Sentient Beings: Where they at, yo?

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Discussing the Voyager spacecraft today, and all the ways that Carl Sagan and company were able to represent that humans have intelligent (more or less) understanding of the universe, I started to wonder.

What are the chances that Voyager will end up on another M-Class Planet (ST:TNG) that can support humanoid life? And what are the chances that sentient life is evolving on these planets that has the same pursuit of knowledge and understanding of the universe that we do? Dolphins and gorillas are plenty smart, but probably wouldn’t know that perfect triangles don’t occur in nature. Or maybe they do know that, and I’m an anthropocentric ass.

But you know what I mean – we think that our sense of the universe and the meaning of knowledge is in some way the ‘true’ truth, but who’s to say what all the different options are for perceiving reality? All human knowledge stems from our sensory abilities and the spectrum we’re working within. What if other planets see in a different part of the light spectrum, or hear with their feet, or something totally unimaginable?  Continue reading →

Eco Warriors: A Call to Arms

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I watched Big Miracle on the plane today flying home after another brutal semester learning about environmental policy. I’ve avoided this movie like the plague because I was sure it was an ode to the magnanimous awesomeness of America, and our commitment to save these three majestic creatures from a cold watery death. How dare we (America, the West, humans?) be so facetious to pretend we care about nature as we systematically plunder and destroy it? But I suppose the lives of a few charismatic megafauna are a prime example of humanity’s ability to care about finite things that have cute faces and are in front of us. It’s not that we don’t care about these things, we’re powerless to stop the pervasive diffuse nature of ecosystem destruction, it’s just too esoteric and distant from our daily lives to be addressed. I assumed that Big Miracle would be like Avatar, where you’re meant to identify with the aliens, but clearly humans are represented by the technocratic death ship plundering natural resources at the expense of irreplaceable ecosystem services and a spiritual connection with nature. And, I’m pretty sure the story ended less well for the Great Plains Indians than it did for the blue people.

So I started watching with an eye to panning this trite distraction from endemic threats to the planet. How was I so wrong? I’m tempted to make this a must see for environmental policy students about the cold harsh reality of working for eco-justice in a world driven by naked avarice and corporate kleptocracy. Drew Barrymore is our intrepid Greenpeace director, fighting for every dung beetle in the area, when she finds out that three whales are trapped in the Arctic Circle because of an early freeze to the ice (*probably won’t be a problem in the future, you’re welcome, whales).

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Apoc-applications: Everybody Farm

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When pondering the possible collapse of current global systems, a space is created to build a new society. This opportunity to evolve Rousseau’s Social Contract could incorporate our current understanding of science and technology, while using best practices of transparent lateral democracies, which recognize the importance of diverse perspectives and full participation. My dream is to create a society with an inclusive yet rigorous collective ethos that embodies constructive collaboration and equality.

It’s possible that the public and private institutions we’re so accustomed to will disappear in our lifetimes, leaving a power vacuum. If our current global economy fails basic services will be interrupted, leaving communities to rely on themselves. “Be prepared” is a great motto, and to prepare for possible environmental and economic failures, I’m crowd sourcing Rapture Skills from my network. I want to create a group of individuals (virtually for now, in person in the future) committed to increasing our resilience and prepping for possible shocks.

The goal to create a sustainable community is long-term and somewhat grandiose. However, there may come a time when living in village-like communities off the grid is the most feasible and desirable option. When that happens, Everybody Farm will be an ideal backup plan. A core tenet is that Everybody Farms, regardless of what other skills that group member contributes. Supplying all our services, food and energy needs is a task that demands full participation, and hopefully farming together will foster an even deeper sense of community and commitment.

So, what do you bring to our post-Apocalyptic table? Continue reading →

2013: Suck it, Mayans!

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Or, The Rebound Effect of False Hope?

The belief that the Mayan Calendar says the world will end in 2012 was gutted by the recent discovery of their “astronomical faculty lounge” in Guatemala. As TIME magazine writes, “Here’s what’s not going to happen this year: the earth won’t end on Dec. 12; it won’t be swallowed by a black hole, consumed by the sun or get taken out by a collision with the imaginary planet Nibiru.”

I never thought the world was literally going to end in 2012. It just feels like a truism with all the crazy things happening in the world, and an easy meme to hang my hat on when discussing Armageddon scenarios. I feel like a lot of the zeitgeist around End of the World scenarios stems from concern about the global ecological and economic threats of our current hyper-stressed and over-stretched culture.

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Always look on the bright side …

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Meeting with my career counselor today, I was energized with a fresh perspective. She told me she has great hope for the future, with all the intelligent driven empathetic people educating themselves to try to build a better world. She said the next generation is going to do great things, and that humanity is evolving to something better.

I don’t know whether or not she’s right, but why not believe it? It makes getting up in the morning easier anyway. So in the depths of finals week I choose to find hope that somehow all our efforts aren’t for nothing. A moment of optimism, it feels nice to give in for once. After all, things could be worse, and may be in the (near) future. But for now, no one’s getting arrested under the National Defense Authorization Act, the weather’s still relatively normal and my fiat currency can still buy food, so I’ll call it a win. And, we’re alive. So enjoy it!

