The state of affairs post-COP-21
could be considered bleak if it weren’t so dire. The occupants of Earth are
faced with a set of circumstances within which there are more whens than ifs,
and the real question is which one will trigger cascading disaster first. Even
some of what would generally be called main-stream climate change reporting (as
opposed to Guy McPherson type end of times) are finally openly embracing the
concept that 1) we have a profoundly industrial base for our developed world
civilization, 2) that profoundly industrial base is entirely and utterly
dependent upon fossil hydro-carbon chemistry and energy, and 3) the end of what
has been treated as an unending supply of those hydrocarbons is in sight, which
will mean 4) the end of our industrial civilization as we know it.
Nothing about the outcome of COP-21
in any way presents a different scenario. If anything, it can be said that for
the first time in 21 years of holding these meetings, the majority of the
attendees agreed that global warming is the root problem in climate change, and
that global warming is largely due to anthropocentric activity. The good news
ends there. By way of offering a meaningless fig leaf to developing nations, it
was agreed that the gathered body would focus on limiting temperature rise to
1.5 degrees C – which is as ludicrous as it is commendable – primarily because
of the 40 year lag in GHG effect which means that what we are experiencing now
is the cumulative effect of what has not been done to change the course of
human activity over the last 40 years.
If we stopped emitting tomorrow, we
would have 40 more years of aggregated effect to deal with, not to mention the
nominal loss of the minor reflective effect that comes from particulate in the
air cause by some sources of GHG emissions. Given what we are now experiencing
and the realistic observation that the situation has picked up both speed and
scope in recent years and months, it is quite realistic to think that we have at least another 5 degrees C already
committed by actions that are “in the can” so to speak, and can’t be undone by
any current means. This is taking into account what we can realistically
project of aggregate effects from what
we know full well has been done by humanity over the last 40 years. Given that
we are neither positioned to accomplish, nor seemingly desirous of, such a
cessation, it is likely that the aggregating effect will continue to be the
name of the game for some time to come. Further, there is no accounting for
release of the immense stores of methane in the Arctic. Welcome to the
Anthropocene!
There are those who are quick to
say that the failure of industrial civilization will result in the extinction
of homo sapiens. I disagree. While there are good reasons to suspect that the
temperature rise previously mentioned will imperil the large majority of
processes and methods that the majority of homo sapiens use to maintain a
comfortable life style today, that does not effectively argue that humanity is
unable to survive without those “creature comforts.” I would hasten to remind
the reader that Australian aborigines and Kalahari bushmen have lived and
thrived on some of the hottest, driest places on Earth, through periods that
has encompassed a number of major climate changes that quite likely equal or
exceed conditions predicted for this situation, with almost superhuman
tenacity, for well over 40,000 years.
The fact that you are not a member of one of those groups does present
your survival odds poorly, but is not an instant death sentence.
On the larger scale, across the
spread of humanity as we now know it, it could be reasonably said that the
people least prepared for the rough ride ahead are the citizens of the so called
“developed world”. Why? Because, for the most part, they have become fat, dumb,
and dubiously happy occupants of a social structure and a civilization that
does not stress or value personal resilience or self-reliance, but does
everything that it can to eradicate those two in the name of increased market
dependence, the very foundational essence of market economies that drive our
over-industrialized state. To the extent that developing countries have “bought
into” the same mythology of egregious materialism and excess resource
extraction that has powered the developed world to it’s detriment, they too,
will suffer.
Which humans can best be said to be
effectively prepared, by nature of having retained or maintained their
intrinsic functions of regional knowledge, resilience, and self-reliance? As a
broad generality, indigenous peoples fit this description. Indigenous people
can be described as having a local & regional understanding of the ways of
the natural world, with a perspective of themselves as fitting into that world,
rather than being apart or different from it, and intrinsically knowing how to
live effectively and sustainably within that environment. This type of
knowledge, passed on as a function of culture (the accumulated knowledge and
behaviors over time, of any group of humans, who deliberately pass on the
knowledge, skills, and behaviors as a function of their social structure)
creates a much more balanced and functional sense of values and ethics, related to
self, place, and community, that is resilient, resourceful, and sustainable over
time. It happens that Australian aborigines and Kalahari bushmen are among the
most effective of those who have retained and practice these values and
traditions into the modern day.
