Our daily lives are so surrounded by plastic that we take it for granted just how new the integration of plastic really is into our culture? Just think back to a hundred years ago in 1915. Think of what their daily lives were like. Even then people were afraid of the effect that technologies of the day would have on the world.
And they were right.
It is as if plastic became our new God to worship. It has become more than an altar. It's altar is our world.
So when people are confronted with the problems of climate change we are confronted with changing our entire lives. It means we have to re-think all of our choices and we realize just how many of them we make and just how many are made for us to the detriment of the environment.
So when we are faced with this it is natural for us to be over whelmed. It takes a lot of thought, research and time to make these changes. It is true that we must do all we can as soon as possible and feel the urgency is calling us into action. But the truth is that we need to understand that we can't do it all overnight. Quitting plastic is a process and everything we do makes a difference and the more we do the better. We just have to keep wondering what more we could do. What other changes could we make? How can we do better just a little more? And ask ourselves these questions regularly.
In this blog I will break it down into simple steps of things that we all can do from the very simplest that you might already be doing to the things that are a bit more complicated, where the answers are rare and hard to find.
I am by no means 100% plastic free or waste free. Very very few people are. But I do what I can and I keep asking myself what more I can do and I take actions to integrate it into my life.
To begin reducing plastic and our foot print on the earth we begin with the no brainers.
1. Use re-usable cloth shopping bags. This also applies for when you go shopping for non food items.
2. Stop using the produce plastic bags that are in every aisle in the produce section. Produce is fine being wrapped in dishtowels and put in your re-usable shopping bags. I simply stack them in the shopping bags loose. So far nothing has been squashed. Simply pile them in a way that makes sense with the hard and heavy produce at the bottom or in a separate bag just like what you would do for eggs, milk and bread.
3. Shop at your local farmers market as much as possible and quit buying processed and packaged foods. When you buy your berries you can bring the containers back for them to re-use and don't forget to bring your own re-usable bags.
4. Get as much use out of your tech gadgets as possible. Tech gadgets fill our landfills more and more each year as we replace our perfectly useful and still working gadgets with the next best thing. If you must replace/want to replace a gadget please donate it to a second hand shop like the salvation army or anyplace that takes second hand goods.
5. Stop and or do not ever buy and regularly drink the single serving coffees that we see everywhere.
6. When ordering pizza say no to the little plastic table that they put in the middle.
7. Take the local transit, walk, bike or carpool.
8. Buy bulk foods as much as possible bringing your own re-usable glass jars and cloth bags
9. Do your banking on-line
10. Say no to plastic lids and straws
11. Stop buying water bottles, pop bottles, and juice bottles made of plastic. Start using metal or glass bottles to bring with you.
12. If you are committed, purchase a machine that carbonates water which can be flavored with natural juices, juices from glass bottles and fresh herbs such as peppermint and basil. Delicious drinks can be made simply with lemon juice, carbonated water, and fresh raspberries. Look up recipes!
13. Use hand soap instead of liquid hand soap
14. While your still using plastic containers think of ways to re-use them such as storing beads and craft supplies, nails, paper clips and the like.
15. Turn off lights and electrical gadgets in rooms you are not in. This is a tough one though it's simple. We can also unplug the appliances because they use power. This one is difficult but I challenge you!
16. Store left overs in bowls in the refrigerator with saucers covering them.
17. Buy pens which can be refilled with ink instead of the everyday plastic pens
18. Save water which has been boiled for pasta to water plants or for cleaning dishes or floor. Think of any way you can to re-use perfectly good water without it causing harm to plants, animals and the larger environment.
19. Stop using q-tips! They're horrible for you ear health anyway!
20. Take the time to research on-line. Ask questions and get curious about what you can use instead of plastic and ways that you can make the world a safer place for all of us and future generations.
Feel good about all that you already do and about the choices that you are working on bringing into your life now.
Don't give up. This is a process. Just keep going. Learn how to avoid burnout from information overload or from all of the changes your making. Establishing new changes in our lives takes adjustment and time. In the beginning we feel overwhelmed when we are doing something that is not the everyday regular and familiar that we are used to. Something as simple as stopping our use of q tips or using our tech gadgets more or not using the single serving coffees that come in little plastic cups. We get used to these modern conveniences and feel it to be part of our lives. We like what has come to be familiar and sometimes we feel as if something that makes us comfortable is being taken away from us. That our rights are somehow being denied.