Rapture-Ready: An Optimistic Realist’s Approach

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It’s the end of the school year, and time to reflect on what we’ve learned and predict what the future may hold. In my energy policy course, we discussed the possibility of national or global action to combat climate change. Students pointed to the science, studies, frameworks, agreements, commitments, and endless summits. We have the knowledge and the resources to stop this self-genocide before it’s too late. But the harsh truth is, among those endless possibilities it’s highly improbable (≥1%?) humans will manage to create stringent and timely enough green house gas emissions-mitigating policies.

To successfully halt the worst of climate change, the globe needs to start decreasing GHG emissions by 5% a year – instead of growing by 3-5% per year as we’re doing right now. And we need to make that change by 2015. Never in the history of the fossil fuel economy (so, 100 years?) has that kind of emissions reduction occurred – except when the USSR collapsed. I’m not sure whether the schadenfreude is worth it, but I guess a global collapse would at least cause a reduction in emissions (or would people just start burning tires)? Because past 2015 it starts looking like Mission: Impossible to stop this crazy train from leaving the station.

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Label Genetically Engineered Foods (an appeal to democracy and common sense)

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Signature gathering to label genetically modified foods in California ended last week. So far it looks like enough signatures were gathered to get the initiative on the 2012 California ballot. 500,000+ signatures were needed, and Label GMOs gathered nearly one million just to make sure challenged signatures don’t destroy the initiative (remember ACORN, the 2008 election, and the Republicans’ smear campaign?).

Quick definition of genetically engineered crops: new seeds made with recombinant DNA technology, which involves splicing genes from other organisms or species into crops at the molecular level to introduce desired traits. Note: This is not your dad’s selective breeding. We’re talking scientists using virus vectors in labs to cobble Frankenstein-crops together. Biotech corporations make claims of improved drought resistance and nutrition, but so far they’ve only created pesticide-producing and weed-killer-resistant traits. Unfortunately, I’m not weed-killer-resistant, last time I checked.

Grandmother Pamm Larry calls herself the initial instigator of the Genetically Engineered Labeling Act. When I spoke with her in September, she told me that “what made me decide to get involved with it was that I had been studying about studying about genetically engineered stuff for quite a few years, 6, 7, 8 years, and I was getting kind of depressed about the situation, almost catatonic, nervous and crying – I’m a grandma and a mom and wondering what kind of a world we’re leaving our children.”

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Placenta, anyone?

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Modern day America is a far cry from the Circle of Life that Mufasa taught Simba many moons ago. Birth, love, aging and death are compartmentalized physically and emotionally – we have maternity wards, end-of-life facilities and grief counseling instead of multi-generational households and multi-day wakes. Billion dollar industries subcontract care for our most humanizing stages of life. A village rarely raises a child – unless the village is Nickelodeon’s Kidzone.

I’m 28 years old and have never seen a baby born or a person die, except on television. It’s bizarre to have ‘experienced’ so many important milestones of existence exclusively virtually. A hundred years ago not only would many of my siblings probably have died (I definitely would have considering the number of childhood illnesses I endured), my mom had a 1/3 chance of dying with every pregnancy, and living on a farm entailed constant interaction with natural cycles.

Urbanites suffer particularly from this cycle-dissociation-disorder, hence the back to the land-esque movement around our life-stages. How can we better connect with our intrinsic evolutionary drives within this technocratic, sterilized society? So we strive to connect with our animal selves, whether through hippy love-fests and shamanism or hunting and ultimate fighting.

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Doomsday Preppers… sign of the times?

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I realize I’m not the only person half-joking about December 21, 2012. But I didn’t realize I’m so far behind the apoca-times that National Geographic has a show about Doomsday Preppers.

Since I consume my sitcoms exclusively via hulu, I miss a lot of popular culture, so this gem would have slipped by without Stephen Colbert’s valiant intern slaves. I imagine Stephen has a team of college students trapped in a purgatory-esque basement à la Ben Hur, damned to watch every asinine commentator on Fox News, gathering the choicest clips (or rather, scraping the bottom of the barrel?).

Stephen was nonplussed by these survivalist citizens and their bug-out plans, as evidenced by his segment titled Stephen Colbert’s End of the World of the Week.  “They’re all ready for the unthinkable. And they each unthink it will be something different.” Then he rolled the tape of all the different crazy things these bunker-loving wackos were prepping for: a second worldwide great depression, the possibility of a devastating earthquake city of LA, an electromagnetic pulse disabling America’s transportation system, and Yellowstone’s super-volcano to explode.

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Justice Begins With Seeds: Conference Coverage

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This is a compilation of recordings I made last semester covering a food justice conference for my school radio station, MIIS Radio. A lot of the content addresses food and farming issues, so it seemed worth reposting here. Listen to my feature on the conference below, or recordings of selected talks.

MIIS Radio Post:

As part of my Environmental Policy Masters program I am researching the industrial food system, conventional versus organic agriculture, and developed an interest in genetically modified organisms.

I attended the first Justice Begins With Seeds Conference to deepen my understanding of the issue. This feature highlights some of the activists I interviewed, and their concerns. I’m still unclear on what the impacts of GMOs are, especially on human health, but I wanted to give voice to the critics, who I think are often overlooked in the general media stories.

Hear particularly interesting segments from interviews and panels below, and find a list of GMO resources at the bottom of the page. Continue reading →