left click image twice to enlarge to the fullest

Ten days ago there was a fire near the summit of Mt. Mitchell.  The last image in this posting shows that fire’s location on the eastern side of the Black Mountain Range of North Carolina.  This beautiful country is important to me and countless others. Being near it and within its dense forested slopes has helped me to hold on to that one thin thread of sanity that keeps me functional.  Its 16 mile long J-shape is part of the beautiful Blue Ridge Province of the Appalachians. Most of the crests of the Blue Ridge trend northeast to southwest but the Blacks are among a few oriented almost perfectly from north to south. Such is the case for both limbs of the “J.” From the deck of our cabin I have spent hours gazing upon the south half of the eastern limb upon whose upper reaches  is the famous Black Mountain Crest Trail. That the surface of those formidable mountains could be threatened by fire concerns me immensely, particularly if it’s due to the carelessness of members of my own species. Lightning fits into the framework of acceptable but I have big time troubles with anyone who would walk or ride away from a campfire with embers remaining or toss a glowing cigarette aside into the freshly fallen leaves and dry needles of the understory.  In fact anyone who smokes in there any time of year would be hard pressed to get a break from me if I were in charge.

I could not begin to accurately estimate the number of people who have stood atop Mt. Mitchell at least once. Each time I’ve been there the panorama before me is different than the time before – but equally beautiful.  There are so many elements and they are ever-changing – the trees, the clouds, the wind, the temperature, the beckoning of distant old peaks worn by time from rocks that are over a billion years old. Mt. Mitchell is the highest peak in the eastern half of the United States at 6643’ but easily accessible. Between mile marker 355 and 356 on the Blue Ridge Parkway a spur road (N.C. 128) winds and twists northward for 6 miles to a parking area near Mitchell’s top. It is a well-maintained albeit narrow roadway providing access to Mt. Mitchell State Park. A handicapped accessible ascent from the parking lot will take you to the observation tower (also handicapped accessible) next to the mountain’s highest point.

Our cabin is slightly above 3000’ and 4.6 miles east of Mt. Mitchell (as the crow flies). It is modest, barely more than 1000 square feet of living area but it is a palace to me.  The “trout-supporting” South Toe River begins between the mountain and the cabin and flows northward paralleling the Black Mt. Range. The first image in this posting and the last were taken near the cabin. The one above shows Mt. Mitchell, Mt. Craig (6643’ according to a new survey), and Big Tom (6568’). I took that picture hurriedly about 100 yards upslope from the cabin where I could get a clear view of all three summits. I was not attempting to be artistic and therefore did not let the pole and lines in the foreground disturb me. My main purpose was to show you the spatial relationship between the three peaks.

I suppose that most people viewing from a similar point would consider Mt. Craig and Big Tom to be one peak but when once you get up there it’s easy to see the distinction between the two and to feel it when hiking the trail.  Here are two images that might help:

left click twice to enlarge image to the fullest

left click twice to enlarge image to the fullest

This last photo (below) was taken by a neighbor, Carole Pearson, from a point about a half mile WSW of the cabin near the Baptist Church on North Carolina 80. Carole’s interest was strictly to get a record of the fire – so likewise, wires were not a big concern for her either.

left click twice to enlarge image fully

I have searched on line and looked at local newspapers for coverage of this fire but have found nothing. It occurred on November 8, 2009 below the summit of Mt. Craig (the second highest peak in the eastern half of the United States). NOTE: There has been a long-standing debate about Clingman’s Dome in Tennessee which, to my knowledge, has not been surveyed since about 1920; some feel that it may eventually prove to be a few feet higher above sea level than Craig. By now I would think the debate is resolve but I’m ignorant on the subject.

By word of mouth I have heard that the fire was a small one (about 25 acres) and was “probably” caused by a campfire which had apparently not been properly doused or covered. This part of the Appalachians is mostly temperate rainforest and gets more precipitation than any other forested areas in the continental U.S. other than along parts of the Olympics and Cascades. Therefore, I fear that there are many people, both visitors and locals, who are not as concerned about forest fires as they should be. Complacent might be a polite word – potentially careless would be more like it.  To my knowledge the exact circumstances concerning this fire, including who started it, are unknown. If I learn more I will update this post. If you know more I would appreciate input from you.

The Buncombe Horse Range Trail which begins at Carolina Hemlock Campground and Picnic Area leads up to the area of the fire. The event appears to have occurred along a stretch of the trail that follows an old logger’s rail bed at about the 5,800′ contour. If you look closely at the first image you can see where part of that bed sloped gently upward to the left (south) of where the fire occurred.  Though I was not in this vicinity at the time of the fire I learned from Carole that it spread fast. Thankfully, the response was relatively quick. Apparently helicopters were used to control and then extinguish it.

