Wholistic Approaches

Too frequently, our scientific approach leads us to compartmentalize our thinking. This piecemeal approach to our lives neglects the most important parts of any system, the synergies brought about by interaction. When we developed the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, it was clear that we were missing the point. Air cannot be separated from water, nor can water be isolated from air. In fact the three major phases or states of matter, solid, liquid and gas are just temporary states, allowing many transformations of each to occur. Rather than creating Venn diagrams that seek to isolate different parts of the environment from one another, what we need is a regulatory framework that is based on items being regulated, not the realms into which they can be released. Imagine how our ecological thinking would have been different if we had cut to the chase right from the start, attacking the sources of pollution rather than developing strategies based on an undesirable current state. Had we made a few lists for guidance, based on science rather than what had been contaminated, things may have progressed more quickly. Regulators could have made one category for all known carcinogens, these would have been eliminated from any discharge as a vital first step.

Over the years, there have been more and more chemical compounds that are added to that category and as science progressed, we could have expanded the scope of our protections. Instead, we let most carcinogens continue to be put into the environment, just at a marginally lower rate. Most sophisticated people understand that dilution is not a solution to pollution, because natural processes concentrate materials that may well be at infinitesimally small concentrations approximately tenfold per trophic level. Let us take a slow walk through the biological world and investigate how many of those there are. In water, phytoplankton, zooplankton, tiny fishes, smaller fishes, larger fishes, top predators (this could yield a million times the concentration in the water which supports this system.) On land, we have the soil microbes which are basically the same as in water, some converting sunlight directly to food, other microbes feeding upon them, as well as fungus, then insects and critters that feed upon them, or other tissues (left over from living creatures). Moving up the food chain, we have tiny creatures, their predators and perhaps luckily, just a couple steps between the prey and the top predators. Stemming the flow of toxic compounds into the environment is easiest at the source, but we didn't even consider that when we decided to regulate chemicals out of the environment. We focused so myopically on how they were being released that we forgot to ask "Why?". Frequently, clamping down on one sort of release, say to keep it out of our water, just increased amounts going somewhere else, often to our air because we frequently burn our dried sewage sludge, either that or it was land filled creating a different sort of problem.

One hard and fast rule in nature is that there is no away.

Similarly, we must find ways to become whole in spite of our cultural impetus to cleave and dissect our realities just as aggressively as science dissects us. I am not separate from my mental life, my spiritual life or my physical body. all of these "realms" exist in a complex interplay, just as the winds lift solids into the sky and as surely as the deluge can transport tons of dirt or soil (solids) elsewhere via a (liquid) phase change, my own states of being can morph into something much more profound. Who I am, who you are, we all are, in fact, ecosystems, microcosmic niches for complex biological and chemical interactions. In our gut and on our skin; up our noses and inside our ears, bacteria, fungus, molds and viruses make their living, or try to. Luckily, 85% of the bacteria are good, or at least do no harm. Even under our fingernails there is a delicate balance of life.

Many of us wear our psychic scars as a badge, as if the pain validates our existence. Like picking a scab, it only reinforces the power of the past. Healing is multidimensional and exactly the same as nature cannot be surgically approached. All things are connected and the infections that can manifest from abuse, disuse or misuse of natural abundance has distinct repercussions. One reason that I have frequently mentioned the Environmental Working Group is that their "skin deep" program allows people to understand the toxic mix of treatments that are sold in endless combinations and preparations for slathering on your skin. This is just one route that toxic compounds have into our lives and true to form, ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. must stand in league with others who combat brutality to humanity by those who seek to capitalize on "just business" (which is wholly and utterly unjust!) The reason I mention it again here is that the topic of individuals being microcosmic ecological systems recognizes that true beauty comes from the soul level and radiates outward, nearly like having a sun inside you. Our very metabolism is a solar furnace running on complex molecules that act as storage batteries. When we begin to honor the food (fuel) that we put into our bodies, sanctify the water we wash it down with and clean the air which we breathe, the rest will take care of itself.

