Nature spoke to me today. “I want a moratorium on all extractive industry and deforestation for ten years. Forget about GDP and paying state and country debt back, your debt is to me. Think of my request as an ongoing day like Nyepi, Bali’s day of silence. Each human connected by a magnificent web will be able to feed and nurture everyone else as we go through an almighty shift. It will require love and gratitude to me, your Mother. Do you have the courage?”
Self: What a noble idea. A gift economy can come into reality. But also I need to find out the source of everything I consume and refuse it if it leads directly or indirectly to harm. In essence this means everything must be reused, nothing new.
I need to revisit the Drawdown 100 solutions to Global Warming. An electric car needs more copper than a motorized one and that is displacing people in Ecuador and the cloud forest habitat where the mining is booming right now due to the increased need. All electronics need copper and other minerals that must be causing harm to someone, to some habitat.
Knowledge base:
- Every product used must be traceable to its source and have a pathway to it being reused when finished with. Commonly called cyclical industry, Cradle-to-Grave design and/or Transitioning communities no longer will a product become trash. Those days have gone – we are in a new era. Not in 2050 or next decade, now, right this minute we must stop and turn around, go another way.
- To write this charter will require research into the current use of land and the effects it is having on people, flora and fauna. All practices which are regenerative and restorative are on the surface welcomed but even these need further examination as to what and where tools and materials are coming from.
- The new story for the economy will be based on business and industry that recycles and renews goods. The human brain will be put to the test to devise ways to maintain essential services without using new materials that are not perfectly sustainably produced.
Nature download:
Diets will need to change to reflect the use of more locally grown produce. There will be an end to highly processed non-essential food and drinks.
Does this sound austere? If your taste buds have not experienced the pure joy of fresh food, maybe this will be true, but it will not take long to adjust. If your body has not experienced fasting it may be hard at first. Addiction requires skill to break. New states of awareness will be available. For some awareness will come through plant spirit medicines like Ayahuasca or psilocybin allowing us to ‘see’ our way to the new story where eating like this will be bliss.
Self: What will happen to the daily commute? Working from home might be available to some – but do an assessment of the power and electrical communication devices you are using. What about for exercise and pleasure? This is the bit where I become unstuck. I love to paddle my SUP and surf.
I love the ocean. Other than living on a yacht how can I achieve that? If I live on a yacht how do I produce my own food?
First steps – make note of everything I use and do, where it comes from and who it is hurting.
…
After writing the words above I drove to my mother’s house via the beach. I watched a Jet Ski rider powering into the green wall of the swell attempting to flip off the top and surf like on a board. I shook my head. How would I feel if I forgo driving to the beach and using my own body to surf whilst people like this guy use fuel to have fun in the waves, let alone carting their machine to the beach?
My ‘crusade’ needs more than an individual approach. If I do it will you? If enough of us do it what can we hope to achieve. If we were doing acts of civil disobedience and risking being prosecuted we would make the issue more visible. By choosing to not partake of products and activities that contribute to harm on Earth I raise my inner knowing. I feel aligned with my purpose. It feels ethical. No longer a hypocrite. I am truly part of the restorer species. It just takes a small percent of us. Are you interested?