Restoring Our Earth
to
Vibrant Health
by Don Weaver ~ earthdon@yahoo.com
“Healing the damage of
industrial civilization is the task of our
generation.” —Leonardo DiCaprio
“Examine each question in terms of what is
ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is
right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
—Aldo Leopold
“Our life on Earth is a fellowship of being, and
there can be neither prosperity nor survival for those whose practices continually violate
the laws of interdependent life.”
—Henry Geiger
You may have already consciously embraced your part in healing and
restoring the Earth to a much higher state of health and vibrance but, if not, please
consider this your invitation!
This has been my main focus for 30 years while replenishing soils,
planting gardens and orchards and teaching about the health of the Biosphere.
While many socio-ecological problems have worsened over these 30 years, it
appears that an ever higher percentage of our 6.6 billion population is waking up to the
need to transform our ways of living, to truly go “green,” to make peace with
the Earth and ourselves, to end the “war on Terra.” This Terra, the
beautiful living Earth of which we are an essential part, needs each of us to become
conscious contributors to personal/planetary healing. You are needed and invited and
welcomed!
Here are some views from my perspective as a health-oriented
ecologist and organic grower.
Ecological Action
We need to swiftly, consciously
and wisely become the generous species on Earth. We’ve taken so much from the soils,
plants, trees and animals; we have a huge debt that must be paid to restore our own
vibrant health and that of the whole interdependent chain of life. Fortunately, we can do
this by remineralizing the world’s soils with natural mixtures of rock dust,
returning the increased amount of organic matter back to the soil. This will build its
fertility and depth while enabling abundant production to meet our needs for pure natural
foods, fiber, timber/bamboo, biomass energy (alcohol, bio-diesel, wood, hemp, etc.), as
well as beautiful landscapes, parks, and wildlands. (Related note: On 2/08/08, Reuters
gave the news of General Motors’ plan that half of their new cars will be fueled by
ethanol by 2012; current cars can be converted to run on a bio-fuel, electricity, or
both.)
By our choosing healthy vegetarian/vegan/raw-food lifestyles, hundreds of
millions of acres now used for animal-based agriculture and drug crops can be converted to
organic-mineralized orchards, farms and new forestland. Also, fast-growing tree
plantations on remineralized soils can simultaneously build soil fertility and convert CO2
to leaf and wood for alcohol fuel and wood energy. Leaves and residues can be returned to
the soil. This can replace the practice of burning carbon stored in the ground as oil,
coal, and natural gas, which is wrecking our interglacial climate.
This conversion can eliminate what currently comprises 20% of total CO2
emissions from animal “husbandry,” enabling us to quickly plant the many
billions of trees needed to bring CO2 down from about 385 ppm to a stable
interglacial level of about 280 ppm. Remineralizing much of the current forestland will
greatly reduce the widespread disease, insect and fire epidemics, enabling forests to
again grow healthy and strong. This will pull in billions of tons of CO2
through renewed nourishment and vibrance from soil microbes up to treetops. It will
reverse soil acidification, allow the soil life-system to hold much more moisture for
year-round availability and ameliorate the increasing “tinderbox” conditions in
many malnourished forests. Stabilizing CO2 levels and the planetary climate is
the sensible approach if we want to save what is left of our forests and nurture the
growth of new ones over much of the Earth.
Whether you lean toward the widely accepted “global warming”
theory and related evidence, or the “new glacial period” thesis and evidence as
put forth by John Hamaker and others, including myself, I think we can all agree on the
wisdom of remineralizing and regreening the Earth to reverse the current slide into “climate
chaos.” For example, in our recent winter of 2007–2008, there were record
cold and crop-destroying snowstorms all the way into southern China, Greece, the Middle
East, Florida as well as north to Alaska, Canada and Greenland, with the highest level of
Northern Hemisphere snow cover in at least 52 years.
Along with the understanding that we’ve about reached “Peak Oil,”
we need to realize our soil-devouring civilization has already passed “Peak Soil.”
Earth is in urgent need of replenishment. Can the human mind and heart awaken and shift
from egocentric to ecocentric, from the shortsighted habits of Earth-exploitative
materialism to Earth-regenerative compassion, simple eco-living and co-creation of natural
abundance and health for all?
