But first let’s talks about dolphins. “Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans…” reports the Times Online. Their intelligence has been well documented. What’s new about this reporting is even more confirmation about what kind of intelligence dolphins have. And, for me, the most crucial point:

The researchers argue that their work shows it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food or by accident when fishing. Some 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die in this way each year.

And:

The neuroanatomy suggests psychological continuity between humans and dolphins and has profound implications for the ethics of human-dolphin interactions…

And:

The scientific research…suggests that dolphins are ‘non-human persons’ who qualify for moral standing as individuals…

Enough said.

Species are disappearing, have been disappearing at an alarming rate for quite some time now. ScienceDaily reported in October ’08 that “Earth is in the midst of the sixth mass extinction of both plants and animals, with nearly 50 percent of all species disappearing…”

To find out the current classification of threatened species, visit IUCNRedList.org.

The dolphin news isn’t about extinction, but the ethics of the relationship humans have with Earth’s other lifeforms. Whether we recognize all species as “individuals” or not, as the ones endowed with self-reflection we are being asked to act.

That’s why the United Nations is launching the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) on Monday, January 11 with a special celebration in Berlin.

The 2010 IYB is promoting some important messages. First, humans are part of nature’s rich diversity and have the power to protect or destroy it. Second, biodiversity is essential for sustaining the living networks and systems that provide us all with health, wealth, food, fuel and the vital services our lives depend on. Third, human activity is causing the diversity of life on Earth to be lost at a greatly accelerated rate; but we can prevent this loss. And fourth, we have made some achievements to safeguard biodiversity but we need to do much more and we must act urgently.

The fact of the matter is that biodiversity is closely linked to our own survival, if we were to ignore all its other significant aspects and narrowly focus on one alone. Find out more about the International Year of Biodiversity here and here.

You may also take these quotes into your Heart contemplation:

• There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before. –Robert Wilson Lynd
• Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will you find that money cannot be eaten. –Cree Indian Prophecy

You can call in or listen online. You can even listen via iTunes. Visit this page to learn more:

Here’s the description of this particular show:

Weekly show on Natural Medicine, Hypnotherapy, NLP, Nutrition, Fitness with Dr. Michael Holt the founder of the Magi Institute of Natural Medicine and his special guests Pamir Kiciman to discuss Reiki.

Pamir Kiciman is a Soul Whisperer and Life Enrichment educator, and founder of Oasis Reiki. He specializes in Original/Classical Japanese Usui Reiki Training. He has worked in a variety of environments in 15 years of teaching, including time spent at Imperial Point Medical Center in South Florida. Pamir has also conducted Reiki Training at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Nursing. Recently, he was selected as a Featured Voice on Intent.com. Pamir has spent the last 15 years training himself and others in subtle energy, intentional healing, holistic health, meditation, spiritual psychology, nonduality, and world wisdom traditions.

Above all else, Pamir is dedicated to being a catalyst for a transformation by bringing soul and the teachings of Oneness to the forefront in individuals and in society at large. Pamir educates people through various channels, including his own Reiki Help Blog.

Reiki is most popularly known as a hands-on healing art, which it is in one of its applications. Hands-on Reiki is in fact rooted in spiritual discipline, the basis of which is meditation. Usui Sensei taught specific meditations. Similarly, Reiki is known as energy healing, which it does facilitate. What’s often missed, however, is that before energy can exist there first has to be consciousness. It is by participating in this primordial consciousness that Reiki fulfills its true purpose for practitioner and recipient alike.

And, October 15, 2009 is Blog Action Day once again: An annual nonprofit event, it aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

This year’s topic is focused on Climate Change, by unanimous voting.

The Reiki Help Blog has participated for the last two years. In 2008 the topic was poverty and I posted about the availability of clean, potable water to all populations of the world.

In 2007 the topic was the environment and as one of the earlier posts on this blog, I’m quite proud of this entry.

Climate change is not new to this blog. As stewards of our environment and spiritual practitioners, we are the only ones who can really do something about it!

I’ve always been a city-dweller and nature-lover. Not a nature-lover as someone in sandals to be made fun of, but really receiving solace and power from natural spaces. Before my ‘official’ awakening, Nature was my main source of a greater reality. Today, I continue to have deep reverence for her and speak on her behalf on this blog, and in various avenues of activism.

This isn’t about granola. It’s about humanity’s symbiotic relationship with Nature. Nature was here first. Planet Earth is Nature. There was only earth to walk on before cobblestones and later concrete and asphalt. We accept that roads and tall buildings are our normal environment; that’s all we’ve known. But what’s under our feet?