Just remind yourself of the rights to live a healthy life that you are denying yourself, your community, your children and their children, the animals and everything in this world. What we do really does have a far reach and impact. All of our choices literally reach across the world into other countries and deep into the oceans. Our choices reach deep down into the soil and into unseen habitats. We are all infinitely connected.
In this world we are connected through technology. And through it we feel more disconnected. We see less, we feel less. Somehow even in our knowledge based culture it is as if we know less. Our instincts are eclipsed by technology and modern conveniences. We are simply so comfortable that we find it hard to believe our structured culture is bad for us or for anyone else across the globe. We are so comfortable and feel so safe that we have unending faith in plastic and the modern culture in which we live. We are so comfortable and safe we are lazy and do not wish to do anything new or different.
I would like to remind you of history and how the period which we went through in the past hundred years is exceedingly rare. Never at anytime in history did we bring such massive change on ourselves, our cultures, our ways of life, ideas and on the environment that we did in the twentieth century. It is more common for our species to remain stuck in our ways. We like familiarity. Though we adapt and believe ourselves to be good at it we still gravitate to what we have known to be normal and everyday for us.
The changes that we were made in the last century were made for us. A few people made very large decisions and so, here we are. Today it is the same. A few politicians hold the power over many many people and of a very large amount of land and water. Companies hold the power over our health so that they can meat their bottom line. The fabrics we wear are made of plastic and when they are washed it pollutes our environment. The dyes used for textiles have come to be all chemical which is another modern invention, new to us in the past century. Previous generations dyed all of their fabrics with natural dyes. The facial cleansers we use are stored in plastic and have micro beads in them.
Think and ponder the choices that are being made for you and how you can step outside that plastic box.
Future blogs will address alternatives to modern skin care, textiles and more.
Make the world a real one, with less and less plastic.
Be real.
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Why Worry?
Everyday we see articles, pictures, and videos posted on networking sites as well as the weather network about climate change and it's effects. We can also so in the comments following the articles and videos just how many people believe that the idea of climate change is superstitious. I have no idea how to change the minds of people who don't want to see the truth. So I'll speak to the people who will listen. This post is admittedly depressing but keep reading. It's important. To make any kind of change we need to feel the fear to be motivated into action. We need to see how real all of this really is to finally do something about it. Almost every article I read doesn't discuss or talk about any creative solutions. It only talks of despair. I talk of despair but maybe a more in your face kind of way than other writers dare. I also discuss things we need to do that all of us need to think about and put into action. This post is the beginning to a long discussion of how to create and sustain the future of Gaia and of everything born from her. The points I mention such as reducing use if plastic will all be discussed more in depth in later posts. We need to address the issues involved when we try to make changes from the now everyday norm. If we don't discuss the difficulties it will be harder for us to keep making changes and to commit to our decisions without back pedaling.
This is to the people who see everything on-line that I do and more. To all of the people who have actually seen or lived in the effects of climate change I speak to you. To all of the people looking climate change and ourselves squarely in the face. To all of the people who are too afraid to look but deep down know the truth. And this blog is for people who make excuses for gambling with our world and its inhabitants. This blog is for the people who don't believe in science and how everything makes a difference in an eco-system. For good or for worse in short and long term results.
This blog is for all of the people who care about this planet and who want to have a healthy earth to live in for their lives and for their descendants.
It gets harder and harder to keep looking at the horror that is the reality of what we have done to this world. The reality that the natural balance has been tipped and is beginning to spin out of control.
Yet if we are lucky, we have the fortune to live in a part of the world where the air is clean and where you can see the blue sky. Where the water is not perfect but it's safer than elsewhere. We see these things from a distance on-line and on the tv while the world goes on as normal. Nothing has affected our daily existence.....
so....
why worry?
Because eventually what is happening in other parts of the globe will catch up with us. Our choices will catch up and come back to us.
We can't allow our regular problems to overshadow the larger problem of climate change. Because without the earth to stand on, without clean water and real non gmo food to eat, without the species that are important parts of the ecosystem that provide balance,
all of our problems
become obsolete.
