http://www.ditext.com/diamond/mistake.html

Some of what is outlined in Jared Diamond’s “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” has been seriously challenged. However, his opening statement rings true, i.e., “To science we owe dramatic changes in our smug self-image.”

Agriculture has contributed–at least at times and in places—to:
• social and gender inequality,
• disease and despotism,
• malnutrition and starvation, and
• increased human population pressure on Nature.
Only through recognition of this can we begin to right the local and global problems of rampant destruction of Nature and the natural resource base … and of gross inequities, i.e., begin a holistic, comprehensive, and profound process of Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology.

http://energy-reality.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/04_Faustian-Economics_R2_032713.pdf

[http://energy-reality.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/04_Faustian-Economics_R2_032713.pdf]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNV0xXy5oSg

If there is one author our young and old youth should read, it is Stanford University graduate/Wallace Stegner-Writing-Fellow/farmer, Wendell Berry. One of my favorite quotes of his (which I plan to have on my simple flat tombstone) is: “To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation. When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. In such desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness, and others to want.”
…………………..
For this reflection I am presenting selected jewels from Wendell Berry’s essay, Faustian Economics. Also, I have included above the YouTube presentation on somewhat the same subject, i.e., “limits” by Vaclav Smil. …

“The general reaction to the apparent end of the era of cheap fossil fuel, as to other readily foreseeable curtailments, has been to delay any sort of reckoning. The strategies of delay, so far, have been a sort of willed oblivion, or visions of large profits to the manufacturers of such ‘biofuels’ as ethanol from corn or switchgrass, or the familiar unscientific faith that ‘science will find an answer.’ …

… the real names of global warming are ‘waste and greed’—and by now it [‘the American way of life’ … consuming, spending, wasting, and driving …] is manifestly foolish. …

… [In our present economy] All are entitled to pursue without limit whatever they conceive as desirable—a license that classifies the most exalted Christian capitalist with the lowliest pornographer.

… [our] credo of limitlessness clearly implies a principled wish, not only for limitless possessions, but also for limitless knowledge, limitless science, limitless technology, and limitless progress. And necessarily it must lead to limitless violence, waste, war, and destruction. That is should finally produce a crowning cult of political limitlessness is only a matter of mad logic.

The normalization of the doctrine of limitlessness has produced a sort of moral minimalism: the desire to be ‘efficient’ at any cost, to be unencumbered by complexity. The minimization of neighborliness, respect, reverence, responsibility, accountability, and self-subordination—this is the ‘culture’ of which our present leaders and heroes are the spoiled children.

… As earthly creatures we live, because we must, within natural limits, which we may describe by such names as ‘earth’ or ‘ecosystem’ or ‘watershed’ or ‘place’ or ‘neighborhood.’ …

… Whichever way we turn, from now on, we are going to find a limit beyond which there will be no more. To hit these limits at top speed is not a rational choice. To start slowing down, with the idea of avoiding catastrophe, is a rational choice, and a viable one if we can recover the necessary political sanity. Of course it makes sense to consider alternative energy sources, provided they make sense. But also we will have to reexamine the economic structures of our life, and conform them to the tolerances and limits of our earthly places. Where there is no more, our one choice is to make the most and the best of what we have.”

Recognizing limits is a key tenet of Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology!

http://www.context.org/iclib/ic27/orr/

What is education for? … As suggested in a previous blog post herein, I would apply the key points of this wonderful essay by David Orr–which deals with ecology* across curricula and campuses, i.e., ecological literacy—to all campuses of schools, businesses and other institutions and organizations, and to all homes and communities.

Abide by that great virtue of informed and real humility. Slow down and see the beauty of small. Live in concert with Nature and learn from her. Recognize that conventional capitalism, inappropriate development and use of technology and statism are root challenges in this 21st century. Begin an education of young and old which is truly ecological, paideia/logical**, and responsible. Get outside and out of the lecture mode, and study the ecological processes (energy and material input/throughput of campuses; monetary flow; campus psychology, sociology, politics, culture and spirituality) and measure, analyze, evaluate, and assess sustainability indicators. Find the moral and ethical courage to make the world humane and healthy for all humans and all species though the educating toward better world citizens rather than “itinerant professional vandals”.
…………………
* Or Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology.
**Thoughts on paideia for today’s world: Quality of life for individuals and other components of ecological community requires collective efforts to be true to self as a natural organism in Nature dependent on photosynthesis, healthy soil , plenty of quality water, and sustainable biogeochemical cycles. Too many in our current economies are too much in an artificial cloud of computer software, mathematical algorithms, and of data, data, data, … and more data (real, unreal and surreal). [For “data” you might substitute words like information, numbers, bits, 0s & 1s, electron flow, energy, flux, but probably not knowledge!] It is hard to break out of this cloud because so much of fossil and daily solar energy are directed at this creation of an information economy. It is not sustainable, but this is where the power and money lies in a major portion of conventional global economies. (All three of our children work in this relentless cloud.)

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/LittonC/PDFs/301_EcologicalPrinciples.pdf

Ecological principles and processes, and critical thinking and appropriate actions?? …
Read “The Lorax”. And take heed.

But after this, continue to learn about the need to live in concert with Nature. Learn from her in all her simplicity and complexity.

First and foremost, always and everywhere study and view life through lens of:
• soil biology, hydrology, and energetics;
• food webs and ecological succession;
• the Second Law of Thermodynamics;
• net primary productivity;
• ecological hierarchy, population and ecological community dynamics, and carrying capacity;
• climatology; and
• biogeochemical cycling.

