Saving Earth

This Journal entry expresses some ideas about our planetary predicament and how we can assist and save Earth and its fragile ecosystems from further degradation and collapse. I invite the reader to entertain the ideas presented in this writing, and do what you can in furthering the cause on land, sea, and air, and in your community.

World Bee Day

Today, May 20, is World Bee Day. Today we seek to raise awareness about the importance of bees and other pollinating insects for the sake of the planet’s ecological health and our human survival. Try to imagine a world without bees.

There are between 25,000 and 30,000 different species of bees populating and pollinating the planet. More than 75% of the world’s food crops depend on these and other pollinators, as do 90% of wild flowering plants. Reports from environmental investigators warn that bee biodiversity is dwindling across the globe, thereby threatening global food production and human survival. The most likely causes for this decline are pesticides and other xenobiotic chemicals in our environment, as well as the ongoing build-up of many different types of electromagnetic field (EMF) frequencies.

The next generation of EMF that we will be bathed in is the 5G network systems, said to be coming in 2020. Do we really need more speed for wireless devices?

I remember when a remote community I lived in on the Alabama Gulf coast in the 1950s had a community party line for telephone use. You simply had to wait your turn if you wanted to make a telephone call. People have been conditioned to be impatient. We live in a world that has become more and more conditioned to fast fixes and fast gratification. Corporate and media forces helped create our needy addictions, and have preyed on our shortsightedness all along.

I was educated about how xenobiotic chemicals harm bee populations by a neighbor of mine in Boulder, CO, in the 1980s. She was raising bees while I was treating my unnecessary and unsustainable green grass lawn with chemicals to make the weeds go away. After my neighbor helped me understand the problems with this harmful practice I pulled up all of the grass and converted the property to hardscapes and other types of plants that were not grass. My property made its way into a city landscape tour as a result of this more sustainable beautification effort. Having a grass lawn is an unnecessary type of embellishment which requires a wasteful amount of water. Harmful chemicals are also used by the owners who maintain their denial about this problem. Most municipal lawn owners still use toxic chemicals to control weeds and other pests.

Good planets are hard to find. If we continue to degrade this one into an environmental collapse, then a small denomination of the human race, and maybe some individuals from other species of life, can try to make a go of it in the harsh environment of some other planetary home, such as Mars, Jupiter, or the moon. Try to imagine that.

When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s I was gifted with wonderful immersions in the beauty and bounty and life of Nature. Growing up in Alabama I witnessed many times when the skies would be filled with immense flocks of birds flying by in seemingly unending streams from horizon to horizon. It was like the days of the great flocks of passenger pigeons that flew until this species was killed off by misguided and reckless humans.

In my days on the Gulf coast I recall fishing in crystal clear emerald green waters where schools of feeding fish would turn the water all about into a foaming froth. There were bluefish, mackerel, pompano, bonito, jack, tarpon, manta ray, and shark in the fray. I also recall watching great schools of other aquatic life, not unlike the great bird flocks, except these were endless gatherings and streams of porpoises and rays making their way along the coastline shallows in a mysterious and beautiful migration. I like to think they came together just to have their own special parade for All to see.

The days of witnessing these types of species migration in that part of the world ended 40 years ago. As more and more people came to recreate and build large condo type dwellings, the populations and movements of the aquatic wildlife steadily declined.

Another natural phenomenon which I enjoyed was nighttime swimming which gifted the experience of bioluminescence, a beautiful effect caused by bioluminescent bacteria in the waters. A swirl of one’s arms or hands would cause the water to light up in a bursting golden green or blue green light wave seen in the trailing wake of one’s moving body parts. It was so beautiful. I was lucky to experience this while it was still present, and be able to relish these now sacred memories.

The waters of the once pristine Perdido Bay estuary on the Gulf coast were a wildlife haven for a wide array of species. As the paper mill in Florida continued to dump its wastes into the upstream Perdido River, the waters of the bay first lost their seagrass beds, then the crustaceans, and then the fish. Only porpoise and mullet are present now in any number. I wonder how they find sustenance. Do the osprey still fly there? The waters of the bay no longer glow with bioluminescence.

