Little Book on Applied Ecology/PEACE: WHY? WE ARE DEVELOPING THIS BOOK! (The “Introduction”):

PLEA FOR POSITIVELY ETHICAL APPLIED COMMUNITY ECOLOGY / PEACE TO DONALD TRUMP ET AL. (WITH A LETTER TO THE POTUS).

(All of us can and should send similar letters to our elected and appointed representatives and demand assistance from the top, and the grassroots, in rectifying: overshoot, disparity, unhealthy individuals/populations/ecological communities/ecoregions, destruction of biocapacity/the natural resource base/Nature/the Commons/the Land, our terrible state as Eaarth!)

…………………………………………….

605 Elm Street

Seguin, Texas 78155-4827

@PabloEco3500K

August 7, 2017

 

President Donald Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Trump:

I certainly hope that our mutual goal in life is cutting military spending, tearing down walls including many U.S. prison walls, and opening borders … as a part of efforts toward pacifism and to more justly share our personal power, resources, and monies with those who have considerably less.  I trust that we both agree that everyone has a right to quality and adequate quantity of: water, healthful food, clothing, housing, education, health care, Nature and recreation, the arts, and a voice in their government.

Well over half of the world makes less than $4000/year/capita, and more than one billion are in extreme poverty.  Moreover, as far as other species are concerned, projections are that by mid-century we will have lost 30-50 percent of these, primarily because of habitat destruction by humans.  Earth’s resources, including the solar energy which arrives each day, are limited in terms of quantity and quality, while dominant humans who represent one percent of the world human population have more than 50 percent of the wealth or power over these limited resources.

…………………………..

Here at home in this country we enjoy a better quality of life than we should. As about 5 percent of the world’s population, we use about 25 percent or more of its limited resources. If we lived moral and ethical lifestyles, we would all live “poorly” as Pope Francis has implored.  We need to lower our ecological footprints and share our power with others (including other species) down toward equity.  We should all work toward living humbly, compassionately, and poorly as Jesus, St. Clare and Francis of Assisi, Thoreau, Gandhi, Mildred Lisette Norman (Peace Pilgrim), and many other humble and compassionate people have exemplified through the ages.

I realize our ingrained ethos of “artificialization”, materialism, consumption, and growth makes a change toward living sustainably very difficult!  Many have had very little exposure to Nature and the Natural, and our educational systems develop little knowledge of ecological principles, processes, and values. Moreover, few in this country have known anyone in extreme poverty. …  I do empathize with the socially and ecologically ignorant.

Nevertheless, I beg of you to please try to learn and to act ethically toward those less fortunate than we, and to work in concert with Nature.  In these efforts, please free up resources and provide quality life for others, including the unborn, by developing policy and appropriations which will …

• Help put an end to the death penalty and severe use of solitary confinement and other torture.
• Result in our eventual signing of a comprehensive enforceable Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and its robust implementation.
• Realize campaign reform in terms of fairness and expenditure of considerably less time and monies.
• Develop an infrastructure which will triple the passenger and freight rails we currently have.
• Enhance respect for women, the physically- and mentally- and economically-challenged, indigenous peoples, the LBGTQ community, Muslims, Mexicans, the news media, and all humans, all life.
• Halt construction/use of the Dakota Access Pipeline just north of Standing Rock Reservation.
• Support the development of appropriate applied agroecology.
• Increase support and funding for 1890 universities.
• Bolster development of the arts and basic science and mathematics with enhanced federal funding, including funding for Hatch Act-type agricultural research and for NEA, NAS, and public radio and television.
• Stop the aggressive gutting of the EPA and the National Park Service.
• Work to begin to significantly reduce cynicism and polarization in the populace.

The list above relates to policy and actions which are very doable for your administration.  Nevertheless, I do want much more with respect to social justice, humaneness, and ecological sanity, and would welcome any efforts toward regeneration and conservation of resilient, sustainable ecological community.

Thanks so very much for reading and considering this!

Most respectfully,

 

paul bain martin. ph.d.

Retired, Biology-Natural Sciences Department, St. Philip’s College

Volunteer: Ogallala Commons, Kids On the Land, Dos Pueblos/NYC-Nicaragua,

Episcopalian Veterinarian Services/Honduras-Mexico, Generations Indigenous Ways

cc:  Other leaders, politicians, statespersons in the U.S.A. and the world via mail and various media

***************************************************

pbm

[ 7 Ss / VV->^^ ]

REMINDERS FOR LIVING SUSTAINABLY! (For Inside the Cover of the Little Book on Applied Ecology/PEACE, Games We Play: …):

LITTLE THINGS WE CAN DO TO HAVE HEALTHY & BETTER LIFE AND A HEALTHIER, MORE SUSTAINABLE EARTH

……………………………….

Eat healthy and exercise regularly.  (Truly integrate this into your workday and lifestyle.)

Experience the real world—your yard, open fields, farms, ranches, parks—and stay away from TV, computers, cell phones, video games & other electronic gadgetry.  Get physically, intellectually & spiritually in touch with Nature, the Land, Community and People (the very young and Elders).

For short trips: walk, run, ride bikes, or skateboard.

For long trips: car-pool.  … Take a train or bus.

Help your family start a garden. … Maybe an organic garden.

Appropriately incorporate grazers, browsers, and other heterotrophs into local rural/urban foodsheds.

Volunteer to help with community gardens or your school’s garden.

Buy something at the Farmers market—and get to know the farmers.

Encourage your family to mulch-mow … and to mow, water & fertilize the yard less.  Use locally-adapted native vegetation, and introduce vegetable and fruit-producing garden areas into the landscape.

Compost all leaves, grass clippings, food scraps, and other organic matter.

Buy less, reuse neat old things, and recycle.  Carry a cup for drinking.

Use less!!!  And use less plastic.  …  Don’t use disposable (plastic) water bottles.

Keep air conditioning and heating systems off.  Open windows.  …  (At least keep thermostats low in the winter and high in the summer.)

Help caulk cracks around windows, door and in other leaky areas of your home.  Place weather-stripping around doors.

Use less water.  Take shorter showers, catch water & and use in the sink, help family fix dripping faucets, etc.

