“Some things are believed because they are demonstrably true, but many other things are believed simply because they have been asserted repeatedly – and repetition has been accepted as a substitute for evidence”, and “It doesn’t matter how smart you are unless you stop and think…Intellect is not wisdom” Thomas Sowell.
In 1985, Carl Sagan asked a simple question: “If we spent $10 trillion preparing for a war (cold war) that never came… why wouldn’t we invest in preventing a climate disaster that surely will? He wasn’t just talking about weather. He was talking about civilization itself. Climate action isn’t just about hope. It’s about prudence. Mitigation and adaptation aren’t radical. They’re responsible. And the cost of inaction? Existential. It’s time we listen. Not just to scientists, but to reason itself with an innate wisdom we all have but ignore.
What is it about a sustainable future that is beyond the comprehension of market economists, billionaires, corporate leaders and their political minions? This insane belief that we can somehow forge forward with a soul-less market economy and its ever more destructive technologies on a finite planet is the complete opposite of what we need. Since this insanity is propagated by the hierarchies currently in control, the solution to our planetary chaos is to localize our lives and take control of our own local systems. I know that scares a lot of people, but after six millennia of mismanagement by the hierarchies, its time we trust ourselves, because for sure, we can no longer trust socio-psychopathic hierarchies bent on control using planet destroying policies.
We have plenty of human shit on this planet, both literally and proverbially, and even more animal shit from large farms and feedlots. Traditionally, farmers had animals grazing naturally on grassy land which was then used as fertilizer. Modern agricultural systems unfortunately have turned all this shit into toxic sludge replete with toxins and pathogens. While some efforts to ‘clean’ up all this shit have showed possibilities, getting the clean biosolids to fertilizer is still hazardous. It takes between 6-12 months to clean up human sewage to a point where it is safe. Mess up anywhere along the purification process, or get economically focused technologists using shortcuts to maximize profits, and you get a toxic health nightmare being applied to your food. Current rules and regulations everywhere are totally inadequate to manage this potential solution.
Living Machine options as shown by the Findhorn project are a great option, but scaling them up to large municipality use would require major changes in how they are managed. Mainly getting rid of the economic profitability and the tendency for techno-bureaucrats’ to be short-sighted and easily influenced when dealing with private industries and current kinds of politicians lacking integrity. The only feasible solution at this time for all this shit is its use as a power source of methane production with all the resulting biosolids being processed through large wetland filtration systems. Of course, as we change our worldview and think more systemically and use our inherent wisdom on ‘what is ecologically and spiritually right,’ things will change. Meanwhile we are talking about how to transition using localized systems where smaller numbers of people can clearly see what is happening in their community.
I started out discussing in ‘The Great Healing: Part 33’ the five items I believe are needed to create this transition to a sustainable society. To recap:
item number one: Mindfulness. We must start being mindful and conscious of every thought and action. A question to ask yourself every day,” What will the world look like when we are all enlightened, and practice mindfulness.”
Item number two: New Economics. Since the 1980s, the world has been caught in a whirlwind of economic transformation called ‘Globalization.’ While it has had many benefits, one major consequence has been the erosion of local economic systems, knowledge, and supply chains (e.g., The Walmart Effect).
Item number three: New Metrics: Redefine what true success means for you and your community.
Item number four: Food resiliency. This is important since true resilience means creative thinking about how communities regenerate themselves for self-sufficiency.
Item number five: Energy resiliency. Our lives revolve around technology that uses energy, and we need to control it at the local level.
Rather than starting with new technologies, we need to start with an assessment of our values, both individually and as a community. A start to that is reviewing what makes a good quality of life. Note that I said quality of life and not standard of living. The first is intrinsic values based, while the second is economically based and makes all manner of erroneous assumptions that somehow money will provide that quality. Material-consumerism is the trap we are caught within. After a century of high consumerism and acquisition of material things by 20% of the Earth’s population, the result is a planet on the edge of ecological collapse and this high technologically developed 20% of the human population less satisfied with life than ever. The remaining 80% are obsessed with getting out of the crushing poverty that exists because of the highly flawed metrics used by the 20% to justify a ‘materialistic good life.’ There is a very small remaining number – indigenous peoples – that remain isolated from material-consumerism and by all anthropological accounts are happier than any other humans on the planet. They have a very high quality (QOL) of life despite not having been assimilated into our global economic cultural systems.
Of course, unlike easier to measure economic factors, measuring QOL is amorphously complex. Standard of Living is tangible and about monetary wealth and material goods. QOL is more intangible and about intrinsic values of compassion, honesty and integrity, personal growth (happiness, purpose), and creativity (expressing yourself uniquely). Psychologist, Kim Kasser, The High Price of Materialism, offers revealing insights into how materialistic beliefs are detrimental to QOL. A short video about Kasser’s interpretation of the imbalance between materialistic and intrinsic values explains this nicely (see link) The key then is about the metrics of QOL and how we living locally, apply them at the individual and community level.
Think about the five items I use and then how values about quality of life, and not standard of living, are applicable to creating a sustainable future. Think about when we no longer have to worry about meeting our basic needs, how that will change how we live with each other. John Lennon dreamed about a post-materialist world in 1971 – dreams are merely reality not yet manifested.
- Imagine there’s no heaven; It’s easy if you try; No hell below us; Above us only sky; Imagine all the people living for today.
- Imagine there’s no countries; It isn’t hard to do; Nothing to kill or die for; And no religion too; Imagine all the people living life in peace.
- Imagine no possessions; I wonder if you can; No need for greed or hunger; A brotherhood of man; Imagine all the people sharing all the world.
- You may say I’m a dreamer; But I’m not the only one; I hope someday you’ll join us; And the world will be as one.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” Eleanor Roosevelt
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