"A Letter to Future Generations" - FEW Nexus - Module F1/E1 Relational Summary

Dear Future Generations,

September Equinox, 1983,
I arrive to this world.
4.5 billion people here already.

As I write this, I am 35 years old, year 2019...almost 8 billion people here now...

...and I am sorry to each and every last one of you.

I am sorry for the choices, the ignorance, the greed and the apathy of myself and of us all.

In such a beautiful world,
of diversity and resilience,
my own species caused more harm than good
while claiming the title of "Most Intelligent".

Yet even a tree gives life and causes no harm.  Animals great and small live within the cycles of nature and respect her decisions.  

But we humans believe we are above that as our behavior clearly shows.  
We pulled ourselves out of this system, thinking we could do better.
I know the ignorance is hard to imagine.   

We should not have measured our intelligence by our potential.

Just like a chain is only as strong as its weakest link,

we are only as intelligent as we act in reality, not as we could potentially act. 
                         Potential is nothing, if it is never realized.

Now I wonder:

What good was renewable energy when children are starved to death over oil?

What good was the creation of an herbicide for better crops, when that same chemical was used to gas and kill in concentration camps?

What good is having a world of information at our fingertips if we use the Internet to make our world smaller?

What good was an Earth to feed every last one of us if we chose to distribute nutrition based on money instead of need?

What good are molecular biology or plant genetics if we use them to force the purchase of new seeds each year?

We had so much potential, but failed to act in so many ways.

Was it all my fault?
           Does it even matter now?

Was I that one snowflake that fell like all the others but when it landed shifted the glacier into motion toward it's fate?  And if I did not singlehandedly collapse the world, could I say the same for just one child gone too soon?

I wonder if I could have skipped the straw, would that bird still be flying?

And if I just skipped the gas pump, could I have avoided the funding of corruption? 
Or the death of innocent souls?

Would I sleep better at night if I knew my hands were clean?

And why, oh why, could I have not been born 100 years ago, when none of this was a choice and nothing I did would or could have impacted my brothers and sisters around the globe?
                             Now everything we do ripples so far...

Yet, somehow, we never learned to care for what we could not see.  We never learned to collectively feel the suffering of another.

We all turned a blind eye and kept on going as if It were all okay,
but we all knew It wasn't.

We almost never dared talk about It.  We numbed It with pills, alcohol and drugs, all the addictions....anything for a distraction.

Even as our rivers flowed with caffeine and anxiety medications, we continued to grind forward,
     ever faster,
          ever blinder,
               ever more numb.

And all we truly had to do was breathe.

As you read this, please realize that there is still hope.
There is always some hope.
So fight for what is right.
Fight for it like your life depends on it.
And do it now.
There is no time to waste.

As for me, I'm sorry I didn't stop it all.
I'm sorry I felt inadequate,
overwhelmed,
scared and guilty
but not strong enough to fight back against it all.

Believe me, it's worth it.  But I have nothing but excuses, and they are worthless, much like my encouragement to you,

because I am no one to believe in.  
I lie even to myself.

I am no one to inspire, 
when I set such a poor example myself.

And I am no one to encourage you, 
when the weight of the world left me crippled.

Signed:

S.P.

human #4,701,530,843 and warrior in the battle of choices

FEW Nexus: Intro, Being Attentive - 1

What does is mean to you to "be the Nexus"?

The Food, Energy, Water Nexus is a term that describes the place where it all meets and where our initiatives for closed-circle economies and zero-waste lives are most effective.  But, this looks different for each and every one of us.

As for myself, I am trying to make better choices.  Here in the United States, we are overloaded with choices. Culturally, we make choices based on length of time, cost, and convenience (the economy of the fast, cheap and easy!)  Learning to question our choices and think deeper than our own personal gain is fundamental to moving toward the Nexus. 

Here are a few conscious choices I have recently made partly thanks to the inspiration of classmates, professors and others who inspire me to keep seeking the Nexus and live better.

1) Bamboo Corral

We have a 5-acre farm and a few horses.  I have been looking for metal panels to make a small corral area for my children to ride them close to the house.  I was given some bamboo (as long as I cleared it out of the forest) so I got the idea to build the pen myself, with the help of my family, out of bamboo poles!  This will save the metal, and reuse bamboo that would have otherwise been burned.  It has also been a fun and challenging project with plenty of family time.

Jey cutting bamboo poles for the corral!

2) Palmer amaranth Problem

I refuse to use glyphosate or any other herbicide on our land. But, every time my boyfriend mows the yard, he cuts up and disperses "pigweed" (Palmer amaranth) and it grows back thicker.  My daughter and I made a chicken tractor and we are hoping that the chickens will up root it and help us get rid of it.  Then, I would like to plant a beneficial ground cover, maybe perennial peanut, cowpea, or Mexican sunflower, to help improve the soil. 

