Re: Eco-Village & a Post-Covid Vision.

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Mike Nickerson

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May 10, 2020, 11:43:18 AM5/10/20
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Congratulations, it always makes sense and you look beautiful too !...  :)

On Sun, May 10, 2020 at 7:47 AM Mike Nickerson <Sust...@web.ca> wrote:
Greetings to Friends of LEV (Lanark Eco-Village):

Many visions are circulating of different worlds that might emerge when the Cv-19 distraction has played out.  I will share ours, including a meme the can help clarify direction, after this brief up-date on LEV activities.

A recent photo-essay is posted at:

Along with an aerial view of the garden, it shows the ice melting from the pond and the tapping of maple trees & a couple of birch.  You will see some of what was involved, as well as meet Jakob, our wonderful WorkAway helper and Krys, Ashlynn and their 9 month old son, Phoenix, all of whom have quarantined into our Covid-bubble to participate in this unfolding year.

A New World Is Possible!

While sheltering in place, many of us have realized that much of what we used to consume isn’t actually necessary.  This is a clue to what can be.

Historians say that societies change after disruptions such as Covid-19.  Those who have long been benefiting from how the world was want to return to that set up, possibly with even more advantage than before.  Others see this lull as an opportunity to recreate the human project in a form that is equitable and compatible with the Earth’s limitations.

Amongst the post fossil fuel visions, only some touch on the the element of cultural change.  Most think that the system we have had can continue, using renewable rather than fossil energy. 

Reviving our energy intensive, wasteful (not to mention growth based) economic style with green technology won’t save civilization.  It can only slow the decline while using up precious resources and time that could go toward a true maturation.  (In our individual lives, maturation marks the end of growth and the assumption of responsibility.)

All life on Earth is composed from flows of nutrient elements.  We humans were always integrated with such flows, until we tapped into energy stored from hundreds of millions of years of surplus sunshine.  With huge amounts of energy to throw around, we started to extract phosphorus and potassium from rock deposits and to process nitrogen out of natural gas.  They are the same nutrient elements that have always composed life, but we have been consuming them in quantities and at a speed that have no equivalent in Earth's history.

Humankind has become bloated and wasteful.  

It really takes very little basic nutrient elements to build and maintain healthy bodies.  The volume necessary to support communities can be cycled endlessly through the atmosphere and local soils.

Full cycle nutrient management is a key message at LEV.  If you haven’t seen or can’t repeat the basic stories, two videos produced and posted by Elisha Rubacha for the Nourish Project in Peterborough provide the essence.

Based on such principles, we can establish Domestic Ecosystems for families, communities and even citys.

By securing healthy food for the population, and applying what we know about heating and cooling using sunlight, insulation, thermal mass, tree cover, convection and other natural process we can live comfortable, healthy lives without fossil energy.  

During humanity's first hundred thousand years, our satisfaction came from living.  Now we can do the same while enjoying nutritional security and comfortable housing.  

Learning, love and laughter, appreciation, sport, music, dance, helping and other activities that emerge from the life within ourselves can be so fulfilling that we don't have time to consume and waste at a dangerous level.

Education is knowledge and good will - both totally renewable.  Even health-care, at the preventative level, is mostly knowledge and good will.

As individuals, when we matured, our physical growth mostly stopped and was replaced by growing our knowledge, skills, friendships and connections, interests and hobbies to enrich our lives.

It isn’t as sexy as car chases and intercontinental travel, (tho sex is life-based) but gathering satisfaction from our lives offers an opportunity for the grandchildren’s grandchildren to lead healthy secure lives.

This shift, from material growth to life-based growth is key to long-term wellbeing.

In four syllables:

More Fun, Less Stuff 

Use these four syllables when talking about the world we can create.  

If you are a Facebook user, join the More Fun, Less Stuff Facebook group.  The intent is to project those four syllables into the noosphere (collective wisdom) to nudge whoever it informs toward more living and less material entanglement.

Please join and spread the meme around.  We may yet redeem the human project as we emerge from the Covid crisis.

——

Such is the dream we aim for at LEV.  To anyone aware of ecological processes it has been clear for many years that humankind has to stop expanding.  Rather than scrambling to grow, grow, grow, it is time to take a deep breath, find what is enjoyable in our lives and aim to renew our balance with the planet we depend on.

Glad to have you aboard.

Yours, Mike N. & Claire

============================

From song by Remy Rodden:

Respect all life,

Take only what you need,

And for the Planet's sake, use all that you take.

=============================


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