We do not exist in isolation. Together we can thrive, but only if we can stop the madness of exploitation, carbon fueled "development" and the abuse and neglect of both the planet and her people that passes for "economic imperative" around the globe. The reasons that people flock to relatively untouched places is to know that such places still exist somewhere, but it is crucial to "green" every inch of the planet as well as putting an end to the oppression and extractive methods of the failed system. The crucial thing to realize is that when we do visit other places, that the best way to protect them is to practice Leave No Trace Ethics. Recognizing that peak oil has come and gone will be the first step to healing our addiction to oil and coal. Funny how the Leave No Trace folks have a car on their homepage. Until we stop denying that our carbon addiction has destabilized climate and create reasonable rewards for carbon sequestration as well as penalties for blasting it into the atmosphere, there will be those who will not reign in their assault. We need to understand that our invisible footprint, generated when our actions in nature are mediated by petro-carbon fueled energy, rather than human energy, it is still an assault on pristine, no, sacred beauty.  I plant trees as part of my healing as much as to heal the planet. I urge others to join me. Together we can create a desired future state capable sustaining human life, a planet worth living in.

Great Lakes

This is...

These freshwater seas have always felt like home to me.

In the foreground, the Finger Lakes can be seen. When I was bicycling around the Great Lakes, I came into the top right of the picture on my way back from rounding the North Shore of Lake Superior. My route, contained within this photo, which took about two weeks at fifty miles (80 km) per day on average, came down The East shore of Georgian Bay, roughly followed the Severn-Trent Canal and rounded the nearest point in this picture crossing at the Thousand Islands Crossing, coming back from Canada. I took a few days off  (as well as being off the photo)to recuperate at the Canton Canoe Weekend. A special shout out to all my friends from Outing Club!

After that, I headed West again, pretty much hugging the shore the rest of the way home to Green Bay.

As I ponder this image, it is basically a look back from the downwind part of our airshed. Just as the water follows gravity, through clefts in the rock and dunes, the air wafts from our tailpipes and smokestacks, our fossil fuel powered electric generating stations and the wires that transmit that power, our heat islands are clearly evident way back, poking through the clouds. You can see a few black smudges and holes poked through the cloud bank that obscures Lake Michigan. I'm sure that each person who looks deeply into the image, at least those who know the area will see all sorts of different things in it, but for me who has pedaled his way through the image, it still has the power to amaze and mesmerize me. When I was a child, and had the dream to ride my bicycle around the Great Lakes, to see how large they had to be, to be able to dilute the poisons and terrific amounts of waste that we clogged them with when I was growing up. What I found is that they are actually pretty small jewels relative to our planet. The fact that they contain 20% of all the liquid fresh water on the planet is all one needs to know about why I dedicate my life to saving them.

Millions of tree seeds have been planted by our organization, tens of thousands of seedlings and saplings have been planted as well. This is to say nothing of the forbes, the composting and the aeration of long depleted areas that frequently start the whole process of regeneration. We are currently working to transform ever more acreage faster because forest cover, (especially on high ground, susceptible to wind erosion, marginal or steep slopes and along watercourses where runoff can carry massive sediment and nutrient loads) is essential if we are to reverse the flow of carbon from fossil fuel to the atmosphere.

We can only do as much as we can afford to do. We give as much time as possible. All the work is done as a labor of love, but all of our trees are either purchased with donations, or grown from seed which requires even more hours of our time. To give a bit of perspective, it costs about ten dollars per tree to get it, plant it and protect it. We do get some benefits from scale and the larger your donation, the lower the cost per tree. The nurseries that we deal with often give us steep discounts because of our commitment to maintaining an all-volunteer staff. Just because our trees are planted, the airshed is already being scrubbed of some carbon, with your help, we can do more.

Mu

We have no word like this in English. Not "yes", not "no", but somewhere in-between. Even the word "maybe" resolves to get to the bottom of things before we are finished, often leading to pros and cons on either side. Mu is a state of being that is just as valid as either of the other two, but it exists in a blind spot within our culture. Our sense of duality is often too strong to admit a third possibility. Quixotically, our professed religion dictates a trinity, however, "we" seem to be unable to fathom this in our most primal, mental constructs which then get used to lead us through our lives. Like imperfect maps, we place items of experience in relation to other elements. From this relationship of arbitrary perspective, we build the landscape of our problem solving terrain.

I told a friend, There is a young woman who wants to learn about herbal healing...and I'm thinking of taking her on as an apprentice/student. His response was vile and crass. "Have you ____ed her yet?" The domain of his mental maps, the virtual topography of relationships between the sexes, told him that all women are quarry, to be bedded. The excuse for any behavior runs deep in the human mind runs deep.

