include the $4.7 trillion per year in health care and social costs, lost ecosystem services and pollution.

In other words, if companies really did put people and the planet before anything else, there would be no profits. The "profits" can only be made through the exploitation of both the people and the planet.

Then there is corporate malfeasance, which outright steals untold trillions of dollars more from the global economy. All of this only to make a small group of people insanely wealthy. 

Can the world afford billionaires? Are such individuals a net benefit for society? Or are they a danger to themselves and others? 

Money hoarding can be a sign of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, so if we do what some suggest, and eliminate the status of billionaire (not to be confused with eliminating people that are billionaires), we might be doing the billionaires themselves a favour.

There is no use hoarding all that cash if people don't respect what you do, or how you do it. 

We can see that the little men behind the curtain that have been operating the gears and levers of the billionaire assembly line, really only want love, just like the rest of us. They just don't know how to get it.

What a frustrating, yet humbling, moment that must be for them.

All 2229 of them.

No, we don't envy you. We pity you. 

You are wicked, and now you are a bunch of whiners, too. A former coffee company CEO, seeing where the whole thing is headed, is now asking us to call him and his fellow hoarders "people of means" rather than the now increasingly pejorative "billionaires". 

So I say to them, 

"People of means, please seek help before you destroy everything, including yourselves. Maybe, in the end, you will find the love you obviously want, but don't know how to get through normal, healthy means."

There is indeed nothing better than love, is there? Not even billions and billions of dollars.

Keep Buying, Everything Will Be Fine

Don't worry. Keep buying, and be happy... sort of.

I keep hearing that "the consumer is doing the heavy lifting" for the economy, that they are "holding up", and "aren't fatigued yet". Isn't this backwards?

I remember a time when the economy worked for the people, existed for the people, functioned for the people. Now, the people work for the economy. Now, nothing is more important than the economy.

So we get the following situations:

The environment is generally collapsing... but the consumer is still buying.

Manufacturing is down... but the consumer is still buying.

There is a "Retail Apocalypse"... but the consumer is still buying.

There is a global political crisis... but the consumer is still buying.

Depression and suicide have reached depressing proportions... but the consumer is still buying.

We are getting fatter and less fit... but the consumer is still buying.

Everything is breaking down, but not to worry - the consumer is still buying.

If I understand this correctly, as long as we keep buying, everything will appear to be fine. The only disaster that could befall the world that would actually matter is if The Consumer stopped buying. 

If The Consumer even dared to slow their acquisitional frenzy, there would be an immediate emergency declared that would require special and intense activity to repair. 

We would need to really DO something in that case. We wouldn't want to put the billionaire lifestyle at risk now, would we?

"I buy, therefore I am", will be the new motto to live by if the economic manipulators get their way. Today's Consumers will be tomorrow's Buybots.

So don't worry about all those pesky and unimportant emergencies scientists and environmental activists keep making up, just keep buying. 

Everything will be fine. Well, the economy will be fine, at least, and what is more important than that?

That is the system as it exists, and I'm not buying it. Our planetary community needs something better, and soon.

Stupefied By Nature

I am frequently astounded by the beauty found in my own backyard.

"Attention, if sudden and close, graduates into surprise; and this into astonishment; and this into stupefied amazement."

- Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals


I never cease to be surprised, astonished and amazed by the natural beauty I find right in my own backyard. I have moments of being stupefied by what I witness.

At these moments, I am rendered speechless, and am beyond thought and logic. All one can do in this state of being overwhelmed with amazement is feel, absorb, and soak up the moment. 

It is beyond reason. 

I don't ask, "Why is mushroom?", I just let it all go and enjoy being in the Here and Now with the fungi. We are one.

It is not complicated. All one must do is place ones self in Nature, and it will do the rest.

Pay attention, and be stupefied with amazement at the beauty that reveals itself. It is everywhere all the time, but we often fail to recognize it. When we do, it is a life changing experience because once seen, it can't be unseen.

When you recover, think about the fact that we ARE Nature. That connection should help us guide all of our decisions and behaviours, because what we do to Nature, we do to ourselves.

The Economy Needs You To Increase Your Consumption... Forever

The economy needs you to increase your consumption. Forever. That is the only way our economy can function, or rather, lurch and fumble from one crisis to another.

Eventually, because the Earth does not have infinite resources to harvest, we will hit Peak Consumption. Perhaps we have hit it already. 

In my own life, my personal peak consumption was years ago, and my consumption graph has been falling ever since. So how is it that I have never been happier? 

A developed economy is dependent on the practice of infinite consumption and infinite growth. No growth means everything breaks down. Even if Gross Domestic Happiness does not grow, the economy must go on.

If the consumer does not increase their purchases year after year after year, the economy is immediately headed for trouble. Consumer confidence is The Thing since a modern economy depends to a large degree on The Consumer.

Think you don't have power? In the USA and Canada up to 70% of the economy is based on what you buy. Want to change things? Start altering your purchasing habits, and the system will notice right now.

Or just do you patriotic duty and keep on buying stuff until we experience total collapse.

Don't have money? Not to worry - the system will lend you some at a 25% interest rate.

Don't need anything? Nonsense. There is always something to desire and buy. The infinite growth consumer model makes sure of that. 

One Planet Living

A lot of people want to know what they can do personally to address the many threats to our environment. I do, too. 

A lot is said about how we have mistreated our life support system, but not much in the way of what can be done to reverse the decline. 

Some think that the system that created the problems can be trusted to solve them. But isn't green capitalism an oxymoron? Capitalism only works with infinite growth, and planet destroying infinite growth is not green. 

