Leopold's 'The Land Ethic'

Many of the disconnections that I find in life between humans and their environment seem to parallel Aldo Leopold's 'Land Ethic' concept. I've always wondered how is it that people can say they care about the environment after watching a documentary or hearing testimony on the matter then throw away an aluminum can or ask for a plastic bag at a grocery market? This type of disconnect seemed both fascinating and scarier-than-all-hell when I thought about it. I think a lot of this is contributed, at least in my experience in the U.S., to a diminishing essence of community. All I really know is the time and age of my generation in my experience but I would agree with Leopold when he says "The complexity of co-operative mechanisms has increased with population density, and with the efficiency of tools." I can only speak on my experiences in my generation but it seems that, especially in America, our blinded ambition to acquire the highest valued materials are keeping us from truly uniting and creating an actual community. This disconnection within ourselves is the root of our disconnect with the natural world. If we are having a difficult time to even acknowledge that we're all in this together in the man-made world then how on earth can we take the blinders off to see our interrelatedness in the natural world?

"All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts."

As an evolutionary species we are in the struggle to balance our innate ability to become better and find a higher status in life while simultaneously we are also becoming more and more aware that we have a responsibility to ourselves and the environment. The only problem is that we're fighting this message against entities in the world that do not want people to become more aware for if they did it would crash the world as we know it. E.g., if a key corporation has become "Too big to fail" then regardless of their practices it is essential that they continue doing business or we may have an economic catastrophe on our hands.

"In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it."

This concept is probably the hardest to communicate to other human beings, especially in America simply because it would require a MAJOR paradigm shift in those that hold power in the world. In all fairness some have tried to do business more ethically but overall we still have a lot of work and a long way to go. We are raised to think the 'land of opportunity' and 'the American Dream' are things we are entitled to regardless of what or whom stands in the way. Look at pop culture today and you can see just how insensitive younger generations are to older generations and concepts such as the 'Land Ethic'.

"The ordinary citizen today assumes that science knows what makes the community clock tick; the scientist is equally sure that he does not. He knows that the biotic mechanism is so complex that its workings may never be fully understood."

This short paragraph remind me of Ken Wilber's work and the model of Spiral Dynamics (Beck/Graves). Don't sleep on this people! This concept is an awesome road map of where we are and where we're headed. The science community holds a good foothold with how we operate our world. Details, numbers, measurements, and such determine our economy and daily life. BUT, a big cause to why environmentalists are struggling to get support is because the scientific community are too focused on the details and need to ease up a bit to connect it to the bigger picture.

The best visual example I've seen on connecting details to the big picture is in the short-film, "Power of Ten".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUeFzvHz8Bw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

This video was one of the first paradigm shifts I had in relating myself to the universe :)

Is Change Really Possible?

I face an interesting path before me. One that I can honestly say I've never traveled down before and have looked forward to for some time. When I ask myself the question 'can we change the world to make it a better place?' I am often stuck with an ensuing question, 'can I change myself for the better?'. The path that lies before me is an opportunity to do just that. It is, however, just an opportunity and nothing more. It will be up to me to put forth the effort to step outside of my comfort zone. I have two vices of which I will not disclose now but are, in essence, the greatest challenges I face if I want achieve the qualities I have set forth for myself. These vices bring out the worst in me. Anxiety, anger, depression, you name it. It is by definition an addiction and one I've had for many years. The strength to overcome will not be merely altering my behavior but to trust and have faith that it is for the better. Sure it makes sense for someone outside of the body looking in to say 'that's easy' but as we all know it is quite different when it's just you from within. It is my hope that everything will fall into place and things that I yearn for, be it love, security, growth, will come to fruition.

So far, I have experienced the growth part because I never stopped believing in myself. Others have given up and I've experienced how (for lack of a better term) superficial people can be. I've always maintained honesty and ironically it causes people to think I'm being dishonest, go figure.

By nature I'm a very competitive person. I'm not ambitious as to be better than someone else but simply to better myself. That's where a lot of my confidence comes from because I know that if I push hard enough I can be whatever I set my mind to and I've proven that. I think this can be true of anyone. It is natural for people to question and even doubt you and who you are. Part of the excitement in life is that people will love AND hate you simultaneously and it's up to you to succeed or fail. Just know that no matter which you accomplish it is an ongoing process. We often feel that one moment defines who we are and I do not believe that. There is a saying that stuck with me for years, "It's not how good you are, it's how good for how long."

This upcoming chapter will be the biggest leap of spirituality for me on many levels. As always, the time is now and the moment is before me.

