Said This Before…?

Let’s see.

Tax season torture, Motor City meltdown, Dow Jones dangers,  banker bonus boondoggle — my goodness, the crap is everywhere.  Be frightened, be very…

Wait. Need something to be fearful about?  News got you down?  That stuff ain’t it.  You gotta keep things in perspective.

Full disclosure: I sweat my investments, too.  I turned 64 last week, and the Beatles’ lyric (“Will you still need me, will you still feed me…”) has a touch too much irony right now.

But, if it’s impending catastrophe you’re fretting over, look elsewhere.  Look at the air, the water, the rising sea levels, the habitat destruction on every continent, the explosive die-off of bird, fish, and mammal species.  The news is not merely bad, it’s edging toward apocalyptic.  Stay focused on what really threatens your survival.

But: should you obsess over this?  No.  Is there a way out?  Absolutely.  Will it be painful or only inconvenient?  Well, likely some of both.  Might it be beautiful, inspiring, and amazing?  Looks that way to me, yes, for sure.

Why do I think so? How can I be positive amid all the really bad news?  Have I not told you?  See my next post.

Ralph

New Definition of Sustainability

“Sustainability is a state of perpetual vitality supported by the resources local to a place” - Sandy Wiggins

Sandy spoke here last year, you may remember, keynoting our first Green Building Expo in March ‘08.

His recent definition, like many others, does not specify the conditions you have to meet to have a sustainable community, as does The Natural Step, but I really like the undertone here, the implied sense of mutually relying on each other.  Sustainability is not a final destination, a steady state, or a status quo, it’s a living, pulsing flow.  And his focus on the local.  This offers two reminders.  One, that the answers don’t lie in Washington or some other far-off make-believe policy center, and two, that sustainability is, in fact, all about what lies under our feet and in front of our noses.

Indeed, that’s the richness of the sustainability vision, that’s what gives it juice.  It’s ours.

Ralph

Is this too radical for us?

The nation Of Ecuador has adopted a new constitution.  It protects the rights of all living things.

Here’s a document by Thomas Berry which parallels what the Ecuadorans have encoded in law.  Do we go too far?

Ralph

A NEW JURISPRUDENCE

1.    Rights originate where existence originates.  That which determines existence determines rights.

2.    Since it has no further context of existence in the phenomenal order, the universe is self-referent in its being and self-normative in its activities.  It is also the primary referent in the being and the activities of all derivative modes of being.

3.    The natural world on the planet Earth gets its rights from the same source that humans get their rights, from the universe that brought them into being.

4.    Every component of the Earth community has three rights: the right to be, the right to habitat, and the right to fulfill its role in the ever-renewing processes of the Earth community.

5.    All rights are specific and limited.  Rivers have river rights.  Birds have bird rights.  Insects have insect rights.  Humans have human rights.  Difference in rights is qualitative, not quantitative.  The rights of an insect would be of no value to a fish or a tree.

6.    Human rights do not cancel out the rights of other modes of being to exist in their natural state.  Human property rights are not absolute.  Property rights are simply a special relationship between a particular human “owner” and a particular piece of “property” so that each might fulfill its role in the natural order of things.

7.    Since species exist only in the form of individuals with natural groupings of individuals into such communities as flocks, herds, and packs, rights refer not simply in a general way to species, rights refer to individuals and to such natural groupings.

8.    These rights as presented here are based on the intrinsic relationships that the various components of Earth have toward each other.  The planet Earth is a single interdependent community of highly differentiated components.  No living form nourishes itself.  Each component of the Earth community is immediately or mediately dependent on every other member of the community for the nourishment and assistance it needs for its own survival.  This mutual nourishment, which included the predator-prey relationship, is integral with the role that each component of the Earth has within the comprehensive community of existence.

9.    In a special manner humans have not only a need but a right of access to the natural world to provide not only the physical need of humans but also the wonder needed by human intelligence, the beauty needed by human imagination, and the intimacy needed by human emotions for personal fulfillment.

Thomas Berry, 1/1/01

Birthday Greetings

Personal note: yesterday was my birthday.  How old am I?  Think: Beatles, Sergeant Pepper, and the lyric, “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m…”

So I got a lovely birthday greeting from my friend and colleague Loretta Raider, who used a note card with a magnificent photo of corals on the cover, produced by the Ocean Conservancy.  Here’s what it says on the back of the card:

“Corals may look like plants, but they are small, sedentary marine animals, related to sea anemones.  While they grow in many marine climates, they are most abundant in shallow, warm waters.  Coastal development pours fresh water and pollutants into the oceans, and these can devastate delicate coral reefs.  Collectors who sell corals also threaten fragile reefs.  You can help by refusing to purchase coral and by being careful not to touch or disturb coral when swimming, snorkeling or boating near reefs.“  (Emphasis mine.)

Ralph

Have You Asked Yourself…?

Why do I resolve to make a change in the direction of being more sustainable — and then not follow through?

Why do I let old habits over-ride my conscious choices to do something differently?  How frequently does this happen?

Do I — should I — say something when I see someone else doing something I know is harmful to the ecology?  How can I do this without causing anyone (including me) embarassment?

Will I develop the courage to press on when I, let’s say, mention the damage that drinking branded water does, and my friend’s eyes glaze over?  Do I think I’ll damage or even terminate the friendship because I mention this?  Do I think my friends do not care what’s important to me?

Ralph

What We Tell Each Other

The board of trustees of Sustainable Lawrence met last evening.  In addition to a review of funding, election of new trustees, and other usual business, we had a conversation about how to get the message out.

It wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last.

One board member argued that we need to make certain we offer positive information and hopeful possibility.  I don’t believe he intended this as criticism of the way I talk about sustainability, but it made me stop.

Am I putting out too many negative messages?  Are my warnings about the dangers of climate change, etc. too depressing and, more to the point, too frequent?  Sure hope not.

Because I believe sustainability is, at its core, a vision of a new way of living in community — new values, new norms and mores for culture, and end to mindless judgmental competitiveness over every little thing.  Call it my inner hippie.

Okay, maybe not so “inner”.

I want my community to invest in its own dreams, live out its most deeply held values, and always work from a basis of discovered commion ground.  Choose up sides on the ball fields, not in community life.

My resolution out of all this is: talk positive, hold out a vision of the true, good, and beautiful, and work toward a community that values possibilities over problems.

For more on what I have been thinking along these lines, see this page on the Sustainable Lawrence website:

http://www.sustainablelawrence.org/learn_challenge.html

Ralph

Getting Together

American communities are inching with curious determination toward ecological sustainability.  Some organize at the grass roots level; others experience the benefit of political leaders with new vision.  It’s rarely a simple or straightforward process.  Mostly it’s evolutionary and messy, like a large group of people groping about a dark room looking for the light switch.  What’s interesting is how many of these communities are taking these steps not out of fear or desperation, but infused with a sense of hope and  possibility.  It feels to me that we are coming home to a fresh sense of how we can be together.

Ralph