The Caterpillar and the Butterfly

One of Nature’s intriguing and beautiful transformations occurs when the caterpillar enters its cocoon phase of life and is rearranged into the cellular structures that eventually emerge as a butterfly. In the cocoon phase there is a breakdown of the body of the caterpillar into a sort of goo-like mush. The cells of the caterpillar fall apart and begin to reassemble into a different structure. Cells from parts of the caterpillar lose their connective organization and move into a new organizational structure which becomes a more beautiful form of life.

The transformation from the caterpillar stage of organization into the butterfly stage of organization seems to be chaotic, but what is really happening is an organization into a higher order of life. Such seeming chaos looks random on its surface, but underneath the surface of appearances everything is moving according to some special unseen plan.

Are we going to push our geophysical, geopolitical, and socioeconomic predicaments so far that we also become a goo-like mush? What will emerge from such a cocoon? Will beneficent unseen forces be able to raise a beautiful phoenix from the ashes of the dissolution?

It seems that we are experiencing a chaos of unsustainable systems breaking down so that a higher order of coherence can be built. This transition will be painful unless we become globally unified in massive social efforts to mitigate this hard process and ease it into a less distressing expression. We will have to learn to step away from the programming of the old world system in order to change our consciousness and become free creators of a new world. We have to choose if we are going to continue our current “default” path of fear, alienation, and destruction, or become co-creators of new global cooperation, beauty, equality, and peace.

I believe we are well into an upheaval process. The death of many species, the growing populous crowding of needy humans, the precarious decline of our water, and the unabated discharge of billions of tons of chemicals into our ecosystems on an annual basis tells me that this globe and its inhabitants are imperiled. Being in this process evokes fear as we experience an uncomfortable reordering of our lives.

A new civilization cannot be built on the existing foundation because that is where our current problems come from and that is where these problems are allowed to fester and grow. To paraphrase Albert Einstein, “You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You must learn to see the world anew.”

The current status quo of corporate greed and the problems spawned by these institutions must be swiftly changed, or these corporate powers must somehow be rendered inert. It is possible that these same corporations could change their mandates and empower their scientists and workers to become part of the solution. The culture and behavior of our current civilization is causing a creeping misery which could become an extinction process within a few generations. We must transform our consciousness and behavior into a more sustainable structuring where all life forms can recover and thrive.

In a more positive spin, we may choose to view chaos as a positive sign because it indicates that we are moving out of an existing crumbling system that is causing these many interlocking global problems into a new system that will allow fresh growth. The systems that appear to be breaking down now are the ones that are unsustainable. Many good things are currently happening that are sustainable, but we may not be hearing enough about them because they are not a problem.

The current iteration of mainstream media propaganda spins fear, polarization, and divisiveness. We need to be hearing about the budding efforts of great and good people who are working away in scattered pockets all over the globe. We are being asked by the current negative trends of pollution and destruction to think and live differently. As we learn about diverse global efforts to heal our world, we will become more united.

Awareness on the globe is shifting. People are changing as the momentum of a new collective consciousness is emerging with emphasis on practicing care, kindness, acceptance and compassion as a way of life. This is not just another passing social trend. As the world’s problems are on full display, there are many positive efforts unfolding based on increased care and cooperation in the midst of the perceived chaos.

Here is an example of the efforts of Crestone, CO resident Lee Temple who has written one of the first comprehensive textbooks on the subject of sustainability and global healing. The Global Awakening Series can be used at the high school, college, and postgraduate levels.

Evolving Our Consciousness

The now 100 year old science of quantum physics tells us that everything is energy, everything is entangled, and that there is no separation or isolation of any thing. Energy can’t be separated. The ripples of energy in the field are all interconnected. Everything is connected to everything because everything is energy, vibrations, and waves of living consciousness. In the old Newtonian worldview everything is viewed as being separate and mechanistic. Quantum physics has now supplanted this separatist science. However, humans still behave in a Newtonian fashion.

