permaculture

[Jeremy O'Leary <jeremy@biohabit.org>]

There was a quote (that I can't find) in a Dmitry Orlov book, about a  
guy who survived in the gulags in Siberia for a crazy length of time,  
the quote went something like ....

"Don't fear them, don't hate them, don't have anything to do with them"

I'm not trying to say we should disengage from society or am trying  
comparing modern US culture to a gulag (though it is just about has  
hard to get away from it), but the point is relevant.     Though it is  
likely worth a shot if you are feeling motivated to try and get  
something useful out of the local/state/federal government but I think  
we are generally on our own.

Not to say there aren't plenty of good people in the government, but  
it seems like  we can't really count on them to initiate change.  We  
might get lucky and be able to create public pressure to get the good  
folks in government to do what they already wanted to do, but couldn't  
because there wasn't public demand.

cheers,

+ Jeremy


> ##we're all so impatient for this collapse to get on with itself,  
> aren't we?
>
> [warning... soapbox hereafter]
> I grew up in counter-culture living the 'promise of collapse and
> revolution', and I suspect my daughter will move past that.  Don't
> forget tar sands and oil shale, which may allow another generation of
> procrastination with a staggering cost in carbon emissions.   We are a
> horrifically inventive species when it comes to our wants.  I  
> suspect if
> times get rough we will rediscover less savory political systems that
> satisfy peoples hunger for security while continuing to sacrifice
> health.  If we fail to INITIATE the shift in culture, and in effect
> bringing the rest of our damned society with us, I suspect we will
> stagger onward for quite some time, gradually forgetting what we have
> lost.  No exciting 'collapse' to goad us awake, just a gentle mindless
> decent into increasingly more cockroach-like behavior.  Look at the
> living conditions in early industrial times... we have a long way to  
> go
> down before 'we' let things get 'out of control'.  And if we allow  
> this
> hungry ghost to live on, don't think it will leave us alone to develop
> our tribal utopia.  Pace yourself, broaden your base, this is a long
> term all or nothing game, and we will have to DESIGN the cultural  
> shift
> carefully based on systematic and honest cultural assessments of the
> terrain and the countervailing forces, and not build castles of sand  
> on
> a foundation subcultural apocalypse theory (like our apocalyptic
> Christian brethren.)
> -Paul Cereghino
>
> ----------------
>
> another global warming update...
>
> "By burning fossil fuel and clearing forests human beings have
> significantly altered the global carbon cycle," says Chris Field of  
> the
> Carnegie Institution'
> s Department of Global Ecology, one of the report's lead authors. A
> result has been the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but  
> so
> far this has been partially offset by carbon uptake by the oceans  
> and by
> plants and soils on land. "In effect, we have been getting a huge
> subsidy from these unmanaged parts of the carbon cycle," notes Field.
> Overall, this subsidy has sequestered, or hidden from the atmosphere,
> approximately 200 billion tons of carbon. In North America much of it
> has come from the regrowth of forests on former farmland and the  
> uptake
> of carbon by agricultural soils. But these carbon sinks may be  
> reaching
> their limit as forests mature and climate conditions change. And some
> may literally go up in smoke if wildfires become more frequent, as  
> some
> climate simulations predict. Planting forests and adopting
> carbon-conserving practices such as no-till agriculture may increase
> carbon sinks somewhat, but this would not come close to compensating  
> for
> carbon emissions, which continue to accelerate. "There are a lot of  
> good
> reasons for replenishing our forests and encouraging better  
> agricultural
> practices," says Ken Caldeira, another author of the report, also at
> Carnegie's Department of Global Ecology. "But if we want to mitigate  
> our
> impact on the carbon cycle, there's no escaping the fact that we  
> need to
> drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions."
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071114111141.htm
> <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071114111141.htm>
>
>
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