Earth Day 50th | We Love The Earth | Confronting Anthropocentrism | Look for the Good

Here is to looking forward! Change our hearts from our anthropomorphic view of only seeing the earth and all of its different creatures as resources and objects to use, to loving all earthlings. and recognizing our interdependency.

We Love The Earth

We Love The Earth animated video By Lil Dicky – Earth

The

50th Anniversary of Earth Day

was officially April 22, 2020. I watched the ongoing broadcasts and listened to many very articulate youth activists who fully impressed me. There were numerous featured scientists, artists and musicians and indigenous people bringing forth informative and inspiring messages as well. Thank you all so much for sharing and being part of the voice of the new evolving story.

What prompted me to write this blog in the first place, was synchronistically coming upon this powerful 20 minute video presentation by Eileen Crist, in her ‘Confronting Anthropocentrism’. Powerful information as a mirror for humanity to look into the mirror, and move forward.

Confronting Anthropocentrism presentation by Eileen Crist

Even Pope Francis speaks to power. The pontiff said that the (Wuhan virus) Coronavirus outbreak offers an opportunity to slow down the rate of production and consumption and to learn to understand and contemplate the natural world.

“We did not respond to the partial catastrophes. Who now speaks of the fires in Australia, or remembers that 18 months ago a boat could cross the North Pole because the glaciers had all melted? Who speaks now of the floods?” the Pope said.

Pope Francis says Wuhan Virus Nature’s Response to Climate Crisis

Imagining a Post-Coronavirus World: Ending Ravenous Capitalism and Our Consumer-Driven Promiscuity

Imagining a Post-Coronavirus World: Ending Ravenous Capitalism and Our Consumer-Driven Promiscuity, Andy Worthington

The Solutions to the Climate Crisis No One is Talking About with Robert Reich

Storyteller and film maker Julio Vincent Gambuto wrote an excellent article talking about moving forward. “Prepare for the Ultimate Gas Lighting”

“What happened is inexplicably incredible. It’s the greatest gift ever unwrapped. Not the deaths, not the virus, but The Great Pause”

And with this, I only will add two wonderful music videos by artists who contributed their work for Earth Day.

This astoundingly positive message by Jason Mraz – Look For The Good

Global Obliteration of Life – Endless Development $ Seductive Automobile Marketing

I was instigated to write this right away, in response to a friend’s post of his present experience in Antarctica, talking about ice sheets breaking off while the rest of the world is concerned with debates or Coronavirus. Greg Bernie Blaug posted this caption with his pictures at McMurdo Sound in Antarctica March 6, 2020.

Amidst all of the preoccupations today, there’s still this looming event that eclipses them all.

I feel that people are so incredibly disconnected from how their actions affect the natural world. Besides global warming, there’s also perpetual indulgence in continued building and expansion.

Ancient trees

I do not know how to derail the fixation that people have on having their own personal automobile.

I’ve had friends ‘unfriend’ me on Facebook after talking about the issue; that if they’re not part of the solution, they are part of the problem.

Like displaying fashion in clothes or status in property, automobile/truck ownership is something fully embedded in peoples’ psyches.

The transportation sector is the largest contributor to global warming (the word climate change neatly replacing the former term, bc it seems less human-induced and more of a natural occurrence. Certainly individuals seem to be less obnoxious than a refinery or oil spill from pipelines, but collectively pps decision to use and own cars that are using petroleum and willfully continuing despite the fucking statistical facts, implies that there is not enough education and pressure from the society and leaders, to make these facts clear.

The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama says “we have an urgent responsibility” to protect the planet and its inhabitants.

Ironically, it’s difficult to capture an image on a website without being bombarded with ads that are (often with respect to what I read) pointedly revealing information paradoxical to the content of the message.

