My writings - and those of others.
Soil and its importance
A few years ago our balcony railing structures were replaced. This meant that balcony contents had to be removed, including planters that I had brought full of soil from a previous residence. Several bags of soil went into the garbage. because the containers had to be empty to carry to a storage locker. This year, when I tried to replace potting soil, I had to go to several places before I could find the right size bags to carry. Home gardens have become increasingly important as we move beyond the pandemic.
We hear a lot about air pollution and water pollution. I didn’t think seriously about soil pollution and soil loss until I read a couple of recent articles. Organic gardening is a term we have heard about - but regenerative agriculture is less familiar.
As someone who grew up in Western Ontario, my family took Sunday drives into some of the most beautiful family farm lands in Canada. As a pre-teen I even got to visit and work on a farm and drive a tractor in a field. We’re all too aware of industrial farming and the dangers of pesticides - but agriculture as a source of CO2 isn’t something we reckon with. Some are starting to do so, by recognizing that agriculture contributes 25%. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says: “Leveraging the mitigation potential in the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use sector is extremely important in meeting emission reduction targets.”
Rodale Institute says. We have proven that organic agriculture and, specifically, regenerative organic agriculture can sequester carbon from the atmosphere and reverse climate change.
There are several ways this can happen:
Decrease or eliminate plowing and tilling. These compact the soil and release too much CO2
Plant diverse crops, as opposed to huge single crop plantings
Rotate and cover crops. Protect and cover crops rather than letting them leech nutrients.
Kiss the Ground, a restorative agriculture not-for profit says: “If regenerative means: ‘renewal, restoration, and growth of cells, organisms, and ecosystems,’ or ‘renewal or restoration of a body, bodily part, or biological system (as in a forest) after injury or as a normal process,’ then regenerative agriculture is agriculture that is doing just that.”
We are not here to exploit the soil. We are here to learn that health of the soil is essential to our own health - and the health of the planet.
How to See
I’ve spent two hours a week this year taking an online course in abstract watercolour painting. The course and others are offered by Avenue Road Arts School, which used to be an actual place and has gone digital for a while. That means that people can join in from any where, rather than just in Toronto as I used to do. The instructor, Sadko Hadzihasanovic, has established an international reputation, but still enjoys working with amateurs and sharing his insights with energy and new technological skills to help us over Zoom. We can email our works in progress and he often make suggestions of small changes in the images on his ipad and sends them back. Often it’s composition where we need help from an experienced eye.
Sometimes abstracting helps us reconnect with the real world. Taking an idea to the next step and putting it into a visual framework we know can send a message that moves us to new understanding. “Poets are the unacknowledged legistrators”, the poet Shelley said. So are any artists who help us to return to learning through our five senses.
San Francisco Artist Ana Teresa Fernandez recently sat down with Bill McKibben to speak about her social sculptor, On the Horizon. It was a response to a comment she heard that sea level will rise six feet in the next fifty years. That’s a nice abstract number, but what does it look like? Her answer as a creator was to put a six foot tube on the beach, fill it to the top with the help of children who will face that reality and let viewers of all ages respond to it.
You can see it here:
What does it look like? How will it change us? Why is this happening? Artists ask the questions that in our day to day pre-occupations we avoid. We need them th help us see what we are doing to ourselves.
A ten year anniversary
2021 marks the tenth anniversary of the release of the film, Journey of the Universe. The documentary spends one day on the Greek Island of Samos. It takes a philosophical view of evolution and tries to answer the great questions: Who are we? How did we get here? Where are we headed? For those who want to move beyond the cosmology of western and other religions, it offers a perspective that widens understanding and puts humanity in its place within a larger context.
The film’s birth nevertheless has religious roots. Its genesis of came from the Riverdale Centre for Religious Research led by Thomas Berry, a Roman Catholic monk who studied world religions and was struck by a need for a more comprehensive cosmology. He wrote about a call for a new story as early as 1978 and continued to ponder the questions and write about them until his death in 2009. He found a willing collaborator in Brian Swimme, an evolutionary cosmologist. They collaborated to produce The Universe Story in 1992. But the strength of the story encouraged both to work on a more awe inspiring presentation which resulted in the more recent film, subsequent book, university symposia and educational materials. Released in 2011, the film was carefully vetted and verified by scientists in all fields - but its effect is not a quantitative verification but an awe inspiring one reaching into ever expanding educational opportunities.
The book by the same name, written by Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker, both students of Berry, tells the story in an engaging way that urges further reflection on the journey of the universe of which we are a part. “Wonder will guide us”, says Swimme at the end of the film. One of the most valuable part of the book is the chronology from the “great flaring forth” - an alternative to the Big Bang - 13.8 billion years ago - to the last entry - since 1990s thousands of extra solar planets have been discovered. Discovery of a 13.1 billion year old galaxy.
The book and film have generated studies by all the world’s major religions. They set an important context for where we go from here. They call for a major reassessment of how we look at our creation stories. Among the resources are podcasts and video courses showing how those in various fields - scientists, activists, indigenous leaders, teachers are living out their stories in the light of new understandings.
The new site offers resources for individuals and organizations and includes curricula, its own YouTube Channel, newsletter and events. It is an important resource for anyone who wants a wider context for the continuing journey of the universe and our place in it.
Polarization around climate change
Photo Credit::University of Virginia Race and Democracy Lab
A recent conversation with one of my sons centered on the importance of curation in the age of too much information. I’m interested in how what I read frames and changes my own knowledge. I came upon this video recently which tackles this important divergence. While the video is quite long I urge you to watch the whole thing. If you can’t because of your own information overload, you could use the trailer which I have also posted below.
We sometimes forget that any point of view in the present has a history of formation in the past as well as implications for how it plays out in the future. The University of Virginia created a Religion, Race & Democracy Lab and explored how these elements interface. It tells us:
“The video addresses decades of what it calls “religious polarization, political propaganda, corporate deal-making, and environmental injustice based on systemic racism.”
You can find the full version here.
Or view the trailer here
Another woman to celebrate
A top environmental and climate lawyer, Dianne Saxe brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the community. with more than forty years of experience in environmental law. From 2015-2019 she was the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario until a change of government thought that the stand-alone position was unnecessary and transferred its responsibility to the office of the Auditor General. Legal organizations have presented her with many awards and regard her as one of the world’s 25 best environmental law experts.
At a Massey College environmental conference in November 2020, Saxe and a co-presented focused on the arts and its role in communicating the importance of environmental care. The arts energize and touch the heart in a way that science is not always able to do, she says. Though institutions often are slow to change, museums have taken up the cause of environmental issues. It doesn’t help that fossil fuel industries are among their largest donors. Some of us have been around long enough when the same issue happened with the tobacco companies. She interviewed a number of artists in different fields and also had young activists interview some of their elders like David Suzuki.
Her website, is rich in resources. Her podcasts where she interviews climate heroes doesn’t include herself, but she clearly is one..
