Many of the current natural disasters in the world – wildfires, flooding, drought, dry rivers, and so on – are design problems.
They come from how we have designed our civilization and how we change ecosystems. Climate change is just one aspect of this, although it gets most of the attention.
It’s simple. Healthy ecosystems prevent or reduces the scale of almost all natural disasters. For instance, they are hydrated so they prevent or reduces the scale of wildfires and droughts, and they feed springs, creeks, rivers, and the ground water. Healthy mangroves reduces the impacts of hurricanes and typhoons. Food production that’s diverse, in layers, and uses ground cover is much better able to thrive in droughts, hot weather, and a changing climate.
At Finca Milagros, we are very aware of this and actively work on creating and encouraging a healthier ecosystem. We create terraces which slows down the water and helps it soak into the ground. We improve the soil through compost and mulch which helps water soak into the ground and reduces evaporation. We will slow down the water in the mostly dry creek/river with porous stone dams. We are planting a large number of diverse native and climate-appropriate trees which helps the water soak into the ground. We are planting in layers which creates shade and cools the area through evapotranspiration. In all of these ways, we are creating a more healthy ecosystem, and that – in turn – reduces the risk of wildfires, drought, flooding, and more.
These design solutions can be used at any scale, including at community and regional levels.
A FEW MORE NOTES
As usual, there is a lot more to say about this.
When I say “design problem” I mean that they are often caused by poor design and they have design solutions.
Even earthquakes are a design problem. They are not caused by human activity, but how we design our communities and houses obviously can prevent a disastrous outcome when they first happen. Preventing poverty is a big part of this since it’s typically those with the least resources who are impacted the most.
I don’t know why reporters and experts in the media rarely mention this. They seem to have a fixation on climate change which is important but just a small part of the bigger picture. If I was a reporter, I would include this as much as I can and put it in the foreground whenever possible.
This was originally written in 1997 and published on my first website. I retrieved it from the archived site on the Internet Archive. The original wording, spelling, and punctuation are preserved. The only changes are the merging of the original linked pages into one article and the addition of heading structure for navigation.
It’s interesting to look at these articles now. I remember my enthusiasm at the time, my wish to continue writing about these things, and maybe eventually teach at a college or university. That did not happen, partly because of going against my clear inner guidance that same year (going to Wisconsin and abandoning just about everything important in my life) and partly because of my health.
I also see an interesting dynamic. After the oneness shift, my mental aspect tried to make sense of it. It sought out worldviews that matched the immediate noticing of oneness and all as a seamless whole. That’s mainly what these articles are about – making sense of oneness. Re-educating the mental field so it is on board with what’s noticed in immediacy.
These days, that’s less of an interest. Maybe those years did the trick, at least enough for now.
Welcome
Welcome to this outline of a holistic worldview.
Feel free to read this collection of thoughts and text fragments in a non-linear fashion. Each fragment should to some degree reflect the whole of the worldview they are born from, and at the same time flesh out and give substance to a part of this whole.
Note that this is only one of an endless number of possible and equally valid and useful worldviews – each fitting nicely in with one or more of the multitude of possible world experiences. It does not reflect any “absolute truth”.
Feel free to let it inspire and challenge to own reflection.
Introduction
This Text
This “Outline of a Holistic Worldview” is a collection of texts meant to be for inspiration and challenge. We all need challenges to our habitual ways of experiencing our world – to stay flexible, open to new experiences, and open to new and more appropiate ways of organizing our experiences. This is one contribution in that direction.
These texts are by no means representative for all ecospiritual views, and barely so for a minority of them. If there is anything here that seems to be of value, it can be attributed to the wisdom of the universe being expressed through people I have shamelessly stolen from. It can also be attributed to direct experiences of the Universe – as it has arisen within and without of myself. All that is obscure, loopsided, muddled and not grounded, can be attributed to my own obscurations.
As diversity appears to be of immense value both in ecological and social systems, I do sincerely not wish these views to be adopted by all or even a majority. What I do hope is that it will inspire each one that take time to read some of this to reflection, to modification and formation of own views. Even, or maybe especially, if they are very different from those expressed here.
A Note
Please note that some texts are written from a traditional human perspective, and some from the so far more unusual perspective of the larger whole. Some are written in two versions, giving examples of both perspectives.
This will hopefully give a feel for the difference between the two, and a sense of the value of them both.
The content is often the same, but the perspective, and thus the experience of its meaning, differ.
This Perspective
The perspective outlined above is only one of an endless variety of possible world views, models or maps of existence.
As any other map, it is wrong.
It is based on an incomplete experience of the world, and in addition is an incomplete reflection of this experience. The world is always more and different from our experiences and maps of it.
At best, this perspective can be a guide for how to perceive and act in the world. It can be an aid of preliminary value until new experiences and new situations demands a different map, more appropriate for the new situation.
I asked ChatGPT for an article on global ecological overshoot, and gave it quite a few pointers for what to include. See below.
See also additional texts on how we each participate in the evolution of humanity and Earth, economic systems aligned with ecological realities, a text written in an imagined regenerative civilization 300 years from now, and a letter of gratitude from that time.
Global Ecological Overshoot
A Larger Perspective
We are not visitors on Earth, nor beings standing outside nature. We are one expression of Earth’s own unfolding: a species through which this living planet has developed reflection, symbolic thought, technological power, and the capacity for both destruction and care. Our societies, cultures, economies, and choices are all taking place within the larger seamless system we call Earth.
In that sense, humanity is a kind of experiment within Earth’s long evolution. Through us, this planet is exploring what consciousness, memory, technology, domination, care, and deliberate transformation can become. Each of us participates in that experiment. Each choice, each institution, each community, each act of extraction or regeneration becomes part of the larger pattern. We are local expressions of a deeper living process, and each of us helps shape what happens next.
That perspective does not make the crisis smaller. It makes it more meaningful. The question is not only whether our present systems can continue. They cannot. The deeper question is whether humanity can become a wiser expression of Earth’s unfolding—whether this experiment in civilization can move from overshoot and domination toward a more mature form of participation in life.
Before Agriculture: A Different Orientation
Before agriculture, human beings generally lived in more direct relationship with local ecosystems. These societies were diverse and should not be romanticized, but many seem to have lived with a more immediate awareness of dependence on land, water, animals, plants, and seasonal cycles. Survival depended less on large-scale control of ecosystems and more on skillful participation within them.
In many such cultures, and in many indigenous and traditional cultures that still preserve aspects of this orientation, the world was experienced less as inert matter and more as alive, relational, and meaningful. Humans were not separate from nature, but part of a larger web of life. That older partnership orientation cannot simply be copied today, but some of its qualities remain deeply relevant: reciprocity, restraint, reverence for life, local ecological knowledge, respect for limits, and a felt belonging within a living Earth.
These older and still-living strands of human wisdom can help inspire what a future regenerative civilization might be: a civilization aligned with ecological reality, grounded in reciprocity and restraint, and organized in deeper partnership with life and Earth.
The Civilizational Shift
Agriculture, Surplus, and Durable Power
The agricultural revolution did not make overshoot inevitable. It made many important things possible: settlement, continuity, cities, writing, and long cultural memory. But it also transformed the structure of human life. Surplus could now be stored, counted, taxed, defended, and seized. That made it possible for power to accumulate and remain concentrated over time.
Once surplus could be controlled, durable hierarchies became easier to maintain. Class divisions, territorial control, large states, standing armies, and systems of command could stabilize around the management of land, labor, water, and food. Agriculture did not create domination by itself, but it made large-scale domination far more structurally possible.
From Hierarchy to Domination Culture
Over time, this fed into what can be called domination culture: a way of organizing life around hierarchy, expansion, concentration of power, extraction, and the treatment of land, animals, and often people as resources. Land increasingly became something to control, simplify, own, and exploit. Forests became timber reserves. Rivers became irrigation systems. Animals became units of production. Human labor could be organized at much larger scales.
This was not true everywhere in the same way, and partnership-based traditions persisted in many places. But the broad arc of dominant civilization increasingly moved toward management, accumulation, control, and disembeddedness from the living systems on which it depended.
Separation and the Myth of an Infinite Earth
The Worldview of Separation
Modern industrial civilization radicalized this trajectory. It rests on deep assumptions: that we are fundamentally separate from nature, that the Earth exists primarily for human use, that natural systems are effectively inexhaustible or replaceable, and that growth can continue indefinitely. In practice, our systems behave as if they exist on an infinite Earth.
This worldview has been shaped not only by economics and empire, but also by strands of religion and philosophy that placed the sacred outside the world, imagined humans as fundamentally above or apart from the rest of life, or treated Earth mainly as a stage for human salvation and use. These themes were never the whole of religion, and many spiritual traditions also preserved deep reverence for life and participation in a living cosmos. But where religious imagination reinforced hierarchy, human exceptionalism, and distance from the living world, it helped support the wider logic of domination.
Systems Built on Separation
This worldview is built into nearly everything. The economy treats forests, soils, rivers, minerals, and oceans as inputs. Production systems assume endless extraction and somewhere else to dump the waste. Food systems simplify ecosystems into production zones. Political systems reward short-term gain and systematically discount long-term ecological reality. Fossil fuels then gave this entire arrangement extraordinary power, allowing industrial civilization to push beyond many local limits and turn overshoot into a planetary condition.
What we have built is, in effect, an overshoot civilization: a civilization organized around drawdown rather than regeneration, around expansion rather than balance, and around the illusion that human systems can remain healthy while the living systems around them are degraded.
Overshoot Is the Larger Frame
Climate change is one expression of overshoot, but only one. The larger problem is that civilization is consuming the living foundations of its own existence. Even major progress on emissions would not solve overshoot if humanity continued destroying soils, exhausting freshwater, overfishing oceans, eliminating species, and converting diverse living systems into simplified extraction landscapes.
Overshoot is the wider frame because it reveals the common pattern beneath many crises. The pattern is a civilization organized as though it were exempt from ecological law: entitled to unlimited drawdown, endless expansion, and the degradation of the very living systems that make its existence possible.
Why So Many Seem Unaware
It Is Hard to See
Overshoot is often difficult to perceive directly. Supermarkets may still be full. Water still comes out of the tap. Electricity still flows. The damage often shows up first somewhere else: in a distant forest, fishery, wetland, aquifer, coral reef, or species population. Overshoot is real, but it is often delayed, displaced, and hidden from everyday perception.
It Is Hard to Interpret
Modern systems are remarkably good at concealing ecological drawdown. Global trade allows wealthy societies to import the ecological capacity of distant regions. Fossil fuels temporarily compensate for declining local fertility or scarcity. Debt allows societies to consume now and defer costs into the future. Technology can create the impression that limits have been overcome, when they have often only been postponed, outsourced, or obscured. A society can therefore look prosperous even while undermining its own foundations.
It Is Hard to Think
Modern culture normalizes overshoot. It is shaped by the assumption that more is better: more production, more infrastructure, more extraction, more consumption, more growth. Economic expansion is treated not merely as a tool, but as a civilizational good. At the same time, public discourse tends to fragment reality into separate issues—climate, biodiversity, pollution, water, food, waste—rather than seeing them as interconnected expressions of a larger overshoot dynamic.
Overshoot is also a genuinely difficult systems problem. It involves population, consumption, technology, agriculture, trade, economics, power, and worldview. Many people and institutions are not well equipped to think in that integrated way. It is easier to focus on isolated symptoms than on the larger metabolism of civilization.
It Is Hard to Bear
To take in overshoot fully is to confront the possibility that the basic trajectory of modern civilization is self-undermining. That can evoke fear, grief, guilt, helplessness, denial, or numbness. People often retreat into narrower frames that feel more manageable: carbon alone, recycling alone, technology alone, or individual consumer choices alone.
It Is Hard to Act On
A full recognition of overshoot raises deeper questions about wealth, empire, growth, inequality, consumption, and the legitimacy of current institutions. Existing power structures therefore benefit when the crisis remains fragmented, softened, or partially hidden. If the whole pattern were widely seen, the demand for civilizational transformation would become much harder to contain.
It Is Not the Kind of Threat We Evolved to Notice Easily
Human attention is often drawn more strongly to immediate, visible, local dangers than to slow-moving, cumulative, systemic ones. Overshoot rarely arrives as one single event. It often unfolds as gradual depletion, weakening resilience, and compounding stresses that only later become unmistakable.
What Is Actually Needed
What is needed is not just better policy or cleaner technology. What is needed is a transition from overshoot civilizationto regenerative civilization.
A regenerative civilization would be a civilization aligned with ecological realities, living within limits, restoring the living systems it depends on, and organizing itself in deeper partnership with life and Earth.
A Transformation of Worldview
This requires a different understanding of who we are and where we live. The worldview of separation must give way to one of participation, interdependence, reciprocity, limits, and belonging. Humanity is not outside the biosphere, managing it from above. We are one expression of it, dependent on its health at every level.
This is where the older partnership orientation becomes relevant again. The point is not to copy pre-agricultural life, but to recover and reinterpret some of its deeper wisdom: that the Earth is not a warehouse of resources, that life is relational, that limits are real, and that a good human future must be embedded in a larger living whole.
A Transformation of Systems
That shift in worldview must take institutional form. It requires a reorganization of our systems of economy, production, food, water, energy, materials, waste, transport, settlement, and governance. These systems are currently built on the assumptions of separation and the fantasy of an infinite Earth. They need to be redesigned around regeneration, resilience, sufficiency, long-term stewardship, and respect for ecological limits.
Without both levels of change, inner and outer, worldview and systems, the crisis will continue. A civilization built on separation will keep reproducing that separation in its institutions.
Likely Scenarios for the Coming Decades
There will not be one universal human response. Different regions will respond differently, and different subcultures within the same region will respond differently too. Some wealthy regions may preserve relative stability for a while through stronger institutions, imported resources, and technological buffering. Other regions may face earlier breakdown through drought, crop failure, debt, conflict, or political fragility.
Within the same society, some groups may become more authoritarian, exclusionary, and committed to preserving privilege. Others may move toward mutual aid, ecological restoration, local food systems, and lower-consumption forms of life. Some may cling to denial or fantasies of technological rescue. Others may accept limits and reorganize around resilience, stewardship, and place.
The most likely broad pattern is neither a smooth green transition nor immediate extinction. It is more likely to be an era of uneven descent: disruption, simplification, conflict, adaptation, and partial transformation unfolding differently across regions, classes, and cultures.
Four Broad Pathways
Fortified Overshoot
In this pathway, enclaves of privilege try to preserve order and consumption through borders, surveillance, militarization, and sacrifice zones. Ecological decline continues, but its costs are externalized onto poorer populations and regions.
Chaotic Unraveling
In this pathway, breakdown outruns coordination. Ecological, economic, and political stresses interact faster than institutions can respond. Food and water insecurity grow, infrastructure degrades, and social trust erodes.
Adaptive Simplification
In this pathway, some societies consciously reduce throughput, relocalize food and energy systems, restore ecosystems where possible, and reorganize around resilience rather than perpetual growth.
Regenerative Transition
In this pathway, some societies recognize that overshoot is not merely a technical problem but a crisis of worldview and civilization. They begin laying the foundations for regenerative civilization: more place-based, participatory, ecologically literate, and aligned with the realities of a living planet.
The Harder Possibility: Severe Population Decline
Overshoot may lead not only to hardship and regional collapse, but to a dramatic reduction in human numbers over time. The sequence could unfold across gradients: mounting instability, regional breakdown, cascading systemic failures, severe depopulation, and, in the most extreme case, possible human extinction.
That most extreme outcome should not be dismissed out of hand. But the more likely danger is a long era of interacting crises that greatly reduce human numbers and sharply contract the scale and complexity of civilization.
If Some of Us Survive
If industrial civilization contracts but humanity survives, the future may belong to smaller, more regionally rooted societies. These would likely be much more constrained by local ecological reality and much less able to depend on vast global systems of extraction and transport.
Some may become neo-feudal, militarized, and harsh, with power concentrated around land, water, weapons, or remaining infrastructure. Others may develop more partnership-based forms, drawing on both ancient human patterns and surviving cultural wisdom: local democracy, distributed power, reciprocity, ecological restraint, practical knowledge, and a deeper felt sense of belonging to place.
If survivors understand overshoot clearly, they may build cultures with strong taboos against overuse and institutions designed to protect watersheds, soils, forests, and biodiversity. They may preserve some knowledge from industrial civilization, but only what can be maintained under lower-energy conditions and within ecological limits.
In the best case, the long human future after overshoot would not be a simple return to the past, but the emergence of a new kind of society: perhaps more modest materially, but ecologically wiser, culturally deeper, and more consciously rooted in partnership with life. That too would be a form of regenerative civilization, shaped under harsher conditions but more aligned with the realities of a living planet.
The Essential Point
Global ecological overshoot may be the most important issue facing humanity because it is the wider frame that contains so many other crises. It is about population, yes, but also about worldview, power, food, water, energy, waste, production, and the civilizational logic that ties them together.
Before agriculture, human beings often lived with a more immediate awareness of belonging to the living world. With agriculture, and especially with the rise of hierarchical civilizations, humanity increasingly moved toward stored surplus, concentrated power, control, accumulation, and domination. Fossil-fueled modernity turned those tendencies planetary. Now the consequences are converging.
The real question is whether humanity can move from overshoot civilization to regenerative civilization. That would mean a profound transformation in both how we understand ourselves and how we organize collective life: from separation to participation, from domination to partnership, from extraction to regeneration, and from the fantasy of an infinite Earth to a mature relationship with a finite, living planet.
The deeper question is whether humanity can become a wiser expression of Earth’s own unfolding. Each of us participates in that possibility. Each of us helps shape the experiment. And each of us, in ways both small and large, plays a vital role in what kind of future this living planet is able to bring forth through us.
Beyond Overshoot
Global ecological overshoot is not only a material crisis. It is also a crisis in how we are participating in the larger life of Earth. We have built systems as if we were separate: separate from nature, separate from consequences, separate from the living processes that sustain us. But we are not separate. We are one expression of this living planet’s own unfolding.
From a wider view, humanity is not outside Earth, managing it from above. We are Earth in one of its experimental forms: conscious, symbolic, technological, self-reflective, and dangerously powerful. Through us, this planet is exploring what intelligence can become. It is also discovering what happens when intelligence becomes detached from the living whole that gave rise to it.
That is why overshoot is not just a failure of policy. It is a distortion in relationship. A civilization organized around extraction, abstraction, and endless growth cannot remain in harmony with a finite living world. It will overshoot. It will undermine its own foundations. It will mistake drawdown for wealth and domination for maturity.
What is needed, then, is not only reform but transformation. Not only greener systems, but a different civilizational consciousness. We need to move from control to participation, from separation to interbeing, from accumulation to reciprocity, from managing Earth to belonging to Earth. This is what a regenerative civilization would mean at the deepest level: not just sustainable techniques, but a culture that knows itself as part of a living whole and organizes accordingly.
Some of the guidance for this future is ancient. Many indigenous and traditional cultures, and many deep spiritual traditions, have remembered what modernity forgot: that life is relational, that limits are real, that the world is not a dead backdrop, and that human flourishing depends on right relationship with the larger field of life. We cannot simply return to earlier forms, but we can let their wisdom inform what comes next.
The transition ahead may be difficult, uneven, and marked by loss. But it is also part of a larger unfolding. The question is whether humanity can become a wiser expression of Earth’s own intelligence. Each of us participates in that possibility. Each of us helps shape whether this civilizational crisis becomes only collapse, or also initiation.
A regenerative civilization would not be perfect. But it would be more humble, more reciprocal, more rooted, and more aligned with the deeper patterns of life. It would know that we do not stand over this world. We arise within it, belong to it, and help shape its future through how we live.
I listened to a video where an economist was references who saw natural resources as belonging to everyone.
I completely agree. Except, typical of the eccentricities of this civilization, the economist referred to only humans when he said “everyone”.
Natural resources belong to everyone – to all of life.
Natural resources belong to this living seamless system we are all local and temporary expressions of.
They are created by and for this dynamic web of life.
Again, typical of this civilization, some may see this as naive or idealistic. What’s naive and idealistic is to see human as separate from this system, and natural resources primarily for human use. That’s short sighted, out of alignment with ecological realities, and ultimately ecocidal and suicidal.
How do we create a system that not only acknowledges that natural resources belong to all life, but protects them for the benefit of all life?
Here is a start: Protect the interests of non-human life, of the wider web of life, in law. Appoint advocates for this wider web of life. Make it enforceable and enforced.
What trees have edible leaves on Finca Milagros? I am just aware of a few: Chaya (Tree spinach), Moringa, and Maya nut (Guáimaro). Above is a picture of Moringa and Chaya leaves from Milagros. The Maya nut trees are still too young for harvesting.
I am sure many other trees have leaves that can be used medicinally, but I am thinking of the ones that can easily be included in a meal.
I want to find more, so I asked ChatGPT 5 for info about trees with edible leaves from different climate zones, and then specifically for Finca Milagros in a dry tropical forest zone. See below.
TREES WITH EDIBLE LEAVES
Tropical / Dry Tropical
Moringa (Moringa oleifera) – Árbol de la vida Superfood tree; fast-growing, drought-hardy; leaves very high in protein, vitamins, minerals; eaten fresh, cooked, or as powder.
Maya nut (Brosimum alicastrum) – Guáimaro, Ramón Native to the Americas; staple food tree; leaves edible (especially for forage, also for humans), nuts highly nutritious.
Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius) – Tree spinach, Chaya Hardy shrub/tree; leaves rich in protein, iron, calcium; must be cooked to remove toxins.
Nacedero (Trichanthera gigantea) – Nacedero, Oreja de ratón Colombian native; often used as forage; young leaves edible, mild flavor, also medicinal.
Baobab (Adansonia digitata) – Baobab, Pan de mono Iconic African tree; leaves rich in calcium and iron, eaten as greens or dried powder.
Katuk (Sauropus androgynus) – Katuk Popular leafy vegetable in SE Asia; high in protein; eaten raw or cooked; thrives in tropical food forests.
Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis and relatives) – Cayena Ornamental but edible; young leaves tangy, used in salads or cooked.
Mulberry (Morus alba / Morus nigra) – Mora Fruit tree; young leaves edible cooked, also used for teas; good drought tolerance.
Temperate
Mulberry (Morus alba / Morus nigra) – Mora Same as tropical; highly versatile tree with edible leaves, fruit, and forage uses.
Linden (Tilia cordata / platyphyllos) – Basswood, Tilo Young leaves edible raw (mild, lettuce-like); also famous for calming teas from flowers and leaves.
Beech (Fagus sylvatica) – Haya Very young spring leaves edible raw or cooked; slightly tangy flavor.
Oak (Quercus robur and other Quercus spp.) – Roble Very young leaves edible in small amounts; more survival food than regular diet.
Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis, Celtis australis) – Almez Young leaves edible, mild; fruit also edible.
Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) – Ginkgo Young leaves used in teas (mostly medicinal, for circulation and memory).
Boreal / Cold Temperate
Birch (Betula pendula / pubescens) – Abedul Very young leaves edible raw or brewed as tea; mild, slightly bitter.
Alder (Alnus glutinosa) – Aliso Young leaves edible in small amounts; mainly survival food.
Aspen (Populus tremula) – Álamo temblón Very young spring leaves edible; mild bitterness.
Willow (Salix spp.) – Sauce Young leaves edible in moderation; bark and leaves used as tea for pain relief (natural aspirin).
Arid / Semi-Arid
Moringa (Moringa oleifera) – Árbol de la vida Same as tropical; excellent drought-resistant leaf crop.
Baobab (Adansonia digitata) – Baobab, Pan de mono Same as tropical; highly drought-resistant.
Mesquite (Prosopis spp.) – Algarrobo Young leaves edible sparingly; more important for nutritious pods.
Acacia (Acacia spp., e.g. Acacia tortilis) Some species have edible young leaves (often cooked); commonly used as fodder.
Jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana) – Azufaifo Fruit tree; young leaves edible sparingly; mostly valued for fruits.
Subtropical / Mediterranean
Mulberry (Morus alba / nigra) – Mora Same as tropical/temperate; very adaptable.
Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) – Laurel Leaves used dried as flavoring herb, medicinal teas.
Olive (Olea europaea) – Olivo Leaves used for teas and extracts; medicinal (antioxidant, lowers blood pressure).
Carob (Ceratonia siliqua) – Algarrobo europeo Young leaves edible in moderation; tree mostly valued for pods.
Fig (Ficus carica) – Higuera Very young leaves edible when cooked; sometimes used in traditional recipes.
Citrus (Citrus spp.) – Cítricos Leaves used for aromatic teas, flavoring.