I know first hand that it’s very rugged up there. The last time I hiked the 5.5 mile Mt. Mitchell Trail to the top (from the Black Mountain Campground) it took me 5.5 hours up and almost 3.5 hours to return. It is difficult but beautiful country. But probably the most rugged and difficult trail I’ve ever hiked is the 11.3 mile Black Mt. Crest Trail. Mind you, I’ve hiked on many tough trails in this country including in Grand Canyon, the Sierra Nevada (including the summit of Mt. Whitney), the Tetons, etc. On one end is the Bowlens Creek segment beginning near a hairpin on N.C. 1109 near Bowlens Creek and on the other end is the parking lot near the top of Mt. Mitchell. It crosses over or near the top of a dozen peaks above 6000’ like a roller coaster. It’s tough hiking partly because the portion north of the state park is poorly maintained (if at all). When I hiked it there were places where the trail itself was somewhat elusive due to weeds growing much taller than my 6’ frame. Along certain parts of the trail hand holds are essential. By contrast, closer to Mt. Mitchell the trail is well maintained and even has some impressive stair steps of well-placed rocks.  The amount of work put into that section between Mt. Mitchell and Mt. Craig is impressive.  It’s only a mile hike northward to Mt. Craig from the trailhead on Mitchell and I highly recommend it.  The view in all directions from the top of Craig is one you would not likely forget.  Pictures don’t do it justice.

A serious error in a 1981 topographic map of the vicinity has been corrected in a 2003 map that is available at the National Forest Service Office in Burnsville. The error was in the vicinity of 6327’ Celo Knob. In 1996 that map error plus my naiveté in trusting its accuracy cost me and my 10-year-old daughter several additional hours to descend the range along Bowlens Creek. But that’s another story for later.  I expect to tell it on this site before the year is out. Suffice it to say, it was an adventure and even though we did not reach the end of the trail until 2:30 AM and I broke a few ribs – I’d do it all over again.  I don’t think my daughter, who is now 23, feels the same.

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Si vous êtes comme moi une fashionistas accro aux sacs à mains, que votre penderie déboooorde de sacs différents pour chaque occasion, pour chaque outfit, pour chaque fois où respecter son budget n’était plus aussi prioritaire après avoir repéré LE fourre-tout de vos rêves… alors vous serez ravies! Ravies de savoir que les deux designers de chez Sens Inverse ont ajouté quelques modèles à leur collection de sacs, conçus majoritairement à partir de matériaux recyclés. On M, tout simplement!

Si vous désirez vous procurer un de ces modèles (perso je craque pour celui sur la dernière photo!), sachez qu’ils seront tous disponibles à la Biosphère pour le Salon de Noël. Vous pouvez aussi en retrouver à la Gaillarde, en attendant l’événement. N’hésitez pas à visiter le site internet officiel Sens Inverse pour découvrir plus de créations originales!

http://sensinverse.wikidot.com/

À lire aussi:
Mon look version SMM Jour 2
Les copies de designers… Pour ou contre?
On ose: Le collant en dentelle

19 listopada nakładem TouchShop ukaże się kaseta z historycznym już materiałem stworzonym przez Geira Jenssena (Biosphere) w roku 1984. Wówczas materiał wydała wytwórnia Likvidér. Na “E-Man” udzielają się Per Martinsen (znany z projektu Mental Overdrive) i Nils Johansen (z Bel Canto).

Wszystkie utwory zostały nagrane na sprzęcie Teac w Norwegii w latach 1983 – 1984. Autorem, lub współautorem kompozycji jest sam Jenssen i jest to pierwsze oficjalne wydawnictwo muzyczne Norwega.

“E-Man” tracklista:

A1: The Difference
A2: De Du Da Da Di
A3: Upland I
A4: Visjoner
A5: Upland II
A6: Great Nations
A7: Hosono
B1: Jeg Er Moderne
B2: Upland III
B3: Nibsy the Newsboy
B4: Heaven & Hell
B5: The Mission
B6: Upland IV
B7: De Du Da Da Di (Original)

οι biosphere στο BIOS την παρασκευή.
http://www.bios.gr/events/detail.php?show=223

χάσιμο.

If anyone in the Tucson area happens to be available tomorrow, Saturday, October 31 (Halloween!), I am giving my first presentation at the Biosphere II at 2PM.  The title of my talk is Monsters of the Deep: The Lives of Giant Water Bugs.  I’ll have live bugs, representative specimens, and a biologically appropriate costume.  The talk is free with admission to the Biosphere.  Feel free to stop by and learn more about giant water bugs and their amazing behaviors!

