Just Talk

Daniel Quinn

Using one set of words or another, people often tell me they want to do more than “just talk” about saving the world. They want a plan of action. Well, I’m nothing if not a s-l-o-w thinker, so for a long time I rather complacently accepted this sock on the jaw (after all, as a writer, my whole life is “just talk”). Recently it began to dawn on me that, along with my jaw, “just talk” was getting a really bad rap.

Even though they describe a lot of “action,” the Hebrew scriptures are obviously “just talk.” This “just talk,” however, is the foundation of Hebrew culture, the glue that has held Jews together as a people from ancient times to the present. This particular collection of “just talk” was as potent at the time of Christ as it ever was, and it was on this collection that Christ built his teachings-his own brand of “just talk.”

Christianity (even more than Judaism) is built on “just talk,” beginning with the letters of the first Christian leaders and the gospels, which were ultimately collected into a single volume of “just talk” known as the New Testament. But beyond that, it was the vast outpouring of “just talk” in the early centuries of the Christian era that formulated the meaning of Christianity that all later generations would understand. Eventually Christianity began to break up always on the basis of “just talk.” Obviously it’s “just talk” that separates Lutherans from Baptists, Episcopalians from Congregationalists. In fact, all that they can be said to have in common is the bible itself — all “just talk,” of course.

It hardly needs saying that Confucianism, the foundation of Chinese life from ancient times until just a few decades ago, was based unequivocally on “just talk,” in this case a collection of sayings known as the Analects, attributed to Confucius.

Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato were of course all “just talk,” though they shaped Western civilization far more profoundly than any “mover and shaker” in history.

When in 1215 the followers of King John at Runnymede wanted to know exactly where they stood, they demanded something in writing. This particular bit of “just talk” is known as the Magna Carta, a ground-breaking document that is the precursor of every “bill of rights” in the world.

Needless to say, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the UN Charter are all “just talk.”

For the first twenty years of his career, Adolf Hitler was almost universally dismissed as “just talk” — especially when he emphatically stated his intention of getting rid of the Jews. But ultimately Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein — all “just talk” as well — have had a more fundamental and lasting effect on the world than the architect of the Third Reich.

Although the Communist revolution (wrought by “men of action”) ultimately proved to be a spectacular flop, the “just talk” that inspired it is still going strong. The works of Karl Marx are read more widely today than they were a century ago.

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton is probably destined to be a forgotten author, but he will surely be remembered for saying one thing, that the pen is mightier than the sword. It’s a nice thought, isn’t it? Sure, but hey, let’s get real here.

We all know it’s just talk.

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About Daniel Quinn , Ishmael Community ,  A Book Review of Ishmael

Alex Kirby of BBC News writes:

Humanity’s choices are getting harder and fewer. The Earth’s population has doubled since 1950 and consumption has risen even faster. There has to be a reckoning. For many people, it is here already. The few first-class passengers on the planet that is our Noah´s Ark are safe for now on the upper deck. It´s a very different story down below. How much longer can the rich keep their feet dry?

Oil consumption has increased seven-fold in the last 50 years and meat production, marine fish catches and carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning have all at least quadrupled. And freshwater use increased six-fold last century.

According to one recent study, the human race is consuming the Earth’s resources at a rate that is 20% faster than it can replenish itself, with the result that we would need 1.2 Earths to sustain this lifestyle.

Humanity is in crisis. We are running out of fossil fuels. The  following is reposted from Better Times Almanac Webzine. It is packed with useful advice. It would benefit all of us living on this small planet to begin living more simply.

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Personal and Family Conservation

Robert Waldrop

As our supplies of fossil fuels continue to fall, sheltering and feeding your family will only get harder. There is no relief in sight. Next year will be worse. Over the long term, everyone should plan as though the price of energy will continue to increase.

How will your family meet this challenge? The currently high prices for natural gas and electricity are not a temporary phenomenon that will go away soon. Plan as though the price of whatever energy you use will continue to increase over the long term. That’s what is going to happen, so you might as well get ready for it right now. If you procrastinate, your delay will cost you big money.

Energy prices are climbing because demand is exceeding supply, and the energy markets are being distorted by irrational and unjust economic structures. In California, the situation is so bad they are having rolling blackouts. While it’s true that more oil and gas is being found, we are using more fuel than we are finding. With about 3% of the world’s population, the US devours 25% of the world’s annual oil supply. Production in the US peaked in 1970 and has been declining ever since, so 60% of our oil is imported.

Usage of natural gas is expected to increase by more than 30% in the next 5 years due to new electrical generating plants coming on line. With demand showing no signs of abating anywhere, expect higher prices over the short and long term.

Some politicians are saying that if we drill for oil in the Arctic National Wilderness Refuge, this will help our energy shortages. But the most optimistic estimates of the oil available there amount to less than 2 years of US domestic consumption. Some petroleum geologists are saying that within 10 years, world oil production will peak and start declining. Less oil means much higher energy prices, so energy conservation is critical to preserving the health and safety of our families and neighborhoods.

Start by sitting down with your family and making a list of everything you do that uses energy. You have control over your energy bill. Every bit of energy you don’t use is money you can spend on something else. Even small things you do (or don’t do) add up over time. You can make changes in the ways that you do things that add up to big savings every month. It won’t happen without some effort, but aren’t we all tired of high utility bills?

Which would you rather do — give your money to a big corporation, or spend it on something nice for yourself or your kids? It’s your choice. Even if you’re renting, there are many things you can do to save money on your energy bills. Think of ways to do things differently so you use less energy, discuss them with your family, and get busy.

Take things 1 step at a time. Don’t try to do everything at once (although the more things you cut back, the sooner your energy bills go down).

There may be some things you need to buy (like insulation), or you may need to move to a different house. Sometimes you have to invest money in order to make some money. In this case, the investment is energy efficiency, the profit is money that you don’t spend on energy. Start saving today to put aside the money you will need. Remember, it’s not only how you use energy that matters, it’s also how you waste energy. If your home or apartment is not well insulated, you’re piling up hundred dollar bills and setting them on fire. If you are a renter, the lack of insulation is like an extra tax added to your rent. Your most effective way of saving money might be to move to a different house or apartment that is better insulated, has more efficient heating and cooling, and is located closer to your work or to public transportation. Generally, you can get an estimate from your gas and electric utilities about the energy bills for any address, so it pays to check.

Refrigeration:  A refrigerator works best when it is correctly maintained and optimized for efficient use. If it isn’t working correctly, it will use energy inefficiently. It needs to be repaired. It won’t get better by itself.

A manual defrost refrigerator uses less energy than “frost-free” models. If you have a box freezer, use the refrigerator’s freezer compartment only for short-term storage and ice. For this kind of minimal freezer use, keep the fridge freezer at 20 to 25 degrees F — but if you are using it to store meats, the freezer temp needs to be at 10 degrees F. The main compartment of the refrigerator should be in the 37-40 degree range.

To measure this, you will need 2 small inexpensive thermometers. Put one near the center in the freezer compartment and one near the center in the refrigerator. After an hour or so, check both temps at the end of any cycle (when it stops humming). Record those temperatures. Then turn the appliance’s thermostat up a notch, & check the temperature again at the end of the next cycle. Keep doing this, up or down, until you get the temperatures right. If your refrigerator has an adjustable opening between the freezer and the refrigerator compartments, you can experiment with the width of the opening as part of this regulating process.

Make sure there is space around the refrigerator for air to circulate — at least three inches between the refrigerator and any nearby counters or walls. If your refrigerator is in a constricted space, don’t pile things on top of it because that will restrict air circulation even more.

The refrigerator is most efficient when it is full, but not over-crowded (food holds coolness better than air, but air must be able to circulate around the refrigerator). Freezers work best when they are full. Fill empty spaces with 2 liter pop bottles filled about 3/4ths full of water. Try putting bottles of frozen water in your refrigerator and see if it runs less. Check the temperature regularly with a thermometer. Don’t let the frost build up — when it is 1/4 inch deep, defrost the freezer. Move the refrigerator away from the wall once a year and vacuum the coils — they work most efficiently when they are clean (do this more often if you have a pet that sheds a lot). Let hot foods cool before putting them in the refrigerator, and make sure that all dishes and foods are covered in airtight containers. Don’t hold the door open while you decide what you want to eat, especially during hot and humid weather. Locate the refrigerator away from the stove, out of direct sunlight, and away from any heating ducts.