Separation is really just an illusion. We continue to foster and create a world that is based on separation. This sense of separation is based on fear. Fear seems to be the big intrinsic problem that we must negotiate while living on this Earth plane. The illusion of separation creates: the fear of scarcity or lack, the fear of not being good enough, the fear of rejection, and the fear of loss of control. As one practices these types of fear for a lifetime one is left with the final fear, and that is the fear of death.

The solution to our problems will require a psycho-spiritual evolution of our individual and collective consciousness.

As we break down the separation and all of the problems that separation creates, we create the opportunity to bring back community and wholeness. This change will take us from non-sustainable practices into a world that we can live into the future with. Can we emerge from the cocoon with a new and more generous consciousness?

We are free to create our consciousness. Consciousness informs itself through its creation. The deep truths of our creation are being mirrored back to us through creation itself. These same deep truths live in an inseparable fashion in all of Nature and all of us. There is untapped potential within us, and if this potential is realized, we will be empowered to embrace, survive, and thrive through the chaotic goo-like mush phase and evolve out of our cocoon into something very new and very different.

Rethinking the Cocoon Process

Do we need to carry the current trends so far that we actually have to morph through the amorphous goo-like mush? Are we going to have to stage global revolutions to upend those who want to continue to profit from the insanity and destruction that their corporations inject into and dump onto the planet?

I believe that there is a solution short of the violent type that I allude to in these questions I pose.

Simply stated, I believe that what we should cocoon and morph anew is all of our current educational processes. Something more holistic and empowering and creative must come forward from our educational systems. The current educational system is simply teaching and indoctrinating its students with the same old thinking and skill sets which play right back into the (destructive) status quo. Continuing along with the same educational status quo consciousness is going to do no more than produce a continuance of the corporate mentality that has grown this mess.

What I envision is nothing short of teaching every child and adult the principles of how to heal this planet…in every course…from history and science to language, arts, and all courses you can think of. The curriculum of every course can be engineered with a creative consciousness to teach the best and most functionally practical aspects of old systems thinking, but also be primarily built around the teachings of environmental stewardship, equality, and peaceful cooperative living.

In my vision, education will flourish into a great new kind of butterfly that can spread its wings all over the planet. If pockets of schools and bigger social institutions were to pick up this banner, others would quickly follow. This would create a coalescence via a mass consciousness movement. Such movements have always been with us.

Institutions of all stripes need to cocoon themselves and quickly emerge with new mandates to educate people to become thought leaders and facilitators of environmental healing. These new thought leaders and facilitators will enter the corporate structures and change them from within.

The millenials and younger generations are not as connected to the old structures because they are finding their own new ways. This allows them to begin to generate a new structure that is different from the old structure and status quo. This younger generations are approaching about 50% of the population. They are interconnected via the internet.

Please visit 350.org where you can learn about this movement and all of the people all over the globe who have embraced our needs for urgent change.

It is time to create new curricula in all levels of school, from kindergartens and preschools to post graduate programs and onward throughout all social institutions, including the family. What good will it be to receive a current status quo education if the world is crumbling and falling apart?

Conclusion

I have an inner sense that the first schools who so change their curricula will be swamped with willing and able applicants.

I also think that if the current environmental insults were to stop right now, then Earth would be able to heal itself within 1 or 2 generations of human life.

I’ll close this Journal writing with a few relevant quotes. The first one is from Franciscan priest and Christian mystic Richard Rohr…”The Spirit’s work is helping us stay in relationship and build connection. The Spirit warms, softens, mends, and renews all the broken, cold places in and between things. Invisible but powerful, willing to be anonymous, the Spirit does not care who gets the credit for the wind from nowhere, the living water that we take for granted, or the bush that always burns and is never consumed.”