_______________

Text and images copyright © 2009 DragonflyWoman.wordpress.com

Bill Laswell, Jah Wobble, Biosphere and Nils Petter Molvær remixing some of her songs. A solid stamp of approval.

Part1//Part2

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Bill Laswell, Jah Wobble, Biosphere and Nils Petter Molvær remixing some of her songs. A solid stamp of approval.

Part1//Part2

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fot. Agnieszka Zwara/handoneye.com

Geir Jenssen, Biosphere – niekwestionowany geniusz ambientu, twórca takich dzieł, jak “Substrata” czy “Patashnik”, człowiek, który nie lubi koncertować i robi to bardzo, naprawdę – bardzo – rzadko, odwiedził Kraków. Trzeba przyznać – to wielka nobilitacja tak dla samego Unsoundu, jak i miasta w ogóle. A dla miłośników twórczości Norwega, krótko mówiąc, święto.

Od samego początku cieszył mnie fakt, iż koncert Biosphere’a zaplanowano we wnętrzach kościoła św. Katarzyny na krakowskim Kazimierzu. Mało która muzyka tak bardzo pasuje do świątynnego klimatu, jak twórczość Jenssena. Umiejscowienie jego koncertu w właśnie tam, realizuje dwa założenia. Po pierwsze, że ambient jest muzyką, której powinno słuchać się w pełnym skupieniu i wnętrzu to umożliwiającym. Po drugie, że nie stawia się tego gatunku na równi z innymi odłamami muzyki klubowej (choć genetycznie tak właśnie jest), ale jako kontynuację muzyki klasycznej. Twórcy ambientu, następcy Erika Satie, Briana Eno, a w dalekiej linii, spadkobiercy Bacha, Mozarta, Beethovena, słowem – kompozytorzy. A skoro Mozarta można grać w kościele, dlaczego nie grać w nim Biosphere’a. Zresztą z tych samych powodów poprzednie koncerty serii Soundscapes (piątkowy wieczór był trzecim i ostatnim elementem serii) odbywały się w sali Filharmonii Krakowskiej.

Każda osoba z tłumu oczekującego wejścia na koncert miała wobec niego pewne, zróżnicowane, oczekiwania. Na pewno wiele osób chciało usłyszeć set “hitów” Biosphere’a, a w myślach imaginowało estetyczną jazdę przy pierwszych dźwiękach “Poa Alpina” odbijających się od ciężkich murów kościoła. No i tak – ja oraz mój chorobliwy fanatyzm na punkcie muzyki Biosphere’a też mieliśmy nadzieję na taki rozwój wydarzeń. Zwłaszcza, że w niedalekim czasie krakowski koncert poprzedził album “live” Jenssena – “Wireless” – zapis koncertu z bristolskiego Arnolfini, na którym tak właśnie było.

Tymczasem Jenssen, stanąwszy przy stole obłożonym płonącymi świecami, skromny do bólu i niezwykle w tym czarujący, tak po prostu nas zaskoczył. Poruszający organy wewnętrzne bas osadzony pod masą brzmieniową na początek i irytujący pisk na kilka minut. Niedobry początek – nawet Biosphere’owi, mimo całego mojego szacunku i bezkresnej miłości do niego, nie wybaczam narażania mojego słuchu na cierpienia. Całe szczęście później było już tylko lepiej. Ale nie na tyle, żeby posiwieć z radości.

Występ Biosphere’a był w istocie bardziej koncertem niż setem. I w 60 procentach osadzony raczej bliżej klimatu “Insomnii” i “Dropsonde” niż “Substraty” czy “Patashnika”. Harmonie i specyficzna, tak charakterystyczna dla Jenssena, muzyka pulsacyjna zaczęły pojawiać się dopiero później. Można było wysłyszeć znany repertuar, ale misternie i głęboko wszyty w nowe struktury dźwiękowe. Tak pojawiło się “The Shield” czy “Poa Alpina”, na sam koniec występu. Po pierwszym uczuciu rozczarowania w stylu “łeee, nie ma hitów”, przyszedł etap fascynacji – bo nowy materiał, który na naszych uszach budował Biosphere, okazał się szalenie interesujący, z jednej strony dlatego, że wykorzystywał on znane z poprzednich dokonań brzmienia czy nawet całe motywy, a z drugiej dlatego, że to po prostu było dobre.

Brakowało jedynie spójności, konsekwentnego wynikania jednej myśli muzycznej z drugiej. Bardzo często Biosphere po prostu urywał grę i “na świeżo” przechodził do następnego tematu. Trochę to wybijało z rytmu.

