" What if we stopped waiting for disaster to strike, creating a global safety net to protect those hit hardest?
During COP29, we asked our community: What if everyone gave just 1% of their income to accelerate climate action? An incredible 88% said they would. "
Yeah, sure...
We need a lot of money to fight the crises the earth is in. So why is so little happening to combat all these crises ? Are we short of money, then ? Well no, not really. But the rich countries prefer to spend it on unhealthy food, luxury goods, weapons, even bigger houses, subsidies for disastrous crises increasing activities.
A weekend read...
Last Monday, COP16 in Colombia started, the United Nations international summit on biodiversity.
An important summit?
I'll take you through a few considerations.
A weekend read...
While the ice caps are melting and the oceans and seas are warming and being robbed, polluted and poisoned, also on land the humans leave a trace of destruction. Or perhaps better to say, that's where the misery begins. Because that's where humans have settled and do most of their 'ingenuity'.
The Western world should really be called the 'world of never enough'.
A weekend read...
With COP29 (the "29th UN Climate Change conference") approaching, we are being fed scientific publications that give us the latest updates. Although these are not happy reads, it is important reading for me. It inspires me to make new work. And motivate me to live the way I live. Above that, it inspires and motivates me to tell you about it.
And why this post, why am I telling you this? Why do I hope you will read the whole thing?
Because it's important that you know the condition of your home. It is your only home, our only home.
A weekend read...
Screaming sounds of power
saws numb your thoughts
Ears bleed, hearts tear
Forests cry
The sun colors the evening in
the hues of the choking smoke
that kills tree after tree
How high may become
the price the future
will have to pay?
System Change, we need Systemic Change !
This is what you read and hear more and more often. In comments, articles and discussions about the state of the Earth's health, about the alarmingly rapid change in our climate.
And that alongside, of course, the call for Degrowth....
What is meant by this system change?
Insofar as you can and may explain a very complex system in a few simple phrases: ...
Thick clouds of black
smoke darken the sun
Eyes tear,
trees cry
The sun colors the evening
in the hues of the flames that
scorch tree after tree
How high may become
the price the future
will have to pay?
In my System Change post, I explained man's impact on earth and raised a number of questions. The most important: Do you know what your ecological footprint is?
No one answered that question. No, I'm not disappointed, because I actually didn't expect it either. And the question was also not asked very directly and not very prominently in the beginning of the (long) post.
Still, ....
'Today we have used up resources for an entire year, we are now living at the expense of future generations'.
Is that it, or is there more to it?
Each of us can list some of the benefits of reducing your ecological footprint. Here's a list of what motivates me. And what motivates you?
In August last year, when we went to look at the "House For Sale" where we now live, there were 3 things we were super excited about: the huge variety of trees and plants, a small greenhouse, in serious need of restoration, and a root cellar, also known as an earth cellar or potato cellar, in a deplorable condition...
Swimming In Tears
While trees cry
fish shed their tears
in endless waves
When I imagine what the earth will look like in 100 years, the image that comes to mind most emphatically is one of an earth with sharply rising sea levels.
End of May 2024. After a month without a drop, we finally had a decent rainshower yesterday. And you can see that in the garden….
Will you join me on a tour of the garden, with (mainly) food plants ?
Did you know that oceans and seas are so polluted with PFAS (forever chemicals), plastics, pesticides and other poisons that you cannot breathe clean air on any coast?
Nowhere.
The “spray” from the waves is seriously polluted... Add to that the incalculable amount of crap in the air everywhere on earth....
I belong to a generation that gets to live a relatively carefree, luxurious life. That has been given to me, and for a long time I did not sufficiently appreciate it, in fact I even abused it by selfishly getting everything I could out of it...
And when you become aware of that, you just have to change your life, right?
To buy new or used can be a dilemma. We stopped buying new stuff. Well, almost. Some things are not or hardly available second hand, or are second hand so much less sustainable (in terms of environmental impact in production or in use) that you don't want them in your home.
Did you know that there is almost no product in your possession that incorporates the true costs?
I added three new pages to Food Forest Garden: What We Eat, What We Grow and Where We Grow It.
On the first page, I'll give you an overview of what we eat. Then I'll tell you what's in the garden, and finally where it is and the overall layout.
A few days ago I told you in a post about our work in our food forest garden.
There were so many positive comments, and so many requests to post regular updates, that I decided to dedicate a special page on my website to it.
Our food supply is the largest contributor of greenhouse gases in percentage terms of all sectors. Industrial farming ruins the soil and poisons water and air. And a shocking 30% of what is produced, is wasted...
Now that the weather is getting warmer, we are continuing to 'build' our food forest garden. This weekend we planted several fruit and nut trees, together with a lot of herbs and a few more berry bushes...
Our food supply is the largest contributor of greenhouse gases in percentage terms of all sectors. Moreover, the industrial approach to producing our food exhausts the soil. To compensate that, huge amounts of fertilizers are added. In turn, this causes destruction of eco systems and poisons land and water. Same for the herbicides and pesticides...
Our food supply is the largest contributor of greenhouse gases in percentage terms of all sectors. Moreover, the industrial approach to producing our food depletes the soil. And that is compensated by using huge amounts of fertilizers. In turn, this...
Why reduce your ecological footprint. Each of us can list some of the benefits of reducing your ecological footprint. Here's a list of what motivates me. And what motivates you?
Suppose an oak tree longs to become a birch. Then that is possible only if a single, individual oak cell is able and willing to become a birch cell. Then, after that change is accepted and then copied by the surrounding cells, eventually the whole tree will change. That's what I call organic change.
Suppose a government of a country....
Regeneration ?
Sustainable, Green Growth, Circular economy, Degrowth, System Change ... And now the latest: Regeneration.
Are these just buzzwords, container terms...
Reduce your ecological footprint. Know what it is, get a grip on it and reduce it to less than what the earth can give us.
Regenerative agriculture is an important topic in the conversation about the future of our food supply in a world where the that supply gets more and more disrupted.
And it is hot, because it is a much cleaner and healthier way of growing our food than the industrial agriculture we now rely on...
In my System Change post, I explained man's impact on earth and raised a number of questions. The most important: Do you know what your ecological footprint is?
No one answered that question in a comment. No, I'm not disappointed, because I actually didn't expect it either. And the question was also not asked very directly and not very prominently in the beginning of the (long) post. Still, ....
System Change, we need Systemic Change !
This is what you read and hear more and more often. In comments, articles and discussions about the state of the Earth's health, about the alarmingly rapid change in our climate.
And that alongside, of course, the call for Degrowth....
What is meant by this system change?
Insofar as you can and may explain a very complex system in a few simple phrases: ...
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