Put a bucket/tub in your shower to collect the “warm up” water & overspray.  Use it in your garden.                     

Use rain barrels to catch roof run-off.  (Your plants will love the soft, low mineral water.)…Completely turn off lights/electricity users!  (Use power strips!)

At stores refuse plastic bags.  Take your own homemade “cool” bag.

Hang your clothes to dry out on a line & let the Sun/wind do the job.

Build a solar-water heater.  Do not use an electric water heater.

Prepare to be an educated & responsible ecological-friendly voter who is active in local & global community.

Work/have a career in “jobs” that help others & enhance ecological systems.  (Sustainable livelihood.)

Work on a farm, ranch, summer camp and/or park system for the summer &/or after school.

Learn about ecological, carbon, water and energy “foot-printing” & life-cycle analysis.

Encourage peers and adults to be truly responsible in using prescription drugs, alcohol, etc.  … Work hard at discouraging addictive drugs such as nicotine (smoking, snuff/smokeless tobacco, etc.) and other such drugs.

Learn about your family and community/regional history.

Learn about the flora and fauna of your backyard, nearby vacant lot and local community  (Natural History).

Go for a walk with a small child and teach them the names of birds, other animals, trees, other plants, mushrooms, and other biota (cyanobacteria, bacterial disease symptoms) that you see along the way.

Read, write and do arts and crafts of some type.  Do “hands on” projects and keep your mind challenged with mathematical and other puzzles, problem-solving, and critical & creative thinking.

Conserve, help the poor with “hands up” … and stay debt-free.

Work for open borders and real enduring Peace and Justice.  (War is NOT the answer!)

Live “Sabiamente, Simply, Smally, Slowly, Sharingly…  SUSTAINABLY

……………………

From: G. Tyler Miller, Jr. 1990. Resource Conservation and Management. Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Games We Play: More Than 200,000 Years of Living Truthfully & of Searching for Truth (A heavily-illustrated little book on applied ecology which we are developing):

We are working on a small book dealing with “positively ethical applied community ecology/PEACE” which folk can browse through and hopefully be compelled to study.  It will include mostly illustrations and outlines with captions below, and brief sidebar stories/pieces including a letter to Donald Trump.  Plans are for the “text” of illustrations, outlines, and sidebars to be followed by:

• a poem to digest titled “Enrolada” (or slang in Brazilian Portuguese for “all balled up/all messed up”),
• our concept of sustainable livelihoods,
• some suggested further reading, and
• a glossary.

Moreover, inside the front and back cover we plan to place slightly modified versions of p.b. martin’s “Little Things We Can Do to Have a Better Life and Sustainable World”, and G. Tyler Miller, Jr.’s “Principles for Understanding and Sustaining the Earth”.  http://www.paulpeaceparables.com/2015/04/22/little-things-we-can-do-to-have-a-better-life-and-sustainable-world/  Miller, G.T., Jr. 1990. Resource Conservation and Management. Wadworth Publishing Co.

With the development, promotion, and publishing of this book we are trying to:

• make a case for Why? we should/must live sustainably through a hard-fought process of social justice, humaneness, and ecological sanity,
• point out What? we need to do in order to realize resilient, sustainable ecological community, and
• suggest How? we can realize the process and the “Whats”.

We hope the process of developing, publishing, and disseminating the Truths in this book will be helpful toward realizing:

• the 6 Ss, or living Sabiamente/Wisely, Simply, Smally, Slowly, Sharingly, SUSTAINABLY,
• the processes of Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology/PEACE,
• regeneration and conservation of resilient, sustainable community,
• transformation of Eaarth back toward being more of an Earth, and
• a healthier world for all for as long as possible.  http://www.billmckibben.com/eaarth/eaarthbook.html

[I’ll be posting pieces of this developing book on applied ecology here at http://www.paulpeaceparables.com/blog/ during the remainder of the year for possible feedback.  pbm]

Depression and Pinchot-wired parents taught us to conserve.

2007 Chosen People-fundamentalist preachers impel us to grab and rule the all that WE MOST CERTAINLY deserve.

 

Humility, frugality used to be preached in the churches.

America First!!!  War!! Estados Unidos sempre precisa ganhar! …  And the ship of state lurches.

 

Donald Trump, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates.  The power reigns.

Others squalid in big city/rural remains.

 

So green! So green!  A new gas-electric hybrid auto and a muito  verde LEED home built  for only 200, 000 times what half the individuals in  the world make in a year.

“Organicissimo!! Organicissimo!!”  With this certified pesticide-free apple sent from New Zealand for our fresh fruit Texas party of Christmas cheer.

 

“Environmentists”’ answer is “R enewable”.  Used only a half million BTUs per capita last year of ethanol and fuel cell energy.

… Did I mention it cost about a million British Thermal Units of oil, gas and coal.  Don’t you love the synergy?!?!

 

Cars cause super-problems; we rush for more.

9-11!  Pres says rush for the store.

 

Indoor pools, treadmill exercise machines..

Could we become Mexican Raramuri or Kenyan Kalenjins and make the whole earth Nature’s park,  and run it in our jeans …  and get it back into concert with our genes?

 

Hot outside?  Turn on the arcondicionados!  Keep eating more gas, oil, coal fueled potatoes.

Global warming (Climate change)? Highly recommend moving from Barbados.

 

The Chosen few of the world possess Capital and are Landed,

While the Third World is kwashiorkor- stranded.

 

7 billion Homo sapiens—Number ONE!!!

Other top trophic species?  You’re certainly done!

 

Top soil?  Watersheds?  Diverse biotic communities?  Passive solar energy?  Who the hell has heard of “it”??

Big screens, NFL, NBA, empty calories—chips and beer.  All of this is what keeps the U.S. lit.

 

Farm subsidies, conservation easements, cheap energy and basic resources  from abroad.  For the Lorded Landed this spells more cash!

Certainly can’t cap excessive income and capital gains, strive for real equity and equality and produce less trash!

 

Trans Texas Corridors!  Loops around Interstate jams.  Muckity, muckity, muck, muck, muck.

