Ferry Beach Ecology School, a residential EE center on the coast of Maine, is seeking naturalists (due 2/20/10) to lead trips to coastal forests, beaches, tide pools, and salt marshes. Naturalists are responsible for a teaching group of approximately ten 3rd to 8th graders) for three lessons every day, with some shared supervision of students between and after lessons, plus some general maintenance of the site and program. FBES emphasizes dynamic teaching methods, such as the use of ecological skits, effective props, and hands-on activities.

Soundwaters is seekign applications (due 1/15/10) for Deckhand/Educators for the 2010 sailing season (mid-March through August and August through mid-November). Seven crewmembers work in a close-knit high-energy environment aboard the 80’ schooner SoundWaters to deliver environmental and nautical science programs ranging from 3-hours to weeklong. For more information visit their website

The Grand Traverse Conservation District (GTCD) seeks an Program Coordinator for the new Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative. The successful candidate will have the background, skills and personality to coordinate professional development for teachers, school-community partnerships and place-based education projects through the GTCD’s Boardman River Nature Center.  Applications due January 11, 2010.

Herring Gut Learning Center is a non-profit marine education center overlooking a working harbor in the small fishing village of Port Clyde, Maine.  Their programs use aquaculture and marine science as springboards to learning, incorporating hands-on teaching methods to strengthen students’ skills in science, math and literacy while providing experiences that promote responsible stewardship of the marine environment.   Contact Sara Rademaker, Aquaculture and Marine Science Teacher (srademaker@herringgut.org) for more information about two Camp and one Center internship opportunities running from June 1 to August 20 2010.

The day before winter break, I go to my son’s third-grade class and offer to take interested kids to the outdoor classroom.   Once again, my son’s hand stays down—he’d rather go to recess—but nine children opt to spend their fifteen minutes of free time learning about nature.  That’s up from five, in the fall.  And we have some boys.  I’m encouraged, though there’s an odd current running among the kids today–a kind of low-grade buzz that spikes and fizzles, then dies sullenly away.  The teacher’s voice, normally warm and positive, is edgy and tired.

In the hall, by the lockers, I pass out clipboards with sheets of blank paper.  Mittened hands snatch awkwardly at colored pencils.  In their snow boots and parkas, the children circle me like buffalo calves, pawing the linoleum, butting each other. 

“So today, I thought we could walk around and write or draw what we see outside in winter,” I tell the group.  One girl regards me with wide-open, too-innocent eyes, nodding and agreeing in an over-the-top way.  The rest cut me sideways glances.  I know this precipice:  show you’re flustered and they’ll push you right over.  Come down too hard and they’ll get that awful, closed look that means they’re not with you, they’re not listening.

“Let’s go,” I say, and they break and run for the door, clipboards clashing.

Outside it’s gray and cold—though not frigid, like Wisconsin can be—and the kids run shrieking through the sliver of garden, bordered by a wrought-iron fence and beyond that, a busy street.  They trip over chunks of snow, trample sunflower stalks, leap onto the picnic table.  One boy heaves snowball after snowball at the school’s red brick wall.  His clipboard lies in a drift, its blank paper wet and crumpled.

“Look at all these dead plants!  I’m going to dig them a grave!”  shrieks one girl, she of the sassy, saucer-eyed gaze. 

“Bury the poor plants, bury the poor plants,” her two friends chant.

Time is melting like the slush in the parking lot.  We have fifteen minutes—no—I glance at my watch—we now have twelve.  I raise my voice. 

“Hey you guys, listen up. What’s different out here today?” I holler.  Last time I took a group out here, fall leaves littered the ground and prairie grasses stood tall.   Five docile girls and I had sat at the picnic table and colored our observations on a large wheel of seasons.  The sun had been warm on our backs.    

“It’s WHITE,” screams Sassy Girl, and Snowball Boy lurches backward over a bench, as though he’s been shot.

“What else do you notice?  In the outdoor classroom, we use our five senses,” I shout, holding up five fingers.  A youngish, tired-looking man walks by on the other side of the fence, glances dully at us, then away:  just another adult hollering at some kids, trying to cram some learning down their throats. 

Sassy Girl jumps on the bench. 

“This is NOT a classroom,” she lectures primly. “A classroom has calendars, and little desks, and blackboards, and walls, and no snow.”

One girl has made her index finger into a puppet by drawing eyes and a mouth and skirting it with a frilly paper snowflake.  She introduces the finger as  ‘Marcy.’

“Marcy says this is too a classroom, because we learn out here.”

“And what do we learn?” I ask, encouraged.

“How to make snow angels!” the girls scream, kicking their way over to Snowball Boy, who now lies under the paper birch, waving his arms and legs.

I imagined we might talk about tree bark, today.  I had hoped to spot some winter birds.  Instead, these nine children are galloping around with a desperate kind of energy, their focus splintered like the icicles crashing from the tall, peaked roof of their old school.  They don’t want to listen, to make connections, to answer my dull, obvious, adult questions.  They’ve been doing that for seven hours a day, five days a week, for the last four months.  They just want to roll in the snow.