When we’re in a parking lot, our thoughts aren’t about what was there before (a meadow, a stream). Our thoughts are about, “Is she leaving so I can park closer?” When we enter a structure of glass and steel we don’t think, “I wonder if there was a stand of trees here?” We think, “I hope the line isn’t long at the bank.”

We are disconnected from our home. Not the one with a mortgage, but the one that enlivens us and is one of the greatest gifts we’ve ever had the privilege to receive.

Reverence, love and gratitude for Nature has also been part of all the enduring teachings we have had access to throughout history.

In an attempt to get closer to Japanese culture and thinking so that my understanding and passing on of Reiki is enhanced and grounded, I started reading a delightful book:

Shinto Meditations for Revering the Earth by Stuart D. B. Picken.

Shinto is Japan’s native spirituality, born of the earth. It was there before Buddhism and permeates Japanese society even today. It’s a nature-based teaching and practice that is accessible to everyone. I want to share the very clear lens on Nature that’s available through this natural tradition.

In Shinto, observation (kannagara) is the first step. Picken writes:

Look at nature, looking beyond either its beauty or the scars caused by human activity. Ponder anew the mystery of creation, growth, and sustenance, as well as nature’s capacity to to heal and renew. Wonder at the infinity of the cosmos. the myriad of stars and planets, and the unique position of the earth that permits the delicate balance for life to exist. Consciousness of the great flow of the cosmos is awareness of kannagara, the movement of the divine within us and around us. Observation with an open mind helps purify our vision.

There are specific meditations in Shinto which Picken presents as “litanies” that he has written specifically for his book. There’s such truth and inspiration in these passages, and unfortunately I can only quote a few, and excerpts at that.

“In Shinto rituals, earth is the most basic of the elements. Earth is celebrated in all its fairness and beauty and in its power to feed and support life through growth and development.”

Think of how earth was conceived of as a mother and revered for her fertility, her abundant gifts, and her ability to nurture and support life

Shinto took its clues from everything around, which before industrialization was all natural. If it was there in such beauty, power and self-existent, it had to be sacred. Therefore, Shinto is non-conceptual. It’s the spirituality of place. And one of the major elements of Japanese ‘places’ is all the great waterfalls of these islands. Waterfalls are used as misogi, purification.

“Let us think of the waterfall as a concentration of beauty, power, and energy united in endlessly renewing flow”

The Litany of the River includes many truths:

“Identity amid impermanence is what gives a rivers its name

“In the depth and width, the river reminds us of the difficult expanses of life that must be traversed”

Trees are greatly honored. A shimenawa (thick twisted rope) is tied around trunk to show its sacredness.

Trees teach us about growth

They also stand for shelter

They are, like water, living organisms

Ponder the meaning of growth and development

Think of how we know nature through our senses, our eyes, our taste, our sense of smell and touch, our awareness and deep intuitions

Stones, wind and lightening, and fire also have litanies in Shinto Meditations for Revering the Earth, the reading of which alone brings one closer to the natural environment that is still our home, despite pervasive and intrusive technology.

The final litany in the book is dedicated to mountains. From a Reiki perspective it’s revealing to learn that Tendai monks had a discipline called Sen-nichi-kai-ho-gyo: Running 1000 days around the peaks of Mt. Hiei “to extend and enrich the human capacities.”

Think of the idea of ascent for purification and enlightenment to a sacred place for communion with the divine

. . . Think of how it remains unchanged yet changes its mantle with the seasons

Think of it as the home of life, the source of the river, and the shelter from the winds

The way these litanies move you to a new appreciation of our lost connection with Nature is remarkable. The book’s core message is found in these two sections which are repeated in all the litanies:

Our senses have been dulled and dimmed, and we see earth not as the environment of our life, but as a tool to be used

Our senses are blind to its mystery and meaning

Our senses need purification that will enable us to see nature as our teacher and guide

And:

In opening ourselves to nature, in seeking its purification, and in hearing what it has to teach us, may we find enlightenment as we share in the fusion of ourselves with the universe that brings us back to the divine that is within the human

The final question for all of us, as Picken puts it so clearly is: “The worlds of the sociosphere and the biosphere seem very far apart. Can they meet?”

They must meet.

Then from the list on the left, choose your commitment and get involved! I’ve written about the importance of potable water and sanitation before. This is another way to realize this dream:

The ONE DROP Foundation believes that water access is an fundamental right.