If you use an extension cord to power your refrigerator, it must be the same gauge (thickness) of wire as the house wires, 14 gauge. Ideally, the refrigerator should be on its own circuit (breaker or fuse), with no other appliances or lights using that circuit. If there are additional electrical outlets on that circuit, don’t use them if you can avoid it. The freezer should also be on its own circuit.

Plug the refrigerator into a “Power Planner” This is a small box that plugs into an electrical outlet, and then you plug the refrigerator into it. If provides surge protection, smoother starting (less wear and tear) and saves electricity. They are available at most hardware and home supply stores.

If the door gasket isn’t fitting tightly, replace it. If your refrigerator has an automatic ice maker or butter warmer, disconnect it. Thanks to Clarence Yusik at The Fridge Doctor for help with this refrigeration section.

Your utility bills may seem mysterious, but you are the one who controls the amount of energy you use. To spend less money, use less energy.

Heating and Cooling: Your largest use of energy is generally for heating and cooling your living space. The bigger your house or apartment, the more energy you will use and the more money you will spend. One advantage of smaller houses and apartments can be lower energy bills. If there are unused rooms, keep their doors closed and shut off any heating/air conditioning vents in those rooms. If your energy budget is severely restricted, you could heat or cool only one or two rooms in the house.

If you own your housing, you will save the most bucks by insulating and weatherizing. If you are a low income homeowner or renter, there are programs to help you insulate and weatherize your housing (contact a charity or Community Action center for a referral, the waiting list for these programs is long, so get in line right away). If you don’t own your housing, start planning now for how you can get into a place of your own. If you are low income, there are programs that can help you achieve home ownership. Sometimes you can “rent to own” a property.

A wood stove may be an effective choice for winter heat. Wood can often be found for free, even in cities, it is a renewable and sustainable resource.

Consider co-housing — where two or more families live together. Two or three families could pool resources and buy or rent a large house that could be subdivided, with the families sharing some facilities like the kitchen and living room. The group could save money by cooking and eating together, not to mention the time savings when there are more hands and feet available to do the work and the cleanup. Sharing appliances like freezers also saves money and energy.

It is easier to keep your house at a comfortable temperature when you dress for the season when you are indoors. In the summer, go barefoot in the house, and wear loose-fitting light clothes like t-shirts and shorts made from natural fabrics like cotton. In the winter, however. wear several loose layers of clothes while you’re in the house. If necessary, you could wear a hat and a sweater or light jacket. People have been known to curl up with fluffy blankets on the couch or a favorite chair. Clean clothes keep you warmer than dirty clothes.

Vegetation is one of the most cost effective ways to cut your energy bill in the summer. Plant trees around your house for shade, and bushes up close to the house. If you plant fruit or nut trees, as an added bonus you get an annual high value crop. Although it takes many years to grow a tree, in the meantime you could plant climbing vines on the sunny sides of your house for shade in the summer. Many houses & apartments are poorly insulated & have lots of air leaks. To find air leaks, light an incense stick and slowly move it around doors, windows, baseboards, electric outlets, switches, shelves, and places where pipes and electrical conduits go through walls and cabinets. Most home supply stores have inexpensive products to help plug such leaks. You can get little foam pads to put inside electric outlets and light switches (if you can scrounge a larger piece of foam, cut it yourself to fit your outlets and switches).

Use caulk to plug leaks around windows. Wood putty or caulk can be used along baseboards. Read the label to make sure the caulk is suitable for the materials it is being used with. Latex caulk is the cheapest, doesn’t give off fumes, and before it dries it can be wiped off with a damp rag. Foam comes in cans so you can spray it around pipes going through walls and fill miscellaneous holes.

Weatherstripping helps seal doors tightly — a 1/4 inch gap at the bottom of the typical door is equal to a 3 square inch hole in the wall! If there are holes in your floors or walls, plug them as necessary. If you have nothing else, fill them with crushed newspaper or styrofoam (packing beads work) and cover with plastic and lathe (strips of wood sold by the bundle, they’re cheap) or duct tape. Patch (‘tuckpoint”) broken or missing mortar in exterior brick walls. Brick mortar is very cheap, just add water, mix, & if you don’t have tools, use a kitchen knife to fill the gaps with mortar.

There are many different kinds of insulation, so you’ll need to give some thought to what you need in your particular situation. Start with the ceiling/roof, and the more insulation you have, the more money will save on energy.

“Airlock” your doors that go outside. This requires going through two doors to get inside the house. Don’t open the interior door until the outer door is shut and thus cold or hot winds don’t blow in the house. It can be a temporary structure made from plastic and 2 x 4 boards and a door you find somewhere, or you could build permanent structures at your doorways (on the porch, or just inside the door).

Keep your heating and cooling equipment clean and in good repair. Change the filters as necessary, or wash them (such as the filters on window air conditioners). If the sun hits your air conditioner, rig a shade over it — but don’t block the air intakes. If you are renting, be sure to remind your landlord about this. And if it doesn’t get done, that’s another sign that you need to look for another place to live.

The Bottom Line on Energy is. . . You must be brutally realistic with yourself about the resources you have available to pay for energy. The higher the thermostat in the winter, & the lower the thermostat in the summer, the more money you must pay.

If you are going to be gone for several hours, adjust the thermostat so that less energy is used keeping an empty house cool or warm.

In the COLD of the Winter. . .  Stop air infiltration through windows by covering them with plastic held in place with staples and strips of lathe. If the windows are really leaky, cover the inside with plastic also.

Hang heavy curtains, quilts, or blankets over the windows at night. These could also be hung over walls to help insulate a room. Mattresses also work for walls, windows, and doors. Fabric stores carry a product called “Warm Window” which is composed of several layers of insulating material and a metal foil liner. This can be easily made into indoor thermal shutters.

Another option is to cut sheets of rigid foam insulation to fit the inside of the windows. Put them up at night. Take them down during the day to let the sun shine in. This insulating foam is flammable, so keep these away from open flames. Cover it with some flame-retardant material as a safety measure. A well insulated window would have plastic on the exterior, double-paned windows, indoor thermal shutters of some sort, plus one or more wool blankets or quilts and a heavy curtain.

If cold air is coming up through a bare floor, you can improvise “carpet” by putting down several layers of newspaper and covering them with blankets or quilts. (If you do this, have people take their shoes off when they go in that room, and be careful about slips and falls.) Even better, learn to make rugs from rags and cover your floor with something you have created yourself.

If you have a waterbed, keep it heavily insulated during the day (a waterbed heater can use more energy than a water heater and refrigerator combined!). Use heavy comforters on top, and also on the sides. Even better, replace the water bed with a regular bed.

Recover Heat. If you use an electric dryer, vent it indoors during the winter (you can’t do this with gas dryers due to the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning). Put some nylon hose on the end of the exhaust duct (secured with a large rubber band or duct tape) to catch the lint and dust. When you take a shower, put the stopper in the tub. Let the water cool before you drain it. Air dry your freshly-washed clothes inside the house. Don’t pour hot cooking water down the drain, let it cool first. These practices will add humidity & heat to the inside of your house that would otherwise go down the drain or out into the cold back yard. At Night. . . Turn the thermostat down or the heater off and pile on the blankets. Dress warmly for bed in sweat pants and shirt, socks, and maybe even a cap (depending on how cold it will get and how low you set the thermostat).

Adequate nutrition is essential. To help you stay warm, adequate food and water is a must. Drink plenty water and eat frequent meals with lots of carbohydrates. Winter is a good time for comfort foods like casseroles, stews, soups, and home baked bread.