I’ll solve it by traversing over Land with my on-steroids Hummer, ATV, Suburban, and Big diesel truck.

  

Frequent flyer miles, ecotourism, luxury ‘beachcombing”, Carnival Cruise. 

Explain for me again now those South American favela blues!?!

 

Come to our High Schools and Universities and learn to change the world faster.

No matter this “serves” to make the Natural ecosphere much less of a laster.

 

Mold those young uns into businessmen, corporate lawyers, sports physicians, oil field geologists.

But “Heaven forbid” an environmentalist or world-renowned ecologist!

 

It’s the parents’ fault, the teacher’s culpa, the administrators get in the way; a federal problem, a local one.  The village!  The family!  The individual student! …  Let’s get more realistic!!!

It’s all of these.  Just start somewhere and stay focused on it with lots of will and energy.  Get off your butt and think holistic!

 

Radios, TVs, cell phones, iPods, video games, plastics, petroleum perfumes,Taco bell food,  this dam computer screen.  Peggy Lee cries out, “Is That All There Is?” … VIRTUAL reality?

Think this is really messing with my Natural innate personality!

 

Go out into the country, inner city or even suburban streets. 

In this wealthiest of nations you’ll find unattended-to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, cancer, malnutrition– to which I would attribute bad (or lack of) local doctors, politics and economics, chambers of commerce, ecological ignorance and apathy, and high fructose corn-based sweets.

 

Arteriosclerosis, arthrosclerosis, hypertension, embolism, angina, arrhythmia, heart attack, stroke.  Could it be our way of life??

Perhaps we could just slow down and do it the natural way and give (human) Nature less strife??

 

Small is beautiful!  Don’t let them tease you!!

Big is passé … pasado.  Communidades que pensa grandao are screwed.

 

War. Basic/Airborne Ranger/Green Beret Special Forces training–into fit muscled/artificial “Army of One”- MEN (and woMEN).  Uniforms, weapons, order, brass gives us meaning.

Could we all do a chaotic Peace Corps thing –and rather than destroy do just cleaning?

 

Haifa, Chechnya, Darfur, Cuba, the deep dark Congo.

Their notoriety? “Isn’t  one of those where they invented the bongo?”

……………………

I’m confused!!!!

Or too much BS infused?

 

 

Got to act local.

I’m not just a Seguin yokel.

——————————————————–

*Brazilian Portuguese (slang) for “all balled up or totally messed up!!” or “complicated”, often associated with procrastination.

pbm

[ 7 S’s /VV->^^ ]

Interactions of Values (Marginalization–Sometimes Resulting in Death, for Those Who Aren’t Complacent and Complicit … and Who Are Not Running with the Herd Even Though the Herd Is Obviously Immoral and Unethical in Its Actions and Directions)

On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at St. Louise Kneuper Martin’s place in Devine, Texas, we had devout and not-so-devout Roman Catholics, members of the Orthodox church, Methodists, Baptists, Church of Christians, Pentecostals, secular humanists, mostly agnostics (I don’t believe there are actual theists or atheists, since one can never truly KNOW the Truth), and ignostics come together to celebrate Mom Louise’s birthday and Mothers Day.  In some sense we discussed nothing of significance.

On the other hand we discussed the only things on Eaarth of significance:  everyday life, livelihoods, gains in power over Land and people, ways of increasing personal health, and spirituality, … .  And for most present this resulted in human bonding (which can be positively significant if we put a united status to work for the common good and it promotes ecological community health).  [We did dance around and avoided talking about some very important, but sensitive, issues, including old personal relationships.  One brother has expressed regrets for the lack of presence of certain family members–or of our not learning about the status of a number of folk missing at the celebration–because of deterioration of one-on-one, marital or immediate inter-family relationships and subsequent taboos, … and I share these regrets with this brother!

Discussions of power did mostly dismiss with prejudice those present who don’t buy into unsustainable livelihoods and neoliberal capitalistic systems, even though current nonsustainable systems and conventional capitalism are processes which are inherently immoral and unethical in realizing and reinforcing inequality and inequity.  At St. Louise’s celebration I personally mostly only listened to the conversations taking place on this beautiful Saturday of chatting and of considerable conspicuous consumption (including by yours truly) of fossil-fuel dependent, industrially-produced food.  As I get older during this particular political period in the U.S. and the world and in an extended family which has for the most part bought into the status quo of the current socio-political/economic ideology, I am de facto more and more marginalized.

……………………………..

Why am I trivialized?

I propose that the only strategies, tactics, policy and actions which make sense in efforts toward holistic, profound and comprehensive ecological community health involve an Eaarth which transitions to an Earth in which humans live sabiamente (wisely), simply, smally, slowly, sharingly, sustainably (the 6 Ss).  And although there is lip service and pseudo-efforts toward such an end, there are few around me who believe we need to begin such a narrative and process toward quality life for all, including other species.  …  Many do get nostalgic for a simple life of the past when (in our fantasies) life was great!  Yet we will not give up stuff and money and power over Nature and relatively powerless humans in order to realize some of the peace and harmony and holistic community health and spirituality of some communities of the past (and present).  …  We do have gringo-dichos about unintended consequences after poorly-planned actions (or even relatively thoroughly-planned actions), and the need to critically think and appraise the state of community to thoroughly plan and to be very cautious and tentative prior to taking action, yet we largely ignore the Precautionary Principle in every day life.  …  We have a Golden Rule we teach and preach and politick, and yet we do we can–including at the politician, preacher, & teacher levels–to basically make the Golden Rule an illusion, especially as a practiced holistic, profound, and comprehensive principle.  …  We have recently elected and supported a thoroughly immoral and unethical, extremely arrogant and narcissistic jerk and ignoramus as an abhorrent leader, who is the antithesis of: honor, integrity, truthfulness; knowledge, wisdom, prudence; humility; temperance, frugality; respect, equanimity, liberality, graciousness, humaneness, justice; and sustainability.