It is extravagant to waste time and energy on petty issues of what a persons weight, size, true gender, correct sexuality or religious view is. It doesn't matter.
It is extravagant and petty to refuse to see and take responsibility for any of our actions.
We can write stories of dystopia as if we are trying to fool ourselves into believing that when our cultures break down that there will be solid ground for a dystopia to stand on. For us to dream of dystopias and to marvel at it is extravagant.
We could do so much more. But all of us need to be in agreement.
We need to agree to reduce use of plastics. We need to discover healthy alternatives.
We need to address food and water waste.
We need to address pollution made by the textile industry and by all of us when we wash those textiles.
We need to drive less and replace them with solar powered vehicles.
We need to outlaw gmo's and pesticides while practicing healthy and natural gardening that is self sustaining.
We need to make all education free.
There needs to be no countries. Just a one world with one people but with culturally diverse customs that everyone would be curious and respectful of.
We need to stop believing in what we have been taught to believe and start believing in creating and sustaining the true health of the earth and all of its inhabitants.
We need to learn and to teach the next generations how to be proper care-takers of this planet if we are to continue as a species and if we are to continue the way if life that we have come to be accustomed to.
Our way of life which is comfortable for the fortunate ones, has not been in existence for very long at all. Just think of how long the motor engine has existed. The phone and the internet. Chemical dyes and chemicals used for everything. All in the last one hundred years.
To introduce new technologies into an already balanced and sustained environment without questioning it's impact and long term effects is gambling with the very soil that we stand on, the food that we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe and the animals that we share this earth with.
We need to put aside the belief that we are the most intelligent species on the planet and that we can do no wrong because we are a sacred species and that everything that happens, happens for a reason.
How can it be true that such an intelligent species would ruin it's own habitat? We believe we are powerful and intelligent and yet when it comes to admitting the true power we have and the quality of it that we are carrying we turn a blind eye and blame obvious evidence on the natural forces of nature.
Since I was a child I have been afraid of what will happen. I have had nightmares about what will happen to this world if we do not come to an agreement.
The earth will be here. After awhile she'll sort out our mess once we're gone and maybe somehow gestate life. Because inherently she is intelligent. Gaia knows more, is more than any of us. She holds the signature and the true wisdom and codes of life. When we dare to assume that we are worthy of holding such a station as to write the code for life and to change it we get the results that are going on around us everyday in the weather, species dieing off, and increased sickness such as cancers.
All around us are articles and pictures, videos and none with no answers and only despair. Is it really any wonder that even people who want and care about the truth turn away because they can't stand the horror and helplessness, the hopelessness that is growing in our world.
This blog is despair. It is the true horror more horrific than any if us can imagine. Perhaps that is part of the problem. That some of us just can't imagine that the horrors we put to screen could happen in real life where there is no Superman, no Captain America. There are not a variety of planets inhabitable to humans and all of the life forms we need to live if we had the technology and ships to flee the death we created for ourselves.
This post is the first of this blog. The rest will be focused more on answers and trying to find creative solutions, sending out siphoning calls to others who can invent things with there training that I can't. But here I translate my vision as clearly as I can so that others can see.
The point of this blog is that we should be worried. We can't burn out on this one. We can't believe that we can't handle the bad and the negative. It's part of life. It's easy to get drunk, take some drugs, go eat out, party all night, bliss out in some new age yoga space or bliss out doing art, music and dance. It's easy to go shopping and forget. To watch movies. It's easy to get angry about things that really don't matter in the large scheme of things. No matter what the idea, if it causes harm we should not be in debate about it for eons so that we can put off responsibility for it. It's easy to think we have our whole lives promised to us by the planet just like our ancestors had. As each day passes I see that promise fading more and more.
People don't want to be afraid. It's understandable. Our species has been afraid for centuries about everything. And now we have reached a time where we think we have grown beyond all that and don't really have anything to be afraid of anymore.
I want a new world and I want everyone to help make this world into something that all of us can survive and thrive in.
The ice caps are melting, the oceans are dieing.
We should all be very afraid enough to do something.
What is that something? What can any of us do? Does any of it make a difference?
