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ECOSHIFT The Movement That Is Transforming the Relation of Humanity to Earth By Tony Federer ii ECOSHIFT TABLE OF CONTENTS iii Table of Contents Dedication ECOSHIFT is dedicated to my four grandchildren in hopes of improving their future. They will inherit the Earth and will live Table of Contents iii through the major changes that are coming in the next half- Preface vii century. What their life is like depends greatly on what human individuals, groups, communities, organizations, politicians, Introduction: Why ECOSHIFT? 1 corporations, and governments are deciding to do NOW. Why Another Book? 4 Semantics 6 PART 1 – THE CURRENT RISE OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM 9 Where We Are Now: A House of Cards 9 Energy 10 Pre-publication Review Copy Climate Change 10 Consumerism and Globalization 13 Printed in the United States of America So-called “Natural Resources” 14 www.LuLu.com Ecosystem Destruction and Species Extinction 14 Population 16 © ECOSHIFT is copyright 2008 by the author, C. Anthony Federer. Globalization: Dominance of Corporate Empire 17 Permission is hereby granted to copy and redistribute any part of its The “Success” of Capitalism 18 content, preferably with due credit (except for quotations for which other The Problems with Megabusiness 20 copyrights may apply). Population Growth: Too Many Humans 23 However, copied material may not be sold in any form without written World Population 23 permission of the author. Individual Choice 26 U.S. Population and Immigration 27 Permission has been granted by Maureen Westrick and Susan Meeker-Lowry to extensively quote their writings from the Conway Daily PART 2 – CHANGING PERSONAL LIFESTYLES 31 Sun. The Three R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle 31 Reduce 31 Reuse 32 Recycle 34 Energy Choices: Reduce, Reduce, Reduce 39 Energy Consumption and CO 2 Production 40 Unsustainable Energy 41 Energy Conservation 43 Solar Energy 45 Wind Energy 46 Biomass Fuel 46 Hydro and Geothermal Power 48 iv ECOSHIFT TABLE OF CONTENTS v Carbon Offsets 49 Conservation Biology: Preventing Further Loss 119 Pollution Control 121 Food Choices: Organic, Vegetarian, Local 53 Conservation Versus Preservation 123 The Globalization of Food and Water 53 Gene Pool Preservation 126 Food and Health 56 Endangered Species 127 Sustainable and Vegetarian Food 58 Exotic Invasives 129 Organic Food 60 Fragmentation 130 Locally-produced food 61 Restoration Ecology 131 Producing Your Own Food 63 Ecosystem Management 135 Eating Out 64 Evolution 137 Housing Choices: Structure, Grounds, Location 65 Ecojustice: Local and Global Community 139 Location, Location, Location 65 Social Darwinism 140 Reducing Your Housing Footprint 67 Failure of Environmentalism 141 Ecovillages 68 Diversity and Respect 141 Co-Housing 69 Health and Job Issues 143 Green Buildings 70 Ecotourism 145 Renaturalizing the Yard 73 Regaining Community 146 Voluntary Simplicity - Opting Out of Consumer Culture 75 Liberation Theology and Ecojustice 148 Money Choices 76 The Earth Charter 150 Consumer Choices 77 Justice versus Sustainability 150 Time Choices 79 Green Politics: Demonstrations or Elections? 153 Simplicity Choices 80 Failure of The Two-Party System 153 Voluntary Simplicity Sites and Workshops 82 The Green Party 156 Elgin's Ecological Ways of Living 83 Political Activism 161 PART 3 – CHANGING HUMAN CULTURE 85 The Great Turning: Into the Future 163 Sustainability: The Current Buzz Word 85 Extremes of Worldview 165 Myths of Sustained Yield and Multiple Use 87 Competition or Cooperation 166 Definitions of Sustainability 89 The Happy Planet Index 168 Technofixes 90 PART 4 – CHANGING HUMAN SPIRITUALITY 171 Ceres, Certification, and Greenwash 90 The Natural Step 93 Ecopsychology: Human Need for Nature 171 Regulation and Taxes 94 The Lure of Nature 171 Reducing Demand 96 Fear and Disconnection 172 Carrying Capacity and Ecological Footprint 99 Nature Deficit Disorder 174 Children and Nature 176 Socially Responsible Investing: Changing Corporate Behavior 103 Resistance to Change 180 Screening 104 The Council of All Beings 182 Shareholder Activism 107 Mindfulness 183 Community Investing 108 The Universe Story: Continuing Creation 185 Bioregionalism: Developing a Sense of Place 109 Creation of the Universe 189 Losing and Finding a Sense of Place 110 Creation of Life 194 The Bioregion Concept 111 The Twelve Miracles of Creation 196 The Gulf of Maine Bioregion 113 The Anthropic Principle 197 Travel 116 The Gaia Hypothesis 198 vi ECOSHIFT PREFACE vii Lessons From The Story 199 The Sixth Extinction and the Future 203 The Conscious Universe 204 Deep Ecology: An Ecocentric Worldview 207 Respect for Animals 207 Preface The Arrogance of Humanism 209 Arne Naess and Thomas Berry 211 The Eight Points of Deep Ecology 213 Rights, Worth, and Hubris 214 Styles Delving Deeper 216 The name of the movement is “Ecoshift”; the name of this book is Ecofeminism: Nurturing Mother Earth 219 “ECOSHIFT”. The Deep Ecology - Ecofeminism Debate 220 Italic text generally indicates my personal opinions, which may not be Commentary 221 widely accepted