Manifesto for a Green New Deal | FDR’s MAGA response to Wall Street Collapsing the Economy into the Great Depression

Manifesto of the many projects which could manifest the Green New Deal. What would you choose to be involved in?

In a more recent evolution of house searching posts, I suggested an ‘artist residency’ ‘in your home’, in which both the artist and proprietor are involved. If the artists doesn’t produce according to the agreed timeline, they lose the room. Win/Win. A humanitarian tax investment, coupled with the motivation-propulsion by the artist to deliver, to maintain the residence. Then I was thinking, this could be part of the Green New Deal, a takeoff on FDR’s ‘New Deal’ which involved the (NRA) ‘National Recovery Act‘.

Within a year of the 1929 stock market crash, 50% of the population was unemployed.  The (WPA) Works Progress Administration concept was to employ mandatory structural works, with everyone involved in rebuilding; to put the entire country ‘to work’ – from local to regional – improving their own territories and their quality of life. Among these, the (TVA) Tennessee Valley Authority (which stretched beyond the borders of Tennessee) involved the entire community in constructing a hydroelectric dam, who previously had no electricity whatsoever. In the process, the stones they excavated were used to build homes.

There is one policy proposal that could bring together experts and average citizens alike to work on whatever we decide to do: resurrect the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

The (CCC) Civilian Conservation Corps also involved restoring, beautifying, repurposing places around the country. The concentration was on re-building the infrastructure of the US, ‘Making it Great Again’, after Wall Street devastated the country with the economic crash that lead the trajectory to the Great Depression.

Does this not give huge perks to the idea of instead, putting the local resources and commodities into the hands and protection of the people?

Establishing local ‘Commons’, in which all the members of the community share ownership and responsibility – as proprietors of their own wealth of resources – to protect: land, water, forests, rivers and air. So that rather than private industries having a right of passage to purchase, privatize and reap rewards and profits for themselves, the community who maintain their resources, have profits recycled back into the community for further enrichment. I remember walking in East Providence, Rhode Island, and looking down at the sidewalk and seeing that this was achieved through the WPA.

Different communities could have their own commons, in addition to creating virtual collective ‘round table’ commons in which information and ideas are exchanged transparently, benefiting all. Meetings of minds to exchange ideas for super efficient and inexpensive ways to manage resources, build sustainable transportation infrastructure and produce energy locally. 

My current 77 year old housemate just told me that with the CCC, artists, musicians, writers, performers, actors were all put to work: painting, playing music, entertaining, doing theatre. To make their environment more beautiful and rich with activities. What could possibly be distasteful about being matched to a project that suits one’s interests and capabilities?

I was talking with my sister about how treacherous it is to lose the majestic forests of tall and elegant Pine trees here in Georgia. With awareness of the risk of losing a treasure, we could all be put to work in coming up with ideas that are environmentally ethical and sustainable alternatives. Regardless of the standard for centuries, we know that our planet has finite space and resources. Presently, with an abundance of waste products, there are innumerable ways to employ trash that can be recycled and repurposed. Work that involves brainstorming and design, research and development; encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit in all of us, each involved in their own way. 

Repurpose waste materials, combined with products that are abundant. Design and construct things repurposing plastic, glass bottles, cans, rubber from tires, etc. I recently walked on the cushioned surface of pedestrian paths created by Georgia Southern university made from tire rubber, meshed together with other materials. It looks like wood chips, but tightly woven, smooth and resilient.  World Wildlife Fund stresses that we need to love nature, or lose it.

Energy, transportation could be redesigned. Instead of paying a private utility company, involve the community in the design, research and development and maintenance of their own energy. If the mentality was changed to complete transparency with an intent on conservation, preservation, health and beauty, involvement in decision making about areas where one has more of a relationship, they would want to take more responsibility and have pride in what their individual contributions to the community manifested in their own region, country or municipality. 

Anyway, can you imagine, being able to almost effortlessly, drift towards work that you’d love to participate in, which is completely connected to an area you’d like to invest your time and talent, education and energy into?  OK, say the Green New Deal work is mandatory, obligatory and enforced, yet people are given multiple options to match themselves in projects they have interested in, because they enjoy it and are subsequently good at it. Did you hear that correctly? People expressing themselves while participating in assignments in which they have interest.  Climate Mandate A Time to Heal.