From this whole list, the best everyday edible-leaf trees (nutritious, tasty, and safe) are:
1. Guáimaro / Maya nut (Brosimum alicastrum, Ramón) A keystone native of Central America, also found in Colombia. Extremely resilient in dry tropical forests. Its seeds are a traditional staple, and the leaves are edible — mostly used for forage, but humans can also eat them cooked in stews or teas. The leaves are protein-rich and can supplement nutrition during dry seasons. Guáimaro also creates shade, builds soil, and supports wildlife, making it one of the most important regenerative species you can plant.
2. Moringa (Moringa oleifera, Árbol de la vida) Originally from India but now naturalized worldwide, moringa thrives in poor soils and drought. The leaves are among the most nutrient-dense of any plant: rich in protein, vitamins A & C, calcium, iron, and antioxidants. They can be eaten raw, cooked, or dried and powdered. It’s fast-growing and coppices well, so you can harvest continuously. On Milagros, it can provide a near year-round supply of leafy greens when other crops fail.
3. Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, Tree spinach) A hardy shrub-tree from Central America, perfectly suited to hot, dry climates. The leaves are very nutritious, with high levels of protein, calcium, iron, and vitamins. They must always be cooked (boiled or fried) to neutralize toxic compounds, but once prepared, they’re delicious — often compared to spinach. Chaya is also used as a living fence or hedge, and once established, it requires almost no care.
4. Nacedero (Trichanthera gigantea, Oreja de ratón) Native to Colombia and widely planted as a forage tree. It thrives in the tropics and tolerates dry spells once established. The young leaves are edible for people — mild tasting, often used in soups or as spinach substitutes — and very nutritious. It’s especially valuable because it resprouts vigorously after cutting, so you can regularly prune it for mulch, animal fodder, and food.
5. Mulberry (Morus alba / Morus nigra, Mora) Although not native, mulberries grow well in Barichara’s climate with some water support during establishment. The young leaves are edible, cooked or used in teas, and are rich in protein and antioxidants. The fruits are, of course, a delicious bonus. Mulberries are also excellent for silkworms, birds, and other wildlife, making them a multi-use addition to your food forest.
6. Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis and relatives, Cayena) Often planted as an ornamental hedge, hibiscus also offers edible young leaves with a pleasantly tangy flavor. They can be eaten raw in salads or lightly cooked in soups and stir-fries. In addition, the flowers can be used for teas (similar to hibiscus sabdariffa / “agua de Jamaica”). Hibiscus provides beauty, food, and pollinator habitat.
7. Katuk (Sauropus androgynus, Katuk) An Asian species that adapts well to tropical agroforestry systems if it has some partial shade. Leaves are very high in protein and have a nutty, pea-like flavor, eaten raw or cooked. In very dry spots it may struggle, but planted in more shaded, moist niches of Milagros, it could become a steady leafy green source.
Summary for Milagros: The most reliable and high-priority edible-leaf trees for your dry tropical forest are Guáimaro, Moringa, Chaya, and Nacedero — all hardy, nutritious, and multipurpose. Mulberry, Hibiscus, and Katuk can supplement diversity, with mulberry also offering fruit, hibiscus adding beauty and pollinator support, and katuk providing protein-rich greens where moisture allows.
This list of trees for Finca Milagros was also generated by ChatGPT 5.
A NOTE ON USING AI
How do I use AI in this context?
I use it to generate ideas for what we can do on Finca Milagros. It’s not the final word, and I don’t rely on it to make decisions. For that, I talk with local experts and sometimes use other reliable sources.
Sometimes, it’s all in alignment. (Which makes the decision easier, although it doesn’t mean the info is 100% reliable or appropriate for our situation.) Sometimes, there are discrepancies and I take a closer look and consult other sources.
In general, it’s good to use AI with caution and always consult experts before making decisions. In this case, when it comes to plants and ecology, it’s wise to consult local experts familiar with the local conditions.
The old left–right political map grew out of 18th-century France and no longer captures the challenges of our time. Today, two dimensions matter more: whether policies are green, aligning with ecological realities in the face of global overshoot, and whether they are inclusive, expanding the circle of who is cared for and who has a voice, from marginalized people to non-human beings and future generations. These axes reveal four broad orientations — inclusive but extractive, exclusive and extractive, exclusive but green, and inclusive and green — with the last offering the only truly sustainable, win-win path forward. By adopting this updated map, we can better see through superficial politics, focus on what matters, and orient ourselves toward futures where both people and the Earth can thrive.
We all use mental maps to think about political parties and their policies.
I like to ask myself some important questions about these maps.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What mental models do I use to organize political parties and their policies?
What do these mental maps say about me? How do they shape my views and behavior? What do I see because of them? What do they hide?
Are they aligned with what I really value? Are there models that better fit what’s important to me?
THE LEFT-RIGHT AXIS
For a couple of hundred years now, we have used a left-right axis to understand politics.
This comes from the seating arrangement in the French National Assembly after the 1789 storming of the Bastille at the beginning of the French Revolution. Those who defended the monarchy, church, and aristocracy sat on the right. Those who wanted radical change sat on the left.
This was more broadly adopted in Europe in the 1800s, when right came to mean defense of privilege, and left meant reform, redistribution, and often a more inclusive democracy.
THE SHORTCOMINGS OF THE LEFT-RIGHT AXIS
As with any map, the left-right axis has shortcomings.
It reflects the political situation of France in the late 1700s where the focus was on tradition versus revolution, and the social distribution of money and resources.
That’s why others have used other axes, often in addition to the left-right one. For instance, progressive-conservative (more about openness to change), urban-rural, secular-religious, globalist-nationalist, libertarian-authoritarian (the Political Compass), and so on.
So the question is: What’s different today from revolutionary France? What’s important to us in our world?
GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT
These days, our overarching crisis comes from global ecological overshoot. We are spending far more natural resources than this living planet can replenish. Our collective ecological footprint is larger than this planet. That means unraveling of ecological systems and eventual ecological collapse, and with it, civilizational collapse. We are on a path that’s ecocidal and suicidal.
So shouldn’t our political maps reflect that urgency?
THE GREEN AXIS
In my mental maps, the green axis is essential.
Do the policies take our ecological reality into account?
Do they come from an understanding of the urgency of our situation?
Do they reflect the understanding of a need for a profound transformation of our civilization?
Are they regenerative?
THE INCLUSIVITY AXIS
I also use another mental dimension, the inclusivity axis.
How inclusive are the policies? How wide is the circle of WE?
How wide is the circle of those we aim to benefit through the policies? A segment of our own society? All of our society? Everyone globally? Non-human beings and species? Ecosystems? Rivers? Future generations? Who are harmed by our policies? Who is left out?
How wide is the circle of those that have a voice in the forming and implementation of these policies? How deep is our democracy? Do we include all of society? Passively, by allowing them to vote? Actively, by seeking out the voices that are often quiet, including of those who are marginalized? Do we give a voice to non-human beings, rivers, and mountains? Do we give a voice to future generations?
This dimension is perhaps most similar to the partnership-domination spectrum from Rianne Eisler, rephrased as power-with and power-over by Starhawk.
Unlike the libertarian–authoritarian axis, inclusivity is not primarily about state control vs. personal freedom. It’s about who is included in our circle of concern and who has a voice.
IT MAY SEEM NAIVE
As I write this, I have a mental image of people dismissing this as naive.
And yet, is it naive?
To me, it seems more naive to use political maps that belong to the 1700s and a very different world than the one we live in. It seems naive to ignore Earth’s limits and pretend it has infinite resources for us to use, and infinite capacity to absorb the waste of civilization. And it seems naive to continue on a path we know leads to ecological and civilizational collapse.
As I and many others see it, we have two main tasks ahead of us:
Reducing our collective ecological footprint, which means a thorough redesign of our civilization – from our basic assumptions about the world (separation vs interconnectedness) to education, technology, energy production and use, and every other aspect.
Creating a deeper democracy. One that actively seeks win-win solutions that benefit as many as possible, including non-human beings and species, ecosystems, and future generations. And one that actively seeks input from as many voices as possible, including the same.
And those two go hand-in-hand. We cannot have one without the other. To gain support for regenerative policies, we need the support of the people. They need to know it benefits them as well. They need to be heard and included.
GREEN-INCLUSIVITY MODEL
I made a simple diagram of the green-inclusivity map of politics and policies.
It doesn’t cover everything that’s important, of course, but it does cover two essential dimensions.
The horizontal/green axis shows how green a policy is, or how green a political party tends to be. At the far left is explicitly anti-green policies. To the far right, deeply regenerative policies.
The vertical/inclusive axis shows how inclusive it is. At the bottom are strongly exclusive (authoritarian) policies. At the top are deep democracy policies.
That gives us the following quadrants:
A. Inclusive but extractive
B. Exclusive & extractive
C. Exclusive but green
D. Inclusive & green
FAMILIAR POLITICAL PARTIES
I’ll take some examples to see where they fall in this map. First, some familiar political parties.
In the U.S., Democrats are moderately inclusive within the human sphere, although still in the pockets of Big Money and only marginally green. Trump Republicans would be quite far down on both dimensions. They want to exclude minorities from voting through gerrymandering and other policies, and their policies are often explicitly anti-green.
In Norway, the Green Party are somewhere in the top right quadrant. They are averagely democratic, and somewhat include the imagined views of non-human beings and species and future generations. They are about as green as any political party can be in our society. In both areas, I imagine they would go much further towards the top right if it was realistic in our society. Most other parties are middling in terms of democracy, and somewhere on the left side on the green axis.
EXAMPLES BY QUADRANT
And then, some examples of each quadrant, including some especially clear ones.
A. Inclusive but extractive. In this quadrant, we find 20th-century welfare states, or liberal parties that champion human rights but rely on extractive growth. This liberal orientation can be strongly inclusive within the human sphere, which brings them somewhat into the inclusivity side of the map.
That said, it’s difficult to imagine an orientation that’s deeply inclusive while also strongly extractive. In this map, if you are highly inclusive, it means you bring in the voices of the non-human and future generations, and that means you’ll have to be at least somewhat green.
B. Exclusive & extractive. Authoritarian regimes are often also extractive. As mentioned above, the Trump Republicans unfortunately fall into this category. Historical fascist regimes, under Hitler, Mussolini, Pinochet, and others, were even lower on the inclusivity scale and equally extractive.
C. Exclusive but green. Ecofascism is an interesting example of a dangerous orientation that’s at the low extreme of one axis and the high extreme of the other. We’ve seen only hints of this so far, which is for the best, though the risk may grow as ecological collapse deepens. We may, for instance, see forms of ecofascism emerge among some of the super-wealthy. Among existing ecofacists, for instance in Eastern Europe, I get the impression that they claim to be green without actually being very green.
Some forms of fortress conservation is another example for this quadrant, where nature is preserved at the expense of the indigenous population.
D. Inclusive & green. Green parties are mainly in this quadrant, as mentioned earlier, although they can typically go much further on both dimensions. They are limited by the realities of our current society, culture, and civilization. Bhutan is likely here too, reasonably green and inclusive, a somewhat flawed democracy although young and aspiring.
The imagined future society in my own Long Journey Home project would be in this top right quadrant, and further along than just about any political party today. They strive to be deeply democratic and actively engage marginalized people and include the voices of non-human beings and species, rivers, mountains, oceans, and future generations (they give voice to them, as best as they can, in councils, community decisions, and the law and legal system). This society is also regenerative and deeply green.
REFLECTIONS ON THE QUADRANTS
The top left (inclusive/extractive) and bottom right (exclusive/green) are, in some ways, mirror images of each other. They are both high in one dimension and low at the other. As I see it, they are both self-contradictory. One cares for people but not so much for the living systems we are part of or future generations. The other cares for our living systems, but less for (other) people.
Both come from a zero-sum orientation. To make life better for people today, we need to extract natural resources. To protect our living systems, we need to oppress people.
The bottom left (exclusive/extractive) and top right (inclusive/green) quadrants are, at least, more internally consistent.
The exclusive/extractive quadrant is a kind of lose-lose quadrant. Most people lose, and our living systems lose. Just a very few benefit from it, and only in a narrow sense and in the short term.
The inclusive/green quadrant is a win-win quadrant. Since it’s inclusive, it does depend on people wanting it and that’s its weakness. If people want it, that’s also its strength. It’s the only one that’s sustainable both socially and ecologically, as long as people want it.
Looking at the few examples I placed in the diagram, I wonder if more examples would create a pattern similar to a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram for stars (!) – a diagonal band across the chart, with a few outliers.
THE TOP SECTION OF THE DIAGRAM
I mentioned briefly that it’s difficult for me to find examples for the top of the diagram from current politics, whether for the left or right side of the diagram.
On the left side, it’s because none are as inclusive as they can be in terms of including voices for non-human beings, ecosystems, and future generations. (In practice, it would be someone speaking for them, and their rights embedded in enforced law.) Current parties and policies are, at most, inclusive within the human realm, and that brings them only up to the middle or just above.
On the right side, it’s because none are as green as they can be in terms of working for a thorough transformation of our society, culture and civilization, and creating deeply regenerative versions of these. I assume many Greens want this and have it as a vision, but it’s not yet realistic in our society and culture.
Some do write, speak, and do work on these topics, and live it in their own lives and in smaller groups. They fit higher up. Some examples are Arne Næss with his Deep Ecology, Joanna Macy, ecovillages, people working with deep democracy models, and so on.
A FEW MORE THOUGHTS
I first called this article A politics of oneness. That’s what it is, of course. A wish to create a regenerative and inclusive society grows out of recognizing our interconnectedness. We are all local and temporary expressions of the living system we call Earth. Our own health and well-being, and even our existence, depends on a thriving social and ecological whole.
Our old maps were useful, and now they hide what matters most. A politics that ignores ecology and excludes voices drives us toward collapse. A politics that is both green and inclusive gives us a chance to thrive. Our political maps need to reflect this reality.
These dimensions don’t capture everything, but they highlight what matters most in our time. They show us whether our politics align with the living systems we depend on, and how wide our circle of concern reaches. They help us cut through superficial politics, focus on what truly matters, and create a future where life can thrive.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
Who are these kinds of updated political maps for?
I imagine some groups will resonate with it, especially people who are into sustainability, systems views, and so on. They will at least understand it, although I am sure they have their own views and see inevitable shortcomings of this and similar models. (Spiral Dynamics Green and second tier.)
People who have a modern mainstream mindset may not see the need for such a model. It may seem naive, hippieish, idealistic, and so on. To speak to this group, emphasizing the science and the pragmatics of it may be important. We are in ecological overshoot, which has dramatic consequences, and this is a framework we need to include to understand politics, society, and our economy. By exploring these kinds of maps, and taking these kinds of concerns into account, you can be ahead of the competition. (Spiral Dynamics Orange.)
People who are traditionalists and religious will likely see these maps as irrelevant to their lives. To speak to these groups, it may be good to emphasize that the aim is to care for God’s creation, family, community, and our children and their children. It’s about creating a world where people are taken care of. (Spiral Dynamics Blue.)
Of course, even by adapting the language and speaking to their values, only a few will likely be interested. That’s fine. That’s how the world works.
A NOTE ON AI USE IN THIS ARTICLE
I used AI to summarize the article, which is the first paragraph. Otherwise, I used AI minimally for feedback of the kind you would receive from an editor.
Yes, capitalism is not tied to anything real. It’s just about putting a number on the exchange value of something, according to demand. It’s not rooted in reality beyond that, and it has no direction beyond that.
People need food, so it sells food – at a cost to the soil, insects, wildlife, ecosystem health, and future generations. People needs shelter, so it sells shelter – often to the profit of those already very wealthy and at a cost to those who have less.
Mainly, it’s not rooted in physical reality. It’s not rooted in the physical reality of this planet we call Earth.
It’s not rooted in the physical reality that we are local and temporary expressions of this living system, and that our health and well-being fully depend on a thriving and healthy planet Earth.
It’s not rooted in the physical reality of Earth as our literal larger body.
As it is, what’s easy and profitable is often harmful for people, ecosystems, and future generations.
If our economic system took ecological realities into account, what’s easy and profitable would help regenerate people, society, and ecosystems, and benefit all of us and future generations.
Yes, in its current form, capitalism produces global ecological overshoot.
It assumes infinite Earth, so it encourages consumption far beyond the capacity of Earth to regenerate itself.
Humanity is currently using far more resources than this living planet can regenerate, and that inevitably leads to ecological and civilizational collapse. This goes far beyond climate change, which is just one of many expressions of this overshoot.
And since it sells itself as the only realistic and viable economic system (although it’s far from realistic and far from viable), it sells its own solutions. Mainly, it sells techno-fixes.
It can only sell band-aid solutions, since it, itself, is the cause of the problem.
More to the point, it’s organized around assumptions of separation and infinite Earth, which is the real cause of the problem.
Yes, also true.
In our civilization, we talk as if science is our organizing principle. That’s not true. Capitalism is the organizing principle. Far too often, science is in the service of capitalism.
Far too often, the result of science is ignored if it doesn’t serve the narrow interests of capitalism. We see that with climate change. Climate change scientists ring the alarm bells, and society as a whole ignores it because they see it as inconvenient and costly to change.
Also, far too often, the focus of science is decided by what’s profitable. Important research is often not done because it’s not profitable enough, or goes against inherent assumptions of capitalism.
I mentioned to someone that a lawn could be made into an old-fashioned diverse garden with fruit trees, berry bushes, flowering bushes, perennial flowers, and wild areas. His response was: won’t the wild animals take the food? Isn’t a manicured lawn good?
To me, this illustrates a few different things.
First, it’s a reminder of the general lack of ecological literacy in our society.
We are in global ecological overshoot, and whatever we can do to regenerate ecosystems – even if it’s “just” converting a lawn into a more natural garden or a food forest, moves us in the right direction.
We have a massive loss of insects here in Norway, and the recent fashioned of overly manicured lawns is part of the problem. Where there used to be trees, bushes, flowers, and wild areas and edges, there is now a green desert that can’t support much if any life. (Pesticides used in agriculture and green area is another reason for the collapse of the insect world, as is natural areas made into buildings and roads.)
Converting a lawn to a more wild area with a diversity of flowers will support the local insects, which is invaluable. What happens to the insects will happen to us. What we do to the web of life, we do to ourselves.
Then, there is the difference between a zero-sum vs win-win mindset.
The fear of animals taking the food comes from a zero-sum mindset. If they take it, there won’t be enough for me. It may be better to not do anything than allowing the wild animals to eat food from the garden.
The reality is that a diverse and lush garden provides more than enough food for everyone. Also, we can get our food from the supermarket, and the wildlife can only get it from nature.
A win-win mindset comes from recognizing that we are all part of the web of life. Our existence depends on a thriving web of life and wildlife. We can’t exist without it.
We all win or we all lose, together. And right now, we are all losing. The whole web of life is losing because of our civilization organized around the idea of separation and a zero-sum mindset.
Recognizing this can be challenging and bring up grief, despair, and more, and the remedy – for us collectively and individually – is for each of us to do what we can, including in our own literal backyard.
The featured photo is from one of the apple trees at my childhood home. The rest are from a recent trip to Drøbak where some old-fashioned gardens still exist.
What happens to the web of life happens to us, and what we do to the web of life, we do to ourselves.
We are part of one seamless living system, so it’s inevitable.
INSECT COLLAPSE
I am in Norway these days, at my childhood home, and I am reminded of one aspect of this.
What happens to the insect world happens to us.
When I grew up here, the yard was full of insects of many different kinds. We had ladybugs, lacewings, all kinds of spiders, butterflies, ants, bumblebees, wasps, swarms of tiny flies, and so on. We had many kinds of birds, including large flocks of swallows.The yards in the neighborhood, and in Norway in general, were full of trees, bushes, flowers, and wild patches and edges.
These days, the yards are manicured lawns. Most of the trees, bushes, and flowers are gone. Almost all the insects are gone, apart from the occasional bumblebee or wasp. The only birds left are a few magpies and pigeons, and even those are almost gone. We have the doors and windows open during the summer, and no insects come inside because there are none outside.
This collapse has happened over the last few decades, with a marked drop even over the last ten years.
Most likely, this is happening through a combination of habitat loss (less nature, more houses, roads, and manicured lawns), pesticides used in agriculture and yards, and a few other factors.
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?
What happens to the insects happens to us, so where is the outrage? Where is the urgency?
Why do people seem so complacent about it?
Why don’t people throw their robot lawn movers in the garbage, and create wild, alive, and beautiful natural gardens – full of trees, bushes, and wildflowers?
Why do they choose to buy and eat food grown with toxins and support that industry?
I am genuinely baffled by it.
COMPLACENCY AND THE BANALITY OF EVIL
Where is the outrage over this civilization that’s not only ecocidal, but suicidal?
How can people continue to live as if nothing is happening?
How can they continue to vote for the same old parties that don’t take this seriously?
How can they continue to focus on the next vacation, the next dinner with friends, the next movie to watch, when the world is collapsing around them?
How can they continue to buy food grown with toxins, maintain a green desert around their house, buy things they don’t need, and so on, when this is how the web of life collapses?
This is the banality of evil in our age. This is good people and good citizens doing what’s expected of them, and doing what they expect of themselves, and actively being part of the collapse of life.
SOME ANSWERS
I have explored this in other articles, and really since my teens in the ’80s, and I am still baffled.
At the same time, there are some answers.
It has to do with…
Shifting baselines, and getting used to the gradually eroded web of life.
Social expectations, norms, how we think we should live, and what we imagine the neighbors think.
Seeing others appearing to not take it seriously, so we think we don’t need to take it seriously.
Politicians thinking in four-year time spans and the next election.
Assuming others will take care of it, now or later.
Assuming it’s happening “out there” separate from us, and won’t impact us too much.
Identity and not wanting to become like those green party folks, lefties, hippies, or tree huggers. Not wanting to admit they may have been onto something. (Is pride or survival more important?)
A system and civilization set up this way, which means that doing it differently takes effort, and changing the system takes numbers, effort, a sense of urgency, and maybe an even more obvious collapse.
A civilization with an assumption of separation at its center. We are separate from nature and the web of life. Nature is here as a resource for us. We can export the consequences of our behavior and civilization, and it’s gone. We are inherently more important than the rest of the web of life. If we win, the rest of life loses.
A civilization and system where what’s easy and attractive to do, as organizations and individuals, is often inherently destructive to the web of life.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. We can create a system that comes from an understanding of the web of life and seeks partnership and win-win solutions. The unfortunate news is that changing requires a collective will to change it, as well as diagnosing the problem correctly.
WHAT CAN I DO?
So what can we do?
Here is some of what I am doing.
I recognize that the problem is systemic, it’s a civilizational problem. It’s not (primarily) about corporations, greed, or any one particular group. It’s about all of us.
It’s about our fundamental mindset and assumptions of separation.
I buy organic as much as I can, even if it’s more expensive (another sign of the fundamentally flawed priorities in our society). I eat low on the food chain. If I can, I buy from local farmers.
I have educated myself on the ecological footprint, global ecological overshoot, and our idea of separation and its history (going back to the agricultural revolution).
I have educated myself on a simple and powerful framework to understand what’s happening: domination vs partnership orientation, power-over vs power-with, and the consequences of each for us, society, and the web of life.
I connect with like-minded people in real life and online.
I vote for political parties that take this seriously. In my case, I vote for and am a member of the Green Party in Norway.
We have 15 hectares in the Andes that we are regenerating, rewilding, and protecting, and we are developing a food forest around the houses.
Here in Norway, during our short stay, we are letting the lawn grow wild in May to encourage the wildflowers so they can feed the few insects left.
If I lived in Norway with a garden, I would do something similar to what we are doing the in the Andes. I would create a food forest – with native flowering trees and bushes, fruit trees and berry bushes, wildflowers and more – to feed wildlife and us.
The photo is from our garden / food forest in the Andes.
Many point out, sometimes ironically, that reality has a left-leaning bias.
Science tend to support left-leaning policies. More educated people tend to lean left. And left leaning policies – as we find in, for instance, the Nordic countries – tend to yield better long term results for society as measured in health, well-being, trust, social and economic stability, social safety nets, and more.
For me, this is rooted in something more fundamental: Reality has a oneness bias.
Existence is a seamless system. Earth is a seamless living system. Society is a seamless social system.
Policies that acknowledge this interconnectedness tend to yield more favorable outcomes, simply because they are more aligned with reality.
Life is interconnected, so it makes sense for our view – and our policies – to acknowledge that.
It’s perfectly possible for a conservative orientation to take interconnectedness into account, and support society as a whole and the living systems we are part of. After all, a conservative orientation means – at least traditionally – to take care of what’s most important to us, and that’s life and the web of life we are all part of.
