Earth Day is coming right up, and really, what day or instant, is NOT Earth Day? I have been working on a talk for my "local" Earth Day event, addressing what "local" really means in this global age where political profiteering and monetary values are treated as more important than the basic rights of Nature (Nature, with a capital N, the one which supports ALL life, including our own, and all lives which follow...) "Oops, sorry, no air or soil left, try again in a few hundred thousand years," just does not seem like an acceptable option. There is no planet B.

Why are we not taking care of this Planet?

A friend of a friend recently wrote (link at the bottom,) "I say this all by way of emphasizing the point: we live and die by our narratives, and the stories we tell ourselves as a culture are some of the most powerful forces on Earth."

What is OUR narrative assuming about our position in Nature, or Nature's importance to our lives? Are we perhaps confusing the importance of egosystems, with the importance of ecosystems?

When/where does "local" become GLOBAL? Do we perhaps need a new word, Glocal, which I would define as living, consuming, thinking, and being in such a way that one considers the health and effects of our actions, both locally, and globally?

Take a second, and be still for a moment, look around, and listen to your surroundings. What do you hear, and what do you see? Try and picture, hear, and imagine what was here in this spot, 25 years ago, 100 years ago, 793 1/2 years ago. What did it sound like? Were there roads, was there water flowing, what was growing here, and how about wildlife? Now come back to here, be local, in the present time. How did we get here today? What did we have for breakfast, and where did everything which got us here come from? Everything which is here now, is local, to somewhere, perhaps close by, and perhaps not, and everything manmade, or altered, which you can see, came from once living and diverse ecosystems. What is left of those "local" ecosystems? How do we live, and build, within the living systems of Nature, and leave them living, is the challenge.

Local, is an interesting idea and goal, in a "global" environment. Have you seen the signs, think globally, shop locally? I always wonder what they mean. Buy products which we likely do not actually need, which are made by virtual slave labor, and shipped around the world, to be sold at a local store? An environmentalist named John Liu, says, "Ecosystem function, is vastly more valuable than production and consumption of goods and services" which means that diverse living environments have more "value" intact and alive, than reduced to dollar values, and turned into lifeless pavement or landfills, which support nothing. In economics, folks talk about principal, and interest, with principal being the source, and interest being what is generated above and beyond that source which can be used and/or "reinvested" into the system. http://www.youtube.com/watchv=pQS76mPxEM8&list=UUOkIhg8b9Kdr7f7QQ6r1j5g&index=9&feature=plcp

Our lifestyles, regulations, and policy, are rapidly consuming the "principal" of Nature, which is leaving less and less available for future use, as well as greatly reducing the amount of "interest" which is produceable. Some would call living on the "interest" of Nature, a "sustainable" system. It can be likened to a fruit tree. One can eat the fruit produced by a tree, for the lifespan of the tree, which will grow and produce more "interest" every year, provided it's needs are tended with water, sunlight, healthy soil, and love. However, if you start pruning away the principal, which IS the tree, for say, firewood, or weapons to hit your neighbors with, you will get less and less fruit, and perhaps the tree will die, and then there is no fruit, period.

Are there perhaps ways which we can "invest" in Nature, and live within it's functioning systems? Can we perhaps consume less, and invest in quality, repairable, built to last products, when we do exchange living Nature for products?

Who drinks coffee? Do you buy it from a local shop, or McDonald's, and is there a difference in either the quality, or to the local economy with either purchase? What is local about a cup of coffee, made from beans flown and shipped thousands of miles, roasted "locally" by someone, perhaps born far away, with natural gas fracked and piped from the midwest, ground with electricity from Canadian coal, sweetened with sugar from the Philippines, and drunk, while driving in a car made with parts from all over the world, driven on pavement made with oil from elsewhere, and fueled by gasoline from Canadian Tarsands, or Saudi Arabia. The only thing local about the above example, is that the "profits" from the labor, may stay in the local community IF the coffee shop happens to be owned locally. And, what of the container, the coffee cup? How many "local" resources were used, and where do the remains go?

One of the major challenges/problems with Corporate, big and bigger, policy, and economics, is that all along the economic "food chain" the lifeblood of money, and natural resources, are taken away from local communities, while also driving down what is paid to workers. The next 2 examples are greatly oversimplified, and you can get the idea. Picture a local economy.

Picture the following economy with me. A local farmer (which employs local residents) invests in a barn, using lumber thinned from nearby trees, hiring carpenters, masons, electricians, architects, laborers, etc, living in the local community. The workers then use the money in the local community for day care, mechanics, dental work, a haircut, produce, meat, and dairy (which goes back to the farmer who paid for the new barn,) house mortgage (which can be loaned by a local bank which keeps the money in the community) etc. The money stays and works, close to home, in the local community.
I have heard it said that in a wealthy community, a dollar circulates through 20 or 30 hands and households, before leaving, while in a poor inner city ghetto, it may only circulate through a few, before passing out. True wealth and security, in my opinion, come from a healthy and diverse community, which is full of local businesses, and local products. This is similar to the flow of water in a Natural environment, which hits the ground and settles into the soil, slowly seeping into groundwater, which stays around to water trees, and feeds life, all along its meandering path. There are, by the way, few straight lines in Nature.

Picture another town, with a WalMart, McDonald's, Target, Home Depot, and other big box stores, which are mostly owned by shareholders and investors, far away. The workers get paid low wages, the products are all the same as everywhere else, and the same dollar spent in a local economy/community is whisked away, after passing through very few hands. This is similar to the rains too, which hit the pavement, and gutters, which whisk the water away from the ground, into rivers where it flows away, leaving the groundwater low, and the soil dry.

With every waking $ spent, we invest in and create, and re-create our future. Think about that a little bit. It is important. Global issues, and what/how we grow and manufacture "goods and services" out of sight, on the far side of the hill over yonder, or on the far side of the planet, are affecting ALL life on this beautiful little, finite ball spinning through space. We can create sustainably, preserving Nature, or we can create destructively. Which way do you think is less costly in the long term? Global issues ARE local issues.

With every dollar we spend, we choose either a diverse future, or one of landfills full of disposable "buy" products, which ALL came from once living and diverse Natural environments. Looking into any parking lot, big box retailer, or landfill will show us what we currently are creating in every "local" modern environment. What are we creating and leaving behind, do we like it, and is it preserving the "principal?"

With every dollar "invested" and spent, we are either supporting and perpetuating the likes of Fukushima's and Chernobyl's, over heating our homes (too much trouble to wear a sweater?) with natural gas fracked at great environmental cost, supporting GMO tech, with the seedy enslavement of farmers as well as unintended and unforeseeable environmental consequences, driving and flying everywhere on unconsidered gallons and gallons of gas burning into the air and water. What are we "investing" in our future?

With so much of our Whirled spun on spin, it is time for the truly important conversations and getting busy with repairing (Tikkun is a great word and concept, look it up) the diverse living fabrics of Nature.

BUT, to do that, we will need to pull our habits out of the sand and get busy. Nature needs some serious tendering, on our watch, in our time, and on our nickels. With every waking $ spent, we invest in and create our future......

Every Day IS Earthday, with every breath. Global issues ARE local issues.

May we live "Glocally," and recreate a planet worth living on, for everythings future.

Here is a great talk by a young person who is doing something about a problem he sees. Our "local" plastics at work, in another locality. How do we begin to look at our world from a "glocal" perspective
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ROW9F-c0kIQ#!

The quote at the beginning came from here.
http://apvonlineblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/of-boston-narratives-and-911/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog