You all know about the Man on the Moon, that interpretation of the features of our planet’s satellite as the outlines of a face. There are refined versions that locate much more complicated ones but the usual two for Northern and Southern hemispheres are below :
The point is that they both look at us in shocked surprise, do they not? And why not? There are multiple reasons for an outsider observing our ways and works to be horrified.
So in order to know which were concerned and sparing no risk to myself, I grabbed the ol’ spacesuit in the shed and the jet-powered skateboard a scientist buddy helped me build the summer after high school and hooked a ride on the bus to space that launched yesterday.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/antares/demo/130421launch/#.UXWxMUZ5d2g
[ To those not in the space news, NASA has a program to encourage private independent transports including people to low and mid-orbit both for the present International Space Station and future similar endeavours. http://www.nasa.gov/offices/c3po/home/index.html ]
Well, the Man in the Moon was there and willing to answer but indignant excitement made it quite difficult to understand his ramblings, what with the absence of sound carrying airwaves and all. So unable to make sense of it, I’ll give you my overall impression instead.
Earth Day falls on April 22nd every year and comes from the ecologist movement having piled up on a particular idea of Denis Hayes which in 1970 led fellow students at Columbia and spread it through schools and communities around the USA.
The present celebration has seen the addition in 2010 of the International Mother Earth Day from the United Nations. This year’s event’s main points are found below :
http://www.earthday.org/2013/
So what is so shocking about our relationship with the Earth. Well, in essence, we are treating a delicately balanced close system as if it was an infinite imperturbable playing field. This insistence on expanding in a close vessel is the recipe for an explosive device in the most literal scientific sense. It describes a grenade or bomb or a bursting overfilled container in which a sufficient reaction is occurring. The error involved is easily pictured by thinking of the bursting of an inflating kid’s balloon or a tire when one goes too far. Too much content for too little space goes KABOOM!
So too much oil and coal burning, too many cars and ships that pollute air, sea and land, too much in general or maybe it is too little?
For on Earth Day, not only should we identify the problem but we should also provide some sort of solution. After all, if the problem is simple then should not the solutions also come in plain?
Therein lies the rub though since no matter how simple the effects, the causes are much more complex and varied. Those that relate for instance to our ways include the interactions of governments and industry and their common tool, money. The environment thus created suffers also from the bad traits of each of us individually as we pine for modernity and its rewards or as units ranging from political parties and societies that demand rights or actions without having thought through their implications nonetheless demand them, for yesterday ideally.
So that the problem in adopting a solution is finding a common ground that marries our interests as individuals, as groups and as a species.
Common ground is sharing a a common good.
That general concept is at the Heart of the Earth Days mentioned above. The Earth Charter found below
http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/pages/Read-the-Charter.html
is filled with references to that goal of sharing as it better fulfills the balance of our needs and their costs by asking to respect it, care for it and make sure its elemental societies are sustainable. It also suggests to restore, protect and first of all prevent harm to it. It asks us as folks or organised groups of any type to adopt patterns that abide by the renewal cycles of natural processes in the Ecumene or Gaïa or Global spaceship, Earth. It even contends that inequalities both of Rights & Ethics and futures stress the system as a whole and calls for more democracy, education and peace which are truly givens but often forgotten.
Similarly, the Mother Earth version insists on the interdependence of all living creatures and the minimal harmony in that inclusiveness needed to allow the changes to take place for good.
Both thus resemble my own call on the matter that are stated here in this simple post :
https://dlofr.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/ethical-ecological-statement-rights-of-the-living/
At this point we then have decent ethical proposals. Since the middle ground is that of moving societies, parties and governments though, which is admittedly an attempt not solved in a year or two by far, it may then seem that on a global scale we have closed our loop. This is why most pieces on the subject would turn to the trivia of annual events commemorating the cause or possibly come to a list of things to be done at the individual level. Surely, goes the reasoning, if the principles’ applications are hindered by national or political preferences and movements can only demonstrate until they’re blue or pepper-sprayed in the face to force the hand of those, there must be a set of actions that each of us can take to make things better. And since not all have the possibilities to create NGOs or light up Africa, it falls down to the nitty gritty. The lists go : recycling, shunning things with excess wrapping, buying equalitarian food and eco-friendly cleaning stuff, buying a car that consumes less petrol, etc and as the citizens thus assume those they often get under the impression that sorting clean from dirty plastics or papers on recycling day where they live is a life and death matter which will actually only become true when the big clean-up of the organizational levels has taken place, leaving many feeling duped. Is the world crumbling around me because I threw that chocolate box in the thrash and not the blue bin?
Or should there be general principles behind the individual actions too?
I decided to help my readers join Earth Day by offering two individual principles that tie to every level of their implications with the world as a shared environment. And only two because it seems unfair and contra-productive to mimic the clusterfest of tiny steps approaches of either previous stances. Here they are :
Use it or lose it.
It extends the same call as usually applied to health purposes and abilities. In evolution, great apes lost the monkey’s tails because these were not needed as much if at all in the varied environment that replaced tree dwelling. Most of people raised in a modern education should have seen and been tested on algebra by the end of secondary schooling levels and yet save those that still use the tool / knowledge, most of us are stymied by it as adults. Physical and sensory-motor abilities are best maintain with use too. And muscle unused turns to flab or disappears. The same is true of our relationship with Nature.
If you used your body in a purely urban setting and are not interested in the whole sports and fitness movement, you may not be very able to use Nature. Reaching it in and of itself would be an exploit from the metropolis haven were home is located. Unless you used the very same tools that made you so weak in the first place. So let’s then follow an urbanite Homo Sapiens Civilisationens and a simple Homo Sapiens Sapiens to the woods, shall we?
Modern Guy heaves his carcass in a fully packed Motorized adventure coach, from car to homes on wheels. Kool Dude jumps on the laden bike. Right there and then is our first cue to Principle two but it will keep. As they get to the wooden patch of their summer break, they unpack and settle. Modern Guy has choices. Either he went x hundred kilometers only to park in a full accommodation setting that would pass for a small town of utter modernity in most countries on Earth ( Day ) as I write or ready to deploy technical marvels over what the American Far West would have considered a land claim, he hands over the chainsaw to the eldest son to go get wood for the quaint session of looking at flames dead drunk that will follow a meal cooked on the gas barbecue he’s setting up. Kool Dude has a saw too, It folds to fit in backpack or bike panniers. He’s not about to saw off a Douglas Pine with it but can still reduce a fallen log and strewn branches to enough fire wood to cook on and warm around with Kool Dudette and even kids.
Their recreation will be different too. Both will walk around, likely bathe in wild water and enjoy the outdoors. Modern Guy and his gang have brought everything up to a car in tow. There’s a big flat screen TV in the semi-truck sized camper. Kool Dude did not. The fire will only eavesdrop on talks about life and death and the meaning of it all inspired by the stargazing ( Hollywood not involved ).
The fact is that Homo Sapiens Civilisationens never intended to leave civilization and brought it along whereas Homo Sapiens Sapiens went back to the simple life it remembers coming from. It is in that sense that the first has lost his relationship to nature and not the second.
Use it or lose it as an ecological principle can happily still apply if you are closer to Modern Guy though. Say you live in a suburb or a residential city street. Then there still is nature around you. There are grassy lawns and trees or hedges and birds or squirrels. That street, the ultimate submission of civilized man to the automobile can be humanized. Play in it. A pair of hockey goals or a basketball post and net by the curbside will do the trick. The playing kids will limits the use of the street by transit voyagers. Go to the park and use that. Make use and show your approval of any City equipment that furthers outdoor activities. It starts like that. At some point those short walks in the park will become day-hikes in the local National park and then maybe a night or two of camping. That active possession of your street may lead you and your neighbors to the City Council, asking for a pair of potted trees to be deposited at each end of it, limiting transit traffic and making it quieter. Which may lead the City Council to a shared street* outlook. And if the neighbourhood gets more people friendly with less cars, that bike in the shed may see more use? Who’s to say it will not be pointed at the hills some morning? Having come full cycle? 😎
Not only that but use prevents abuse. As in usus, fructus et abusus. Usus gives you the right to live in that house you bought, use it. Fructus allows you to rent it and collect the fruit of your ownership. Abusus sadly allows you to destroy it entirely; as in tear down the house and mine the ground to a hole. These are the tenants of the Right of ownership. Hunters use their presence to maintain access rights and usually get their way simply because they can indeed claim centuries of use of the grounds. In some countries, it has already become accepted that if you do not repair, maintain and use a property, it can be if temporarily claimed back by others. You can still evict them and carry on with plans but no a posteriori recognition of a right to rent on a something you disregarded to rotting. The last position on abuse of one’s property is even contested in some cases. For instance, water was always excluded. Water is a communal good. You may then tear down that house by the lake if it is yours but you cannot let the by-products freely seep in the water and down the river where others live. So that abuse can be reigned in. Public land is offered to lumber companies for exploitation but if it comes with a price per square kilometer high enough to cover reforestation, who cares? So that regular use of Nature de facto augments the Citizens rights over it. feel free to use it or lose it.