As members of Climate Action Rhode Island canvassed outside of a new Chase Bank branch, to inform people that Chase is the largest supporter and investor in fossil fuels, a police officer on duty stated that he had lived in Europe earlier in his life working in the shoe industry. In Europe he witnessed much more conscientiousness with regards to automobile use and recycling. He said that here “It’s all about money”. I asked him if his colleagues saw things in the same way? He shook his head, no, no, not even close.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/global-warming-causes/

Mentioning to my friend, just like back in the days when we’d participate in the San Francisco critical mass collective bike ride, I’m still riding a bicycle. Because of this, I notice very clearly through the fumes and higher temperatures emitted by the majority of vehicles, that there are in fact an extraordinary amount of people in thIs capital city of Providence, Rhode Island, who let their car engines idle, oblivious to the present and future repercussions. I never witnessed this in any European city. I continue to be miffed by their errant mufflers. Here in this New England city, people of every race, ethnicity, socio-economic background, leave their automobiles and trucks running, engine on; whether they are pulling over to check their phone, stopping and getting out of their vehicle to talk to someone, or going to do an errand. THEY LEAVE THE ENGINES IDLING, EVEN WHEN THEY ARE NOT NEAR THE CAR; for minutes, verging on half an hour. There’s also a population of motorcycle riders (big Portuguese community from islands off Portugal) who get off on revving their motors and spewing out black clouds of smoke and laying rubber to leave thick black streaks on the pavement. I find it unfathomable. I look at this scenario as if I’ve landed on Earth in the future, and see this extraordinary not just dependence, but flagrant fixation on vehicles. But not just to show how cool one is, but to demonstrate how loud and obnoxious they can conceivably be.

I’m okay with seeing people do ‘wheely’s’ and demonstrating skill, but spinning black tar and spewing it into the air is filth, and they tend to do it down by the water, where wild birds live.

I went bicycling yesterday to find the local chapter of the Sierra Club after reading about their program introducing experiences for communities of color who are less exposed to green space, to introduce them to wonder and appreciation of the natural world, so that they will be more likely to care and want to be guardians for the planet. https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2019-3-may-june/feature/outdoors-for-all-nature-is-a-human-right The

Sierra club ‘Outdoors for All’

Sierra club was at neither address that they claimed on their website. The local director of a River council, when i mentioned idling cars, reflected on the fact that she does this too, ‘her nice warm car’ she said.

As this article points out, “will require resisting common marketing tactics.” I mean, whether you’re a low rider, motorcycle rider living paycheck-to-paycheck or a wealthy Swiss banker with a 500,000 Euro automobile, the marketing print and air waves for the last dozens of years target the human population; telling you that your worth, perceived success and luck with romance are driven by what kind of machine you drive.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/09/letters-from-the-march-9-2020-issue

“A longer-term solution may require the slowing, and the eventual reversal, of population growth, combined with a decrease in average individual consumption in richer countries. The latter change will require resisting common marketing tactics...After forty years as an ecologist, I believe that the transition to a less materialistic world would be a cakewalk compared with living on a planet with too little photosynthesis.”

Our Living Planet Needs Us All to Be Part of the Solution | App that compels and empowers people globally to contribute to a worldwide watchdog network

7 News Australia World Wildlife Fund estimates 1.25B animals have perished in Australia fires due to human destructive practices leading to ecocide and global warming.

Our Living Planet Needs Us to Say No EVERYWHERE to ANY War, Oil Drilling Activity, Fracking, new Highway production, Clearing of Forests for crops, coal or any energy other than sustainable, no to mining (emphasizing recycling) no to Big Ag or Big Meat production, No to plastic production, No to the Capitalism machine of endless production with the sole aim to increase the GDP, with no consideration for the mass extinction and spoiling and destruction of the natural systems on our planet. It is time to take a stance, and through your actions, be part of the solution.

Note an App idea:

Any city, state or federal government that allows, gives the go ahead, to any new production that isn’t aimed towards ecological sustainability, should be targeted and stopped by an international community of watchdogs. In other words, someone should create an app so that anyone, anywhere in the world can do a thumbs up for who is funding or subsidizing beneficial ecological practices according to what the site (community of scientists and specialists and elders) agree upon as ‘best practices’
And a thumbs down, listing of any projects that are obviously continuing the status quo, contributing to the suffocation or destruction of any natural system that doesn’t take into consideration the entirety of the natural world. Any information that anyone knows – local or covering a broader region – can be posted, investigated and tracked on this global site. All people can actively participate. The app needs to be something that makes people proud and empowered, and also compels them to be involved.

‘Nature Now’ No Nature = No Future | Seven Worlds One Planet | Half-Earth Project

There is a natural solution to the climate breakdown: protecting forests. Climate activist Greta Thunberg and writer/climate activist George Monbiot explain in the short video Nature Now.