Chicken Tractor construction with reclaimed farm stuff! Cost: $0

3) Electric Vehicle

I have wanted one for so long.  I live in an area of Southern farmers and horse farms; everyone has a big truck, usually diesel.  My idea is not popular.  I am excited though.  I want nothing to do with the clutch of having to use fossil fuels and I feel a weight on my shoulders and my heart aches when I think about the wars fought and the people hurt because of the demand for these resources.  I strive to live a life free of that mess.  I actually transferred from Nova Southeastern University to USF where I studied Conflict Resolution.  So much of the conflict around the world stems from oil, and we all fund a part of it every time we push down on the accelerator. I have been looking at electric cars for a few years now.  I recently found one I would like and I applied for a small loan for it.  I should hear back from my credit union very soon.  Once I get one, I would like to eventually charge it with solar panels.

 This Harvard Science and International Affairs policy brief has some clear information on the link between oil/fuel and conflict and why oil is the number one cause of war:

"Oil fuels international conflict through eight distinct mechanisms: 
(1) resource wars, in which states try to acquire oil reserves by force; 
(2) petro-aggression, whereby oil insulates aggressive leaders such as Saddam Hussein or Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini from domestic opposition, and therefore makes them more willing to engage in risky foreign policy adventurism; 
(3) the externalization of civil wars in oil-producing states ("petrostates"); 
(4) financing for insurgencies—for instance, Iran funneling oil money to Hezbollah; 
(5) conflicts triggered by the prospect of oil-market domination, such as the United States' war with Iraq over Kuwait in 1991; 
(6) clashes over control of oil transit routes, such as shipping lanes and pipelines; 
(7) oil-related grievances, whereby the presence of foreign workers in petrostates helps extremist groups such as al-Qaida recruit locals; and 
(8) oil-related obstacles to multilateral cooperation, such as when an importer's attempt to curry favor with a petrostate prevents multilateral cooperation on security issues. These mechanisms can contribute to conflict individually or in combination." (Colgan, 2013)

Another benefit is to EV cars is that there are no emissions so they are not harmful to the environment.

What does being the Nexus mean to you?  How do you tend to it?  And what are your actions on the journey?  I would love to hear from you and inspire each other as we go! 

Citation:

J. D. Colgan (2013) Oil, conflict, and u.s. national interests.  Harvard Kennedy School. Retrieved on May 22, 2019 from https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/oil-conflict-and-us-national-interests

Food, Water, Energy Nexus: Reducing your Ecological Footprint - 3

I am going to attempt to sum up my thoughts about being the Nexus and how I have come to be where I am in that process.  And it IS a process! 

My beautiful mom, carrying me, 1984

Sometimes I blame the American culture and the times we live in for my inability to be further along in this process than I am at this point in my life, because it is so easy to not change, to not inform ourselves and to look away.  But, I do have a conscience that seems to transcend all that and continually push me towards being more responsible with my time on this wonderful planet we call our home. 

Home, 1989

I’ll start way back with when I was a child.  I grew up on a farm, on almost 200 acres, in beautiful upstate NY.  My family was just this side of the Amish lifestyle by many standards.  We did have running water, but we also had a hand pump: one over the kitchen sink and one out by the barn.  We did have electric heat, but we mostly used the wood stove.  We had a car, but I also remember making trips to the Corner Store about 6 miles away with a horse and buggy.  Oh and the garden!  It was my dads baby…at least a few acres and it was always gorgeous.  My dad plowed it with his team of  Belgian work horses.  We had goats and a jersey cow.  We made soap, cheese, butter, and even ice cream by hand! We had chickens and raised our own eggs, veggies and meat.  The later of which convinced me to stop eating meat at the age of 8 and never look back.  I loved my animals too much to see my dad butcher them.  My dad and I had a talk about it and he quit, at least in front of me.  But I wouldn’t eat them anymore and I still don’t.  So that is a summary of where I came from, but all that changed when I was about 14 and we lost the farm and moved to an apartment in town. 

Now I know that that description seems a bit dated right? Like we were basically in the 1800s? And now we can be sustainable and still live in a city and not have our own garden or have a garden on our rooftop or some other new-to-me idea.  There are many other options.  I realize that.  But, nevertheless, that is how I grew up and I am very thankful for that perspective and all that knowledge that I still have somewhere tucked away in my mind.