Oh!!!  But yes!  “I” am also “You” (or “We” and “Them”).  We humans are social animals, and “by good and bad” I/we are a part of a “community” of people.  I/we are all a part of the problem. …  At the end of a short film on positively ethical applied community ecology which I used in one of my lessons on biology and ecology at St. Philip’s College, one of my heroes, H.T. Odum* opens his presentation up to questions and is asked if he used a car to arrive at the site of his presentation on the university campus.  And if so, how could he justify utilizing such in appropriate technology?  Dr. Odum replied that in his attempts to help others to learn about: the sad status of space-ship Eaarth, energetics and appropriate technologies, and sustainable livelihoods, he is a part of the community including its inappropriate technologies and practices. Therefore as a member of human “community”, he is also a sinner, at least until the community and its values, livelihoods, and practices are transformed and the original and mortal sins are atoned for through processes of learning about “Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology/PEACE”, reconciliation, affirmative actions, reparations, etc., etc. .  …  At the wonderful celebratory-gathering of humans this weekend, my daughter** asked why I have begun to perhaps even over-use an android phone after bad-mouthing such technology for so many years.  My rationale, as sinful as it might be, is that I needed it to promote my bicycle trip for sustainability across 2415-miles of the NE and SE U.S.  And I continue to use this inappropriate tool (i.,e. inappropriate for the long term with respect to the fossil fuel needed to manufacture it and maintain it as a communication tool) in order to push for a transition to human communities which practice the 6 Ss mentioned previously.  As the simple but magnificent poem, “Me? We!!” of Muhammad Ali and the little book, “It Takes a Village” of Hillary Rodham Clinton try to get across, we humans are social animals and it does take a “community” of unified humans to make significant change toward good.

…………………………………………………………..

But why should we worry about life, quality of life and the condition of Eaarth?  What is the meaning of human existence***?  The reality is that life makes no sense!  On the other hand life makes all the sense in the world!!

What gives life real meaning are the Truths of Nature and biophilia.  The closer “Nature” is to Nature vis-a-vis “Artificial or Synthetic”, the more meaning it has.  It is meaning given to us through genetics, and the closer local Earth is to that in which we originally evolved as Homo sapiens, the better.  Moreover, for additional meaning, ecological units such as family, deme, and various social groups such as clubs, schools, crews, political parties, even churches, etc. are imperative … because we evolved as social animals.

Also, environmentally and probably epigenetically, for me in particular it is the 6 Ss which give real and Truthful meaning to my existence.  This was imparted to me through my parents, rural community, the influence of Catholicism, and an ideology coming out of the 1960s and 70s, but especially through St. Louise Kneuper Martin.

Finally, what gives my life meaning is the process of the scientific quest for knowledge.  I SEEK to understand despite the recognition that we as individual humans, or collectively as unified populations and communities, will always be ignorant.**** … I suppose that is the power of (ever-changing) myth (Joseph Campbell)???

…………………………………..

*Dr. Odum and his wife wrote Prosperous Way Down (2001, University Press of Colorado.  This book is in the spirit of an upcoming conference, “Downward Mobility”, at the Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, June 18-20.

**My very precious and pragmatic daughter has a BS degree from Texas A&M University in Bioenvironmental Science, and is a wonderful reuser, recycler, and minimalist.

***E.O. Wilson. 2014. The Meaning of Human Existence. Norton Co.

****B. Vitek & Wes Jackson. 2008. The Virtues of Ignorance. University Press of Kentucky

 

Some Ruminations Before a Wonderful Gathering of Family Down in Devine, Texas (5/12/2018): Anticipating Encounters Folk with Various Values and Politics to the Right, Left and Nearer the Center

1.There once was a natural world (Nature) with biotic members (including no to few Homo sapiens) battling to exploit and utilize daily solar radiation, available water, minerals in the soil and CO2, O2, N2 & other molecules in the air, and associated biota.

2.As Homo evolved into humans, as its numbers more recently increased, and as it developed culturally, it became more and more effective at: appropriation of net primary productivity (amount of carbon uptake after subtracting plant respiration), and exploitation of solar radiation, water, minerals, and associated biota; disrupting & polluting; and changing the climate and Earth to Eaarth, especially after development of conventional agriculture and War, the industrial revolution, neoliberal capitalism, and the current electronic/computer/information age. … During this period humans of “good”, or “some ‘goodliness'” also proposed sophisticated paradigms (at levels of individuals/populations/ … even ecological-communities) of values, morals, and ethics for respecting other humans, and even other biota and the whole of Earth.  However, such ethics of reciprocity, or holistic, comprehensive, profound Golden Rules, … are not largely practiced.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaarth

3.As a christian-raised white heterosexual male citizen of the U.S.A. whose parents had land, no debt, and were fairly-well educated, I benefited greatly through the power I had available to me to exploit (directly or indirectly) the natural resource base and relatively powerless humans.  However, this advantage of power bothered me considerably from early on.  Through studies of ecological systems and contemplations I began to recognize that: in what is essentially a zero-sum/limited ecosphere, the realization of an ethic of reciprocity means we Haves need to reduce our ecological footprint and share our power over resources with Havenots, including other species.

4.Therefore, in trying to make this world a healthier place for all biota, I eventually saw the false-hope in ideas for strategies, tactics, policy, and actions which only tweaked the currently very-broken system with supposedly-appropriate technologies and practices such as photovoltaics, windtricity, batteries/fuel cells, hybrid & electric cars, …, LEED-certification, conventional organic agriculture, …, walls, drone-warfare, … .  I began to see that we need to radically change the paradigms of living and of our livelihoods toward one which educates toward “positively ethical applied community ecology*/PEACE” across all human organizational entities, or living what I call the 6 Ss, i.e., living Sabiamente (wisely), Simply, Smally, Slowly, Sharingly, Sustainably … in humility and by abiding by the Precautionary Principle.  We need to work toward opening borders.  We should set aside one-half the Earth (currently Eaarth) to to Nature as proposed by E.O. Wilson et al..  Appropriate applied agroecology as proposed by Miguel Altieri et al. needs to be realized.  Armaments, weapons, and War need to become terrible things from our past!  file:///M:/Users/pbain/Downloads/27803-71527-1-PB%20(1).pdf  https://eowilsonfoundation.org/half-earth-our-planet-s-fight-for-life/  https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/blog/agroecology-week-with

5.We should continue bandaiding the about-to-crash flying-ship-Eaarth with the “appropriate technologies and practices” listed in “4” above until we can get on a track of living the 6 Ss and lives of PEACE.  However, in order to significantly sustain quality life, we do need to robustly begin to educate, advocate, critically think, and morally & ethically take action toward changing Eaarth to more of an Earth!  The change must be radical, but hopefully we can realize a relatively smooth transition.