In this case, my love for you, my compassion and humanity toward the suffering that you have experienced is the driving force behind each word, each concept and every intention that is put forward through ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. When I plant a tree, or make it possible for a dozen folks to plant one-hundred trees, it is for you, your air, the water supply of the planet. I put my breath into the cells of that tiny spirit of hope. When it becomes grand, towers over homes, or gives shelter to other critters, you get a sense of how deeply I love you. When the tree finally falls, it will still nourish a collection of microbes and bugs that defy our imaginings. This third state is necessary, the mu, lets me say that the world is already different because of the love that I have for you. There is no "yes" or "no" about it.

An African word, Ubuntu says it best and I have had it translated to English, somewhat clumsily as "I am because you are." What it means to me is that the whole of my existence is bound up, reflected, perhaps even refracted through you and that is what gives meaning to my life. You are essential to me. Our essences reverberate with one another into something greater. Mu requires not, agreement with anything but timeless truth. Neither at odds, or in accord, we are part of a vast organism, the ecosphere.

I have always understood this third state, for instance, when Rush sang: "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." I got the message that doing the best, in all situations requires a suspension of decision, but not action. Too often we forget that the right thing to do is frequently never considered. It never even makes it on to the table. We are too often hurried into making bad decisions. When we honor the third choice, much of the wasteful, harmful, neglectful, abusive and erroneous activities can be avoided. Not yes, not no.

I am because you are. There is no yes or no about that. We all breathe the same noble gasses as the dinosaurs did, we are one, through time and space, the very molecules we share are but stardust. Not no, not yes, just be with that. We are one...often this answer is even more important than the question. I want to use this forum to call for a worldwide boycott, overt #occupation of the decision-making process. If you are about to say yes, to something you fell you should say no to, at least allow mu a chance to fill you. Is someone makes a baseless claim, do not let your blood pressure rise, become inflamed or moved to anger, turn the question around, find the flaw and state unequivocally mu. Then walk away. It is time for humanity to speak truth to power or perish. Participation under duress is a requirement  for a certain crime. We are all being victimized by "yes"/ "no" answers to questions that defy this narrow solution.

Crimes are being committed, heinous ones, involving the rape of the planet, poisoning of our shared resources, this is true. The distorted meteorologic maps, show how desperately out of balance our climate has become. "New Normal" has been the catch word of the new millennium. Often we exempt ourselves from our part in it, like when we pump fuel into our cars, or trucks, when we fly off to faraway lands to see beautiful nature, or when we import materials from halfway around the globe, but we are playing a part. We say, by our participation, "my life and limb depend on my complicity in the whole mess." I continue to stand as a living testament to the fact that we have other choices. Move closer to where you work, or work closer to home, make everywhere more habitable and you will never have to leave. Take back the means of production and create only things of true value and as a friend once told me, never discount the maxim, "Do the dishes, make bread, play with/teach the children, and you will never need to pay rent." Not yes, not no, only love.

Raising Awareness

When I began to find my feet...I worked for an organization called Citizens for a Better Environment, (CBE) That was in the mid-to-late eighties. The way Eco-education was taking place back then was for an army of canvassers to descend on neighborhoods across three states, raising donations, educating the public about salient environmental conditions that existed in their area, and doing something about it in state politics. We acted as a watchdog organization and funded environmental research. It was CBE who first documented the application rate per acre of most "popular" lawn chemicals was an order of magnitude more than typical application rates when the same chemicals were used in conventional agricultural practice. Learning that a typical suburb is far more damaging than the typical local farmer focuses attention and energy to where it will do the most good. I talked to over one-hundred thousand folks over the years, about 80-100 per night, now, 100,000 could access my pitch on a given morning before breakfast.

"Hi, I'm Tony, with Citizens for a Better Environment." Sometimes, especially if I went into the same neighborhood year after year, I would know that folks "knew" me and would just say CBE. We offered to let them sign a support statement, even if they did not want to donate, it went something like...We the undersigned support and encourage CBE and it's ongoing programs of public education, research, political and legal representation to protect our land, air and water resources. While the person was reading, I would say, painfully SLOWLY, "We're on our annual fundraiser and count on your support."