or stated by others. Italics are also used for Latin words. Within quotations, italics used for emphasis by the original author are Green Arts: Creation Inspiration 223 indicated by (ital. au.). The Written Word 224 Bold fafacececece is used for my emphasis. Painting, Drawing, Photography, and Sculpture 225 Underlining is used to indicate either an author of a book listed in Crafts 226 Appendix 1 or a web site listed in Appendix 2. Performing Arts 228 Ecospirituality: Caring for Creation 231 Christian Stewardship 233 Boxes are used to illustrate my personal practices and Statement of The Patriarch, Bartholomew 235 actions. Ecotheology 237 Buddhism and Jainism 238 Earth-based Spirituality 239 Versions Pantheism and Unitarian Universalism 241 ECOSHIFT was written originally in HTML and can be found on the Personal Ethics 243 World-wide Web at www.ecoshift.net. The web pages contain many Conclusion: Can Ecoshift Be Accomplished? 247 internal links among chapters and external links to other web sites. Personal Change 248 A PDF version may be downloaded from the web site (2.6 Mb) with The World of the Future 249 two pages per sheet to save paper when printing. Internal and external links will not work. Appendix 1: Books 253 For readability, durability, and portability you still can't beat a book! Appendix 2: Web Sites 269 This hard-copy version of ECOSHIFT has been printed in limited quantity for outside review. The response will determine whether it warrants Appendix 3: The Earth Charter 277 outside editing, publication (ISBN), and publicity. Please e-mail Preamble 277 [email protected] with comments and encouragement. Principles 278 The Way Forward 283 Acknowledgements My wife, Suzanne, has continually supported the changes that Ecoshift has induced in our life-style, and has suggested numerous text improvements. Many thanks to Marina Shauffler for her “Ecofeminism and Deep Ecology” seminar in 1995, which started me on the Ecoshift path. Neighbor and fellow Unitarian-Universalist Diane Woods brought me to a “Deep Ecology” study group and co-led with me a mini-conference viii ECOSHIFT INTRODUCTION 1 “Toward an Ecocentric Humanity”; she has stimulated my progress with her enthusiasm through the past decade. I have been particularly inspired by two magazines, Wild Earth (no longer published) and Resurgence , by the writings of Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme , and by the group study guides of the Northwest Earth Institute . I would also like to thank Introduction: Why ECOSHIFT? participants in several Earth Institute groups, authors of dozens of books, and masters of hundreds of web sites for all their sine qua non contributions to ECOSHIFT. “Our first responses to environmental degradations in the 1970s were legal and technical, but we have found them wanting. Although perhaps necessary, they are not sufficient. The earth's ecological deterioration is at heart a matter of human attitudes toward the earth and life in general. An ethical response is vital. And the needed ethical response must be rich and full, touching every level of our being, one that addresses what we consider to be of ultimate importance in our lives and how we think we ought to live, one that reflects morally on how we understand and relate to nature.” – Calvin B. DeWitt [“A Contemporary Evangelical Perspective”. In Carroll et al., “The Greening of Faith”, p. 88]. “Never has it been more important for humans to realize that we hold the future in our hands and that we have a choice about what kind of future it will be. The choice is in how we see the world and envision the future, for that worldview and vision will shape the reality to come, This has always been true, but the understanding of this truth has only begun to dawn on us. We must take back the power we have projected onto external authorities (God, government, corporations, parents, bosses, etc.), and assume the responsibility that is truly ours for our current and future reality.” – Suzanne Duarte Humanity now demands more from Earth's ecosystems than Earth can supply. We are finally waking up to the fact that our human impact on Earth cannot be sustained. This book describes a multi-faceted grassroots movement that promotes change both from a global consumer culture to a sustainable Earth community and from an anthropocentric worldview to an ecocentric worldview. Paul Hawken calls it “the movement without a name”. Joanna Macy calls it The Great Turning. I call it “Ecoshift” because the change in worldview involves a paradigm shift in the relation of humanity to Earth, our home. 2 ECOSHIFT INTRODUCTION 3 This book, “ECOSHIFT”, describes the breadth and depth of the recycling, peace and justice work, or protection of land or species. With movement, partly from my personal point of view. My goals are to help increasing awareness of links among the many aspects of the movement, you to joyfully modify the way you live, to make you feel that you are not individuals begin to make choices to consume less, to live more simply, alone in your practices, concerns, and beliefs, and to help reduce human and to not join in the corporate money game.