The interdependence of nature and humans means water issues are everyone’s issue. Without water, there is no life on Earth. Water sustains our daily lives, however its distribution and accessibility is not equal around the world. It is therefore our responsibility as human beings to ensure that water is made accessible to everyone, in sufficient quantity and quality, today and tomorrow.

Find out more about the Foundation, but first watch the video and follow the action steps. It’s really well done and quite inspiring.

October 15, 2008 is Blog Action Day, an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

I am once again happy to include the Reiki Help Blog in this effort. This year the theme is Poverty. Last year it was The Environment and you can revisit my contribution.

The organizers have suggested that a blogger may publish on the subject, donate, or promote Blog Action Day. I’ve chosen to do all three. Poverty is a complex global challenge. It would require serious study to fully grasp all its implications and intricacies (resources below).

Since action is often most effective when it’s practical, I’m going to focus on one area:

The availability of clean, potable water to all the populations of the world.

Currently over one billion people lack access to simple, life-sustaining clean water. That works out to be 1 in 6 of us. This also ties in with the lack of basic sanitation, which 2.6 people lack globally.

What does lack of clean water and basic sanitation have to do with poverty? Drilling a well can cost from $4,000 – $ 12,000. 

Unfortunately:

• Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day.
• More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.
• Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.
• 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometer, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 liters per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 liters of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters day.)
• Some 1.8 million children die each year as a result of diarrhea.
• The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.
• Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
• Millions of women spend several hours a day collecting water.
• To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit. The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labor diversions… are greatest in some of the poorest countries. (GlobalIssues.org–Causes of Poverty.)

Unsafe water and poor sanitation play a major role in the transmission of diseases including Diarrhea, Cholera, Malaria, and Typhoid. The lack of access to clean water and sanitation translates into lost educational opportunities, particularly for women and girls. Time spent collecting water – often many hours each day – means girls do not have time to attend school.  Studies show that girls are 12% more likely to attend school if water is available within 15 minutes from home versus a one hour’s walk. Young girls are also less likely to attend classes if the school does not have adequate and separate toilets for girls.  In addition, water-related illnesses increase absenteeism for all children and result in a loss of over 443 million school days globally each year. (One.org.)

Recently I came across charity: water, a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. charity: water says that “only! (my italics) $20 can give a person in Africa clean, safe drinking water for 20 years.” I donated then and I’m donating again today.

Please join me!

Our planet is 70% water. 97.5% of that is saltwater. This means only 2.5% is available for the 6 billion people on the planet today. We get our water from the 30% of freshwater that exists in underground lakes and aquifers – mainly by digging wells.  Many communities in developing nations often have a plentiful supply of clean water just below the ground, but no way to get to it. Here’s where we, and our partner organizations come in. The local community is engaged in the well building process, carrying out small tasks for free to reduce labor costs. This also encourages community participation and ensures community ownership after the project is complete. When the well is built, a water committee is formed. It generally consists of 6-8 people, half of them female. In the case of hospitals, the committee will generally consist of nurses and hospital staff. In schools, the committee would likely be comprised of teachers. (charity: water.)

While we’re on the subject of poverty, let me introduce two other organizations.

A) End Poverty 2015: This is the historic promise 189 world leaders made at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 when they signed onto the Millennium Declaration and agreed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are an eight-point road map with measurable targets and clear deadlines for improving the lives of the world’s poorest people. World leaders have agreed to achieve the MDGs by 2015. The eight goals are:

1. End Hunger
2. Universal Education
3. Gender Equity
4. Child Health
5. Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS
7. Environmental Sustainability
8. Global Partnership

B) ONE: A campaign of over 2.4 million people and growing from all 50 states and over 100 of America’s most well-known and respected non-profit, advocacy and humanitarian organizations. ONE seeks to raise public awareness about the issues of global poverty, hunger and disease and to ask our leaders to do more to fight these problems in developing countries.

You can sign the ONE Declaration.

You can also petition Senators Obama and McCain to keep their commitments to fight global poverty.

Thank you for your time, effort, donations, volunteerism, and heart.

It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.
-Albert Einstein

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
-Maya Angelou

I do not know what your destiny will be, but the one thing I know: the only ones among you who will really be happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
-Albert Schweitzer

Update 12/18/08: There’s a new effort today to donate to charity: water by Laura Fitton of Pistachio Consulting.

If you look at the archives of this blog, you’ll notice that there is a strong environmental and social responsibility component. We are not islands, and even if we were we are interdependent and interconnected in an ecology of life and being. I feel uneqivocally that while we are here on this beautiful blue planet, our spirituality is inextricably linked with all the elements of life and society as we know it today. This is sometimes known as engaged spirituality. And our engagement is being desparately demanded now. Our attention, our voice, our vote. For if we’re not engaged, the forces that shape life and society dictate and often without truth or even a modicum of superior solution-thinking.