Starting as a teenager, I spent about the next 10 years not really giving much thought to the way I lived.  I moved a lot and traveled a lot and learned a lot about how other people live and what they care about and why.  I shopped wherever food was the cheapest and did not go out of my way to recycle anything.

Our small garden, first year since the 1980s!

Melon from the garden

That brings me up to where I am now.  I care deeply about the planet and I want to make changes for the future of my children.  We have a garden and chickens; we eat mostly whole foods and cook at home.  We recycle and buy almost everything locally. 

However, I just took the Global Footprint Network calculator (https://www.footprintnetwork.org/) and we would still need 3, THREE, (!!!!!) earths to handle my reckless way of life!! This is horrible and tells me how much better I could be and should be doing.  The main reasons, according to the Global Footprint Network calculator, are that we use electric cooling that runs almost all the time.  We bought an older home last year and recently discovered that the cooling ducts have holes in them so I figure our “Energy Use” is as bad as it gets.  Also, we have 2 big vehicles.  We have a farm and a horse trailer and a big family, so we use those vehicles.  It is very normal for this area to have a truck and 4-wheel drive because of all the dirt roads, horse country and flooding in the rainy season.  I have been looking into getting an electric car so that we would have only one big truck and one smaller vehicle for running around. 

So there you have it.  This is my honest look at my relationship to the Nexus and how I plan on growing my awareness and doing better, for my children, for the planet and for us all.  I am going to wrap this up now and call the bank about an EV loan! Wish me luck.

Research Methods: Humble Data - 2

Dr. Culhane rationalizes our education’s way of thinking as having “straight jacketed” us “into linear habits of thinking and production” such “that it is hard to create a culture of true scientific thinking”. Culhane reminds us “our education system was set up during the early transition from an agrarian to industrial economy at a time when Taylorization and a mechanistic “Fordist” assembly line view of manufacture prevailed.” (Culhane, 2019).

Allen Watt’s video titled “Conversations With Myself” deeply resonates with my thinking.  Watts takes ideas and forms from nature to compile a mental database about the world (Marshal, 2012).  He has a wonderfully relaxing, open way of communicating and his videos feel like home.  

In this particular video you can view HERE, we go with him on a thoughtful adventure contrasting Industrialization with Nature.  Watts proposes that geometry, straight lines and modern architecture, are the human mind’s way of “making sense” of the “squiggly lines” of nature.  It is all an attempt to over-simplify a system that we simply cannot understand.  Personally, entropy in nature makes more sense to me than order (If you feel the same way, I would love to hear from you and you thoughts as to why this is.).  I believe we, as humans, control so much less that we think we do.  Our species suffers from a pervasive narcissism.  We waste, we kill, we abuse, and we call ourselves evolved and superior to other living creatures that do far less harm than we do.  So, nature makes sense to me.  I trust it.  I respect it and admire it like a young child respects and admires their parent.  I trust it knows more than us and is capable of working in a system of cycles and balance that yes, we are far too simple to ever understand, let alone respect.  Although this video is from the 1970s, it feels to me like the beginning of an awakening to the harm we do in the name if industry, economics and development (all over-simplified failing systems, in my point of view). Please watch the clip.  It is wonderful, honest, comforting and refreshing. 

Let’s consider this: Why is entropy considered “disorganized” and why is disorganized generally viewed as a negative characteristic? 

Could it be because our minds can’t make sense of nature like they can make sense of a grid laid over a city? 

Whether we believe in God, a Higher Power, or Nature itself, we must at least agree that we were not capable of creating this world and therefore we are not as intelligent as the entity that created us. Just because we cannot understand all the intricacies of our planet does not give us any right to try to restrain it to a box in a grossly crude attempt to understand and manipulate it. 

This idea can be likened to an oil painting trying to manipulate the world of its artist.  What an arrogant little painting that would be!

To take this artist-and-painting analogy a bit further, lets imagine the painting is a blue monotone; a deep look at textures and shapes, but just one color.  The artist watches from outside the window as the painting rearranges the studio so that all the blues are neatly in a line and all the other colors are tossed in a heap in the corner. Despite all the painting’s good intentions, he only succeeds at messing up the artist’s studio.  The painting however, feels better.  He understands blue.  He understands the tiny world he created. He has no understood need for any other colors.  He is blissfully unaware that is it precisely the presence of all the other colors that make his monotone blue so interesting.

"Creation: my interpretation of The Beginning"

All the while the artist watches his creation from outside the window.  The artist wonders what would happen if the painted dared to imagine something bigger and step outside the studio.  How would he/could he process it all?