Use solar heating whenever possible. Open the shades and curtains on the sunny side of the house. If the sun can shine on some heavy masonry (like a brick or concrete floor or wall), so much the better — it will soak up the heat during the day and radiate it at night. You could improvise such a heat absorber with buckets or plastic bottles painted black and filled with water (if the bottles are clear, you can use food coloring to darkly color the water). If you’re using 2 liter bottles, put them in trays so they don’t fall over so easily. Keep your windows clean so the sun’s rays aren’t deflected. Plans are also available for a solar heater that fits into a standard window.

In the HEAT of the Summer. . .  Don’t laugh, but why not try living without air conditioning? People used to do this all the time, a growing number of people are doing it today. It helps if you live in an older house, built before air conditioning became so popular. When temperatures are cool at night & in the morning, ventilate the house. Open doors & windows so you get a good cross ventilation going. Put a box fan in a window on the north side of the house to draw in cool air. On the south side of the house, put another box fan in a window so that it draws warm air out of the house.

A ceiling fan circulates air & creates an effect where it seems several degrees cooler. Ceiling fans are very cheap (as low as $15), and are easy to install. For other indoor uses, box fans are inefficient and usually noisy, rotary fans are better. Variable speed fans will help you get the right amount of air. Use a fan (the exhaust fan, if there is one installed) to move cooking heat outside, but be sure to turn it off after the burners cool down, or you’ll send your cool air outside. Even better, cook outside in the summer.

In the summer, shade is your friend. Keep the sun’s heat from hitting windows, doors, walls. Install window shades on the outside of your house. Be creative and you won’t spend much money. An inexpensive bamboo roll-up window shade works fine, and there’s always aluminum foil and those automobile window shades with reflective surfaces. One or more curtains inside will help, and choose white or another light color (sheets are do-able and cheap, & more is better). Don’t forget to shade the doors if you don’t have a porch.

The best choice for your wall shade is vegetation. Although it takes many years to grow a tall tree, vines grow in just a few weeks. Morning glories provide plenty of shade plus flowers that are beautiful to look at. There are many varieties of pole beans which will climb right up your walls as well as cover windows. Hang some twine down the wall for each plant to assist their climb, or put up a trellis or some cheap chicken wire. Not only do your windows get shaded, but you also get fresh green beans to eat!

Keep hydrated. Drink lots of water. Sugar, caffeine, alcohol, and big heavy meals will make you feel warmer. Caffeine and alcohol will dehydrate you, so even if you drink a super big gulp soft drink twice a day, you still need 6 to 8 glasses of water. If you don’t drink enough water, you will feel hotter and a lot more uncomfortable. Large amounts of very cold drinks will fool your body into thinking you are cold, so your body’s thermostat will try to warm you up. The idea that an ice cold soft drink is the perfect solution for your thirst on a hot summer day is something you have been brainwashed to believe by billions of dollars in advertising. Water is better.

If the heat becomes oppressive, take a cool shower or go outside and dowse yourself with a water hose. Keep a spray bottle of cool water handy, and give yourself a little spritz every once in a while. Minimize the heat you create in the house. Cooking inside during the summer adds a lot of humidity and heat. Use a grill and/or camp stove an cook outside, for example on your porch or in your back yard. If you do cook inside, do so early in the morning while it’s cool. You could really go for the gusto and build a simple solar oven and bake bread or cook a roast or casserole using the hot afternoon sunlight (yes, you can really do this, and no, you don’t need a degree in rocket science to make one). If you are cooking inside, small appliances like microwaves or toaster ovens are better than an electric stove.

Wash dishes by hand, don’t use the dish washer. Dress lightly for sleeping, use cotton sheets and a cotton mattress pad (or several cotton sheets if you don’t have a pad). Using a damp sheet also helps you stay cool at night, especially if you have a ceiling fan. If you smoke, do it outside. Don’t use the dryer; hang your clothes out to dry, especially heavy items like jeans and towels. (No dryer can duplicate that great smell of clothes that have been dried on the line outside, and there’s no in-house heat contribution.)

Even if you don’t abandon air conditioning completely, using these ideas can help you use less air conditioning so you save more money.

The more shade you can get on the outside of the house, the less work for the air conditioner to do. You could wait until the heat of the day to turn it on, or you could have one or more “no air conditioning days” each week. If you are low income, you may need to turn the air conditioning off during the day and go to an air conditioned library or other public space to meet your energy budget. Even if you did this only once or twice a week, every week, you would save money, plus you would gain the many advantages of spending time in libraries. It’s not for nothing that people say: “Read More, Learn More.”

Energy Emergencys: For when there is no electricity or gas due to a utility shut-off or natural or man-made disaster.

Keeping warm in a winter weather emergency: If the electricity or natural gas is disrupted during the winter, you must take action to protect your family.

Don’t try to heat the entire house in a winter emergency. First bundle up your body. Then heat a single room. Hang blankets over doorways and use plastic sheets, blankets, quilts, & newspapers over windows. Blankets can insulate floors without carpets. Don’t seal the room so tight that no fresh air can get in. Even if it is cold, you need fresh air to stay alive.

Layer clothes, in loose layers. Beware of wind and wet. Keep dry. Wet clothing loses its ability to insulate, and can suck heat right out of you. Stay out of the wind as much as possible. Clean clothes keep you warm better than dirty clothes. Make sure your head, hands, and feet are protected.

Use newspapers for emergency insulation. They can be wrapped around legs, arms, torso, taped over windows, laid on the floor.

The best place for babies is on their mother’s bodies. in their arms or using one of the many ways of carrying a baby and still having your hands free.

For emergency backup heat, the best choice is wood heat — IF you have a fireplace or properly installed wood stove. If you don’t have one, the next choice would be propane and kerosene. These fuels have been used for indoor heating and cooking for many years. Look for this equipment at a flea market or thrift store; propane bottles are sold in most discount stores. Even when bought brand new, this equipment can be relatively inexpensive. A free-standing natural gas heater can be converted to run on propane. Ventless propane heaters certified for indoor use are also available.

Any form of indoor open flame heating requires adequate ventilation. Always place the heater right in front of the ventilation opening (such as a window open 1/4 inch). If you place it away from the ventilation, the fumes will first fill the room before they start to exit from your ventilation opening.

If you are in a winter emergency without any backup heat, use candles or “canned heat” like sterno or chafing dish fuel. Even the flame of one candle can generate enough heat to keep a person from freezing to death. NEVER LEAVE CANDLES BURNING UNATTENDED OR WHILE YOU ARE SLEEPING. Make sure there is nothing burnable close to the candles, and that they are secure in a candle holder that can’t be knocked over.

NEVER USE CHARCOAL BRIQUETS INSIDE A HOUSE FOR COOKING OR KEEPING WARM IN A WINTER WEATHER EMERGENCY. People die from carbon monoxide poisoning when they fire up charcoal briquets inside the house to keep warm. Carbon monoxide detectors are cheap; if there is a chance you may be using improvised heating, get one. Pregnant women and unborn babies are particularly at risk for carbon monoxide poisoning. While using any kind of inside heat with an open flame, if the room seems “stuffy” and you begin to feel headachy and lethargic and/or your vision gets blurry, get everyone out of the room and ventilate it with fresh air immediately.

With all forms of alternative open flame heating, beware of the fire danger. Place a fire extinguisher where it can be quickly used if necessary. If you don’t have a fire extinguisher, get a couple of large boxes of baking soda.

Cooking and Hot Water:  If you are stuck with a big energy hawg of an electric stove, turn off the burners before the cooking is finished. It will continue cooking as the burner cools.

Crockpots, roaster/toaster ovens, and electric frying pans are more efficient than full size electric stoves. Large ovens don’t cook small meals efficiently, so use those small appliances.

When you do heat up the oven, cook several dishes at once; alternate their placement in the oven so that air circulates easily. Minimize pre-heating. Glass or ceramic oven pans are the most efficient.

Make sure the flame on a gas stove is blueish, a yellow flame indicates the gas isn’t burning efficiently.

Pressure cookers use less energy for stove top cooking because foods cook in less time. Uncovered pans can use 3 times as much energy as a covered pan to cook the food.

Defrost frozen foods before cooking them.

Use the smallest pan that will fit the recipe, and match the burner to the pan if possible (use a small burner for a small pan).