J. Krishnamurti gave us this thought about one way to consider our health, and the health of our global society…“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

And finally George Orwell came up with  an opinion about how biases and prejudices get in the way of unity and progress…”The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” We are back to the fear illusion and how it separates us.

Solving our global problems will require that we embrace age old truths and come out of the cocoon with new psycho-spiritual attitudes and beliefs about our place in this Universe.

Thank you for reading.

Signing off from Crestone and Beyond

Associated Reading…This list of readings will be continually updated and expanded. Please revisit this list from time to time.

1. The Life of Victor Schauberger…this biographical essay is about a very important thinker and inventor from the 20th century; someone whom I regard as one of the most important people of the last century, and was one of the greatest naturalists to ever live. His observations of nature, and most particularly water, are profound.
2. The Secret Intelligence of Water…crystallographer Veda Austin shows us the evidence of the intelligence of water. Keep in mind that we are 70% water. The videos on this website will expand your regard for water’s living nature.
3. The World Lost Two-Thirds Of Its Wildlife In 50 Years. We Are To Blame…posted here on 9-19-20 is the article from NPR, which was published on 9-10-20…Forest clearing for agricultural space was the predominant cause of the decline, the report says, noting that one-third of the planet’s land is currently being used for food production. Human-caused climate change is another growing driver…”‘We can’t ignore the evidence – these serious declines in wildlife species populations are an indicator that nature is unraveling and that our planet is flashing red warning signs of systems failure,’ wrote Marco Lambertini, Director General of World Wildlife Fund International.”
4. A Perfectly Sustainable World Is Within Our Grasp…this article is posted here on June 20, 2020, during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, is from Peak Prosperity. The article works through the argument that we can reduce the global population of humans to 750,000 within 150 years, and thereby save the planet. “No technological breakthroughs needed,” it says.
5. Pathways to Resilience…this is an example of a type of educational program to help shift individual consciousness, and larger group social consciousness. The entire format and structure of our educational system must be changed if we are to save this planet and its inhabitants. This program, founded by Weston Pew, is an example of such a needed educational format.
6. The Great Chain of Being…a writing from Franciscan priest and teacher Richard Rohr about the connection of all things through Divinity and Nature.
7. Project Drawdown…posted here on 12-16-20. This website is about an effort to educate on the many things that contribute to greenhouse gases, and how we can enable a drawing down of this buildup…”Drawdown is the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline. This is the point when we begin the process of stopping further climate change and averting potentially catastrophic warming. It is a critical turning point for life on Earth.”
8. Food Fix…a March, 2020 interview with Dr. David Perlmutter, M.D., and Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D., posted here on 3-29-20, during the Coronavirus pandemic. This is a very important 40 minute interview where Dr. Hyman explains a number of facts about how our deranged food policies and food practices are harming the planet.
9. Appreciating and Celebrating Earth…a 3 minute video from the HeartMath Institute to assist your mindset about our relationship with our planet. The Earth’s magnetic field and the heart’s electromagnetic field are known to interact.
10. Peak Prosperity…this one website that has articles you won’t find in mainstream news. The weekly collection and summaries of uncensored articles about a variety of real global news pieces is excellent.
11. The Global Awakening Series…one of the first textbooks for the new shift in education has been written as a series of texts by Crestone resident Lee Temple. This is his website where you can view his works, presentations, and scope of service. The Allies page of this website has many more nice links to facets of the movement.
12. Demand for these products is destroying countries…this slide show of 41 pictures walks you through a catalogue of some of the most unsustainable practices on the planet. The destructive efforts to bring these various products (e.g. almonds, coffee, coconuts, avocados, cobalt, sugar, palm oil, beef, soybeans, and many others) into the global market place needs reformation.