It can make a difference if enough of us commit to it. At the very least we can live with integrity to not invest in the death our species and many others.
What do we do?
Consider use of plastic and ways to not use it
Consider what you waste and how to not waste it
Consider what you purchase, where it comes from. what's in it, what has been sprayed on it, how has it been changed? What was the energy expenditure used in making it, sustaining it? Was there a cost to a community of people? Does it pollute the land and water? Does it disturb the balance of the eco system? What is the impact on the environment when the product has been used up?
Consider energy usage. Ways to save energy by turning lights off and unplugging electronics
Get curious about earth ships, solar powered highways and roads and solar powered cars
Consider ways to dispel ignorance and hate.
Pass it on. Pass on the vision for health and make things happen. Motivate others to think as large as the earth
I believe we can do something. It's hard but as always, we have the power to choose our reality.
Which reality do you choose?
The reality where every thing we do doesn't give us immediate and amazing results and is therefore hard and frustrating and scary.
Or the more horrific reality. A reality where nothing we do will do anything at all because just too much damage has been done and has become irreversible.
The whole all or nothing bit that us humans seem to have is to our detriment. Because something, some kind of chance is better than nothing. We need to learn again to have faith in what we can't see. And in the so-called age of logic we need to peel away the veil of ignorance that keeps us safe and comfortable so that we can believe the truth that is manifest on front of our eyes.
A prayer for Gaia, for all of her inhabitants including humans.
"May the Long Time Shine Upon You, All Love Surround You, And The Pure Light Within You, Guide Your Way on
This is to the people who see everything on-line that I do and more. To all of the people who have actually seen or lived in the effects of climate change I speak to you. To all of the people looking climate change and ourselves squarely in the face. To all of the people who are too afraid to look but deep down know the truth. And this blog is for people who make excuses for gambling with our world and its inhabitants. This blog is for the people who don't believe in science and how everything makes a difference in an eco-system. For good or for worse in short and long term results.
This blog is for all of the people who care about this planet and who want to have a healthy earth to live in for their lives and for their descendants.
It gets harder and harder to keep looking at the horror that is the reality of what we have done to this world. The reality that the natural balance has been tipped and is beginning to spin out of control.
Yet if we are lucky, we have the fortune to live in a part of the world where the air is clean and where you can see the blue sky. Where the water is not perfect but it's safer than elsewhere. We see these things from a distance on-line and on the tv while the world goes on as normal. Nothing has affected our daily existence.....
so....
why worry?
Because eventually what is happening in other parts of the globe will catch up with us. Our choices will catch up and come back to us.
We can't allow our regular problems to overshadow the larger problem of climate change. Because without the earth to stand on, without clean water and real non gmo food to eat, without the species that are important parts of the ecosystem that provide balance,
all of our problems
become obsolete.
It is extravagant to waste time and energy on petty issues of what a persons weight, size, true gender, correct sexuality or religious view is. It doesn't matter.
It is extravagant and petty to refuse to see and take responsibility for any of our actions.
We can write stories of dystopia as if we are trying to fool ourselves into believing that when our cultures break down that there will be solid ground for a dystopia to stand on. For us to dream of dystopias and to marvel at it is extravagant.
We could do so much more. But all of us need to be in agreement.
We need to agree to reduce use of plastics. We need to discover healthy alternatives.
We need to address food and water waste.
We need to address pollution made by the textile industry and by all of us when we wash those textiles.
We need to drive less and replace them with solar powered vehicles.
We need to outlaw gmo's and pesticides while practicing healthy and natural gardening that is self sustaining.
We need to make all education free.
There needs to be no countries. Just a one world with one people but with culturally diverse customs that everyone would be curious and respectful of.
We need to stop believing in what we have been taught to believe and start believing in creating and sustaining the true health of the earth and all of its inhabitants.
We need to learn and to teach the next generations how to be proper care-takers of this planet if we are to continue as a species and if we are to continue the way if life that we have come to be accustomed to.
Our way of life which is comfortable for the fortunate ones, has not been in existence for very long at all. Just think of how long the motor engine has existed. The phone and the internet. Chemical dyes and chemicals used for everything. All in the last one hundred years.