By watching their eyes, you would know when they stopped reading and I would continue at regular speed after that. With my readers, I cannot see your eyes, so continuing at pace, it would go something like..."We helped draft statewide groundwater protection laws that enable your well to be tested free if your neighbor has contamination issues. Good sense regulations designed to protect public health." Or, "We defended our right in court, to clean air when a local utility attempted to build a thousand foot stack rather than clean up their emissions, which would have just spewed their dangerous fumes over a larger area. This in turn allowed the generators to run more efficiently, reducing the emissions at their source, saving on maintenance costs & down time, ultimately saving money." We had about thirty of these sorts of issues that we could speak on cogently, from tighter restrictions on dry cleaners and print shops (frequent offenders contributing carcinogenic solvent emissions), to our first-ever Clean Sweep, which allowed homeowners and renters to drop off household hazardous wastes for proper disposal. Sometimes, I would ask if the person had a specific concern and be able to tell them about our efforts on "their" issue. The actions of hundreds of people each night, giving five or ten dollars, perhaps a few giving fifty or a hundred funded a Quarterly "Review" which was our way of staying current with members.It detailed current research, up and coming policy changes and specific ways that the public could participate.

However we share what we have learned, raising awareness is a lifelong duty that we all have to one another. We can see what not educating others can lead to...

To reach out more successfully, I encourage everyone to learn about the Environmetal Working Group. They are making available a lot of research about products that some of us use every day and their relative risk to health and the environment. If you want a more comprehensive understanding of climate change, check out this source of info.

If you want to continue to hear about what ECO-Tours of Wisconsin is doing to create a carbon negative society, stay tuned and donate.

Other sources for information on herbs for health, healing the rift between humankind and the planet and survival in an age of mass destruction can be found at any of my blogs, or I am also available for consulting services. Contact me through snail mail at: 1445 Porlier street Green Bay, Wisconsin 54301-3334 USA or by e-mail tnsaladino42@hotmail.com
 

Red Envelope

It is said that the ancient herbalists and feng shui masters, the shamen of their time would leave red envelopes with their clients so that when payment was made, the money would not be attributable to any specific person. The entire community being healthier was the real reward anyway, but it helped to pay the bills. I have been saved from the edge of death by a shaman and there is really no way to put a dollar amount on how she has given me a new chance at life. Doctors had written me off. I would give my life for her, but in dollars how can one levy a price?

I prefer to work for the red envelope because my healing work is also mostly rewarded by the great feeling of planting trees, educating folks about how to live more lightly and at a higher standard of living at less cost (waste). Even the feeling of benefiting a community that will continue on through generations, these things all feel great, but they don't pay the rent. If you would like a red envelope, please send a request to Tony C. Saladino 522 Acreview Dr. De Pere Wisconsin 54115 USA

One Giant Leap For Humankind

Finally, something that works, is in the public domain and is within the reach of every
one.www.biocharproject.org

I too have been working to inform others about biochar. I am not sure if commercializing it is going to be the answer though. Time will tell and I have been wrong before about many things, but to maintain integrity in my biochar production system, I use as little petrochemical  (fossil) fuel as possible when making my char and look forward to a time that I can afford to build a larger retort, make useful energy from the syngas driven off during the charring process and help close the loop with organic and locally available feedstocks. 

ECO-Logy of Mind

We have all been born, bred and presented with a particular benchmark in human history. Our physical bodies will reap a bitter harvest from this sad fact. Never before has the Earth been burdened with the levels of, or types of contaminants that our ecosphere now holds. Every medium of transmission to humans has some level of contamination, the soils upon which we grow our food, the food itself, our water and even the air we breathe has the potential to make us sick. Lest one get the idea that I'm all gloom and doom here, I wish to turn this into a hopeful message. Our awareness and mental state  allow us to set a course through this current state of affairs toward a more or less benign one. If we add to our mental maps, the areas which are the most contaminated, we can design our lives to minimize risk, etc. Our choices lie outside the realm of pure physicality. On the whole, decisions take place in our heads, (being nothing more than electron traces through brain tissue.) The actions that take place due to those decisions are what have traction in the physical realm. sitting around thinking good thoughts is not enough, you have to "prime the pump" as it were to get anything out of your existence. When we know that our every decision can have external effects, and when we begin to understand the nature of these affects, we can begin to build a rational response to the threat that we pose to our own survival as a species.