There are many reasons not to drill offshore, which are listed below. Let’s stay topical for a minute and look at the impact of hurricanes.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused “six major, five medium, and over 5,000 minor oil and hazmat” spills, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. An estimated nine million gallons of oil were spilled, and that estimate does not even include the 5,000 minor spills. See this slideshow of the spills. Hurricane Gustav, on the other hand, plowed through more than 4,000 offshore drilling platforms and 33,000 miles of pipeline in the Gulf.

Oil is a human-wide addiction. It isn’t any different from any other addiction, except that its damage and devastation is global. When an individual is addicted, he or she causes damage and suffering to themselves, loved ones and sometimes to a wider sphere. It’s still tragic, but contained somewhat. Oil addiction is massive.

Without the type of energy oil provides, life stops. Energy is mission-critical to life. But feeding the addiction is not the solution. We’re dealing with a fossil fuel, i.e., it’s going to eventually dry up, it’s nonrenewable. Here are 10 reasons Greenpeace says offshore drilling is dumb:

10. Offshore oil drilling won’t impact gas prices today, and it won’t have a significant impact on gas prices in the future.

9. This is nothing more than a money grab by the oil companies – who are already making record-breaking profits.

8. We burn 25% of the world’s oil here in the U.S., but we have only 3% of the world’s oil reserves. So even if all offshore oil magically came to market today, the vast majority of our oil would continue to be imported, and we wouldn’t see price relief at the pump.

7. The current moratorium was put in place decades ago to protect us from the danger of oil spills along our coastlines and beaches.

6.  Burning fossil fuels like oil causes global warming, which causes stronger hurricanes, which will threaten the very offshore drilling rigs being proposed, which will contribute to even more global warming.

5. To avoid the worst impacts of global warming, we need to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy within the next 10 years. The billions of dollars that would be spent on offshore oil drilling just postpones the inevitable transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

4. Oil exploration requires massive seismic testing – which threatens whales and dolphins.

3. Oil prices are set on the global oil market, so American oil is no cheaper than Saudi oil. We won’t get a discount for oil drilled in the U.S.

2. We can’t solve the world’s energy problems with the same drilling that created them.

1. Renewable energy is available now, so it’s time to walk away from fossil fuels and toward a clean energy future.

Furthermore:

• The United States burns 24 percent of the world’s oil, yet we only have 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves. CITATION: Energy Information Administration, “U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas and Natural Gas Liquid Resources, 1999 Annual Report,” DOE/EIA-0216 (99) (December 2000).
• There is no correlation between increased drilling and lower gas prices. The number of drilling permits increased by 361 percent from 1999 to 2007. And yet gas prices more than doubled in that time. CITATION: A new investigative report from the House Committee on Natural Resources studied the current system of drilling permits on federal lands and in federal waters.
• Drilling for more oil in the U.S. won’t result in lower gas prices because oil prices are set on the global oil market. This means that all oil produced around the world is sold all at the same price. As U.S. citizens we wouldn’t get a discount just because we drilled for it on U.S. soil. CITATION: This site explains why crude oil prices are similar all around the world. Prices vary only to reflect the cost of transporting crude oil to that market and the quality differences between the various types of oil.
• By requiring all automobiles in the U.S. to achieve 35 mpg by 2020 we will save 1 million barrels of oil per day. CITATION: New York Times article, citing The Union of Concerned Scientists in their reporting.

An excellent resource on Clean Energy 101 has been put together by the Union of Concerned Scientists. It’s introduction states:

No single solution can meet our society’s future energy needs. The answer lies instead in a family of diverse energy technologies that share a common thread: they do not deplete our natural resources or destroy our environment.

Renewable energy technologies tap into natural cycles and systems, turning the ever-present energy around us into usable forms. The movement of wind and water, the heat and light of the sun, heat in the ground, the carbohydrates in plants-all are natural energy sources that can supply our needs in a sustainable way. Because they are homegrown, renewables can also increase our energy security and create local jobs.

There’s a lot to take in regarding this matter. Fortunately much of the work has been done for us. All we have to do is absorb some of the information, and then make choices on how we spend our dollar, our voice and our vote. We can no longer abdicate the responsibility of being informed. Political commercials, sound bytes, the ticker tape at the bottom of your TV screen are simply not enough to guide our choices in the face of today’s complexities.