Greta Thunberg explaining that Greta What you do Counts

Nature Now video feat. George Monbiot Nature solution a tree

 

Greta, Nature Now, hash tag nature now, What you do Counts

we need to KEEP IT IN THE GROUND

Sir David Attenborough ‘Seven Worlds, One Planet‘ begins on BBC One at 18:15 GMT on Sunday 27 October.

Attenborough explains > What you can do to help the planet.

“The best motto DON’T WASTE  – Do not waste things.

Don’t waste electricity, paper, food. Live the way you want to live but just don’t waste. Look after the natural world and the animals in it and the plants in it too, this is their planet as well as ours.”

golden haired blue-faced snub-nosed monkeys bbc

Half-Earth Project, narrated by Walter Jetz Esri UC 2019 explains that we can all participate and contribute to the half-earth project by sampling and map making, tracking biodiversity. Yale University students have been meeting with scientists to help track the areas of land and water that are more saturated with biodiversity, and thus prime territory to save in order to guard more species.

Half-Earth Project Solution for a Healthy Planet

Half-Earth Project Species Diversity is foundation for Healthy Planet

Half-Earth Project Designated a Half-Earth Day

 

Half-Earth Project E.O. Wilson Jane Goodall Jack Dangermond Keynot Conversation

 

Living with Less is Living with More: Co-creating a New Story – Our Relationships

I was going to tack this video within the post c-change conversations with respect to the spiritual relationship we need to co-create, with ourselves, between one another and with the water, the sky, soil, a spider, a bird or rhinoceros. Yet his words and viewpoint needs to stand on its own.

Living with Less is LIving with More Co-Creating a New Story A New Relationship with Earth and her Creatures

 

Living with Less is Living with More: Co-Creating a New Story A New Relationship with Earth and her Creatures
Our hearts and intuition contain the answer to co-creating this new story. A story in which we are not clumsily or hurriedly passing through, busying ourselves and not-wasting-any-time in our stress-filled harried lives.

“Can you imagine a more beautiful world your hearts knows is possible?

We have inherited a culture without any critical inquiry.”

 

Leo Murray talks of the need to decouple the relationship between standards of living and quality of life.

Authors, visionaries and thought leaders who are inspiration to less is more: Charles Eisenstein, Daniel Pinchbeck, Niki Harré, Yuval Noah Harari, David Holmgren, Masanobu Fukuoka, Bill Mollison.

 

authors visionaries and thought leaders inspiration less is more

Here is information some of these visionaries have communicated.

Masanobu Fukuoka states that man does best by doing as little as possible. He unlearned culture and science and realizes that nature does everything.

Masanobu Fukuoka Talks About the One Straw Revolution

Charles Eisenstein’s speech New Zealand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Niki Harré talks about her book “Psychology for a Better World”

Niki Harré talk about her book “Psychology for a Better World”

 

 

 

Niki Harré talks in this video about the Psychology and the Infinite Game In it she describes the distinction between the Finite and Infinite Games.

 

The purpose of the infinite game is to continue the game.

The purpose of the finite game is to win.

The infinite game invites others in and is full of creativity, the rules continually change and all are flexible in their interactions.

The finite game includes only select people, it is all about replication and does not bend. In life, the finite game winnings are such as getting a trophy, owning property, getting a degree, a promotion, publishing an article, get funded for a program.

She talks of the amazing power of symbol and metaphor. And that in order to keep the infinite game in play, we need to trust people and promote creativity. It’s up to all of us to bring this awareness into our workplace, schools and communities.

Yuval Harari Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind – 5 year anniversary

A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari

 

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

carol_keiter_greg_altman copy

 

¿ It takes more power to create than to destroy – and is empowering and joyful in the process ?

The several week old – new pedestrian bridge has been vandalized – not even a month old. Not by sledgehammer or graffiti, but someone in the middle of the night cut the cables that illuminate the bright white lights on the sides and blue glowing islands. A security guard told me when I asked if this was an ‘alternative ambient lighting’? No, someone cut the cable, which will be repaired.

pedestrian bridge Providence, Rhode Island

Yesterday I was bicycling on a bike path to buy groceries and a man was picking up a broken bench of a picnic table. I often pause there because it’s close to a store and there’s a little grove of trees and a stream. I once had a squirrel encounter in which we each popped our heads to one and then the other side of the tree (the squirrel had to move several strides, i just leaned) but it was perfect, comical timing, 5, 6 times in a row, that I’d lean to one side then the other, and the squirrel was doing the same thing – on the same side! It was hilarious. I will never forget it. And remember each time I pass these trees. I also met a 9 yearish old boy who found a baby bird in the spring, and I talked with him a bit and gave him my knit hat (I wasn’t very keen on the hat anyway) to carry the bird and said he could feed it with an eye dropper….So we had this little exchange and yeah, I have pleasant experiences in various places that have been adorned to make them pleasant for others, where people pass one another and interact.