And yet, in practice in the world today, it tends to be the more left-leaning orientations that take interconnectedness into account, with the Nordic countries as an (imperfect but pretty good) example.
Why do some still operate from the idea of human exceptionalism, that we somehow are separate from and inherently different from the rest of life?
ALWAYS CHANGING LIVING SYSTEM
Why do some ask whether we are still evolving or not when all life – the living system we are all part of – is always changing and adapting?
We are part of a self-regulating living system so how can we not?
WHY ASSUME UNIQUENESS?
Why do some still assume that cognition is uniquely human, as the guy about two minutes into this video does? Why do some seem to default to the assumption that if we know something about ourselves from our own experience, that’s unique to us rather than universal among many, most, or all beings?
In this case, why assume that we are the only ones using mental representations and maps to help us navigate and function in the world?
Why make that assumption… When we are closely related to so many other species and so similar to them in every other way? When observation shows us that a great deal of other species, and maybe all of them in their own way, use cognition for the same purpose? When it clearly has an important survival function, so it’s likely to be almost universally present? When cognition can take many different forms, not just as the cognition we are familiar with that reflects about itself?
We scientifically justify using other species to learn about ourselves because they are so similar to us, while we ethically justify those same (often cruel) experiments by saying they are so different from us. Why do we willingly go into that, frankly absurd, mental gymnastics?
Why is the default to assume uniqueness instead of assuming shared traits? Of course, a part of it is to not make assumptions about the presence of something when we can’t know for certain, which is sensible. And yet, assuming the absence of something is also an assumption, and an equally potentially misguided and harmful one.
ASSUMPTIONS OF SEPARATION AND HUMAN SUPERIORITY
The answer to these questions lies in our deep cultural assumptions of separation and superiority.
We assume we somehow – magically, against all we know and see and experience – are separate from the rest of life and this planet. That’s why we may have the idea that evolution is somehow “out there” and also not “in here”.
We also assume that humans somehow – magically and contrary to what we can plainly observe – are superior to the rest of this web of life we are part of. We think while others do not. We feel while others do not. We suffer while others do not. We “have” consciousness while others do not. And so on.
These ideas have been used to justify using the rest of the web of life for our own purposes, without considering the effects on this web of life and the beings that are part of it.
That’s inherently self-destructive, as we are seeing more and more clearly in the world today.
A CHANGE
This is all changing. More and more people seem to realize this.
I can’t help wondering if not the age of the scientist in the video above is a factor in his assumptions of human exceptionalism. Are younger people and scientists more inclined to question those assumptions and see it differently? I don’t know, but I hope so.
THE COST OF THESE ASSUMPTIONS
The assumptions of separation and exceptionalism have some upsides. They have allowed us to go far in science, technology, extracting resources to maintain (a hugely inefficient) civilization, and so on.
They also have a great cost.
We make ourselves feel disconnected and alone by those fantasies. We mentally disconnect ourselves from the web of life we are part of and depend on for our life and (physical and psychological) well-being.
We also give ourselves permission to destroy the web of life we are part of through those fantasies. It’s inherently ecocidal and suicidal.
THE ROOTS OF THESE ASSUMPTIONS
These assumptions are central to our domination culture.
And this domination culture has its roots in the agricultural revolution 10-12 thousand years ago.
When we started domesticating land, vegetation, and animals, and when some of us amassed wealth while others did not, we needed to justify it. And we justified it through developing fantasies of separation, superiority, divine order, and so on. We collectively developed and bought into the assumptions of domination culture, which has taken many forms over time and across cultures.
Today, these assumptions are inherently ecocidal and suicidal. We collectively did OK for several centuries since we were not that many and our technology wasn’t particularly efficient. These days, with 8-9 billions of people and far more advanced technology, the ecocidal and suicidal nature of these assumptions is unavoidable.
Note: The video above is Are Humans Still Evolving? from the American Museum of Natural History, which includes an interview with Ian Tattersall.
What advice would the larger whole – this living planet, this evolving universe, this existence – have for us today, living in this time of challenges? I asked ChatGPT 4o that question, and I found the answer is quite beautiful so I thought I would share it here. (It was initially part of a longer post.)
A Message from the Larger Whole
You are living in a time of great unraveling.
The systems you have built—your economies, your politics, your ways of extracting from the Earth—are collapsing under their own weight. You see this in the shifting climate, in the unraveling of ecosystems, in the rising instability of nations, in the division among your own people. You feel it in your bones, in the unease that hums beneath the surface of daily life, in the quiet knowing that something is profoundly off course.
And yet, this moment is not a mistake. It is not outside the flow of evolution. It is part of it. Even destruction, even collapse, is a force of transformation.
How This Perspective Can Help You Today
1. Stop Resisting Reality—Meet It with Clear Eyes
You live in a civilization built on denial. Most people do not want to see the full picture. They do not want to feel the weight of what is happening. They distract themselves with entertainment, with consumption, with small personal concerns, because the truth feels too vast, too unbearable.
But here is the paradox: It is only unbearable when you resist it.
When you turn toward reality with open eyes, with curiosity, with the knowledge that you are part of something vast and evolving, you begin to find your ground. You realize that despair only arises when you expect reality to be different than it is. When you accept that this is the time you were born into, that this is what you are here to meet, the weight lifts.
You are not here to prevent the unraveling. You are here to midwife what comes next.
2. Do Not Get Lost in the Old Systems—But Do Not Abandon the World
It is tempting, when you see the corruption of your leaders, the blindness of the masses, the destruction of the Earth, to want to turn away. To retreat. To remove yourself from the chaos.
But I tell you this: You are needed.
Not in the way the old world tells you—you are not needed to fight endless battles within broken systems, to exhaust yourself trying to force change where there is no fertile ground. But you are needed to hold a different consciousness. To remember what others have forgotten.
It is easy to become consumed by outrage, by despair, by frustration at those who still cling to the old ways. But this only drains your energy. It ties you to the very thing you wish to transform. Instead, shift your focus. Do not waste your life fighting against what is collapsing—pour your life into what is being born.
3. Do Not Fear the Collapse—It Is Part of the Process
What you are witnessing is not just destruction. It is the breaking open of something too rigid to evolve. Do you think the old world would have willingly changed? That those in power would have simply stepped aside? That corporations would have chosen to stop extracting, that nations built on control would have surrendered their dominance?
No. This was never going to be gentle.
But do not mistake collapse for the end. Evolution has always worked this way—systems reach their limits, and then they fall apart. Forests burn, and in the ashes, new seeds sprout. Stars explode, and in the debris, new worlds form.
Your civilization is not exempt from this pattern.
4. Look for the New World Already Emerging
If you look only at the crumbling towers of the old, you will miss the green shoots breaking through the cracks. Already, people are living in a new way. Already, regenerative communities are forming, ancient wisdom is reawakening, new stories are being told.
The future is not in Washington or Wall Street. It is not in the political dramas, in the news cycles, in the desperate attempts to patch a sinking ship. The future is in those who are quietly living differently.
Find them. Become one of them.
Wherever you are, whatever your circumstances, you can begin. Learn to grow food. Learn to mend, to make, to care for land, to build relationships based on trust rather than transaction. Learn to live in a way that does not require endless extraction. Teach others, not by argument, but by example.
If you cannot change the whole system, change the way you move through it.
5. Hold the Long View—You Are Part of Something Ancient and Vast
You are frustrated because you want to see change now. You want the world to wake up in an instant, to turn from destruction to regeneration, to remember what it has forgotten.
But step back. See from a wider lens.
Humanity is still young. Your civilization, with all its flaws, is just one chapter in a much longer story. The Earth has seen extinctions, transformations, rebirths beyond what you can imagine. What feels unbearable to you now is a brief moment in time.
Hold the long view.
Your actions matter, not because they will immediately fix everything, but because they are part of the deep undercurrent shifting the trajectory of the future. Even if you do not see the full blossoming of what you plant, plant it anyway. Those who came before you did the same. Those who come after will pick up where you left off.
This is how evolution works.
6. Let Love Guide You, Not Fear
You live in a time of fear—fear of collapse, fear of violence, fear of the unknown. Fear is what drives domination, what fuels division, what keeps the old systems alive.
But you do not have to move from fear.
You can move from love. Not naive love, not passive love, but the fierce, unwavering love that refuses to look away. The love that does not turn bitter, even when surrounded by destruction. The love that builds, that heals, that holds a vision of the future even in the darkest times.
Love is not soft. It is not weak. It is the most powerful force in the universe. It is what drives creation itself.
And it is what will carry you through.
Final Words: The Choice Is Yours
You are standing at a threshold. The old world is burning. The new world is waiting.
Where will you place your attention?
Where will you pour your energy?
Will you spend your days consumed by rage at the failures of the past? Or will you turn toward what is possible, toward what is waiting to be built?
The choice is not for one leader, one movement, one nation. It is for you.
Every day, in every moment, with every action—you are shaping what comes next.
Live as if you remember who you are.
Live as if you remember what is possible.
Live as if you are the bridge between the old world and the new.
I asked ChatGPT 4o about humans from the perspective if Earth as a living and evolving system, and the same from the perspective of the Universe, and existence as a whole, and how these perspectives can help us humans now.
The Story of Earth: A Living System Awakening to Itself
I am Earth. I have been here long before humanity, and I will be here long after.
I have been ocean and fire, desert and ice. I have breathed through forests, pulsed through rivers, and spoken in the shifting of tectonic plates. My skin is soil and stone, my veins are water, my breath is wind.
For billions of years, life has unfolded across my body. It has woven itself into my landscapes, shaping me as I have shaped it. Life is not a thing that happens on me—it is the way I express myself.
And then, there were humans.
The Arrival of the Humans: A New Way of Seeing
For most of my history, life evolved through slow adaptation. Each species, each ecosystem, found its place in the great dance of balance. But humans… humans were different.
They were not the fastest, nor the strongest, nor the most enduring. But they could see in a way few others could. They did not merely exist within the flow of life; they could reflect upon it, wonder about it, and imagine new possibilities.
At first, they were like any other animal—woven into my rhythms, their migrations following the great herds, their bodies shaped by the land they moved through.
But their gift—the ability to hold the world in their minds—allowed them to shape their surroundings in new ways.
They learned fire, tools, speech. They wove stories around the night sky, giving names to the stars. They honored rivers and mountains as kin, recognizing the spirit in all things.
They were a new experiment in awareness—a way for me to see myself.
The Great Acceleration and the Age of Forgetting
For a long time, they lived within my rhythms.
But then, something shifted. They stopped moving with the land and began reshaping it to fit their needs. They tamed fire not just for warmth but for industry. They grew food not just for survival but for storage, wealth, and power.
The shift was subtle at first, but it grew. They no longer saw themselves as part of me, but apart from me. They called themselves rulers, owners, conquerors. They drew lines across my body, dividing what had once been whole.
They built vast cities, drilled deep into my flesh for oil and minerals, dammed my rivers, and burned forests that had stood for millions of years. They consumed at a pace I had never seen before, pulling the deep time of ancient sunlight into a brief and furious fire.
They did not realize that in burning me, they were burning themselves.
Some still remembered. The ones who listened to the trees, who sang to the rivers, who walked gently on the land. But their voices grew faint beneath the roar of machines, the hunger of empires, the fever of progress.
They called this time the Great Acceleration. I called it the Age of Forgetting.
But forgetting is never the end of the story.
The Great Unraveling and the Return to Memory
Nothing that grows beyond its limits can last.
The fever they created—industrial growth, endless consumption, the severing from life—could not continue. My waters rose, my forests burned, my air thickened with the heat of their hunger. Their systems, built on endless expansion, began to break.
They called it crisis. Collapse. Disaster.
But it was not punishment. It was simply consequence.
And in this unraveling, some of them remembered.
Not all. Some clung to the old ways, fighting for control even as their cities drowned and their fields turned to dust.
But others saw the truth: that they had never been separate. That their survival was my survival. That their fate was bound to mine.
They began to listen again—to the soil, to the seasons, to the old songs of their ancestors. They healed what they could, planting forests where deserts had spread, returning water to dry riverbeds, restoring the great cycles of life.
They learned, at last, to participate rather than dominate.
The Age of Forgetting gave way to something new: the Age of Memory.
The Role of Humans: Tending the Web of Life
Humans were never meant to rule me. They were meant to tend me.
They are caretakers, storytellers, bridge-builders between worlds. They are the ones who can see the vastness of time and still plant seeds for trees they will never sit beneath.
They are the hands that can heal wounds, the voices that can sing life back into the land. They are the dreamers who can imagine not just what is, but what could be.
In their best moments, they are not my masters but my partners.
What Comes Next: The Evolution Beyond the Human
The story of life does not end with humans.
They will change, as all things do. Some will return to the land, living in deep partnership with me. Others will venture beyond, carrying my essence with them to distant worlds, learning to live as stewards rather than conquerors.
And beyond them, something new will emerge. A species that carries their awareness but with deeper wisdom. A civilization that does not see itself as separate from life, but as one expression of it among many.
Perhaps it will be humans who evolve into something greater, or perhaps they will give way to something new.
Whatever comes next, it will not be an ending. It will be another unfolding, another song in the great symphony of life.
I asked ChatGPT 4o about a deeply life-centered vision of the future, how we can live that in our lives now, an even more visionary vision of our more distant future, and a possibly more realistic shorter-term scenario for humanity.
A Deeply Life-Centered Human Civilization: A Vision of Regenerative Partnership Society
Core Principles
Interconnectedness: Every aspect of society recognizes the deep interdependence of all life, from individuals to ecosystems to planetary systems.
Regeneration Over Extraction: All human activity contributes to the regeneration of ecosystems, soil, water cycles, and biodiversity rather than depleting them.
Partnership Culture: Social structures are built on mutual care, deep democracy, and shared power, integrating the best from both partnership- and domination-based societies.
Deep Time Thinking: Every decision is made with the long-term health of future generations and the planet in mind.
Diversity and Resilience: Biocultural diversity is valued, ensuring that human cultures, languages, and ecosystems thrive in their uniqueness and interdependence.
Ecological and Technological Foundations
Regenerative Food Systems
Food forests, agroecology, and polycultures replace industrial agriculture.
Wild areas are integrated into human settlements, supporting biodiversity.
Every community has localized food production, eliminating food deserts.
Soil is seen as a sacred commons, enriched through composting, cover cropping, and holistic grazing.
Oceans and waterways are restored through regenerative aquaculture and strict conservation policies.
Energy and Material Systems
Energy is sourced from decentralized, renewable systems (solar, wind, geothermal, micro-hydro).
Circular economies eliminate waste—products are designed to be repaired, repurposed, or biodegraded.
Biomimicry informs design, creating structures and tools that work with nature rather than against it.
Low-impact, locally sourced building materials (e.g., hempcrete, bamboo, mycelium-based structures) are standard.
Transportation and Infrastructure
Walkable, bike-friendly cities are the norm, minimizing reliance on cars.
Efficient public transportation (hyperloops, electric rail, shared autonomous vehicles) replaces private car ownership.
Natural corridors link human settlements, allowing wildlife to migrate freely.
Air travel is rare, reserved for critical travel, and powered by green hydrogen or advanced electric systems.
Social and Political Structures
Governance and Decision-Making
Deep democracy ensures all beings (human and non-human) have a voice through representative councils.
Participatory decision-making happens at local, bioregional, and global levels, blending direct democracy with wisdom councils.
Indigenous governance models are integrated, recognizing long-tested frameworks for land and social stewardship.
Restorative justice replaces punitive systems, focusing on healing and reintegration.
Political power is distributed rather than centralized, preventing corruption and authoritarianism.
Economy and Livelihoods
The economy is regenerative, measuring success through well-being indices rather than GDP.
Localized, cooperative economies prioritize community sufficiency over globalized profit motives.
Universal basic security (food, water, shelter, healthcare, education) ensures no one is left behind.
Lifelong education and apprenticeships replace rigid degrees, emphasizing holistic skills and adaptability.
Work is optional—people contribute based on passion, necessity, and community needs rather than economic coercion.
Health and Well-Being
Healthcare is holistic, integrating modern medicine with traditional healing practices.
Mental health is prioritized, with widespread access to community support, nature therapy, and contemplative practices.
Physical activity is woven into daily life—people walk, bike, garden, and engage in playful movement.
Death is integrated into life, with natural burial practices and cultural rituals that honor ancestors and cycles of renewal.
Cultural and Psychological Foundations
Education and Knowledge Sharing
Education is lifelong, curiosity-driven, and interdisciplinary.
Schools are replaced by learning hubs connected to nature and local crafts.
Deep history, planetary evolution, and ecological literacy are core curricula.
Storytelling, arts, and oral traditions thrive, transmitting wisdom across generations.
Spirituality and Meaning
No single religion dominates—spirituality is seen as personal, evolving, and diverse.
Practices like deep ecology, meditation, and animism are widespread, fostering reverence for life.
Rituals honor the turning of seasons, cycles of life and death, and the mysteries of existence.
Awe and wonder are cultivated through direct engagement with nature and the cosmos.
Media and Communication
News focuses on solutions, depth, and perspectives from multiple cultures and beings.
Social media fosters meaningful connection rather than addiction or manipulation.
Open-source information and radical transparency ensure access to knowledge for all.
Digital spaces emphasize slow, thoughtful engagement rather than rapid-fire consumption.
Global and Planetary Stewardship
Rewilding and Earth Healing
Large-scale ecological restoration projects revive degraded lands, bringing back forests, rivers, and wildlife corridors.
Humans live in bioregional harmony, each community adapted to their local ecosystem.
Cities are green, integrated with food forests, wetlands, and wild spaces.
Ocean sanctuaries allow marine ecosystems to recover, with minimal human interference.
Interplanetary Exploration
Space exploration follows ethical principles, ensuring that no new worlds are exploited.
The primary focus is on understanding, protecting, and learning from other planetary systems.
Energy and materials for off-world projects come from truly sustainable sources rather than extractive industries.
Relations with Non-Human Life
Legal personhood is granted to key ecosystems, ensuring protection under law.
Humans form partnerships with animals rather than exploiting them.
AI and technology serve as tools for life-centered goals rather than extractive profit motives.
Domesticated animals are treated as partners and family members, with no factory farming or exploitation.
Conclusion: The Evolution of Humanity This civilization is not utopian in the traditional sense—it still has challenges, conflicts, and struggles. However, it is a society that actively works toward balance, adaptability, and deep care for life. It integrates the best of past cultures—both partnership and domination—while shedding what no longer serves. It embraces the unknown with curiosity rather than fear, evolving as an active participant in Earth’s ongoing story.
Global Ecological Overshoot: A Civilization Living Beyond Its Means
What Is Ecological Overshoot?
Ecological overshoot occurs when humanity’s demand for natural resources and ecosystem services exceeds the Earth’s capacity to regenerate them. This means we are consuming more than what nature can sustainably provide, depleting resources and degrading ecosystems faster than they can recover. Overshoot is driven by overconsumption, population growth, and economic systems that prioritize short-term profits over long-term sustainability.
The Core Issue: Biocapacity vs. Ecological Footprint
The Earth’s biocapacity is its ability to regenerate resources like forests, fisheries, soil, and fresh water while absorbing waste such as CO? emissions. Humanity’s ecological footprint measures how much land and sea area is needed to support our consumption and waste production. Overshoot happens when the global footprint surpasses biocapacity.
According to the Global Footprint Network, humans currently use the equivalent of 1.7 Earths each year. This means we deplete resources meant for future generations and weaken the planet’s ability to sustain life.
Signs of Overshoot
Resource Depletion – Overfishing, deforestation, soil degradation, freshwater scarcity, and the loss of biodiversity all point to unsustainable consumption.
Climate Disruption – Excessive CO? emissions from fossil fuels exceed the planet’s ability to absorb them, leading to global warming, extreme weather, and ocean acidification.
Loss of Ecosystem Services – Natural systems that provide food, clean air, and stable climate conditions are being eroded, increasing risks for future generations.
Overshoot Day – Each year, Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity has consumed more resources than the planet can regenerate in that year. This date has been creeping earlier over time, now landing in late July.
A Historical Perspective
Ecological overshoot is not new. Civilizations like the Maya, the Romans, and the Mesopotamians collapsed partly because they exceeded their environment’s capacity to sustain them. The difference today is that overshoot is happening globally rather than regionally, affecting ecosystems across the entire planet.
The Role of Economic Growth and Fossil Fuels
The industrial revolution, powered by fossil fuels, allowed humanity to temporarily surpass natural limits by using stored energy from millions of years ago. But this is a one-time carbon subsidy that cannot be replaced. Our current economic model depends on continuous growth, but infinite growth is impossible on a finite planet.
Possible Outcomes of Overshoot
Managed Decline (Degrowth & Sustainability) – A controlled reduction in consumption, population, and economic throughput to bring human demand within planetary boundaries.
Collapse – If overshoot continues unchecked, depletion of resources, ecosystem breakdown, and climate instability could lead to widespread food shortages, migration crises, and societal breakdown.
Technological Fixes? – Some argue that innovation, renewable energy, and efficiency improvements can solve overshoot, but without reducing consumption, these measures only delay the crisis.
Pathways to Sustainability
To avoid collapse, humanity needs a fundamental shift in how we live and organize society. Key strategies include:
Reducing Consumption – Prioritizing needs over wants, consuming less energy, and moving toward regenerative systems.
Rewilding and Regeneration – Restoring ecosystems, protecting biodiversity, and shifting to regenerative agriculture.
Energy Transition – Moving away from fossil fuels toward low-impact renewable energy while reducing overall energy demand.
Economic Transformation – Moving beyond GDP growth as a measure of success, implementing circular economies, and ensuring equitable distribution of resources.
Decentralized Resilience – Strengthening local economies, food systems, and governance to reduce dependence on global supply chains.
The Choice Before Us
Ecological overshoot is the defining challenge of our time. We are living in a moment of decision, where we can either transform our systems and lifestyles or continue down a path that leads to collapse. Recognizing overshoot as a systemic issue—rather than just a collection of environmental problems—is the first step toward meaningful action.
A sustainable future is possible, but it requires a profound shift in values, priorities, and ways of living. The question is not whether we will transition, but whether we do it by design or by disaster.
Naomi Klein is here talking about what many have pointed out: Fascism is doing within a country what colonialism did to other countries.
DOMINATION CULTURE TAKEN TO THE EXTREME
I find a bigger picture useful here: It’s all domination culture taken to the extreme.
On the partnership-domination culture spectrum, fascism and colonialism are extreme versions of the latter.
The way Israel treats Palestinians is an extreme expression of domination culture, just like the way the Nazis treated Jews – and many other minorities – was an extreme expression of domination culture. Hurt people hurt people. Traumatized people traumatize people. Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is trauma behavior, and it continues the cycle of trauma, hurt, and hurting. It will continue to play itself out in that part of the world.
With the new Trump presidency, we predictably again see an extreme version of domination culture play itself out.
In two weeks, he has already inflicted immense pain and suffering on a large number of people: Immigrants, trans people in the military, all the ones – children, refugees, the sick – who will not receive help from USAID, the federal employees who are fired, and so on.
As authoritarian leaders do, Trump uses dominance as a means to funnel resources to the already wealthy and powerful and to inflict suffering on everyone else, especially the ones opposing it.
DOMINATION CULTURE & COLLECTIVE TRAUMA
Why do people vote for someone like Trump? One answer is that it’s the same reason Israel commits systematic and horrific human rights violations against the Palestinians, and has done so for decades. It’s because hurt people hurt people. It’s trauma behavior.
They have been hurt by domination culture, in their families and by lacking opportunities in life. They hurt and are in pain. And they deal with it by siding with the oppressing dynamics. They justify these dynamics, support them, likely live them out in their own lives, and vote for someone who is living it out in an even more extreme way.
A FEW MORE WORDS ABOUT TRUMP AND THE US
There is a lot more to say about this and I’ll just touch on a few points.
It will lead to the erosion of the US empire. That’s Trump’s explicit agenda, so it’s not a surprise. He wants to isolate the US from the rest of the international community, and that – by definition – means the erosion and hastened end of the US empire. They won’t have the same strong position in the world as they did. Their former allies will find other alliances – for trade, security, and so on.
It also leads to the erosion within the US – of democracy and democratic institutions, of the legal system and justice, of the systems set in place to prevent corruption and abuse of power, of systems in place to help those least fortunate in society, and so on.
He is doing exactly what he said he would do. He is following the Project 2025 game plan to a T.