For some, it may be municipal works in which they are rejuvenating the streets of their town, greening walkways, creating parks and gardens to create pedestrian areas, greening buildings (growing vertical gardens on buildings sides and greening and/or solar rooftops), cleaning up and beautifying a places, restoring, planting trees, establishing neighborhood community vegetable gardens, developing public transportation and local energy systems.

Others may want to apply their participation in the Green New Deal Works by venturing on trains and sailboats to far reaches of the planet, to clean up, collect and separate the massive, ubiquitous plastic trash. One could work together with others with the same intention. Perhaps cleaning up rivers in India, beaches in Southeast Asia, helping countries to restore equilibrium and to balance their environmental impact. Or traveling to remote islands to monitor marine life, land animals and birds, to join E.O. Wilson’s ‘Half-Earth Project’, joining millions to protect half of the earth and sea, for wildlife. Contributing information about local flora and fauna, observing, documenting, identifying sources of pollutants, assessing the more biodiverse regions, in order to incorporate these into the protected earth.

Or joining a crew in the middle of an ocean (via train and sailboat) to clear the islands of plastic that have accumulated in every ocean. Debris swept with the currents of gyres to deposit plastic mounds, which like ice burgs, have much which has accumulated beneath the surface. People could collect and sift the microplastics throughout oceans and beaches. Some could make jewelry, others collect the microplastics to be mixed with others materials like mud, or the fibers of hemp or bamboo (both fast growing), to replace concrete, for walls, roads, sidewalks. paths. The volumes of rubber from dead tires can be mixed with fibers as building materials. 

What if part of the Green New Deal for people of any age, scientists, entrepreneurs and thinkers, participated in working out Nikola Tesla’s original experimentation with Zero-Point energy. John Searl points out that an enormous amount of energy is perpetually present all around us, because all matter (which is energy), is in constant motion. Our earth, solar system, galaxy, are all in continuous spiraling motion. At the quantum level, all is continuously moving. Searl talks of capturing this energy that is everywhere around us, through a pretty simple device – using magnets – that perpetuate a continuous flow of energy, with no friction. Clean and quiet. 

Others may want to participate in brainstorming ways to develop energy and other processes that are sustainable; that do not involve harming habitats or diminishing natural resources. Taking down telephone poles and electric wires. and instead of silicon or mining rare minerals used in the production of our telecommunications technology, adapting the implementation of graphene: 1-atom thick wafers of carbon. Graphene is extremely conductive, and sourced from carbon, the most abundant material around. 

Kenyan Woman’s Startup Recycles Plastic Waste into Bricks That Are 5x Stronger Than Concrete -Andy Corley

Or one may prefer helping locally in a community garden, planting trees along every street, or doing physical work like creating bamboo or hemp woven with plastic sidewalks, that have the durability of concrete but more flexibility to allow tree roots to breath and grow naturally, without cracking, planting bee highways. Why bee highways? Because everything in nature is connected and interdependent. It’s all about biodiversity. Here’s an explanation of ecoliteracy from Nature’s Web of LIfe.

Jobs would re-create a massive eco alternative, to the current industrial and digital. Because we need less new construction and more imagining of green alternatives and acknowledgment of the habitats of other creatures, we can learn new methods of living harmoniously with the other species inhabiting the planet. 

Each can contribute something, with a pencil, paint brush, tool or shovel..Cleaning up, clearing out, repurposing and transforming areas. Planting trees to transform barren, dusty areas or humid regions prone to landslides, to restore them. 

Every city mapping out car-free, pedestrian-friendly areas. Creating clean and efficient public transportation options.

With an increasing population of elderly, immigrants – children and adults – could be given education and placement as companions and helpers to the elderly. They could assist, clean, maintain, help with transportation, make meals, learn how to monitor basic vital signs and administer medication, listen to stories, learn the language of their host country and exchange stories. Housing in exchange for services and companionship. Without having the insurance industry having a choke hold on who can be let into your home. 

Recently, observing from back roads in Georgia, I noticed less and less tall pines along the road and well, what about the boars? Shall we begin to entirely ‘think differently and rethink together? What building materials, types of vehicles, types of energy that we have used traditionally, to recreate sustainable means everywhere? Not just to be implemented in the Northern Hemisphere.

Prohibit housing and development from spreading like a virus, prohibit expansion of box store franchises, and create more and more green spaces.

