Is there a better way to experience nature rather work against it, or do you prefer the Hebrew creation influence to confront it and lord over it?
Seeing the earth as a construct, an artificial scape to house the finite man that resides in the body, makes mankind a foreigner in a temporary setting, viewing nature as outside of himself.
The ecologist describes every organism and its relationship to the ecosystem. That western man views himself outside of nature has infected these thoughts that now threaten the world.
Underneath the superficial self—that one that pays attention to this and that, counts the rules and feels apart from nature, viewing life as a struggling visitor on a strange planet (trying your best to get out of here in one piece) there is another self, more really us, than I, and the more you become aware of that other self, the more you realize that you are inseparably connected with all that there is. Would that make you a better, more kind and reasonable person, or a worse, more destructive person? Knowing you are not just the ego confined to your skin, but that you are connected to your external environment as a total function of the ecosystem? I would think it would make you more responsible, more kind, and more aware of the needs of others, and intuitively careful with the earth and its resources.
The alternative to Jesus as lord and us as fallen sinners, isn’t that there’s nothing—to the contrary, it’s everything. It’s how many of our ancestors lived for millennia and left very little traces on the world. This fallen world idea (nothing created lasts forever) has an inevitable death sentence to it. And seeing things more deeply connected (which we are) could certainly improve our chances of surviving on this rock.
It is the way of the Tao—to roll with it, not against it. Nurturing it like an aging mother, not in the Judeo-Christian theme as natures lord and master.
Well….yeah.
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Well said, you nailed my sentiments. Ancient belief regarded nature, seasons and the cosmos as guardians of existence. Judeo-Christian domination eradicated natural observance and wonder. Sigh.
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I think more accurately may be in viewing your surroundings as an extension of yourself and adapting accordingly. Now we see the forest in board feet and the hills as something to exploit. Like a time share at a beautiful beach—selling solitude and simultaneously wrecking it.
For the Hopi it was do-gooders—you must have these modern conveniences for your own good. Now they have cinder block houses and cable with a touch of morbid obesity. Much better
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Probably an obvious point but I kinda feel like spending your whole life waiting for something better is missing the point of existence, your post reminded me of the poem at the start of For Whom The Bell Tolls we are all connected. Enjoyed reading, cheers
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Thank you. Not only waiting, but building the kingdom gives us license to own it, barter it, sell it, and do as we see expedient. We even dismiss our right to clean breathing space to enjoy this way of life. Thanks for stopping by.
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TOTALLY IN AGREEMENT.
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Wow, rawgod, that doesn’t happen very often. I’m putting a note in my calendar. Although I agree with you more than you think. It is important though to study different points of view.
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I’ve been noticing the changes, Jim. Didn’t want to draw attenton to them until I knew where you were going. Now I see.
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I’ve been intrigued by spiritual atheism. There are no bosses in the universe, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing at all.
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And there is nothing leading us to a predictable end. Just look at the world right now. The chaos is everywhere. But out of chaos come more opportunities to evolve. And so it goes.
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It amazes me how every generation thinks this is the worst time ever, but really have no concept or for-thought about how bad it can really be. Then waiting for help that will never come.
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Help will only come when they realize religion has been stringing them along since the first witchdoctor said there were gods that had to be appeased, and he knew how. Fear of death is still the driving force behind religions of all kinds, yet we know death is unavoidable. This makes no sense.
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Excellent, Jim, although I wish that more people on this planet could take it to heart. As I always say, Earth created us, not some invisible man the sky. After billions of years of trial & error, false starts, abrupt endings, and, of course, evolutionary mutation. We should treat her like our “mother” not an opportunity to rape, pillage and burn for the personal gain of a scant few.
This show won’t go on forever. Tick tock, tick tock……
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What does it mean to exercise “dominion,” to rape and pillage the creation or to exercise “skilled mastery, ” or “responsible stewardship?” To give an example, is it wrong to intentionally breed endangered species, to save them from extinction, rather that to always allow nature to take it’s unmitigated course?
