As a human being and resident of this planet, living as gently upon this earth as I can is of utmost importance to my life. The Earth is dying all around us. Everywhere you look evidence of an overextended, exhausted, depleted earth is obvious. Our climate is changing faster than at any other time in history as a result of how you and I have chosen to live our lives. Our food systems are crumbling, requiring vast amounts of chemical inputs to patch it up, a solution that amounts to a piece of bubble gum stuffed into a single hole of a submerged sieve. Animals are going extinct so quickly that scientists have begun working on ways to make cockroaches palatable and creating robots to fertilize food crops.
If we don’t stop now we risk extinguishing all life as we currently know it on this planet. Our civilization is very likely already lost. If you don’t believe me read the IPCC reports beginning with SR15, just a quick read will do it. You will soon realize the civilization you and I grew up with is on the fast track to destruction.
What is left to us now is to live as rightly as possible to (maybe) prevent the absolute worst for the lives that come after us. As trees drop their leaves in the fall to feed life for the next spring, we must drop the habits of modern day life to feed life for our next spring. As the Mycorrhiza live symbiotically with the plants and soil organisms around it, we must (re)learn to live with symbiotically with our non-human neighbors.
I am not being overly dramatic when I say our lives depend on it. Without our non-human allies on this planet, no life can survive. And so I offer up some of what I have learned on my own journey toward a more sustainable life. May some of this offer a way forward for you in yours.