So I give up—or give in—and stroll the paths at my own pace, while the minutes tick down towards vacation, and the kids blaze their own trails through the outdoor classroom.

Meet fellow canoeing enthusiasts near you! Join the Central Arkansas Canoe Club tonight at 7 p.m. at the Oyster Bar in Little Rock. For more information, contact Mike Stanley at mike.d.stanley@lmco.com.

                Sixth-graders in Glendora, California were unofficially recruited to help make a difference in the future.  Thanks to a mobile learning center run by the Wyland Foundation, these children were able to learn about the effects that pollution has on the environment.

                The mobile learning center is a trailer run by the Wyland Foundation, a group that has a 5-year plan to promote science and the conservation of our environment.  This trailer travels to different schools and with the help of local docents, provides an optimal learning environment to over 100,000 students nation-wide.  Inside the trailer are various exhibits and displays meant to educate these young students about pollution, garbage, and the environment.

      One such exhibit displays the effects that industry has on a lake.  By pushing a button, the display is triggered.  As time progresses, the water level drops and the lake becomes murky from suspended particles.  Another exhibit consists of small beads placed around a small city model to simulate pollutants.  Above the exhibit are sprinklers that periodically turn on.  When the water reaches the beads below, they are carried down stream to oceans where they become very concentrated and coincidentally dangerous to marine life.

      By using such innovative ideas as this one by the Wyland Foundation, water agencies could greatly increase education about water conservation programs.  Students would also learn about the necessity of conserving water, as well as ways of conservation in their home.

View the original article at: http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_13954876

Happy hour with a “green” twist! Fayetteville Green Drinks meets once a month to discuss earth-friendly ideas and goals. The event is held 3rd Monday of every month at Smiling Jack’s (262 N. School) in Fayetteville. Come out and socialize with others interested in sustainability and the environment!

For more information, contact Keaton Smith at keaton.smith@iberiabank.com.

Here at Gardening With Children we would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year in 2010.

The Cape Naturalist: 1972

WINDMILLS RETURN TO CAPE COD

Made from scrap automobile parts, this windmill at the New Alchemy Institute’s farm, north of Falmouth, draws on atmospheric power to charge a storage battery mounted atop the pole. It is flanked by the ancient alchemist’s sun symbol on the vane at left and by the real moon on the right.

The sky over San Diego in California is usually a brilliant blue, but on the rim of the horizon is an ugly band of yellowish brown, and it is hard to watch children playing without feeling frightened about the poisons that they are breathing into their small bodies as they run. Inland, scarred eroded canyon walls attest to the developers’ endless expansion. By the shore, the comic grace of the brown pelican reminds one to ask, “Were there young this year?” for it is common knowledge that the high percentage of DDT and other toxins in their egg shells have made them too thin to permit the chicks to develop. Reminders of the threatened state of the environment are everywhere in San Diego. It was there that New Alchemy was born.

It is easier to forget on Cape Cod. A blurred horizon can mean fog. The woods and fields bloom with wildflowers, birds are everywhere, and usually a discreet row of trees can screen the fact that here too the developers are felling trees, laying roads, threatening the salt marshes and destroying steadily the dwindling acres of unspoiled habitat. And so here too, as everywhere, there is a need for people who would hope to restore the land and protect the seas. This is, in essence, the basis for New Alchemy.

It actually began several years ago, when a small group of scientists and students met in San Diego. Many of us had been chronicling the fate of environments and social systems under stress and felt a real urgency about our efforts. We felt overwhelmed by the enormity and apparent hopelessness of turning the tide of a society so entrenched in consumerism that it could threaten ultimately to consume our natural environment. Gradually, a path began to open before us that did seem to offer a true alternative to the self-destructive one we are on. As a tentative and partial solution, we organized an institute that would establish centers in a variety of climates, in several countries. Hopefully it will become an embryo of a science for reconstructive knowledge, knowledge that would be created by and for those trying to create a genuine decentralist and ecological alternative. We chose the name New Alchemy out of respect for ancient alchemy, a science of nature which was pursued within a moral and philosophical context. It too had strong roots in agriculture, gardening and metallurgy and focused on knowledge that could not be abused for destructive ends. When many of us moved to Woods Hole for professional reasons, we brought our fledgling institute with us. Eventually we were able to lease a farm on Hatchville Road, and with a land base at last, we were able to move from the realm of theory to that of practice.

Although the task of creating a biotechnic foundation for social change has only just begun, it is already possible to envisage how small groups or communities can act to rescue the earth from further depredations. Our early research has begun to reveal the exciting potentials of a holistic and essentially ecological approach, where power and food production, wastes, shelter, arts and industry are linked to each other and people are returned to process. Space limitations prevent a detailed description of these early explorations, but an overview should provide the essence of our approach.

A fundamental goal of the New Alchemists is to harness all our power requirements, including electricity, from indigenous non-polluting sources of energy, especially the wind and the sun. This seemingly impossible task becomes realizable if one begins by coupling poorly developed energy systems to biological ones, which have an intrinsic ability to cope with the unpredictability of the weather.