13. 8 Ways To Teach Climate Change In Almost Any Classroom…here are some basic ideas to help educators get started. We need to develop robust educational programs, and quickly…”The ‘reality of human-caused climate change’ is mentioned in at least 36 state standards, according to an analysis done for NPR Ed by Glenn Branch, the deputy director at the National Center for Science Education. But it typically appears only briefly — and most likely just in earth science classes in middle and high school. And, Branch says, that doesn’t even mean that every student in those states learns about it: Only two states require students to take earth or environmental science classes to graduate from high school.” In my vision, all courses should be completely reoriented to fully address our environmental issues. This nice article antes up with good insights, suggestions, and resources to help the cause.
14. Unnoticed Apocalypse: Dying Insects Put Humankind’s Existence at Risk…”The report stressed that it is not too late for the international community to address this issue as insect populations can rapidly recover if we introduce significant changes by reducing the use of pesticides, greening cities, and creating an insect friendly habitat with a special focus on farmland. ‘No matter how many gardens we make wildlife friendly, if 70% of the countryside remains largely hostile to life, then we are not going to turn around insect decline’, Professor Goulson said.
15. The Ultimate “Zero Waste” Guide for Beginners…this is basic information, and would be required study in the new eco curricula that I am proposing all schools adopt.
16. Tree planting ‘has mind blowing potential’ to tackle climate crisis…”Planting billions of trees across the world is by far the biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists, who have made the first calculation of how many more trees could be planted without encroaching on crop land or urban areas.”
17. Call Of The Forest – The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees…an important 2016 documentary about the supreme importance of trees in global ecology and chemistry and spiritual concerns. This is a very well done film. The film’s author ends on the note that if every person could plant one tree a year for 6 years we could reverse planetary pollution…”For every breath you take, thank a tree.”
18. Shinrin Yoku: The Art of Forest Bathing…a young couple unplug from their technologies and walk through Japanese forests in a quest to learn about forest bathing and its health benefits.
19. Forest Bathing and Can It Boost Immunity…in this #56 MedCram presentation, which came out in April, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Roger Seheult takes us through an interesting collaborative study conducted by Japanese and American researchers on the effects of forest bathing on our immune system. Data revealed the same effects are not experienced by being outdoors in an urban environment. Diffusing cypress tree oil indoors produced similar but weaker results.
20. Forest animal populations have plummeted by half since 1970, report warns…”The biggest threat to forest-dwelling wildlife is the loss and damage to their habitat, mostly caused by humans clearing land for producing commodities, unsustainable logging, shifting agriculture and wildfires.”
21. Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Intelligence, Fertility, and Survival?–A Scientific Detective Story, by Theo Colburn…a 1997 classic, now over 20 years old, tells the story of the rise of petrochemical toxicities and their biochemical effects on all living things.
22. Living Downstream…the website for the book and the film by the same name, by Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., an ecologist and bladder cancer survivor. This book, also a 1997 classic, helped inform many people, along with Theo Colburn’s book, referenced above.
23. Silent Spring…the website and book by Rachel Carson, the gifted person who is thought by many of us to be the originator of the environmental movement. Her 3rd book Silent Spring started the environmental awareness movement rolling back in 1962. Her brief life was all too valuable, and her warnings about governments, corporations, and chemical toxicities have gone unheeded by the governments and corporations who continue to profit from the chemicals which are bringing Earth to a real silent spring within 2 generations from now. If we do not radically alter what we are doing in our daily individual and corporate lives, an environmental collapse is looming. Global corporations profit from our ignorance.
24. From ridicule to hero: The history of the eco-warrior…great eco-warriors are profiled here.
