Civilization 3.0: Getting Rooted onto this Planet
What is Wealth really about? Here is a Quick Essay i wrote for biointegrity.net.
What is Wealth really about… personal Abundance, Security and Feelin’ good, right? That obviously depends on societal and planetary wellbeing. So if that’s the case, then it is time now for we people of modern means to make a historic change and “Advance” by “coming home.”
What do I mean? Well, first of all: self-identify with our planet; see and understand its miracles, limitations, and the infinite potential it contains in each of us and in all of its living “Nature”.
How does one “come home”? What the heck does that mean? It’s a reconnection to centered-self that simply comes from being outdoors in safe space, moving around, sitting still, engaging your own breath and body and senses, going into the wilds, enjoying the other creatures and people and benevolent ecosystems you encounter. Seeing connections. Thinking about systems and relationships. Exhaling. Not thinking. Touching dirt, smelling air, hearing leaves. Reflecting. Processing your indoor life. Watching other species live. Being seen.
The most meaningful way to connect, imo, is to do the work of environmental care and restoration with a mindset of togetherness.
I’m talking about caring for the plants and the soul, I mean soil. Yards, public spaces, campuses, etc. Go get involved in helping everything by caring for other life. Just take action to nurture the landscape where you are and connect that to the bigger picture of how we move forward today.
Reconnection
Arguably, our most rewarding personal experiences come from “connections,” awe, generosity and being appreciated. Here’s how to find, keep, and grow those things, aka. how to think and grow Nature-rich.
- Step 1: Observe other life.
Watch. Don’t disturb. Be peaceful. Curious. Look for systems and relationships. Explore. Breathe. Listen. Be still. Discover. - Step 2: Develop an actual relationship .
Don’t just “appreciate” the great outdoors. Talk gently to the other individuals you encounter. It’s not weird. Most people with pets do this. Squirrels, plants, etc. hear us and our tone of voice. We have to establish trust, first, usually. Make the most of that. You might see those creatures again. Enjoy. - Step 3: ACT differently now.
Ask any young person: It is time for new paradigms. Such as? Well, helping out the other life and being generous with our abilities to do so. Landscape life is stressed everywhere, today, and that affects everything (moods, cost of living, weather, carbon emissions…) Most of us do live on land-based ecosystems, let’s take the lead and be the solution. The research shows you can do a lot for yourself and the greater future just by making the landscapes around you Nature-rich. It’s critically important and opportune. The video below showcases the #1 priority for preventing future environmental loss and property damage (“Make Landscapes Lush”). Start there!
Our Best Neighbors
Let’s be real. “Biosphere Earth,” the totality of biodiversity and ecosystems on this planet, the only life-support system in the known universe, this is where we live.
When we think about how other life treats us, it’s generally incredibly nice. Really. The planetary biosphere system is our “keeper,” the best we’ll ever have, just watch out for the occasional danger. And, the amazing thing is when we think about resolving climate change most effectively it is through doing the work of coming home: reversing the destruction of other life, ecosystems and Biosphere Earth.
This has been quantified. The academic research shows that our life-support system’s productive genius, this unexplainable and under-appreciated miracle of wild, self-growing “green infrastructure” we depend on, and which precedes us genetically by 100s of millions of years — if we protect and regrow it, if we do what’s best for our own life-support system’s abundance, it would absorb and reduce about 90% of the emissions needed to stop and reverse climate change in the next 2.5 decades and through this century.
Green infrastructure restoration is the only way we get calmer weather again, too. Check out my research on this, papers 5, 6, 7, and 8.
And these big picture rationale are only part of what doing the work and coming home means.
The Primary Asset: Bio-Rich Ecosystems
“A tree is an evaporative cooler.” My friend, Norm Ballinger, made this great statement recently. He’s right. Everyone needs to understand stuff like this. There’s no way around bio-physical reality.
We need our own bodies and the living Earth to live, and especially to thrive. Our popular concept of “Advancement” needs to root in that, and in its equality, and learning how to live on this planet, Biosphere Earth.
There’s nothing more exciting than solving the now-happening woes and crises, tragedies, traumas, bad habits, abuses, mental illnesses, corruptions, etc. with an evolution in identity, I think. Stop identifying with narratives, start finding yourself in the outdoors.
Kinship, Life-Support System, Potential.
What matters most to all of us? In my mind Kinship (being an important individual in a nurturing community, and cultivating that), seeing the Earth as biosphere (life-support system), and engaging that potential — not the models of tyranny, extraction and fort-making we’ve built Civilization 1 and 2 on. Not Socialism, Not Communism, but moving forward by defining Wealth on a finite planet according to the values which benefit everyone. That may sound far out, but I’ll have more to say on this in the future. In short: it only makes sense if you have the means to care for the greater good and build the future on reality-based, inclusive positives.
No matter what times we are living in, violent or peaceful, biophysical realities define us… We are biodiversity-dependent. The primary asset is bio-rich ecosystems. Like it or not, Diversity is reality. Biodiversity is what makes/ waters/ feeds/ and keeps us. Biosphere Integrity is essential for future abundance. Let’s build Civilization 3.0 on these foundations. Let’s update our priorities and see how good we can do, together, today. Indulge in the process.
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Thanks for reading.
I am founder/director at biointegrity.net.
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