Reformulate all factories, mines, yeah, even off-shore oil wells, etc. to create housing, establish reefs…

Repurpose agricultural fields or crops grown to feed animals for the meat industry, into hemp, bamboo, plants which humans eat, plant trees. Undoubtedly, the more minds who are engaged in conjuring up clever ideas, to re-think designs, materials and energy to create sustainable solutions, the more rewarding and fascinating this process will be. Might as well attempt incentivizing people towards better health by encouraging vegetarian diets and informing people about the facts of how unsustainable and wasteful it is to devote land to raising animals; they require more land and water than what the land could be used for to feed humans. Eco education is a must. Green New Deal Projects involving growing food together and learning about nutrition and cooking would be invaluable for young people. Break up pavement and replace it with sustainable ones. Plant trees, EVERYWHERE. Nurture the wilderness. As George Monbiot states, we need to ‘rewild the world’.

There are so many ways the Green New Deal could be a fantastic luxury: putting talent and natural incentive to task. Employing simple fungi to clean up toxic spills, and generate biological life. If we would all be incentivized to clean up plastic all over the world, this could be repurposed with bamboo or hemp, to create building material. We could have a decade and a half of clearing out the trash that humanity has deposited all over the planet, and repurposing it to designs that replace using trees. 

David Roberts explains The Green New Deal in this article.   The Sunrise Movement of youth demanding action is huge.

What if news channels, delivered by those who own them, were transformed into venues of participatory global commons, in which counties, municipalities, states and federal domains would maintain a global commons channel, for communities to exchange ideas about energy and transportation infrastructure.

Does this sound insanely idealistic? Radically off the cuff, stream-of-consciousness babble? Or am I making a point for ‘socialism’, community shared intention and commitment, to full-out re-appropriation and repurposing of space and industry. With training and education matched with interest and desire to task. Channels streamlined for the purpose of actively sharing ideas at digital round tables – rather than passively listening to news that is dictated by those who wish you to passively attend to that subject. What if everyone was engaged in thinking of ideas, finding teams to draw them up and design, then manifest them? 

There would be plenty of ‘work’, to create effective animal bridges and tunnels, to nurture the habitats and migratory nature of animals. With an emphasis on community, not driven by profit or anthropomorphism, but with genuine appreciation and wonder of the natural world. Education can focus on ‘ecoliteracy’. Awareness of the interconnected nature of life and the need to protect habitats and maintain biodiversity, will translate into a population of caring and proactive youths. products, re-appropriate factories and dirty industries. 

How would you want to contribute? What would you like to involve yourself in? Where’s the money coming from? Well, all the billionaires, of course. 

Living with Less is Living with More: Co-creating a New Story – Our Relationships

I was going to tack this video within the post c-change conversations with respect to the spiritual relationship we need to co-create, with ourselves, between one another and with the water, the sky, soil, a spider, a bird or rhinoceros. Yet his words and viewpoint needs to stand on its own.

Living with Less is LIving with More Co-Creating a New Story A New Relationship with Earth and her Creatures

 

Living with Less is Living with More: Co-Creating a New Story A New Relationship with Earth and her Creatures
Our hearts and intuition contain the answer to co-creating this new story. A story in which we are not clumsily or hurriedly passing through, busying ourselves and not-wasting-any-time in our stress-filled harried lives.

“Can you imagine a more beautiful world your hearts knows is possible?

We have inherited a culture without any critical inquiry.”

 

Leo Murray talks of the need to decouple the relationship between standards of living and quality of life.

Authors, visionaries and thought leaders who are inspiration to less is more: Charles Eisenstein, Daniel Pinchbeck, Niki Harré, Yuval Noah Harari, David Holmgren, Masanobu Fukuoka, Bill Mollison.

 

authors visionaries and thought leaders inspiration less is more

Here is information some of these visionaries have communicated.

Masanobu Fukuoka states that man does best by doing as little as possible. He unlearned culture and science and realizes that nature does everything.

Masanobu Fukuoka Talks About the One Straw Revolution

Charles Eisenstein’s speech New Zealand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Niki Harré talks about her book “Psychology for a Better World”

Niki Harré talk about her book “Psychology for a Better World”

 

 

 

Niki Harré talks in this video about the Psychology and the Infinite Game In it she describes the distinction between the Finite and Infinite Games.

 

The purpose of the infinite game is to continue the game.

The purpose of the finite game is to win.

The infinite game invites others in and is full of creativity, the rules continually change and all are flexible in their interactions.