Wartość tego koncertu – przynajmniej do mnie – dotarła po czasie. Gdy opadły pierwsze emocje i ambiwalentne uczucia, a do głosu doszedł racjonalizm i – było nie było – muzykologiczna analityka. I dlatego, choć Biosphere nie sprawił, że wyszłam w kościoła na czworakach, a resuscytacja nie była konieczna (bo i taką opcję brałam pod uwagę), ten wieczór powinien był zadowolić tych, którzy oczekiwali solidnej dawki biosphere’owego ambientu.

Kaśka Paluch

25th anniversary release from the Touch Music label.

One of the more interesting albums on rotation. Featuring works from Biosphere, Fennesz, Chris Watson and Ryoji Ikeda you know you’re in for some interesting ambience from the world of sound. Definitely one to immerse yourself into with a good set of headphones.

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Siódma edycja Unsound Festival w Krakowie rozpoczyna się już w poniedziałek 19 października i potrwa aż do 25 października. W trakcie tego tygodnia najbardziej wymagający fani muzycznych doświadczeń będą mogli wziąć udział w koncertach wyjątkowych artystów wielu gatunków muzycznych. Imprezy klubowe i koncerty odbędą się w jednych z najciekawszych miejsc Krakowa, co dodatkowo spotęguje wrażenia muzyczne.

Przypominamy wszystkim, którzy kupili karnety tygodniowe oraz trzydniowe, żeby wymienili je w Biurze Festiwalu (Pauza, ul. Floriańska 18) na opaski i przepustki imienne. Można również kupić tam pojedyncze bilety na poszczególne wydarzenia, o ile będą jeszcze dostępne.

W tym momencie nie ma już biletów na koncert Biosphere/Stars of The Lid ani tygodniowych karnetów, które cieszyły się wyjatkowym zainteresowaniem. Doradzamy osobom zainteresowanym uczestnictwem w tych koncertach zakup trzydniowych, nadal dostępnych karnetów. Doradzamy również ubranie się ciepło na koncert w Kościele Św. Katarzyny.

Odbędzie się również dodatkowa sesja warsztatów dziennikarstwa muzycznego z Philip’em Sherburne’m i Andy Battaglią, z racji na duże zainteresowanie. Pierwsza sesja zaczyna się o 14.00, a druga o 16.00, więc prosimy się szybko zapisywać.

Nadal dostępne są miejsca na warsztatach muzyki elektronicznej dla dzieci prowadzone przez serbskiego artystę Lukę ToyBoy’a. Zapraszamy do zapisywania dzieci w wieku 5-12 lat. W sprawie warsztatów prosimy pisać na adres: workshops@unsound.pl.

Znamy już wszystkich uczestników paneli dyskusyjnych odbywających się w Gothe-Institut, Kinie 18 i Bunkrze Sztuki i wkrótce ich ogłosimy.

Prosimy o sprawdzanie newsów na stronie www.unsound.pl, ponieważ będą tam publikowane wszelkie praktyczne wskazówki i informacje odtyczące całego nadchodzącego tygodnia.

“This is a live recording from the 1995 Polar Music Festival, in Tromø Geir Jenssen’s hometown. Recorded on the top of a mountain above the town, the music uses only samples sourced locally – people speaking at the festival, the cable car which brought people to the performance, the melting snow and ice, et cetera.” (Source)

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The United Nations recognized Pierre Teilhard de Chardin as an agent of world peace. On September 20-21, 1983 in conjunction with the opening with the 38th meeting of the UN General Assembly, an internal colloquium assembled to honor Pierre human and cosmic thought. Secretary General H.E. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar praised the his “universal, humanitarian and spiritual thinking.” The UN honored one of their own, undersecretary Robert Muller, who wrote several books using Pierre’s philosophy on global spirituality including the Noosphere (Greek “Noos”, spiritual intellect) which is the best of his many neologisms. In his book Vision of the Past, Pierre defined noosphere as the “thinking envelope of the biosphere,” and “the conscious unity of the souls.” Late in his life, Pierre wrote in his final book, The Heart of the Matter, that the noosphere was “the very Soul of the Earth.” Muller and the members of the UN believed that the success of peace in the world is a by shaping a global spirituality. Muller outlined those principles in two of his own books, Most of All They Taught Me Happiness and New Genesis: Shaping a Global Spirituality (where he listed Five Teilhardian Enlightenments).

If you thought growing food out of the back of a truck was pretty handy, how about this?!

