What’s going on in sustainability:

A year passes, another begins, the earth renews itself. As you can see, it is so incredibly hard to avoid cliche when talking about the passage of yet another year. And it’s especially hard to not subscribe some transcendent importance when looking back over a decade of so much change. But as I read the paper and follow the narrative that was this decade, and think back to New Years Eve 1999 where the big concern was the machines either shutting down, or revolting and taking over the human race, I can confidently say that we are witnessing an epoch of human existence.  I also think back to New Years 1999 and am in awe of the conventionally minded person I was, and how much change I’ve gone through. Although I thought it impossible that my spinach and kale would still be green and fresh after being buried under two feet of snow for a week, I feel that there is nothing impossible about what humans can achieve on this earth, and how much they can grow and change as I think back to my former self. In honor of that, I’d like to offer a few thoughts to usher in this new year of such possibilities.

Many scholars, for better or worse, contend that it was human cooperative consciousness that brought us out of the trees and onto the plains where we cultivated food, domesticated animals and built our cities. And over the span of the hundred or so thousand years that we explored and refined this human experience, this cooperation manifested in the myriad of political structures, cultural rituals and economic systems that have come to shape the many peoples of this earth. Many judgements can be made as to the worth or need of such human interactions. Some say the earth would be a better place if humans just ceased to exist. Others feel that although we may be on a sinking ship, we may as well be the last ones to go down. Me, well I have no confidence to categorize humans as below or above other species on this planet. And it’s terrible hubris to think that we’ll destroy the earth, she’s much too powerful and will destroy us first if she has to. All I can say is that whatever this consciousness is, whatever forces us to cooperate to keep human life going is too damn important to ruin it by extinction due to greed and ignorance. I cannot accept such a fate for humans and I hope as sustainable readers of this blog, you can’t either.

So, as this decade begins, here are a few things to think about.

1. Community is the most important tool to organize and begin to solve some of humanity’s crisis’s on this planet. Before anything can be accomplished, people need to realize that just living in your house, voting, paying your taxes and hanging out with your family is not enough. The complacency of a people is only possible through their divisions, and this is certainly not a time for complacency. A good New Years resolution will be to try and start at least one community group that meets somewhat regularly wherever you live.

2. Consciousness will be lost if not in use. Something I’ve noticed and have understood of many humans is that uncertainty and inaction will lead them to do crazy things. Although we have a pretty good working theory of Spacetime, so many hardships are created by people who don’t know what to do with their time. Take an inventory in the beginning of this year. After finding stretches of time where you can celebrate or relax with family and friends on holidays, find time to learn the useful skills it takes to exist deliberately in this automated world. I will help by writing about projects on this blog.

3.  And finally, find balance in your life. I’ve been reading a lot of Einstein’s essays, and as a scientist, what keeps popping up is his foresight that the automation of this planet will lead to rapidly increasing unemployment. We see that right now as even someone as good intentioned as President Obama cannot figure out how to get this economy on track. It’s because we are going through change, and priorities are shifting. It’s time to find a new worth for a dignified human existence and that worth will be found in sustainability.

And with that final word, I will conclude this year of homesteading  and writing, take a breath and wake up in the New Year ready to continue this work. Until next week, this is the note from the Urban Homestead.