To introduce new technologies into an already balanced and sustained environment without questioning it's impact and long term effects is gambling with the very soil that we stand on, the food that we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe and the animals that we share this earth with.
We need to put aside the belief that we are the most intelligent species on the planet and that we can do no wrong because we are a sacred species and that everything that happens, happens for a reason.
How can it be true that such an intelligent species would ruin it's own habitat? We believe we are powerful and intelligent and yet when it comes to admitting the true power we have and the quality of it that we are carrying we turn a blind eye and blame obvious evidence on the natural forces of nature.
Since I was a child I have been afraid of what will happen. I have had nightmares about what will happen to this world if we do not come to an agreement.
The earth will be here. After awhile she'll sort out our mess once we're gone and maybe somehow gestate life. Because inherently she is intelligent. Gaia knows more, is more than any of us. She holds the signature and the true wisdom and codes of life. When we dare to assume that we are worthy of holding such a station as to write the code for life and to change it we get the results that are going on around us everyday in the weather, species dieing off, and increased sickness such as cancers.
All around us are articles and pictures, videos and none with no answers and only despair. Is it really any wonder that even people who want and care about the truth turn away because they can't stand the horror and helplessness, the hopelessness that is growing in our world.
This blog is despair. It is the true horror more horrific than any if us can imagine. Perhaps that is part of the problem. That some of us just can't imagine that the horrors we put to screen could happen in real life where there is no Superman, no Captain America. There are not a variety of planets inhabitable to humans and all of the life forms we need to live if we had the technology and ships to flee the death we created for ourselves.
This post is the first of this blog. The rest will be focused more on answers and trying to find creative solutions, sending out siphoning calls to others who can invent things with there training that I can't. But here I translate my vision as clearly as I can so that others can see.
The point of this blog is that we should be worried. We can't burn out on this one. We can't believe that we can't handle the bad and the negative. It's part of life. It's easy to get drunk, take some drugs, go eat out, party all night, bliss out in some new age yoga space or bliss out doing art, music and dance. It's easy to go shopping and forget. To watch movies. It's easy to get angry about things that really don't matter in the large scheme of things. No matter what the idea, if it causes harm we should not be in debate about it for eons so that we can put off responsibility for it. It's easy to think we have our whole lives promised to us by the planet just like our ancestors had. As each day passes I see that promise fading more and more.
People don't want to be afraid. It's understandable. Our species has been afraid for centuries about everything. And now we have reached a time where we think we have grown beyond all that and don't really have anything to be afraid of anymore.
I want a new world and I want everyone to help make this world into something that all of us can survive and thrive in.
The ice caps are melting, the oceans are dieing.
We should all be very afraid enough to do something.
What is that something? What can any of us do? Does any of it make a difference?
It can make a difference if enough of us commit to it. At the very least we can live with integrity to not invest in the death our species and many others.
What do we do?
Consider use of plastic and ways to not use it
Consider what you waste and how to not waste it
Consider what you purchase, where it comes from. what's in it, what has been sprayed on it, how has it been changed? What was the energy expenditure used in making it, sustaining it? Was there a cost to a community of people? Does it pollute the land and water? Does it disturb the balance of the eco system? What is the impact on the environment when the product has been used up?
Consider energy usage. Ways to save energy by turning lights off and unplugging electronics
Get curious about earth ships, solar powered highways and roads and solar powered cars
Consider ways to dispel ignorance and hate.
Pass it on. Pass on the vision for health and make things happen. Motivate others to think as large as the earth
I believe we can do something. It's hard but as always, we have the power to choose our reality.
Which reality do you choose?
The reality where every thing we do doesn't give us immediate and amazing results and is therefore hard and frustrating and scary.
Or the more horrific reality. A reality where nothing we do will do anything at all because just too much damage has been done and has become irreversible.
The whole all or nothing bit that us humans seem to have is to our detriment. Because something, some kind of chance is better than nothing. We need to learn again to have faith in what we can't see. And in the so-called age of logic we need to peel away the veil of ignorance that keeps us safe and comfortable so that we can believe the truth that is manifest on front of our eyes.
A prayer for Gaia, for all of her inhabitants including humans.
"May the Long Time Shine Upon You, All Love Surround You, And The Pure Light Within You, Guide Your Way on
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