The biosphere farm from Philips is an entirely self-contained unit which grows vegetables and fish 52 weeks a year, allowing food to be served literally fresh from the field, and with absolutely no air miles.

This alone is pretty impressive, but the unit is powered with food waste, so no emissions there either, and will produce hydrogen, ready for use in powering cars. We’ve always been fans of this kind of thing but this is a complete no-brainer. Although you would have to decide what you wanted to eat a few months in advance…

(source: The Daily Mail)

lemonde.fr, Hervé Kempf, le 10 octobre 2009

La crise commence, par Hervé Kempf

Dans le monde fantasmagorique des responsables et analystes de l’économie, le bien et le mal se résument aux frémissements d’un totem : le produit intérieur brut (PIB). Il chute de 2 %, c’est la catastrophe, il remonte en tremblant à 0,3 %, la reprise s’annonce. Et l’obsession est de rejoindre les 2-3-4 % “normaux” afin que la vie redevienne belle. Je ne caricature pas : des dizaines de déclarations et d’articles dans le Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Economist, Les Echos, La Tribune – et bien sûr, notre cher Monde – ratiocinent autour de ce thème.

Parlons de la vraie économie, celle qui se préoccupe de la subsistance durable des sociétés.

La récession de 2008-2009 est née de l’éclatement d’une bulle financière gonflée par un endettement démesuré. Les morceaux ont été recollés par une intervention rapide et forte des autorités publiques. Pour éviter l’effondrement de l’économie, on a de surcroît opéré des relances budgétaires massives. Donc, l’endettement public, déjà important avant la récession, a encore augmenté. Comme il y a des limites à la dette, il ne sera plus guère possible de soutenir artificiellement l’économie.

D’ailleurs, il y a… l’énergie. De son bas prix dépend la croissance du PIB. Or le pic pétrolier – dans le voisinage duquel nous sommes – signifie que le prix des combustibles fossiles est à la hausse, alors qu’il restera dans la décennie à venir le prix directeur pour toutes les énergies. Si donc se produit une “reprise”, elle augmentera la demande de pétrole, le prix de celui-ci montera, ce qui refroidira les ardeurs du PIB.

Autre pièce essentielle, le changement climatique. Il est urgent de réduire nos émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Les pays riches – même les Etats-Unis – affirment vouloir les diminuer de 80 % d’ici à 2050 : cela représente en gros une réduction annuelle de 3 % par an. On en est loin. Soit on s’y engage réellement, et cette baisse de la consommation d’énergie transforme le système économique, mais pas vers la “croissance” ; soit on attend, et les désordres du climat vont rendre la vie très difficile. La Chine et l’Inde commencent à le ressentir, entre manque d’eau, moussons déréglées, inondations, etc. Les taux de croissance de 10 % de la Chine, c’est fini !

Troisième pièce oubliée : l’agriculture. Un milliard d’humains ont faim tous les jours. Avec une population mondiale en augmentation et des contraintes écologiques de plus en plus sévères, l’agriculture redevient une question prioritaire. C’est là qu’il faut investir, pas dans le soutien au niveau de vie des habitants des Etats-Unis.

Il n’y aura pas de “sortie de crise”. La crise commence. En fait, ce n’est pas une crise, mais le début de la grande transformation : celle qui nous conduira à une société humaine s’adaptant aux limites de la biosphère ou, si nous restons dans le vieux schéma “croissanciste”… à l’explosion.

Unsustainable systems can’t be sustained. This present world system is unsustainable. Therefore it will not last forever. In fact, at present rates of “progress” (meaning pollution, extinction, extraction, human overpopulation, topsoil erosion and salinization, etc) this system can’t possibly last another hundred years without not only destroying itself, but also doing huge and permanently irreparable damage to the global web of life.

If we humans want to go on being human on this planet, we must develop a sustainable world system. If there are humans on the planet in a thousand years, if there is a healthy biosphere in a thousand years, it will be because somewhere in the very near future this current system ceased to be, and a sustainable system took its place.

The above is so obviously true that it’s just not debatable by anyone sane and even minimally informed. Anybody who believes that our global culture is heading in the right direction and wants to engage in technotopian fantasies at this point is dismissible, and should go to Mars and green the desert. Oh, wait, we can barely even keep a space station in a low orbit under the Van Allen belts, at enormous cost. Oh, wait, we’re busy desertifying our previously green planet. So good luck greening the Martian desert. We will never go to the stars in tin cans, either.

So we’re “stuck” here on this beautiful wet glistening blue-green jewel hanging in space, and we had best learn how to live well upon it.

We humans have gone a long, long way in the wrong direction. This way of life is not working for us. We are not living in a good way. We are not having a good time. And we’re killing the world in the process.