6.In terms of support and action toward PEACE–or the 6 Ss, in today’s world, I would score (100=excellent, 1=extremely poor) current political parties in the U.S in terms of support of PEACE as:  Green Party, 50; Progressive sector of the Democratic Party, 45; Socialist sector of the Democratic Party, 35; Democratic Party, 25; Republican Party, 20; Libertarian Party, 11; Tea-party movement of Republican Party, 10; Trumpian sector of the Republican Party, 3. In the U.S. in particular, but in all regions of the world we are generally not on track toward PEACE.

7.My napkin calculations are that morally & ethically we Haves (and this includes Trump and the 1%; former statespersons Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush; Warren Buffett, Bill Gates; and family and friends) should reduce (or bring up toward equity) our consumption and power by about 2/3rds to ca. 60,000 kilocalories used/capita per day, an ecological footprint of 7-global-acres, and in today’s- (2018-) world in the U.S. to ca. $50,000/capita per annum. [I do hope all goes well for Trump’s effort at reduction of the >15,000 nuclear arms on Eaarth.  It would be great to rid the world of the ca. <16 nuclear arms of Kim Jong-un.  However, we need particular focus on the 14,270 nuclear arms about equally divided by two great powers led by unethical men & followed by other unethical men—the U.S.A. and Russia.]

…………………………………………………………

*My definition of ecology can be found at:  http://www.paulpeaceparables.com/2016/09/24/summary-reportphotos-of-my-2400-mile-ride-for-regeneratingconserving-resilient-sustainable-community/  (I have posted in the past at this blog site, some of my strong beliefs about ecology and respect for others:  http://www.paulpeaceparables.com/2015/07/01/respect-including-for-the-lbgtq-community/ .)

 

 

 

 

Some “Pensamentos e Histórias” As We Approach the Celebration of Mom Louise Katherine (Kneuper) Martin’s 94th-Birthday-/Mothers Day-Celebration (5/12/2018) by paul bain martin

1.SUSTAINABILITY.  Genetically and environmentally St. Louise Katherine (Kneuper) Martin was probably the most influential factor in the development of my personal concepts and actions … of Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology*, and within paulpeaceparables.com and a work in progress–“Games We Play: More Than 200,000 Years of Living Truthfully & of Searching for Truth”.

* http://www.paulpeaceparables.com/2016/09/24/summary-reportphotos-of-my-2400-mile-ride-for-regeneratingconserving-resilient-sustainable-community/ http://www.paulpeaceparables.com/2015/12/15/simple-solution/ http://www.paulpeaceparables.com/2015/12/01/live-like-the-poor-pact-of-the-catacombs-the-meaning-of-human-existence-technology-frosts-the-road-not-taken-and-truth/

2.HIGHER EDUCATION.  My grades in Catholic & public school in Devine were fairly good, and I was competitive, but I had little savvy about higher education as I approached high school graduation.  I intended to attend Texas A&I simply because many others from Devine went there.  Then when my high school counselor, Mrs. Whitfield suggested Texas A&M would be a better school, I applied, and I received a scholarship award from TAMU which was $50/semester higher than A&I was awarding me.  Therefore, I attended A&M. … However, during all of my fish year, even though there were many good times, I was mostly pretty miserable with the regimented/disciplined, virtually all-male-university, … i.e., I wasn’t particularly fond of (“Hut, two, three, four, … I [don’t] love”) the Cadet Corps!

I DID regularly get scrumptious cinnamon rolls–with plenty of pecans, raisins, vegetable oil, and icing–through the mail wrapped in cellophane and aluminum foil from St. Louise.  …  I suppose this is largely what carried me through my fish year at Aggieland!

[In her lovely subtle ways, Mom–who had a formal education of to the eighth-grade, encouraged many others to further their formal education to the extent possible.]

3.A WHITE SPORT COAT.  When I first had plans to go to the high school prom and didn’t have a dress coat/suit to wear, I wanted so much to buy a white sports coat like some of my classmates had.  Instead Mom said she’d make one.  I must confess that I was sort of embarrassed and ashamed that I was going to have to wear a homemade coat.

What a young idiot!  … St. Louise took some white LINEN!! cloth, an old Singer sewing machine, her super brain, and her sewing skills, and made the most perfect and beautiful sports coat seen in any prom!  (Here’s Marty’s hit of that period, released about a week and a half after my little sister was born:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C_RWToGrCw .)

Mom WAS quite the seamstress!  When my brother Dr. John Russell Martin announced his intention to apply to various medical school in Texas, Mom made him a very professional-looking, sharp double-breasted suit.  …  Of course over the years she sewed many different types of clothing, curtains, grocery bags, and quilts for her kids, grandkids, and others!  Recently she sewed a heavy-duty bag for an old seed spreader I have.

4.SWIMMING AND SEX!  Mom taught me to swim and about sex by reading to me from books.  She doesn’t swim, but read instructions to me and my siblings of how to kick and do arm-strokes from outside of Uncle Peggy’s small concrete irrigation tank up on what was a hill from west of where the Triple-C Restaurant near I-35 now exists.

Mom and Dad had six kids, … but Mom READ to me about sex from some little Catholic pamphlets.  As I previously mentioned, I did well in school  …  However, I AM a slow learner!  It took classmate Jimmy Weber and others, to explain to me the connection of all the business of male-fish depositing sperm over eggs and other animal-sex behavioral information Mom read me, what I saw regularly on our on place & environs occurring with the cattle, hogs, chickens, birds, insects, etc.–and human sexual behavior.