Near my town, we are intentionally cultivating a wild garden, to increase the flourishing of native plants helpful to the eco system. I can’t see how this is contrary to orthodox Christian faith. 🙂
The devil is in the details of interpretation.
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I can’t ignore the outcomes of western philosophy. The way we (Christians and nons alike under the influence) view the world has been over cooked by the Hebrew philosophy of creation and this is the outcome. It is a zealous approach to control nature. China has become the worlds greatest polluter by deciding to compete in our way of doing things. They still have rich traditions like Tao, but have federally shelved them for living their culture to mirror the west.
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I think the outcome has far more to do with human greed and short sightedness than it does with Hebrew philosophy. As far as I’m concerned someone who intentionally sets out to destroy and exploit the environment is walking in sin and needs to come to repentance. I don’t care what verse of Scripture they are attempting to twist and throw around.
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Human greed, urbanization, industrialization, increased complexity of society, growing populations, etc.
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Yes, Consoled, exactly.
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I find it terribly interesting that with all of the wisdom and promised bliss, that virtually every Christian tries to separate themselves from the outcome of a system that is grossly controlled by members of the said religion, really proving the insignificance of the faith. Growing up in a logging community I witnessed first hand what it’s like to have “skilled dominion” over the earth. It’s the same with Christian fisherman, drillers, riggers, manufacturers, financiers, miners—it literally makes no difference in “human nature” when the participation level is grossly Christian, but somehow you like to pretend it isn’t. The pulpits have the power to change everything in a week, yet nothing is done—because owning the earth and its resources is there god given right.
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But was it Hebrew philosophy that is the problem? As has been pointed out in this thread, other countries that are purportedly based in “better” philosophies sure seem eager to jump on the consumerist bandwagon.
Some argue that the Original Sin was AGRICULTURE. Farming, rather than hunting and gathering, led to where we are today. Farming also helped create social stratification, states, hierarchy, etc. The root of all evil may not be love of money but corn (or rice, or potatoes, depending on the location)
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Becky: “The devil is in the details of interpretation.”
Zoe: Exactly.
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I grew up in a very religious logging community. There was virtually no regard for the earth whatsoever. It was given to us by God to do we pleased for our profit and sustenance. Anybody that protested logging was threatening our God given right.
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The bible has many instances of where this god wants raping and pillaging to exercise “dominion” over other people. Why should anyone assume that the command for dominion doesn’t include such things required to exercise “dominion” over nature? This god is an ignorance and violent thing, just like the people who invented it.
There is no “orthodox” Christian faith. Christians all make up their own versions and unsurprisingly many of them insist that their version is the “orthodox” one.
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And it has been this way since the beginning. Paul never met “Jesus” and had absolutely no interest in the life of His lord. His only concern was his feverish imaginings. But there were other christianities at the same time based on Jewish people who knew, first or second or third hand, Jesus. Purportedly. Only violence and the power of the State ensured that Paulianity won. Because that is what the modern religion is, Paulianity.
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that is it exactly. What JC supposedly preached is vastly different from what Paul did. There is a rather interesting, if old, website that details the differences. http://www.voiceofjesus.org/paulvsjesus.html
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Sitting in my hairdresser’s chair discussing nature. Her dislike for spiders. She comments that the Bible says mankind has dominion over the creatures and she stomps on them.
During another appointment. A conversation about what we’re willing to know about the future. She admits she’s an ostrich. She doesn’t want to know. I reply, I do. I’m an eagle and I like to soar high to see it all.
Both of us are avid gardeners. She is born-again and I am not any longer.
Momma always said life was like a phlox.
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Everything mustn’t die that we may live. Spiders are interesting when you understand them. If god created spiders, he did it for Nan..😃
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Poor Nan. 😉
I shared with my hairdresser the benefits of spider webs here and there in a corner here and there. Nope. She doesn’t care.
The “dominion” thing was big in the church we once attended and served in here. Interestingly, she attends that church now.
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Oh, well said , sir.- And let the fur fly!