Keep the metal splash guards under the burners clean so heat reflects upwards, blackened guards will absorb, not reflect, cooking energy.

The microwave oven is generally an energy efficient appliance, but don’t use it to thaw frozen foods — that is a waste of energy when the same task can be accomplished in your refrigerator.

Hot Water TOP Use less by installing low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators. This can cut your hot water requirements as much as 50%, saving 14,000 gallons of hot water/year/family of 4.

Insulate the hot water pipes. Insulate the hot water tank with a special “jacket” made for the purpose (typically $10-20 at home supply stores), or wrap it with insulating materials. Do not cover the top or the bottom, the thermostat or the burner compartment of the tank.

Lower the temperature on the water heater to 120 degrees or less. Take quick showers, not baths.

You can make a simple solar heater: get a 5 gallon plastic bucket with a tight fitting lid, and paint it black. Fill it with water and set it in the sunlight. Voila, easy and free five gallons of hot water.

Pay attention to details.

Lights. Your grandfather was right: Turn off the lights when you’re not using them. Compact flourescent bulbs work in regular light fixtures, last longer and use much less energy. They cost more ($10 for the 60 watt equivalent), but they use 75% less energy than regular bulbs & last for 1000s of hours. Use less electrical lighting during the day when natural light is available. Use more “task lighting” — smaller lights focused on what you are doing, rather than the entire room.

Washing Clothes. Whenever possible, wash clothes in cold water. Wait until you have a full load, don’t do small loads. Instead of using the dryer, air dry your clothes. Get some racks to use for indoor clothes drying when its raining or too cold outside. Wash small amounts of clothes by hand. TOP

Dishwasher. The best thing to do with your dishwasher is disconnect it and sell it to somebody else. Washing dishes by hand should be a family affair — when many hands pitch in, the work is less tedious and gets done faster.

Small batteries. Avoid spending money for small batteries. For $30 or less, you can get a solar powered battery charger and some rechargeable batteries, and go solar. Or you could use a recharger that runs on household current. Small batteries are expensive — the fewer you have to buy, the more money you have for other things.

Learn how to read your meters. This will help you manage your energy expenses, because you can tell exactly how much you will owe at any given time. The electric and gas utilities can tell you how to do this and calculate your bill as you consume the energy. If necessary, read it every day and adjust your energy use to meet your budget. Stop wasting energy, and you will start saving money. You will also give planet Earth a break from the pollution. TOP Gadgets and Ghost Loads. Many modern appliances and gadgets have “ghost loads” — they use power all the time, even when you think they’re “off”. When an appliance isn’t in use, make sure it is turned completely off, unplug it if necessary — especially the television (which consumes lots of energy and generates lots of heat). One way to deal with this is to plug them into an extension cord that has an on-off switch. Use the extension cord switch to turn it off and on, and you will avoid wasting power via the “ghost loads” in the appliance.

Be wary of bringing more electrical gadgets into your house and scrutinize what you already have. Do you really need all that stuff? If you have a water bed, drain it and replace it with a regular bed (a waterbed heater can use as much electricity as a refrigerator. If you have a computer and printer, don’t leave it on when it isn’t being used. Instead of an electric blanket, use more regular blankets or quilts (and never leave the electric blanket on during the day). Never use the television for “background noise” while you’re doing something else; a radio consumes less power. Sell your garbage disposal, or don’t use it. Compost your vegetable food scraps for your garden. Sell or don’t use your garbage compactor. TOP

Wood Heat. For many people, a wood stove may be an effective choice for winter heat. Wood can often be found for free, even in cities. A wood stove can be a very cost effective source of heat and hot water. For a cheap wood stove, kits are available that allow you to turn two steel barrels into a wood burning stove.

The Devil is in the Details Department. . . Watch Out for Indirect Energy Expenses

Everything you buy takes energy to grow, manufacture, transport, store, and sell. As energy prices go up, other prices will follow.

Your trash is an indicator of how much money you are wasting. The more trash from your household, the more you indirectly pay for energy. More packaging equals higher prices. Use less stuff, or as your mother advised: “Use it up, wear it out, do without.”

Minimize the number of times you go shopping each month. Car pool with friends or take public transportation for shopping. The more times you go into stores, the more money you will spend. Always shop with a list, & avoid “impulse buying”. Buy at thrift stores and flea markets, start avoiding “new stuff.” Plan your shopping, and never go to the store for “just one thing.”

Eat with the season. Fresh produce in winter is often shipped thousands of miles, that ain’t cheap & food prices are already climbing. Summer is the time for fresh salads made from local ingredients. Winter is a time for slow-simmered sauces made from the previous summer’s vegetables. Some produce is imported from very poor countries, where it is grown by transnational corporations, so buying lettuce in January may involve snatching that food from the hands of hungry children. Think about that before you bite into a nice January salad. Buy your produce directly from local growers – most areas have roadside stands and farmers markets..

Grow, process, & preserve some of your own food. Plant an organic garden & fruit & nut trees (lots of trees). If you have no space for a garden, join a community garden. Use compost from your kitchen scraps as fertilizer. Buy extra produce from farmers & preserve it yourself. Equipment can be purchased and the cost split among several families, thus reducing the out of pocket expense to get started.

Disposable products are just trash. Stop using disposable plates & cutlery, use cloth rags instead of paper towels. Save bottles for other uses, re-use gift wrapping, ribbons & bows, & be creative in reducing your trash load..

Ignore advertising. Your life will not be better because you buy advertised products, but you will be poorer. Teach your kids about the lies of advertisers.

Take the bus to work if possible, or car pool. For some people, a bicycle will be a cost effective option. If you have a gas guzzling car, look for a car with greater fuel efficiency. Drive slower (above 55 MPH, fuel economy crashes), accelerate gradually.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

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The author of this morning’s essay is the CEO of a small software company Casady & Greene noted for innovation and high quality. At 84 years of age, he remains actively involved with the company, and writes a regular column for their website.

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Here We Are!

Charles R. Fulweiler, Ph.D.

I am not trying to write a scholarly treatise, but I am trying to take note of eighty-four years of observation of the human condition from my personal point of view. I am not a scholar, nor do I believe that one must be a scholar in order to observe the world in which one lives. Therefore, even though I am unwilling to do the tiring and exacting work of the scholar, I am moved to write about where I think the human species is today and what it is about.

At first glance it looks awful. It seems as though Armageddon is here right now. There are wars and certainly many rumors of wars. Our “beloved corporations” are showing themselves to be rotten to the core. Too many of our elected politicians have been chosen from the ranks of these undeniably criminal companies. Too many people, really good people, feel that they have to join the powerful bad guys if they hope to survive.

On the other hand there are those companies and people who make it their business to function honorably and ethically, with compassionate awareness. We, as a society, are trying, against terrible opposition to take the steps necessary to save many small and largely unknown critters that would have been exterminated without the loving and vitally necessary help of good people. The roles of men and women are changing for the better.

For all of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries our culture has seemed to worship business. It is easy to see how this arose since business is an outgrowth of such activities as hunting game, gathering edible plants, building fires and erecting shelters all in the interest of caring for our families and ourselves. Certainly we have shown great skill and ability in developing and maintaining an almost infinite number of organizations carrying on business. Why, then, are we in such terrible trouble? Why Armageddon? We could feed the whole world and simultaneously supply it with vastly more goods and services than it needs so why aren’t we happy? Why are there people starving in this world of plenty? Why, when we have mastered the tasks necessary to keep us relatively clean and disease free are hordes of people just like you and I dying of easily preventable diseases and living in filth?

My attempts to answer these profound questions revolve around enculturation. Under the best of conditions all of us will make mistakes that is why we need tolerance, compassion and forgiveness so badly. Mistakes aside we still labor under enculturation patterns in all the nations of the world that are threatening to engulf and destroy us. A number of people have questioned the origin and meaning of the word “enculturation” which I use frequently. To reassure myself I looked up the definition in “A Dictionary of the Social Sciences” copyrighted in 1964 by UNESCO. It is defined as “the process of conscious or unconscious conditioning occurring within that learning process whereby man, as child and adult, achieves competence in his culture.” This dictionary attributes its introduction into the social sciences to M.J. Herskovits in 1948.