I have appreciated the inspiration for this awakening provided by many
wise philosophers from Thoreau and Emerson to J. Krishnamurti and Eckhart Tolle, and am
glad to see Oprah Winfrey’s new initiative. She has invited Tolle to appear on her TV
show and is joining with him to teach an online class series based on his latest book, A New Earth. Over 750,000 have signed up at her
website so far. As well, Oprah’s new show, “The Big Give,” is sowing the
seeds of greater generosity in the human heart.
Health-and-Ecology Education Are Key
The signs are hopeful that in time, Oprah and all of us can realize
that “A New Earth” is possible through our heartfelt
understanding, vision and actions. The alternative—a dying Earth—is simply
unacceptable. A working knowledge of the basics of health and ecology is the key to
discernment when it comes to the teachings of our current educational system on these
subjects, as well as in detaching from brainwashing about Earth-detrimental products and
“lifestyles” touted by most media and the 36-billion-dollar advertising industry
in the U.S. Ongoing self-education throughout life seems the wise course.
John Robbins’ excellent new book, Healthy at
100, contains information on the wisdom of other cultures, including some of
the healthiest and longest-lived. As John writes:
Depending on what we choose to affirm and
cultivate within ourselves and our children, we can collectively turn this planet into a
hell or a heaven. Whether we like it or not, and whether we accept it or not, our choices
make an enormous difference. How we treat ourselves and each other always matters.
This is why I believe that the world’s
healthiest and most long-lived peoples offer us a vision of hope for our time. In Okinawa,
Abkhasia, Vilcabamba and Hunza, there is a deep sense of human connection and social
integrity. People continually help one another and believe in one another. There are
always ways for people to make amends for mistakes and be forgiven, so people are almost
never discarded or rejected. Wealth is shared rather than hoarded. As one Abkhasian
proverb puts it, ‘I am whole because you are whole.’
John next quotes Dr. Allen Banik, author of Hunza Land:
In Hunza, I seemed to be in another world, a
world of friendliness and good nature. Covetousness, envy and jealousy were nonexistent;
no police force was needed to keep order; unlocked doors were not a temptation.
People of these cultures eat a mostly raw and mostly plant-food organic
diet, as well as lead an outdoors active life close to the land for the young and
long-time young alike. John describes the Hunza model of soil replenishment in depth, here
quoting J.I. Rodale’s The Healthy Hunzas:
The magnificent health of the Hunzans is due
to…the way in which their food is raised…I am sure that the powdered rock dust
which flows onto the Hunzan land is a significant factor in the outstanding results
obtained by the Hunzans.
Since people of all of the cultures studied in Healthy at 100
have eaten whole, mineralized, organic food throughout their lives, they’ve
been virtually untouched by cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, etc. In contrast,
there are “12 million new cases of malignancy worldwide in 2007,” with almost 8
million dying from their cancer and/or their medical “treatments” (HealthDay.com, 12/17/07),
while the incidence of obesity in the U.S. has increased from 13 to 32 percent
since the 1960s (Acres USA, Sept. 2007). Both junk food
addiction and hidden hunger for nutrients lacking in soils and foods are primary causes of
obesity, along with sedentary lifestyles, of course. We have less energy to exercise, to
garden, or even to think rationally when we are malnourished, so look out for this “vicious
cycle.” Let us also avoid seeking to fill our needs for emotional and spiritual
nourishment with food. Consider how love for self and others can be the inspirational
foundation to bring about a full restoration of human and planetary health.
Organiculture Can Restore “Earth Health”
Fruition, a farm on Maui, is another model of the health-oriented
agriculture of the future, thriving on 11 acres of previously neglected pastureland.
Former San Franciscans Stephan Reeve and his mom, Dorli, have co-created an Edenic garden
and orchard a la the Hunzans with generous soil remineralization, mulching and composting.
Fruition produces a growing abundance of mineralized avocados, mangos, papayas, lychees,
jakfruit, sapotes, tangelos, rambutans and many others, probably exceeding the variety
grown in Hunza. Continued generous remineralization and compost return should soon allow
Fruition to match the quality of the Hunzan “Shangri-La.” Why don’t we all
strive for such high standards of soil fertility, food quality, health and active
longevity?