The facts are readily available. It’s a matter of increasing our brain’s processing power by getting involved. This means an end to being spoon-fed regurgitated swill, told what to think, and getting by with low-information slogans. Just as you seek the best information when it comes to your health, diet, kids, and your spirituality, so must it be the same in every matter, for every minute counts and as global citizens our roles and function are so much more significant than even a generation ago.

These clean energy technologies can cure our addiction to oil, stop the devastating effects of global warming, and bolster our economy—but only if America puts a cap on carbon pollution to unleash this future.

Solar:

Biofuels:

Wave:

Geothermal:

• Safety, recovery & healing for all affected by the Myanmar cyclone, China earthquake, USA tornadoes.
• Committing to a serious personal responsibility on environmental concerns & climate change & holding those in power accountable with our voices, demanding action.
• World food prices to normalize & shortages to correct.
• Oil prices to normalize & correct.

Here’s how we’re all a part of the challenge and the solution.

The sudden cataclysms that occur in nature, creating havoc and mass injury, are not ‘acts of God.’ Such disasters result from the thoughts and actions of man. Wherever the world’s vibratory balance of good and evil is disturbed by an accumulation of harmful vibrations, the result of man’s wrong thinking and wrong doing, you will see devastation….

Wars are brought about not by fateful divine action but by widespread material selfishness….When materiality predominates in man’s consciousness, there is an emission of subtle negative rays; their cumulative power disturbs the electrical balance of nature, and that is when earthquakes, floods, and other disasters happen.

–Paramahansa Yogananda

My good friend Bonnee over at Greening of Me blog has some beautiful ideas to share regarding all of this and I hope this will prompt her to share about working with the Elementals too:

The more practitioners that join together doing Reiki for change (for the greatest good of all sentient beings) the more intense the results.

Winds and fires are angels at work, waters purify and cleanse. Angels of destruction help us understand our errant thoughts, words, deeds.

This is ultimately the result of wrong focus. Self absorbtion. Too much focus on money, greed/lack causing imbalance. Nothing seen as sacred.

All is Love and we are in Grace. So ultimately all we need do is be that…Love. Love earth, each other, ourselves and all unconditionally.

We call on our nation’s leaders to swiftly establish and implement policies to bring about deep reductions in heat-trapping emissions. The strength of the science on climate change compels us to warn the nation about the growing risk of irreversible consequences as global average temperatures continue to increase over pre-industrial levels (i.e., prior to 1860). As temperatures rise further, the scope and severity of global warming impacts will continue to accelerate.

The 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change unequivocally concluded that our climate is warming, stating with at least 90 percent certainty that the warming of the last several decades is primarily due to human activities. Global average temperatures have already risen ~ 0.7°C (1.3°F) over the last 100 years, and impacts are now being observed worldwide. Human-caused emissions to date have locked in further changes including sea-level rise that will intensify coastal flooding, and dramatic reductions in snowpack that will disrupt water supplies in the western United States. If emissions continue unabated, our nation and the world will face more sea level rise, heat waves, droughts, wildfires, snowmelt, flood risk, and public health threats, as well as increased rates of plant and animal species extinctions.

The longer we wait, the harder and more costly it will be to limit climate change and to adapt to those impacts that will not be avoided. Many emissions reduction strategies can be adopted today that would save consumers and industry money while providing benefits for air quality, energy security, public health, balance of trade, and employment.

All nations must commit to a goal designed to limit further harm. The European Union and a number of other countries have adopted a goal for limiting global warming to no more than 2ºC (3.6°F) above preindustrial levels. Emerging science must be regularly evaluated to assess whether this goal is sufficient.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change recognizes that all nations have a responsibility to curb global warming, consistent with their respective contribution to emissions and capacity to act. Recent analyses indicate the United States—even with aggressive action by other nations—would need to reduce its emissions on the order of 80 percent below 2000 levels by 2050 to have a reasonable chance of limiting warming to 2ºC.

A strong U.S. commitment to reduce emissions is essential to drive international climate progress. Voluntary initiatives to date have proven insufficient. We urge U.S. policy makers to put our nation onto a path today to reduce emissions on the order of 80 percent below 2000 levels by 2050. The first step on this path should be reductions on the order of 15-20 percent below 2000 levels by 2020, which is achievable and consistent with sound economic policy.

There is no time to waste. The most risky thing we can do is nothing.

Learn more…

Today I purchased gas at $3.79 & 9/10ths (what’s that all about?!) using a website that helps you locate the best prices in your area.

More to the point, I’ve increased my gas mileage from 23 mpg to 24.2 mpg using Reiki. OK now I’ll be harassed by big oil & Detroit (NOT! Only a joke, that’s not my reality.)