So… the question that I find myself
trying to answer is “How can I contribute to improving the survival and
resilience odds for my fellow citizens of the developed world?” This objective has some serious problems, given
that there are simply too many of people in the first place, as a result of
egregious over-population, to support expanding market economies that are
unsustainable on a finite planet. There
are huge numbers who are simply sleep-walking into the unfolding environmental
disaster and extinction event, unable to comprehend or accept that their way of
life is so profoundly unsustainable that it, and they (as currently disposed)
cannot survive another century. There will be a thinning of the proverbial
herd. That said, there are opportunities to spread a more coherent and understandable
message of the imperative; provide mechanisms for re-learning,
re-indigenization, and re-engagement with the natural world; development of
resilience and preparedness strategies and skill sets; and develop or refine
appropriate technologies with an eye toward benefiting all impacted
constituencies, improving life sustaining functions, and perhaps most
important, doing no harm.
If we are to re-discover or
re-create the critical body of knowledge that is associated with being
“indigenous” or with re-indigenization, we must regenerate a sense of both environmental
culture and environmental ethic, as well as the individual skills and behaviors that
sustain the two. We are perilously close to having lost these understandings
and skills across a broad sweep of our society, because of a rapid move into
artificially sustained life-styles that are dependent upon fossil fuels and
industrial production. The result is that we have come very close to an
indigenous cultural sustainability threshold, signified by the steady loss of
land ethic and indigenous culture (as previously defined) in the common
discourse, such that, if a community drops below a certain level, there is
effectively no indigenous understanding in the common discourse at all.
In the current situation, that threshold
has been crossed in many areas, is just short of it (resulting in scattered
pockets of indigeneity remaining intact) in others, and is relatively whole,
albeit not intact, in others. This means that the opportunity exists to
recreate and render whole the base of knowledge, skills, and behaviors required
for indigenous continuity in many land and waterscapes, while extending that
wisdom to others with the additional due diligence required of a nominally
different land or waterscape.
With that in mind, I have
identified a piece of land west of Athens, Ohio that presents an excellent
opportunity to establish an Academy of Applied Sustainability & Neo-Indigenous
Studies. Here the functional realities of operational indigeneity, practical
agro-ecology, principles of sustainability, emergency preparedness and disaster
recovery, as well as personal and group resilience can be explored, refined,
taught, and expanded, enhanced by effective identification and engagement of
appropriate technologies. This enterprise
will function as a Center of Excellence where best practices for various
processes and techniques of sustainability, resilience, and preparedness are
identified and taught, where ongoing research into improved ways and means for
the above are conducted, and where ultimately an intentional community will
take shape to carry these principles and learnings forward as a new paradigm
for human life in natural community, with an associated cultural progression.
Much of the functional
knowledge required to proceed into the future with a confident degree of
personal resilience and self-reliance, based on essential principles of global
sustainability as we now understand them, exists in the present or is emergent. There is also reason
to believe that a good bit of highly valuable and sustainable wisdom exists in
many of the old ways and methods for doing things that slightly predate the
availability of externally powered machines to do the work. Any number of
skills and disciplines still incorporate elements of this learning, and various
“placer deposits” of wisdom exist in various compilations such as the Foxfire
book series, published by the young people of Rabun Gap, Georgia, as well as
the broad reach of publications and studies conducted relative to previous
indigenous cultures, as well as the living models presented by Amish,
Mennonite, and Hutterite communities of today. In short there is an abundance
of material already available, although generally not in a “comprehensively
aggregated, organized, and coordinated for instruction and learning” practicum.
Our function would be to deliberately be an aggregation point for this
knowledge to collect, organize, operationalize, and, ultimately, convey it to
others, with the ultimate goal of an onsite intentional community to function
as an exemplar of the teachings in practice.
I would like to see the activities
as closely integrated into current conventional community life as possible as
well as providing a mechanism for creation or development of new communities of
practice based on the aggregate body of principles and best practices, with the
ultimate goal being to achieve neo-indigeneity for any person entering or
engaged with the program, and resilience, preparedness, and sustainability for
related communities. I would be focused on providing on site learning
opportunities of varying lengths, as well as taking the knowledge to other
appropriate locations (high schools, community centers, community colleges,
Ohio University, etc.), facilitating “community conversations” about our times
and our potential issues and responses, providing a working library of related
materials, and provide opportunities for the development and growth of community
(physical and virtual) around this working body of knowledge.
Thanks for being there and being you... and reading this blog!
The Smokemaster