And the more we use the Earth for liberty, the less hold those that wish to restrain it will find?
Thread lightly.
That complements our first principle. Coming back to our vacationing opposites will now come in handy again. If Modern Guy left behind all that he brought, used and does not need anymore on departure, it may represent 100 kgs of trash. Kool Dude, even counting in Kool Dudette and their possible Kool Kids did not even bring 220 pounds of stuff with them to begin with so that they just could not abandon that much? Granted, both could bring it all back. Go check their respective campsites and you’ll be as certain as I am that that is not the case on average though. Thread lightly means no trace. Leave nature as clean or cleaner than you found it and all will be fine.
Threading lightly means so many things. Of course the bike or shoe sole does not impact the ground as a camping car but also the latter stops when the road ends whereas the formers begin in earnest at the very same spot? No true camper ever asked for more pavement. Threading lightly nonetheless impacts shoes and bicycles too. Shun the grass; leave no trace remember? Do not use grass as a street if you do not use the street for picnics and all that? I ride a mountain bike. When I am on a street in town, it is used as a vehicle and follows common road rules. When I am on a pathway, it follows different rules depending on those of the said path. If the place is destined to pedestrians, I am to be as inconspicuous a biker as I can, and if things come to it, disembark and walk. If the place is shared by ramblers and bikers, I should act with extra care and limit my speed. Dogs, kids and horses add another difficulty and set of restrictions. Etc. I will use on occasion a pedestrian only path but not only is my respect of the users evident, I am ready to softly explain my position with a smile if required. It all also relates to sharing.
But the living creatures are not the end of it and soil is part of my environment too. On a soft ground that erodes easily, I will limit speed somewhat and movement as much as possible. If the place is hard packed, let it rip! Not collaborating with the rains to gouge a gullet that renders the aforementioned pedestrian walk unpractical is another sharing/threading lightly combo.
In town, Thread Lightly remains valid. The modern city offers so much. Use what you need but try not to go for more. More consumed is more thrown away. There are littering laws just for that. As seen above, do not abuse paths and commonways. Both make the urban environment less cluttered. Choose durable and recyclable over the competition etc.
And then Thread Lightly apply to minds too!
Yes, minds, as in how we picture each other and Nature. Thread lightly : give that strange person, culture, religion or Nation a chance. Thread lightly in opinions and reserve clear cut for things that you can conclusively prove on knowledge you possess and in other cases withdraw to the tune of “I’ll have to check on that”.
Thread Lightly by speaking softly no matter how big that stick you carry is. No matter how right you may be, getting angry at someone that cannot agree or understand never works, trust me!
Thread Lightly by including all living things and processes thereof in the sharing as in that statement of mine up there.
Thread Lightly because if you won’t, the big corporations certainly won’t?
Thread Lightly because it’s way smoother and still gets you the best girls?
Whatever! Relax Max! It’s just about the only thing you can do?
Thread Lightly.
It’s still Earth day but in my mind it’s Mother Earth/Gaïa Day everyday anyhow. It sure was Saturday when I rode the storm because it was there for instance but that is for another post.
So that it may be Earth Day every day for you too, please remember :
We have only this one World for all of us so there’s no choice in the end to a beginning :
Sharing!
We have conquered the surface of the planet by foot from Africa to the ends of the Earth :
Use it or lose it!
There’s a lot of Ecumene to go around but still, as a rule of thumb so that it may last us all :
Thread Lightly!
Best of luck and best of fun in discovering how those can work for you, peace out, Tay.
An old post on shared streets* :
https://dlofr.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/what-are-those-people-doing-an-eco-friendly-dream/
Definitive Lapse of Reason 