The man picking up the board broken in half said, “someone deliberately broke it, so no one else could sit there to enjo”. I shared the – sort of the shaking of the head words – of being sorry about it, as we exchanged our sympathies and smiles. I felt that ephemeral connection in feeling with that stranger at that moment.

pedestrian bridge Providence, Rhode Island

I don’t know what rage or quest for power causes someone to destroy? It brings a lot more joy to oneself – and others – to create, and is ultimately much more powerful. It takes more time and involvement to create, and in the little places where you get stuck but then get through it, bring more satisfaction.

It takes only a few moments to destroy something, and more energy to make excuses in one’s mind of why, with perhaps some lingering guilt, if that is even conceivable for some.

Educational eBook “A Seahorse Tale – A Spin on the Matter of Motion”

“A Seahorse Tale: A Spin on the Matter of Motion”

A Seahorse Tale – A Spin on the Matter of Motion, page 59 Spin Magnetic Moment, Spiraling motion induces Magnetism

 

2020 Version, TOC, Table of Contents, Carol Keiter, Young Adult educational ebook, A Seahorse Tale, A Spin on the Matter of Motion

 

2020 Version, TOC, Table of Contents, Carol Keiter, Young Adult educational ebook, A Seahorse Tale, A Spin on the Matter of Motion

 

 

https://spinonmatter.wordpress.com/2019/08/12/a-seahorse-tale-a-spin-on-the-matter-of-motion/

 

Waterfunnel painting

A Seahorse Tale – A Spin on the Matter of Motion, water funnel baobab

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the trailer:

http://spinonmatter.carbonmade.com/projects/4800092#1

A Seahorse Tale – A Spin on the Matter of Motion trailer thumbnails

 

Thanks to http://carbonmade.com for making it quite simple to build and display, for free!!

Doing the writing, editing, illustrations, formatting on my own. If you have any suggestions or connections to schools, educational publishers, or donations, please send them my way.

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

carol keiter le blogger liaison

Want to be Blasted into new heights of Awareness? Listen to Arundhati Roy’s ‘Come September’ Speech and then to what Marianne Williamson has to say

Whoops, stalled my writing so far today – regardless of approaching deadline – due to two more mass shootings in the USA (United States of Amnesia). Not to talk about white supremacy or the fact that there are more guns than people in the USA, but to talk about specifically Arundhati Roy’s speech of almost 20 years ago, that brings out the truth of how this govt. is run by very secretive operations and wants nothing more than to continue its policies that spark divisions, in a continued drive towards profit over honest values.

Arundhati Roy full speech 2002 Come September

Funny, it is so apparent as she talks, and yet so cleverly hidden from the public’s awareness. By the way, video game violence merely mimics the mentality of a society whose main objective is to distract the public and continue to play out a military defense regime who uses ‘fear of the enemy’ to continue with policies of putting money into weapons and defense, instead of genuinely putting resources towards enlightening and educating people.

Lannan Foundation US Globalization Nationalism Arundhati Roy Come September

The US regime continues to create the illusion that other human beings threaten our comfortable isolation and energy consumption; that bleeds the rest of the world and drives all creatures’ out of existence, by pretending that nationalism (allegiance to a country) is more important than conscious awareness and truth. As long as we are in economic chains and addicts to consume what is dangled in front of us – with dishonest messages about what will bring happiness (as a profit motive) – we are not free or happy.

Steve Cutts irony of how the profit motive and drive for consumerism uses lies to keep the profit motive a top priority
Happiness animation

Marianne Williamson talks about why this culture has so much physical and mental illness.