Dick Cheney famously said that our way of life is not negotiable, implying that we have the power to simply refuse to change, but he was wrong. We are indeed stubbornly unwilling to negotiate with reality, it is true. But we don’t have the power to refuse to change, because change is being forced on us, change we are increasingly powerless to resist.

So what do you do when you’ve gone a long way in the wrong direction, and you are approaching a precipice? Well, I don’t know about you, but I would like to think that I would recognize my situation, stop, turn around, and head back. But our culture seems to be saying, “We’re not headed in the wrong direction, that giant canyon is just in the wrong spot! Full speed ahead! It’ll move!”

Death before dishonor. And our “honor” has become linked with our culture, our non-negotiable “way of life” that is really a way of death for ourselves and the planet. We have become a death-culture. A global death-cult.

Stop. Turn around. Head back.

What would that look like globally?

Cars are perhaps the single most destructive invention ever. They destroy everything eventually, cutting up the landscape with deadly high-speed roads, spewing carcinogens, destroying communities, enslaving the people who have to pay for them, on and on. Cars suck.

Maybe walking is the only really sustainable form of transport. Perhaps we can ride horses. Maybe we can make bicycles and carts, dogsleds and chariots. But we can sure as hell not afford cars one moment longer.

Stop. Turn around. Lose the car. Get a bike. Get a horse. Walk.

Irrigation always creates salinization. That’s why the Middle East is mostly desert where it once was the “fertile crescent”; Babylon irrigated. As Derrick Jensen says, “Forests precede us and deserts dog our heels.” So long-term sustainable food production appears to be limited by local rainfall, period. Irrigation is out for any really sustainable culture. Cain has made a real mess of things, and Abel, the meek, inherits in the end.

But modern agriculture is massively more damaging than Babylonian irrigation. Modern agriculture is the very epitome of nonsustainability, relying as it does on fossil aquifers, fossil topsoil, fossil fuels and fertilizers… So we need to stop modern agriculture. Period. Next, we need to turn around and head back toward rainwater-based, long-term sustainable food production. Along the way, we find urban gardens, organic farming, rainwater catchments, intensively cultivated and widely distributed gardens, edible landscapes, forest gardens.

Capitalism eventually turns everything to shit. Capitalism makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, while destroying everything good by assigning it a low value. Capitalism creates monsters, corporations with more power and legal rights than humans, but no human frailty, conscience, or accountability. Capitalism consists of the privatizing of profits and the socializing of losses. Capitalism is nothing more than the biggest, longest-running Ponzi scheme ever. Capitalism is evil. Capitalism is unfair. Capitalism is ugly. Capitalism always destroys itself. Unfortunately, it destroys everything else first.

Stop. Turn around. Fee-based lending rather than interest-based. Local currencies. Barter. Sharing. Eventually, the idea of ownership itself needs to be discarded. Who owns the land? Who owns the air? Who owns genetic codes? Who owns your life energy? It’s absurd for humans to arrogate to “ownership” of anything. If we are not stewards of the land, of the world, we are nothing. If we see ourselves as owners rather than inheritors, ancestors, and caretakers, we are doomed and the world along with us.

Stop. Turn around. It’s the same with everything. We are a long, long way from where we need to be, and heading in the wrong direction. The solution is very simple. Stop, and turn around. Go back the right way.

But we have been conditioned to equate “technological progress” with “goodness and righteousness” and to believe that the way of accelerating consumption is the one and only right way. That’s not true. In fact, there are many right ways, and our destructive global culture is not one of them. We’re going the wrong way. We’re lost. Ah, the shame. Ah, the humiliation of asking for directions. Real men don’t do that. Real men never show weakness. Real men are always right. Real men… Don’t exist. “Real men” are another false cultural myth. This culture is deadly toxic in every way.

Stop. Turn around. Walk away.

It’s simple, but not easy. There are terrible problems: if we stop industrialized farming, how will everyone eat? Won’t there be wars and starvation? Maybe. But there are already wars and starvation, and this system cannot continue. Difficult as it may be, we have to start building a sustainable world, now.

And so begins the Journey to Sustainability. So begins the long journey back to sanity, and a future worth creating. This is a global journey, and it’s not optional. We will make this journey, one way or the other. Either we do it actively and consciously or it will be done to us.

I’d rather participate, personally. And I think if we participate, we can avoid a lot of needless suffering. We might even find that the work is a lot of fun. But we have to do it, so let’s get busy.

I don’t know. I really don’t. In the end, I am fundamentally ignorant. My knowledge is tiny, and my ignorance infinite. I do not know what life is all about; I don’t even know my own mission in life for sure. But I have to try.