Our first attempts to trap and use solar energy on the Cape Cod farm did not involve the difficult task of heating a house. Instead, a more modest tack was followed, and intensive solar heated “tropical” aquaculture ponds were devised. Inexpensive geodesic domes with a double plastic skin cover small culture ponds, and on sunny days the temperatures inside are elevated 20-50 F. degrees. The ponds, in turn, store the heat and help to provide the climate for intensive food gardens within the same structures. The linkages between the systems are even more complete as the nutrient-and algae-laden pond water is used to irrigate and fertilize crops. Worms which proliferate within the enriched soils are used as one of the feeds for the fishes.

The sun is seen as an ally, with many uses that we are only beginning to comprehend. One of our group built a solar furnace which enabled him to work with metals and with his help we are considering building a tiny glass factory that uses a solar furnace. We want to make panes of glass from scrap bottles that will replace the plastic covering on the domes and other structures. The interest in the glass works is heightened by a desire to use it for craft and art work.

Working with the sun, albeit in a crude way, has brought us into closer harmony with the weather, and the windmill has tightened the bond. It is built almost entirely from scrap automobile parts and its first job is not too taxing. It provides electricity for a pump that circulates water through a biological filter in one of the closed fish culture systems. Biological filters are critical as they greatly increase fish yields and may have some ability to withstand varying rates of flow caused by a windmill. We suspect that in the not too distant future a windmill, biological filter and solar heated pond system will provide enough aquatic foods to provide all the meat protein needs of a commune or tiny community, with the costs being mainly labor, scrap materials and information.

What is evolving is the beginnings of an urban agriculture that has the potential to replace many of the environmentally destructive agricultural practices of large corporate farming. Last winter a tiny 18′ dome enabled us to set up a prototype food producing structure along ecological lines. To our surprise it provides for ten people greens in great variety and many of the vegetables during the cold months.

We will not be satisfied until we can collect and store all our own energy needs. On Cape Cod the wind seems to be our best source for electricity and our efforts are geared towards creating windmills that will provide us with power. The problems of storage during periods of calm has not been solved but there are several possibilities worthy of investigation. Underground batteries the size of cisterns might work and they could use scrap lead in their design. Windmills, not unlike those that used to grind grains, might conceivably turn heavy flywheels providing a continuous and steady source of electricity. We are also intrigued by living with changing intensities of energy, as it will intertwine our own lives with the rhythm of nature, bringing us closer to the earth. In the future men may tread softly on a small patch of earth and know it well.

If all of us lived under the rule that no wastes should leave their place of use, then a dramatic step towards environmental restoration would result. Wastes instead would be incorporated into a biological system that enhances the immediate ecosystem. Our first attempt to do this involved a pond culturing system which collects household wastes and sewage in a modified greenhouse situated over a small pool. Inside, algae, aquatic plants, fish and clams, along with a variety of insects are cultured and fed to chickens and larger edible fish. The cultured organisms, for their part, extract the pollutants and purify the waste material. The remaining liquid is used to irrigate crops and gardens. In this system, it is the wastes and the sun which are the primary sources of energy and what is ordinarily a problem, when dealt with on a small scale, becomes a solution by providing protein and enriching the local soils.

Even houses and architecture can be transformed and incorporated into the larger bases of support and community. One day shelters will become much more animate in the sense that they will be linked closely to the sun and wind, and their climates will be dovetailed with the agricultural and aquacultural systems in which heat is stored. House design should adopt many of the strategies of animals and plants so that their internal climates are regulated in a very organic way. If we lived in shelters like these, nature would be felt deeply through our lives and to abuse her would be a sinful act.

A new science and path of knowledge created by many people is perhaps essential for coping with the problems facing man in the next century. This science should be derived out of a microcosmic sense of scale and it should focus on the needs of individuals and communities trying to live as stewards of the earth. If the reconstruction that develops out of it encompasses the more profound elements of the human experience, than a libertarian alternative may have the power to limit growth and enrich mankind. Here on Cape Cod this science for the earth has its beginnings.

The Institute’s Kensington Farm, on Hatchville Road north of Falmouth, is open to the public May through October on Saturdays. If it is not raining, people gather to work in the gardens and on various projects throughout the day. We have a picnic lunch at noon, so if you plan to visit and work with us on Saturdays, bring some food for lunch.

For those of you who would like to become personally involved in the work of the New Alchemy Institute, there is an associate membership for $25.00/year, which helps support the Institute’s research and publishing programs. Members are provided with newsletters, bulletins and correspondence on any of their questions within the scope of the N.A.1. The Institute is non-profit and contributions are tax-deductible. Please send your contribution to:

The New Alchemy Institute-East

Box 432 -Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543

THE NEW ALCHEMY INSTITUTE: A SELECTED AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

The references below provide an introduction to the Institute, its work and goals.

1. The New Alchemy Institute Bulletin #2

Widely reprinted and translated. Includes “A Modest Proposal”, a view of the maladaptiveness of modern industrial society. It outlines an example of a restorative approach to restructuring society.