Marianne Williamson brief interview by Bill Maher

Please listen to this and share it with others, and talk about it. https://carolkeiter.wordpress.com/2019/08/05/want-to-be-blasted-into-new-heights-of-awareness-listen-to-arundhati-roys-come-september-speech-and-then-to-what-marianne-williamson-has-to-say/

carol_hitch_return_santafe

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

Benjamin Zander’s Quiet Performance & Deafening Messages | Life Lessons & Classical Music

If you have ever loved or lost anyone, you will value Benjamin Zander’s TED talk über musik und leidenschaft / about music and passion. It’s an emotionally charged and humorous talk full of wisdom & life lessons, woven into a lecture and performance about classical music.  The talk is in English with German subtitles.

I just listened to Benjamin Zander’s emotionally charged and profound TED talk a second time in the space of a few weeks, and have tears streaming down my face. The first time I felt it was formidable. I realize now, that it’s one of the most profound lectures and performances, packed with humor and life-lessons, that anyone could deliver in 20 minutes.

Benjamin Zander’s emotionally charged and profound TED talk

It is about much, much more than classical music and perhaps should be something that one could turn into a course for a whole semester. I believe that we all could gain very much, listening to his lessons again and again. Wow! There’s so much to contemplate from the nuggets of wisdom that he weaves into it. It’s quite a challenge actually.

Please share it widely.

UN World Environment Day June 5th | Ethical Footprint | Ethical vs. Unethical Construction

I hadn’t known, had I not gone on the internet, that the United Nations declared a World Environment Day of June 5th. Fabulous that there is a designated day to be aware of the environment.

World Environment Day June 5th

On World Environment Day, and every day, we should all be thinking creatively about how to accommodate wildlife in our own lives. Trees, bushes, waterways, clean air and water, highway animal bridges and tunnels, bee highways with plants attracting pollinators, with a consciousness Promoting Smarter Wildlife Management.

I’d like to point out what I learned, walking around in neighborhoods that I love, because of their fabulous properties of trees and beautiful adornment of living plants, that naturally attract and welcome living animals.

To me, nothing, nothing is more spectacular than the natural world. And the properties with old money on this hill adjacent to where i live demonstrate their wisdom, in adorning and conserving as much nature as possible. You hear birds, see rabbits and other life hopping about.

This property with the yellow circle around it, is a disgrace. They wiped out thickly forested lot, to build a sprawling mansion, with not one tree left behind. I’d spray paint my feelings, except that it won’t bring the trees or life back that the owners destroyed, in order to build their outrageous sprawl, a desolate prison, with no life to regard.

It is an example of unethical behavior.

An ethical consumer looks for products which are both friendly to the environment and for the people who produce them.

The ecological footprint measures human demand on nature, i.e., the quantity of nature it takes to support people or an economy.
“An ‘ethical consumer’ looks for products which, above all, are both friendly to the environment and also the people who produce them. An ethical consumer is therefore aware of the consequences of production, consumption and disposal.”
Let the pictures do the talking. I avoid going down this street because i feel annoyance at the nouveau riche lack of heart and insight and sadness, knowing  that all of these lovely trees were wiped out, affecting so many different creatures. An elderly man whom I chatted with one evening 5 months or so ago, told me when I mentioned this reckless building, that the property had several hundred year old trees on it, in fact, from the looks of googlemaps before it was updated, dozens of trees.

I discovered recently with delight this property within a frisbee throw, catecornered across the street. As one approaches from several angles, all you see is a mini forest.

thickly forested green plot, before picture

 

And what they did to the once forested property. This home could have been a third the size, and maintained a profoundly beautiful plot that their children could play in an that invites wonder and habitation by many species.

unethical_building_trees gone

 

 

This builder, knocked down, gutted, every single tree, every single one of them, to make this sprawling property with a tiny bit of lawn and a lot of asphalt to accommodate their cars. It is revolting. And the property across the street with the green ring, as you approach you only see, feel and hear the silence of a forest with birds. It is breathtakingly beautiful. So that the actual construction is engulfed, ringed by trees, except in the front. And the new building in the yellow, is what the builders created, destroying all life that was there, and making sure none of it will come back. They did not even plant bushes – very necessary for cover and a humane yard – and other plants with the intention to accommodate birds and animals – a Humane Backyard.

ethical_vs_unethical_building

All life that had been there or could walk or fly by, has no place to go, no life, no green, no water source, no tree for life, no butterfly or pollinator by-way, nothing. Just me, me, me and my big property that is hollow of life and nature’s delight.

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

hawk in Pennsylvania that was taking a bird bath