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."

Seven Crimes That Will Get You a Smaller Fine than File-Sharing

Thinking about file-sharing? Don't. You'll get fined, and crime doesn't pay (unless you rob banks and/or armored cars, then it pays very well). Take it from Jammie Thomas, who was fined $2 million for downloading 24 songs, or anyone else who tried to fight the RIAA.

Instead, try another crime, because plenty of them draw far lighter penalties than downloading Jason Mraz's latest. Thanks to the Mechanics blog at Gapers Block, here are seven crimes that will get you smaller fines than file-sharing:

1. Child abduction: the fine is only like $25000.

2. Stealing the actual CD: the fine is $2,500

3. Rob your neighbor: the fine is $375,000

4. Burn a house down: The fine is just over $375,000

5. Stalk someone: The fine is $175,000

6. Start a dogfighting ring: the fine is $50,000

7. Murder someone: The maximum penalty is only $25,000 and 15 years in jail, and depending on your yearly salary, would probably be far slighter a penalty that $2 million.

Seriously, murdering someone will result in a lighter overall penalty than downloading a bunch of songs and getting caught. Granted, you don't get shivved in the showers at home, but still.

via Daily Swarm

New Concepts in living design.

I came across these websites this morning and became inspired as to the thinking that people are doing in bringing about sustainable living. I feel lucky to be moving into a condo that has solar panels allowing for a 2.0KW energy supply!

Compact house for

your backyard

Under the sea!

The Key to a Healthy Life

How to increase serotonin in the human brain without drugs.

For the last 4 decades, the question of how to manipulate the serotonergic system with drugs has been an important area of research in biological psychiatry, and this research has led to advances in the treatment of depression.

Another reason for pursuing nonpharmacologic methods of increasing serotonin arises from the increasing recognition that happiness and well-being are important, both as factors protecting against mental and physical disorders and in their own right.

If you continue the article you'll see that most of the information is common sense (less the medical jargon)....but now with scientific backing ;)


via Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Internet with a purpose

I've finally taken some time to see what this 'stumbleupon' is all about and all i can say is....WOW! i've been on it for 2 hours straight and have come across some very interesting pages. the timing of this couldn't have been better as i was going through a little bit of a depressive state by losing my faith in humanity. when i look out at nature (the natural world before man has a chance to reinterpret it) i see everything as it's supposed to be. it makes sense to me.

going through some of the webpages it has allowed me to see the diverse nature of man! this has instilled hope in me that man can pull together to align ourselves with the universe once more (and this includes me). here are some samples of what i've come across...

Wind Power Anywhere







5 Scientific Theories



Glass Butterflies






Nouveau sculpture




Cute Animal Tickling

Impressive Chameleon

Medical Silver Bullet

It's been a long time...

It's been awhile since the last post and I have some ideas that I should share. The more I learn the more I see that the world is broken down into two parts. The first is the natural world. This world is what the earth has come to produce life on. This system has lasted over millions of years and has enabled life to persevere through some rather adverse conditions. The other world is man's world. This system has only been developed over the last couple of thousand years and is entirely designed through man's mind. The environmental problems that we are experiencing are caused by these two worlds colliding into one another.

In order to fix most of the problems that we are witnessing (e.g., pollution, forest depletion, climate change, water conservation, etc.) these two systems must align.

The natural world (the world that is governed by the laws and behavior of nature) is a cyclical system.

Man's world is linear system. Man's mind thinks linearly. Take a moment to consider how you view your life. You're on a course right? You're getting from point A to point B?

The natural world does not think in those terms. Because the planet has sustained itself for such an amazing amount of time (relative to our notion of time), it works itself in cycles. Take the water cycle for example.

This system can renew and refresh itself time and time again.

Now take a traditional model that man uses quite often say in the world of business.

The problem as I see it is that we are so focused on 'moving forward' that we tend to overlook patterns all over the place that reflect more of the former way of operating. That is, cyclical.

Yes our lives certainly seem linear. We are born, live a little while, then die. Point A to point B.

But take into consideration that you are not the first human being nor will you be the last (well, hopefully lol). Our lives are here because of many before us. What we consider to be the 'economy' is a representation (or a misrepresentation) of how we should be living our lives. We base everything on the principles of what an economy should be. Our food, water, shelter, health care, transportation, etc., all depend on the economy. However, because we do not model it based upon the natural world, we often suffer to some extreme extents.

I'll continue more but for now I'm sleepy. More to come tomorrow.