Biospheric Resonance

Since the GOM oil spill, which is turning out to be one of the greatest environmental disasters in history, there has been much talk of America’s “addiction” to petroleum and its derivative products and a call for somehow ending that addiction. Unfortunately, most proposals purporting to aim at achieving that are harebrained schemes that mostly achieve ever more  egregious violations of civil liberties.

All the while there actually happens to be a way of weaning ourselves off of petroleum that can be done peacefully, painlessly, and profitably. It does not require a penny of public spending (in fact, it could greatly reduce such spending). It does not require we give up any of our modern comforts (in fact, it could enhance those and spread them among unprecedented numbers of people). It is so environmentally friendly that nothing else compares. But most astonishingly, this solution is not some newfangled, out there  high tech invention – it has been staring us in the face for over 10,000 years!

It sounds too good to be true, right? What could this wonder I’m talking about possibly be? It is one of the oldest agricultural crops in the world, and it’s called industrial hemp. Since the very dawn of human civilization, this plant has served to produce ultra-nutritious food, oil for body care, lighting, paints, and fuel, and fiber for clothing, paper, sails, ropes, animal bedding, and building materials. After developing the growing and processing technologies for so many millennia toward ever higher sophistication, we are currently able to use this amazing resource to make more than 25,000 different products to replace virtually anything that’s currently made of petroleum with a better product, including plastics.

The real kicker is that all this is possible without dangerous pollution and without depleting scarce resources. Hemp grows great without any use of irrigation, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. It produces so much biomass that it actually helps conserve the soil and protects aginst erosion and flooding. The processing usually costs less energy and water than making similar products from petroleum, wood, cotton, corn, or soy. It is generally estimated that growing hemp on a mere 6% of land in the continental U.S. would be enough to supply all the raw material required to replace our oil consumption!

So, if this resource is really so great and so simple to use, why aren’t we replacing oil with it on a massive scale? Just one simple reason. The U.S. government forbids it. That’s the only thing blocking the widespread adoption of  industrial hemp. Why does the U.S. government do this? Because it wants to. Despite its rich history of cultivation in America,  for the last half century industrial hemp has been deliberately misclassified as a drug by the government in order to destroy the hemp industry and prevent it from becoming adopted as an alternative to the very heavily subsidized and very environmentally destructive petroleum, corn, cotton, and soy industries.

If this is the current state of affairs, what can you do to stop this insane prohibition that is destroying the planet?

First, demand hemp products. Whenever you shop, ask for the hemp alternative. Ask for hemp paper at your office supply store, ask for hemp clothes at your clothing store. Ask for Hemp Foods and hemp soaps and lotions  at the health food store. Bother the packaging supplier for hemp packaging products, the home improvement store for hemp building materials. Be persistent. Keep at it until the demand is so great that it can’t be fulfilled by imports.

Second, bombard your elected representatives with messages about the importance of industrial hemp for an oil-independent future and demand that they legislate for the complete removal of hemp from the drug list and the  jurisdiction of the DEA. Don’t settle for anything less. If there was ever a time they might listen, surely it is now, with the oil spill debacle hanging around their necks.

Tags: biofuels, biomass, bioplastics, environmental disaster, hemp, hemp fiber, hemp oil, hemp protein, industrial hemp, oil addiction, oil dependence, oil spill, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, sustainable economy

Yesterday I presented the first of two centering meditations to help perceive the reality of the oil spill disaster as it is and relate to that reality in a meaningful and helpful way. Today it is time for the second of the two. This one I call The Inner Picture. Where the previous one is about liberating yourself from limiting factors in your personal background to arrive at a universal perspective, The Inner Picture takes the opposite angle. This one is about deep introspection and soul-searching on the most individual, microcosmic level.

Assuming a relaxed position, consider the activities that are part of your daily life and the goods you make use of in those activities. Now envisage the inputs of different kinds of energy that make up these various goods and activities. How much of that energy was produced by you moving your body, or others moving their bodies? How much from burning various forms of fuel, how much harvested from sun, wind, and water? Do this for every way of using energy in your life that you can possibly think of. How does food get to your table, how is it kept from going bad, how do you get to work, how does water get to your faucet, with what and how was your home built? Etc. etc.

Now just from a limited, deeply personal perspective, without theorizing, is there anything about the emerging picture that you don’t like? If so, ponder how you would go about changing it, and what is blocking you from already having done so. What else do you have that you are willing to sacrifice so that this part of the picture can be the way you desire it to be? Keep shuffling the pieces of the puzzle until you have an overall image you’re quite satisfied with. Make sure that any pieces you offer up in exchange for your desires are yours to begin with, created by you.

Once you are happy with your vision, write it down or mind map it. This is now your own original action blueprint for being a sustainable energy hero. From here on, the key is acting on it diligently, and impeccably walking your talk. Alternately practicing the Big Picture and the Inner Picture helps to build your own authentic relationship to the environment and find ways of taking care of it that work. I look forward to hearing of your experiences trying out these inner technologies.

Tags: ecopsychology, energy conservation, environmental disaster, meditation, oil spill, personal ecology

When a devastating disaster such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico takes place, it is natural for people to react with a wide range of thoughts and emotions, depending on their background and interests. Expressions of fear, anger, rage, sadness, attempts to answer the questions of why and how this could happen, who is responsible, what can be done about it, and who is going to do it, and how do we prevent such a catastrophe from happening again? These are all legitimate, important and meaningful issues to work through.

However, all this can and does at times turn into a cacaphony of directionless voices that accomplishes very little, if any, toward a satisfactory solution, and probably leaves you feeling down and powerless.  I would like to suggest two complementary meditative approaches that you can practice to enrich and empower how you relate both emotionally and intellectually to this extremely challenging world event. Here is the first one:

The Big Picture – the macrocosmic approach. Placing the incident in its proper context in terms of the whole phenomenon of our human need for energy technology and its role in civilization, past, present, and future. Here the goal is to distance yourself from the limited perspectives that spring from your personal identity, your personal background in terms of time, place, and culture.

Take off and leave your everyday persona at the threshold, kick off, spread your wings, be an eagle or an angel or whatever winged being occurs to you at that moment, and soar into the sky. As you do so, you find yourself expanding more and more. Now you’re so big you can lovingly wrap your wings  around the planet. Do so for a brief moment, then let go and keep on moving away and expanding until you’re as big as the entire solar system. Rest here as you look back at Earth from a state of relaxed alertness.

In a sudden flash, you catch a glimpse of the totality of human endeavor, past, present, and future, all concentrated into one single moment, filling you with compassion. Savor this feeling for a few more moments, then start slowly growing smaller again and gliding back towards Earth, until finally you alight at the same place from where you took off. Cross the threshold, put your persona back on, give thanks, and reaffirm your daily identity by saying “I am [your name]“.

After practicing this, you will be able to take in and consider information on the disaster from a position of inner clarity and peace in which your creativity and resourcefulness can flow more freely toward contributing to remedies for the situation. Tomorrow I will add another exercise that is the microcosmic counterpart.

In the mean while, I must emphasize how important it is to get your information on complex events like the oil spill from high-quality sources, avoiding  those that have degraded into blame games and pity-parties. A longstanding outlet of some of the most insightful coverage out there on all energy-related issues is The Oil Drum. Before signing off for today I’d also like to link to three other stories that provide great food for thought. Here is one about some unwelcome repercussions the oil spill is likely to have in another corner of the energy sector, and two more upbeat and inspiring ones about people who are actually doing something to make a positive difference are here and here.

Tags: ecopsychology, energy technology, environmental disaster, healing, meditation, oil spill, personal ecology