25. Your Foam Coffee Cup Is Fighting for Its Life…posted here on 2-15-20 is a NYT article about the Dart Container Corporation, in Michigan, which “makes, by the millions, white foam cups, clamshells, coffee cup lids, and disposable forks and knives — the single-use containers that enable Americans to eat and drink on the go. It employs about 15,000 people across 14 states.” The lucrative Dart Corporation is in denial about the problem that it has been fostering. We need a new generation of environmental leaders to step forward in mass to help solve the plastic problem before the environment degrades any further. Production of single use plastic should cease. Global citizen consumers will have to rise up and come out of denial also.
26. Nature Genius…a writing on this website about the beautiful aspects of Nature’s cooperative intelligence. Nature knows how to cooperate with itself. We humans, who are part of Nature, have broken this sacred pact like a cast of rogue agents roaming around the globe looking to create trouble. We need to return to Nature and embrace Her intelligent ways as our own.
27. The Prayer of Life…Heart Electromagnetics, Part III…a writing on this website about the results of important experiments in consciousness, conducted in the late 1980s, which revealed that the consciousness of a population of people could be changed by a certain number of people praying (meditating) in a unified manner. This number of people is the square root of 1% of the population of people being prayed for. For the planet it would only take about 8000 people to begin to change the consciousness of the global population. These experiments are a further testimony to the reality of quantum entanglement.
28. The Velocity of Life…a writing on this website with thoughts shared about our unnecessary and harmful state of busyness.
29. Prayer…a writing on this website about how a little bird helped me practice how to be quiet and still, and also helpful in the cause of life.
30. Mysticism and Eco-Spirituality…one of our earliest proponents of eco-appreciation and reverence was Saint Francis of Assisi…”In his Canticle of the Creatures, Francis the mystic describes a participatory universe in which God loves and cares for us through Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brothers Wind and Air, Sister Water, Brother Fire, and “’through our sister, Mother Earth.’” From Richard Rohr’s writings, posted here on 2-7-20.
31. Humans Are Speeding Extinction and Altering the Natural World at an ‘Unprecedented’ Pace…a May 6, 2019 article in the NYT about the problems we are continuing to create. This article cites some alarming numbers and trends. The speed of environmental degradation seems to be gathering in an almost exponential fashion.
32. Avatar…the extraordinary 2009 film from James Cameron. This fabulous production is actually a documentary about how humans usurp and exploit Nature and social structures, and how other humans come together to save their planet from the usurpers. The lines of the script and the portrayal of Nature in the world called Pandora are filled with age old wisdom and truths. Our revolution does not need to become violent, but it might if we don’t start easing our way into some meaningful changes now.
33. May Update on the “Second American Civil War”…this is a good one to visit and absorb. “In ‘low intensity conflict’ (LIC), historically, it’s only a small fraction of a country doing the fighting, and most people live among the disruption go on about their business. Plenty of civil wars and domestic conflicts have looked like that, and that’s exactly what I’m seeing shape up in the United States. History proves that it’s entirely possible to have two or more competing groups at war with each other without dragging every last man, woman, and child into the conflict.”
34. Unacknowledged: An Expose’ of the World’s Greatest Secret…a 2017 documentary by Dr. Steven Greer which introduces the viewer to the machinations of “unacknowledged special access projects” or, USAPs. Dr. Greer explains how we can move from fossil fuels and the myriad problems created by the foolish push to obtain this sort of energy into a peaceful planet using the power provided from the zero-point quantum vacuum (zero point energy, of which there is an infinite abundance) utilizing advanced energy technologies which have been developed, but are hidden from humanity. The cast is a good collection of corporate, military, and governmental personalities who have come forward in this film to help wake us up. This production is of excellent quality. This is critical information to understand.
35. The Disclosure Project…this is the original presentation by Dr. Greer at the National Press Club in May, 2001. In this meeting, which was attended by media from all over the world, Greer and 20 of his over 400 whistleblowers from the ranks of military, aviation, and corporate branches convene to provide their stories about the truth of extraterrestrial visitations to our planet. This was a very important world event. The implications are plainly stated as to how the planet can be saved by disclosing the advanced energy technologies which have been in development since the days of WWII.
