Critical Mass
"Maybe we need new stories, new terms and conditions that are relevant to the love of land...We need to reach a hand back through time and a hand forward, stand at the zero point of creation to be certain that we do not create the absence of life, of any species, no matter how inconsequential it might appear to be."
~Linda Hogan
Heart of the Land.
I've been thinking environmentally and it scares me. I read in McLeans about "When the Oil Runs Out" (Feb 13) and I feel impotent. " I take it as a given that we have already overshot earth's long-term carrying capacity for humans-and have drawn down essential resources-to such an extent that some sort of societal collapse is now inevitable," Heinberg. I read books like Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" and I wonder what kind of world my grandchildren will live in.
What can I do? I reduce, reuse, recycle. I try not to use my fossil -fuel burning vehicle when it is unnecessary. We only recently bought a second vehicle (5 drivers in the family) I buy locally. I commune with the trees and worhip the ground I walk on. I practice no-trace camping. It's not enough. I have such a small area of influence. The ripples of my life, my thoughts, my being are small and few. My ability to promote sustainable living is limited. I want to save the world and I can't.
I've spoken of my frustration, my despair, among friends. One such friend, an optimist, responds with this: "It's about critical mass, ("the minimum quantity of fissionable material required in a reactor to produce or maintain a chain reaction"- I looked it up in the dictionary after our discussion just to make sure what I thought he was saying was what he really was saying.). So I guess that's what I'm doing. And that's what you're doing too. Critical mass is what will save us; critical mass and new stories, new terms, and holding hands to the past and the future, together.
~Linda Hogan
Heart of the Land.
I've been thinking environmentally and it scares me. I read in McLeans about "When the Oil Runs Out" (Feb 13) and I feel impotent. " I take it as a given that we have already overshot earth's long-term carrying capacity for humans-and have drawn down essential resources-to such an extent that some sort of societal collapse is now inevitable," Heinberg. I read books like Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" and I wonder what kind of world my grandchildren will live in.
What can I do? I reduce, reuse, recycle. I try not to use my fossil -fuel burning vehicle when it is unnecessary. We only recently bought a second vehicle (5 drivers in the family) I buy locally. I commune with the trees and worhip the ground I walk on. I practice no-trace camping. It's not enough. I have such a small area of influence. The ripples of my life, my thoughts, my being are small and few. My ability to promote sustainable living is limited. I want to save the world and I can't.
I've spoken of my frustration, my despair, among friends. One such friend, an optimist, responds with this: "It's about critical mass, ("the minimum quantity of fissionable material required in a reactor to produce or maintain a chain reaction"- I looked it up in the dictionary after our discussion just to make sure what I thought he was saying was what he really was saying.). So I guess that's what I'm doing. And that's what you're doing too. Critical mass is what will save us; critical mass and new stories, new terms, and holding hands to the past and the future, together.
posted by Mo at 6:34 PM
1 Comments:
i wonder if we are any closer to creating that new critical mass a year later...
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