If we stop investigating externalities, (the hidden costs of our actions) we can continue living in denial and profess that there are no problems, no consensus, no evidence that our impacts are both global and threatening to our species. We have had science (the new religion on the block) that our way of life is a detriment to other species for nearly a century. Rather than excuses, if there are humans to remember us, don't we want them to remember us as valiant, triumphant even? Is it a crime to think of our age as the solvers of the biggest crisis humanity has ever known? I'm perhaps naive, but in my country, we have a history that includes whatever folks said "you cannot do...", we have done. We created "manifest destiny" to imply that native people had better get out of our way. We drove a transcontinental railway through the Rocky Mountains, then two more, strung several trans-Atlantic cables, kept the nation together in spite of Secessionists, heck we shot guys to the Moon and successfully retrieved them. So, here is my proposal...create no waste. Try it for an hour, then a day. I tried to do it and it changed my life. Live like every other (naturally occurring) organism on the planet.

Zero Waste is most often a concept for humans, but it needs to become the rule. I would like to list just a few ways to eliminate, or drastically reduce waste, but it is worthy of a lifelong quest to try to live sustainably through this practice no matter what the advertizing desire creating media would have you believe. (Keep in mind, no one is paying me to say this.) We grow our own vegetables in soil that we built from scratch (Other than fallout from the atmosphere, there are no toxic chemicals present in our garden beds.) and put up what we cannot consume immediately in jars. Aside from occasionally breaking a jar or retiring a tired lid, we only have recyclable waste and virtually none of that compared to getting most of our food from the grocery. For every trip to the store we can avoid, it reduces air emissions of carbon and noxious compounds. Indeed, on another level, it reduces the need for exploiting oil shale deposits in Canada as well, so as you can see, the external costs could be pushed beyond the ability of many to fathom. The carbon footprint of an organic carrot, grown from saved seed, eaten in the same backyard garden in which it was grown approaches zero. Therefore, eating them becomes an act of resistance.

When one contaminant alone, fly ash from coal-fired electric generating stations in the US of A, are causing about the same amount of disease and premature death as adding 100,000 new smokers to our population each year,  the combined affects of hundreds of unregulated compounds, must contribute substantially to illness and premature death. It may be hard to draw direct cause and effect lines of evidence implicating any specific compound responsible for our cancers, our heart disease, our kidney failure or our liver damage, but the combined cocktail certainly cannot be defended as an aid to staying healthy. How we adapt to and change our physical surroundings can only be understood through concentrated mental effort. I learned recently that pound for pound, the brain consumes more calories than any muscle in our body. However, to get it to use calories, you have to use your brain. Go figure. The time has come to see ourselves as agents of change, either for good or ill and we have a historical record of which undertakings create balance and harmony with the natural ecosystem and what leads to destruction and poisoning of it. These are not hypothetical threats, they are a real and present danger that we must learn to step back from, analyze, and determine are the very real costs worth the true price.

This week I lost another friend to cancer. Over the years his life had been repeatedly disrupted by several types and kinds of cancer, the first time being when he was a very young child. Up until the last time I spoke with him, he still believed that being born within a mile of a nuclear facility had nothing to do with his cancer, nor did he believe that any of his other cancers were caused by the radioactivity which he was routinely exposed to during the many years that he spent growing up within sight of the facility. The public relations campaign that has surrounded the nuclear industry consistently downplays the fact that leakage is par for the course and ignores the fact that there is no safe dose of radioactivity. That is why the atmosphere of Earth and the Van Allen Belts are essential to our survival. It is also why arbitrarily raising the "acceptable" levels of radiation that we allow people to be exposed to is not only irresponsible but indefensible. The negotiations between what science knows and what is economically expedient have always erred on the side of commerce over human health. But when we understand this, we need to let it be an impetus for us to change our behavior.

The interactions of millions of discreet ideas, concepts and awarenesses combine to create the landscape of our minds. The three pound instrument we can our brain has the power to guide us in new directions, but we will only make change if our understanding of where we are includes a strong enough reason to change. As long as we feel that we need or deserve the burden of an eco-catastrophe, or early death as penance for screwing up the planet, no change can occur. As long as we allow vast swaths of nature to be turned into dumping grounds for poison, we will continue to reap death and mayhem as the unintended costs of business as usual or what the corporados deem to be "just business". I think that we are beginning to understand the real meanings of those words.