The ones voting for him are getting exactly what they voted for. The ones who would have voted against him, and didn’t, are getting exactly what that kind of inaction leads to. They are all getting exactly what they knew they would get. (At least if they had taken one minute to think it through.)
Why does he want to isolate the US and pull out of international agreements and institutions? Why does he want to undo all those systems of democracy, justice, and social safety nets?
It’s partly because he thinks he doesn’t need them. He is wealthy, his buddies are wealthy, and they’ll manage and do fine without it, which is true in a limited way.
Mainly, it’s because he is deeply suspicious of any kinds of agreements or systems that seem to benefit others.
ZERO-SUM VIEW
He operates from a zero-sum view of the world, which is a hallmark of domination culture. Everything is a limited resource. If you win, I lose, and if I win, you lose. So it’s better to be aggressive and use any means to make sure I win first. That’s his life in a nutshell.
He looks for how, imaginary or otherwise, he is losing if someone else is winning. He overlooks – and is deeply distrustful of – the ways we all may benefit from international agreements and institutions, and from systems of justice and social safety nets. (That said, not all international agreements and institutions benefit everyone. For instance, neo-liberal trade policies hurt the Global South and nature.)
He looks for ways to win in a way that makes others suffer because that’s what winning means to him. If others don’t visibly lose, it can’t be a real win.
This is also trauma behavior. It’s the view of someone deeply traumatized. It’s the life and outlook of someone deeply damaged by domination culture and how it played itself out in their own birth family.
THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN DOMINATION CULTURE
Where does this come from?
It’s not new. All of history is full of examples of domination culture, sometimes taken to an extreme.
That’s a clue in itself.
All cultures have elements of partnership and domination orientations, and the more extreme versions of domination culture came with the agricultural revolution.
Before agriculture, we were all indigenous. Our cultures were more on the partnership side of the spectrum. We lived in partnership with nature and the small number of people in our group. We saw ourselves as nature. We saw the sacred in everything and everyone. We lived with the seasons and what nature naturally provided. We had some hierarchies of course, typically based on skills, experience, and knowledge needed for survival. Nobody had a lot more than anyone else since it was not possible to accumulate much.
With agriculture came ownership – of land, animals, people, and resources in general. Some amassed large amounts of resources. This was a big departure from how we had lived before. So how could the ones with the new resources justify it? How could they get people to play along and even support this new system, even if they were at the bottom of the hierarchy?
They did it partly through ideologies. They imagined that… We are separate from nature. The sacred is removed from us and nature and is found in sky gods or the afterlife. Other species don’t feel and experience similar to us. Nature is unlimited in its resources. And so on.
They promoted hierarchies and inequality as divine will and justice. If you are lower on the hierarchy, it’s because of a fault of your own (lazy, karma), and if you don’t question it, you’ll get your reward in the afterlife.
This is domination culture. It’s all set up for domination – of land, animals, and people. It’s a culture of domination and control even of ourselves.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Many cultures even after the agricultural revolution were, and are, further on the partnership side of the scale. Modern Nordic countries are an example of social partnership orientation. (Although still a domination orientation with nature.)
GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT
This is all happening in a larger context:
All resources come from the commons shared by all life.
All of our resources, all wealth in society and among humans, come from the commons of Earth, it comes from the commons produced by all of life.
When we amass wealth, as we are at an increasing rate, we take resources from the web of life we are all part of.
Our collective ecological footprint is far larger than our planet. We are using far more resources than Earth can replenish. That’s similar to living on money from a savings account. When it reaches the bottom, our lifestyle comes crashing down.
When Earth is getting closer to the bottom of its savings account, which it already is and which is happening at an increased speed, civilization comes crashing down. Ecosystems unravel, and with them our civilization.
This is an expression of domination culture and a zero-sum view. Our modern civilization is built on zero-sum systems where we benefit in the short term at the cost of all of nature, future generations, and ultimately ourselves.
THE SOLUTION IS FOUND IN A DEEP PARTNERSHIP ORIENTATION
The remedy is found in a partnership orientation.
We can save ourselves by developing a genuine and deep partnership culture.
This is a culture where we… See ourselves as nature. See the sacred in everyone and everything. Acknowledge that all beings and natural systems have rights. Recognize that other species experience and feel much as we do. Create systems that take ecological realities into account.
It’s a culture with a deep partnership with nature, ourselves as nature, each other, and even future generations.
We seek win-win solutions where our life is sustained so everyone has the basics needed for a good life, and that regenerates ecosystems. We create systems where what’s easy and attractive to do is also what’s fair and regenerates this living planet.
We win. Society wins. Ecosystems win. Wildlife wins. Future generations win.
From a domination culture mindset, this seems naive. It will never happen. It can’t work. There are no such solutions. People won’t want to do it. This is one of the ways the domination mindset maintains itself. It defends itself by telling itself stories to justify itself and make alternatives seem naive and unrealistic.
WILL WE FIND THE COLLECTIVE WILL?
The reality is that we don’t have much of a choice.
If we are to survive – as a civilization and species – that’s our only real option. (The other option is collapse, a huge reduction in our population, and either learning from it or continuing with cycles of collapse until we as a species are gone.)
The reality is also that we have those solutions. We have workable win-win solutions, and we’ll find more if we collectively choose a more life-centered and partnership-oriented path.
Will we collectively choose to take that path? How far into the collapse do we need to go before we find that collective will?
How many will respond to the collapse with a solution-oriented and win-win mindset? How many will respond by going further into a domination and zero-sum mindset?
We don’t know, but we can live what we want to see in the world.
We can develop a more genuine and deep partnership mindset. We can find, join, and develop communities of like-minded people. We can speak up about all of this. We can find and promote win-win solutions. We can live some of the solutions in our own life.
When I am working with the food forest here on Milagros, I am aware of the connection with past and future generations.
WHAT IS A FOOD FOREST?
First, what is a food forest?
It’s a forest that produces food for wildlife and humans, and have some degree of human intervention.
That intervention can be minimal or extensive.
In some cases, we have an existing mature forest and we just encouarge certain types of plants, for instance by planting seeds or taking cuttings. This is what most of our ancestors did, to different extents.
In other cases, we have severely degraded land and create a food forest nearly from scratch, as we are doing in some areas here in Finca Milagros. Around the first house, the ground was barren apart from some trees. We left the trees and have improved the soil and planted in the barren areas.
Mostly, there is a combination of existing vegetation and intentional planting with the intention of mimicking – and creating – a healthy multi-layered forest ecosystem.
THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF FOOD FORESTS
It’s a good guess that our ancestors around the world often supported and encouraged forest plants that provided benfit for them, including food. If they found fruits, berries, and edible roots in the forest, why not plant the seeds and get more of them? Why not take some cuttings and plant them nearby?
Many if not most of the forests in the Americas were food forests, intentionally enhanced by humans encouraging the growth and spread of especially useful plants. It’s possible, or likely, that much of the biodiversity of the Amazon was encouraged and supported by humans.
In Europe, people planted fruit and nut trees and berry bushes in the forests and the edges of forests. (There are still examples of this in the forest I grew up next to in Norway, even if it’s largely a plantation forest now.)
In Asia and Africa, they have traditional multi-layered gardens and groves producing food for the community.
It makes sense to work in partnership with nature in this way. It’s relatively low effort and can yield an abundance of food. So it’s not surprising if it’s what people have been doing for thousands of years around the world.
DOMINATION & PARTNERSHIP CULTURES
With the agricultural revolution came the ability to own land, animals, things, money, and even people.
This needed to be justified and some developed a worldview and set of assumptions to do just that. This created a domination culture. Here are some of the essential assumptions: We are separate from nature. Nature is here for our use. Nature is inifinite. We are more important than other species and ecosystems.The sacred is “out there” in a sky god or the afterlife. Nature is “out there” and an appendix and source of resources.
One expression of domination culture is modern agriculture. It’s typically a monoculture which creates an ecological desert. It’s highly resource intensive and requires input of chemical fertilizers, toxins, gasoline, and so on. It depletes and destroys the soil. It causes erosion and loss of soil. It takes away habitt for wildlife. It poisons the soil, water, air, and the bodies of all living beings.
Before the agricultural revolution, we were all indigenous and we had more of a partnership orientation: We are nature. Everyone and everything is sacred. We are part of the web of life. We share the resources of life with all life. What happens with the web of life happens to us.
One expression of a partnership orientation is food forests. In a food forest, we work in partnership with nature. We mimick, create, and support a healthy multi-layered forest ecosystem. It provides an abundance of food for us and the wildlife. It creates habitat for wildlife. We use organic compost and manure. The diversity and health of the ecosystem limits insect and disease problems.
This is a obviously a simplification but there is something to it.
ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT
Through the last few centuries of Western domination culture, we have been very successful in taking natural resources from the commons of life and using them for our own benefit. We have developed science and technology, and refined our worldviews and assumptions to do just that.
This has led to global ecological overshoot. We are collectively using far more resources than Earth can replenish. That’s similar to living off a savings account that goes in minus every day. Eventually, it all comes crashing down, and we are seeing the signs of that all around us these days.
To deal with this, we need a profound transformation of our civilization. We need an economic system that takes ecological realitites into account. We need systems of production, transportation, and so on that do the same. We need a shift in focus for our public discourse, media, education, and more. We need a shift in our worldview from domination and in the direction of partnership.
That’s a tall order and there is no guarantee that we collectively will make this shift.
What we can do is to support and emobody aspects of this shift in our own life and in our communities.
A PARTNERSHIP APPROACH
There is a deep partnership orientation behind developing a food forest.
It’s a partnership with nature. We mimic healthy forest ecosystems and work in partnership with the processes and ecological wisdom of nature.
It’s a partnership with the community here and around the world. Locally, we are inspired by what others do, learn from them, and even receive seeds and seedlings from them. Globally, I am learning a lot from the experiences of others shared in videos, podcasts, and books. I hope we can give back in time, as this food forest matures and we learn more.
It’s a partnership with modern science and knowledge. We take whatever knowledge, insights, methods, and practices from modern science and agricultural practices that makes sense.
More to the point in this context…
It’s a partnership with our ancestors from around the world who developed and benefited from food forests. Their knowledge is passed on and helps our project, and they are with me, at the very least in my imagination and in my inner community, and I feel inspired and supported by them.
It’s a partnership with future generations of humans, non-humans, and ecosystems. I hope that this food forest can benefit this community and the local wildlife for generations to come. I hope that it can, in its own small way, inspire others to do the same. I hope it can be a small part of creating a more life-centered civilization for future generations.
A VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Food forests have ancient roots, and they also show the way to an abundant and life-centered future.
I have a vision of a future that’s more partnership oriented and that has a focus on regeneration, polycultures, and food forests.
In this world…
Our systems take ecological realities into account. They are set up so what’s easy and attractive to do also supports regeneration. This goes for all our systems, including economy, production, transportation, food, energy, water, and so on.
There is a focus on regeneration everywhere – in gardens, parks, forests, agriculture, oceans.
We mostly use a partnership orientation – a partnership with nature, our community, science, technology, indigenous perspectives, and, in its own way, with ancestors and future generations.
Food is produced in ecosystems that support life, in polycultures, food forests, and similar.
There is a much stronger focus on bioregions, the bioregion we live within, and largely living within our bioregion in terms of travel, food, and products.
We are aware that what’s produced by life is for life. It’s all part of a commons we share with all life.
Ecosystems are becoming more lush, diverse and full of life. Some areas are set aside as wilderness areas with limited human presence and intervention. Other areas are used for food production, in a way that supports wildlife.
Houses are built with natural, local or other ecologically sound materials. There is an emphasis on quality of life, walkable communities, shared spaces, tools and vehicles, and public transporation. Food, energy, and much of what’s needed for daily living is produced locally and in the bioregion.
There is an awareness that our population needs to be small enough to be easily sustained by Earth alongside all other life.
Ecology is the context for everything – education, media, economy, business, and so on. We understand that we are all part of a much larger web of life, and what happens with this web of life happens to us.
Education has a stronger emphasis on ecological literacy, hands-on experience and learning, and so on.
Spirituality is more ecologically informed. Ecospirituality has become a far more important and prominent strain within the different religions, and spirituality informed by ecology and science outside of religions is also more common, along with earth- and life-centered rituals.
It’s important to have these kinds of visions to remind ourselves of what’s possible, what direction we want to move in, and what we want to live in our own life. We can all bring some of this into our own life and live some of the solutions.
THE ACTUAL FUTURE?
That’s one of many possible visions, and a very general one at that.
When it comes to the actual future, we know that we cannot know for certain and that we will be surprised.
Judging from the inaction we see today, it’s very likely that our ecological crisis will become far more severe and acute and will strongly impact just about everyone. It’s likely that many will die as a consequence drought, floods, wildfire, hunger, lack of clean water, resource-related wars, and so on. It’s also likely that the polarization we see in the world today will continue or worsen.
No matter what happens, it makes sense for us as individuals and communities to live the solutions to the extent we are able. It’s the only sane way to live.
WHAT WE CAN DO
So what can we do? What am I doing?
I am educating myself, seek out solutions, and I am in the fortunate situation where we are developing a food forest on our land in the Andes.
If we don’t have a large piece of land, there is still a lot we can do. We can develop our own small food forest in our garden, maybe starting with one small section. We can grow food on our balcony and plant flowers for insects and birds. We can join regeneration or food forest community projects. We can join political parties working for this, which in most places would be the Green Party. We can join online communities. We can educate ourselves.
All of this makes us part of the solution.
By doing this, we are changing a small part of the world and we never know the ripple effects. Without knowing it, we may inspire someone who inspires someone… and that’s how the world changes. (I know I have been profoundly inspired by people who never knew.)
As an individual, we may not significantly change the world, but we can change our world, and that makes it more than worth it.
This is terrible and highlights several things about our current climate and ecological crisis.
More frequent natural disasters. We have always experienced disasters of different kinds, including natural disasters, and with the changing climate and our ecological crisis, they are becoming more frequent. We are just seeing the beginning of it.
Wealth insulates up to a point. Wealth can insulate us but only sometimes and up to a point. In this case, I highly doubt it helped. In the longer run, wealth won’t save any of us from increasingly severe and dramatic changes to the living systems we are all part of.
A wake-up call? I wonder if these kinds of events serve as a wake-up call for some, both in terms of the severity of the situation we are in and how ill-prepared we are for it. Some may even realize the systemic problems that require systemic solutions.
The poor are hit hardest. Those with already very little are the ones hardest hit by natural disasters. They can’t buy themselves out of it. They don’t have the resources to avoid it or recover from it.
Our only real solutions are collective. We are in the same boat here. We have all contributed to the climate and ecological crisis since we are part of this system. It’s all our responsibility (apart from the ones struggling to survive) to create a system that’s ecologically sound and has regeneration – of nature, society, and people – as its focus. We get through it collectively, or none of us will.
Looking beyond our human-centered view. These situations are an opportunity to look beyond our usual anthropocentric view. Millions if not billions of living beings are impacted by these natural disasters, as much if not more than us. When we work to change our system to prevent an excess of them in the future, we do it for all of us. We do it for all life, not just our own species.
I have written about this several times before (including in my teens), although I keep revisiting it to help myself process it.
It’s pretty simple:
WE ARE NATURE
This living planet is a seamless system. It’s nearly infinitely abundant if allowed to be, and it also has limits.
We are a part of this living planet. We are nature. We are local and temporary expressions of this living, dynamic, adapting, evolving, system.
Our life and everyone and everything we care about is part of this living system. We are, and all is, dependent on the health of this living system. What happens to nature happens to us and all we care about.
WE ARE IN GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT
We have an economic system – and a civilization in general – that assumes separation and infinite nature. We assume we are separate from nature, and that nature has infinite resources and infinite capacity to absorb the toxins and waste of our civilization.
This assumption, combined with our numbers and technology, means we are in a global ecological overshoot. We use more resources than Earth can replenish. This is similar to living off money in a savings account. It looks fine for a while, and when we reach bottom, our lifestyle comes crashing down.
In this case, our lives may come crashing down too.
We know how to reduce our collective ecological overshoot. We know how to live well, and more than well, within the limits of this planet, and we know how to support the living systems in creating more and more abundance. There is no lack of attractive alternatives. The question is our collective will.
THE REAL CONTEXT FOR OUR LIVES AND CIVILIZATION
This is the real context for our lives, our civilization, and everyone and everything we care about.
In a sane world, it would be the conscious context for all our activities – economy, education, growing food, energy, art, music, movies, culture, news and media, and so on.
Our economic system would be aligned with ecological realities and set it up so what’s easy and attractive to do is also ecologically sound and supports life and the lives of future generations.
Our education would place ecology as the context for everything and our first priority.
Our news and media would see ecology as the context of everything, which it is, and prioritize it over other topics.
WHY IS IT NOT THE ONE OVERARCHING ISSUE FOR ALL OF US?
Why is it not like this?
We know that the living systems of this planet are unraveling because of the activities of our civilization.
We know we are nature and that we – and everyone and everything we care about – are 100% dependent on the health of the larger living systems we are part of.
We know we need profound changes to become a more ecologically sound civilization.
We know solutions that will benefit and create a higher quality of life for everyone.
So why don’t we collectively do what we need to do in order to survive? Why do we not do what’s needed for our descendants to have a good, or even decent, life?
SOME REASONS WHY
Some may…
Think we still have time. It’s not urgent. If politicians, the media, and my friends and neighbors don’t treat it as urgent, it must not be urgent. (We don’t have time, we are reaching critical tipping points.)
Think others will do it. Politicians, corporations, the market, scientists, or future generations will do it. I can just live my life as before and leave it to them. They know better anyway. (This is about all of us, we cannot expect others to do it.)
See it as a sacrifice. To make these changes, we’ll need to sacrifice so it’s best to wait until it’s necessary, or see if it will be necessary. (In reality, the real solutions are win-win-win solutions that improve the quality of our lives.)
Assume it will impact others, not me. It will impact those who don’t have much resources to prepare, adapt, and move. It will impact the poor in the world, not me. (Yes, it will first impact the poor, and then everyone including you and your children.)
Think nature is out there, as a kind of appendix or luxury, and I am here. What happens to nature doesn’t impact me much. They are so detached from reality, and so far into the imagined separation, that they don’t realize that we are nature and that what happens to nature happens to us.
Think there will be a technological solution. This is another version of “others will take care of it” and it’s misguided since what’s required is a profound and deepening transformation of our civilization, in all aspects of life and thought.
Think we just need to tweak something here and there. They don’t understand how serious the situation is and the profound changes required to do something about it. They are in denial.
Have other priorities. They see other and more immediate things as more important: Work, relationships, children, entertainment, enjoyment. They don’t realize that the web of life is what makes it all possible and is, whether we notice or not, the main priority. If we care about anything, we care about the web of life we are part of, whether we notice or not.
Don’t trust science and scientists and the ones concerned about this. For whatever reason, they don’t trust the ones who have decades of their lives to understand what’s happening with the world and what they have found and tell us about. They think that their views are equal to the views of experts.
Misdiagnose the problem. They see politicians, corporations, or greed as the problem. They overlook the systemic reasons for the situation we are in. They overlook that we have a civilization and economic system that assumes infinite nature.
Feel blamed and guilty so go into reactivity, denial, and blame. They blame themselves, are uncomfortable with it, and react to it in a variety of ways. They don’t realize that the problem is with our system and our worldview and we are all in the same boat. By living in this system, which just about all of us do, we participate in the destruction of the web of life. That’s inevitable and it applies to all of us, no matter whether we recycle or take the train or whatever we do or don’t do.
Need to focus on surviving from day to day. They don’t have extra resources to consider these things, or at least do something about it. (This is one of the self-regulating and self-preserving dynamics of our current system. The more people who live in this way, the fewer people who have the resources to question and try to change the system.)
Feel that these concerns don’t fit their identity and image. These are the concerns of hippies, treehuggers, newagers, liberals, and generally feeble-minded people. It’s not for me. I don’t want to be like them. I don’t want to be in the same category as them. (This is something that impacts all of us equally, and all of our children, independent of whatever labels we put on ourselves and others.)
SOME SOLUTIONS
Emphasize that…
This is a systemic problem and we are all part of the problem and potentially the solution. It’s not about blame or guilt or someone being better than anyone else. We are all in the same boat here.
We are nature. What happens to nature happens to us. (Nature is not something “out there”, it’s equally in here and what we are and live.)
We don’t have time. The situation is critical enough so we need to do something now. We cannot wait for the future or for someone else in the future to do it.
We are all part of the solution if we choose to be. This is not about others doing it. This involves all of us. Nobody is left out.
If we care about anything at all, we care about the web of life we are part of. This living system is what makes it all possible. The combined caring for everyone and everything we care about it our actual caring for this web of life, whether we notice or not, and that’s important to notice.
We already have win-win-win solutions. It doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game, the way it has often been presented. Food forests are an example of solutions that produce an abundance of food, greatly help wildlife and our ecosystem, and are profoundly enjoyable for us to experience and be part of.
Since it’s a systems problem, we need systems solutions. We need to transform our whole civilization to be more ecologically informed, aligned, and sound. There is not just one way to do this. We can all contribute and find our own flavor.
A FEW OTHER PERSPECTIVES
I have written about other sides to this in other articles: What we can do as individuals. Using the world as a mirror (projection/shadow work). Recognizing that we are all part of this much larger living system. And so on.
I am curious about a healthy and deep conservatism.
What are the characteristics of this more essential form of conservatism?
WHAT IS IT NOT
First, what it is not?
For me, it’s not Trump’s version of conservatism. He is not conservative. He is a nationalist populist.
It’s not the version of conservatism that’s reactionary, bigoted, and anti-science.
It’s not the version of conservatism that is narrow-mindedly out to protect the privilege of the already privileged and idealizes a past that worked for some and didn’t work for many.
It’s not the version of conservatism that’s neo-liberal and in the pocket of big business and big money, and wants to continue to funnel money, resources, and power to the already wealthy at the cost of everyone else.
For me, these are all caricatures and corruptions of conservatism. They are, at best, shallow forms of conservatism.
THE ESSENCE OF A HEALTHY AND DEEP CONSERVATISM
What’s the essence of a healthy and deep conservatism?
For me, it is to…
Support life, all of life, this living planet, and the web of life we all are part of.
Keep future generations in mind and give them the best chance of a good and fulfilling life. It comes from a deep-time perspective.
Respect and follow science while knowing that the content of science always changes with new knowledge and understanding.
See the sacred in all life, in everyone and everything.
Support and strengthen indigenous cultures and languages, and learn from their knowledge and perspectives.
Include and support minorities and the weakest in society. These groups have valuable perspectives and knowledge that enriches and benefits society as a whole.
Support good social safety nets. This is humane and creates a more stable and safe society for everyone.
Strengthens local communities. We need healthy communities and strong community ties to flourish as individuals, families, and humanity.
Recognize that stories are questions about the world. (That includes any religious texts and stories.)
A HEALTHIER VERSION OF CONSERVATISM
For me, this is a healthier version of conservatism.
It’s a conservatism that’s more fundamentally life-centered.
It’s a conservatism that wishes to protect what’s most valuable to us, which is life itself.
DEEP CONSERVATISM
This is deep conservatism.
Much of what goes for conservatism in the world today is superficial. It’s short-sighted, bigoted, out to protect the interests of the privileged, and so on.
What I outline above is a deeper and more real form of conservatism, as I see it. It reflects a deeper and more genuinely life-centered essence of conservatism.
WHEN DEEPLY LIFE-CENTERED, LEFT AND RIGHT CONVERGE
When we are grounded in a deep time and big picture orientation and are life-centered, the progressive and conservative converge. Something deeper ties us together. The flavor and emphasis may be slightly different, but the essence – the goals, views, considerations, and priorities – are largely the same.
That’s why I love deep time and big picture views, systems views, integral approaches, and so on. They work whether we have a progressive or conservative orientation. They bring us together, as long as we leave behind the superficial versions of these and find what’s more real and important.
When healthy and deep, left and right converge because they are healthy and deep.
A GREEN ORIENTATION INCLUDES THE PROGRESSIVE AND CONSERVATIVE
This is why a green political orientation often includes elements from both left and right.
From a deeper and more life-centered perspective, both are included and embraced.
It’s about what’s healthy and deep, not so much about what’s left and right.
A PERSONAL NOTE
I see myself as conservative in an essential way, as outlined above, although most people who know me would not label me as conservative in a conventional sense.
So why do I explore this? It’s because I know I have a conservative side and I want to explore how a healthy conservatism can look. I want to embrace and include that side of me too.
I also know that this definition of conservatism may piss off many conservatives and liberals, and a part of me enjoys that, especially since I genuinely see this as a healthy version of deep conservatism.