Also includes “Design for a Tropical Center”, which explores some possibilities for land use and research in the tropics.

Copies are still available from NAI at $1.00 apiece.

2. The New Alchemy Institute Newsletters #1-3

The newsletters describe New Alchemy activities. They include designs for ecologically derived energy and food systems.

3. The Journa1 of the New Alchemists

The bulletins and the newsletter will be replaced by the summer of ‘73 with an enlarged “Journal of the New Alchemists”. New discoveries and techniques will be described as well as plans and discussions of subjects ranging from energy to communitas.

The Journal and Newsletters are sent free to Associates of The Institute. Copies of Newsletters 1 & 2 are available from the Institute for $1.00 apiece.

4. Aquaculture Bibliography

If you are interested in fish farming N.A.J. has an Aquaculture Bibliography prepared by Dr. William O. Mclarney. Includes references on polyculture and pond construction. Cost $1.00.

5. The Backyard Fish Farm Workbook for 1973

This is a “how to do it” manual for collaborators on our intensive, low cost fish farm research. Edited by W. O. McLarney it gives the details of setting up a backyard fish farm and making collections of scientific data. Available from Organic Gardening and Farming Magazine, Readers’ Research Program, Emmaus, Penna. 18049. Cost $1.00. Not available through N.A.J.

6. A GARDEN RESEARCH WORKBOOK On Insect Resistance in Vegetable Crops & Companion Planting

Prepared by Richard Merrill. An ecologist’s guide to experimentation in the garden. A critical and fascinating manual for those interested in researching food-producing systems. The manual, some 50 pages in length, is being distributed to collaborators in the Institute’s countrywide research program. If funds become available we would like to have it printed and made available for wider distribution.

Location: 20 miles West of Minneapolis, Minnesota

Gale Woods Farm is a park and working educational farm. Owned and operated by Three Rivers Park District, the farm includes a diversified livestock operation and 60 share vegetable CSA. In addition, Gale Woods delivers educational programs to over 25,000 school children and public program participants annually.  Seasonal educator positions range from 8-40 hours/week from April through October.  The CSA assistant position is 32-40 hours/week from May–October.

For more information or to apply for these positions visit this website!

Please be sure to mention in your cover letter that you discovered this listing on the Sustainable Food Jobs website!

Join the Central Arkansas Master Naturalists for its monthly meeting, today at 6:30 p.m. at the Witt Stephens Jr. Nature Center in downtown Little Rock.

Tom Ferrell, a Master Naturalist member, will present techniques on Nature Photography.  Bring your cameras, and he will show how to make the most of this seemingly complex yet valuable tool. He’ll also share some pretty amazing photos!

Potluck dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. Come and bring a dish to share!

To RSVP for the meeting, contact Tom Neale, President, CAMN, at camnPresident@ArkansasMasterNaturalists.org.

Central Arkansas Master Naturalists is accepting applications for its 2010 class! To register, download an application form by clicking: http://home.arkansasmasternaturalists.org/images/amn/docs/camn/CAMN2010Application.pdf.

For more information about Central Arkansas Master Naturalists, visit the website, http://home.arkansasmasternaturalists.org.

Location: 50 miles North of New York City, New York

Eden Village is a co-ed NEW Jewish overnight summer-camp with a unique earth-based and social-justice-oriented program.

Opening in Summer 2010 and located 50 miles north of NYC on 248 gorgeous acres, Eden Village Camp is a pluralistic, non-profit, Jewish environmental sleepaway camp for 3rd – 12th graders.  Eden Village campers gain leadership and outdoor living skills, and a sense of connectedness, joy and purpose, as they experience organic farming and food, wilderness adventures, service projects and natural building techniques; build meaningful community; work towards a zero-waste goal; and explore Jewish ritual, swimming, boating, hiking, biking, music, dance and art, and more!

Dates of operation for Summer 2010 are June 30 – Aug 17, with staff training to begin on June 20.

We would like to invite you to help co-create a vibrant new Jewish community, rooted in environmental sustainability, social justice, and spirituality! Help lay the foundation, create a camp culture with this one time only opportunity inaugural summer. We have many positions posted on our website, including Counselors, Operations Director, Body Works Director, Art Director, Waterfront Director, Office Aid, Head Chef, Head Nurse and Music/Ruach Director.  To download the official application, please visit our website!

Be sure to mention in your cover letter that you found this listing on the Sustainable Food Jobs website!

Location: Watsonville, California

Live Earth Farm established in 1996 is a 100 acre organic farm overlooking the Green Valley in the Santa Cruz area of California.  We offer a year round CSA with over 800 members during the regular season.  Our Environmental Education programs include 1-2 apprenticeships per year, from January through November.  Our apprentices work on all aspects of our farm, including animal care.  You will be exposed to all of the following areas of farm operation in the first year and be expected to gain expertise and take responsibility for at least one area if you stay on for second year.