The finite game includes only select people, it is all about replication and does not bend. In life, the finite game winnings are such as getting a trophy, owning property, getting a degree, a promotion, publishing an article, get funded for a program.

She talks of the amazing power of symbol and metaphor. And that in order to keep the infinite game in play, we need to trust people and promote creativity. It’s up to all of us to bring this awareness into our workplace, schools and communities.

Yuval Harari Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind – 5 year anniversary

A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari

 

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

carol_keiter_greg_altman copy

 

The Truth ‘Earthlings’ | Love Letter to the Earth by Thich Nhat Hanh | Kumi Naidoo Greenpeace – Saving the Earth from Ourselves | ‘Only After’ Cree Indians

street art by Banksy
I Don’t Believe in Global Warming

My previous blog stated my angry sentiments regarding human greed and how it has affected our earth and all of its creatures. This blog introduces the paradigm shift in consciousness and understanding needed by all of us. Wayne Dyer mentions in his talk, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”. We need to change the way we see and interpret our relationship to the earth, the cosmos and to all humans and inhabitants of this earth.

In this blog, I’m bringing together three mediums that compliment the same subject, our relationship to the earth. A film, a book and an interview, each revealing that we are inextricably linked to not only all humans, but all other species and to the earth itself. Just as all of the cells in our bodies are working together to create the whole, the earth itself is also an organism. The parts can’t be separated from the whole, nor can the whole exist without the parts.

• “The Three Stages of Truth” is a short video excerpted from the earth-shattering 95 minute documentary film “Earthlings”, about the fact that ‘We Share this Earth’ with all other creatures who are also, of this Earth.

The Three Stages of Truth

Earthlings
Make the Connection

It was narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, features music by Moby, was directed by Shaun Monson, and co-produced by Maggie Q. We need to change the way we see and interpret our relationship to the earth, the cosmos and to all humans and inhabitants of this earth.

• Buddha Nature – Our Relationship to Mother Earth is an article reprinted from the book “Love Letter to the Earth“, written by the Zen Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

Thich Nhat Hanh Zen Buddhist Monk

Love Letter to the Earth

• Saving the Earth from Ourselves, an interview of the Greenpeace International Director Kumi Kaidoo by Bill Moyers  in Moyers & company.

Moyers & company interview September 2013 with Greenpeace International Director Kum Naidoo on Saving the Earth from Ourselves

Humans, along with every living thing, are inseparable from the earth and the cosmos. From the perspective of both Native American Indians and Buddhists, when we recognize that the Earth is our Mother and the Sun our Father, we see that just as our biological mother and father and ancestors are within us, inside us, so are the earth and the sun. We need not pray to some abstract god or deity, but realize that the gift and miracle of life and all that we require, is available here and now. All living creatures, regardless of gender, race or species, are children of this planet. Each have the right to life, freedom of movement and lack of suffering. We need not merely recognize that our planet is in peril, but realize that we CAN do something about it. It is possible. It is a choice. Yes We Can. We need to reorient how we see ourselves and our relationship to the earth – as if our lives depended on it – because they do. Money is an abstract concept which appears to be scarce, yet it IS available to invest in the renewable energies and technologies that will help to reduce global warming.

Trillions of dollars became available to ‘bail out’ the large bankers who gambled with the investments of millions of people. Money is there to phase out fossil fuel dependence and reinvest in a global economic campaign that would create jobs in renewable energies worldwide. This economic and spiritual revolution CAN happen. As I mentioned in a former blog, https://carolkeiter.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/notch-up-the-governments-role-with-obamaworks-a-version-of-roosevelts-wpa/ just as Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 orchestrated the “New Deal”, implementing the (WPA) Works Progress Administration in response to the depression following the 1929 stock market crash in the USA, Obama could create an ‘ObamaWorks’ plan. He could join with world leaders to implement a massive global renewable energy investment plan; to introduce jobs utilizing clean, renewable technologies that would grow economies AND ensure a cleaner and sustainable environment. This can be accomplished by making the choice to step outside of the status quo of fossil fuel dependency; which corporate leaders in the industries culpable for environmental destruction, manipulate legislation through their lobbyists to impede. We have this choice. Our lives and those of future generations depend on it.

