Paul Hawken on optimism

Hello,

I hope you are well.  Did you get any of the wonderful rain we had over the last few days?  Here in London, Ont. we had over 6 cm over 2 days ... quite a lot ... altho' we'd had almost no rain for the earlier part of the month.

I've just run across a great quotation by Paul Hawken, and wanted to jot it down for you and for myself:

"When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.”


Which makes a short post, but a good thought to sleep on.

Very best regards,

Why's Woman 

Transition movement ... moves because of the people

Good morning,
(early, early morning!)

I hope you are well and happy, with something interesting ahead for today.

If you live somewhere that needed rain, I hope you've gotten some.  Here in London, Ont. we finally had a bit of rain on Wednesday, and some more today.  I haven't yet checked what was gathered in any buckets 'round the garden, but I got gloriously wet while out on my bicycle and it was a lovely thing after the hot weather of the last couple of days.

Last evening I attended a gathering out at The Living Centre, an eco-spiritual centre not far out of London.  Sally and Christine of Transition Guelph were down for a visit, talking about their experiences setting up a Transition group.  We who came from London and Middlesex County had a good visit and heard the kind of stories that will keep us going.

In its shortest description, the Transition Movement is about the resilience of communities, about the ability to adapt to stresses that might come from changing fossil fuel resources, climate change and economic stress.  Beyond this, it is about people who have visions of a future that is kinder to the environment and to people, where resources are not throw-away in the way they are now ... where we have learned again to do more things for ourselves and each other, using fewer resources, and using more local resources.

Everyone at the gathering agreed that more and more people we know have a sense that our contemporary pace of constant rush is too much.  People are hurried and stressed, expected to get more stuff all the time ...
...where do people get the money for cell phone set ups and the non-cable t.v. options that let you tape many shows at the same time and record 100 movies (or something)?  If one person records 4 shows every evening, when is that person going to find the time to watch the shows?  It could become some sort of electronic hoarding ... altho' I suppose it would take up less room to have dvds or memory sticks scattered around ...

...got distracted there about the tv and movies ... I've seen too many of the dumb cable versus internet commercials lately.

Back to Transition ... change. 

How will we come up with visions for 2030? 

Are you able to dream of future?  Have a vision?

I'd better get myself to bed ... do some dreaming in a more literal sense.  I can't seem to tpe two words without a typing mistake.

Best regards,

Why's Woman



Transition London Ontario: www.transitionlondon.ning.com
The Living Centre:  www.thelivingcentre

Photographer's daughter posed as five strong, real women

Hello again,

The world heard my plea for something positive and strong. I was just browsing a news site and found ...

Photographer Jamie Moore's daughter Emma just turned 5.  Ms. Moore took photos of Emma dressed and posed as 5 different strong, influential, real women.  This is a wonderful contrast to the story in the news about Disney changing one of its characters so the princess doll will be older looking and sexy.

One of the real women Emma chose to be is Jane Goodall (certainly one of my heroines), with Goodall's quotation:  "My family has very strong women. My mother never laughed at my dream of Africa, even though everyone else did because we didn't have any money, because Africa was the "dark continent", and because I was a girl.   ... what you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make."

Moore's photos don't copy ... so please check out http://www.jaimemoorephotography.com/2013/05/09/not-just-a-girl/ to see the wonderful photos.

Thanks Jamie Moore and thank you Emma, for ending my day more positively. 

Best regards,

Why's Woman

Gardens and bees

Hello,

I hope this note finds you well.

Over the last few weeks I've been doing a lot of gardening, at my own place and for other people.  I'm continually amazed at how every bare space fills in with something growing and green.  This is what Nature wants to do: grow, expand, cover territory, be green. 

I've still got swaths of dead nettle in some vegetable beds, letting the blooms feed whatever insects happen by.  The lilacs are coming into bloom, and holding up under the drop in temperature we've had.  The pear tree bloomed, was pollinated we hope.  The apple tree is blooming , absolutely covered in bloom which has not dropped in the overnight hover-on-zero C temperature.  The crabapple tree is blooming with a much darker pink blossom. 

Suddenly we cannot see across the yard and across the street beyond any more.

Nature wants to create beauty, life.

And this evening's news on London's CTV channel just carried an item about a beekeeper living near Melbourne whose bees started to die within hours of the farm next door spraying its corn with a neonicotinoid pesticide. 

I wonder how long it'll take for the test results to come back, and if the news will carry a confirmation that that pesticide is what killed the bees.

The European Union has just put a moratorium on some of the neonicotinoids.(altho' I've got a feeling it won't take effect immediately, so there'll be a use season ... need to check)

What will it take here in Canada?