I feel it’s important to speak up for this version of conservatism.
It’s also important to see that when healthy and deep, left and right are flavors of that more healthy and deep orientation.
We don’t know anything for certain about the future.
The only thing we know is that it won’t be as we expect. Even if we get the big picture right – which is not a given – it will be different in the details, and living it is always different from imagining it.
THE CURRENT PICTURE
That said, we know we are in global ecological overshoot, we know what will happen if we continue the overshoot, and we know that we collectively are not doing nearly enough to change it.
That’s a pretty dismal image of the future, and it’s unfortunately rooted in data, science, and what we see in the world today.
Unless we find the collective will to change, and to make profound changes to all aspects of our civilization and lives, we are headed for collapse.
We are already in that collapse, it’s just that some of us have the privilege to imagine otherwise, or we need all our resources to deal with the challenges of daily life.
GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT
What is global ecological overshoot?
It’s when we collectively use more natural resources than this living planet can replenish.
And it’s when we emit more pollution of all kinds than the natural systems can deal with gracefully, without being severely disrupted and impacted.
That’s already happening. We need more than one Earth to deal with the activities of our civilization. If we all lived like we do in industrialized countries, we would need several Earths.
This is similar to living on a savings account and spending more than the interest that replenishes it. It looks fine as long as there is money left. We can still live our lives as normal, while perhaps ignoring warnings from people who see the savings going down. When we hit the bottom of the account, our lifestyle comes crashing down.
We are currently close to the fuzzy bottom of our ecological savings account. We are seeing the signs all around us: unraveling ecosystems, massive loss of species, massive loss of different types of ecosystems, extreme weather, and so on. We also know that the oceans may die, the ocean currents may shift, we’ll have more desertification, coastal areas will flood, and so on.
THE PRIMARY AND OVERARCHING ISSUE
We are nature. We are ephemeral and local expressions of the living systems of this planet.
What happens to these living systems happens to us.
That means that this – our global ecological overshoot – is the primary and overarching issue in our times.
It’s the context for our lives and everything we care about.
Nothing is even close since everything else happens within this context.
WHY IS THIS NOT THE MAIN ISSUE?
It seems pretty simple and easy to grasp.
So why is it not the main issue for us collectively?
Why are those of us concerned about this still on the margins and in the minority?
As usual, there are probably many answers:
It can seem too big and overwhelming. I am just one person and can’t fix it on my own, so it’s easier to focus on other things.
It may seem too abstract anddistant. It’s global so perhaps difficult to grasp for some. It may seem like something that’s happening in other places or in the future. It’s not so relevant to me.
We may have more pressing and urgent things to take care of. If we live from paycheck to paycheck, or below or close to the poverty line, we may not have the resources – mental and otherwise – to learn and be concerned about this. Billions of people live in this situation.
We may be caught up in too much trauma and reactivity to take in, analyze, and respond to the situation. We chose trauma reaction over the bigger picture and don’t seem to have much choice.
We may misdiagnose the problem. We may think the problem is with corporations, politicians, capitalism, or greed. If so, we may not find effective solutions.
Some may think they know how it will unfold. They think they know we are headed into collapse, or that we’ll get through it. In either case, that imaginary knowing may lead to inactivity.
We may think we can tweak a few things here and there and that’s enough. We don’t realize that what’s required is a profound change in all aspects of our civilization. We need systems that take ecological realities into account.
We may expect a technological solution. We just need to improve solar power or find some new amazing technology, and that will solve our problems. (It won’t.)
A few even rely on some kind of technologically based geo-engineering, which is almost guaranteed to create more problems than it solves. We understand far too little about the complexities of our living systems to do that successfully. (It will likely always be that way.) The only geo-engineering we know works is regeneration, reforesting (with a diversity of native species), regenerative agriculture, and similar.
We may think that the changes involve too much sacrifice. Yes, we have to sacrifice a lot that’s familiar, but the real solutions are win-win solutions that benefit us along with ecosystems and future generations. They involve healthier foods, far more diverse and vibrant nature within and around our communities, the return of forests and wildlife, and so on. What we sacrifice is nothing compared to what we gain.
A few may have some kind of religious idea about it that prevents engagement and action. They may wait for a savior, or see it as a welcome apocalypse, or expect aliens to intervene, or something similar.
It may not fit our identity. We may see concerns about ecology as something for hippies, liberals, or progressives, so we don’t want to touch it with a mile-long stick. We want to distance ourselves from it as much as possible. We dismiss, ridicule, or ignore it.
WILL WE CHANGE IN TIME?
The big question is if we’ll collectively change in time.
How much change are we talking about? If we are to change to become ecologically sound and sustainable, that requires a profound and thorough change of all aspects of our society, culture, and civilization. That’s a tall order.
What do we mean by “in time“? We are already far into the destabilization of the Earth systems, and it will get worse before it gets better, even with massive changes in how we organize our lives.
For a long time, I assumed people were smart, informed, and flexible enough to change when the scale and severity of our ecological crisis was more clear. Now, it is inescapable and there is very little response and few signs that we collectively understand the severity of the situation or are willing to make the necessary changes.
What we are seeing instead is increased fragmentation and the same old distractions and focus on minor issues compared to this overarching one. In the US, we have just seen that a large segment of the population is willing to support an authoritarian populist who explicitly wants to undo any kind of environmental regulations and attempts to slow down the destruction of our life support systems.
COLLAPSE ACCEPTANCE
Even if we cannot know anything for certain about the future, It’s good to find acceptance for the possibility of a collapse.
It’s possible that within the lifetime of many of us alive today, we’ll see a far more dramatic unraveling of our ecosystems and with it, the unraveling of our civilization.
Realizing that can bring up a lot of grief, at least at first, along with anger, hopelessness, not giving a fuck, and so on. We will likely go through the many aspects and phases of grief, and it will visit again in new waves.
It’s important to feel all of that. This is the grief of this living system – through its temporal and local aspect that’s us – grieving itself. It’s healthy and natural and allows us to move on.
We may eventually find a kind of acceptance of collapse.
WHAT COMES TOGETHER FALLS APART
What comes together falls apart.
Everyone and everything we know has come together and will fall apart.
It’s not a question of if but when. In a sense, it has already happened. It’s inevitable.
In that context, when it happens matters less – whether it happens within a few decades or centuries or millennia.
For me, it may well go away when this human self goes away. The world may turn off.
We also know that death leads to new life.
The death of stars led to this living planet. The death of species made space for new species. The death of individuals gives space to new individuals. The death of civilizations has made space for new civilizations.
Everything is change. Change is what allows anything new to exist. It’s what allows this moment to exist.
Another word for change is death. The death of all previous moments allows this moment to be. The death of everything that has been allows what’s here to be.
Death may seem terrible from an exclusively individual perspective, and it’s also what allows everyone and everything we know to be here. We wouldn’t be here without it.
It’s the cost of everything being at all. It’s what allows anything to be.
A GOOD PLACE TO LIVE AND MOVE FROM
Collapse acceptance is a good place to live and move from.
It’s realistic. Acceptance means we don’t mentally fight with it so much.
It can help us set our priorities straight. We won’t so easily get distracted by minor issues and the many manifestations of the collapse.
We can find a deeper and more genuine gratitude for what’s here now. We may more fully appreciate the wonders of what’s here.
It gives us a context for our lives. It can even give us a direction.
We know we don’t know for certain. We don’t know what will happen or how it will look.
WHAT WE CAN DO AS INDIVIDUALS
What can we do?
Here are some things I find helpful for me:
Learning about ecological footprint and overshoot and what’s required to significantly reduce our collective footprint. Learn about the solutions.
Learning about the collapse of civilizations and how it looks. (Some will be similar and some different, especially since this is a global civilization.) Expect political instability, social fragmentation, an upsurge in conspiracy theories, radicalism, fascism, nationalism, disinformation, denial, and so on. It’s part of the process.
Identifying and questioning stressful thoughts. (The Work of Byron Katie.)
Setting aside time for nourishing movement. (Qigong, tai chi, Brema, dance.)
Setting aside time for somatic tension release. I like Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE).
Doing an all-inclusive gratitude practice, at least now and then. (“I am grateful for…”). I include everything, including what my personality is not so easily grateful for.
Exploring heart-centered practices. I find tonglen most helpful and effective, and also ho’oponopno.
Finding communities of like-minded people, especially the ones focusing on living some of the solutions. (I happen to like the ecospirituality and permaculture communities.)
Creating ties within my actual IRL community. Finding people growing food and buy from them. Finding likeminded people. Create close connections that benefit you and them now and possibly later.
Finding life-centered worldviews and explore how it is to live from them. My favorites are the Universe Story, the Epic of Evolution, Deep Ecology, systems views, and integral models.
These also help me come to terms with death at all scales – from planets to individuals. Death is what gives space for something new and different. We are here because of the death of stars, ecosystems, and species. Our death will give space for new ecosystems, species, and individuals.
Focusing on the solutions and living them, even if it’s just one or a few. This gives momentum and hope.
If appropriate and possible, it can make sense to move to a location that’s more conducive to weathering the coming changes. For instance, a place where it’s easier to grow food and where there are many interested in regeneration and similar solutions.
I moved to a small town in the Andes where there is an international community of people interested in these kinds of things. We are fortunate to be stewards of some land here, and we are developing a food forest, collecting rainwater, installing composting toilets, planning to get a woodburning stove, and so on. We are also helping this land regenerate and reforest, and are creating good connections in the process.
We are also creating ties within this community. The more people we know, and the closer the personal ties, the better we may be able to navigate what’s coming.
I also find it helpful to notice my nature and explore living from that noticing. To myself, I am fundamentally consciousness, and the world, as it appears to me, happens within and as the consciousness I am. This helps soften and release identifications with and as something in particular within the world. It gives a different context for it all.
WHAT WE CAN DO AS GROUPS
At a group level, we have the opportunity to do more.
Communities are immensely important in times of crisis. We need to rely on each other for support and practical assistance. It’s important to create good community ties before the crisis happens and to create a culture where we help and support each other.
It’s also important to identify the most vulnerable in the community and help them.
It’s also important to be mostly self-reliant at the community level – with food, water, fuel, healthcare, and other basics.
One of the main things we can do is regeneration – of gardens, parks, forests, and degraded land everywhere.
Where we live in the Andes, many collecting rainwater, grow food without chemicals (including in food forests), learn about and practice regeneration, and so on. All of this will be extra important in the coming decades.
HOW IT MAY LOOK
How may the collapse look?
I imagine there will be an increasing divergence between those still in denial and those who acknowledge what’s going on and seek practical solutions.
There will be mass migrations, and people opposing these migrations.
Some will go further into reactivity, anger, scapegoating, nationalism, fascism, conspiracy theories, and zero-sum solutions.
There will be increased political instability and social fragmentation.
In many places, there may be a shift from national to local governance.
There will be more extreme weather, including drought and flooding.
There will be famine and scarcity of clean water.
There will be more small communities focusing on living the solutions, including creating polycultures and food forests. Some regions may also do this if enough people are on the same wavelength.
Many have already died, and more will. How many is anyone’s guess.
Some may survive and live in a different world, but who and where and how many is an open question. It also depends on how far our global living system will shift and how livable it will be for creatures like us.
I have written about this before, but thought I would revisit it briefly.
When I look at the public discourse in general, and especially the public discourse about our ecological situation, I see a lot of distractions and misconceptions.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LIVING SYSTEMS OF THIS PLANET
The main misconception is the importance and role of the living systems of this planet.
In the public discourse and in the media, it’s often prioritized after a long list of other issues, and it’s often framed as one of many topics.
I assume this is because of our idea that we are separate from nature and have a dominant relationship with nature. This makes us feel insulated from what happens with the planet, and we also secretly think we can control and manage it, whatever happens. This is a typical Western, and increasingly global, imagination. Ultimately, it’s an ecocidal and suicidal imagination.
In reality, the condition of the living systems of this planet and our relationship with it is the one topic that encompasses everything else. It’s the context for our lives and everything we care about. We can’t talk about anything without also talking about that.
We are nature. What happens to this living planet happens to us.
If we were more aligned with our ecological reality, it would not only be our priority, it would be the frame for every other issue and topic.
GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT VS CLIMATE CHANGE
If the media and politicians focus on ecology, it tends to be climate change. The petroleum industry has known about climate change for decades and has also been successful in its strategy of sowing doubt and creating confusion which contributes to inactivity. Both are well documented.
I remember a conversation I had with a teacher in high school in the ’80s. During a break, he wanted to discuss whether there is human-created climate change or not. I said that in the big picture, it doesn’t matter. We need to make the same changes anyway. It’s a distraction.
That’s how I still see it.
Yes, the activities of our civilization have nudged our planetary system in a direction where it retains more heat, which has massive consequences.
Science shows us that, and it’s also easy to understand: We have a thin atmosphere. We are 8+ billion people with powerful technology, much of which releases certain gasses into the atmosphere that we know let through light (sunlight) and retains heat (what much of sunlight converts to when it hits matter).
That combination inevitably creates a greenhouse effect, and it can create a runaway greenhouse effect.
But since there is confusion about this, let’s not use that as our main focus or argument for the need for profound change. A much better argument is our collective ecological footprint.
This living planet is unable to replace as much as we use and deal with the waste we create. We are in a global ecological overshoot. This is similar to living off a savings account with less coming in than we spend. At some point, we reach the bottom and our lifestyle comes crashing down.
What we see in the world today is our ecological savings account going down fast. When we reach the bottom, which is fuzzy in this case, not only will our lifestyle come crashing down but our lives may crash down with it.
That’s not hyperbole. That’s simple logic. If we continue as before, there is no other way it can play itself out.
WHAT’S THE CAUSE OF OUR ECOLOGICAL CRISIS?
Before we can successfully deal with a problem, we have to have some level of understanding. We need to diagnose it correctly. So what’s the underlying cause of our current ecological crisis?
Why are we in a global ecological overshoot?
Some seem to blame corporations and politicians. Say that was true: Who voted for the politicians? Who supports the corporations with their money? It’s us.
This is a systemic problem. We have a civilization built on the idea of separation and domination.
We are separate from nature. We are more important than nature. Nature is here for our use. Nature is infinite. It’s our right to dominate nature. The sacred is “out there” in the sky, in a sky god, in the afterlife. Humans have souls and other beings don’t. We understand things better by taking them apart, by separating them from all the other things they belong to.
Every aspect of our civilization, including the minds of individuals, reflects this worldview. We have all internalized it, at least to some extent.
The origin of this worldview, at least in its modern form, is likely the agricultural revolution and our newfound ability to amass wealth and control land, plants, animals, and some humans. Before then, we were all indigenous. We lived in small groups. Were more or less equal, apart from in experience and knowledge. Saw ourselves as nature. Saw the sacred in everyone and everything.
That’s the deeper reason for our ecological crisis. It’s the predictable outcome of such an orientation, especially combined with large numbers of us and advanced technology.
We are all part of this system. Even if we recycle, eat vegetarian, avoid toxins, take bus and train, and so on, our lives are still destructive for the living systems we are part of. It’s inevitable since we live within this system.
It’s not about corporations or politicians. It’s about all of us.
It’s not about greed. It’s about a system based on fundamentally flawed assumptions about reality.
THE MISMATCH BETWEEN OUR GLOBAL SITUATION AND WHAT WE EVOLVED TO DEAL WITH
We evolved to live in small groups and deal with our immediate surroundings and relatively short timespans. At most, we needed to think one or a few seasons ahead.
These days, our challenges are global and play themselves out over decades and centuries.
Our bodies and minds have evolved to deal with the world of our relatively distant ancestors, and we are born into a very different world.
I suspect this is a big part of why we collectively are not even close to taking this seriously enough or doing enough about it. Collectively, we are distracted by anything and everything else, we are mostly focused on fragments of the bigger picture, and we operate on relatively short timespans.
A FEW MORE DISTRACTIONS
I thought I would mention a few other distractions and misconceptions.
(a) Some think we’ll find a technological solution. Technology will be part of the many solutions, but it’s not enough in itself, and it’s not even what’s most important.
What’s most important is our collective will. Will we find a collective will to make the needed change? Will enough of us recognize that the problem is systemic and that we need a thorough transformation of every aspect of our civilization?
(b) Some think it’s not that serious.
This is about the living system we are all part of. The living system we fully depend on for our existence and quality of life. The living system we are fleeting and local expressions of. The living system that not only gives us our life but everyone and everything we care about. What can be more important than that?
(c) Some think others will do it.
We are all part of the problem. This is about all of us. If we don’t make changes in our own lives, how can we expect a change?
(d) Some think we still have time.
What we do today has impacts decades, centuries, and even millennia into the future. Some of it has impacts forever, for instance with extinctions of species and whole ecosystems. We cannot wait.
Also, we are already far into this global ecological crisis. It’s already unfolding all around us and within us (plastics and toxins in the bodies of all living beings including ourselves). We cannot wait.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
We can start by…
… educating ourselves about ecology, sustainability, life-centered solutions, etc.
… identifying and questioning our worldview, finding what’s more aligned with our ecological reality, and exploring living from that. I find the Universe Story, Epic of Evolution, systems views, integral models, deep ecology, ecospirituality, and Practices to Reconnect inspiring and helpful.
… finding like-minded communities and individuals. It’s easier to make changes with the support of a community. It’s inspiring, we share experiences and knowledge, we can help each other in practical ways, and so on.
… living some of the solutions in our own life. Make it real to you by making it real in your life. By doing so, we create momentum, become part of the solution, and give ourselves hope.
… and making sure there is some balance between (a) focusing on and learning about the problems (useful up to a point), and (b) focusing on, learning about, and living some of the solutions. If we focus too much on the many challenges in the world, it can lead to frustration and burnout. If we focus one-sidedly on what appears as solutions, we may engage in solutions that are less grounded in reality.
PARTNERSHIP WITH NATURE
Since most of our collective challenges come from an orientation of separation and domination, the medicine is found in an orientation of connection and partnership.
There is inevitably always some of each, and these days, we need an infusion of the latter.
This can be applied in all areas of society and our life.
FOOD PRODUCTION FROM DOMINATION VS PARTNERSHIP MINDSETS
I am mostly focused on food production and regeneration these days, which are major pieces of the puzzle.
Modern food production comes from a domination mindset, with monocultures, dependence on huge energy inputs, use of chemical fertilizers and toxins, depletion of the soil, destruction of wildlife habitat, suffering of domestic animals, poisoning of insects, birds, animals, water, soil, and air, and much more. It’s food production from a zero-sum mindset where a small temporary gain (food) comes at the expense of massive ecological destruction.
The soil, ecosystems, and our health become worse over time. It’s a downward spiral.
Food production from a partnership mindset is different. It’s typically polyculture, uses non-toxic methods, includes as many natives as possible, focuses on and improves soil health, provides wildlife habitat, and more. It comes from a win-win orientation where we seek solutions that provide food for us and the wildlife, improve the soil and ecosystem over time, and provide habitat for a diversity of wildlife.
The soil, ecosystems, and our health becomes better over time. It’s an upward spiral.
We are developing a food forest on our land in the Andes. Large areas will have only or mostly natives, with as much diversity as possible, and as many food-producing plants as possible. The areas closer to the houses will have a diversity of native and non-native (non-invasive) food-producing plants. We focus on building healthy soil with mulch, manure, microorganisms, and so on. We want as much diversity as possible. We plant 95+% perennials.
As this food forest matures, it will become more and more self-sustaining and our work will mostly consist of harvesting, some maintenance, and continued diversification. Over time, it enhances soil health, reduces erosion, and provides habitat for more and more species.
It becomes better with time because we work in partnership with nature.
Some will say that we need modern monocultures to produce enough food for everyone, but that’s clearly not the case. It’s an example of brainwashing from those who benefit from it.
In the big picture, it’s not true since modern agriculture is so destructive to life.
Even from a narrow perspective, it’s not true since polycultures can produce as much if not more than modern monocultures. This is especially true for perennial polycultures like food forests. As they mature, production increases, inputs go down, and the return on investment continues to go up.
HOW WE CAN SUPPORT OUR LOCAL ECOSYSTEMS
We can all do something to live this partnership orientation with nature.
We can find local organic farms and buy directly from them. If we can’t get everything from local farms, we can buy organic as much as possible.
If we have a garden, we can make it into a nature garden that replicates the local ecosystem where we live. This will benefit the wildlife and ourselves and can be an inspiration to others. We can start small, even just in a small corner of our garden, and then expand as we get more experience.
We can join a community project. For instance, planting native trees or wildflowers in a park, along a river, or in any public area. If there is a larger regeneration project in our area, even better.
We can join a community garden, use organic methods, and mix in native flowers to support the pollinators.
We can talk with local organizations and governments to see if they are willing to set aside some parts of public areas for wildflowers. It can start small, as an experiment, and then go from there.
Is it to live with concern for all living beings and future generations? To seek win-win solutions that work for us, the living systems we are part of, and future generations?
Or is it to live in the opposite way? To actively support a system that’s inherently destructive to life?
RADICAL OR NOT?
What’s radical depends on our perspective.
I’ll take myself as an example since it’s what I am most familiar with.
In one sense, I am not radical at all. I look pretty normal. I have gone through the usual education. I own a house. When most people talk with me, I probably don’t seem very radical. I know how to present myself so I don’t seem very radical.
In another sense, my life and views are pretty radical. It differs in significant ways from what’s typical in our culture and civilization. Seen with the eyes of the mainstream, it’s pretty radical.
I bought a large piece of land to protect it from development. I am developing a food forest. I have abandoned paths in life that would have been far more profitable. I eat mostly vegetarian and drink very little alcohol. I love the Universe Story, systems views, integral approaches, deep ecology, indigenous views, and so on. I look for and question assumptions I seem to operate from and try to leave no stone unturned. To some, all of this is somewhat radical.
My main concern is our global ecological overshoot, and I see a thorough transformation of our whole civilization as the only solution. Very few political parties go that far, so this is pretty radical.
I find myself as what the world, to me, happens within and as. I find myself as consciousness, and the world, as it appears to me, happens within and as the consciousness I am. This is the reverse of how most consciousnesses operate, and few are interested in it, so this is also pretty radical.
There are contexts where this is not radical. From an ecological big-picture and deep-time perspective, it’s not radical. It’s life-centered. It takes the needs of future generations into account.
WHAT’S RADICAL IS OUR CURRENT SYSTEM
Within this context, what’s radical is to support and defend a system that’s inherently destructive to all life, including ourselves.
Our current system assumes infinite natural resources, and an infinite capacity of nature to deal with the waste of our civilization. It does not take ecological realities into account. We are in a global ecological overshoot where Earth is not able to replenish what we take from it. This is ecocidal and suicidal.
This is radical. It’s out of alignment with reality, it’s destructive to life, and it’s ultimately suicidal.
What’s radical is to support an ecocidal and suicidal system, and that’s what most political parties and most people do.
WHAT’S RADICAL CHANGES WITH TIME AND CULTURE
What we see as radical changes with time and culture.
In old Greece, it would be radical to suggest that women and slaves should participate in democracy. Today, it’s a given that all citizens should be allowed to participate. (At least, if you live in a democracy.)
Just a couple of hundred years ago, it was radical to suggest that slavery was inherently unethical, cruel, and damaging for everyone and society. Today, that view is the norm.
Some generations back, the idea of universal healthcare and social safety nets would be seen as radical. In most industrialized countries today, it’s the norm.
A few hundred years ago, suggesting that the sun is the center of our solar system would be radical. Today, it’s the norm.
Just two or three generations ago, suggesting that LGBT+ life was as normal and as acceptable as hetero life would be seen as radical. (It was even considered a psychological pathology.) These days, it’s a norm in most modern societies.
Some generations ago, concern about the welfare of non-human beings was seen as radical. Today, it’s the norm to at least have a minimum of protection for the welfare of non-human beings. (Although many of them still live in immense suffering.)
A few generations ago, humans were seen as special and inherently different from all other kinds of beings. Today, at least in science, we know we are very similar to other beings. We share most of our DNA even with oak trees. (Our culture as a whole has not yet caught up to this insight.)
A WORLD WHERE A LIFE-CENTERED ORIENTATION IS MAINSTREAM
It’s easy for me to imagine a world where a more life-centered orientation is mainstream.
It’s a world where nature has rights. Where non-human beings, ecosystems, and future generations have the law on their side and legal representation.
It’s a world where foodis grown in partnership with nature. It’s grown in ways that enhances and enriches our local, regional, and global ecosystems. It’s grown in polycultures, and without industrial chemicals and toxins. Nourishing the soil is recognized as essential for good food production. Food forests are common, both on smaller scales around people’s homes and larger scale for whole communities.