Each of us are centered in our own worlds, in which we hold certain things and people precious. Sometimes we forget their value, until after an event threatens to take them away; our health, freedom, rights, a child, parent, partner, project, home…When we cultivate mindfulness and recognize the miracle of life, it is clear that we actively create each moment of our lives by how we interpret, think, speak and act. Through gratitude and the recognition of our responsibility, we can harness the power that we have. To do this, it is vital that we are aware. We always have the choice to smile, to accept and to love.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>In the film Earthlings,

Earth from a satellite image

Spiraling weather system on Earth viewed by satellite

The point is that all creatures which inhabit the earth are ‘earthlings’. There’s no sexism, racism or speciesism in the term. Humans share this world with hundreds of millions of creatures. This encompasses each and every one of us; warm-blooded, cold-blooded, vertebrate and invertebrate, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, mammal and human. Humans share this planet with millions of other creatures, as we all evolve here together.

We all share the desire for food and water, shelter, companionship, freedom of movement and avoidance of pain.

Humans earthlings crowding the street

fish earthlings crowding their waterway, working in unison

Chimpanzee caring for child

Cheetah with cub

However, it is the human earthling that tends to dominate the Earth, often times treating other fellow earthlings and living beings as mere objects, which is what is meant by ‘speciesism’. Speciesism, by analogy to sexism and racism

Sexism Suffragettes in Boston, USA in 1920 demanding right as women

Sexism

Racism Hitler at Rally in Nuremberg, Germany 1929

reveals the domination of one over another who is different, violating the principles of equality and overriding the greater interest of others. In each case the pattern is identical.

Speciesism as demonstrated by the sport of conquest

No matter what the nature of the ‘being’, the principle of equality implies that the suffering of one is counted equally with the suffering of any other being. The moral imperative is respect. Humans who have power, tend to exploit those who lack it, including other beings with whom we share this planet.

Like us, animals embody the mystery and wonder of consciousness. Like us, they are not only in the world, they are aware of it. Like us, they are the psychological center of a world which is their own. We have a psychological kinship with them. Nobel prize winner, Isaac Bashevis Singer 1904-1991, expresses this through the character in his novel “Enemies a Love Story”. Herman states “In their behavior towards creatures, all men were Nazi’s. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplify the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right.” In comparison to the Holocaust, one group of living beings anguishes beneath the hands of another.

Caged animals in horrific conditions, going to slaughter

Baboon within cage

In his book “The Outermost House” Henry Beston writes http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/308220-the-outermost-house-a-year-of-life-on-the-great-beach-of-cape-cod that  “We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>In “Love Letter to the Earth“, Thich Nhat Hanh has a passionate appeal for ecological mindfulness and the strengthening of our relationship to the Earth. He reveals that it is vital that we recognize and respond to the stress we are putting on the Earth if civilization is to survive. UTNE Reader features a reprint of the message of his book in the article “Buddha Nature and Our Relationship With Mother Earth“. Summarizing his points, Hanh writes “At this very moment, the Earth is above you, below you, all around you, and even inside you. The Earth is everywhere. You may be used to thinking of the Earth as only the ground beneath your feet. But the water, the sea, the sky, and everything … outside us and everything inside us comes from the Earth. We often forget that the planet we are living on has given us all the elements that make up our bodies. The water in our flesh, our bones, and all the microscopic cells inside our bodies all come from the Earth and are part of the Earth. The Earth is not just the environment we live in. We are the Earth and we are always carrying her within us. 

Realizing this, we can see that the Earth is truly alive. We are a living, breathing manifestation of this beautiful and generous planet. Knowing this, we can begin to transform our relationship to the Earth. That is the relationship each of us must have with the Earth if the Earth is to survive, and if we are to survive as well. In fact, the earth will survive with or without us.

He identifies one key issue as having the potential to create a tipping point. He believes that we need to move beyond the concept of the “environment,” which leads people to experience themselves and Earth as two separate entities and to see the planet only in terms of what it can do for them. Rejecting the conventional economic approach, Thich Nhat Hanh shows that mindfulness and a spiritual revolution are needed to protect nature and limit climate change.

The Earth Contains the Whole Cosmos

When we look deeply into the Earth, we can see the presence of the whole cosmos. A lot of our fear, hatred, anger, and feelings of separation and alienation come from the idea that we are separate from the planet. We see ourselves as the center of the universe and are concerned primarily with our own personal survival…But we need to do more than use recycled products or donate money to environmental groups. We have to change our whole relationship with the Earth.

When we look deeply at a blade of grass or at a tree, we can see that it’s not mere matter. It has its own kind of intelligence. For example, a seed knows how to grow into a plant with roots, leaves, flowers, and fruit…A dust particle is not just matter; each of its atoms has intelligence and is a living reality.