Description:

1. Farm equipment and machinery use in the field.
2. First Year- general practical hands-on experience including: mowing and hauling.
3. Second Year- Specialized field experience including: disking, cultivation, and sewing.
4. Field production techniques including: large scale, garden scale and year round production.
5. Crop planning for four season production cycle including: fertility management, pest and disease control, planting techniques, perennial and orchard management, annual cropping systems.
6. Harvest and post harvest operations including: propagation, greenhouse management, storage, packing, and distribution.
7. Marketing including CSA, farmer’s markets and direct sales.
8. CSA and farm administration.
9. Animal care including: sheep, goats, chickens, and pigs; and
10. Sustainable Agriculture Education.

Qualifications:

Prior experience is required and a desire to participate in all activities on the farm is a must.  This is an opportunity for those intending to pursue farming as a career path.  It is a learning experience, we expect you to arrive with a good work ethic and a positive attitude.  Please be aware that farming is hard work and we require a full season commitment, with the potential for a multi year experience.  We offer you an eye into the life of a farmer, and a solid knowledge base to pursue such interests.

Duration:

We ask that you arrive on the farm in January.  This gives Farmer Tom an opportunity to work with you one on one before the busiest part of the season begins.  We ask that you stay through mid November so that you have a chance to participate in our full CSA season and to be honored at our end of harvest celebration.

Hours:

An average of  40-45 hours per week.

Compensation:

A private room and communal kitchen, a stipend of $400-$750/month commensurate with experience and responsibility, and all of the fruit, vegetables, eggs, and goat’s milk you could want.

Application Procedure:

To apply please fill out our application on our website and send a cover letter and resume to:

Jessica Ridgeway

PO Box 3490, Freedom, CA 95076

LEFeducation (at) baymoon.com

Be sure to mention in your cover letter that you found this listing on the Sustainable Food Jobs website!

Join Keep Little Rock Beautiful Commission’s Recycling Committee as it discusses new developments in recycling in Little Rock!

WHEN: 12 p.m. – 1 p.m., Wednesday, December 16

WHERE: 1423 Main Street, Suite C, Little Rock, AR 72202

All are welcome! For more information, contact Kelly Ross, Keep Little Rock Beautiful Recycling Chair, at gogreenwithme@sbcglobal.net.

Join the Arkansas Earth Day Foundation for its first Festival Planning Meeting, held tonight at 6 p.m. at The Green Corner Store (1423 D South Main) in Little Rock. ALL ARE WELCOME! Remember: Your Hour = Our Power! For more information, contact Claire LaFrance at claire@arkansasearthday.org.

Ring in the Holiday Season right with renewable energy at St. Thomas Episcopal Church!

WHAT: Solar Holiday Lights Celebration

WHEN: Tuesday, December 15 – 5:30 p.m.

WHERE: St. Thomas Episcopal Church (2898 South 48th Street) in Springdale

Join the Sierra Club and fellow community residents to light up the evening under the church’s windmill. Speeches will highlight clean energy solutions. Free Hot Apple Cider!

For more information, contact Benn Davenport at benn.davenport@sierraclub.org or (501) 301-8280. Visit St. Thomas Episcopal Church online at www.stthomasspringdale.org.

WHO ARE WE AS A CULTURE?

by

Chris Maser

Who are we culturally—now, today? This is a difficult but necessary question for people to deal with because a vision is the palpable nexus between a fading memory of the past and the anticipation of an uncertain future. The people of a community must therefore decide, based on how they define their present cultural identity, what kind of vision to create. A people’s self-held concept (individual, cultural, and universal) is critical to their cultural future because their personal and cultural self-image will determine what their community will become socially, which in turn will determine what their children will become socially.

The question of who we are culturally may be more important today than in the recent past because there are times in history when two eras run parallel to each other, when one is dying while the other is struggling with its infancy. This can be a deeply disturbing, confusing, and divisive time as different worldviews, cultural patterns and assumptions, and predominant means of livelihood compete with one another in an effort to give meaning and direction to life.

Such a time of raw chaos and naked transition can be terribly frightening and thus lead people to retreat into the simplistic solutions often associated with fundamentalism. Fundamentalism (which can ensnare both the political right and left or the spiritual and secular) is characterized by a rigid, impervious belief system, which relentlessly widens the polarity between the safe “us” and the dangerous “them.” Because it is founded in fear (which is always divisive) and becomes the embodiment of fear, which feeds on itself, fundamentalism is not only incapable of tolerating diverse views and backgrounds but also far less capable of creatively asking new questions and discovering new answers within a context of dynamic complexity.

Fundamentalism, which is so prevalent in today’s political discourse, is simply not up to the challenge of our times. Instead, the next stage of cultural evolution must focus inward, into each person’s consciousness, because this is the only realm out of which can grow creative, self-organizing innovations that offer sustainable ways of living.

Cultural evolution, like all evolution, thrives in a context rich in diversity and complexity, wherein myriad opportunities for interaction exist. Self-organizing innovations can emerge out of such a setting as people search for ways to live consciously and sustainably in every sense of the word. These innovations draw us out of the chaotic soup into further experimentation with conscious living.