Anyone calling for system change, though, is seen as a radical on the fringe and summarily denounced.

What is needed now is a broad perspective that allows us to address our entire system, especially population, lifestyle and consumption.

Sooner rather than later, we will have to discuss strategies for One Planet Living.  It is not a radical notion. Rather, it is the only way to live on one planet.

The following is from "Why We Must Talk About Population" by Erik Assadourian.

One-Planet Living 

In Is Sustainability Still Possible?, Jennie Moore and William Rees explored what a one-planet lifestyle would look like (in a world with 7 billion not 9.5 billion) and their analysis shows that if we lived within Earth’s limits, gone would be the days of driving personal vehicles, flying, eating meat, living in large homes, and essentially the entire consumer society that we know today. 

Frankly, that’s fine with me, considering the ecological, social and health costs of modern society—but most will not accept that. And considering that—and that policymakers and economists and even most environmentalists still believe further economic growth is possible and even beneficial—it’s increasingly hard to imagine any scenario other than a horrifying ecological collapse in our future.

System change, not climate change. 

While we are working that, it would be helpful to start living like we only had one planet to depend on. 

That is something we can all do now.

Consuming Experiences Is Still Consumption

More than 75% of Millennials surveyed would rather purchase a desirable experience or event rather than a desirable trinket, item, doodad or things.

Before we give them too much credit for getting off the buying crap train, we should consider that consumerism also packages and pushes the purchase of experiences. 

These processed experiences and events also have an environmental impact, just like more tangible things like golf clubs and bar soap. 

When does a bucket list become another high impact shopping list? 

Moving forward we will be living lifestyles that don't centre on consumerism, regardless of what is being sold. Most of the stuff won't matter, and neither will the desirable experiences and events.

Unless, of course, those experiences include a farm stay to learn gardening, learning to mend and fix things, taking a walk in the neighbourhood, or acquiring a new set of skills for lower footprint living.

Having said that, this late boomer is in full support of Millennials altering the way they live and enjoy life. I support the ways they are changing the way we look at everything. Many in this generation are disruptors, and I love a little disruption.

I look forward to hearing from GenZ and their attitudes to stuff and experiences. Wouldn't it be something if 75% of Zeds surveyed would rather buy nothing at all? 

Another survey showed that 83% of GenZ respondents say that saving for the future is important, so maybe conspicuous consumption, and spending like there is no tomorrow as a way of life, is on the way out.

I can only hope that these generations will decide that they won't be the ones to put the final nails in our collective coffin, and denounce consumerism for the failed experiment that it is.

Will they "Be better"? That would be the ultimate, one item bucket list.

True Colours

The green pigment in leaves, a substance called chlorophyl, masks underlying colours that we don't normally see. 

In the fall, as chlorophyl diminishes due to shorter days and less heat, we see a leaf's true colours shining through.

We see their true colours, and that's why we love them.

So, like the leaves, we should not be afraid to let ours show. 




 



Our true colours.

True colours are beautiful

Like a rainbow.

- with apologies to Billy Steinberg, Tom Kelly and Cyndi Lauper
 

What Each Of Us Does Makes A Difference

If what we do as individuals doesn't matter, how does this happen?

A common reason for inaction against a world gone wrong is that individual actions won't make any difference. We demand that governments do something, then go home to continue our high consumption lifestyles. 

"What I do won't make a difference anyway."

But that is untrue. It is an abrogation of responsibility for one's decisions.

The best example I can think of is plastic waste. It is building up, and scientists say that it will enter the fossil record. 

Future archaeologists will learn about the Plasticonian Destruction layer that will be prominently seen in stratigraphic cross sections on digs across the planet. 

"Modern humans thought that the Earth would one day be paved over, but it was quietly smothered in plastic while everyone was looking out for steamrollers."

How did all that plastic build up? One person, one decision at a time. It happened by individual actions repeated many times over entire populations. 

What we do has a great effect on everything. Especially when there are so many of us sharing this planet. 

Every decision matters. What each of us does makes a difference, beneficial or not. No one is exempt. We have to decide what kind of effect we want to have on Earth.

We can not let governments or corporations off the hook because they have their parts to play, but we can also not say that individual actions don't affect anything.

We created this mess one decision at a time, and we can fix it one decision at a time. We have the power.

Fall Means Time To Make Basil Walnut Pesto

This year's basil walnut pesto about to go in the freezer.

It's not even Fall officially yet, and I am already mourning the missing solar radiation. What we lack in light and heat though, is easily made up by the bounty of the summer we are now harvesting.

Earlier this week we harvested our basil before first frost came, which it did a couple of days later. And when the basil is in, it is time to make pesto.


Our Basil Walnut Recipe


4 cups (packed) fresh basil

1 cup toasted walnuts

4 large cloves garlic

1 cup olive oil

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper


I put all ingredients into our 1970s Osterizer blender, saving the oil for last. I pulsed the blender, and used my wooden spoon to push everything down between pulses.

When nicely mixed, I put it all into ice cube trays to be frozen and used over the next few months. This is a very convenient way to preserve and dispense this yummy fresh food.

Usually we use our pesto on pasta. Recently we were thrilled to discover how to use it on pizza as an alternative to tomato based pizza sauce. 

We make a pesto and kale pizza that is a total taste sensation, that is made with our pesto, our dough, our kale, and mozzarella (we don't make that... yet).

Tomorrow will be pizza day as we now have lots of pesto, and our kale is going gangbusters due to the cooler weather we have been having lately. 

And what gardener doesn't like discovering new ways of using kale? 

Happy harvest to all the gardeners (and eaters) out there. Enjoy your celebration of good food, good friends, and good times.