5.SANTA LOUISE CLAUS.  Dad always took us to see Christmas lights on Christmas Eve, and when we got back, Santa Claus left some wonderful Christmas presents each Christmas Eve.  However, my Christmas education was more complete one Christmas when I was less than 10 years of age.  I was quite sick and stayed back home while the rest of the crew went to see Devine’s beautiful holiday-decor.  I learned to my delight that Santa Claus’s more complete name was Santa Louise Claus!

6.BOA COMIDA!!!  Oh how I loved Santa Louise Claus’s Christmas goodies, especially the date-nut loaf and the homemade eggnog!

(Some related “Christmas stories”:  http://www.paulpeaceparables.com/2015/12/13/some-alton-and-louise-martin-christmas-stories-ca-1946-66-and-beyond-by-paul-b-martin-69-yrs-young-oldest-of-6-brothers-sister/ )

7.BOM CIDADÃO.  Mom was/is always a good neighbor and friend of all.  She was/is the epitome of “Positively Ethical Ethical Applied COMMUNITY Ecology”!  …  When I visit her, she loves to go to the Devine senior citizens home and visit old friends.  …  One of my very first memories of being with Mom and neighbors was going down the road to visit and have a meal with Mrs. Steenken and her adult son near our 140-acre family farm three-miles NE of Stockdale when I was less than ca. 4 years of age.  (The visit stuck I think because Mrs. Steenken’s son placed about 10 green English peas on a knife, and then let them roll down the long surface of the knife into his mouth.)

Family-story-laden cousin Wanda Jo has often said that if Mom caught Dad flirting with another woman, Mom quickly made this woman her best friend.  Mom was/is truly a POSITIVELY ETHICAL applied community ecologist and astute family-/community-politician!

8.PROTECTOR/DOCTOR.  Once in late elementary school years, brother Lawrence, good friend Greg Jasik, and I were sling-shooting pebbles from a pile near the roadside of Highway 173 where Triple-C Restaurant is now.  I decided to aim for a car, hit it squarely in the side, and to our consternation the car pulled off the side of the road, stopped, and the driver got out and hurried toward us.  We ran to the back of the house, and met the driver at the front door behind St. Louise’s skirts.  She fielded the driver’s complaint, cooled him down, and scolded us.  (But as usual, it was mischievous-looking Gregory who got most of the blame.)

(A related piece is at: http://www.paulpeaceparables.com/2018/04/30/confessions-and-changes-in-values-and-socio-ecological-actions/ …  Also, some Lawrence stories are at: http://bannedbookscafe.blogspot.com/2010/06/lawrence-devine-warhorse-aggie-clark.html )

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Mom often had to doctor our injuries resulting from carelessly running loose in our early youth in Mr. Gutierrez’s, Schroeter’s, Uncle Peggy’s, and Mr. Bowman’s pastures, and from working and playing around our own ca. 5 acres covered with trees, sheds, pens and animals.  Many wounds got merthiolate and mercurochrome applied by Mom. Nail and mesquite-thorn punctures were soaked in kerosene and/or had raw salt-pork applied via a bandage wrap.  When we were seriously congested, Mom would slather Vicks-Vaporub (laden with menthol) on a thick cloth, and place it on our chest use below our nose.  Also, I remember the big larger than silver dollar-sized sulfur tablets Mom used to give us when we were sick while living at The Farm near Stockdale.  I actually liked them, and would sneak some to eat out of the medicine chest from time to time.  These gave my gas such a great aroma!! (Once when Lawrence, Ray Navarro, and Dooner, and I were playing chase up high on big horizontal live oak tree branches over at the Keilman’s, I slipped and fell and my thigh caught and was gashed by a picket fence below.  This time Mom by-passed the home remedies and took me straight to Dr. Peter’s.)

I could add some stories about times I got into some fights, and Mom’s saintly way of dealing with such.  But I think it is best if I spare you some of the details of my sinful ways.

9.FOOD PROCESSOR-/COOK-EXTRAORDINAIRE.  Mom would quick-fry and then steam-/simmer-cook in good gravy the cotton-tails, squirrel, and dove, & quail we would bring in after hunts in the pastures around us at what is now the Triple-C Restaurant location of our home.  She (and Dad) were good cooks, and Mom made cottage cheese and butter (or we did under her supervision) from the cow’s milk we brought in mornings and evenings (from which, by the way, she mostly strained cow hairs and manure).  Mom also made wonderful dewberry and grape jellies (and of course great dewberry and pear cobblers and pies, and great homemade bread, bread pudding, and rice pudding).

Once Mr. Peña, a close neighbor from across Highway 173 who was a sort of renaissance man, gave Mom several gallons of horse-mint honey.  She tried to get us to put it on biscuits and pancakes for breakfast, and rolls, white bread, & cornbread at other meals, … but it was really nasty!  … So Mom began to make batches of cookies with this horsey-smelly/”tasty”.  Amazingly the horse-mint taste was transformed into deliciousness when baked in the cookie doughs, and we six kids made short work of what become truly tasty honey!

10.BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY.  After we boys began to take off to places distant from Warhorse town, and to get married–and weren’t available to castrate pigs, brother Charlie taught Mom to castrate, and from then on it was Dad “a-holding”, and Mom doing the surgery.  (I NEVER saw softy-Dad Alton castrate a pig!)

Also, when deemed necessary Mom would take a load of hogs for sale up to the Swift & Co. or the SA Stockyards in the old 55-Chevy Bobtail. (She tells the story of cleaning the bed of the truck over at one of her old girl-friends from SA, washing the poop onto her friend’s yard in the SA neighborhood, and that her old girl-friend’s neighbors weren’t too appreciative!)

At times Dad would bring home salespeople from the Mill to have dinner (noon; supper was the evening meal) with us, without giving Mom a heads up.  And if anyone were working for him or stopped by to visit … and were around at dinner, he would invite them in for a meal.  Moreover, he didn’t discriminate regardless of ethnicity or creed, social standing, etc., etc. And Mom would always have something good for these guests to enjoy!

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After I got my driver’s license and felt I had to go out on some dates, I would always ask Mom–never Dad–for the keys to the car, and she almost always came through.  Once I had a date with Kathy Wilkinson on a Saturday for a track meet in which I was running quarter miles and sprint relays.  (I/we always got into the finals.)  Dad was out working the hogs in back and Mom said he didn’t want me to use the car.  I asked her for the keys to the bobtail truck, she gave them to me, and I headed to town in that hog-hauler (which we kept “clean”) to pick up Kathy and perform at the meet.