The most powerful innovations are those that respond to people’s basic requirements for survival and to their deepest yearnings for such things as connection, meaning, and transcendence, all of which add up to personal wholeness. When these values resonate among large numbers of people (a critical mass), society shifts, but people must first be aware of them amid the flotsam and jetsam of change in which the decay of the dying era seems to overwhelm the formative one, at least momentarily.

Of course, there initially is a multitude that, preferring the devil they know to the devil they don’t, steadfastly swear allegiance to the passing era by clinging tenaciously to old views and old ways of doing things. But there is also an expanding group of younger people who find the present ripe with possibilities. And it is here, in the present, that small choices and actions can have major, albeit unpredictable, effects in determining what comes next and how it manifests.”¹

And somewhere among the millions of choices and thousands of experiments with conscious living is the possibility they will coalesce into a new society founded on the precept of true community, while endowing life with real meaning. For such a society to be viable, however, it would have to be anchored on the bedrock value of social-environmental sustainability in all its myriad aspects.

Thomas Jefferson gave good counsel on values: “In matters of principle, stand like a rock. In matters of taste, swim with the current.” To identify those principles and/or values on which we stand firm, we can ask ourselves: What are the fundamental principles that I believe in to the point of no compromise? What values are central to my being?

CATEGORIES OF VALUE

The Ch’an masters, who carried Zen to Japan, brought Confucian ethics with them. In discussing these fundamental values as a guide to personal behavior, Confucius said, “If a man will carefully cultivate these in his conduct, he may still err a little, but he won’t be far from the standard of truth.”²  When we, as individuals, clearly understand what our highest personal values are and can explicitly articulate them, then—and only them—can we live in their presence. Let’s consider three categories of value: universal, cultural, and individual.”³

Universal Values

Universal (or archetypal) values reveal to us the human condition and inform us of our place therein. Through universal values, we connect our individual experiences with the rest of humanity (the collective unconscious) and the cosmos. Here, the barriers of time and place, of language and culture, disappear in the ever-changing dance of life. Universal values must be experienced; they cannot be comprehended. Can you, for example, know a sunset? Fathom a drop of water? Translate a smile? Define love?

Universal values are the eternal truths brought to different cultures at various times throughout history. “Even as the hands of a clock are powered from the center, which remains ever still, so the universal values remain ever at the center of human life, no matter where the hands of time are pointing—past, present, or future.”⁴

These are the truths of the human condition toward which people aspire (such as joy, unity, love, and peace); of these the sages have spoken in many tongues.

Cultural Values

Cultural (or ethnic) values are those of the day, and are socially agreed upon. They are established to create and maintain social order in a particular time and place, and can be highly volatile. Cultural values concern ethics and human notions of right and wrong, good or evil, in terms of customs and manners.

In culture, we see reflected the ideas and behaviors that a society rewards or punishes according to their perceived alignment to its values. Hence, cultural values are a “mixed bag” for an individual, especially in a highly complex society, like that of the United States, which has lost its sense of family, community, and mythology, where there is much that may resonate with an individual and much that may not.

Every culture is a person in a sense, and like people, there is the potential for creative interaction and/or conflict when cultures meet. Although we are all too familiar with cultural conflicts and the destruction they have wrought, it is well to remember that a meeting of cultures also triggers tremendous explosions of creativity in such things as language, ethics, education, law, philosophy, and government.

Individual Values

Individual (or personal) values are constituted by the private meanings we bestow on those concepts and experiences that are important to us personally, such as marriage vows or spiritual teachings. These meanings are in large part a result of how we are raised by our families of origin and what of our parents’ values we take with us in the form of personal temperament. These meanings may change, however, depending on our experiences in life and how much we are willing to grow psychologically and spiritually as a result of our experiences. As such, individual values are reflected in such things as personal goals, humor, relationships, and commitments.

Thus, how well a people’s core values are encompassed in a vision depends first on how well the people understand themselves individually and as a culture, which means how well they understand their core values, and second on how well that understanding is reflected on paper, where there can be no question about what has been stated and how. By way of example, let’s consider the First Canadians.

THE FIRST CANADIANS

The First Canadians have departed from their old culture because they have, against their will, been forced to adopt European-Canadian ways, which means they have given up or lost ancestral ways. Yet they have not, by choice, totally adopted white culture and want to retain some degree of their ancestral culture. Thus, the three questions they must ask and answer are: (1) Which of our ancestral ways still have sufficient cultural value for us to keep them? (2) Which of the white ways are we willing to adopt? and (3) How do we put the chosen elements together in such a way that we can today define who we are culturally?

In 1993, I was asked to review an ecological brief for a First Nation in western British Columbia, Canada, whose reservation is located between the sea and land immediately downslope from that which a timber company wanted to cut. The problem lay in the fact that the timber company could only reach its trees by obtaining an easement through the reservation, which gave the First Nation an active voice in determining how the upper-slope forest would be logged, the results of which would affect their reservation for many, many years.

By virtue of the required easement, the First Nation was in a strong position to exert control over company behavior as it logged the upper-slope forest. Had the company not been required to pass through the reservation, it could easily have become the uncontrollable cancer that would have destroyed the cultural values of the First Nation for many generations.