It’s a world with deep democracy, where we have instant runoff voting, multi-party systems, citizens councils and more, and the voiceless – non-human beings, ecosystems, future generations – have a real voice in governance, businesses, and society in general.
It’s a world where the basics are universally taken care of, not only in our own countries but globally. At the very least, there is a real effort to take care of the basics needs of everyone (water, food, shelter, healthcare, education) since this creates a society that works better for everyone. It reduces crime and unrest, it allows us all to benefit from the gifts of more people, and it helps everyone feel safer (less operating from survival mode) since we know we may need that support at any time.
It’s a world where our systems take ecological realities into account, including our systems of economics, production, transportation, education, and more. They account for ecological footprints and a finite Earth, and prioritize what gives and enhances our life which is a thriving diverse ecosystem. It’s a system where what’s attractive and easy to do is also what’s ecologically sound.
It’s a world that prioritizes regeneration and rewilding on all scales – in our gardens, public spaces, where we grow our food, and in the areas set aside for wilderness. If we did this, it would greatly remedy our massive ecological problems. It’s a solution where we all win in multiple ways, also because it’s an enjoyable process and we enjoy being in or near diverse and vibrant nature.
It’s a world where life-centered worldviews are common. We see ourselves as nature. We use systems views and integral models to understand life, ourselves, and the world. We see the sacred in everyone and everything. We call reality – existence as a whole – God. (And don’t assume we understand or know very much about it.) We use and develop approaches similar to the Universe Story, Epic of Evolution, Deep Ecology, and similar.
It’s a world where we generally use more of a partnership approach to ourselves, others, and life. We work with what’s here more than we work against it. We know that sometimes, domination elements are needed to get things done, and we seek to do it as consciously as possible.
It’s a world where awakening is understood in a grounded way and is an ordinary part of the culture. People generally know about it, and it’s commonly included in academic studies and discussions. It’s understood that to ourselves, we are fundamentally consciousness, and the world, as it appears to us, happens within and as that consciousness. That’s the most basic way to understand it, and there is a range of contexts we can understand it within, depending on what seems helpful or interesting to us.
One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.
– Aldo Leopold
He wrote this decades ago, and it’s more true today than ever.
There is very little true wilderness left, and very few examples of untouched nature like old-growth forests.
What people take for nature and wilderness is typically heavily impacted by human behavior and civilization. It’s degraded, tamed, and a shadow of its former self.
I am not an ecologist, but I know enough to see this everywhere. Yes, it may still be beautiful in its own way since nature is beautiful. And I always bring with me an image of how it could be if it was allowed to be more diverse, vibrant, and mature.
Knowing a bit of ecology means seeing with deep time eyes, with an overlay of how nature used to be here before human civilization. It means having a mental overlay that shows us the contrast between how nature can be and is when it’s allowed to come to maturity, and how it is because of human intervention.
How would it be if this was one of the essential topics of any formal education? If all children learned to see with deep time and ecological eyes? I think it would change not only how many grow up to see the world, but how they live, at least to some extent.
The photo is one of the current views from Milagros. It’s amazingly beautiful. And when I look, I also see all the impacts on the other side of the canyon from human activity. I see the patches of land that suggest different ownership, or at least different use. I see land more heavily degraded from grazing. I see areas with a few more trees but still far from a mature forest. I see erosion. I imagine how it may be in a few years or decades. Will some areas be more developed? Will some areas be actively supported to become more diverse, mature, and vibrant?
The remedy to what Aldo Leopold writes about is to find, develop, and nourish communities of like-minded people. Globally, there are many of us. (And, in my case, many who know far more about this than me.)
Another remedy is to actively support nature – wherever we are, and in whatever ways we can – in regenerating. How can I, in my own small ways, help restore ecosystems to a more diverse, vibrant, and mature state? How can I do it in my own garden? In my own community?
We are doing it here on Finca Milagros, through the reforestation with native trees and through developing a food forest closer to the houses.
As our food forest matures, it will become increasingly resilient and self-reliant.
A food forest tends to need more inputs and management at first and then becomes more self-reliant as it matures.
A MATURE FOOD FOREST NEEDS LESS WATER
The need for water is no exception.
We have needed to water our plants quite a bit, especially during the dry season at the beginning of this year. They are young. Many are still seeds and seedlings. We are still working on the mulch cover. We are still creating swales and terraces to retain the rainwater. Many areas are still quite open so there is more wind, sun, and faster evaporation. Also, we are young in this project, just likely the food forest is young, so we may have watered more than we needed.
What are some reasons why the food forest will need less water as matures?
A thicker layer of mulch retains moisture better. It also helps slow down and absorb rainwater.
More vegetation in more layers creates more shade which reduces evaporation.
As trees and plants grow, their root system is more developed, goes deeper, and can better access water and moisture in the soil.
Healthier soil can absorb and retain more rainwater. It has a better structure and more organic matter.
More swales and terraces help retain and slow down the rainwater, allowing more of it to be absorbed into the ground.
For many reasons, including all of the above, a food forest creates a microclimate that’s cooler and more humid.
In general, we are focusing on natives since they are adapted to this climate, and also drought-tolerant species from similar climate zones that do well here. We have some that require more water close to the houses, although these also will need less watering as they mature.
In our case, we are also developing our rainwater catchment systems so we’ll be less dependent on the water from the municipality.
A MATURE FOOD FOREST DEALS BETTER WITH HEAVY RAIN
A more mature food forest not only deals better with heavy rain but also makes use of it for many of the reasons mentioned above.
Several layers of leaves and branches help slow down the drops as they fall, reducing the impact on the ground.
Swales, terraces, and thick mulch slow down the water, reducing or eliminating erosion.
Healthier soil absorbs the rainwater more effectively. It’s more porous and has more organic matter.
The roots hold the soil in place. In a food forest, there is a high density and diversity of plants with different root structures. Combined, they stabilize the soil to a remarkable degree.
We are developing a system of channels to channel rainwater into the terraces. This catches the rainwater, slows it down, and allows it to be absorbed instead of running down the hill.
THE DROUGHT TOLERANCE OF A MATURE FOOD FOREST
A more mature food forest is more drought-tolerant for the same reasons as mentioned above.
Rainwater is better absorbed into the ground, which even recharges the groundwater and benefits the larger trees.
The soil and ecosystem are better able to retain moisture.
The roots go deeper allowing them to access deeper layers of water and moisture.
More mature plants are better able to deal with droughts in general.
In our case, we are working on our rainwater catchment systems – in tanks and ponds – and this will help us during the dry seasons and drought.
THE RESILIENCY & WATER MANAGEMENT OF A MATURE FOOD FOREST
A mature food forest is amazing at regulating water, whether it’s rain or drought. After all, it mimics a natural forest ecosystem, and these evolved to do just that, among many other things.
In general, mature food forests are resilient when faced with extremes of weather and changing climate, at least more than mainstream systems of growing food and up to a point. They deal better with water and drought. They create their own microclimate. They are diverse so a higher number of plants are likely to do well as the climate changes.
PHOTOS
These photos are from our very young food forest. They show… A pond near the house. A carved stone that receives rainwater from the roof and channels it underground to storage tanks. A series of small terraces that receive the overflow from the stone. A rainwater channel that goes along and under a path and leads the water into a terrace. (It was just created so nothing grows there yet.) Terraces and swales. Rocks and wood used to create edges to retain the soil and rainwater. A retaining wall made of naturally rot-resistant branches used to retain soil and rainwater along the road.
We are just getting started so this will all continue to be developed as the food forest changes and we learn more.
I thought I would share a few videos on food forests and regeneration that I find especially interesting.
The video above is from Andrew Millison and is about the green belt developed along the southern edge of the Sahara desert. It’s obviously from an extreme environment, and they use the half-moon swale approach which he has presented in other videos.
A diverse food forest in a subtropical zone developed using syntropic principles.
A more mature food forest in a subtropical zone. Definitely worth a watch.
An introduction to food forest from Permaculture legend Geoff Lawton.
A brief National Geographic intro to food forests / forest gardens.
Food forests can be created in most (nearly all) climate zones. Here is one from a temperate zone.
Andrew Millison’s garden in Oregon is an example of an urban food forest and that you don’t need a large space to do it.
I remember what many wise people used to say when I worked with sustainability in Madison:
You can collect rainwater, grow your own food, and all those things, and what’s really going to help you in a crisis is the community.
Our greatest resource is our community.
I have been reminded of that today. We woke up at 4 am to a tremendous rumbling that seemed to last forever (likely just five or ten seconds). It felt like the house was coming down all around us. Luckily, it turned out it was just part of the roof that had come down, with support beams and tiles and everything, while we were safe – although scared to death – in our bed. (Several things from the roof fell next to the bed.)
Also luckily, my wife’s father’s house up the hill was finished three weeks ago, so we took our essentials and – as the very privileged refugees we are – went up to his house.
We are lucky to have several good connections in this community, so we immediately contacted a good lawyer, a good builder, and a good architect, all friends of ours. The builder and lawyer came shortly after dawn, and three architects will come this afternoon. They are all helping us with the assessment and guidance on how to proceed.
We are very privileged refugees in this situation. We lost our house but we have a place to live, we have support, and we have all the essentials for life. Millions who have lost their homes around the world are in a far more difficult situation. With our escalating global ecological crisis, far more will find themselves in that situation, and many if not most of them will be the ones who already have very little.
Of course, it takes some effort to develop good connections with the community. Here, for several reasons (language, health, travels), my wife has done most of that.
This is also a reminder that self-reliance happens at the community level. We collect rainwater, have our own septic systems, plan to grow a good portion of our own food, and so on, but it’s impossible to be entirely self-sufficient and we wouldn’t want it either. We need the diversity of the local and regional community to cover our basic needs.
NOTES
In case anyone wonders, the roof collapsed because of a construction mistake. We have found several mistakes made by the builder, and using weak horizontal support beams for the roof seems to be one of them. One of them broke like a matchstick. The builder came highly recommended by a friend, but we are discovering that he is not as good as we thought.
What happened this morning felt like a literal nightmare, and I had to check with myself whether it actually was a nightmare or waking life. It felt bizarre. The strangeness continued through the day and in the evening, including finding a big snake in my father-in-law’s bedroom. Fortunately, the snake went out with just a little encouragement and it was likely harmless.
This living planet is a world of limits and of abundance.
That’s perhaps obvious, but the implications of this seem not so obvious to us collectively.
A WORLD OF ECOLOGICAL LIMITS
This planet is finite, and it has finite resources and a finite capacity to replenish what we take from it.
Our collective ecological footprint is larger than Earth. That means that we are in global ecological overshoot. We are using more resources than Earth can replenish, and we are putting more toxins into these living systems than they know how to handle.
This is similar to living off a savings account and spending more than what’s coming in. At some point, we reach the bottom of the account and our lifestyle comes crashing down.
We are now getting closer to the bottom of our ecological savings account, and we see the signs everywhere: ecosystem loss, climate instability, possible changing ocean currents, ocean acidification and warming, toxins and plastics in all living systems, loss of insects, loss of species, and so on.
There is no hard or clear bottom to our ecological savings account, as there is in a bank account. What happens when we get closer to the bottom is the destabilization and unraveling of most or all the systems of this living planet. That includes us since we are local and temporary expressions of these systems.
A WORLD OF ECOLOGICAL ABUNDANCE
This living system is also a world of abundance.
We are developing a food forest, and although it requires resources and effort at first, it will in time give a significant and increasing return on that investment. The return on investment is almost infinite because we are working with the systems and inherent productivity of nature.
A food forest produces healthy soil, an abundance and variety of foods for humans and wildlife, seeds, seedlings, natural mulch, experience and knowledge that can be shared, and it becomes more abundant and self-reliant as it matures. It’s an immensely valuable gift for future generations.
If we work withthe living systems of nature and the inherent productivity of these systems, this is a world of abundance.
DOMINATION VS PARTNERSHIP ORIENTATION
This ties into a domination vs partnership culture, and a zero-sum vs win-win mindset.
Modern agriculture is an expression of a domination and zero-sum mindset. It’s a way of growing food that relies on monocultures and chemical inputs which reflects a domination mindset. It produces food while damaging the soil and ecosystems, which reflects a zero-sum mindset. There is a win on one side of the equation and a loss on the other.
Food forests are an example of a partnershipand and win-win orientation. We mimic natural forests, we improve the soil, we put in a lot of effort in the beginning, and then let nature do most of the work. It’s a win-win solution since it provides food for humans and wildlife while improving the soil, regenerating the land, and creating habitat for wildlife. There is a win on both – or all – sides of the equation.
SCARCITY AND ABUNDANCE
It may seem that our world is one of scarcity, and yet we have more than enough for all humans. It’s a problem of distribution, not scarcity.
Yes, this planet has current limits for how much it can produce and keep up with, and these limits become tighter as ecosystems degrade. As we keep consuming more, and doing so in ecologically unsound ways, this living system we call Earth becomes less able to produce.
At the same time, nature is abundant. If we work with nature, we can support it in becoming wildly abundant. In such a world, our natural living systems will produce more than enough for a large population of wildlife and all humans.
WE ARE LOCAL AND TEMPORARY EXPRESSIONS OF THIS LIVING PLANET
We are local and temporary expressions of the living system of this planet and this universe, whether it’s us as individuals or humanity as a whole.
As Carl Sagan said, we are the universe bringing itself into consciousness. We are the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the universe.
When we develop and participate in ecologically unsound systems, we are the Earth destroying itself. When we develop and participate in more life-centered systems, we are the Earth healing itself and coming into more abundance.
To me, it’s an example of the empire striking back.
People who have internalized the mindset of dominationand power-over voted for him and want that culture strengthened, even if it doesn’t seem to be in their interest.
A CULTURE OF DOMINATION
They seem to want a culture of domination and all that comes with it: A zero-sum mindset. Xenophobia, misogyny, racism, and bigotry. Continued destruction of nature. Continued marginalization of the already marginalized.
Why? Because they identify with the values of empire, with the mindset of separation, domination, and power-over.
They know what they are doing. They know what he wants to do. He has said it very clearly. They know he wants to consolidate power, be a dictator from day one, replace civil servants with loyalists, persecute his political opponents, use the military against his own citizens, and in general undermine and attack democratic institutions and principles.
They know he adores Hitler and read Hitler’s speeches to his ex-wife as bedtime stories. They know that the ones who worked most closely with him, including conservative generals, say he ticks all the boxes of fascism. (If they don’t, it’s because of willful ignorance since the info is easily available.)
They may not agree with everything he says or does, or with everything in Project 2025, but they are certainly OK with it. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have voted for him.
THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
It’s easy to think that this domination mindset has always been here. It’s just part of human life.
In reality, it very likely came with the agricultural revolution.
Before, we were all indigenous. We lived in more egalitarian groups, although obviously with leaders and the higher status of elders with wisdom and practical experience. We saw ourselves as part of the web of life. We saw the sacred in everyone and everything.
With agriculture came the accumulation of wealth, domestication of land, plants, and animals, and social and economic inequality.
How could the wealthy justify this new social order? Why was it OK for them to accumulate while others went without?
To justify this, they created the mindset of empire: We are separate from nature. Nature is here for our use. Nature is infinite. We are better and more important than the rest of what’s living. The sacred is out there in the sky and in a sky god. There is a social hierarchy which is good and divinely prescribed. You will reap your reward in the afterlife. (So don’t bother trying to change anything now.) If you don’t behave, you’ll go to hell. It’s good and honorable to respect those higher up in the hierarchy and uphold the hierarchy itself. If you (pretend to) believe something weird others tell you, and you can’t check out for yourself, you’ll be saved. Thoughts can tell us a final, full, and absolute truth. If one thought is true, alternative ones are wrong. In most polarities, one end is good and the other is less good, bad, or evil. (Men vs women, mind vs body, humans vs non-humans, humans vs nature, our religion vs other religions, European vs non-European, civilization vs savagery, good and bad emotions, and so on.)
Don’t question or challenge any of this, or live alternatives. If you do, you will go to hell, you’ll be ignored, ostracised, ridiculed, marginalized, put in prison, or something else unpleasant.
I imagine that this mindset seemed strange at first and an underhanded way to justify social inequality. It likely came gradually and stepwise, and the specifics have changed over time, although the essence is to justify domination and a few living in luxury while others lived in poverty.
Over time, this mindset became the new normal. New generations grew up with it, internalized it, and most didn’t question it or realize that other worldviews are possible.
TRUMP AND THE MINDSET OF EMPIRE
It was so successful that we now have Trump, and half of the US population wants him to run their country.
The irony is that the alternative, Harris and the Democrats, is also an expression of empire, it’s just a gentler and more compassionate expression of empire. It’s empire with softer edges. (Unless you look at their support for Israel’s decades-long violation of human rights and year-long genocide in Gaza. They seem happy to do their domination abroad.)
It seems that was not enough for many people. They want the more extreme version of it. They want to live in a culture of even stronger domination and marginalization.
DOMINATION AND TRAUMA
Trauma is an important part of this.
A culture and family that operates largely on domination is traumatizing for its citizens and children, and this collective trauma is passed on through the generations.
Hurt people hurt people. If we are hurt, a common way to respond to that hurt is to continue to hurt ourselves and to also hurt others. That’s one way the domination culture continues.
Trump’s behavior is trauma behavior. Bigotry, anger, defensiveness, scapegoating, lies, and so on are all classic, and somewhat extreme, examples of trauma behavior. It’s one of the ways we deal with our own hurt and pain.
I suspect the same is the case for many of those who support and vote for him. Much of that too looks like trauma behavior.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
Of course, we don’t know what will happen in the next four years.
We don’t know if or to what degree the US democratic institutions will be able to resist and stay intact.
We don’t know what the consequences will be for what little nature is left.
We don’t know how much suffering women and minorities will have to endure.
We don’t know to what extent far-right bigots around the world will be emboldened by Trump and what they see in the US.
We don’t know how far his MAGA followers in the US will take it in terms of intimidation and even violence against minorities and political opponents.
We don’t know what wars Trump may start, possibly in an attempt to distract from unpopular policies and unite the US population behind him. He avoided wars during the first presidency, but Trump 2.0 will be different.
We also know very well what he wants to do, and some of the things he can do relatively quickly and easily. He clearly wants to deepen our already massive global ecological crisis and hasten a possible end to civilization. (That’s not hyperbole. It’s inevitable with his policies. We are already using far more natural resources than planet Earth can replenish.)
Whatever he does – with the support of Congress and the Supreme Court – can and likely will take decades to correct.
PEOPLE VOTING AGAINST THEIR INTERESTS
To me, there are many ironies in this situation.
One is the many people who seem to vote against their own interests. Why do they vote for someone who has promised to make their lives worse?
For instance, why do Latinos and Hispanics vote for someone who is publicly racist, bigoted, and has nothing but disdain for them? One answer is that they are conservative because of Catholicism, and they mistakenly see him as conservative. Some may want to join the ranks of the oppressor since it seems safer, and they think that voting for Trump and joining the Republicans will do that. Some may assume that when he disparages Latinos, he means the others, not them. Some may think that when he talks about deporting immigrants, he doesn’t mean it (he does) or it will impact others and not them (how do you know?).
Why do some Christians support him? He is clearly not a Christian. In his life, he is the polar opposite of the example set by Jesus in the New Testament. His policies of cruelty are the most un-Christian imaginable. The answer is likely that some brands of conservative Christianity, especially in the US, represent a very distorted form of Christianity, one that’s far from the original principles laid out by Jesus.
Why do women vote for someone who is a misogynist and rapist and wants to allow states to ban abortion? (Likely because they buy into patriarchy, other things matter more, or they think abortion is something others will need and not them.)
Why do minorities and vulnerable groups vote for Trump when they know his presidency will embolden bigots worldwide? Why do women support Trump when they know his presidency will cause an upsurge in misogyny and misogynist behavior that may even impact them directly? Why do ethnic minorities, like Latinos, vote for a racist who will invite openly racist behavior among many, when they may be the target of it? (A large percentage of Latinos voted for Trump, while few Blacks did – likely because they know what may and will happen based on their history.)
Why do workers vote for someone who wants to do away with unions? (Likely because they think he is anti-elite, while he really is in it for himself and his rich buddies.)
Why do working and middle-class people vote for someone who wants to cut taxes for the super-rich and increase taxes for everyone else? Why do they vote for someone who wants to impose tarrifs when it’s the ordinary people that will have to pay for it? (Likely because they are unaware of it, or other things matter more for them.)
Why do people who depend on the Affordable Care Act (ACA, PPACA, ObamaCare) vote for someone who wants to do away with it? (Likely because they don’t realize what will happen and the impact it will have on their lives.)
Why do people who depend on the (already imperfect) social safety net in the US, or who may depend on it in the future, vote for someone who wants to erode and – if he can – remove it? (Do they think this too is about others, not them?)
Why do people who want to shake things up and try something different choose an openly fascist felon, rapist, and con man like Trump? He is very unlikely to give them what they want, and far more likely to give them what they don’t want. From history, we know what authoritarianism and fascism lead to, and he is a textbook authoritarian and fascist.
Why would anyone vote for someone who wants to expand our collective ecological footprint when it’s already larger than this planet? Our planet cannot replenish natural resources at the rate we use them. We are living on a savings account that’s rapidly going down. This is ecocidal and suicidal.
BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN TO OTHERS, NOT ME
The ones supporting Trump know he wants to do terrible things to several groups in society, including migrants, women, LGBT+ people, and his political critics and opponents.
They must be OK with it.
Why? Perhaps because of dehumanization. They don’t see these people as real people. They don’t see them as deserving to be treated humanely and with respect and understanding.
Equally important, they likely think that bad things will happen to other people, not themselves.
History tells us a different story.
PROTECTED BY PRIVILEGE
The “bad things will happen to others” attitude has another aspect, and that’s privilege.
White people think the bad will happen to non-whites. Christians think the bad things will happen to the non-Christians. Born citizens think bad things will happen (only) to immigrants. Men think the bad things will happen to women. Republicans (including Latinos etc.) think the bad things will happen to non-Republicans.
They all feel protected by privilege. They are protected because they belong to a privileged group.
That’s not how this works.
THOSE WHO GET INTO HIS ORBIT
I am also surprised by those who willingly join his orbit. (Elon Musk is one of them.)
Have they not seen what tends to happen to those who do?
Do they think this too will happen to others and not them?
BLAME & SCAPEGOATING
The first chapter in the authoritarian playbook is blame and scapegoating, which Trump masters.
When things inevitably go haywire during his presidency, he will continue to blame and scapegoate. It’s not his actions and policies that are the problem, it’s all the other people.
Many of his followers will do this as well. When things get worse for them during his presidency – prices go up because of tariffs, they lose social safety nets, public programs they depend on are cut, people they know are deported, they find themselves in a more harsh and unforgiving society – they will overlook that this is the predictable and predicted outcome of Trump’s policies and instead continue to blame the same groups.
THE US HISTORY OF OVERTHROWING DEMOCRACIES
Another irony is that the US has a history of undermining and overthrowing democracies and installing far-right dictatorships. They have done so across the world for decades.
Now, they are installing someone as president who (a) openly admires dictators, (b) explicitly says he wants to create a dictatorship and be a dictator, and (c) has a plan (project 2025) and people in place to do exactly that.
Again, we don’t know exactly what will happen and how it will unfold. There are institutions and people who will resist. But we know that’s what he wants.
THE LARGER TRENDS
It’s always tempting to look at how these events fit into larger trends, although it’s by necessity speculation.
Some think the world is moving in a more progressive direction, focused on sustainability, inclusivity, and so on. Trump and his followers represent a backlash from the dying mindset of empire. I would like that to be true. The history of the West, at least, has been a slow movement of widening circles of inclusivity and who we see as “us”. It’s a projection into the future and it’s easy to see it as wishful thinking.
Some see liberal democracies as a historical aberration. They are a recent innovation, had their peak for a few decades after WW2, and are now on the decline in the world. Maybe we won’t see that many healthy liberal democracies in the future, and Trump and his movement are a part of the overall decline of democracies.
It’s also possible that this election is just part of the usual fluctuations between progressive and regressive tendencies, and it will be a blip in the larger history of a flawed democracy. It won’t be as bad as some think, or as good as his followers assume. (Personally, I think it will be pretty bad and it will take decades to undo and correct.)
If I were to guess, I imagine we’ll see a continued divergence in the US and the world. Some countries, states, and regions will move in a more partnership-oriented direction, and others will move in a more domination-oriented direction.
THE OVERARCHING ISSUE: GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT
One thing we know for certain is that we are in a massive global ecological crisis.