While I’m fortunate to have some mineralized fruits and veggies
year-round from my gardens here in California, my two weeks working at Fruition this past
January was extra-nourishing and rejuvenating to body and spirit. Along with eating a
variety of fresh, ripe, mineralized produce, renewing great friendships and swimming
often, my rock dusting of a new grove of rollinia trees was a highlight, as I love to help
young trees grow to healthful fruition. Not only are rollinia trees very beautiful and
fast-growing, the rollinia fruit has joined my favorite five fruits of the world, along
with sapote, durian, atemoya, apricot…and perhaps tied with nectarines, cherries,
peaches, persimmons, pineapple…
The marvelous fact is that when we grow foods in remineralized and organic
matter-enriched soils (animal manures and slaughterhouse by-products are not needed,
thankfully), the development of the flavor and of all the health-promoting compounds can,
if you are truly hungry, make each food a favorite at the time of eating! The more we
intelligently give to Nature, the more Nature gives back, often a hundredfold or more!
The fruits and vegetables grown by remineralizing farmer Bob Cannard,
chosen by Alice Waters to supply the produce for Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, and
by Rick and Kristi Knoll at Tairwa Farm in Brentwood, California, also come in for high
praise. (Many appreciative customers agree with the Knolls’ own assessment of their
farm and food as “beyond organic.”) Now with Cal-Organic, California’s
largest organic farm, adding at least 3000 tons of Summa Minerals rock dust to their
increasingly remineralized acreage, it is clear that mineralized-organic can succeed from
the smallest garden to the largest farm, and beyond. The need for global Earth
Regeneration work can eliminate unemployment and make crime as scarce as it is in the
well-nourished, engaged-with-Nature cultures. The real crime is our neglect of healthy
human development, such that over 2.2 million are now imprisoned in the U.S.
The fact that crime, war and ecological destruction are virtually unknown
in cultures such as Hunza that Robbins writes of in Healthy
at 100, tells us that these are extremely unnatural practices; their existence in our
own culture is telling us we must heal ourselves at every level of being, in every
inter-relationship and “from soil to psyche.”
Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of spending 5 billion dollars or
more per week on warfare, we would use it to fund all the crucially needed Earth
Regeneration projects? Is anything more important? A new and vibrant Earth calls us
forward. Now is the time to exercise our “response-abilities” and to express our
love and thanks for the gift of life!
I’ll conclude with a partial list of positive steps we can each
consider taking, if right for us; then a few websites promoting soil remineralization,
eco-agriculture, tree and orchard planting, healthful living and deeper understanding of
our eco-climatic crisis and opportunity. It is my hope that you will joyfully discover
your own vital role in restoring vibrance to your health and that of your larger body, the
living Earth!
Positive Steps to Consider
1.
Start a garden/orchard/farm/Earth Regeneration Center to provide food, beauty, and
inspiration to yourself and others. Buy seeds and trees from independent and organic
growers whenever possible as there is a major corporate push to take over, hybridize,
chemicalize, and genetically modify agriculture and the food supply. Save seeds and
propagate plants yourself, as well. Start a plant and tree nursery.
2.
Remineralize the soil, make compost, feed the microbes and earthworms to restore the
foundation of health and life.
3.
Buy only organically grown foods and other natural products; try eating mostly or only
plant foods and mostly or only fresh/raw/ripe foods; share the good news about soil
mineralization and organic growing practices with farmers and as many people as you can.
4.
Simplify every aspect of life to promote health for people and planet; work together with
those supporting global health; withdraw your support from those people and companies
whose practices are harmful to the ecosystem and encourage them to go constructively
green.
5.
Become knowledgeable about your own region as well as about the world in general so you
may better influence local and global politics and consciousness through writing, speaking
and leading new positive initiatives. Community gardens/orchards, tree nurseries and tree
planting projects are needed almost everywhere, as are more Community Supported
Agriculture enterprises, natural food potlucks and healthy living education centers and
events.
6.
Explore co-housing and cooperative community and eco-village options for you and loved
ones, and/or retrofit your current residence for increased solar power, food growing and
green living. Study Permaculture principles to see how they apply to your living and
growing environment.
7.
Help schools start organic, mineralized gardens and orchards—the “Edible
Schoolyards” founded by Alice Waters in Berkeley, California are an example to build
upon. Share Nature’s beauty and miracles with children to prevent further spread of
“Nature Deficit Disorder.”
8.
Add to this list according to your nature and inner inspiration, and try out the advice to
“be the most positive person you know.”
Valuable Websites