Who are the people who develop the chemicals and the business systems that are bent on destruction of a world which only wants to grow and be green?

Over the last few weeks of not posting I've been reading a lot of different things, thinking about a lot of topics ... a lot of sad, depressing news on many fronts. And I've not had the energy to post or write or think. 

Gardening is good to maintain a hold on the green and growing goodness that's out there ... helps me bide my time until the energy (the anger? the determination?) comes back.

... and did I say how much I love compost?  Layers of green and brown, a bit of water, and billions and billions of micro-critters transform vegetation in such a way that billions of other micro-critters living at the interface of soil and roots can transfer life to plants.

It is all flow, one living organism.

We're such a small part of it, with too much power to harm.

I'd better just keep gardening.

Best regards.

Why's Woman

Gardening is calmer than politics or activism

Hello everyone,

I hope you are fine and dandy.  

I've been watching garlic growing up through the straw-covered vegetable beds, and there's a lot of dead nettle blooming to feed the early pollinating insects.  It will go to compost or be dug in later when I need the space.  I hope your own gardens and lives are interesting too!

Gardening is a sensible, easy, calming thing to do.  All I have to do is watch things happen, and make a few choices about what to put where and when.  To a great extent, the plants give me hints.  The conversations with the plants are easy.

Political stuff ... that's hard.  

When I'm involved in an organization or activist undertaking, I usually try to use teacher training basics: acknowledge the good points everyone has made and go on from there. 

That's easy to do with individuals and small groups. These days, however, I am not satisfied with any of the three levels of government, and find it hard to start with good points anywhere.

I've got several thoughts that seem at odds, but have to have a way to be reconciled.

1.  As small groups in a community get together for change, we need to more purposefully communicate with and learn the procedures of the "higher ups." We need to learn the most effective advertising manipulation techniques, and all the rules of corporate war. (yes, functionally, this is a "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" strategy)

2.  We small groups need to be kinder to each other, acknowledge our peopleness, have some fun, plan for the victory (as Elizabeth May says in How to Save the World in Your Spare Time).  We'll also have to find ways to acknowledge the peopleness of and to be kind to the political electees.

3. People I talk to in community, environment and special interest groups are all energy-sapped from having to fight the "higher ups" on policy and for funds ...  we aren't taking the time to do the small kindnesses. 

4. I'm leaning - practically parallel to the floor! - toward saying that everything needs to come from people and small organizations first ... do-able project by do-able project ... then challenge the higher ups (government levels) to participate in what's right.

The question is: how to step completely aside from the systems that put all the barriers on progress, while keeping an eye on them to know how they're plotting to stop what you do outside the system?

It's even difficult to phrase.  

I think I'll go and weed grass out of the front gardens for a while.

Very best regards!

Why's Woman

Some thoughts on genetically modified alfalfa, and beyond

Hello everyone,

A week or so ago I took part in one of the 38 cross-Canada protests against the introduction of Genetically Modified Alfalfa into Canada.  I don't usually go out to rallies because I am crowd-phobic.  This crowd of about 90 people was friendly, didn't have a lot of loud chanting (or boring speeches), and didn't put me into a panic attack. I had a lot of good conversations.  Genetic modification of crops is a topic I've been reading on for over twelve ears ... the general "what it's all about" and implications for Canadian and international agriculture, and - most importantly - for the people who farm. The notes below are just some thoughts ... and you'll notice I've not gotten into health issues. Not because I don't have concerns or because I think the GMO'd products are safe!  It's just that that side of things is too big for me.  For me, just from the concerns to food and land sovereignty, concerns about corporatization of food and agriculture, and patenting of life .... well, I think all the agri-chemical companies are evil.  Yes, I've said it: evil.  And this will get trolls making comments, for sure.  Oh well.  Here's the text I actually printed out and wore as a sign.  Wow, a rally and a big sign.  Not my usual behaviour.

Best regards,

Why's Woman

Some thoughts on genetically modified alfalfa, and beyond

Roundup Ready alfalfa seed is seed that has been altered so that, when glyphosate herbicide is sprayed on a field to kill weeds, growing alfalfa plants won't die from the glyphosate.  It is a Monsanto product; Monsanto is one of the 5 largest agri-chemical companies, worldwide.

Destruction of organics markets / job loss:  Genetically modified alfalfa will spread the modification to (will contaminate) non-genetically modified crops, either through pollen that drifts onto receptive alfalfa plants in other fields or when GM seeds get into another field and grow out. There's potential for Canadian domestic and (especially) export alfalfa markets to disappear. Farmers - organic farmers in particular - will lose money; workers will lose jobs.  This has already happened with canola and with flax.