36. The Turning Point: Creating Resilience in a Time of Extremes…author Gregg Braden explores some of the extremes we are living through. All that stands between the suffering of the present day and a world transformed is the shift in thinking that allows the currently existing solutions into our lives.
37. The Movement With No Name…a Buddhist perspective on the global crisis. Since the so-called world leaders can’t seem to figure out how to help (because big polluting corporations have bought and paid many of them), a nameless worldwide network of organizations has arisen to help the movement gain steam and traction.
38. The Dangers of 5G…more articles to assist your understanding of this problem.
39. 5G: The Next Big Public Health Experiment…there are no safety studies on this new EMF technology.
40. Sign the International Appeal to Stop 5G on Earth and in Space…from GlobalResearch on 6-10-19…”Despite widespread denial, the evidence that radio frequency (RF) radiation is harmful to life is already overwhelming. The accumulated clinical evidence of sick and injured human beings, experimental evidence of damage to DNA, cells and organ systems in a wide variety of plants and animals, and epidemiological evidence that the major diseases of modern civilization—cancer, heart disease and diabetes—are in large part caused by electromagnetic pollution, forms a literature base of well over 10,000 peer-reviewed studies.”
41. The Dangers of Cell Phones…a 2012 writing on this website. A noted epidemiologist, Dr. Devra Davis, Ph.D., speaks on the subject in a video linked in this Journal. Since 2012 more and more evidence has come forward about this issue.
42. A Guide to Plastic in the Ocean…a short and helpful article from the National Ocean Service.
43. Major fish nurseries are awash in microplastics…”The slicks covered only around eight percent of the ocean’s surface in a large coastal region off Hawai’i. Extrapolating from their findings, however, the researchers suggest that the slicks were home to nearly half of the region’s larval fish. The larval fish in the slicks were bigger, and also stronger swimmers, compared to their non-slick neighbors.”
44. The boy risking his life to collect plastic waste in the Phillipines…watch this short video documentary to understand more about how bad the plastic pollution problem is.
45. Climate change: Scientists test radical ways to fix Earth’s climate…“This really is one of the most important challenges of our time, and we know we need to be responding to it with all our efforts,” Dr Shuckburgh told BBC News.
46. The UK Has Officially Declared a Climate Emergency…the motion asks the U.K. government to achieve net-zero emissions before 2050. It also calls for government officials to come up with proposals on how to fix the U.K.’s natural environment and deliver a “zero waste economy” within the next 6 months, according to the BBC.
47. Is nature over? Maybe…”Those numbers hint at an underlying truth: By acting like Earth was designed solely for human habitation, crop development and energy exploitation, we’ve raised extinction rates and put the natural world on the brink of collapse. The IPBES report — the first like it since 2005 — highlights the fact that things are so bad we’re endangering our continued existence.”
48. One million species face extinction, UN report says, and humans will suffer as a result…examples are cited. “For example, ocean ecosystems are degrading as temperatures rise toward 2 degrees Celsius — 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit — above pre industrial levels, the study warns. Coral reefs lost to warming and acidifying oceans could cause a collapse in commercial and indigenous fisheries, affecting billions of coastal residents who rely on seafood for protein.”
49. The Great Turning…a writing from Richard Rohr’s website about the movement to help save our earth.
50. The species the world lost this decade…posted here on 12-14-19…”A few years ago, a team of researchers in Europe wanted to figure out the answer to a simple question: How long would it take for evolution to replace the 300 mammal species that have gone extinct in the time humans have walked the earth? Their answer: 3 to 7 million years. We have already caused damage that may last longer than us. And that’s just the mammals.”
51. The Bees in Your Backyard…a website about bees and ongoing research. I recently saw one of these researchers, Dr. Olivia Camil, Ph.D. present a talk about her bee research. She is not convinced that bee populations are declining. There are 3500 to 4000 different species of bees in the United States, 950 of which live in Colorado.
52. Climate Change and the New Age of Extinction…more reading from the NYT for those who like this publication. “To keep nearly eight billion people fed, not to mention housed, clothed, and hooked on YouTube, humans have transformed most of the earth’s surface. Seventy-five per cent of the land is ‘significantly altered,’ the I.P.B.E.S. noted in a summary of its report, which was released last week in Paris. In addition, ’66 per cent of the ocean area is experiencing increasing cumulative impacts, and over 85 percent of wetlands (area) has been lost.’ Approximately half the world’s coral cover is gone. In the past ten years alone, at least seventy-five million acres of ‘primary or recovering forest’ have been destroyed.”
53. “Insect Armageddon:”…Europe reacts to alarming findings about decline in insects…an article from 10-14-19 about this serious problem.
54. Glyphosate effects on earthworms…all species of life are heavily impacted by this horrific chemical. It kills the shikimate pathway in bacteria, which is necessary for microbe existence.
55. Forget the Anthropocene: we’ve entered the synthetic age…the influence of humans is everywhere. We are roaming the planet with our experiments.
56. Trash found littering ocean floor in deepest-ever sub dive…our oceans are imperiled. “Plastic waste has reached epidemic proportions in the world’s oceans with an estimated 100 million tonnes dumped there to date, according to the United Nations. Scientists have found large amounts of micro plastic in the guts of deep-dwelling ocean mammals like whales.” Beyond Earth’s atmosphere space is also becoming heavily littered with human waste.
57. New plastic pollution formed by fire looks like rocks…this new development in our environment can’t be good.
58. Spectacular Footage of a Butterfly Leaving its Cocoon…David Attenborough narrates a brief video of the life cycle of the caterpillar and the butterfly.
59. The SOUND of Millions of Monarch Butterflies!…How many butterflies does it take to make a noise in the woods? A few million. Watch (and listen!) as these monarchs put on a show at their overwintering site in Mexico. Remember, these butterflies came out of that amorphous cocoon goo-like mush. Those people who have allowed themselves to be immersed in Nature over the course of their lifetime will find this 6 minute video to be moving. Hopefully others will also.
60. US beekeepers lost 40% of honeybee colonies over past year, survey finds…”alarm over honeybee numbers has grown since 2006, when a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder became widely known. This problem, in which the majority of worker bees abandon the colony, has since receded but beekeepers are now faced with more general die-offs linked to disease, pesticide use and habitat loss.”
61. Human Drugs Are Polluting the Water–and Animals Are Swimming in It…”Waterways can contain traces of many drugs—among them antifungals, antimicrobials, and antibacterials, as well as ones for pain, fertility, mood, sleeplessness, and neurodegenerative diseases. If current trends persist, scientists estimate, the volume of pharmaceuticals diffusing into fresh water could increase by two-thirds by 2050. Recent modeling shows that a platypus living in a contaminated stream in Melbourne is already likely to ingest more than half a recommended adult dose of antidepressants every day.” This particular human waste dynamic now a serious threat to all animal life.
62. Reciprocity…in his  Daily Meditations Franciscan priest Richard Rohr writes about topics in spirituality and religion. This writing from 11-8-19 explores how trees communicate with each other in the web of life.
63. Oceans can be restored to former glory within 30 years, say scientists…”The scientists say there is now the knowledge to create an ocean renaissance for wildlife by 2050 and with it bolster the services that the world’s people rely on, from food to coastal protection to climate stability. The measures needed, including protecting large swathes of ocean, sustainable fishing and pollution controls, would cost billions of dollars a year, the scientists say, but would bring benefits 10 times as high.” Posted here on 4-6-20.
64. Giving Birth to Ancestors…a Buddhist practitioner writes about the importance of our veneration of ancestors, extending this veneration to all of life which has been on Earth, and presents this practice as a way of helping us to heal our relationship with the Earth. Posted here on 7-2-22.
65. The Week in Wildlife, in Pictures…this is a nice portfolio of our Earthmates around the globe.
66. Giving A Voice To Trees…research is showing the many ways that trees contribute their intelligence to the Earth.

                    L’alam al-mein, amen…I seal this prayer in trust and faith and truth.