I’m being called to go on a journey, an adventure. It scares me, but I am also really excited. I will have my wife by my side, and together we will set out on our personal journey to sustainability. Along the way, we’ll meet people who are heading there with us. Maybe someday we will actually arrive, and be able to say that we have created a truly sustainable way of life for ourselves, in a healthy, sustainable world. That’s the goal, and it sure would be nice. But maybe we’ll just keep traveling, and spend the rest of our lives on the road. That would be okay, too.

This will be a literal journey, as well as a metaphoric one. We’ll be racking up the miles and kilometers on human powered vehicles whenever possible. Our plan is to get to as many sustainability-oriented places and people as we can, and to share what we find with the rest of the world. We’ll be posting video, interviews, pictures, and writings from our adventures on the road to a better way of life.

Join us on our Journey to Sustainability!

Today offspring are tomorrow monsters; 

            The optimist Biosphere/Earth has its own stabilizing mechanism; it is indifferent to power-avid pessimist man. This unattached earth/biosphere mechanism may burn, suffocate, or drown man and it would not even notice or care for its existence.   

            Through the ages earth/biosphere underwent changes and man either thrived and developed or died consequent to the environmental changes.  All the time, man got curious about his environment and wanted to understand and then uncover the mysteries of that power surrounding him and controlling his life cycle. By the bye, man formulated general laws of nature; then, before he could fathom a tiny portion of the complex mysteries and the multiple interactions among the sparse and conditioned laws this impatient and anxious man endeavored to modify and transform nature to his own wants and restricted interests.

            Man wants to alter earth and the biosphere with the tacit understanding that he will not be affected. Man keeps forgetting, intentionally, that he is what he is because of earth and biosphere. Man can alter earth and biosphere; biosphere will, imperturbably, react at its own pace; the offspring of today are the monsters of tomorrow; if the monster is permitted to exist at all.

            The Western “modern” mind insisted that “the genesis of man (species and child development) is a process of primarily interacting with things; human interactions are a secondary and not a significant factor”.  In fact, most early scientist and researchers lived in their islands of palaces or laboratories with little contact with people.  They were intent on mastering their material environment.  Ayn Rand’s writings incarnated the mentality of the individual attribute of spirit and intelligence. She wrote: “The spirit is an individual attribute. Collective brain does not exist.  Man living in relation to others has no reality.”  Ayn Rand was expressing the prevalent pre-supposition at the turn of the century and she was formulating their radical consequences.

            Jules Verne stories of individualistic heroes and his successors of visionaries, explorers, adventurers, exploiters, and colonial expansionists refused to admit limitations to their intelligence and undertaking power.  They had grand “destiny” to impose and prove: man is born to reign and dominate and not to complain. Something broke then we fix it. Something blocked expansion then we erased it: there are always solutions to difficulties. There are no inherent problems to the enterprising man; as Napoleon said “Impossible is not in my vocabulary”.

            Jules Verne never missed a good shooting spree story at savages; in “Five weeks in balloon” they are shooting at the African negros from the top of a balloon; in “The children of captain Grant” they are shooting at will on Maoris in New Guinea from the top of rocky hills; in “The travel around the world in 80 days” they are killing the Sioux Indians from the doors of moving wagons; in “From Earth to the moon” they are annihilating the Seminole Indians; in “Mathias Sandorf” the savage Senoussis of Libya are exterminated.      

            Colonialism was initiated and undertaken by “democratically” elected government; thus fascism, Nazism, and communism have nothing to do with the spirit of “modernizing” the “barbaric” people. Our current modern man is typified by “Hot Air” Charles Branson; I don’t means his cross Atlantic, Pacific, or around the world balloons and airliners but gases emanating from his ass hole. The Western heroes are children who do not want to be rebuffed from the game: the entire planet is their game land. “When we were children, we were told not to feel afraid or cry: it was shameful. It was a time, and still is pretty much, when growing up meant to vanquish fear; to live in the delusion of the all conquering man.”

            Human intelligence and know how are intrinsically community intelligence. It is the community that initiates man to things and behavior.  Man needs at least 16 years of inter-communal aid and secure before he gets aware of his individuality and begins to revolt and seek a semblance of independence.

            We are at a junction when man is capable of envisioning a limited earth (weight, circumference, volume, and extractable minerals) and limits to the biosphere (thickness, density, and constituents).  There are intersections at several levels of consciousness. We are beginning to comprehend the limitations of technology to containing the power of nature such as tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, and changing climates; the catastrophic consequences of mastering nuclear energy (Chernobyl is a striking example); the long term problems of gigantic projects such as deviating rivers, and building monster dams.  We realize that our survival is intrinsically linked to the biosphere.  It is a junction of the meeting of man’s brain with the limits of biosphere and our recognition that biosphere is much more complex and that it has indeed engendered our kind of intelligence.