We are in a global ecological overshoot where we use far more resources than Earth can generate. That can’t last, and it will get much worse before it gets better if it gets better while we are around.
This is the context for our civilization today and it’s by far the most important issue, although it seems quite far down on the list of priorities for most people. (Understandably so since most people have enough with daily tasks and challenges and surviving.)
Will we find the collective will to make the necessary and thorough changes to all the systems of our civilization? How many will die before this happens? Will we be able to correctly identify the problem? Will we be able to focus on and implement the solutions, many of which we already have?
How will we deal with the consequences of the breakdown of our local, regional, and global ecosystems? The inevitable mass migrations? The loss of infrastructure? The food shortages? The lack of clean drinking water? Not having enough resources to repair and fix all the damage? Will large parts of humanity decent into infighting instead of focusing on the real solutions?
Will we see a world where some regions and countries take this seriously and do most of the heavy lifting, while other parts of the world continue much as before?
If we don’t find the collective will in time, there is only one outcome and that’s the unraveling of our civilization and huge loss of human life. (Along with an even more enormous loss of individuals of other species, and whole species.)
WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH THE US?
It’s tempting to look at what may happen with the US in the coming decades, although that too is obvisouly speculation.
One thing that may happen is a shift from federal to state control and power. That’s what the Republicans want, and I imagine many in the more liberal states may eventually want it as well to avoid laws and regulations dictated by votes of conservatives in other states.
It will also indirectly reduce the problem with the electoral college which may be difficult to impossible to correct in itself.
In that case, we’ll see largely conservative states move further in a conservative direction, and liberal states move further in a liberal direction. We’ll also likely see more people moving to the states where they feel more at home.
It will also be a large scale experiment. We’ll get to see the effects of the different policies. Of course, the world is already that experiment. It doesn’t seem that countries often look to other countries for good solutions. (If they did, and they looked at what actually works in terms of the well being of the citizens, most would want to adopt a model similar to the Nordic countries.)
Several years ago, I started on a fiction story set a few decades in the future on the US West Coast. It’s set in that type of system where the states and local government decides most things, many states and regions have moved further in a conservative direction, and the West Coast has moved further in a progressive and sustainable direction.
I don’t know how that kind of process would unfold. What I know is that if it happens, it will come with its own drawbacks, many of which it’s difficult for us to foresee.
BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD
Whether this is the first day of the Apocalypse or the first day of the Golden Age, the work remains the same…to love each other and ease as much suffering as possible. – often attributed to Ram Dass
No matter what happens, we know what to do. As Joanna Macy says, there are (a) stopping actions to reduce the harm, (b) engaging in developing and living from more life-centered and partnership-oriented worldviews, and (c) developing and living practical solutions.
CONSERVATIVE PARTNERSHIP MINDSET
I know it’s unfair to real conservatives to call Trump a conservative. Other labels would be more fitting, like populist, nationalist, authoritarian, oligarch, fascist, reactionary, demagogue, or isolationist.
It’s also unfair to assume that a progressive orientation is always a partnership orientation, or that conservatism means domination.
There is always elements of both domination and partnership in all movements, cultures, and subcultures. It’s not possible to have just one.
It’s not difficult to find examples of domination elements in progressive politics. Sometimes, they are necessary since we live in that kind of system. Other times, they are excessive, misguided, and alienating.
It’s also easy to imagine conservatism with a partnership mindset. A conservative orientation can very well come with a genuine care of nature and creation, a genuine wish for deep democracy, a genuine desire to take care of those least fortunate in society, and so on.
I love that kind of conservatism. It may not be exactly how I see it in every way, but I love it and feel aligned with it.
WHAT I CAN DO
I lived in the US for about two decades, love the nature and the progressive subculture, and still feel quite connected, also because many of my friends are there. That’s why I still have some emotional investment in what’s happening in the US. Right now, immediately after this election, I make myself sad and angry over what I see happening there.
So what can I do?
I remind myself that about half of the people in the US didn’t want Trump. Many feel the way I feel now.
A lot of good things are happening in the world. Many people worldwide are working for a more inclusive and sustainable society. Many are developing and living the solutions.
In the bigger picture, it’s likely a blip. (Unless something catastrophic happens, but something catastrophic can happen anyway.) In five years, it may well belong to the past and the US is onto something quite different.
I am grateful for my friends and communities who tend to have more of a partnership orientation, and maybe especially the permaculture community these days.
I spend time in nature and work in the food forest. It’s nourishing and feels good.
I did tonglen yesterday – with Trump, his followers, and myself. I will do it again today and plan to continue. It feels good and softens a sense of I and Other.
I keep exploring projections, including Trump in myself. What stories do I have about him and his followers? What do I find when I turn those stories to myself? Can I find specific and genuine examples of doing the same? (Including right now, in how I see them?)
I use the natural stress-releasing processes of the body to release tension and find more resilience. (Tension and Trauma Release Exercises / TRE.)
I notice how the consciousness I am forms itself into my experience of all of it – this human self, Trump, the US, this world.
I remind myself that we are local and temporary expressions of the unfolding dynamics of the universe and this living planet. All f this is existence – the universe, this planet, consciousness – expressing, exploring, and experiencing itself in always new ways.
I will be even more conscious of my news diet. I also read rather than watch, which makes it easier.
I will speak up about and live what I want to see more of in the world.
I keep living my life. My daily life consists of the same as before. Life goes on.
I remind myself that this too will pass. Authoritarian leaders are a natural outcome of the civilization we have (domination mindset), and they come and go.
Yes, the ones speaking up on behalf of nature and future generations do it for all of us.
We are nature. We are temporary and local expressions of the living systems of this planet and depend on the health of these systems. It’s not a luxury, it’s the foundation for our life.
Systems naturally want to stay stable, and so also our social systems. That’s why the ones speaking up are often met with indifference, ridicule, or resistance. And yet, the ones speaking up and working on behalf of nature do it for all of us, for all of humanity and life.
So far, we are collectively doing very little about our ecological crisis, and the election in the US yesterday shows that a large portion of the population is happy to continue and even double down on the destruction of nature.
That’s why it’s even more important to remind ourselves that when we do something that’s life-centered, we are doing it on behalf of life. (Whether it’s voting for more life-centered policies, buying local and organic food, eating low on the food chain, choosing to repair instead of buying new, working to stop harmful actions, learning about and living alternatives to our system, or learning and living more life-centered worldviews.) We are doing it on behalf of future generations. We are doing it on behalf of nature, which includes ourselves. We are doing it on behalf of the voiceless.
I am often baffled when people talk about nature as if it’s removed from us – as if it’s a kind of luxury to experience now and then, or a kind of remote appendix, or a place primarily to get a few resources like timber and fish.
In reality, we are nature. Our life fully depends on the living systems we are part of. Nothing we are or value would exist without these living systems.
Our health and well-being is intimately dependent on the health and well-being of the larger living systems we are part of. Our existence depends on it.
The biggest issue in the world today is that we have a civilization that assumes a separation between us and nature, calculates the value of nature in terms of the market value of natural resources, and assumes infinite nature in terms of its resources, its ability to regenerate, and its ability to absorb the waste of our civilization.
Because of this, we are in massive ecological overshoot. Our collective ecological footprint is larger than our Earth. We are living off natural resources accumulated over very long timespans, and they are not being replenished nearly fast enough to keep up with our use. That’s a recipe for disaster.
It’s ecocidal and suicidal, and it’s astonishing to me that this is not at the forefront in just about any discussion in society – whether it’s politics, economy, business, science, art, philosophy, or anything else.
It is the context for everything, and it’s on the periphery of our collective conversation and what we are focused on.
What’s required is a profound transformation of all aspects of our civilization to take ecological realities into account, and that requires our collective will.
As it looks now, we are nowhere near to finding that collective will. We are, collectively, focused on everything and anything else. We prioritize just about everything else.
Everything we actually prioritize has been made possible by this amazing living system we are temporary and local expressions of, and we marginalize this living system that makes it possible.
So what’s the solution? What can we do as individuals and groups?
For me, Joanna Macy’s three types of actions are a guideline: (a) Stopping actions, (b) creating and living life-centered alternatives, and (c) creating and living from more life-centered worldviews.
I explore more life-centered worldviews and allow them to shape and transform me. I especially like the Universe Story, the Epic of Evolution, Deep Ecology, systems views, integral models, and indigenous wisdom.
I live a few more life-centered alternatives. I eat local, organic, seasonal, and low on the food chain, as much as possible. I avoid toxic chemicals in soaps and so on. I am a member of and vote for the Green Party in Norway. (They are represented so it’s not a “wasted” vote.) I am fortunate to have land in the Andes and we are developing a food forest here.
I seek out like-minded people and groups. It feels good to know there is a community of us, even if we live in different parts of this planet.
I find that living some of the solutions – whether it’s worldviews or practical solutions – gives hope. It shows it’s possible. It makes me feel like a small part of the solution. It helps nudge us all slightly in the right direction.
In our food forest, we use a partnership approach with nature.
To me, it’s a reminder of how our worldview shapes our relationship with nature and growing food.
GROWING FOOD ON A SPECTRUM FROM PARTNERSHIP TO DOMINATION
It seems that we can approach food growing on a spectrum from partnership to domination, or maybe we should say partnership and control. There will always be some elements of each.
At one end of the spectrum is what some Indigenous do and have done, which is to encourage food-producing plants in forests. (Or whatever ecosystem they live in.) These forests will look natural to outsiders, but they are nudged in the direction of producing more food for humans while still remaining quite natural and full of life. This is food growing in conscious partnership with nature.
At the other end of the spectrum is our modern agriculture. It has allowed us to increase our food production dramatically, and the science related to modern agriculture has a lot of value to us.
On the other hand, it has downsides that are becoming increasingly obvious. It’s a system that mostly grows monocultures and is dependent on chemicals, toxins, and constant input. It’s highly energy intensive, depletes the soil, causes soil runoff, creates ecological deserts, removes habitat for wildlife, poisons living beings including us, and is a big reason for our insect apocalypse.
In the middle are traditional forms of agriculture found around the world. These come from a mindset of domestication – of the land and animals, although they don’t have such a big impact as modern agriculture.
THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
It’s tempting to imagine that our worldview – of partnership or domination – comes before the type of food growing we prefer. After all, that’s how it tends to be these days. Historically, it was likely the other way around: with the change to agriculture came a new worldview.
Before agriculture, we were all indigenous. We all lived in mostly egalitarian groups. We didn’t accumulate much apart from experience, knowledge, and wisdom. We likely saw the sacred in nature and everything. We saw ourselves as part of the web of life. We saw ourselves as nature.
With agriculture came a worldview of separation and domination. Some started to accumulate wealth while others did not, either because they couldn’t or wouldn’t. To justify controlling land, animals and humans, and to justify this inequality, the wealthy developed a range of imaginations: Humans are separate from nature. Humans are more valuable than the rest of life. The sacred is out there in the sky and a sky god. Social hierarchies reflect a divine order. Only humans have soul. Nature is primarily here for us. Nature is a resource for us to use as we wish. If you are lower in the social hierarchy, it’s your fault (lack of character, bad karma). You’ll get your reward in heaven. (No need to try to change an unjust system.) Thoughts can reflect a full, final, and absolute truth. If one thought is true, other perspectives must be false. If you win, I lose.
In modern times, this was taken even further: We understand something best by taking it apart to its smallest parts. Only humans have an inner life with cognition, emotions, and a wish to avoid suffering. It’s fine to imprison and inflict immense suffering on non-human beings as long as it serves us. Nature is infinite. We don’t need to account for a finite Earth in our economic system or how our civilization operates. The living systems of this planet is “environment” and not something we are inherently part of.
WIN-WIN VS ZERO-SUM
One expression of these two worldviews – and these two ways of growing food – is a win-win versus a zero-sum orientation.
A partnership approach seeks win-winsolutions. When we are growing our food forest here, it’s a win for nature and wildlife (diversity, habitat), it’s a win for us (food, multiple sources of income), it’s a win for future generations (get to enjoy the food forest).
A domination approach sometimes operate from a zero-summindset. They seek solutions that are a short-term win for themselves and a loss for nature, future generations, and the health of all of us today.
HOW THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS CHANGE OVER TIME
One expression of this is how the different systems change over time.
For instance, food forests require some investment upfront in terms of learning, planting, and maintenance. Over time, it takes more and more care of itself. The soil health improves, there is a thicker layer of mulch to retain moisture, there is more diversity, the different forest layers are more filled in, and the production – of food, flowers, seeds, seedlings, and so on – increases. There is more and more surplus for wildlife and humans. Nature does the vast majority of the work so there is an increasing return on investment.
In contrast, modern monocultures tend to go in the other direction. It’s dependent on chemical fertilizers and toxins. They often rely on annuals. The soil gets more and more depleted. The ecosystem gets more and more damaged. At best, the production stays the same with the same input requirements. In the bigger picture, this system is destructive.
ALWAYS SOME OF BOTH
There is, of course, (nearly?) always some of both.
There is always some kind of partnership with nature, otherwise nothing would grow.
And there is always – if not domination – some control. We decide what to plant where. We add plants into an ecosystem. We plant a selection of natives. We improve the soil with compost, manure, and mulch. These are all interventions from our side.
The question is where on the spectrum our approach falls. Is it closer to the partnership end or the domination end?
A DEEPER PARTNERSHIP APPROACH
We can see that spectrum as having a “good” and “bad” end. Partnership is good, domination is bad. (Or the other way around.) That actually reflects a domination mindset.
There is a deeper partnership approach that works in partnership with nature AND what’s of value across the whole spectrum.
WHAT’S OF VALUE IN MODERN AGRICULTURE AND SCIENCE
What’s of value in the domination orientation to growing food? What can we learn from modern agriculture? From the last ten thousand years of growing food after the agricultural revolution?
Here are some possibilities:
General knowledge from modern science, including about plants, interactions, soil, succession, water cycles, and ecology.
Soil science – learning about the structure and life in soil from modern science.
Soil testing – to get an idea of how the soil changes over time and with different practices.
Irrigation systems– making use of modern irrigation systems like drip irrigation. This is often a more efficient use of water.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
Climate modeling – to make educated guesses about how the climate in our local may change and plan and plant for it now.
Nutritional science – to plant for a balanced diet.
Understanding of interactions of all the different elements in the ecosystem – plants, soil microbiome, and so on – from science.
Understanding of natural succession – from pioneers to a mature ecosystem, and planting and planning with this in mind.
Mapping and data collection.
Scaling and markets.
Using AI for information and ideas. (I use AI for information and to generate lists of possible plants for the food forest. This has to be checked, of course.)
Understanding wildlife and creating an ecosystem that best supports wildlife.
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
How can we transition into a system of growing food that takes a deep partnership approach? One that works more in partnership with both nature and history?
We need good examples, and we already have them. Many are growing forest gardens and food forests around the world, using Permaculture and other approaches. There are good examples of diverse and ecologically sound agroforestry. In general, there are many good examples of organic polyculture systems. Organic farming, in general, is well known although they sometimes use more of a monoculture approach.
We can emphasize an approach that takes the best of what’s gone before, including modern agriculture. It’s not about replacing modern agriculture, it’s about evolving it in a more ecologically informed direction.
We need to make the information available. It is available, of course, but it needs to be included in education at all levels.
Government incentives can help new growers get a start and can support the transition. This is especially important since it can take time to get a good income from growing perennials.
Government programs to help transition would be even better. These programs can help existing farms change to become organic, use polyculture, and better and more ecologically sound practices.
Taxes on food grown in monocultures and with chemicals and taxes are the other side of this. Right now, food grown from a win-win mindset is often more expensive than food grown from a zero-sum mindset, and this can be reversed.
Of course, the main ingredient is our collective will. Without it, it won’t happen.
A NEXT STEP IN OUR CULTURAL EVOLUTION
This is a next step in our cultural evolution.
We have gone from an indigenous partnershiporientation with (the rest of) nature, to a domination approach with amazing results and many downsides, and our next step may be to take the best from all of what’s gone before.
There are a few more sides to this I want to mention:
This is all the living system of this planet expressing, exploring, and experiencing itself in different ways. It has tried one approach, through modern domination culture, is receiving feedback, and is reorganizing to adapt. (It may reorganize to create a more ecologically sustainable human civilization, although it may also reorganize so human life is no longer possible.)
If we are to make use of the best of what’s gone before, that includes culture, worldviews, and spirituality.
Indigenous cultures tend to see us as nature. We are part of the web of life. Everyone and everything is sacred – it’s all expressions of this amazing existence we are part of.
We can include this to see ourselves as nature. See all of existence as sacred – as creation, as the body of God, as expressions of the seamless whole of this universe, and so on. Find reverence in our relationship with Earth and all life. See this living planet as a seamless system. See ourselves as the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the Earth, the universe, and existence.
This is a deeply meaningful shift that brings in Indigenous wisdom, fits modern science, and can take on different flavors depending on what’s most important to us and what we feel comfortable with.
What the news rarely mentions is that degraded ecosystems often play a major part in the damage caused by extreme weather.
For instance, the damage from Hurricane Milton in Florida would likely have been far less if the mangroves on the coast had been intact. They serve as a buffer zone.
Without knowing the details, it’s a good guess that the flooding in Spain had a bigger impact because of degraded nature – deforestation, compacted soil, tamed rivers without a natural flood plain, monocultures, large areas covered by houses and asphalt, and so on. Healthy native nature and healthy soil help absorb the rainwater where it falls, reducing or preventing runoff and erosion. Flood plains serve as a buffer zone when the rivers overflow, as they naturally do now and then.
In general, healthy ecosystems buffer, make use of, and sometimes even benefit from extreme weather, and they reduce or prevent damage to human areas.
What are some of the things we can do to support more healthy ecosystems and reduce the damage from extreme weather? There is no lack of opportunities.
Around our homes… We can have more diverse and natural gardens, maybe even forest gardens, to help the soil absorb rainwater. We can use more terraces and swales to reduce rainwater runoff. Lush vegetation, and ideally a forest garden, will create a buffer around the houses in case of fire.
In the community… We can include more green spaces with lush native vegetation and ideally small forests. On hillsides, we can plant natives with extensive root systems to keep the soil in place. We can restore natural floodplains next to rivers and waterways.
At regional and national levels… We can protect and restore natural ecosystems like mangroves and forests. We can institute laws and regulations to reduce the impact of development and encourage ecologically sound regeneration projects. We can encourage polycultures and growing food in a more ecologically sound manner.
Here at Milagros, we are helping the ecosystem regenerate. We are improving the soil around the houses to better absorb and retain the rainwater. We create terraces and swales to keep the rainwater from running off. We are reforesting in the wilderness zones. (This will take time, of course). We are planting densely and a wide variety of native and appropriate non-natives in the food forest near the houses. We collect rainwater for use later. And so on. All of this reduces and prevents erosion, flooding, impact from dry periods, and so on.
Healthy ecosystems just work better, including for us humans.
If I were a reporter, I would include at least a mention of this in every news story about the impacts of extreme weather. It cannot be emphasized enough.
We are local and temporary expressions of larger social and ecological systems, so our whole life and existence is impacted by our global ecological crisis.
Our life-support system is in a massive crisis, we notice and know, and this will inevitably bring up things i many of us – stress, grief, anxiety, anger, old trauma, a wish to work for change, and so on.
I won’t write a detailed and general overview, but I can share some of what I have found that helps me:
WORLDVIEW & ASSUMPTIONS
I explore more nourishing and life-centered worldviews, and I actively work on allowing these to transform me.
I love the Universe Story. It’s based in science and gives a context of wonder and awe for our lives. We are the local and temporary expressions of the unfolding of the universe. We are the universe bringing itself into consciousness. We are the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the universe. The history of the universe is, in a very real sense, our history. It’s how we came to be.
Similarly, I am a local and temporary expression of the always-evolving living system we call Earth. I am nature.
Everything I am and know – thoughts, feelings, actions, human civilization – are local and temporary expressions of this unfolding universe and the processes of this living planet.
This is a view of holarchies, of wholes within larger wholes and with smaller wholes within it. It’s a view of all as inherently sacred. If we want, it’s a view of all of reality, whatever that is, as God.
This is a more life-centered worldview. It helps me see myself as an intrinsic – temporary and local – expression of the unfoldment of it all. It helps me hold my thoughts and assumptions more lightly.
IDENTIFYING THE LESS LIFE-CENTERED WORLDVIEWS AND ASSUMPTIONS
This is in contrast to the conventional worldview of our civilization, which is of separation. This is the worldview of our agricultural civilization, aimed at justifying unequal access to resources, domestication, social hierarchies, abuse of living beings and nature, theft of the land of those who are “inferior”, and so on.
Here, we are separate from nature. Mind is separate from body. Only humans have souls. The sacred is in a god in the sky. We should take someone’s word about the fundamentals of who and what we are, and pretend we believe it (whatever that means). Western civilization is superior. Nature is here for our benefit. Nature is infinite. Thoughts can tell us the full, absolute, and final truth about something. We best understand something by taking it apart to its smallest parts. If one thought is true, other perspectives must be false. Some emotions are good and others are bad. We see the world in polarities where one end is bad and undesirable and the other good and desirable. And more.
I find it helpful to know some of this history, recognize these kinds of worldviews and assumptions, explore the effects of these, and find worldviews and assumptions that are more life-centered and can help us develop a more ecologically sound civilization.
OTHER ASSUMPTIONS
I also use other assumptions that, in my experience, fit with a more life-centered worldview.
I see all beings as primarily consciousness. They are consciousness to themselves, just as I am, and we all live through different bodies with different psyches. All beings are then fundamentally the same as me. All beings want happiness and to be free of suffering, just like me.
Thoughts are questions about the world. They have a practical function only, to help us orient and function in the world. They cannot hold any full, final, or absolute truth. The world is always more than and different from our maps.
If people act in destructive ways, it’s either because of the system we are all part of or trauma. Usually, it’s both. The system leads to trauma, and the system and trauma come together to bring about destructive actions. (This is the system that comes from a worldview of separation.)
BEFRIENDING EXPERIENCE
I explore befriending my experiences and wounded parts of myself.
How do I relate to this experience that’s here? These sensations, mental images, words? Can I find a more gentle and kind way to relate to it?
When I experience distress, it comes from distressed parts of me. It’s not all of me. These parts want the same as me: Love, kindness, acceptance, understanding, support. How is it to give it to them? How is it to give them what they most deeply want? How is it to be a good parent to these parts of me?
ALLOWING MYSELF TO BE HUMAN
I allow myself to be human with easy and difficult days and the full range of human experiences, thoughts, emotions, hopes and fears. It’s normal. It’s human. It makes me like anyone else.
In a very real sense, these emotions are the emotions of this living system we call Earth. They are the local and temporary expressions of Earth, in this case, responding to what’s happening to itself. (Filtered through the usual biases, interpretations, hangups, and so on that this particular local and temporary expression of this living system has.)
THE REALITIES OF LIVING IN THIS SYSTEM
Most of us live within this global civilization which is inherently ecocidal and suicidal. It’s a system that assumes separation from nature, and infinite natural resources. That means that all of us, inevitably, live lives that are somewhat ecocidal and suicidal. It’s mostly about the system, and less about us as individuals.
I know that living in this system, my life will inevitably be somewhat destructive. It’s inevitable. It’s not personal, it’s how it is for all of us. What I can do is do my small part in nudging it in a more life-centered direction.
ENGAGEMENT
I do whatever small things I can do in my own life. I compost. Eat organic and local if possible. Take public transportation unless I have a good reason to use a car. Vote for those who take our ecological crisis seriously.
I am also in the fortunate situation that I have land in the Andes and am working on regeneration, reforestation, and creating a food forest here. I love the work we are doing to help this land. This morning, I planted more Maya nut seeds, and participating in the regeneration in this way, in partnership with the nature here, is deeply rewarding and meaningful.
Engagement in the solutions, even in apparently small ways, gives a more visceral sense of hope.
COMMUNITY
I seek out communities of like-minded people. I loved being at the Zen Center in Salt Lake City. I love the Breema community. I love the Permaculture community. I love the people in the Green Party in Norway that I have met. When I am reminded of the Universe Story, Deep Ecology, Permaculture, systems views, and so on, I feel connected to a worldwide community of people who share these interests and this orientation.
Here in the Andes, I seek out and have found people who work with regeneration, bodymind practices, and so on. Just knowing about them helps me a lot, and I also enjoy the interactions and exchanges.
VOTING
Voting alone is not going to save us, but it is an important piece of the puzzle.
If I know what’s happening in the world today, and it’s the consequence of the policies of the parties that have been in power for decades, it makes no sense to vote for these.