Now, on to measurement: I see research sometimes kind of like the artist and the painting.  We collect data to help us understand our world. I fully believe that research is a wonderful thing.  I believe our curiosity about our world is so deeply ingrained in us that is reflects the artist who made us.  We are wise to be true to that instinct and explore our amazing world, pushing the limits of what we “know” to be true.  But, we must beware of becoming so egotistical that we forget where we stand in it all and ignorantly throw out all the colors.

Culhane, T. H. (2019). Module 3 relational summary. Retrieved on February 28 from

https://usflearn.instructure.com/courses/1364257/discussion_topics/5235605?module_item_id=12670099

Marshal, C. (2012). Alan watts on why our minds and technology can’t grasp reality. Open Culture.  Retrieved on February 28, 2019 from

http://www.openculture.com/2012/04/alan_watts_on_why_our_minds_and_technology_cant_grasp_reality.html

Research Methods: Data Construction and Analysis - 1

Ecuadorian Shaman and snake head 

According to Erikson, there are two important points with regard to quantitative research.

First, data needs to be found: it is not just there staring us in the face. 

Secondly, patterns need to be found: we need to actually look for them.  

He then dives into how we find data and recognize each of those data points (datum) as patterns.  I enjoy working with people, psychology and social projects, so the identification of What amounts? (Quantitative) Vs. What kinds? (Qualitative) makes sense to me and opened my eyes as to why I have always leaned towards qualitative data (Erikson, 2004).

Wolcott (1990) gives us a great analogy in Writing Up Qualitative Research.  He likens writing to a wheelbarrow, asking that we look at the writing as a whole before we tighten it up, reminding us not to fill it up!  He asks if we have everything that we need and if we need everything that we have (Stevens, D., 2009). I like this analogy for its simplicity and, as a farmer/gardener I can appreciate the importance of a tight wheelbarrow.

Both quantitative and qualitative research have their strengths.  When thinking of the importance of qualitative, a TED talk I heard recently came to mind.   The talk was about the untouched tribes in the Amazon.  Due to the fact that numbers are not known, and that sensitivity to culture is of utmost importance, I believe that interest into the lives of these people should be through qualitative research.  One man, Plotkin, went to live with them and did just that.  Through his TED talk he urges us to think about these people and preserve their land and culture and not attempt to “reach” them all, yet he talks about them as a whole through his individual experiences with them (Plotkin, 2014).  

Lush Amazon Rainforest, 2012

Part of their uniqueness is that they are isolated from the “outside world”.  Plokin says that everything living has a unique purpose that is it good at, which is why it exists and has survived in nature's process of natural selection (Plotkin, 2014).  This got me thinking about the qualitative research that has been done with these tribes in the Amazon.  Much of what we know about them is from people who have gone and interacted with them.  I do not advocate for this personally, but it is better than trying to reach them all just to have numbers to report (likely on how quickly they--along with their land--are disappearing).  Plotkin's talk focused on the medicinal uses of Amazonian plants and how they were hunted by the pharmaceutical industry as a model for modern medicine.  More recently, the industry has moved into laboratories for the chemical search and creation of future drugs.  Plotkins argues that there are more plants in the Amazon that the indigenous tribes use as medicine, but the rest of the world has never heard of yet.

T'sachila leader sharing stories, Amazon region, Ecuador

When I was living in Ecuador, I was taken to visit a shaman for the 2012 New Year's celebration and offering to the gods.  It was eye-opening and so interesting to see.  I was also able to visit an endangered Amazonian tribe called the T'sachila.  I would have never been able to go alone, but a local co-work of mine invited me and I was happy to learn about them.  It was an amazing experience.  The leader, "Papa T'sachila" (pictured right) shared many stories with us, including how he regularly hunted leopards. I felt so much respect for them and their ancient culture.  I was humbled by their wisdom and thankful for a brief glimpse into their way of life.  Because of this single experience, I will always have respect and admiration for indigenous peoples all over the world.   I do not need to meet them all to understand then need for them to remain how they always have been. 

Sources

Erikson, F. (2004). Demystifying data analysis and construction. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 486-493. Wiley.

Plotkin, M. (2014). What the people of the amazon know that you don’t. TED Global. Retrieved on February 13, 2019 from https://www.ted.com/talks/mark_plotkin_what_the_people_of_the_amazon_know_that_you_don_t/up-next?language=en

Food, Water, Energy Nexus : Chickens - 2

The first three chickens.

Are they worth it? Yes.  Here is why.

1) They eat your kitchen food scraps--even meat, seafood and eggs!
2) Their manure the best form of high nitrogen natural fertilizer on God's green earth.
3) They eat bugs: mosquitos, flies, hornworms on tomato plants and basically anything that flies or moves and will fit in their beaks.