Before meeting with the timber company, the First Nation’s chief asked for some counsel. My reply was:

Before I discuss the ecological brief I’ve been asked to review, there are three points that must be taken into account if what I say is to have any value to the First Nation. What I’m about to say may be difficult to hear, but I say it with the utmost respect.

Point 1: Who are you, the First Nation, in a cultural sense? You are not your old culture because you have—against your will—been forced to adopt some white ways, which means you have given up or lost ancestral ways. You are not—by choice—white, so you may wish to retain some of your ancestral ways. The questions you must ask and answer are: What of our ancestral ways still have sufficient value that we want to keep them? What of the white ways are we willing to adopt? How do we put the chosen elements together in such a way that we can today define who we are as a culture?

Point 2: What do you want your children to have as a legacy from your decisions and your negotiations with the timber company? Whatever you decide is what you are committing your children, their children, and their children’s children to pay as the social-environmental costs of your decisions unto the seventh generation and beyond. This, of course, is solely your choice, and that is as it should be. I make no judgments. But whatever you choose will partly answer Point 3.

Point 3: What do you want your reservation to look like and act like during and after logging by the timber company? How you define yourselves culturally, what choices you make for your children, and the conscious decisions you make about the condition of your land will determine what you end up with. In all of these things, the choice is yours. The consequences belong to both you and your children.

WHAT ABOUT YOU, THE READER?

Who are you today?

We each change personally as we grow in years and experience. So do our respective communities. Each community that wishes to create a vision for a sustainable future must therefore ask of itself: Who are we today in a cultural sense? Then, based the answer, each community must ask: Who do we want to be or to become?

These are important questions and must be clearly answered on paper for all to see, because how they are answered will determine the nonnegotiable constraints that set the overall direction of a community’s vision and thus the legacy inherited by its children. To answer these questions one must honestly evaluate one’s own set of values and then determine to live by their highest potential.

ENDNOTES

1. The preceding discussion is based on the excellent ideas presented by Sarah van Gelder. 1997. Out of Chaos:  Finding Possibility in Complexity. YES! A Journal of Positive Futures, Winter:27.

2. (1). D.T. Suzuki. 1959. Zen and Japanese Culture. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. and (2) Lin Yutang. 1938. Wisdom of Confucius. Random House, New York, NY.

3. The discussion of values and aspects of vision is based on: Laurence G. Boldt. 1993. Zen and the Art of Making a Living. Penguin/Arkana, New York, NY.

4. Ibid.

© Chris Maser, 2005. All rights reserved.

I spent over 25 years as an active research scientist in natural history and ecology in forest, shrub steppe, subarctic, desert, coastal, and agricultural settings. Today I am an independent author as well as an international lecturer, facilitator in resolving environmental conflicts, vision statements, and sustainable community development. I am also an international consultant in forest ecology and sustainable forestry practices.

I Have Lived, Worked, Consulted, And/Or Lectured In: Austria • Canada • Chile • Egypt • France • Germany • Japan • Malaysia • Mexico • Nepal • Slovakia • Switzerland • and various settings in the United States.

If you want to contact me, you can visit my website. If you wish, you can also read an article about what is important to me and/or you can listen to me give a presentation.

Interested in keeping bees? Wanna meet fellow beekeepers? Then, come to Central Arkansas Beekeepers’ Association’s monthly meeting, 6:30 p.m., Monday, December 14 at the Levy Church of Christ (5124 Camp Robinson Road) in North Little Rock.

Start your month off right with a good Green Drinks! Faulkner County Supporters of Sustainable Communities presents Conway Green Drinks – A Social Mixer Where People Exchange Green Ideas.

WHAT: Conway Green Drinks

WHEN: 5:30 p.m. on Monday, December 14

WHERE: Doe’s Eat Place (1010 Main Street, Conway 72032)

Come out and socialize with others interested in sustainability and the environment! For more information about Conway Green Drinks, contact Cecilia Patterson at cpatterson@arcf.org or Nancy Allen at nancy.allen@gmail.com.

A longtime OG&E executive, Peter Delaney will give a Clinton School lecture titled, “Challenges Behind the Switch: What One Electric Company is Doing to Keep the Lights on in Challenging Times.” Named president and CEO of OG&E in September 2007, Delaney will discuss his company’s efforts involving renewable energy, energy efficiency and transmission and how those efforts are affecting its Arkansas customers. OG&E currently serves more than 75,000 Arkansans.

WHEN: Monday, December 14 – 12-1 p.m.

WHERE: University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service – Sturgis Hall

Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or calling (501)683-5239.

We have a lovely new product in stock that will be fab for next summer and will make a nice christmas stocking filler in the mean time.

Polanters  are clever vertical gardens that can be extended to fit any space. …And if you ever grow plants on walls you will know how quickly they dry out and how tricky they can be to water. 

But the  Polanter Vertical Growing System has an integral watering system that spreads the water evenly through, giving the plants ideal growing conditions.

They can be planted with strawberries, flowers or herbs, with columns of thyme, mints or parsley.  In fact there are dozens of ways to make them sing.  Plus they smell great, attract bees and butterflies, and for small gardens they take up next to no space!

