Winners & Losers

The Loser:

Uuugh, my sister gave a copy of Glenn Beck's book to my brother for Christmas. I warned him to take it with, shall I say, a GRAIN OF SALT. The title of the book is "An Inconvenient Book - Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems." While I try to keep an open mind I totally disagree with most everything he says. His manipulation of facts in the name of "truth" is most interesting. I'm glad the political right has a new hack — they need all the help they can get to perpetuate their fear-mongering, distortions, and downright lies.

So, tonight, I present to Glenn Beck the Golden Poop Award for twisting and manipulating "truth," in the name of truth.

The Winner:

Hurray! It made my week to see one of my heroes in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Ray Anderson, head of Interface, a Georgia-based carpet business. He is a national leader in the corporate sustainability movement and is working to reduce his company's impact on the Earth to zero.

As the story goes, in 1994 he read the book "The Ecology of Commerce" by Paul Hawken and then had a life-changing epiphany.

"It was like a spear in the chest," he says. "I had never given a single thought to what we were taking from the Earth ... I was convicted as a plunderer of the Earth, and I've spent the last 13 years as a recovering plunderer."

In recent years he has transformed his carpet company into a sustainable firm and a role model for all companies around the world. Unlike other businesses, he is doing more than just recycling — his firm is into restoration. In other words, "Let's put back more than we take. let's do more good than harm."

WOW, I love this guy. And for his great work I bestow upon him not the Golden Goose Award, but the Platinum Goose Award — the highest honor that I can give to any Earth-Saver.

Bless you Ray Anderson, for you give me and my family hope.

Oh, let me finish with another of his great quotes. This is how he defines sustainability:

"At Interface, [sustainability] means operating our pretroleum-intensive company in such a way as to take nothing from the Earth that's not naturally and rapidly renewable and do no harm to the biosphere. On the equity side, it means treating people fairly."

Awesome — that says it all. I LOVE IT!

The Goose




Ray Anderson, a great leader in the Sustainability Movement.

Two Goose Friends

Yes, Nero continues to fiddle while Rome burns. But let's take a break from all that. Tonight I'd like to give a "shout out" to two fellow Earth-Savers:

Growth Busters
http://www.growthbusters.com/

And another one:

Growth Is Madness
http://growthmadness.org/

These two sort of go together and are both operated by fellow Earthians from Colorado. Oh, and the GrowthBusters guy is working on a documentary that sounds excellent:










At this point (I'm totally exhausted) I should offer some rambling commentary about why we exist and why we are so determined to pollute and foul the planet just so that we can make money and be comfortable. Well, you know, I can't say anything about it because it's just plain stupid. Yeah, I know, I'm part of the problem. But I work from home and am laying off the meat, so my carbon footprint is pretty low. I really just need to give up electricity, grab some bear skins, and learn to survive in the wilderness. I know that I'll want to make a really comfy hut, and before you know it I'll be hooking up a dishwasher. Yeah, I know, the human race is screwed.

Genetically Modifying Civilization

Uuugh, right now as I type this my cat is walking over my face. Very interesting. See, for the past year or so I've been carefully watching the behavior of living creatures, including humans, my pets, and little bugs that crawl across my desk.

I conclude that we are all limited to the boundaries of our DNA. The behavior of both humans and pets are pretty predictable and everything operates within parameters.

See, saving the world is NOT about reinventing civilization, technological innovation, or changing public policy. Rather, it's about changing individual human behavior.

For instance, what makes us want lots of babies? And why are we so obsessed with amassing more STUFF? Oh, and why do we like to kill one another? And why do we build nukes that are designed to kill millions of us? Isn't all this sort of pointless?

Maybe the solution lies with genetics. That's it! Let's create genetically modified humans that don't destroy the Earth or each other. Maybe we can even reprogram ourselves to think that living in the Stone Age is FUN! After all, that was the most sustainable era of human history.

Maybe we can re-engineer ourselves to want less children and fewer things -- changing these two behaviors alone would be a massive help in saving our Planet.

Hmmm, I'm not sure how it would work. Maybe the men of the first generation simply need to give a little seed to a geneticist, who, in turn, modifies it. Then, his spouse is artificially inseminated. Future generations won't have to worry about the extra steps -- they'll already be mutated. Bingo, problem solved - Earth saved.

Okay, this is just the latest harebrained solution to pop into my head. Maybe next week I'll have a better idea. In the meantime, the Emperor Nero continues to light his garden with human torches (provided courtesy of captured Christian). Huh, did he really do that? Yikes.

