Artistic Footprint

We are not giving ourselves enough credit. We have grimly defined ourselves as gluttonous evil and doomed creatures ill-fitted to survive on this undeserved planet.

Every species tempts fate by becoming too successful. The pasture fence is reached and extinction is imminent.

Humans are the only species with special talent that has predicted their own demise. And not only that, were making changes to prevent it. Never before have people decided to ride a bicycle or say no to a plastic bag or buy sustainable, local products. I have understood the term “pride” in my own words: you can be proud of the hoardes of inexpensive, use-once and store products, and am beginning to understand that less is more. Purchasing sustainable, locally-produced, rare, high quality products are harder to afford, but they come with an increased level of purchaser’s pride. I can feel the different I am making, and learn to appreciate the things that make my life comfortable.For the final push, we need to acknowledge our shortfalls and eradicate them. Replace greed and entitlement with fairness and community  – ignorance with awareness and understanding- automation and blind obedience with appreciation and opinion.

Secondly, we need to stop beating ourselves up for the things we’ve done and start thanking each other for the monumental achievements we’ve made in the fight against climate change and resource depletion. We haven’t even seen what good repercussions will come out of changes like the invention of computuerized combustion nor hybrid technology nor electronic information or even wind generation.

Every morning I wake up fearing the end of my unfinished life because we single-handedly shat where we ate, and yes it seems now that we are destined for demise but I urge us all to realise that this is not an option. Survival is the only card left and shame on you if you give up. Because we are living in such an interesting time! We could verywell be the generation that sees the tipping point of civilisation. To survive or to perish. We will see the old-fashioned, traditionally-viewed babyboomers to their graves along with their politicians, taking their lifestyle of greed, power, and one-way or the highway mindsets with them. We will see the end of the oil age, We will see government actually being held accountable because we understand and care about the decisions being made. We will see complete strangers come together to save themselves. We are the green generation.

http://www.ted.com/talks/nic_marks_the_happy_planet_index.html

Every day we are faced with the promise of a doomsday. Polar bears are turning cannibalistic, oceans are rising, the arctic will soon be a fairy tale. But I want to shatter that idea. Launch it into space with all the other primetime fear driven fallacies, never to be heard or spoken of again.

“stop giving me problems – give me solutions”

Constantly dwelling on this innevitable apocalypse does nothing but sell products that we do not need, and only drives that train further into the ground, firmly rooted and weeding out the garden of a real opportunity. We don’t hear enough of the good things that are going on. The inventions, organisations, and people out there who have devoted their whole lives to make the world better. This one’s for you.

The way I see it, we have two options – do nothing and continue on this plight and consume ourselves in famine, war, greed, and toxic environments. OR, we would do something about it. Even if climate change is a total hoax, the amazing accomplishments in the quest for sustainability would be monumental. But do you really have a choice? which would you pick?

More importantly, think of a world where sustainability was reached. Where man, woman, and beast lived harmoniously with the planet. A stasis where the land reciprocated the people. This would be the last hurdle – the largest, hardest, and most important move on the board. Greater than any war against evil, and greater than curing the worst of diseases.

Imagine a world where your home was heated and lit by the sun itself. Where your water was replenished in your basement and back to your tap. Where a grocery store was synonymous to your backyard. Where work was literally a hop, skip, and a jump from your bed. Where you live as a community and the greatest reward for your good deeds was immediately returned with the awesome feeling of meaning and retribution.

And making it happen is so so easy. You don’t even need to lift a finger. In the back of everyone’s mind is a thought of “what can I do? I’m just one person in this big world.” But that’s exactly why you’re so important!!! you personally have the ability to get the ball rolling and pull your friends along for the adventure. All you have to do is develop that little voice in the back of your brain from the dwelling cynic into the responsible optimist that understands where your decisions take you. “I don’t want to buy that because I don’t think it’s good for my environment” “I’m going to ride my bike today” “I’m going to eat sustainable produce as opposed to those expensive and unhealthy chicken wings” “I want to go for a hike to get in touch with the Earth and understand its fragile beauty” “I want to take a break from work to realise that there’s a real planet out there that’s more important than me”

Thats right the Earth is more important than me or you. It’s survival is the true necessity. The Earth doesn’t care who lives on it, if any. It doesn’t care if it’s an iceball or a utopia. It doesn’t care if it resembles Venus or Saturn. It doesn’t even know the difference. It’s big enough to take care of itself. The World we live on is just our perception of what we make the Earth to be, and if we just appreciate the true value of it, that it is bigger than your comfortable life, we will naturally evolve a way of life that reciprocates that appreciation.

Have you ever stopped to think that maybe we are more animal than we’d like to admit? instead of being eaten by predators, we die in car crashes. Famine is still a huge killer just like that endless battle for every other species on the planet. We follow almost identical tactics in finding mates, and we are not the only beings to mate for life. Love, hatred, satisfaction, self-protection, and family values are universal instincts. Have you ever watched a primate use tools and just be completely blown away by our similarities? Are you aware that fish can fly? Or how about the fact that all embryos pass through every stage of evolution its family tree visited? The whole concept that this Eden was made for us must be abolished. We can halt this selfish right, or the coming apocalypse will be our own.