11.FAZENDO COMPRAS.  During my time growing up in the Alton & Louise Martin family (or rather LOUISE & Alton Martin family), the areas we frequented most were close to Devine and Stockdale (with a few necessary travels for county livestock shows & driver’s licenses, etc. in our county seat of Hondo; FFA Officer training in Utopia, computer learning at St. Mary’s; and some fun school & family trips to the SA Rodeo, Landa Park, & Garner Park area).  However, Mom would take us with her maybe once or twice per year to do some school shopping on the south side of SA at FedMart and Solo Serve.

12.TRUE ANGELS!  REAL SAINTS!!  Finally, my Dad Alton was a good man and a great father!  Despite his Marine Master Sergeant-veneer and sometimes loud, cussing and demanding voice and infrequent use of corporal punishment (more on Lawrence than me), he had a soft heart and on occasions in arguments, I brought him to tears. … But despite the fact that Dad was such an example of how to truly live “sabiamente, simply, smally, slowly, sharingly through a relatively sustainable livelihood”, he wasn’t always one who made you feel warm and fuzzy.

(Once in an argument over my management of The Farm which I had purchased from him and Mom—or his perception of my lack of management, Dad brought me to tears with his piercing criticisms.  This was just before Fathers Day one year, and Betsy and I left Devine for Seguin with the situation very much unresolved.  …  The next day Dad was miserable over the situation–and of course so was I.  Mom told Dad, “You know what you have to do.”  Rarely did they ever come to visit us in Seguin, but that day they traveled over to see us, and Dad apologized!  Of course I really felt like a heel for not doing so first. …  But the moral of the story is they don’t make them better than St. Louise.  Moreover, they don’t make them better than St. Alton; he chose wisely to marry St. Louise!)

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When I visit Mom I feel a peace and tranquility, perhaps as if I were back in her womb!

(Sister Linda & brother-in-law Tim have, by moving in with and caring for her, allowed Mom to remain in her convenient, secure, & comfortable home on 5 acres under the live oaks in Devine; Tim & Linda are SUPER-SAINTS TIM & LINDA!) )

[There are probably additional St. Louise-stories from the “history” I put together for the family when Mom and Dad had their 50th Wedding anniversary.  I’ve misplaced my copies; however, Linda, cousin Patricia Fanning, and others say they do still have copies.]

 

 

 

Renewable energy² should be ethical, just transformation of energy in a low-input/-throughput steady-state human economic system.  Renewable energy sources “capture their energy from existing flows of energy, from on-going natural processes, such as sunshine, wind, flowing water, biological processes [e.g., photosynthesis, etc. into biomass], and geothermal heat flows. The most common definition is that renewable energy is from an energy resource that is replaced rapidly by a natural process such as power generated from the sun or from the wind. Most renewable forms of energy, other than geothermal [from magma] and tidal power, ultimately come from the Sun.³”

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Life is matter organized with inputs of free, available energy⁴.  Therefore, energy is the glue of all living systems, systems which may be cells, organisms, ecological communities (including those which are very artificial subsets of Nature), the Land, and Commons-components.  However, inappropriate and/or excessive transformation of energy results in life systems becoming unglued and unhealthy.

Basic truths (all profoundly connected) for a resilient and sustainable Earth are:

• biophilia and a need for Nature,
• an ethic of reciprocity (which, in a more profoundly holistic interpretation, includes all living organisms/Nature), and
• limits and carrying capacity (largely because of the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics which rules that use/transformation of the perpetual amount of energy results in this energy becoming relatively useless, and excessive transformation of it creates more general chaos in larger or other wholes (of Nature)).

These truths guide us in processes of just transformation of energy.

Transformation of the 2% of free, available solar energy captured by photosynthesis resulted in a dynamic but relatively homeostatic biosphere over 4+ billion years of evolution.  This homeostasis continued even into much of the 200,000 years in which humans became a part of the ecosphere.  However, in the last 12,000 years or so (and particularly the last 70) this homeostatic situation is being seriously challenged.  Major challenges and perturbations have been from:

• the agriculture revolution,
• industrialization and increasing use of fossil energy and products from fossil material/energy such as plastics, nitrogenous molecules/fertilizers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, asphalt, …, and
• the microelectronic and information revolution …

along with concurrent growth of: human populations (projected to reach 10 billion in 2050⁵) and energy consumption or transformation (currently at up to >250,000 kilocalories/capita daily, or up from 2,000 for “primitive” humans and 70,000 for early industrial humans)⁶

Therefore, in not limiting growth of human consumption and human populations … we are disrupting the “homeostasis” of the other 11 assets of Commonwealth highlighted in efforts of the NGO, Ogallala Commons⁷.  We are, in a very serious way, negatively affecting the wellness of individuals and populations of lifeforms of Eaarth⁸.  Real and sustainable enhancement of each of the assets of commonwealth depends on: ethical/just transformation of energy, i.e., renewable energy, … and living individual and collective human lives …

• Sabiamente (Spanish for knowledgeable and wisely, or prudently),
• Simply, Smally, Slowly,
• Steadfastly
• Sharingly,
• Sustainably.

