Seeds for Thought: an Ecopsychology Blog

Community Ecotherapy

Last weekend I participated in a local Earth Charter Summit which focused on how we can help our community transition into true local sustainability. Although much of what we talked about had to do with very practical matters – land use, water availability, alternative energy, relocalizing food etc. – we also had meetings about social support systems and spirit/soul.

Community therapy has a long history but perhaps community ecotherapy is a newer idea. How can those of us who practice applied ecopsychology assist our communities in dealing with the emotional issues that are an inevitable part of the huge transitions and challenges that villages, cities, towns and rural areas face in today’s world?

agricultural subsidies

If you want to read more reports on the recent End of Oil London conference, as well as hear some of the speeches, please check out the PowerSwitch website.

We must be able to grow our own food. Any governmental policies that encourage people not to do this, should not be supported.

Unfortunately, with the issue of subsidies, "everyone" seems to think we should open up agriculture to "free trade" so that the people that can do it the cheapest get to stay in business, while all the other farmers go out of business.

I heard a woman speak yesterday at the Schumacher Lectures about how her farm is going out of business.

I'd never been in a room before (knowingly) with a farmer that was going out of business.

It makes me cry.

Heating costs may reprioritize survival

Home heating costs are predicted to rise 30% to 70% this winter. The increase, the steepest in any of our lifetimes, comes when economic security for many Minnesotans is shaky at best.

(Meanwhile, during the past week Exxon-Mobil Corp. posted third-quarter profits of $11 billion -- that is billion with a "b" and that’s profits, not overall revenue -- the highest quarterly profit ever reported by any company anywhere. The other giant transnational oil corporations were not far behind. But I digress…)

The governor of Minnesota mentioned recently that he would like to convene a special session of the legislature. Great! I thought. Finally my state government is taking seriously its responsibilities to the people of this state. They're going to talk about how to help people already economically stressed, who are simply unable to come up with an extra $100 or $200 a month to stay warm this winter. Hey, maybe they’d even think of putting a cap on how much oil companies can charge, when we’re talking about a basic need like heat in a cold climate.

But no. That is not with the governor wants to talk about.

Motor Boat

Boat
fires to life with
grumbling in oily fog;
fluid flows in arteries
of tube, electrifying
nerves of wire.

Spun blades whirl, thrust
bow toward open water.
Spray unzips a seam
that folds along
a crease of sea.

slippery slopes

Sir David King has lost his bottle.says George Monbiot in the Guardian  "Until a few weeks ago, the chief scientific adviser looked to me like one of the few brave souls in the British government. In an article in Science at the beginning of last year, he argued that "climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today - more serious even than the threat of terrorism""

Now he says that reducing carbon emissions to the scientifically arrived at figure of 400ppm is "politically inexpedient" and we can't do better than 550 ppm, which has only a 10 - 20% chance of avoiding disaster.

And he's a science advisor, not a political advisor.

The Jiminy Cricket Syndrome - a collective delusion?

At the Petrocollapse Conference in New York City on Oct 5, provocative author James Howard Kunstler (“The Long Emergency”) spoke about what he calls “The Jiminy Cricket Syndrome.” You can hear the speech at www.petrocollapse.org

Kunstler believes that a form of wishful, magical thinking has seized the American public that prevents us from facing “the reality-based challenges of our time.”

He also connects this psychological dysfunction with a collective gambling addiction mentality that convinces us that we can have “something for nothing.” A “no money down, zero interest” fantasy that deludes us into believing that we can run up huge debts and never have to pay the piper.

More on the End of Oil

This was meant to be Part Two of a multi-part description of The End of Oil conference held on 11 October 2005 in London. However, as others have posted reports, I thought I should link to those instead...

The conference I began writing about last weekend has been getting some press. For example, one of Britain's national newspapers wrote about it: The Pressure Mounts. And there's a report at rabble news: When all the oil is gone.

Also, I've compiled a list of good links about Peak Oil, which include headlines and reports. See the left-hand side bar.

Next week I'll discuss the personal economics of trying to go green with home energy.

Fear of birds

During the daily discussions of an impending avian flu pandemic, references to the Spanish Flu of 1918 abound.  Birds, it appears, were responsible for transmitting this disease which killed 50 million humans.   My own paternal grandfather died of the Spanish Flu and that event had a domino effect on my father's family which, within 6 years, saw a diaspora of 6 orphaned children driven to 6 different countries.  My father came to Canada as an indentured servant to a fish merchant.  So, when I hear "avian flu", it has special meaning for me, someone who feels her father lived his entire life under indenture as a result of such a traumatic childhood.

Raptor birds have always given us pause to be cautious:  there are many stories of small children and domestic animals being captured by birds of prey.  Even Canadian author Robertson Davies once used the story of an owl scalping a woman who was walking innocently down a road, a memorable event in a very successful novel. 

A Holy Peace

A UN report on “Human Security” was released recently by the Liu Centre for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia. It came to the conclusion that the mortality rates attributed to warfare have been significantly less during the last 20 years than was “normal” for the 20th century and perhaps the whole of recorded human history. Given that the clash of army against army has been going on for at least 5000 years some good news about that aspect of human societies should be welcome. The average casualty rate for wars has dropped from tens of thousands to a few hundred. The percentage of combatants killed in battles dropped below 1% from often over 25% in the world wars.
Civilians also have fared better in war zones recently than during most of the 20th century.
What should we conclude from this about the role of religion in nature?

Earth from the air

There is a free open air exhibition touring the UK, Earth from the air, many beautiful aerial photographs from all over the world. Some but not all of them you can see online.

The photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand says, "the earth is art, the photographer is only a witness"

There are sound environmmental and social justice messages interspersed with the descriptions too, so well worth seeing. A large map of the world is set out, you are invited to take off your shoes and walk lightly on the earth.