The Goose

Open Letter To Gov. Sonny Perdue

This is in response to a prayer service held in Georgia where the governor asked God to break the drought. Yeah, I now, funny.

Dear Governor Perdue,

I wanted to thank you for praying for rain. The next day it rained a 1/4 of an inch at my house. Since you definitely get results, I was wondering if you could add a few more items to your prayer list:

• Pray that the state will keep its promise to allow hybrids to use the HOV lanes, instead of hassling them at inspection stations.
• That business, government, and environmentalists will all work as a team to promote water conservation.
• Help the state legislature to develop an environmental ethic (yes, I know that would be a miracle).
• Convict state and county politicians to focus on quality of life and long-term sustainability, instead of always keeping the growth pedal pushed to the floor.
• Pray that our state leaders, including yourself, will be given the wisdom to promote a regional mass transit system.
• That more cities and counties would adopt Cool Cities.

I know that you are busy traveling around the world trying to encourage more industry (i.e. more people) to come to Georgia. No problem, I understand, but if you could squeeze in my requests, I would be extremely grateful.

Sincerely,

The Goose

More added by my friend and colleague Jo:

• Make Ga. DOT continue to allow 2 person carpools as they try to widen 20 East and not kick them off, (which obviously will be most of the carpools) only allowing 3 person carpools. Help me to understand that this is just another way for the highway lobby with HOT ( paid) lanes and less carpools to make money while increasing the number of autos on the road, thus the demand for more roads.
• Help me to remember my own ignored and forgotten early Executive Order to conserve water in all state facilities.
• Inspire me to spend the "Go Fish," $18 million bucks to make sure there is some water to fish in, as in a real state water plan, as requested by Carol Couch, not just the cheap sham as proposed now.
• Help me to stop fiddling while Atlanta goes the way of the Anasazi and the deserted cities of temples, etc. in Mexico. Tell me how Atlanta is going to support twice as many people when the population doubles in 2030. According to the AJC, you must have already settled that with God, since Atlanta is not even preparing for losing its collapsing resource, which is already showing early signs of eutrophication, and demonstrating what will begin happening at the end of the the "life" of the Corps lakes. Ask God how much longer 50 year old lakes will last. (They all have a predicted life span when built and will silt up and die within 60 to 90 years or so.)
  
• Ask God to permanently provide enough money for tanker trucks of water for the present millions plus the expected additional millions. Ask him to make sure that we don't have to stand in line more than 2 hours a day and that we have enough old milk cartons to fill and flush our toilets once a day and to bathe at least once a week, etc., etc.
• Ask God to inspire Ga. Power to begin buying all its lake water power from the power grid instead of releasing (how much?) millions of gallons twice daily from our lakes for peak power production.
• Ask God if he is really going to provide all the water we need if we just keep fiddling and praying, or if we do a rain dance, too, if that will help, so we can just keep having our tax funded economic development agencies, with your help, keep beating the bushes to bring in more people.
• Please thank God for allowing you to predict that Atlanta's economy (waterless or not) is fine and will continue to be fine. That alone is a miracle, so you must have a direct line to him to allow you this miraculous vision.

Female Capture

Today I gave my population PowerPoint presentation to the Humanist Class at the Atlanta Unitarian Universalist Church. During my visit to the church, I met a really fascinating Italian philosopher. He is 81-years-old and has degrees in philosophy, theology, and mathematics.

One of the things he told me has stuck in my mind all day. He said religion originates from ancient days when myths were used to unite clans. This allowed clans to develop social order and military power so they could take over other groups. And for what purpose? Female capture. The idea was to steal your opponent's women (I'm guessing they just killed the males).

He said there are examples of female capture in the Old Testament, where God ordered the Israelites to take over another group and kill everyone except the virgins, which were to be brought back and made to carry little soldier babies.

The point he was trying to make is that religion served a specific purpose in our evolutionary history, and that now, perhaps, it has outlived its usefulness.

I have heard this theory before as an explanation to what makes some people so religious. Simply put, religious people beat out other groups in the natural selection process because religion provided the organization, order, motivation, etc.. that ultimately led to a military advantage. Thus, those ancient people who were less religious were eliminated through natural selection.

Well, this idea does help me to understand modern religious behavior. The reason why we have so many religious folks in the world is because THEIR RELIGION GAVE THEM AN EVOLUTIONARY ADVANTAGE.

That's all for tonight. The Goose is tired and is signing out.

It Is Noble ... Or Is It?

I keep reading and hearing about various aid projects in Africa. From creating new wells to providing safe houses for child soldiers, all these efforts are beautiful and worthwhile. Regretfully, no one has mentioned family planning. Without this essential component any good project is doomed to failure.