 There are some fabulous colours which we will introduce in spring, but we are stocking Green, Terracotta, White and Lavender at the moment. 

…And at only £22 they would make great stocking fillers for Christmas!

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Students in Ms. Beebe's kindergarten class in Vail, Colorado, proudly display their "worm box."

Kyla O’Neill, Brooke Beebe, and Ashlee Martinez Dahlberg have been on the Greenfox team since Greenfox Schools was founded in March 2008, and were a part of several early discussions on how to implement sustainability education in a classroom.

As our Public Relations Coordinators, Kyla and Brooke are also elementary school teachers, as is Ashlee, our Environmental Education Consultant.

In the following entry they weigh in on the following question:

“Why do you think teaching sustainability is valuable to children?”

1. Kyla O’Neill, Grades 4 & 5

San Francisco, California

“Teaching sustainability is of value to children at every age in that it provides the framework and knowledge for them to use in their lives well beyond the classroom.

I am fortunate to have the strong structures of the environmentally conscious Bay Area and the support of a green school, including green buildings with solar panels and sustainable bamboo floors!  Daily exposure to these visible measures provides children with constant reminders about the importance of taking care of the earth.

In my combined fourth and fifth grade class, we use regular routines to promote the practice and understanding of environmental sustainability.  Teaching by doing is an effective method for instilling a sense of agency for sustainability work in children.  In our class, both recycling and composting are daily jobs assigned to the students.  Using a simple plastic box with a lid, students contribute their leftover food scraps to the compost.  At the end of each day, the “composter” is responsible for adding it to our compost bin outside the classroom.  This bin also serves as a habitat for numerous earthworms.  The students understand the dual responsibility of saving leftover food to use as nutrients for the soil and food for the worms.

In addition, we find it especially hands-on to go out into nature not only to enjoy our beautiful world, but also to put our knowledge about preservation of the earth into action. Just recently, we took a trip to Point Reyes National Seashore and had a wonderful time exploring the area and conducting a simulation survival activity for our study of the novel, Island of the Blue Dolphins.  An essential aspect of our trip, before, during, and after, was discussing the “Leave No Trace” principles in order to protect our natural world. These conversations enable children to understand the reasons behind park guidelines, and will undoubtedly serve them as they continue to explore the world on their own.”

5th Grade students work together to build a model of a LEED-certified environmental school building

2. Brooke Beebe, Kindergarten

Vail, Colorado

“As a kindergarten teacher in Vail, CO, it is so important for me to help the children understand that being environmentally friendly and helping the earth will in turn help them protect the earth for the time when they grow up and have kids.

We talk about turning off the lights every time we leave the classroom or bathroom, putting as much paper, plastic and aluminum in the recycling bins as possible to help save the earth, and we talk a lot about animals, especially endangered animals.

I ask questions like, “How do you think the earth would change if ________ (insert animal here) did not exist?” or “What do you think our planet would be like if Saber Tooth Tigers (or Dinosaurs or Wooly Mammoths) were still alive?” They of course relate it back to Ice Age the cartoon movie, but it gets them thinking about how the things that people do in the present can and will affect the future.

Another aspect of teaching sustainability is our worm bin. We have over 1,000 Red Wiggler worms that eat our scraps! The children love feeding them their leftover snacks (bread, egg shells, fruit and vegetables) and they learn about compost and how we can use that to plant our classroom garden. The worms also use recycled paper as their ‘nest’ and as a class we shred paper from our recycling bin and put it in the bin daily.

The children really love hearing about how they can do their part to ‘help the earth’ and act responsibly about recycling, carpooling to and from school, and turning off lights when they are not in use. After snack each day, I have three or four children ask if something or other can be recycled or “given to the worms.” It is so important to educate the young children about being environmentally friendly so that they can do their part to help our earth!”

3. Ashlee Martinez Dahlberg, Grade 3

Cambridge, Massachusetts

“With increasing demands on a classroom teacher’s time and strict curriculum frameworks, when is there time for sustainability education?  The answer: always.

Sustainability is a lifestyle, and teachers can help to instill that lifestyle in the students they teach.

Simple practices in the classroom can help students develop sustainable habits.  In my third grade classroom, for example, we recycle as much as possible, conserve water by only using what we need to drink and wash hands, conserve energy by turning the lights out when we leave the room, and on bright, sunny days when there is enough sunlight coming into the classroom, leave the lights off much of the day.  The students are aware of these small actions and it empowers them, making them feel that they can make a difference.

Whenever possible, I try to incorporate sustainability education in the classroom in more direct ways.  During a science unit on “backyard habitats” for example, our class created a worm bin in the classroom, learning simultaneously about habitats, the importance of composting organisms, and ways to reduce waste.  The class loved feeding the worms and gained a better understanding of what we can do with the waste we create.”

Students brainstorm the Greenfox5: Energy, Waste, Food, Products, and Greenspace

Thank you for reading. Happy Holidays and best wishes for the New Year,

-Kristen von Hoffmann