The best way to start the process is to escape the norm. You spend almost your entire life in air-conditioned, warm, disinfected, innoculated lives. From the car to the office to the bedroom to sandals resort vacation. Your home should be larger than this constant image of 4 walls and a roof. Where do you find the time to reflect on your home? When was the last time you pondered which direction North was? When was the last time you saw a wild animal? Have you ever truly been lost?

If you’ve never spent time appreciating your planet, how could you possibly care to protect it? Do you know any people who like the outdoors? If you do, latch on to them on their next excursion. If you don’t, go somewhere and take your friends with you. And I don’t mean camper-van with a big boat across the country, stopping at your favourite fast food restaurants. I mean take the necessities and disappear. That’s the real adventure.

Just fucking love this place and realize that it’s here. It’s the only place you’ve got. You’ll be healthier, happier, stronger, and you’ll have some awesome stories to tell and spread the new appreciation you have for your true home, Earth.

http://www.ted.com/talks/alex_steffen_sees_a_sustainable_future.html

I’ve always been amazed by how much the human body can take, and yet again, I am even more amazed at how easily broken we are. We weren’t born with a caution label mentioning that our mushy sacks of water mixes rather easily with concrete, metal, or any hard surfaces and should be avoided. Have you ever felt like you should have broken a bone after a nasty bail and didn’t? that your brain finally figured out “how to fall” and turned your *smack!* into something more of a rolling tumble?

It’s made me wonder just how fragile we are. And I don’t mean something trauma based, but something more in the sidelines. The BIG picture that we take for granted and don’t often look at.

Life: What is it’s probability?

I’m going to introduce you to the DRAKE equation. Which I feel very proud of because I have, in my fat little notebook from the ripe age of 15, came up with a calculation for the probability of life, only to find that it had already been calculated by Dr. Frank Drake , and used once again in the movie Contact Starring Matthew McConaughey (bit of a douchebag) and Jodie Foster. Regardless,

this is what it is: Where N is the number of potential civilized galaxies in the world, and every other variable symbolizes what is needed for life to exist.

Some of these factors would include:

• Distance from a star
• a Large orbitting neighbour like Jupiter to take relentless meteors and comments in our stead
• a suitable atmosphere
• A renewable source of energy
• Amino acids (the “building blocks of life”)

This infinite list is full of variables that we have here on earth that made life possible from the start, and continue its survival. Now given all these million variables, it appears as though life is impossible, and that we should not exist at all. But on a clear night, drive out of the city and look up. Those are stars. That is a galaxy, and there are many many more like it. a million stars divided by a million variables is one.  Earth. A BILLION stars divided by a million variables is 100. That means that there could be a HUNDRED other planets just like earth!!!

Consider the next fact. Amino Acids. These are the most basic molecules that literally were an inanimate collection of atoms on Earth 4.6 billion years ago. They just happened to tumble over eachother, mix, get struck by lightning, and magically become a key component in RNA – me and you. Then into a protein, and after millions of years of evolution, a bacteria was born. And the rest, as they say, is history.

But no it’s not that easy. There then had to be a special type of fungus that bubbled oxygen into the atmosphere whilst another organism turned CO2 into limestone (todays United Kingdom) Then there was so much oxygen that life was HUGE, and lizards were the first prime beings, happily crunching on the first mammals with its feet and teeth. Mammals were hanging by a thread so much that it’s possible that at one time, there was only one little tiny mouse scurrying in the night.

Even then, life is just a walk in the park. What about ice ages that took out 99% of life on earth several times? Humans have made it through one or two, but our numbers dropped like a meteor in gravity.

Speaking of which, ever see the movie armaggedon? that movie is more correct than you might like to believe because every 10 years or so, a meteor the size of Africa, large enough to split OUR planet in half passes between us and the moon.

Ok now we’re on the surface of earth, where, in Yellowstone National Park – and I mean the entire park – Earth’s crust is a quarter the thickness, and slightly protruding outwards. That’s one hell of a zit, and it’s a couple thousand years overdue to pop.

I find it really funny because if this information came from the White House or the 6:00 news, people would shit rabbits. Wal-mart would be overrun and the bomb shelter industry would boom. The fact of the matter is that every breath we take is extremely fragile. Life just wants to be, and will consumate wherever it can. But it appears as though our loveable planet doesn’t really notice that there are people with nerve endings down here. Now consider that we may never leave planet earth because we need our magnetic field to stop harmful solar rays from shooting very painfully through our bodies like atom-sized bullets. Consider that a simple skip over to Mars would take years and years and years not even our solar system yet. Then take the likelihood that we happen to cross paths with some flying saucer at a red light in the Polaris district. Kinda makes you skeptical about UFO sightings. Is it a bunch of drunk aliens coming over to buzz the human cattle and smoke pot with Steve Buscemi? Or just another mockery of human malleability?

So that’s the first half of this little post. Next, I will concentrate my observations about how risky our daily lives really are in: You’re so Special