Johnny Appleseed spent his adult life planting apple trees so that people he would never meet would have food: free, plentiful and nutritious. Today’s Johnny Appleseed would be the person who takes an invasive weed, say Amaranthus albus L. (also know as Pigweed or Tumbleweed), and hybridizes it so that its seeds are 5x bigger. Amaranth [...]
As I was saying…We consider our lives to be sacred, and we rebel at the thought that we are property. Accepting these truths, we can arrive at the conclusion that nature is sacred without having to look backwards in history; and this is how. Theology: Our bodies, and everything human beings have ever known, felt [...]
THE JEFFERSONIAN CITIZEN Thomas Jefferson’s definitions of citizenship and freedom were deeply informed by the Epicurean tradition of Natural Law, which he adapted to suit to the frontier perspective of the Anglo-Europeans who invaded Native America. Believing that “following nature” led to personal and collective happiness, Epicurus said: “If you do not reconcile your behavior [...]
Our Place campers learning environmental philosophy in the field (youtube link!). The best part of Thanatopsis: Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again, And, lost each human trace, surrendering up Thine individual being, shalt thou go To mix forever with the elements; To be a brother to the [...]
The prompt was “explain this place to your mother—what it was, how it got this way, what to look for and do while you’re here.”
Yesterday I outlined the way in which our over-the-top consumerism gives our government a reason to invade other lands, and subjugate and dispossess other people, with the intention of reducing the $$ cost of the materials we “need” to perpetuate our over-the-top consumerism. Talk about a feedback loop! We have been told, even by former [...]
After 9/11, Mr. Bush had the chance to summon the country to a great nation-building project focused on breaking our addiction to oil. Instead, he told us to go shopping. Thomas Friedman, NYTs After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Bush didn’t call for sacrifice. He called for shopping. “Get down to Disney World in Florida,” [...]