Full credit has never been given to the horrifying power this “conscious and unconscious conditioning” has in determining our likes, our loves, our hates and, in short, all of our feelings about ourselves and each other and the world about us. In the first three years of life when we learn at a prodigious rate, this early conditioning or enculturation is carried out by our parents, our siblings and other relatives. The attitudes, tastes, feelings and behavior patterns we learn during this time have the sense or feeling of being absolute, beyond question and, above all, RIGHT. At this time, it appears that television and its overwhelmingly powerful advertising has taken over as the dominant enculturator, joined shortly by peers, comics, magazines, movies and school. All of them have methods of using advertising and all of them continue and reinforce the process. Is it any wonder then, that when we meet people who believe and behave differently, we look on them always with distrust, sometimes with loathing and, more frequently than not, with fear or all three plus anger. These are all conditioned responses. They are not thought out, not rational, not the product of intellectual processes and not chosen voluntarily by us. They appear to us (all of us) as the revealed truth, requiring no explanation, no discussion and, most certainly no argument. Some of these enculturations are badly needed to protect us from harm and thereby give us a chance to grow up. But many of them, particularly those relating to social and personal things, are by now outmoded and, most definitely, wrong.

It can be said that with very, very minor exceptions there are no unattractive or unappealing people. Any person who is loved or for whom you feel friendship or affection is attractive and appealing. Think back in your life experiences and I am sure you will see the truth in this. Yet perhaps the most egregious of the prolonged and continuous conditioning of our responses to everything and everyone around us has to do with attractiveness and with sex. In our earliest years our enculturators are busily trying to show us that anything having to do with sex is bad and forbidden. It is probably painfully obvious that just as our mentors are being successful in teaching us that sex is bad, evil, nasty and to be avoided, our hormones are beginning to scream a different message. Now we pay close attention; but the conflict engendered can do overwhelming damage to us personally and, certainly, to society as a whole.

If we really did learn from experience we would, by now, be completely aware that sex for money or sex without feeling is just as Philip Roth termed it “masturbation in utero” and, although it relieves immediate sexual tension, over the long haul it is not particularly rewarding. We should long ago have learned that sex with friendliness is good, sex with affection is better and sex with love is by all odds infinitely superior. It should be pointed out that if children result it is infinitely superior for them also. Apart from the obvious benefits of a good love relationship for both the participants and their resulting children, a good love relationship will guarantee very rewarding and enjoyable sex and sex play for all the years one can survive. We need to remember well that neither friendship nor affection nor love is contingent on any physical characteristics of the other person. There are an infinite number of reasons why people are attracted to each other whether moderately or profoundly, but we must remember that we are not conditioned to love, to share, to be friendly, nor to be affectionate. No! We are conditioned to be ashamed of our appearance, suspicious of other people and frightened that we won’t measure up to what others expect of us. Rudolph Valentino, Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Betty Grable and a host of others, have been “role models” for men and women to follow (aided by an excellent air-brush); and boy have we tried. The implication has always been that to be worth anything this is how you had to be; this kind of coloring, this kind of musculature, this kind of figure and these kinds of faces. However, in spite of all the advertising to the contrary, the most frequent reason why people get together is still that they sense that the other person really accepts them. This doesn’t seem to have been understood by our mentors . It is, however, true and remains the single most important reason that the doors to love and marriage open at all.

Our culture’s attitudes toward work are also an excellent example of destructive enculturation. Just think of the number of “labor saving” devices invented in the past three centuries. Now think of how many of them are really needed and truly valuable. Many of these inventions are quite valuable when the task is to provide increased food, clothing or shelter for a vast number of people but for the individual they deprive us of the opportunity to do things which really are pleasurable. In every part of our culture work=bad, so that anything that eliminated activity defined as work was great. It has come as a shock to me many times to realize that the “labor saving” device I had bought was keeping me from doing something that I really enjoyed doing. Think of your own life and of how many of the things you are “saved” from that are much more pleasurable than a double fault in an exhausting Tennis match or a bogey in a humiliating round of Golf. How often have you seen people return from a “vacation” so exhausted from trying to “have fun” that they need a vacation to recover from their vacation. In other words we frequently work harder trying our best to do all the things that have been defined for us as things that bring pleasure and rarely recognize that they bring no pleasure when pursued so diligently, without joy. They certainly bring no satisfaction.

During childhood, work is defined as bad and, more often than not, is used as a punishment. In school, we are threatened with work if we don’t behave properly. As adults, most people seek as early a retirement as possible to get away from hated work. When they succeed, then quite rapidly they wither away and die. It is a real tribute to the force of enculturation that we haven’t learned that one of our greatest assets is the counsel of our elders based on their years of experience. And, of course, we haven’t learned that the greatest privilege we can have is that of working. Work is quintessentially necessary for our health and our mental and emotional functioning as well as for our over-all well-being. Yet our culture trains us to avoid it, to fear it and to feel that anyone who can avoid it completely must be superior to all those around her or him. In a culture that worships and uses callow youth, it must be quite disheartening to don the elders uniform of sloppy pants, slouchy hat and a cardigan sweater only to be, not venerated, but ignored.

There is an implicit assumption that there is a reward waiting for people who work and save hard enough to retire young. Don’t you believe it. What do you really get? Instead of being consulted as a valued source of information you are ignored. Instead of being asked for help you are ignored. Instead of being valued and honored, you are pitied—and ignored. What a sad thing it is that we throw away all that our elders have learned. Now consider those who have been taught to believe that if they accumulate enough things they will avoid the fate of less wealthy people. They must have several luxury cars—and a chauffeur. They need an apartment in New York, a large home in Southern California, a pied a terre in France and so on and on they go acquiring more and more—and yet they still get sick, they still feel unhappy and unfulfilled and they still die.

So where are we now? Slowly, but quite surely, we are beginning to recognize our interconnectedness, our interdependence. It is my opinion that the “flower children” and the “beats” started to show us the way. They, perhaps unwittingly, accomplished a great deal. They seemed to be willing to throw out the book and try new and different things. We are at a choice point today and, as a species, we need help. Help in changing our enculturation habits and practices. Help in breaking free from our conditioned responses. Help in growing up. Conditioning can be overcome and, indeed, must be brought under our control as a chosen tool if this world is to turn from warfare and mutual assured destruction toward working together to nurture, protect and improve this very small planet that we live on and all of its inhabitants. There is no compelling reason for us to continue using the same teachings we used a thousand years ago to train today’s children. It is my belief that we have learned a thing or two about the human animal, about social structures and about how to live. If we can utilize this accumulated knowledge to help us to structure a well planned and fulfilling future for this world, we win. Otherwise we lose catastrophically.

Many people from many different backgrounds have addressed the problems I speak of. In fact, so much has been written and spoken on the subject that we should, long ere this, have arrived at an awareness that, contrary to our enculturation, we are not alone but are completely interdependent with all the myriad life forms with which we share this lovely planet. It has been written about and spoken of in bits and pieces—here and there, now and then. But I don’t believe that significant awareness has accompanied our sporadic attention. However if we look honestly at ourselves, we begin to realize that what we have read here and there is true. We are not discrete, identifiable entities. We are a vast complex of animate and inanimate parts. The living things that inhabit our gut, and even our cells, are different from but a part of us and indisputably necessary for our survival. The mites that inhabit our eyebrows and eyelashes—we need them. Where does our connection and our dependence stop? Can we be sure that we don’t need rats and slugs and ants and snails and maggots and eagles and fleas and bears and dogs and cats and snakes and spiders and monkeys and trees and flowers and weeds? Are we so sure of our supremacy that we can willfully slaughter the fish and the worms and the bugs and the jellyfish and the anemones and the sea horses of the seas, oceans and lakes with complete impunity? If you were given the power, would you thoughtlessly (and suicidally) kill all bacteria and all viruses? Which of these things that we wantonly kill with pleasure or from fear is the one lowly thing the loss of which will signal our destruction? Can we get in a space ship without our fellow living things and hope to survive? It now can be clearly seen and recognized that the only obvious targets for the violence that we propagate are ourselves and the defenseless creatures who are one with us. From the myriad of animalcula to the magnificence of whales and elephants, all living things are intimately related and infinitely dependent on the existence of one another. When do we learn to treat all living things with respect? At that point, perhaps we will understand and respect the complex set of processes that keep all of us in balance and permit our survival as a species and as individuals. The apocryphal story of Noah and the ark shows us the way. Just as Noah did we must protect, nurture and safeguard all of our fellow entities and cherish their safety as we cherish our own. When we realize that we are intimately connected to all of life, then we will realize that we survive together or we don’t survive at all.

Much has been written attempting to describe, define and do justice to the infinitely complex and gorgeously simple set of processes that underlie all that we are and all that we do. I say simple because, in fact, at its heart, it is really very simple—life forms sustain themselves by eating each other. Life cannot and will not be sustained if we do not kill and eat other living things. It is indeed fortunate, and crucially important that in most of the higher animals there is a violent instinctual rejection of cannibalism. At some times and in some cases this taboo has been violated but never approved of. Being a food source is not the only function of living things, of course, but it is important that we recognize that it is one function we cannot do without. Human beings are, by nature, omnivores—-we eat everything except each other. Animals, plants, creatures and plants of the seas—we eat them all. Swine are also omnivores as are the one-celled-organisms which eat the same everythings we eat, including eating us.

It is tempting to read and recount all the wonderful studies that have been done in this field. However, for most of us, it is sufficient to understand what is happening and the meaning it has for our lives. What is happening is clear, as I noted above: life forms sustain and create life forms by eating life forms. Does this mean that because I can kill some living thing that I cannot honor its existence, respect it for its valuable place in our lives and treat it well? Certainly not! Lions don’t hate gazelles. Rabbits don’t hate carrots. I don’t hate chickens or cows or rabbits or fish or broccoli or lettuce. Yet we kill them all for food to sustain our existence. What is worse, we treat those creatures we eat very badly as we raise them and prepare them for their fate. This careless inhumane treatment is one of the things studies leave out. Also, humankind seems to be the only animal that kills not only out of hunger or need, but from hatred and anger and even for pleasure. There is a vast difference between killing for food to satisfy hunger and killing from hate or for pleasure. Mankind has, it seems, forgotten this difference and, if we continue to forget it, we will not just fail to thrive, we will fail to survive.

I do not mean to state or imply that this description of the cycle defines us. I happen to believe, in my personal life, that humankind is more than just the restless churning of this eat and be eaten cycle. If it is, however, no more than this, it is still a magnificent undertaking and, however we define our-selves, it is a privilege to be a co-participant. If my thinking is correct, however, then we must understand and appreciate this process, this balance of nature, before we can truly appreciate our holiness. The whole world seems to be in some kind of end-game mode. If my judgment is correct then we must be doubly on guard. I do believe that this world is a great place and that we should pay close attention to what the tactics and strategies we are using are doing to us before it is too late.

When I try to state what I have learned in my life, I iterate and reiterate that we seem, over the last millennia, to have been trying to learn to live without hate and without fear. From time immemorial, most people have dreamed of being safe—really safe. We can learn that the cycle of life and death is natural and not to be dreaded. Isn’t it enough that we have the privilege of being born? Since we have been given the privilege of living here can we learn that there is nothing to be afraid of? Can we live our lives without fear but with acceptance and understanding. Yes, we have finally reached a point in our development at which we have learned a great deal and, if we have the will and the intelligence, we must know that we can live with joy and without fear. We must have the will to persist in this new understanding in spite of fanatic resistance on the part of those who would preserve the status quo, and we must use our intelligence to recognize that this is not a game with “winners” and “losers.” No, this is not a game, it is the result of living in a world that we can destroy with our fear and our unthinking violence, and everyone loses. We must always remember, and cherish the memory, that it can also be made a garden spot of the universe— it really is our choice—Those who question whether Man has free will pay close attention.

Love, respect, tolerance, compassion, forgiveness, understanding, the privilege of good hard work—these are the only building blocks for a life of joy and happiness and peace of mind. How many millions of times have they been preached to us without our understanding them. We don’t understand them because they are said in the context of a world in which killing from fear or for profit or for fun is rampant. It is a world in which killing and eating are by all odds the dominant activities. At some time in the past, we had many, many natural enemies. It was important then for there to be very strong men as part of the family and the community. Their purpose was to protect the unborn, the quite helpless pregnant women and the very young children. We no longer have natural enemies, other than rodents and disease and each other, and we seem to be ever more skillful in dealing with them. Why is it, then, that we have continued to instill in young people the values and mind sets that were appropriate thousands of years ago but are singularly inappropriate today? Why do we still teach and train young people that work is not something joyous but a curse we bear until we can retire? When was the last time you heard anyone, including yourself, encouraging a young person to find out what kind or kinds of work the enjoyed?

It is very encouraging that more and more men and women are beginning to recognize and honor the value and the rewards of the more utilitarian drives toward cooperation, mutual respect, compassion, love and joyous work—the forces that lead inevitably to life, health and a future. However, this shift in dominant parameters is not easily made. When one has been trained all of one’s life to consider brute strength as the characteristic that will rule the earth, it’s a little difficult to shift one’s point of view. It is a very abrupt awakening when one realizes that brute strength leads, and can only lead, to certain death and absolute destruction.

There are some things that must be done if we are to make this shift:

We must learn to teach, and demonstrate by example, great respect for all our sisters and brothers. We can show this by honoring them as people and respecting their cultures, by understanding that cultural differences are just cultural differences, not measures of worth.

We must curb the power of those who would control us for their own aggrandizement. With the advent of something approaching good communication, we rapidly learn that we are being controlled by those who covet power and use it stupidly. Their tools (or weapons, if you will) are advertising, teaching and even the arts (If they are abused and misused).

Over all, our needs must be met in sufficient quantity. We must learn to share and share alike in all things pertaining to our survival. Those who are starving and disease-ridden in all the countries of the world are a dying testament to our neglect.

We must maintain and enhance our ability to be clean and have our illnesses well treated. Photographs of those throughout the world who are dying of diseases that are brought on by horribly unclean conditions, and dying of starvation which, to our shame, we look at without guilt and without feeling the need to help, show how far from this goal we are now, and how far we must yet go.

We must learn to honor excellence in all things and in all non-destructive behavior and must learn to take real pleasure in the search for such excellence. When the reward for our efforts can be measured not in profit, but in the thrill of achievement, whether by ourselves or by others, we will be on the path toward survival.

We must acknowledge our debt to our fellows. There is no invention, no advance that isn’t predicated on the thinking and consideration of millions of women and men who have gone before. (Including this.) When we have a brilliant idea or invention, we must learn to be grateful to all those around us, as well as those who have gone before, for their support.

We must learn to stop glorifying war. Such activity is justified only when one is physically attacked. For a long period of time in mankind’s history, violent behavior was both necessary and highly rewarded. That is no longer true. We must learn to live comfortably and peacefully with even wildly different philosophies. We then honor and respect those who protect and defend us.

How do we make this shift? The first thing we must learn to do is to forgive those who, by virtue of their training and background, cannot behave differently than they do. Does forgiving them mean we let them go on doing what they do best? Not on your tintype! We have had the example of the awesome power of “shunning,” as practiced by some groups. It is this type of avoidance, or something very like it, that would have the most effect in stemming evil. When good people absolutely refuse to participate in evil in any way, manner, shape or form then evil will have no power and will cease to exist in any operationally meaningful way.

Does this mean that we must hate, despise or reject those we shun? Heavens no! We must learn to love the person even though we detest the behavior. We must learn to exercise tolerance, respect, compassion and understanding for the person even though we practice absolute rejection and denial of their behavior. Obviously such changes in enculturation patterns and concomitant thinking won’t happen overnight. Humankind is just beginning to emerge from its long, painful adolescence. Let us all hope that we learn what it means to be an adult in time to avert our extinction.