I was horrified by a recent editorial in the Atlanta newspaper that went on and on about water projects in Africa. It was written by the president of a local women's college. At least she talked about women's empowerment and education, which are two essential components to slowing birth rates. But she did NOT mention universal access to family planning, which is essential for any aid project to work in the long-term.

When you provide water and food without family planning, it is like throwing kerosene into a fire — the population simply swells. Sure, you've done some immediate good and you can feel good about yourself, but you are only setting up future generations for an even greater humanitarian crises. This is simple common sense, so I'm amazed that so many intelligentsia miss this basic point.

I applaud the good organizations like World Neighbors that do incorporate family planning into their programs. If you want to support a worthwhile aid organization, support them. Organizations like World Vision mean well, and do provide immediate relief, but in the long term they are likely doing more harm than good.

The Christian evangelicals don't like to deal with family planning. On the opposite extreme, I'm told that ultra left women's organizations are opposed to family planning programs because they feel it's a form of control. Thus, it appears that few people are willing to promote family planning and contraceptive use.

Ultimately, there are only two ways an individual can impact the planet — family size and lifestyle. As we continue to pack more billions of people onto Earth, it is essential that we all reduce our family sizes and adopt a more modest lifestyle. Eventually, we need to reduce human population to where it is permanently sustainable. I don't know what that number is, but it should be at a point where other species and the long-term viability of the Planet are not jeopardized.

The Goose

Thankfulness & Gentleness

My mother-in-law asked me to provide a list of accomplishments this year for her annual newsletter. As I thought about that request I realized that I have NO accomplishments for 2007, and I was sort of glum about that.

But this has been a great year of learning. I am learning to be content with what I have. I am also learning to be thankful and grateful for what I have. I am particularly grateful for my family and friends. I am blessed with friends who have mentored me and shared their wisdom this year, and helped me get a little higher up the learning curve.

I am especially thankful for one new friend I met this year, who has inspired and educated me. This friend has taught me that as an activist, I need to remember the importance of love and gentleness in my work. This is hard to do because sometimes I am frustrated by the denseness and indifference of my ideological opponents.

The following passage was written by my friend. This wisdom has served as a guiding light, and hopefully it will continue to guide me for many years to come.

From my friend (slightly edited):

... You once asked me what you should focus on... and I have been thinking about that ... may I respectfully suggest that you continue to educate the "masses," as many people as possible ... and focus on fine tuning the style of that education (re: population, environment, etc.). You know there is something that I have learned not too long ago ... leading with GENTLENESS. In order for people to hear you, you need to be "gentle" with them so as to win their (for lack of a better word) heart and soul. In fact, this is one of the skills I try to apply everyday at my work. Everyday I have to lead/provide ideas to resolve our humongous amount of problems and issues (some of which keep me up awake at night) and everyday I practice this very simple principle "leading with gentleness, reaching out and winning the other person's heart and soul," presenting ones ideas with the utmost sincere intent for the greater benefit. And you know what? After a period of time of doing this, I have gained a lot of friends and have gained a lot of people's trust in me.

This is what I suggest to everyone ... continue to educate with kindness, gentleness, caring ... and when the time is right for that person, that person will act or respond to it ... i.e., in the end it is up to any one and everyone's free will of choice and of choice to act or do something about anything.

We need to acknowledge and respect people's constraints. To condemn them for not behaving environmentally or ecologically responsibly, or whatever word one wants to use, is not going to get what anyone who is trying to get them to a destination or end result get there. In fact, it will backfire and have the very opposite effect.

Prayers for Rain

In regards to the serious drought that is gripping metro Atlanta, I feel that the following is a brilliant letter. It was published in last week's Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is in response to a prayer service the governor of Georgia led to pray for rain. I could go on and on, but the point is that most people around here simply don't "get it."

From my fellow activist Johnny:

First, repent of overdevelopment

I am all in favor of Gov. Sonny Perdue calling for prayer for rain. But at the same time, he needs to lead the state to repent of overpopulation and overdevelopment.

Water is a limited resource, and the state has simply outgrown the amount of available water. God can send all the rain He wants to send, and the real estate developers will just drink it up, pollute it and waste it.

The economy of Georgia creates the money we all need, but it rests on the ecology of the territory. History has proven time and again that when you destroy that base by breeding too fast, society collapses, regardless of the piety of the people. God won't reward stupidity and greed. When the governor demands a moratorium on development, then we will know his praying is not just posturing.