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I think the world has been too overstimulated with toys at this point that anything natural is just too bland to appreciate for more than a weekend outing. Remember “Jesus” said take no thought for what you shall eat or wear? Evidently the Jews were concerning themselves by overthinking the game as well.
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Coming back to the former stew I sought to fit in with.
Our current earth is going to burn up anyway and a new heaven and a new earth will be provided.
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HA! Another reason to reject “him” …
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Spiders are a Nans best friend? I remember Ark had a doosey he nursed back to health. They definitely tickle when they scurry along your side at night, in bed…
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I see two very wide brushes here. I never interpreted that scripture in that way and I still don’t. “Change the world…” ??? Good luck.
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It’s a broad brush Bill, but isn’t the influence just as broad? Is the outcome of western entitlement good for the earth, versus other ways of being that coexisted for millennia? Even the modern survivalist that practices primitive skills has this mindset, to work with nature instead of oppose it. Now we expect luxury and plastic as a way of life, and will pollute our own breathing space to subdue her.
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I understand that and certainly agree that environmental wisdom is best. But your thesis was that scripture causes the problem. While some may use it as a defense for coal fired electric plants and plastic straws, it is not, in my view, the ‘why.’ Your argument also sets up a we-they dichotomy which is why I say it’s a broad bush (two). Even many believers are environmentalists. Hooray for our side. 🙂
Also, why just “western entitlement”? Is no other part of the world’s cultures equally foolish?
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If you look at the three main philosophies of the ancient world, Indian, Chinese, and Biblical Hebrew, there is certainly a huge difference in the way we view our world our surroundings, and our relationship to it. Which philosophy has gained the most traction is pretty obvious to me, but maybe that’s just me. Now we are forced to play the game the way it’s rigged or suffer even more. But, whatever, it’s all temporary for Jesus will come and fix it all.
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Philosophy or the human condition? I’m not expert in all that. I’m sure the Chinese have a good handle on it. Actually, I’m not sure you have the second coming appointment right.
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Creation philosophy, Sorry Bill. The Hebrew (we all know that one) the Hindu, where life is a never ending play on a stage, and the Chinese, where nature simply is, and there are no bosses.
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well, since Christians make up nonsense constantly about the “second coming”, it’s entirely BS.
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Indeed. Even as a believer, I considered ‘the rapture’ complete fabricated ‘protestant’ BS. We are suppose to consider the culture and times when things were written, until some looney tune decides that we are not. WTF?
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Not to mention there is a difference between blaming Western Capitalism versus so-called “Hebrew Philosophy” for modern pollution or our disconnection from the earth or whatever.
If it was really “Hebrew Philosophy” and not normal processes of urbanization and civilization behind man’s exploitation of the earth and pollution, then it is difficult to explain why Roman mining activities during time periods prior to Christiany and similar bronze age mining and smelting in the Balkans in 3600 BCE led to pollution and exploitation of the resources of the land long before Christianity or the Ancient Hebrews.
Roman
Balkans
As some more recent studies have found plenty of Native American tribes also polluted the environment in various ways through cultural activity.
Study reveals environmental impact of American Indian farms centuries before Europeans arrived in North America
Likewise, the general Jewish attitude is one of environmental stewardship and we have a resposibility towards the earth.
What does Judaism teach about the environment?
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The point is, it may be your general feeling of stewardship, but it is not the outcome of that belief. Particularly Christianity is at odds with everything it says, we see different results of such belief. The Jewish are pretty laid back nowadays, but that wasn’t the case for a long long time. Nothing quite as barbaric as a war in the name of god.
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Ok, but the reason I brought up all those sources in the post above was to point out that it has very little or nothing to do with Judeo-Christian (I hate that term!!) belief in the first place since the main problem of exploitation of the environment and pollution existed BEFORE and simultaneously in societies initially separated from said belief.
As Bill points out certainly there are some people who use scripture to justify exploiting the earth or pollution, but there are also plenty of people who use scripture to justify conservation and environmentalism.
