Eaarth Backing Off

        Backing off means to decentralize, to take into account that we have made vast nations and they no longer work. This chapter talks about how the system is no longer effective and that we need to build a new one, or rather, go back to one we used to harness. The one that carried us through most of our existence before the invasive revolutions we thought seeded so much growth in the right direction.
        McKibben talks about going back to communities where we actually talk with our neighbors and find use in them. This reminded me of a documentary that I watched called Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things which talked about only possessing what was absolutely necessary.
         Here is a good question, why do you need that jar that holds those colorful trinkets? What purpose do those trinkets serve other than please the eye or create ambiance? Do we need to indulge in that frivolous luxury? When everything goes to shit those trinkets will not do a thing to help your situation.
         McKibben also tells us about practicality, soon we will have to let go of childish things and understand that things such as fashion only do something for a world that is stable. He states, "As a culture and an economy, we've had the margin to afford a lot of abstractions." Now we must focus on what is actually needed, not what we think is adding to our value of life or somehow describing us with its special "thing" quality.
          My favorite part of this chapter was when McKibben mentioned that we will have to actually start working, not the 9-5, log everything into the inter-webs, but the work for the Eaarth. A lot of people expect this to be a lot but really "hunter-gatherers 'work' [was] about two hours a day" so we should really be excited. This obviously does not account for climate change but at least we have something to look forward to.

Eaarth Chapter Two

        The second chapter of Eaarth was just as striking as the first but in different ways. The first chapter spoke in large distant numbers while the second focused on small problems all over the world that are even harder to combat because of their multitude. When sewage and roads were brought up I had a hard time continuing the reading. Forget about the pollution in the air, what are we to do without a sanitary way to get rid of human waste or roads to commute on. Yes there are alternatives to these matters but they obviously can not take on a scale large enough to allow us to keep living the way we do.
        The infrastructure is failing around us and we are still impervious to it. The question, "what will it take to get us to realize?" comes to mind but then I think, this is what it should take, this is the damnation we have brought upon ourselves. When the Earth is full of ruins and chaos, will there still be those who don't realize that everything has changed, that everything can not be "fixed" or patched up to the way it used to be? I feel as though we are there, in a dystopian novel that only a few are aware of the forces that make the pages turn, that eventually come to an end.
         Progress aims at a goal, tells us everything happens for a reason, everything has a purpose, basically everything is guided. All of these share an end. Our end is nearing and no one sees it. As I write this, I look around and see people working tiredlessly to do well in their classes, to get into a good grad school, to get a successful job, to provide for their family/travel, to then to do what? Like the book says, we do not live on the same Earth we originated on so these structured thinking patterns are going to have to be broken at one point or another.
        The Club of Rome wrote the Limits of Growth 1792, which essentially predicted the future though, of course, no one heeded their warnings. During this time we could have fixed everything if we had listened. Instead, all we did was fix some minute issues like smog and some pollution but that didn't touch what we needed to do. We must get away from our obsession with Growth and "gracefully decline" as the McKibben tells us to do, where we know that life is not as it has been and there will be dire changes in the coming present.
       I personally suggest we look for some kind of zen within ourselves/nature, protest, do as much as possible, find a safe place to live with necessary supplies that will stop your house from being ravenged by climate change and intruders and just go out and research for your own sake because I wholeheartedly believe that we will fall and it's not going to be graceful.

Eaarth Chapter One

       Eaarth, by Bill Mckibben, paints a very stark and little known present for we who inhabit Earth. The extra a explains that we are no longer living in a world that our ancestors waged wars against one another, today we wage war against our world and we have won, we have changed it entirely. A large part of the change is due to our perceived knowledge of progress and what that entails. Humans believe that to be successful is to get ahead, go higher, go bigger, climb the ladder, among many other metaphoric pieces of language that tell us the only way to go is up. This means that progress is linear and can only be made in strides going forward. Just this language in general shows us a linguistic viewpoint of how our culture is centered.
       Modernity has become a goal of almost every human being, to get ahead is to do things right. To get ahead is to have "[modern] medical science, information technology, modern cityscapes, and countless other aspects of our modern technology-intensive lifestyles" (30) such as large animal agriculture businesses. The main fuel for these modern artifacts is oil, a lot of it. Due to our ravenous hunger for more we have destroyed our environment and there is no going back but we can do things to slow the process.
       Another thing that surprised me was that the book did not mention animal agriculture and its affects on the environment. I know through a ton of research that this is the number one cause of climate change and it has many devastating consequences. This brings up the point of veganism, the largest thing you can do as an individual to help slow climate change. If you are a true environmentalist, I believe that veganism is a step in the right direction.