JOHNNY P

Atlanta Water Crises Is ALL About Growth

The metro Atlanta water crises continues to get worse. I'm afraid that Georgia's political leaders are handling the situation even more poorly than I expected. Not surprisingly, Georgia politicians are either too stupid or too scared to admit that the problem IS ALL ABOUT POPULATION GROWTH. Instead, our leaders are blaming the water shortage on the Army Corps of Engineers and those poor little mussels in Apalachicola Bay.

In my frustration a few weeks ago, I sat down and hammered out letters to my county water director and two local newspapers. Much to my pleasant surprise I got a response from the director and both of my letters were published.

According to the water director of Cobb County, GA, a building moratorium would be challenging due to the strong personal property rights provided by the State of Georgia Constitution. In regards to my idea to deny re-zonings that result in higher density, he said that was "on the table" with the Cobb Board of Commissioners. However, a few days later, my Commission Chair, Sam Olens, was quoted in the press as saying, something to the effect, that denying re-zonings was not worth the lawsuits.

So anyway, the politicians of Georgia are addicted to growth -- for them it is like crack cocaine. As for the citizens of Georgia, every time we conserve a gallon of water all we are doing is helping rich developers get richer.

Here is the letter that was published in my small town newspaper, the Powder Springs Messenger on Nov. 1:

Dear Editor,

While I am glad to do my part in conserving water, I find it troubling that city and county governments are continuing to issue new building permits and continuing to rezone for higher density.

Various elected officials are quick to blame the Endangered Species Act and the Army Corps of Engineers for our current water woes. However, the truth is that our water problems are the result of poorly managed growth and poor resource planning. Droughts are a natural part of nature, but turning north Georgia into a “concrete jungle” is not natural.

Now, we the citizens are asked to sacrifice and compromise our quality of life while the relentless development continues. This is not fair. All of us citizens should demand an immediate building moratorium until the water crises has passed. Otherwise, the buckets in our showers and the bricks in our toilets are only helping to provide for more growth.

The Goose

Here is my letter published in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution on Oct. 25:

Dear Editor,

I see that Chairman Sam Olens has joined the song and dance of other politicians by blaming metro Atlanta’s water woes on the Army Corps of Engineers [Feds must help us to weather drought]. What he fails to mention is that even if the Corps reduced their discharges, it would only delay the inevitable.

If the chairman is serious about conserving water he should use his positions as Cobb County Commission chair and Atlanta Regional Commission chair to promote a metro-wide building moratorium and deny any rezoning that increases density. As long as the metro area continues to explode in growth, all our personal conservation measures will simply be offset. The chairman’s statement that the region’s population growth is not the cause of our current situation is ludicrous.

We citizens have seen enough finger pointing — now it’s time to see local leaders who have the courage to make difficult decisions.

The Goose

Swat Me

The days just keep slipping by me one after another, and every day I say to myself, "What have I done today to help the world?" Each day I try to do a little, including a lot of volunteer work, but it's never enough.

Ten years ago, in October 1997 I was a young thirtysomething idealist who was foolish enough to try and save the world. I had this crazy notion that all you had to do was put ideas in people's minds and then the positive thoughts would spread like wildfire.

But at every turn, and at every attempt, I ran into a big, solid wall. For you see, the SYSTEM does not like change. HUMANS do not like change. HUMANS will NOT change unless their short term comfort and survival is at risk.

The environmental movement and volunteerism in general barely exists. Most people don't want to do anything except cater to themselves. As the world goes down in flames, people play complex denial games with themselves or else rationalize away everything that troubles them. Then, we humans continue on, really doing nothing, except popping lots of medication to extend our lives. None of this really makes sense.

We humans are the lost species of planet Earth. We are lost because we've never been able to find ourselves. We have no long-term goal. Our only goals are comfort, indulgence, self-gratification, and getting lazy and fat. This is the destiny of humankind.

I go through this life and nearly every day there is a new surprise, a new twist, or a new drama. Sometimes the events of the day are good, and other times they are bad.

My body surges with feelings and emotions -- powerful feelings about different things. The feelings are vivid and make me feel alive, but yet the feelings draw me into despair.

Species go extinct, yet the religious zealots don't care. The world is going to hell, much to the excitement of well-dressed Sunday worshipers, who fully expect to be whisked out of their shoes and taken to the land of golden streets, mansions, harps, and cuddly lions.

Humanity, my friend, is going insane, and we are killing the very world that supports us. Yet, each day, there is little that I do or can do. I am just another maggot wiggling around in the garbage of our society. Give me enough time and I'll turn into a fly and maybe I'll harass a few people until someone gets around to swatting me -- and then I'll be a flat, dead, nobody.