That's just the visible tip of the deeply poisoned cyst that is genetic modification of seeds.

Patents and costs: All GM seeds are patented and cost more than non-GM seeds. Farmers have to sign agreements to buy the seeds. These say basically that the farmers will not save seeds from the resulting crop, and they won't have GM crops on their property unless they've paid for them. There are penalty clauses. Agri-chemical actually take plants from farmers' fields to test them for the GM trait, and sue the farmers if the GM trait has crossed into a next crop.  Keep in mind that  pollen and seed contamination happens between GM and non-GM crops.  The agri-chemical companies accept "settlement" money, or waste a farmer's time and money in court. 

Financially costly herbicide use cycle established: To grow to optimal yield these GM seeds have to be planted and grown on a schedule of herbicide use that kills basically everything in a field but the GM plant.  So farmers have to pay for herbicides as well as seeds.  The herbicides are made by the same companies that own the GM seeds. These companies make far more of their money from chemical sales than from seed sales.

Glyphosate responsible for herbicide resistant weeds:  Over the last 10/15/20 years, weeds resistant to glyphosate have been surviving and maturing to set seed. Their offspring have grown out more resistant weed plants - dubbed "superweeds" by media and science. Now, glyphosate as a general herbicide is less effective on one application (kills fewer weeds) and more applications are needed or combination herbicides are needed. (This is analogous to overuse of antibiotic drugs and resistant forms of diseases becoming the norm: stronger drugs needed).

Glyphosate kills soil life: Glyphosate herbicide damages soil micro-organisms. Right down at the plant root / soil interface (the rhizosphere) the glyphosate is changing all sorts of chemical/physiological happenings.  Damaged soil doesn't "get better" if you just leave it fallow the next year; glyphosate is persistent in the soil.  Glyphosate also kills earthworms, those amazing critters that aerate the soil and digest organic material so nutrient is available for plants.

Farmers' skills are ignored.  Farmers traditionally learn both the practical and science of growing our food. They know how to care for their land, develop seed suited to their area and that grows out well. It should remain their RIGHT to save the best seed from these best plants that they breed.

IS CANADA FOOD SECURE?  IS CANADA FOOD SOVEREIGN?

Is Canada food secure if it cannot feed itself without poisons embedded in its seeds?

Is Canada food sovereign if giant chemical companies own its seeds?

                         

written by an uncompromising organic home gardener, London, Ont.  April 9, 2013

Frugality, quality, artistry - in books and everything else

Good morning everyone,

I hope you are well.  We've had a lot of rain! Things are greening up. I hope your garden is doing well too.

I've just finished reading an Agatha Christie mystery titled The Seven Dials Mystery.

I'm a great fan of Agatha Christie. She understood people, there's a lot of humour and social insight in her characters, and as for plots, well, there are a lot of story lines that she wrote first. The Seven Dials Mystery  is a whacking good story!

It is the actual, physical copy of the book that I want to comment on here, however.

The edition I have is Penguin's 1948 edition of her 1929 work.  The paper looks like newsprint.  The pages are thin; when I turn them and two stick together I can see the print from the next page ghosting through. The page cuts are imperfect: the text is printed so close to the outside margins of the page that sometimes a cut has sliced through the outermost letters. The print on the page is not exactly square to the cut pages; I'll attribute that to the cutting, not the typesetter. 

The paper is low quality, probably because in 1949 England was still under "restrictions" as to how materials were used, and how much was used.  This was a carry over from World War II; restrictions on goods continued into 1953 or 1954.

My 1949 Seven Dials Mystery may have continued intact because the book hasn't had hard use.  Beyond that, its pages are intact because the pages were sewn in, not glued.  There was a quality production method used.  I'll choose to think that it was because the publisher knew its readers wanted a product that would last. 

Further - and to my complete delight - this book must be part of a special edition series.  The cover is a marbled green and black paper, with coordinating green binding tape.  The title and author's name are in embossed gold print - all capitals - on the spine.  I don't know if the series was just Agatha Christie's stories, or if it was a series of Penguin favorites. 

I do know why I'm writing about this pocket book.

It's because it's an example of using resources available as frugally as possible, and including artistry in the work.  It's making something to last, putting in quality.  Penguin books have a long history of bringing a wide range of topics to readers at a price they could afford.  

I think that, now and even more in future, we are going to have to combine frugality, quality, and artistry in products ... because we won't be having as many of them, as easily and ubiquitously available and we will need to craft our opportunities for delight.

There's my little speech for the day.  And if you haven't read any Agatha Christie mysteries, put her on your reading list. The Mysterious Affair at Styles was her first, of 85!

Best regards!

Why's Woman