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We are not stewards of nature or the environment. We ARE stewards of nature and the environment as to how they are needed and used by humans. There is a huge difference between the two. What we need to be doing is allowing nature to take care of itself. WE do not know what nature needs, we ONLY think we know what humans need.
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Dear sir, are you suggesting we become prey animals once again? 😉
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Well, I forgotten my prior life being trampled in the village elephant rampage, but I bet it was interesting. I’m sure there is a more balanced way, but it may affect profits.
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I was thinking lions, but confused elephants still work 🙂
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But, but “Lord and Master” has such a nice ring to it, well, if you exclude women. Gee do you think some of these destructive attitudes were brought about because only men were allowed to actively participate (Men went to Temple and deliberated aspects of Torah, while the women stayed home and cleaned the household shrine.)
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The symbiotic relationship between the church and the state has for millennia been antithetical toward nature. The past thousand years western man has deforested most of Europe and this country to build empires and navies with which he sought to have “dominion” over other empires. Not that Christianity ever had any love for trees to begin with. Who can forget the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree because being out of season it had no figs…only leaves! Leaves that were producing oxygen for him to breathe.
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Ahh, the real bridegroom—the state and its union. Is it strange to me they don’t know who their daddy is? Why yes, Paul, I say, it is strange to me yet each thinks they control the other. But like the rest of religion, the greater the ambiguity the greater the faith and nationalism.
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Is there a better way to experience nature rather work against it, or do you prefer the Hebrew creation influence to confront it and lord over it?
Your opening two questions Jim are provocative to say the least. 😉 They also ignite a much needed, FREE-flowing discussion of close reexamination.
The first-half of your questions imply a few, perhaps several presuppositions which I personally would address immediately. The best analogy I can give to answer whether to ‘work with’ or ‘work against/fight’ Nature, Earth’s ecological and biological systems is this:
Earth, Nature is literally our kitchen table, our infirmary, our clean oxygen and water tanks! WHY… why on Earth would I want to SH*T ON my food on the kitchen table, in our infirmary, and contaminate my oxygen and pure water tanks!? Those are obvious rhetorical answers in the form of questions.
Confront Nature/Earth in a posture or strategy of dominance? Aggression? In apathy or negligence? Going along with your path of cognition Jim (which I really appreciate!), if I remember correctly from my education and life-experience from 2-3 yrs old up to now, follows from my previous answers or questions: I am COMPLETELY dependent on my mother (and to a lesser extent my father) for survival or thriving, healthy growth from at least 1-day old until 16-18 yrs old or more. Then when I am old, decrepit, and struggling to maintain a quality of life in my 70’s and beyond… I MUST HAVE others helping me to thrive/survive for my remaining years alive, hopefully close dear family. Therefore, given my very, VERY short time on this 4.5+ billion years old planet, that I have only been an influential (insignificant?) tiny part of for MAYBE 5-6 decades only… what does that reality truly paint/dictate? HAH!!!! 😄
No, one would be a premier circus fool/clown if he or she thinks (worse believes) they can Lord over this HUGE planet which actually dictates to us how WE will live or not live according to her many complex macro-systems, ecosystems, micro-systems, and atomic-systems. Period! Life on and with this planet is similar to a marriage (to a man or woman, or non-binary), you are a MUCH BETTER TEAM when both of you collaborate and compliment each other… and any offspring. Duh, right!? 🙄
Great post Jim! 👍🏼
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Eilene and rawgod had mentioned a couple of things thematic with this; do we even know enough about anything to be able to help nature along? Can we use “skilled dominion” over these things as Becky said? Can we breed endangered species to help save them? Are we so pompous in our way of thinking as this? The list of unintended consequences is getting longer by the minute.