In the Buddhist tradition, we say there is mind and there are objects of mind, and that they manifest at the same time. We can’t separate them. Objects of mind are created by the mind itself. The way we perceive the world around us depends entirely on our way of looking at it. If we understand the Earth as a living, breathing organism, we can heal ourselves and heal the Earth as well. When our physical body is sick, we need to stop, rest, and pay attention to it. We have to stop our thinking, return to our in-breath and out-breath, and come home to our bodOur mind is the consciousness of the cosmos.

In his book, “The Lives of a Cell”, biologist Lewis Thomas describes our planet as a living organism. His essay focuses on how connected humanity is to nature and how we must make strides to understand our role. He arrives at the insight that the whole planet is like a giant living cell whose parts are all linked in symbiosis. He likens the Earth to an organized, self-contained being, a “live creature, full of information and marvelously skilled in handling the sun.”

We can think of the sun and the earth as our true parents. The Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus Christ and all our wonderful teachers are children of this planet. Just as we carry the DNA of our biological mother and father within us, we carry the sun and the Earth in each of our cells. It’s easy to think that this highly creative force could have a human form. Yet rather than God being an old man with a white beard sitting in the sky, God is not outside of creation. God is inside every living being. What we call “the divine,” is none other than the energy of awakening, of peace, of understanding, and of love, which is to be found not only in every human being, but in every species on Earth.

In Buddhism, we say every sentient being has the ability to be awakened and to understand deeply. We call this Buddha nature. The deer, the dog, the cat, the squirrel, and the bird all have Buddha nature. And what about inanimate species? The Earth herself has Buddha nature, therefore all her children must have Buddha nature, too. Every blade of grass, every tree, every plant, every creature large or small are children of the planet Earth, and therefore have Buddha nature. Everyone has the capacity to live happily and with a sense of responsibility toward our mother, the Earth. Once we have this insight of interbeing, we can have real communication with the Earth. This is the highest possible form of prayer. We don’t need blind faith to see this. We don’t need to address our prayers or express our gratitude to a remote or abstract deity with whom it may be difficult or impossible to be in touch. We can address our prayers and express our gratitude directly to the Earth.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>In Saving the Earth from Ourselves, Bill Moyers interviews the Kumi Naidoo, the South African human rights activist and International Director of Greenpeace.

Greenpeace International Director Kumi Naidoo

Greenpeace Kumi Naidoo homepage We Share Our Planet
Help us remind those who forget

They discuss the politics of climate change and the urgency of environmental activism. The recent actions of Greenpeace International environmental activists are mentioned as they attempted to climb an oil platform in the Arctic to protest the drilling for fossil fuels in this fragile ecology. They were confronted by gun carrying soldiers of the Russian Coast guard. The following day, a Russian helicopter landed on the Greenpeace ship ‘the Arctic Sunrise’ and seized it. Some of the Arctic 30 Activists have been released. Greenpeace is posting continual updates on their website. Greenpeace has often confronted governments and corporations head-on with civil disobedience.

In fact, as of December 26, 2013, news headlines claim that 14 of the 30 activists have been given approval to leave Russia.

Born and raised in South Africa, by his teenage years, Kumi Naidoo was such a vocal and prominent opponent of the racist policies in South Africa of apartheid, that he was beaten and jailed many times by the white regime. He finally escaped to Great Britain, where he was awarded a attended a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford. With the end of apartheid,

KumiNaidoo together with Nelson Mandela at the end of Aparthed

he headed back to South Africa where he became head of Greenpeace International, bringing his negotiation and advocacy skills to lead an organization with 3 million members.

Naidoo mentions that what happens in the arctic affects the globe. Drilling there has not yet started and they are doing everything they can to prevent this. History teaches us, that all of the struggles and injustices, whether slavery, a woman’s right to choose, apartheid move forward, until decent men and women say ‘enough is enough’ and are willing to put their lives on the line. Moyers points out that Greenpeace owes some of its heritage and DNA to the Quakers; a religious society of friends started in 1660. They are witnesses for peace. Quakers share a refusal to participate in war, oppose slavery, encourage prison reform and social justice. Naidoo mentions that the most important thing that we can take from the Quakers is their commitment to peace, justice and a notion their notion called ‘bearing witness’. If there is an injustice in the world, those of us who have the capacity to witness it, document and record it in order to inform the world about it, have the moral responsibility to do so.