Here’s how:

• When pumping keep your Reiki hand on the pump & intend better gas economy.
• Use Jakikiri Joka-ho (method for cleansing objects) on your car, intending that it burns fuel efficiently, that all car parts related to fuel are clean, work well & efficiently.
• When driving direct Reiki ahead of you so traffic flows, you get all green lights and there’s no stop & start.

It also helps to practice these commonsense steps:

• Consolidate your trips.
• Make sure your tires are inflated to the right pressure.
• Don’t carry excess & unneeded weight in your car.
• Drive below the speed limit.
• Accelerate slowly & evenly.
• Accelerate going downhill.
• Don’t weave in & out.

Bob Randall, a Yankunytjatjara elder and traditional owner of Uluru (Ayer’s Rock), explains how the connectedness of every living thing to every other living thing is not just an idea but a way of living. This way includes all beings as part of a vast family and calls us to be responsible for this family and care for the land with unconditional love and responsibility.

Please help us protect wild freshwater turtles in the southern United States from collection by commercial wildlife dealers. The Center has organized a coalition of conservation and health groups seeking to end the commercial harvest of freshwater turtles in four southern states and to stop the sale of contaminated turtles to domestic and international food markets.

Last month we petitioned Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Texas to ban all commercial turtle harvesting in public and private waters, to prevent further population declines of native southern turtle populations, and to protect public health. Turtles collected in these states and sold as food are often contaminated with mercury, PCBs, and pesticides.

Turtle dealers are harvesting massive and unsustainable numbers of wild freshwater turtles from the few southern states that continue to allow unlimited and unregulated take of turtles. Herpetologists report drastic reductions in turtle numbers and even the disappearance of many species in Georgia and Florida, particularly southern map turtles. The Center has identified nine turtle species vulnerable to collection in these states that may warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Recent surveys by Oklahoma State University show depletions and extinction of freshwater turtles in many Oklahoma streams. Commercial turtle buyers in Oklahoma reported purchasing almost 750,000 wild-caught turtles from 1994 to 1999. From Dallas Fort Worth Airport alone, over a quarter million wild-caught adult turtles captured from 2002 to 2005 in Texas were exported to Asia for human consumption.

Please tell the states of Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Texas to give wild turtles a break. Your message will be sent to the wildlife departments and health departments in each of the four states.

Visit here to take action.

Largest Recall of Ground Beef Is Ordered

New York Times
By ANDREW MARTIN
Published: February 18, 2008

A California meat company on Sunday issued the largest beef recall in history, 143 million pounds, some of which was used in school lunch programs, Department of Agriculture officials announced.

The recall by the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company, based in Chino, Calif., comes after a widening animal-abuse scandal that started after the Humane Society of the United States distributed an undercover video on Jan. 30 that showed workers kicking sick cows and using forklifts to force them to walk.

The video raised questions about the safety of the meat, because cows that cannot walk, called downer cows, pose an added risk of diseases including mad cow disease. The federal government has banned downer cows from the food supply….(read the rest).

Everything Around Us

Environment. What does it mean? The word itself is derived from Middle English ‘envirounen,’ from Old French ‘environner,’ from ‘environ,’ around, with further connotations of ‘see’ and ‘circle’ (Dictionary.com). Everything we see around us. Furniture (often made from trees), appliances, sky, fields, cars, ocean, mountains, buildings. Environment can be indoors or outdoors. As Gary Synder says, however: “Cities and agricultural lands…are not ‘wild.’ Wild is a valuable word. It is a term for the free and independent process of nature. A wilderness is a place where wild process dominates and human impact is minimal. Wilderness need not be a place that was never touched by humans, but simply a place where wild process has ruled for some decades.”

Why is it so important? Because we live in it. We breathe it, touch and eat it, smell and admire it. We also hugely impact it in every way, in all its aspects. And it gets even more complex: “The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man’s heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too. So he kept his youth close to its softening influence.” (Standing Bear). We hurt the environment. This ends up hurting us. Does it also foster a wider disrespect? We live here, it’s unavoidable that we have an impact. That’s why it’s called a footprint. Can we make ours smaller and keep it out of each others’ face too?

The environmental concern is multi-faceted and every facet demands attention. To build on the momentum of a major environmental validation, let’s zero in on climate change. On October 12, 2007 Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Wangari Waathai, a former awardee said this: “When it was first announced that I would be receiving the Peace Prize in 2004, many people asked what does the environment have to do with peace? By choosing Al Gore and the IPCC for the award in 2007, the Nobel Committee have rightly brought to our attention that climate change is the single biggest threat to world peace we have ever faced.”