Walking

         Humans are merely a small part of the puzzle of nature, very destructive but still a small part. We think we possess all that we see and feel and sense in any way but that is not the reality. Our species may have made the direst of impacts but that is not to say we are the most prevalent in the animal kingdom. This is to say we belong in this animal kingdom, a part of it, not sitting in boxes occasionally glancing outward.
Here are some photos of me on walks in Guatemala. 

We often believe freedom is to have the most financial freedom, money to buy things “freely.” To be truly free you must have no obligations, no things left undone where you came from, no affairs left unattended. You must be free of any worldly ties to become a walker, as Henry David Thoreau tells it, this is something no money can buy.

This is to say that one must lose themselves in their walk, in the wood. To use the legs for walking, bipedal as we are, this is the proper use instead of sitting on these mechanisms like no other species in the animal kingdom has the luxury to do. This makes it a true crime to take for granted the woods just outside of our cement walls.

Here, in the woods, we find experience that toughens our hide and thickens our skin to the perilous attacks of society. To walk is to be in the present moment, it is to meditate and have your soul and body in one place at the same time. A thing we all search for but hardly ever find. I believe this is because we are searching in the wrong places, rather, the wrong investments. Time should be seen as a gift that is given and not taken for granted and where you spend this time should not be to buy more time. 

The Audit

        The Audit is a short story by Rachel May that details a possible future in consequence to what humans have done to the Earth. It specifically deals with the over consumption of products that humans are addicted to as well as the over consumption of fuel in the means of energy. This is a large point because many people do not understand that their energy comes at a larger price than the monetary value. Burning coal and natural gases have costed our environment irreparable damage.
      Though this short story seems to be taking place in a futuristic society, it really could just be looked at as an alternate reality. The problems we are facing are already large enough that we need some serious intervention such as this. The government forces management through a Global Climate Audit that takes the family by surprise.
      The author follows the father of the family around on his journey to cheat the system. The father, Bill, finds a man who lives off the “grid” and supposedly has a low enough carbon footprint that might be able to make up for his excessive one.

       A piece of dialogue near the end of The Audit that I found quite profound:

“Exactly. So you’ll start figuring out what you need-good bus service, wind farms, bike highways, zoning that allows you to keep chickens and grow vegetables instead of lawns…”

“Tell me about it. We’re not even allowed to hang out laundry out to dry.”

“And once there are enough of you,” Goodwin concluded, “you’ll change the whole geography of your lives.”

       If this were to truly happen there would be no squandered hope and progress would be made in the right direction. Especially when we see, at the individual level, a man changed so drastically by a new perspective and a little mountain air.

Scandalous Beginnings

         Hola, mi nombre es Brie y mis especialidades son antropologia y espanol, obvio. I am not sure how to change the language settings on here so I am sorry that my spanish is incorrect, grammatically speaking. Anyways, a few things about me, I say yes to almost all opportunities I am faced with. This leaves me with having many hobbies and sometimes too many obligations than I can actually manage. I will just give you my resume of things I partake in.

         Clubs: Students for a Sustainable Earth, Broncos for Animals, Swing Society, and Emerging Leaders, also thinking about joining outdoor club.
         Internship at the Office for Sustainability!! Very exciting.
         Hobbies: cooking, singing, yoga, reading, learning piano, beginner level karate, hiking, biking, backpacking, meditation, veganism(more like a belief system than a hobby), art(in many different forms), purposely sitting with strangers and traveling among many other things. 

Basically if you ever want to try something new or weird or different, I am your girl. Ask me questions if you'd like, I love exchanging different perspectives and expanding what my own ideas are so go ahead and challenge me! 

         I also have a roommate cat, I try not to say that I own him because he is his own person and I want to respect that. I named him Oliver but he might refer to himself as something else and I have no idea what he named me, hopefully something majestic. And no I did not make my cat vegan. I guess I don't really know his dietary preferences but he eats what I put in his bowl and we both seem to be okay with that.