This may be somewhat of a bitter pill for those who believe in boundless opportunities, across the Great Plains and elsewhere, for artificialization (growth of consumption and human populations).  On the other hand, there are innumerable satisfying and self-fulfilling opportunities for facilitating learning about “positively ethical applied community ecology/PEACE” across campuses of all human entities and developing steady-state human economies involving low-inputs/-throughputs; … and implementation of this process toward resilient, sustainable ecological community is desperately needed!⁹

If we consider renewable energy to be ethical transformation of energy in ecological community, we can make some broad generalizations:

1. Decisions about use of nuclear energy and dirty fossil energy (especially coal, peat, shale, tar sands, heavy & extreme oils) are basically no-brainers. They are not renewable energy!  They have too many red-flags of unintended consequences and negative externalities¹⁰.  They should be avoided!
2. “We can’t get energy for nothing; it takes energy to get energy.¹¹” Moreover, there are always unintended consequences and some negative externalities which come with actions taken to transform energy. Therefore, we must always be cautious and tentative when converting energy whether it is high-quality relatively non-renewable fossil energy, or nuclear energy, or whether it is relatively diffuse, lower-quality renewable energy.
3. Everything runs on moderate- to high-quality energy that can’t be recycled, so choose energy resources wisely.¹¹ [We are beginning to get a positive energy return on investment from transformation of what are currently considered to be renewable energies (windticity, photovoltaics), even though they are generally diffuse and relatively low- quality energies. However, the research, development, utilization, and maintenance of these “renewable” energy systems take inputs or embodied high-quality energy such as various forms of fossil energy.  …  My analyses of this situation always take me to a need for livelihoods and lifestyles which are “simple, small, and slow”.]  …  (The cartoons at the urls below illustrate embodied energy (and associated materials) needed to transform what are often considered to be examples of renewable energy.  Moreover, they also illustrate negative externalities, e.g., restriction of biotic movement (salmon traveling upstream to spawn) and input pollution and biocidal consequences from pesticides and fertilizers, etc., etc. http://www.bonusjoules.co.nz/B_J_Site/Cartoons/Chapter%205/12.0%20Renewable%20Energy/Blog%205.12%20The%20ETSing%20of%20NZ.htm https://iesinternships.wordpress.com/2016/04/29/does-renewable-mean-sustainable/ )

4. Heating and cooling using geothermal systems (ground source heat pumps, or magma heat sources), hydroelectric units, windtricity, photovoltaic systems can be relatively suitable renewable energy sources, as long is there is real net energy in the transformation … without too much fossil fuel or nuclear energy invested in them, and without too much ecological (including psychological, socio-political, and economic) destruction.
5. However, the best renewable energy process is photosynthesis in natural ecosystems as well as through appropriate applied agroecology, along with low-input human systems involving appropriate landscaping, insulation, dog-runs, and other passive solar heating (and cooling) strategies … clothes lines, and solar dryers and cookers (and more walking and bicycling). Natural photosynthetic systems, in which humans are in relative concert with Nature¹², are relatively resilient, self-sustaining/perpetual.

It is of unethical hubris to believe that humans can do better holistically, profoundly, resiliently, and sustainably than the 4+ BILLION years of evolution of photosynthesizing Nature.  We need to wean ourselves from high-input/-throughput systems which are disruptive of healthy ecological communities across the Great Plains and elsewhere, and rapidly but smoothly transition to protection of and judicious use of net primary productivity¹³ in relatively natural systems.

And this limits us to human systems which are simple, small and slow¹⁴!

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Now to somewhat reiterate:  What does “simple, small, and slow” (de facto renewable energy systems) mean for the everyday lives of Jane or John Q. Public?  Keeping families/homes small is a big and pragmatic step.  And since food is the largest or one of the largest components of our ecological footprint, raising the right kind of foodstuffs locally in an ecologically-sound way helps to take us down a moral and ethical road toward sustainability.  Finally, one of the most appropriate forms of technology is the bicycle.  It should be used extensively and regularly, and it and terrestrial-mass transport such as trains must replace cars, semi-trailer trucks, and other automobiles.  (Of course, there are many other little livelihood and lifestyle habits which can be considered and adopted on a road toward ethical/just transformation of energy or low-input/-throughput, resilient and sustainable community.¹⁵)

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1. Active volunteer and advocate for “Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology/PEACE”; Retired, Biology-Natural Sciences, St. Philip’s College; agricultural entomologist and author of various publications/reports related to PEACE; Ogallala Commons Board member.
2. Renewable energy is, in essence, an oxymoron since “Energy cannot be created or destroyed” (the 1^st Law of Thermodynamics) and “As energy is transformed it tends toward uselessness” (the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics).
3. https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/renewable_energy.htm
4. http://physicallensonthecell.org/physical-molecular-processes/free-energy-energy-available-work
5. Human populations did not reach 1 billion until 1804.
6. https://www.wou.edu/las/physci/GS361/electricity%20generation/HistoricalPerspectives.htm
7. https://ogallalacommons.org/about-us/commonwealth/
8. http://www.yalescientific.org/2013/05/eaarth-making-a-life-on-a-tough-new-planet/
9. http://www.steadystate.org/wp-content/uploads/CASSE_Brief_SSE.pdf http://prosperouswaydown.com/ https://cup.columbia.edu/book/ecological-economics-for-the-anthropocene/9780231173438
10. ”A cost … that affects a party who did not choose to incur that cost or benefit.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality
11. Miller, Jr., G. Tyler. 1990.Resource Conservation and Management. Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, CA 546 pp.
12. This means curbing population growth and numbers of humans and domesticated species.
13. “The rate at which an ecosystem accumulates energy or biomass, excluding the energy it uses for the process of respiration. This typically corresponds to the rate of photosynthesis, minus respiration by the photosynthesizers.” https://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Net_primary_productivity
14. I propose a goal of a relatively equitable distribution of 60,000 kilocalories/capita daily for a possible stable human population of ca. 10 billion in 2050 and beyond. http://bannedbookscafe.blogspot.com/2013/09/normal-0-false-false-false.html  …  In attempting to understand–and underline–the desperate need for the Haves to cut their consumption by ca. 2/3rds and share with Have-not humans and other species, I have read through a number of the amazingly thorough energetics researcher Vaclav Smil’s papers, and have a couple of his “innumerous” books in my home.  In a chapter in Visions of Discovery. 2010 by Chiao et al., Smil highlights the need to end the “trend of increased energy use and consider its problematic social, economic, and environmental consequences” “before it compromises the habitability of the biosphere.” http://vaclavsmil.com/wp-content/uploads/docs/smil-articles-science-energy-ethics-civilization.pdf
15. http://bannedbookscafe.blogspot.com/2009/10/sustainable-community-november-9th.html  http://www.paulpeaceparables.com/2015/04/22/little-things-we-can-do-to-have-a-better-life-and-sustainable-world/