There’s that wider disrespect once more. Standing Bear again: “For him (Lakota), to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly; he can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him….” Something is definitely going on here. Could it be that we’re in symbiosis, human to human, human to Earth, Earth to human?

We actually need greenhouse gases. A natural blanket of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere keeps the planet warm enough for life as we know it at a comfortable 15°C today. Human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases have made the blanket thicker, trapping heat and leading to a global warming. Fossil fuels are the single biggest source of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions.

The IPCC is the top authority on global warming, comprising more than 2,000 leading climate change scientists and experts. It agrees that human activity causes global warming. Here’s some data:

• If no action is taken on greenhouse gases, the Earth’s temperature could rise by 4.50°C (8.1°F) or more.
• The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average.
• Changing weather patterns threaten to exacerbate desertification, drought and food insecurity.
• Floods, sea level rise and extreme weather events.
• Climate change will hit the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest, but it will affect everyone.

Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth website has this science (see sources there)

• The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
• Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.
• The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.
• At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles.

If the warming continues, we can expect catastrophic consequences.

• Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years — to 300,000 people a year.
• Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide.
• Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense.
• Droughts and wildfires will occur more often.
• The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.
• More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.

Many greenhouse gas-emitting activities are now essential to the global economy and form a fundamental part of modern life. There too many underlying factors behind these findings, a confounding web of driving forces to list here. The one area where we have immediate influence is our own lifestyle, knowledge, willingness and worldview. “It is an extraordinary privilege to be accorded a human life, with self-reflexive consciousness that brings awareness of our own actions and the ability to make choices. It lets us choose to take part in the healing of our world.” (Joanna Macy.) Self-reflexive consciousness doesn’t leave us any wiggle room. Since we are a species that possesses such a consciousness, one that can think for and about itself, reflect, assess and learn, we have to use it and use it keenly.

Our actions and what we invest in must be informed by the highest functions of this self-reflexive thinking. We actually have to use our noggin! Having this capacity puts the burden of responsibility on humans. It’s probably unrealistic to think that everyone in the ‘burbs is going to commute via carpool, public transit, bicycle or walking. Those choices are realistic for many people, and we do have the choice about what we drive and how we drive it. Do you drive an urban assault vehicle or what used to be known as a car? Do you drive at the speed limit, or weave in and out of traffic, speed, and end up at a red light with all the vehicles you just overtook, heart beating, shoulders tense, a scowl on your face, right foot ready to do it all over again?

Proper tire inflation can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. We’re not going to ask our kids to do homework by candlelight. But, we can replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL). CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This simple switch saves about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. There are lists of painless, practical actions we can take in the resources listed below. The point here is that it starts with one household using its noggin. Let’s not be naive either to think that individual action will be enough to stem current trends of more, bigger, faster, but we can start at home, in our own environment.

The Earth didn’t ask us for compensation as it went through it’s cosmic birthing pains, cooled and life began growing in its perfect environment. It doesn’t ask us today for anything when it generously produces wheat and apples, lets us build on its surface and displays the most incredible colors for our enjoyment. The Earth is still free. Humanity has a cost.

To offset this cost, we are being asked to first admit responsibility, then think responsibly, and finally go out and act in ways that reflect our understanding of the integrity that must be honored between Earth and human. Joanna Macy again: “…graced with self-reflexive consciousness, we are endowed with the capacity for choice–to take stock of what we are doing and change directions…Weaving our ever more complex neural circuits into the miracle of self-awareness, life yearned through us for the ability to know and act and speak on behalf of the larger whole. Now the time has come when by our own choice we can consciously enter the dance.”

The larger whole. Wider respect. Climate change to the degree implicit in irrefutable data now available, or even to a lesser degree simply means that society as we know it may breakdown. The already tapped irreplaceable resources of the Earth will probably be further monopolized by the few for the few, aggressively protected and distributed militarily, to which resistance will arise. Since this has happened throughout human history, even at times when resources were plentiful, it’s not a big jump that it can happen in a global crisis. This is not a doomsayer’s pessimism. Instead, it’s one way to connect the dots between global warming and global peace. Ultimately it doesn’t matter to what temperature we allow global warming to rise. We are already consuming nonrenewable resources at an alarming rate, climate patterns are affecting sustainability and species are disappearing. We need to cool it now, not wait and debate the possible end of civilization.