Are we on this earth in order to build bigger and fancier buildings? I don’t think so. Are we here to build bigger and fancier cars, clothes, trains or factories? I don’t think so. We have already shown that we can do these things. We’ve also shown that we can organize farms in such a way as to be able to feed all of humankind even though we have quadrupled our population. We have, in short, managed to find ways of supplying food, clothing and shelter for all the people we have and probably more.

Why then are we not all well shod, well clothed, well fed and well housed?. Why are we not all as happy as clams? The primary reason is that we have been taught to be aggressive, competitive and self-centered in all our relationships. The second reason is that we are fast running out of some of the things we have come to depend on that nurtured aggression and competitiveness. We have come to know that burning Coal pollutes our world. Oil not only pollutes our world but will last only a few more years at the most. There are solutions but they are being mightily resisted. Wind power—Solar power and probably some form of biological power that is barely dreamed of at this time. Our love affair with the automobile has brought us many blessings but unless we continue to turn toward alternative solutions to providing energy it can destroy us.

The most significant invention of the modern age, however, is our newest—the Internet, the World Wide Web. With this tool, for the first time in human history, all people can talk to each other equally. We are entering a time when even the most victimized can and will be heard around the world. The meekest voice can be heard and will be heard as stridently as a king’s or a president’s. When we, the meek, catch on to the fact that no one can hide any longer, when we realize that it is no longer a matter of muttering forlornly “if only people knew,” when we realize that we can speak the truth as loudly as a thousand trumpets and be heard around the world, will we then speak the truth without fear? Perhaps the playing field is now almost level. When evil must function in the clear and relentless light of day evil might mend its ways significantly.

We know now that time is not on our side. Our knowledge of the universe clearly shows that there are limits. We cannot transcend those limits unless we start learning as adults. It is only since the advent of the Internet that we finally have the communication tools to go with the technology that makes it possible to assume full stewardship of this world we live in, and even better tools are fast on their way. Whether we can grow up fast enough to use these tools in such a fashion as to be good stewards is another matter. If there be a clear categorical imperative that we must finally adhere to or die, it is that we must learn to live in peace and harmony, with each other and our whole world-wide community. We must learn to live happily in relationships of mutual love, respect and compassion with all the various manifestations of our-selves and our world or face the ultimate extinction of this very pleasant world and this very enjoyable life form. In short, contrary to what people in the past have tried to tell us we do not own this lovely world, we are the most fortunate care-givers of our world and everything that is in it. Yes, we are not owners but stewards. Can we grow up enough to accept the responsibilities of being adults and become truly good stewards? If we stay as children, misbehaving but convinced that someone will come behind us and clean up our messes, then surely we will not survive.

What I have written is in a sense a blueprint for accomplishing this metamorphosis. We turn toward understanding, knowledge, love, sharing, good work and a sincere desire to help our sisters and brothers. We know that these values are rock solid building blocks for successful living. We know this—we understand this—we preach about these values—we must now act on them!

We are one. As one we must realize that we survive together or we don’t survive at all. This is a clarion call to good people throughout the world to once and for all time shun evil. Set honest rules that benefit all—and then adhere to them as scrupulously as possible. Neither riches, however great, nor intelligence, however profound will stave off the inevitable consequences of our failure to solve the problem of learning to live, as adults, with our fellow man not pit our-selves against him, of learning to live with our beautiful world not loot it, and learning to love and respect all the creatures that share it with us.

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Read More by Charles R. Fulweiler, Ph.D.
 

Secretary of State Colin Powell will lead the American delegation to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa from August 26 through September 4. President George W. Bush made the announcement late Monday, giving no explanation as to why he will not be attending the summit to join 106 other world leaders on the speaker’s podium.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development is sponsored by the United Nations as a 10 year follow up to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, which was attended by then President George H.W. Bush, father of the current President.

Other heads of government and heads of state who are on the speakers list in Johannesburg include all the other leaders of G8 countries – UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Italian President Silvio Berlusconi and Russia’s Vladimir Putin among them.

President Bush has been under pressure from Republican Party and conservative lobbyists not to attend the summit. 

As those who read this page regularly know, Earth is suffering a humanity made CRISIS. Many of our problems stem from the fact that we have no one who speaks for the EARTH. All points of view are paraochial and only address the LOCAL and SHORT SIGHTED concerns of their speakers. In American those local and short sighted concerns are always about making money for large corporations.

The following essay is reposted from the Guardian of London.

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Corporate Capture

George Monbiot

The German election could be the second this year to be won or lost on the environment. In New Zealand, the Labour party failed to win its anticipated overall majority, partly because of its determination to approve the planting of genetically modified crops. The Greens, who did better than expected, have threatened to bring the government down if it lets the plantings go ahead. In Germany, Edmund Stoiber seemed certain of victory, until the floods exposed the fact that his shadow cabinet contains no environment spokesman. Now that the Germans are rediscovering their dependency upon the natural world, Stoiber’s anti-environmentalism could be fatal. As the Indian proverb says, if you drive nature out of the door with a broom, she will come back through the window with a pitchfork. The environment is a long-term issue which has always suffered from the short-term imperatives of the political cycle. It has been treated, by governments all over the world, as a problem which can be endlessly deferred to the next administration. Now the problem is catching up with the politicians, but most of them have yet to notice. The fourth earth summit, which begins at the end of this week, looks certain to be a disaster.

It’s not just that the summit will fail to resolve the earth’s problems. Its decisions are likely to become a major cause of environmental destruction in their own right. The solution to the slow collapse of the earth’s capacity to support human life, both the UN and most of the governments of the rich world have decided, is more of the problem.

The UN hopes for two kinds of outcome from the summit, which it calls type I and type II. Type I outcomes are the agreements brokered by governments. These negotiations, like those at all the previous earth summits, have so far been dominated by the EU and the US. While poorer nations have called for the rich countries to recognize their ecological debt to the rest of the world, to cough up the money they promised and failed to deliver 10 years ago and to find ways of holding big business to account, the rich world has insisted instead that the interests of the poor and the environment take second place to free trade.

Sections of the world trade agreement have simply been pasted into the draft negotiating text, ensuring that corporate freedom overrides environmental protection. The world’s water supplies, climate, health and biodiversity will, from now on, the rich nations insist, be defended by means of “public-private partnerships”: the US and EU want to do to the environment what the British government wants to do to the London Underground. To defend the world from the destruction brokered by multinational capital, governments will tie a ribbon round it and hand it to multinational capital.

But if the type I outcomes are likely to harm both the poor and the environment, the type II outcomes could be devastating. The UN has permitted big business to capture not just the results of the negotiations, but also the negotiating process itself. The corporations are moving into the vacuum left by the heads of state, and asserting their claim to global governance.

In principle, type II outcomes are voluntary agreements negotiated by governments, businesses and people’s organizations. In practice, the corporations, being better funded and more powerful than the people’s groups, are running the circus. They propose to regulate themselves through codes of practice, which in reality amount to little more than the rebranding of destructive activities as beneficial ones. As the Corporate Europe Observatory has shown, the original purpose of the Responsible Care program submitted by the chemical industry was to prevent the introduction of new health and safety laws after the Bhopal disaster. This, and the other schemes proposed by business, are likely to be listed as official outcomes of the summit.

These agreements, in other words, will reclassify some of the world’s most destructive corporations as the officially sanctioned saviors of the environment. They will sow confusion among the people with whom these corporations engage, and undermine effective regulation. In the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals, the UN is helping companies to argue that voluntary self-auditing is an effective substitute for democratic control.

All this makes the presence of corporate executives on the UK’s official delegation a matter of pressing public interest. In line with the principles of open government, Tony Blair’s office refuses to reveal just how many business people are being flown to Johannesburg at public expense to represent us. But two weeks ago we learnt that while Mr Blair was intending to leave Michael Meacher, the environment minister, behind, he would be traveling with the directors of Rio Tinto, Anglo-American and Thames Water. Meacher, thanks to a public outcry, has been permitted to go to the ball, but nothing would induce the prime minister to throw the ugly sisters off the plane.