            We are harassed with the dictum “Science is neutral; experiments are unbiased”. One of the urgent tasks of the United Nations is to investigate how science and research are financed or funded.  Everything has a political direction and I contend that sciences, research, and technologies are primarily driven by deep pocket political interest groups.  We can no longer keep fighting those biased and politically oriented “research” results instead of focusing on the reality of earth/biosphere degradations.

Note: read my follow up post “The illusion of knowing…”

lemonde.fr, Hervé Kempf, le 3 octobre 2009

Nicolas Hulot et l’oligarchie, par Hervé Kempf

Le film de Nicolas Hulot et Jean-Albert Lièvre, Le Syndrome du Titanic, sur les écrans le 7 octobre, dérangera. Ce documentaire écologiste ne montre presque pas de nature : rompant avec l’esthétique de carte postale habituelle en la matière, il se confronte à la dure réalité de la misère et de l’injustice. Il tente de dire, malaisément, que la dégradation vertigineuse de la biosphère est le résultat d’un ordre social devenu fou, et qui fait porter le poids de ses conséquences sur les faibles, les pauvres, les exploités.

Il répète que la clé de sortie de cette logique destructrice est dans la baisse de la consommation matérielle dans les pays riches. Gageons que ce discours, plus âpre que celui sur les “petits gestes pour la planète”, recueillera un accueil mélangé. Et si Nicolas Hulot allait commencer à déranger ?

La force du personnage est de rester populaire en allant à la pointe de ce que la société française – ou plus exactement le système médiatique qui donne accès à celle-ci – accepte d’entendre à un moment donné.

Depuis une dizaine d’années, il a ainsi fortifié et peu à peu durci son discours : alarmant d’abord sur l’ampleur du désastre écologique, il a ensuite cherché à impliquer les citoyens, puis a porté la question sur le terrain politique. Il arrive maintenant à montrer que l’écologie est d’abord un enjeu social, et critique – mais en termes encore très généraux – le “libéralisme”.

Dans le commentaire habillant les images, il dit : “Je suis perdu.” Perdu ? Ah ? Je lui téléphone pour comprendre. Il répond : “Je suis perdu parce que je ne comprends pas qu’il faille autant d’énergie pour placer des évidences auprès de nos élites. Des gens qui ont une intelligence parfois fulgurante ont des angles morts, c’est-à-dire qu’ils n’arrivent pas à comprendre que leur modèle économique ne tiendra pas.”

C’est le problème de Nicolas Hulot, et donc notre problème : il croit que l’action politique est aujourd’hui inspirée par la recherche du bien commun. Mais il oublie la force des intérêts : l’intérêt individuel et l’intérêt de classe. Ce qu’Hulot appelle les élites, c’est aujourd’hui une oligarchie. Elle ne veut pas entendre l’évidence de la crise écologique et de la désagrégation sociale, parce que le but principal de l’oligarchie est de maintenir ses intérêts et ses privilèges. Elle ne s’intéresse au bien commun que pour autant que cela ne remet pas en cause sa position.

Quand on est gentil, il est difficile d’assimiler le fait que les autres ne sont pas tous gentils. Nicolas Hulot est au bord de le faire, et surtout d’en tirer les conséquences. Soit : ne plus parler vaguement du “libéralisme”, mais porter le couteau dans la chair des égoïsmes de classe. Il peut le faire. Mais il sait qu’alors, tout soudain, nombre de médias et de puissances plus discrètes lui trouveraient beaucoup de défauts.

NASA estimates manned Mars mission at 18-24 months. Water will have to be recycled and food grown. How long would NASA have to experiment with a human-occupied biosphere achieving a high enough reliability to launch one to Mars? I estimate 5-10 years of Earth and ISS testing. Has NASA initiated such a project? NO!!

Visite de la Biosphère (île St Hélène) en compagnie d’Ivan, un ami du Volley ball ! Ce musée est un des rare musées dans le monde qui traite d’un sujet pourtant bien d’actualité: l’eau ! C’est une petite citée des Sciences (en référence à Paris) ou l’on peut voir l’effet de l’homme sur l’eau, et sa diversité. Le tout dans une espèce de boule géante bien connu sur les cartes postales de Montréal ! Ce qui offre un joli panorama de plus ! Mon conseil: A faire en été, l’hiver l’accès extérieur étant fermé !