Traditionally peace is cultivated from the healing of hearts and minds, through forgiveness, understanding, compassion, education and active dialog. The playing field has changed. It’s no longer only the home, neighborhood, a border or region. Of the many things humans share, the planet is our most common ground literally. In bettering it, we better each other. In caring for it we care for each other. In mobilizing on its behalf we mobilize on each others’ behalf. In acting to reduce the causes of climate change we tend our own backyard, and those of total strangers in far off lands. Strangers or kin? Will my backyard stay green if yours is parched? What do we owe the Earth and ourselves, more importantly our children?

This writing ends here, but Standing Bear gives us a worthy model with which to begin: “Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky, and water was a real and active principle…This concept of life and its relations was humanizing and gave the Lakota an abiding love. It filled his being with the joy and mystery of living; it gave him reverence for all life; it made a place for all things in the scheme of existence with equal importance to all…Everything was possessed of personality, only differing with us in form…We learned to do what only the student of nature ever learns, and that was to feel beauty…and the fact was appreciated that life was more then mere human manifestation; that it was expressed in a multitude of forms.”

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Resources:
The Alliance for Climate Protection
Sierra Club: Global Warming & Energy
World Wildlife Fund: Climate Change
UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

© Pamir Kiciman 2007

This writing is prompted by Jenny and Erin specifically in The Bravest Thing I’ve Ever Done and earlier when Understanding Courage was explored. Thanks for tagging, challenging and asking me. Taking responsibility is plenty courageous. There’s a point of total breakdown, of annihilation. It’s a death for certain.

Then courage in the from of an honestly raw accounting of the mess you’re in. This is what I call the ‘blood and guts of healing.’ It need not stop there. In my case and the possibility exists for everyone, taking responsibility for myself lead to something much scarier: embracing my true nature. It launched me into a quest, which wouldn’t have been possible without the ‘first’ courage.

One of the biggest things we run from is our true nature. Afterall drama is so much easier. You know it inside out, can give a command performance in your sleep, and really validate how miserable your life is like 2+2=4, no room for error. This is the persona I’ve donned, these are my poisons and you better get the hell outta my way! I’m running from my Self and even Olympic athletes don’t have the steroids I do.

I did that into my early-mid-thirties. Amongst many other things. It was hedonist, escapist, lustful, fun, utterly dysfunctional, I loved and wept and guffawed, opined, judged, raged, gave and stole, alienated and hurt people and myself, danced my tush off…and…

One dawn after Hurricane Andrew had torn through Southern Florida, I woke up. The proverbial light bulb. And that was still way back in the dark days, when the courage I knew I’d have to muster terrified me.

You have to be brave to have courage. Ironic isn’t it?

Folks, I’ve news for you. There’s so much unseen Grace. Divine intervention is waiting like a flickering candle about to drown in its own wax at the edges of our willingness. Initially it only takes your cupping the flame to steady it against the draft, to tease the wick out of the wax. That’s all. That moment of caring attention where you’re quiet and still enough that your true nature can enter, after its years of knocking and show you your colors.

Then the journey begins of healing the wounds of the human, and even more fear-wrought, that foundation propelling you into Self.

Self can be described in many ways and it’s not so important to do that here. What’s important is that upping the ante is courage on an entirely different level. This is the courage to own that while you were broken, your spirit never was; while you believed you were flesh and bones, your soul smiled and winked; while you felt worthless, gold poured into your heart; while you felt unloved, you were cradled in patient compassion; while your mind was weak, your consciousness was fortified; while you were in darkness, the Light buoyed you; while you were lost, wisdom protected you.

I know this. As a child, even though my personality never took it seriously, even though it was by rote and I thought I didn’t know how to pray, my soul took over and prayed and prayed and prayed everytime my house was filled with voices bellowed, things smashed, doors slammed, love crushed and laughter squelched. When later I consciously prayed my soul just beamed warmly.

In the physical world, you can’t ignore a wall. In the spiritual life, you can’t ignore Eternity. Eternity in this sense is the absence of time, not an endless span of time. Eternity is as real as the street you live on. Your street exists in Eternity. So there are two choices. Numb and run, and my god are there countless ways to do that! Consumerism is geared for that alone.

Or, allow the bravery of your true nature to infuse you and take the lead. This is going to require spiritual backbone, vigilance, recommitments, endurance, sourcing courage again and again, along with a host of other resources. But it then becomes a meritorious life. And simply happy and healthy.

That’s the one I chose, choose and re-choose.

I’ll end with a haiku of mine from way before my dawn, a kind of precursor:

hide and seeking
our souls
games people will play

© Pamir Kiciman 2007

Read the original meme “What Gives You Courage?” by Lorraine Cohen