There is Incidentally an also a human’s rights watch group called “Witness”, an international nonprofit organization that has been using the power of video and storytelling to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. They empower people to transform their personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change.

Kumi explains that the Arctic serves as the refrigerator and air conditioner of the planet. It helps regulate the temperatures globally by deflecting the harsh rays of the sunlight. Massive melting glaciers cause the sea levels to rise. He mentions that our leaders don’t connect the different issues and challenges that we face, with the reality of what is happening environmentally. The genocide in Darfur, in western Sudan, was reported by the media as an ethnic or quasi religious conflict, when in fact it was the first major resource war brought about by climate impact. Darfur neighbors Lake Chad.

Lake Chad in 1972 within NIger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon

Lake Chad used to be one of the largest inland seas of the world.

Lake Chad in 2007 shrunk to the size of a pond

It has now shrunk to the size of a pond. Therefore, water, land and food scarcity as the result of the absence of this lake, were the toxic mix that caused this war to occur.

Obama’s words and slogans during his first election campaign were, “Yes We Can”, “the Fierce Urgency of Now” and  a “Planet in Peril”. Kumi states that we are playing political and commercial poker with the planet. The planet doesn’t need to be saved, the planet will come back. What is at stake, is humanities ability to live in coexistence with the planet for centuries to come. Any leader has the ethical imperative and responsibility to act in a way that does not imperil your children and grand children’s future.

350.org  demonstrates that we must write off 80% of fossil fuel reserves completely, and reinvest  in renewable energy; wind, solar, wave technology, to allow sustainable life on earth.

Naidoo mentioned the The World Economic Forum, an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world through mobilizing business and political leaders and engaging academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. The World Bank issued a report: Turn Down the Heat

World Bank study Turn Down the Heat Why a 4 degree waker world MUST be avoided

Kumi’s deceased mother imprinted him with some very compelling ideologies. She often mentioned that “It’s much better to try and fail, than to fail to try”.  As well,   that “We have the option to be part of the problem, or part of the solution”. She said to him that “when you see God in the eyes of every human being that you meet, then you will live your life seeing  humanity in everyone”.

I’ve already blogged about the subject of economic might in the midst of environmental plight, it’s an illusion and paradox comparing the two. I mention in this blog the (GDP) the Gross Domestic Problem compared to Bhutan’s (GNH) Gross National Happiness. http://digesthis.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/gross_domestic_problem_-why-measurement-of-wealth-depends-on-a-healthy-environment/

Kumi mentioned in the interview a prophesy, or rather proverb of the Cree Indians, Native Americans living in various parts of North America. Their territory stretches over the geopolitical borders of the United States and Canada. The Cree Indian Prophecy,

When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,

Cree Indian Proverb Only After

when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.

― Cree Indian Prophecy,

To sum up the message of all three, I add, that if you see the gift of creation in all of creation, in every person, every creature and in every form of life and inanimate parts of this planet as the gift of creation, and feel gratitude for every breath that you take, you will recognize that God is everywhere, and we have the responsibility to take care of it.

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I write to follow my bliss. Among various spiritual guides, Deepak Chopra has teamed with Opra Winfrey to bring to you the  21 day meditation challenge. Though it is already underway, there is always time to pause and step out of one’s mind and into one’s heart and breath. Their messages are about connecting within yourself to find out who you are, to discover why you are here on this planet in order to discern your own path.  I’m doing my best to follow mine.

Although my entire post is prompted by my abhorrence of materialism and greed, I nevertheless personally need money. In the process of researching and writing my blogs, to complete my first book, to continue to compose music (that will incorporate various animal sounds) to give these creatures a voice,  I need to pay my rent, to have shelter,  electricity, a desk and food. I make no money doing this and have a very small ecological ‘footprint’. I mostly ride bicycle. Because I’m currently not under ANY umbrella, corporate or otherwise, nor have funding or grants, I’m asking that if you read this far, either to make a donation yourself, or ask a friend with more capital (more disposable income) to make one on your behalf! I’ll take .001% of any billionaires that might happen to be reading this. ha ha! So I’m campaigning for myself and asking you to contribute, if you can !-)) This button leads will feed my PayPal. Any credit card or direct deposit transaction will be secure! thanks. Any feedback is always welcome as well. With love!

mind closed
eyes wide open

mind open
eyes wide shut