A More Perfect Constitution

Okay, this idea comes up a lot: Maybe the reason our country is so screwed up is because our government is BROKEN! I've been hearing this theory since the 1980s, and as you may know from reading my profile, I'm a big fan of the book Give Me Liberty by Gerry Spence, which also addresses this issue.

So, why can't our government do anything about energy independence, global warming, immigration, campaign finance, health care for the poor, reducing the federal debt, and eradicating the special interest influence over Congress? Well, in his book A More Perfect Constitution, author Larry J. Sabato says these things are happening because our government is broken. In his new book, he provides 23 tips for fixing it. These include new term limits, eliminating lifetime appointments for judges, reforming the electoral college, etc...

I do agree that our government is badly broken, but I'm not willing to blame it on the structure so quickly. Rather, I blame it on the soulless, money grubbing, power hungry, shallow, and worthless politicians that we elect. And I think these soulless and worthless do-nothings that make up the U.S. Congress are simply a reflection of the American people.

SMALL WONDER we can't get out of debt, save our environment, and become energy dependent. The bottom line is we don't do these things because we don't WANT TO! We Americans are a bunch of dumbed-down, obese, lazy, do-nothings. So, yeah it's not our government that's broken -- it's the general public. People would rather watch reality TV, read tabloids, and go to their escapist churches rather than deal with the serious issues of the 21st Century.

We are like Rome in the final days. We would rather drink wine, party, and suck toes instead of dealing with the world's problems. And we Americans put into office the same shallow and soulless opportunists that we are.

No, I don't think our government is broken at all. In fact, I think our government is a pretty brilliant piece of work -- our Founding Fathers did a great job. However, our nation's founders probably never anticipated what we would become. We are a disgrace to the flag. We are a disgrace to ourselves.

Look in the mirror, oh fat, lazy, spoiled, complacent American. The country that you so willingly send other people's children to die for is simply the rotted reflection of yourself.

How Do We Break Through?

This past week I've learned about two fascinating movies that follow my own personal themes about "saving the world."

Movie #1

I learned about this first film from a couple of forums I subscribe to:

What a Way To Go: Life at the End

I have not actually seen the flick yet, but I plan to purchase it. However, I did see the trailers and a fascinating interview. Here is a quick summary of the movie:

"What A Way To Go looks head on at our present global predicament, as oil depletion, climate change, species extinction and population overshoot converge in a 'perfect storm' of cataclysmic dimensions. Produced independently by Sally Erickson and Tim Bennett, this personal essay explores the cultural stories and assumptions that have brought us to this point, and provides a larger context for thinking about, and feeling our way through, our global situation."

I should also throw in that they interview many of the top environmental authors of our day, including one of my favorites — Daniel Quinn.

Movie #2

Then, this morning Ray, a friend on my Atlanta Leavers discussion list, announced his new movie:

The Stumbling Block: Killing Creation for the Love of the Creator (Click on THE MOVIE)

This Internet movie tells of one person's escape from his mind-controlling religion. Once he began to do intense reading and research he learned some incredible things about Christianity and prophesy. At the end, he calls for a revolution against the Earth-destroying and soul-destroying Machine. It is a great movie that I wholeheartedly endorse.

Ray calls for everyone to be a "Rebel Monkey," which he defines as:

"Rebel Monkey: n. Any member of the species homo sapiens sapiens who is in full defiance of the stubborn religious stance against evolution, proudly accepting the fact s/he is merely a member of the animal kingdom and rejecting the notion that the human species was meant to own and rule the planet. Many desire to go back to primitive ways of life that worked well for the human species, rather than sticking with the status quo of complicated and over-controlling laws, rules, commandments and religions that have served as a cage for an increasingly hostile mankind, knowing that the ways before were ways that humans evolved and sustained for thousands upon thousands of generations, while the current lifestyle of man is managing to destroy the life on this planet in just ten short millenia."

Ray hits the nail on the head when he talks about the separation from nature and denial of evolution. This, I believe, is one of the root causes behind our civilization's general apathy and disregard for the planet.

A final note ...

I remain puzzled by the indifference or even disdain that most people have for the environment. I find that most people are either ignorant, selfish, or just apathetic about environmental issues. Some people are hoping that someone or something else will "fix it," such as God, technology, or government.

Some people are so busy just trying to "save" themselves and their family — just trying to survive — that they don't have the energy or time to help save the world.

Other people love the environment — the beach, sunsets, the mountains — but they simply don't know HOW or know WHAT to do to save it.

What I hate to hear from people is "that's too political." That is the biggest cop out ever.