Rio Tinto is the mining company which has attracted more complaints of environmental destruction and abuse of indigenous people’s rights than any other. Anglo-American has been described as the economic pillar of South Africa’s apartheid regime. Just two days after we discovered that Thames Water had become an official defender of the global environment, the head of its parent company, RWE, threatened to cancel the creation of 4,000 jobs unless the European commission dropped its plans to impose stricter controls on the production of carbon dioxide.

The governments of the world, in other words, appear to be coming together in Johannesburg to conspire against the interests of their people. This perception contributes, paradoxically, to the problem: the less people feel they can trust their governments, the more political space is cleared for the corporations to colonize.

But the organization which is likely to suffer most is the UN. The fourth earth summit – the biggest-ever meeting of heads of state – should enhance the UN’s prestige. Instead, it could destroy it. Already the “global compact” the UN has struck with big corporations, lending them credibility in return for unenforceable voluntary commitments, has alienated it from the very people who once sprang to its defense. Now the UN is seen, especially in the poor world, in the same light as the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organization: as an instrument of power, deployed against the powerless. Its willingness to help the wreckers of the environment to reposition themselves as the saviors of the world will reinforce this impression. Next time the US seeks to cut the UN budget, the people who would once have protested will be more inclined to cheer.

The protection of the environment is the definitive test of statesmanship. While the powerful people who wish to acquire for themselves the common property of humankind have always to be flattered and appeased, the long-term survival of humanity is in no politician’s immediate interest; until, that is, the environment bites back. Perhaps the only hope we have is that nature, as she has done in Germany, casts her vote much sooner than the politicians guessed.

Copyright © 2002 The Guardian of London

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More about George Monbiot

The following letter, reposted from the Baltimore Chronicle,  is drawing a lot of attention on the net. While over simplifying many complex issues and using a style that is both rude and provocative, McDougall does challenge the American reader to do their own thinking.

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Open Letter to America from a Canadian

W.R. McDougall

And so it has come to this. Your once-great nation has fallen into madness, an affliction of mass denial that brings shivers up the spines of millions outside your borders. Yours is a sick nation. But most of you carry on as though nothing at all is the matter.

Dark, evil operations run rampant in the secret corners of your government institutions. A dubiously constituted government pursues war at will anywhere on earth, discussing nuclear options that become points for cheerful chatter over lunch. Your military and intelligence agencies employ terrorist tactics around the globe even as they insist that such tactics are necessary in the fight against terrorism.

You have become a nation of monsters, America. Hypocrites. Murderers. Fools.

Your constitution is a shambles thanks to “national security” measures resulting from what might well be U.S.-government-sanctioned terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C., covert provocations designed to justify a malevolent, poisonous, oil-based military economy.

Never mind that earth-friendly technology already exists to once and for all end dependence on oil, coal and nuclear energy from huge, out-of-control utilities and corporations. You would rather pay through the nose for your insecure comforts, wouldn’t you America, and make others pay with their blood.

At the same time, you stand by as the Israelis’ secular Zionists–whom you support through the supply of arms and money–slaughter untold numbers of innocents in the West Bank, then blame the Palestinians for bringing the terror upon themselves. (True, there are abominable Arab suicide bombers in Israel’s midst. But are they not driven to madness and desperation by your infernal support of international terrorist politics?)

As I write these words, you support a nation run by a convicted murderer by the name of Ariel Sharon who with impunity is carrying out war crimes as cruel and horrendous as those of other sadistic tyrants in history. And you say, in your utter cynicism, ‘When will these Palestinians bring this war to an end?’

You recklessly wage combat on other fronts, too. At home, your War on Drugs is a disastrous 30-year folly–a gigantic con game designed to benefit lethal cartels, corrupt politicians and menacing intelligence agencies across the planet…..

With your government’s support, crooked multinationals like Monsanto buy up the world’s water supplies, and take possession of the world’s vegetation through Frankenstein technology already known to cause illness.

Does the FDA care about any of this? It does not. It has long been on the bandwagon to foist genetically altered food on the Guinea Pigs of the country–including every man, woman and child on America’s increasingly toxic soil.

You are a nation of suckers, America, to be bled dry of your hard-earned pay through outrageous bank schemes, Wall Street rip-offs and fake government budget grabs. Your Pentagon cannot account for trillions in lost dollars.

Does this bother you? Not in the least.

Your whole economy is controlled by what is for the most part ravenous, international private banking interests in the form of The Federal Reserve, which with your government’s consent leads you down the garden path to certain financial ruin thanks to a national debt you will never be able to repay.

How is it that private banks are responsible for issuing your currency? How is it that they are allowed to charge ridiculous interest rates on what they issue? By decree, this was supposed to be the responsibility of your government, which could create its own currency without charging interest.

Do you realize your congress could dismiss these banks in an instant if it so wished? But don’t ever count on it. More important matters are pressing. The upcoming election needs investment.

These very same money men are the ones who, through unmonitored and unrepresentative world committees, are driving countries like Argentina into hopeless debt and social upheaval. These greedy overlords are creating strife and suffering on a scale too tragic for words in nation after nation. Just look at Africa.

They’ve got their sights on America, now, too; disrupting economic stability through so-called free trade initiatives and provisions for special favors and the endless flow of cash to corporate monstrosities like Enron.

Amid all this, where are those who are supposed to represent your interests, America? For the most part, your congressional representatives are nothing but swine gathering at the corporate troughs. Your president is a white-collar thug, a hypocrite who through his actions celebrates war, repression and greed even as he gives lip service to peace, freedom and justice.

George W. Bush deceives you daily, the war monger hiding behind a phony patriotism. He is an Enron buddy boy, a spoiled child lying in his teeth about his past and current dirty deeds.

Does he care about you America? Hardly. This is altogether obvious to those outside your borders who are politically aware and awake to the world around them.

You were never concerned about the disgraceful practices of George’s ruthless father, either, a Bin-Laden cohort and friend to criminals and killers in global drug, oil and terrorist enterprises. Iran. Vietnam. El Salvador. Chile. Guatemala. Iraq. And on and on. The never-ending bully-boy story of blood, guns, drugs and money.

Does any of this matter? No, it’s simply time to eat.

Go get your ten-billionth burger, America. Fatten your already fat asses with bacteria-and-hormone-ridden meat and do nothing as you sit stupefied before your mind-numbing television sets awaiting the next episode of sad families being humiliated on “Cops.”

Few among you are the least bit concerned that no real investigation of 911 has taken place, that no serious investigation of the anthrax attacks is moving forward, that no authentic investigation of Enron, or the murder of one of its top executives, is underway.

How many of you give the slightest damn about the totalitarian measures your government is taking to keep its secret meetings, grubby files and treasonous activities from your eyes…?.

When did you stop caring, America? Was it after your own FBI and intelligence agencies plotted the murder of President John F. Kennedy? Or is this just the raving lunacy of the conspiracy nut? What does your gut tell you, America? Is something a little amiss here?

Forget about it. Have some Pepto-Bismol.

Today, in futility, your own government goes to court against itself for information you are entitled to by law. But this is hardly deemed vital news in the community. It is a fleeting reference in an electronic sea of meaningless banter. For proof, just look to all the spineless wimps who constitute your mainstream news media.

Today, you excoriate, ridicule and ostracize the brave and true among you. Your best investigative journalists are fired from their jobs and ignored. Congress’s few courageous souls are laughed at and dismissed out of hand as crackpots. The most honest and conscientious political leader in the country, Ralph Nader, is a powerless, near-invisible curiosity easily side-lined by hired goons.

America, you are a goddamn shame.

What law matters now in your despicable state? What justice? What truth?

When will you wake up?

If you had your druthers, you would right now gather your courage, take to the streets and march on Washington D.C in the millions. But I know you will do no such thing. The vast majority of you are spiritually, emotionally and intellectually dead.

As I write these words, I can only imagine what additional horrors your shadow government might be planning in what will surely be an attempt to justify militarism and totalitarianism on a universal scale. A nuclear explosion in one of your cities, perhaps? A massive bio-chemical attack?

Or perhaps it will be some Arab terrorist who finally commits the terrible deed, his last thought before death being the promises you made to him before you killed his family.

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Copyright © 2002 The Baltimore Chronicle and the SENTINEL.