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the biotic mandala, what it is

By Kurt Heidinger on May 17, 2013 in beauty, biome, citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, economy, endosymbiosis, energy sources, evolution, imagination, sustainability, time

Time to imagine what a biocitizen is again, if only b/c we learned a few days ago that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has exceeded 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in 55 years of measurement—and probably more than 3 million years of Earth history. The last time the [...]

A Visit to Amherst’s Sustainability Festival

By Kurt Heidinger on Apr 30, 2013 in citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecology, economy, endosymbiosis, energy sources, sustainability, technological determinism

Post written, and pics taken, by Evan Hutton, Biocitizen intern and UMass Class of 2013, Legal Studies The Sustainability Fest is one that has all of the elements you want a culture to embrace in order for their community to become green. Over the weekend, Amherst Commons was lined with stands around the border of [...]

Transgenic DNA from GMOs in Chinese Rivers—why is it suddenly there?

By Kurt Heidinger on Mar 22, 2013 in biome, citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecocide, ecology, economy, endosymbiosis, energy sources, evolution, GMO, imagination, religion, sustainability, technological determinism, time

(NOTE: this revised version correctly attributes Sichuan University researchers, and not Dr. Ignacio Chapela, for the discovery discussed below.) UC Berkeley microbiologist Dr Ignacio Chapela has commented on a discovery, by a research team from Sichuan University, of “the escape and establishment of transgenic DNA from GMOs” in rivers in China. That’s not good news. The [...]

a shad that didn't make it up the fish ladder, June 2012

Testimony presented to FERC re: Turners Falls Dam relicensing

By Kurt Heidinger on Mar 20, 2013 in biome, citizenship, Director's Notes, ecology, economy, energy sources, sustainability, technological determinism, time

Biocitizen was prompted to attend a recent FERC meeting up at the Discovery Center in Turner’s Falls because, last June & July, Our Place participants were disturbed to find so many dead fish in the CT river, downstream of the Holyoke and Turners Falls dams. The fish ladders at both dams are not saving enough [...]

thinking like a superorganism—again!

By Kurt Heidinger on Mar 04, 2013 in citizenship, consumerism, deep biotic immersion, Director's Notes, ecology, economy, endosymbiosis, energy sources, evolution, imagination, religion, sustainability, technological determinism, time

I read a stimulating opinion piece by Tom Englehardt this morning about how American culture is adapting to suit the conditions of global warming: Climate Change as History’s Deal-Breaker. His observations about how our (devotion to our) economy prevents us from evolving are definitely worth considering. This one especially: “It’s difficult to organize for or even [...]

The Krugs with Our Place summercampers in front of the Judd black walnut

Trans-generational Amnesia, conclusion

By Kurt Heidinger on Feb 26, 2013 in aesthetics, beauty, biome, citizenship, consumerism, deep biotic immersion, Director's Notes, ecology, economy, endosymbiosis, energy sources, evolution, imagination, Jefferson, religion, sustainability, technological determinism, time

I’m trying to remember where I was. Until I do please let me entertain you with a tale of local color. When my family moved from to Westhampton about eight years ago, one of the first friends we made were our neighbors, Dan and Jessie Krug. We were very lucky to meet them because they [...]

Intentional ignorance, the NYTs, & the loss of our collective imagination

By Kurt Heidinger on Jan 12, 2013 in citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecology, economy, energy sources, evolution, GMO, imagination, sustainability, technological determinism, time

We fancy that industry supports us, forgetting what supports industry. Aldo Leopold Ignorance is not the same thing as stupidity or imbecility. You have to ignore something to be ignorant. You have to exclude from awareness something you have already noticed. Stupidity or imbecility connote an innate feature of character; ignorance, on the other hand, is [...]

solstice/new year’s thoughts on the forces of life and of death

By Kurt Heidinger on Dec 31, 2012 in biome, citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecology, economy, endosymbiosis, energy sources, evolution, imagination, religion, sustainability, technological determinism, time

In Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud argues that humans struggle “between two opposing drives: Eros, which produces creativity, harmony, sexual connection, reproduction, and self-preservation; and Thanatos, which brings destruction, repetition, aggression, compulsion, and self-destruction.” So many of us wonder, as we try to understand the massacre in Newton CT, what drove the murderer to [...]

How to Adapt to Survive Global Warming—Think Outside

By Kurt Heidinger on Nov 29, 2012 in citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecology, economy, energy sources, evolution, imagination, sustainability, technological determinism, time

Of course you noticed when Obama and Romney avoided the subject of global warming during their debates. Their behavior, and the lack of Big Media questioning on this subject, was so telling, wasn’t it? We cannot expect those who run for political office on a platform of “saving the economy” to care about global warming, [...]

the Lincoln tree @ Sequoia National Park

Nature, Natural Law and Our National Religion of “Nature’s God,” conclusion

By Kurt Heidinger on Oct 19, 2012 in citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecology, ecology, economy, endosymbiosis, energy sources, evolution, imagination, Jefferson, political, religion, sustainability, time

In part 1 and part 2 we considered how Jefferson grounded the Declaration of Independence upon the natural law that we are all equal (because no human can actually own the earth); and how it was left to Lincoln to enforce that law via the Civil War.* I introduced you with the fact that Lincoln, [...]

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