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All great questions/concerns Jim, definitely. Can “skilled dominion” work as independent individuals or as a united team? Can we breed endangered species to save them as independent individuals or a a united team? Are we pompous… as independent individuals or as a team? Does the definition of “freedom” or democracy exclude teamwork, team-responsibility, and team-ownership or accountability to THE TEAM? 🤔
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lovely! any idea of separation is destructive because it is based in falsity, and every action that comes from a space of separation, will lead in the opposite of harmony or love. most issues we have on this planet are just a reflection of how deeply fragmented people are within, from their true, cosmic self or being (as you said)
reality is of such nature that nothing can exist by themselves- is the flight of a bird in the bird or in the sky? the Taoist understands this innate cosmic dance profoundly, and sees everything as sacred. in hurting one thing, we hurt everything
physics has proven all things are connected in the quantum vacuum (or zero field).
we can say that the enlightened mind lives always in a state of quantum entanglement, where even the idea of a separate anything cannot enter.
all is one, only appearing as many
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I am all that? I hesitate to be too authoritative when our survival skills, our ability to interact with mutual benefition is so virtually nonexistent. We’ve built walls to keep it out so long we don’t even know what to do. A child does, however, know how to play and that life is indeed a game. But we beat it out of them eventually.
The ideal life for me would be to know these things, but there is no one left to teach them.
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pure being (or awareness) is always there, but it’s covered by contaminations of mind, like fear, doubt, wrong desires, etc. so anyone can go back to that pure being, which sustains and feeds all existence. it’s not reserved for special folks, it’s available for everyone.
children are more attuned because they haven’t been converted yet to the conventions of society, which are man made, temporal, and based mostly on wrong ideas.
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my husband once compared our drilling oil out of the earth to a baby sucking milk out of the mother’s breast. it was all too easy and available.
but now, it’s time we grow up and stop suckling.
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Since 1840 we’ve used about 1.4trillion gallons of oil, about 135 billion tonnes. No worries, right
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and how much forest we’ve cut down (and continue to cut) and how much land we’ve poisoned to sustain this? short-term, limited vision that cares only for its own immediate benefit. makes me cry.
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“The ecologist describes every organism and its relationship to the ecosystem. That western man views himself outside of nature has infected these thoughts that now threaten the world.”
That is it in a nutshell (so to speak).
How can we be lords over what we do not understand? We’re almost better off completely ignorant and assuming that what we don’t eat might eat us. Better for the planet, anyway.😁
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Great point Eilene. Do we even really know enough to know who we can eat?
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I know who I LIKE to eat. 😁
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¡Yo también!
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My experience has been that the mainline churches really do care about environmental impact and address this. But, getting everyone on board and of the same mind is another matter. People can differ in what is the best way to help “save the planet.”
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humans are part of nature. What we do to nature is natural. To claim otherwise is trying to make believe humans are something “different”. Humans have been interacting with the natural world since we’ve existed. We can control our actions but to try to make believe that there is some “noble savage” nonsense doesn’t work.
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So building dams and plastic packaging is right in there with dens the foxes build for their young, a beaver dam or a wasp nest?
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yep. a beaver dam isn’t harmless. it changes the landscape. The wasp nest can pose a threat to other animals. The fox den threatens the prey in the area. It’s the tanstaafl principle.
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Not to forget that the natural world has horrific tantrums. Volcanoes, hurricanes, parasites, diseases.
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I’ve never seen plastic and pvc pollution generated from a beaver dam or a hurricane.
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Try talking to a tree. Seriously, try doing it at least a few times. Get to know your local trees.
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I was looking at a Canadian ecological study about forestry, and the researchers would induce a toxin to one tree, then take measurements on nearby trees of all different varieties. The trees were communicating, sending alerts to the nearby trees to Bree their defenses. There’s a whole network underground. They determined certain “mother trees” should be excluded from cutting to preserve the health of the forest.
I’ve heard a lot of people talk to their plants and swear by it, “I talk to the trees, but they don’t listen to me”—Clint Eastwood, Paint your Wagon
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I agree with you, Jim. The human species are one with Nature, not outside and in control. The sooner we understand and accept this reality, the better are our chances of survival as a species.
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We spend a lot of time thinking we are separate from the world when we are really apart of it just like everything else.
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