4) My personal favorite: they eat parasite larvae!
5) They eat ticks, fleas and fire ants!
6) They are surprisingly lovable (dare I say therapeutic?) to interact with and watch.
7) They are profitable.  I know a retired couple who made $30,000 last year raising and selling chickens.
8) I almost forgot. They also lay eggs.





Here is my personal story of how an unlikely family ended up with....30 (?) or so chickens.  I was raised on a farm and we always had a few chickens.  That all ended when I was a child and I have not had them since.  Flash forward 30 years to 2017, when we moved to a small five-acre farm.  I planted some trees, got a used chicken tractor from Craigslist and purchased three small hens as a 2017 Christmas present for my daughter, age 3.

Luna with Sploradora.

They were so cute, and so useful.  As chicks, they can go in your garden and pick off tiny pests without harming food and, of course, leave behind little drops of fertilizer as they work.  Then came the eggs and more chickens.  My daughter got really into being a "chicken mama" and I, being a homeschooler from way back, decided this was Science class and encouraged her.

Baby Coop, built 2/6/19

This morning, my daughter and I built a "baby coop" for the newest set of little chicks.  My now 4 year old little girl confidently uses hammers, screw guns, drills and a host of other tools.  She told me she thinks she could build a house someday, and I'm sure she could.  We planted a purple possum passion fruit vine on the sunniest side, which will climb the wire mesh and provide shade, beautiful flowers and amazing fruit. We will angle the roof slightly to give the passion fruit the heavy water it loves when it rains. 





As I mentioned, the chickens eat even parasite larvae, which is great, because they free-range during the day with the horses and decrease the parasites in the pastures: equestrian permaculture at its finest!


So, what are you waiting for?  Get some chickens and hatch your own.  You could have a smile as big as this girl in no time!

Luna with Sweetheart, her favorite chicken.

Food, Water, Energy Nexus : Being Attentive - 1

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The point that stands out to me the most is one that Professor Culhane made during the video about how food, water, or energy issues have historically been approached with each issue being viewed as it’s own entity—separate from everything else.  The coolest part is where he points out that not only is this way of seeing our planet’s issues flawed, but is actually damaging, because a lot of times making an improvement in one area will actually degrade another area.  For example, one way to increase crop yields might be to use more fertilizer and pesticides to successfully address food shortages, but if the chemicals pollute the water then are we really making a positive difference? Over all, we are not. We are just improving Food while damaging Water. 

 

Nature's natural cycles: waves rushing the coast of El Salvador.

I think the reason that this concept of individuality and incohesiveness resonates so deeply with me is because I feel like I was very involved in it but first saw it from a different angle. You see, I started traveling a lot along time ago and wanted to do something to make a difference in all of the issues that I was seeing related to poverty and suffering in the world. I started raising money until it became too much to do legally, so I started a nonprofit with a group of friends as a legal way to funnel money directly to where it was needed. During that process I was pushed and pushed to put my nonprofit in a category: Should it be health? Education? Hunger? Immigration? Human rights? Emergency relief? In the end we settled on water and ways for more people to access clean water. 

 

I thought a lot in Haiti. And the curiosity goes both ways.

That choice turned out to be one of the biggest lessons of my life so far.  Things were going well on the surface: the donors were lining up and money was coming in, the pictures looked good in the stories were happy. But I kept asking questions. Am I on the right track? Am I doing the most good that I can with what I have? Am I even doing more good than harm? Something was missing. I read books, books with titles like “when helping hurts” and “toxic charity”. While in Haiti I learned that there were literally over 10,000 other registered NPOs working on that island alone!  How was I any different? Why so many groups and so many causes but still so many problems all over the world? I decided that people are not really working together collaboratively to bring people and the planet out of  suffering. Instead, our current approach to change, charity and philanthropy is to pick a cause and promote it like it’s the most important and worthy of attention of all the causes (competition). Once I allowed myself to leave this train of thought and think freely I changed so many things about how I was approaching issues. It was then that I began to THINK about sustainably before I knew it was a degree major or even a subject.  This is one of the reasons why I enjoy my school so much: it’s wonderful to make changes in the world without it feeling like it’s in competition with others or like you have to define your cause until it fits someone else’s definition of what the world needs. 

 

Unsustainable agriculture hurts the most vulnerable first.

We need to all put or energy into pushing forward towards solutions and innovative ideas. It should NOT be “pick a cause”. All our issues are related and they are all worthy.  The right solutions have no negative repercussions! These are big, important issues requiring skills that only come from diversity and creativity that only comes from a unified passion for sustainable change. I’m here, braced for this class...intimidated and yet excited to face the biggest issues of our time with my eyes opening ever more to the complex nature of the food, water energy nexus.