Then proceed to deepen this with knowledge of physics, animal behavior, psychology, human sociology, politics and community-organizing and activism. (And of course in order to begin and continue development of all of the above, we all have to develop communication skills in languages like English, Mandarin, Spanish, mathematics, and computer language(s).)

Without a strong foundation and continuing curiosity and learning about principles and processes of ecology, critical thinking and action are impossible. Moreover, without this ecological knowledge, creative thinking and action can be very dangerous! Ecology across curricula and campuses of schools, businesses and other social organization entities, and continuing learning of ways to realize Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology is essential for quality life for as many as possible for as long as possible. It is needed for learning how to lower individual and collective ecological footprints of the haves of the world, and redistribution of power to the have nots (both human have nots and other species) and get on with the journey to quality life for all.

By the way, this ecological education should be:
• Hands on! Mostly outdoor in Nature!
• Participatory with robust interactions with other humans and other components of local community!
• “Slow!” and “Small!”/Holistic and global!
It should enhance sense of place, community, history, arts, culture, and spirituality.

“So Pávlos, you truly believe it is that simple? Just get consumption and power of the haves down to about 60,000 kilocalories per capita per day and an ecological footprint of two (2) hectares and transfer that power such that the have-nots attain that approximate amount. And you believe those levels will take enough pressure off of Nature in order for her to dynamically and continuously develop in beautiful biotic bliss.”

“Yes. But of course human population numbers have to be curbed also.

And truly, poet Wendell Berry’s simple essays and poetry often lay out the story of sustainability in an elegant manner. Here’s one of his salient quotes: ‘To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation. When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. In such desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness, and others to want.’ Increasing human population numbers and daily consumption in excess of 60,000 kilocalories, is ignorant, greedy, and/or clumsy, and is destructive and a desecration.”

“But how, Pávlos? How?”

“Well that’s not so simple! Pero: Agua blanda en piedra dura, tanto cavadura continua gotera cava la piedra.

My answer is to begin to educate through ecology across curricula and campuses of all schools, governmental entities, businesses, non-profits, and religious and non-religious organizations. I am going to steal with some modification from David Orr’s classic essay, ‘What Is Education For?’, and strongly emphasize that in order to achieve quality life for all, including other species, for as long as possible, every citizen should have a basic comprehension of:
• the basic principles and processes of ecology, carrying capacity, and steady-state economics;
• the second law of thermodynamics, energetics, appropriate scale, and least-cost, end-use analysis;
• sustainable agriculture and forestry, limits of technology, and how to live well in a place; and
• ecological ethics.
You can find a plethora of associated ideas for pedagogical strategies and tactics, policy implementation, and carrots and sticks for routes toward regeneration, conservation and development of sustainable community on the internet/in the libraries of information in this world. Finally, the ‘straight forward answer’ is that we’ll just have to muddle through toward achieving a lighter individual and collective footprint on the Land which is very respectful of Nature and its lovely homeostasis.

I call this quest for local and global resilient, sustainable community … positively ethical applied community ecology. And though we may not achieve nirvana collectively or even individually, it is the work toward realizing the journey to nirvana which counts.”

………………………………………………………….

http://blog.spu.edu/sot/2011/02/16/book-review-the-art-of-the-commonplace/

What Is Education For?

I’ll work on doing a better job of communicating herein.  Plans are for very short stories of efforts toward quality life these past 71+ years, and to try to support development of what–in the “recent” past–I started calling positively ethical applied community ecology (or regeneration and conservation of resilient, sustainable community).  I’ll work at being succinct and intelligible herein through parables, dichos, and illustrations/photos.

In the meantime, I’ll also continue to post on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/paul.b.martin.54 ), Banned Books Cafe ( http://bannedbookscafe.blogspot.com/ ), and perhaps on some blogs of the organizations with which I volunteer.

 

Paul Martin (BS/MS-Texas A&M Univ., Ph.D.-Univ. Florida) was raised with 5 younger siblings (and worked with migrant labor crews) during the drought of the 1950s on a very small south Texas (hog) farm near Devine, Texas—a farm which always possessed a large garden, fruit trees, chickens and a milk cow. While in Florida during the “Energy Crisis of the 1970s”, Martin researched population dynamics of natural enemies of key lepidopteran pests in a “model north Florida agroecosystem” (involving vegetable crops and wild hosts, and including studies of Trichogramma and lacewings).

Martin was significantly influenced by ecologists like E.J. Dyksterhuis (TAMU), Archie Carr & H.T. Odum (Univ. Florida) and David Pimentel (Cornell). Moreover, a considerable amount of applied ecological knowledge was developed in sessions with Miguel Altieri (UC Berkeley) and during years as a pasture entomologist in Georgia and Brazil. Martin learned/manipulated to the best of his abilities as sustainable agriculture coordinator, in Jim Hightower’s Texas Department Agriculture, and later taught biology/ecology at St. Philip’s College.

Martin’s wife taught science at Seguin High School and they are currently involved with various organizations and efforts toward researching, developing and promoting Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology, including volunteer work with Siempre Sustainable Network, Ogallala Commons, Kids On the Land & the Seguin Outdoor Learning Center, Teatro de Artes de Juan Seguin, Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church-Seguin, Dos Pueblos-NY/Tipitapa & Episcopalian Latin American projects, Generations Indigenous Ways-Pine Ridge Reservation and other international programs, & LULAC and local community gardens … and for/with their children and grandchildren on small “family farms” near Stockdale & Rio Medina, TX.

http://marikasculptures.com/tag/siempre-sustainable-network/

Commonwealth – Ogallala Commons

(20+) Watch | Facebook

http://tipitapa.org/2013/02/a-great-sense-of-community-in-tipitapa/

(20+) Seguin LULAC Community Garden | Facebook

Games We Play (kite.pub)