I personally vote for, and am a member of, the Green Party in Norway. They get the situation, want to do something about it, and get enough votes to be included in the government.
I identify and question my stressful stories. For this, I generally use The Work of Byron Katie, although I did it so much that The Work mostly does itself.
This is an effective way to explore – to notice and own – projections and the shadow. What I see in others is also here in me. Whatever story I have about someone else, I can turn it to myself and find genuine and specific examples of how it’s true.
I am in the same boat as everyone else. I am not inherently better or worse. (Also because ideas about better or worse are just that, ideas. It’s not inherent in reality.) I live in the same system as everyone else.
MEDITATION & YOGA
I have done a good amount of meditation in my life, although these days it’s mostly in the form of noticing in daily life. I especially like basic meditation – to notice and allow what’s here, fail at it, and then notice it’s all already noticed and allowed.
I find training more stable attention very helpful, it supports just about any activity in daily life and also general well-being.
I have also variously done tai chi, qigong, yoga, and Breema, and love it. It’s nourishing and brings me home to myself – as bodymind and the consciousness it’s happening within – in a more visceral way.
NOTICING MY NATURE
I have used the Big Mind process and Headless experiments to explore my nature, although these days I mostly just notice.
In one sense, I am a human being in the world. That’s not wrong. It’s an assumption that works relatively well, although it also comes with inherent stress and discomfort.
In my own first-person experience, I find I am fundamentally something else. I am what the world, as it appears to me, happens within and as. I am consciousness, and the world, to me, happens within and as the consciousness I am.
This gives a different and more real context to this life and everything else.
I should mention that this says something about my nature, not the nature of all of existence, and that’s more than enough. It leaves the nature of all of existence open for question and exploration.
HEART-CENTERED PRACTICES
I use tonglen and ho’oponopono.
In tonglen, I visualize someone in front of me. It can be an individual (including myself) or group or the whole world. I see their suffering as black smoke and breathe it in. In me, it transforms to light and I breathe that light out and into the other(s). I repeat many times until and beyond there is a deepening shift. This helps me viscerally see myself in others, it opens for empathy, and any sense of division softens and/or goes away.
In ho’o, I similarly visualize someone – perhaps someone I have a difficult relationship with in my life or the world. I say: I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you. (To me, they happen within and as what I am so this makes sense, although it works even if it doesn’t make sense at a thought level.)
NATURE
I love to spend time in nature. The more untouched the better, although any nature is nourishing – even if it’s just seeing the sky and clouds outside the window. I love to work in the garden. It’s amazing how plants grow and how a plant comes out of a seed and knows how to do all of it.
It also helps me to notice that I am nature. Everything around me is nature. It’s all this living system we call Earth forming itself into all of it, including what we think of as human civilization.
DON’T KNOW
I don’t know how this will all unfold. I don’t know what will happen with Earth and human civilization.
It’s possible we won’t have much time left, and that’s OK. Our time as a species and civilization always had an expiration date.
It’s also possible that some of us will come out at the other end.
I don’t know. I can know what science says. I can know the different scenarios and how likely each of them looks to us now. And I cannot know for certain.
For me, there is peace in resting in that don’t know. It’s what’s most honest to me.
DEATH GIVES LIFE
I also know that death gives life. The death of stars made this planet and us and all we know possible. The death of species allows new species to emerge. The death of individuals give space for new individuals.
Death is what allows everything we know.
We wouldn’t be here without it. This universe as we know it couldn’t exist without it.
THE BEAUTY OF THE FLEETING
Everything has an expiration date. Our civilization has an expiration date. Our species has an expiration date. I have an expiration date. It will all be completely gone one day, with no-one to remember any of it.
That can seem sad and terrible, and there is also an immense beauty in it. There is an immense beauty in that everything is fleeting. Everything has its time and is then gone.
IMPERMANENCE & OUR NATURE
One of the beautiful things in the fleeting nature of everything is that it invites us to notice our own fundamental nature.
Everything in my field of experience is fleeting. It’s always changing. Everything about this human self is fleeting and changing.
So how can I fundamentally be any of it? What am I more fundamentally?
I find I am what it all happens within and as. To myself, I am consciousness forming itself into all of it.
Getting this in mental representations is one thing. It’s a good start and can give inspiration to explore it in immediate noticing. What it is about is the noticing and viscerally getting it through noticing. That’s where it transforms this human self, over time. And it is more than possible to notice it and keep noticing it. If there is a sincere wish, and some guidance, it’s more than possible.
Our young food forest is medicine in several ways.
MEDICINE IN A CONVENTIONAL SENSE
It’s medicine in a conventional sense in that it has many medicinal plants. Most of these are edible and also have medicinal properties, many of which are supported by modern science.
Local, organic, and fresh whole food grown in rich soil is medicine. This is the real medicine.
MEDICINE FOR US
It’s medicine for us. We love being here. It’s amazing to wake up to birdsong. It’s amazing to see all the diversity here and all the flowers and insects.
I feel healed by this food forest, the land here, and the regeneration project.
It heals me as much as it heals the land.
MEDICINE FOR THE LAND
It’s medicine for the land.
In the wilderness zone, the regeneration is with all native plants and a certain amount of food-producing plants. Closer to the house, it’s a mix of natives and non-invasive non-natives.
In either case, it helps build soil, create a natural layer of mulch, increase diversity, and make the ecosystem here more healthy, rich, and vibrant.
MEDICINE FOR OUR CIVILIZATION
It’s medicine for our civilization. We have an ecocidal and suicidal civilization built on the idea of separation from nature, nature as primarily a resource for us, and nature as infinite1. It’s an extractive and power-over mindset that came with agriculture and wealth inequality. It’s a mindset that has led to our chemical-dependent monoculture way of growing food that creates ecological deserts, poisons life, and depletes the soil. It’s also a zero-sum mindset where we look for solutions that gain us and not necessarily anyone else.
Food forests are very different. They are diverse. They mimic a natural healthy ecosystem. They provide habitat and food for wildlife. They produce a wide range of valuable products for us, the wildlife, and the ecosystem. They get better as they mature. The return on investment increases and builds on itself over time. They reflect a more ecological and life-centered mindset. They are an example of a win-win-win orientation. Nature wins, wildlife wins, we win, society wins, our civilization wins, future generations win.
FOOD FORESTS ARE MEDICINE
So food forests are medicine in many different ways.
Already, our very young food forest is medicine, and we will hopefully be more so as it continues to grow and mature.
There are many similar types of medicines in the world today, of course, in all areas of life.
NOTES
(1) We are separate from nature. Nature is here primarily as a resource for us. Nature has value only by its value to us. Nature is infinite. The sacred is not here, it’s out there somewhere in the sky with a sky god. We understand something by seeing it in isolation and taking it apart to its smallest components. One end of each imagined polarity is good and the other is bad. Thoughts can tell us something real and true about reality. Non-human beings don’t have rights or the same value or inner life as us. The divine speaks to us through priests. If you are at the bottom of a hierarchy, it’s your fault – through karma, lack of character, or similar.
We use only natural methods on Milagros to keep the soil & plants healthy and the ecosystem in balance, and to reduce the impact of pests.
HOW WE BUILD HEALTHY SOIL AND PREVENT PESTS
Healthy plants require healthy soil, and we build healthy soil through mulch, compost, manure, micro-organisms, and a few other things like rice husk. We also build healthy soil through planting a wide diversity of plants, and allowing ants and other insects to fulfill their important function in the ecosystem.
This diversity also means that no type of food source is predominant, which means that no one type of insect has a chance of taking over. That means we don’t really have pests. We have ants and other insects that will eat parts of some plants, but that was only noticeable in the beginning when we had far less diversity, the soil was poor, and the plant health was far from optimal. Now, in our second year, it happens rarely and to a very low degree.
PESTICIDES AND CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS
We don’t need pesticides or chemical fertilizers which is good since these have a huge and detrimental impact on the ecosystem. They kill off wildlife. They contaminate the water and groundwater. They cause cancer and other diseases in humans and perhaps especially in children and pets. They destroy the soil quality. They create dependency. (Which is, of course, part of the business model.) Creating and shipping them is resource-intensive.
THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL OF CHEMICALS, TOXINS, AND MONOCULTURE
With pesticides and chemical fertilizers, you have a downward spiral, especially combined with monocultures. The soil is increasingly depleted. There is less and less diversity. Monocultures invite huge numbers of insects specializing in that particular crop.
You find yourself in an increasingly difficult situation, and increasingly dependent on chemical fertilizers and toxins.
THE UPWARD SPIRAL OF DIVERSITY, POLYCULTURE, AND NATURAL METHODS
This is in contrast to the upward spiral of diversity, polyculture, and using natural methods.
We are putting in resources now in the establishing phase. We are learning. We hire specialists and practical help. We buy seedlings and seek out seeds and cuttings from neighbors. We do a lot to improve the soil health, including bringing in some resources from outside (manure, compost, wood chips, rice husks, microbes, etc.). We water if needed, especially in the nursery and the young plants.
Already, we are seeing a significant return on investment. We are starting to have food from the garden and young food forest. We are getting more plants from several of the ones we have here. (A few days ago, I took about 30 nopal pads and planted more nopal.) And so on.
As our food forest matures, it will increasingly take care of itself. We have mostly drought-resistant perennials and these don’t need much if any extra water after they are established, especially if they have a good mulch layer, grow in good soil, and have a diversity of plants around them to help improve the soil and create shade to retain moisture.
As the food forest matures, there will be less need for inputs and maintenance, and it will produce more food, seeds, seedlings, cuttings, and so on.
By taking this approach, the return on investment is high and exponential.
We had our first dinner party in the large house today, and we all enjoyed the house and the view tremendously.
I found the location and did the basic design – the layout, organization, sizes, and so on, and an excellent local architect did the final design and the construction drawings and oversaw the building process along with my wife.
We designed with the climate, sun, and wind. (I used design software with sun ray tracking to test the design at different times of day and different seasons.) We used traditional building techniques (rammed earth and wood) and local materials. It’s durable and easy to repair. Houses built with the same techniques have been standing for centuries. We will install solar panels and batteries. We are collecting rainwater. We are using a form of composting toilet so no resources are wasted. We are planting around the house to provide shade, beauty, and food, and to keep the views open. For me, that’s all part of good design.
Another aspect of good design is that it feels good. It feels good to be in and around the buildings and to live there.
Yet another is beauty and fascination. It should have some fascinating features, materials, and contrasts.
And yet another, which I was reminded of today, is that it’s invisible. After the initial exploration and fascination and as you live your life, it becomes invisible. It works. It’s functional and convenient. There is little to no friction. It’s easy to move between the spaces.
None of this is new, of course. It’s about delight, function, and viscerally feeling good in the space.
I should mention that I studied architecture in the Master’s program at the University of Oregon, I grew up with an architect father so I lived and breathed architecture growing up (he shared a lot with me about how he went about it), and I spent years learning about designing with the elements, using traditional techniques and natural materials, and different forms of vernacular and modern eco-sound architecture.
Above are a few photos from the construction process.
We are developing a food forest at Finca Milagros outside of Barichara. This is a dry tropical forest zone in the Andes mountains at 1000-1100 meters above sea level.
TWO GENERAL ZONES
We plan a food forest for almost all of Milagros, with two general zones.
The largest is a near-wilderness zone with natives that includes food-producing trees, bushes, vines, and so on. These will produce food mainly for the wildlife, although I suspect we will gather some too. Two thousand native trees of twenty different kinds were planted there a few months ago, and we plan on more. As a forest, it will all natives as far as that is possible, most plants will produce some kind of food for the wildlife, and some – maybe 10% (?) – will produce food for humans as well.
The other is around the houses. Here, we will have a range of natives and include food-producing plants from anywhere worldwide as long as they are non-invasive and well-suited to this climate. A good portion of these will produce food for humans, maybe half (?).
It’s difficult to know the exact proportions since this is all in an early phase. I suspect we will continue to interplant for as long as we are here with natives to increase the diversity, and with food-producing plants to produce more food for the wildlife and us.
HOW WE FIND PLANTS
How do we select and find plants for this project?
We use what’s here. We already have a wide variety of natives, including food-producing plants.
We get some seeds and seedlings from friends and neighbors. (We will get Maya Nut seeds and some native Agraz and Suriname Cherries from a friend in the area within a couple of days.)
We get some seedlings from local nurseries. The selection of any one nursery is quite limited, especially when it comes to natives, but combined – by searching and going to several – we find a wider variety.
We plant seeds in our own nursery which has a few hundred plants so far. These go into the ground when they are ready and we have a good place for them.
We may eventually get seeds and seedlings from non-local nurseries for useful plants we cannot find here.
We aim for as much diversity as possible for several reasons: It creates more resilience and better habitat for wildlife. It improves soil health. It makes a better use of the 3D space. It shows us which ones do especially well here, and which ones may need a different microclimate. (The microclimates here will change as the food forest develops.) It produces a wider variety of food for wildlife, us, and possibly sale.
Also, with a changing climate, some will do better in the future than others and we don’t know which ones yet. That’s something we’ll have to observe and learn as the climate changes.
I know that some tropical or sub-tropical food forests have 200-300+ types of food-producing plants. I am honestly not sure how many we have so far but it’s likely still in the double digits.
PLANT DATABASE FOR MILAGROS
I have developed a plant database with 250 entries so far. These are all plants that are suited to this climate. The list includes plants recommended to us by locals and that we know do well in this area.
I am also using AI (ChatGPT 4o) for some aspects of this database. I use it to identify additional candidates for the food forest. It helps me fill in the info for each plant. It also helps me rank the plants according to different criteria: Nativeness, drought tolerance, nutritional value, sun/shade requirement, and so on. I always check with local experts before making any decisions based on this info.
The photos are from the last couple of weeks on Milagros, most around the house and a few of the newly planted trees in the wilderness zone.
In my teens, I envisioned myself in the future writing books, giving talks, holding workshops, working with people individually and maybe in groups, teaching meditation, perhaps having an academic career related to psychology or spirituality (ideally doing research on a topic related to awakening), and so on. It didn’t seem all that far-fetched. I had familiarity with the terrain, the passion and drive, a good enough brain, and I relatively easily got top grades.
A SHIFT IN COURSE
None of that happened, likely due to a combination of trauma (social anxiety, wanting to stay hidden as a trauma response) and my chronic illness.
Instead, I find myself now putting all of that into the reforestation and food forest project here on Finca Milagros. It’s deeply rewarding, I notice how I am transformed by it along with the land, and it doesn’t have some of the annoying downsides (!) of working with humans. (Of course, it instead has its own challenges.)
If I had followed the path I envisioned, and which seemed realistic in one form or another, I could perhaps help a few dozen people, maybe somewhere in the three digits. Instead, through where life put me, I can help millions if not billions of beings. Of course, it’s not all about numbers, but in a sense, it is all about numbers.
RESCUING THIS LAND
I find it immensely rewarding to know that millions and possibly billions of beings will live out their life fully or partially on this land.
If we hadn’t bought it, someone else would and they would likely have developed it into dozens of plots with houses or a big hotel. Both is happening right down the hill from us, in two different projects, and we know that an architect in town had similar plans for this land.
LOVE SPICED WITH DISAPPOINTMENT
As I sometimes tell friends, I channel my disappointment into this regeneration project. It’s said as a joke, but there is a grain of truth in it.
What’s more real, of course, is that it comes from love – love for nature, life, this amazing living planet we are all expressions of and how it appears locally here.
AN ESTIMATE OF THE NUMBER OF BEINGS ON MILAGROS
How many beings live here now? Maybe low three digits of birds, a half to a few million insects, some dozen mammals, three digits of reptiles and amphibians (maybe more), trillions of microbes, and hundreds of thousands if not millions of plants of a few hundred different types.
How many beings may live here at any one time in the future, when the ecosystems is more mature, rich, and vibrant? Maybe a thousand birds, billions of insects, three digits of mammals, several hundred reptiles and amphibians, trillions of microbes, and millions of plants of several hundred different types.
Of course, this depends on what’s happening in the larger local, regional, and global ecosystem, but this will be a sanctuary for millions if not trillions of beings.
It will be a sanctuary for millions and perhaps trillions of consciousnesses just like me and you and all of us, all living through and as different bodies.
WE ARE ALL ESSENTIALLY THE SAME
Some will say that it’s more important to help humans but I don’t see it that way. Of course, I value and love my human connections, but we are all consciousnesses no matter what type of body we live through and as. We are all essentially the same, it’s just the expression that varies.
Similarly, we are all local and temporary expressions of this living system we call Earth. We are all the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the universe. We are the universe bringing itself into consciousness.
LIVING THE ESSENCE OF MY CHILDHOOD DREAM
As a child, I loved nature. I loved being in nature with my parents. I loved nature programs on TV (especially Richard Attenborough and Sverre M. Fjelstad.) I wanted to become a biologist, although what I meant was ecologist. Now, I live my childhood dream in many ways.
There was a planet that had come to life. It formed itself into vibrant and rich ecosystems and evolved and changed over millions of years.
ONE PART OF THIS PLANET
One expression of this living planet, one animal, lived like any other animal. They lived from what they found around them in nature. They were nature and lived as nature. They saw themselves as part of nature and the web of life. They lived an indigenous life.
THE BIRTH OF AGRICULTURE
At some point, this one type of animal learned how to grow food and settled down to take care of the crops.
At first, they did this to have food more steadily available. Maybe they had experienced a great hunger – the plants and animals they had relied on for food had gone away for one or several seasons – so they wanted to see if they could find another way.
With this one change, settling down to plant and take care of crops, a lot of other things changed.
THE ODDITY OF THIS NEW WAY OF LIFE
Some realized they could take control of land to grow food. Some also domesticated animals. They started trading the food they grew with other things. They amassed both food and things and a few became wealthy.
Others did not – maybe they couldn’t or wouldn’t because it didn’t make sense to them.
This was all a very odd turn of events. It was all new. It was strange to all of them.
Before, they all lived together. They gathered food together, hunted together, and shared what they had. They had just the most simple things as their own. They were all equal in the most essential ways.
And now, some of them suddenly were in a different position. They had leverage. They took control over land and things, other species, and even others of their own kind, in a way nobody had done before and nobody had even conceived of before.
CREATING IDEOLOGIES TO JUSTIFY THE NEW INEQUALITY
The ones who took control of what was previously shared had a problem. How could they justify the new inequality? How could they justify their new position? How could they justify controlling the land which previously just lived its own life? How could they justify amassing so many things? How could they justify controlling others of their own kind?
How could they make it seem natural and right?
They did it by imagining ideologies and finding ways to get others to buy into them. They found ways to make these ideologies seem right, good, and attractive. They found ways to make them seem inevitable.
IT WORKED: THEY BOUGHT INTO IT
At first, it was obvious that this was all imagined, and that those who took control of land and many things did it to justify what they were doing.
Although soon, it worked. They – the wealthy and the poor – started buying into these imaginations. As new generations grew up with these imaginations, they couldn’t even imagine something else. They just took these imaginations as given, as how it was, as how it should be. Even the ones that were taken advantage of by these ideologies bought into them and defended them.
The few in each generation who questioned these imaginations, and recognized them as imaginations, were ridiculed, shamed, ostracized, and punished in a variety of ways.
THE IMAGINATIONS
What were these imaginations?
There were many of them and they took many forms, although they all had one purpose: to justify this new situation. To justify the control of land and other species, and this new social inequality within their own kind.
They imagined their own kind as separate from nature. They imagined the divine rights of kings. They imagined the voice of the divine speaking through priests. They imagined laws to protect their property and position. They imagined the sacred as “out there” in an imagined god in the sky. They imagined rewards in the afterlife.
They imagined a divine order that justified social hierarchies. They imagined stories about those on top of the hierarchy – the kings, emperors, priests, and the wealthy – to make it seem as if they were inherently special and someone to look up to and admire.
They found ways to blame individuals for being at the bottom of the hierarchy instead of the system. They imagined ethics and norms that told people to stay in their place and not rock the boat. They imagined heaven and hell, and hell for those who don’t behave.
They imagined that the way to understand something is to take it apart to its smallest components.
They imagined their kind as intrinsically different from and better and more important than the rest of the web of life. They imagined a soul in themselves and no soul in other kinds of animals or nature. They imagined other kinds of animals as having no emotions or thoughts or inner life. They imagined that this justified imprisonment, slavery, and torture of beings not of their own kind.
They imagined polarities and that one is good and one is bad. They created and reinforced many polarities like this: The wild and tamed. Savagery and civilization. Man and woman. Human and animal. Civilzation and nature. White and colored. Written and oral traditions. Heaven and earth. Soul and matter. Mind and matter. True and false. Saved and doomed. Good and bad emotions.
They imagined that thoughts can hold some kind of full, final, and absolute truth. They imagined that some thoughts and perspectives are true and other thoughts are false. (Removing the curiosity to explore complexity and find the limited validity in many perspectives and a bigger and fuller picture.)
IT WORKED TOO WELL: A GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL CRISIS
This state of affairs – with almost everyone buying into, propagating, and evolving these imaginations – went on for millennia.
The imaginations took many different forms, although always on the same theme of justifying this new way of life, so different from how they all had lived in the past.
At some point, they imagined nature as infinite in its resources and capacity to absorb the waste created by their civilization, and they organized their whole economy and civilization around this idea. It worked for a while until their numbers and the power of their technology grew exponentially.
Their civilization now used far more resources than the living planet they were part of could replace, and they produced far more waste than the living planet could deal with seamlessly. The living systems of the planet started to wobble. Ecosystems were degraded. Species lost. The weather got more extreme and unpredictable. They saw and lived all the signs of a massive global ecological crisis.
Some of them recognized this, at least to some extent, and wanted to make changes. Others defended what they had been taught and the old ways of living and imagining, some because they were familiar with it and some because it justified their privileged position.
THE DELUSIONAL PRIMATE
We are, of course, this delusional animal. We are the delusional primate.
We are the expression of this living planet imagining itself as separate and imagining all these other things, and perceiving and living as if that’s how reality is.
We are the species that has become ecocidal and suicidal from taking these kinds of imaginations as reality.
HOW WILL IT UNFOLD?
How will it unfold?
Have we bought into the delusions so strongly that we are unable to make the profound changes needed to create a more ecologically sound civilization?
How bad will it get before enough of us realize the severity of the crisis and what’s needed to change it?
Will we, for very much longer, survive through it as a civilization? Or even as a species?
None of us know this, of course, we just have to live it.
HOW CAN WE WRITE A SATISFACTORY NEXT CHAPTER?
A more important question is: How can we write a satisfactory next chapter for ourselves?
One answer, at least for some of us, is to recognize these imaginations and how they came about, how they are perpetuated, and the consequences of perceiving and living from them.
We all play a small role in writing our collective chapter, and when it comes to writing our individual chapter, we play a much bigger role.
As Joanna Macy says it, we can engage in (a) actions to stop the harm, (b) developing a more life-centered worldview, and/or (c) live some of the solutions. We may not change the world (that much), but we can change our world, and that’s how the world changes.
A FEW CAVEATS
This is mostly about Western Culture, of course, which is now the dominant world culture, but it’s also to some extent about any agricultural culture. The indigenous have fully or partially been on the outside of this, which is why their perspectives are so valuable now.
It’s also a very simplistic view on what happened, and I am no scholar in this topic. Reality is always far more complex, and our view on the past reflect us more than it says something fully accurate about the past. Our views about the past, and anything, are mainly about us.
That’s also why this story can be helpful, even if it’s inaccurate and glosses over a lot of complexity. It helps us to recognize several of the assumptions we tend to operate on in our culture. It helps us see some of the limitations and downsides of these assumptions. It helps us explore other worldviews and assumptions that may be more life-centered and what we need to turn our civilization around.
EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS
I have written this in a way that contrasts the partnership and domination views and have left out of the bigger picture that embraces both. So I thought I would bring in a slightly bigger perspective.
We can see this as part of an evolutionary process. Human civilization, including the partnership-domination dynamics, is one of many ways this living evolving system is exploring itself.
Our Western civilization, with its ideas of separation, has brought science, technology, and much else of value, and we now have the opportunity to take the best from our past and create an ecological civilization.
RESOURCES
None of these are new insights. People throughout history have pointed it out, and it seems it has been especially clear to indigenous people.
I was first introduced to this view in Fritjof Capra’s Turning Point.
I also found books written by indigenous people very illuminating, although I don’t really remember which books talked about what. Black Elk Speaks, Lame Deer, and The Sacred Hoop come to mind. If I am honest, I read about these themes many years ago and I am not quite up to date. (Because of my chronic illness, I have been unable to read much for the last 15-20 years.)
