|
To understand how nature sustains life, we need to move
from biology to
ecology, because
sustained life is a property of an
ecosystem rather than a single
organism or species.
Ecological literacy
means understanding the principles of organization of ecosystems that
sustain the
web of life.
The waste of one form of life is the sustenance of
another form of life; organic matter cycles continually through the web of
life; photons flowing form the sun
drive ecological cycles; diversity
assures resilience.
Life colonized the planet through symbosis not
conquest.
These are
different aspects of a single fundamental pattern of organization that has
enabled nature to sustain complex life for millions of years.
Nature sustains life by creating and
nurturing communities
No individual organism can exist
in isolation.
Animals
depend on the photosynthesis of plants for their energy needs; plants depend on
the carbon dioxide produced by animals, as well as on the nitrogen fixed by
bacteria at their roots; and together plants, animals, and microorganisms
regulate the entire biosphere and maintain the conditions conducive to
life.
Sustainability is not an individual property but a property of an
entire web of relationships. Sustainability always involves a
whole community.
Sustainability does not mean that things remain the
same as sustainability is a dynamic process of co-evolution rather than a
static state.
Ecologically
literacy understands ecological sustainability involves a web of fluctuating
patterns of organization of symbiotic relationships.
"As a
fragile and lovely flower
unfolds its gleaming foliage
on
the breast of the
fostering Earth,
if the dew and the rain draw it forth;
So doth
my tender mind flourish,
if it be fed with the sweet dew of the
fostering spirit,
Lacking this, it beginneth straightway to languish,
even as a flower born upon dry earth,
if the dew and the rain
tend it not."
Ezra
Pound
The truth is found in the simple and
intricate messages of smell.
I smelled the wind today.
What precisely it smelled like I can not say.
Only that there
was a hint of spicy pine and the rich scent of wet earth.
I have been
thinking about smells because I have never truly noticed them before.
I
live in a house in the country, far beyond the limits of the city and nestled
along the shores of Lake Superior.
The area around me is heavily wooded
with a winding dirt road that cuts a clearing through the
cedars, spruces and
birches.
The
dark recess of the
forest is a hub of continuous activity.
The light, playful sounds of the many
birds and squirrels, and the
heavier cracks and thumps of deer and other large animals as they go about
their day, are constant.
Numerous small streams trickle from within
these hidden areas and run laughing through culverts under the road to the
waiting lake.
In the summer, the floor of the
forest fascinates me with the soft moss
and beautiful, delicate
flowers that carpet the ground beneath the
towering trees.
In the
winter, I love the way the snow lies heavily on the boughs of the
evergreens and the quiet the deep cold brings.
On a walk early one
morning, while I was admiring
the melting snow and enjoying the warmth of the sun on my back, that it hit
me.
The wind had a smell!
Not just a smell, but every scent from
every item in the vast wilderness
around me was carried by the wind.
I had not been aware of it before, I
understood perfectly that these scents contained a message - the messages of
scent carried aloft by the wind.
My prehistoric ancestors once mastered the
secrets locked in these scents, but that ability has been lost to me: I can
understand, however, that these messages cannot be unlocked by my conscious
mind.
I know that these
scents can only be translated by the
subconscious instincts within me.
I
imagine that the language of
scent can be both simple and complex.
Each
scent is unique.
Scents
cannot lie and they cannot bluff.
Animals sniff their food and learn to
distinguish by smell what is safe to eat and what will make them sick.
There is no deceit or treachery in a smell; there is only the truth.
Perhaps this is why humans have lost the ability to understand the
language of scent.
We use our language to hide,
to confuse and, only
rarely, to tell the truth.
People have forgotten the
truth of Nature.
The truth is found in the simple and
intricate messages of smell.
Smell is the silent,
fragrant language of nature.
-
adapted from Lynley Scott
"It is not accidental that all phenomena of human
life are dominated by the search
for daily bread - the oldest link connecting all living things, man
included, with the surrounding nature." - Ivan Pavlov
"Ultimately, I believe, the
discovery reveals the genetic infrastructure of the myriad species on the
tree of life is actually far more "open access," and therefore both
resilient/changeable and fragile, than ever before imagined.
In other
words, non-coding RNAs make possible a horizontal process
of 'communicating," 'exchanging,' and incorporating vitally important
information in a relatively free manner, and in real time versus glacial
time.
And as a result, species, across all kingdoms, are integrated into
a web-like interdependence
and co-evolutionary
collaboration that was hitherto considered, from the
perspective of
molecular
biology, genetics, and
orthodox evolutionary biology,
impossible." - Sayer Ji
"We live in a cooperative
biological world which possess many features of life, most notably homeostatic
regulation of temperature, gases, salinity, and
other variables.
Each species contributes some way to the
metabolism and
homeostasis of
the planet.
Coral creates lagoons that help remove salt from
the ocean, which would otherwise double in
salinity in just 60 million years.
Photosynthesizing algae and
rainforests produce the oxygen that sustains animal life, while other
mechanisms prevent oxygen levels from going too high and sparking devastating
planet-wide forest fires.
Bacteria accelerate rock weathering to bring
carbon out of the atmosphere, while marine animals eventually turn that carbon
into shells ultimately sequestered on the ocean floor.
And something,
some combination of organic and inorganic processes, has kept earth's surface
temperature stable as the sun's apparent
brightness has increased by 30 or 40% over three billion years." -
Charles
Eisenstein
 |
|
 |
This web site is not a commercial web site and
is presented for educational purposes only.
This website defines a
new perspective with which to engage reality to which its author adheres. The
author feels that the falsification of reality outside personal experience has
forged a populace unable to discern propaganda from reality and that this has
been done purposefully by an international corporate cartel through their
agents who wish to foist a corrupt version of reality on the human race.
Religious intolerance occurs when any group refuses to tolerate religious
practices, religious beliefs or persons due to their religious ideology. This
web site marks the founding of a system of philosophy named The Truth of the
Way of the Lumière Infinie - a rational gnostic mystery religion based
on reason which requires no leap of faith, accepts no tithes, has no supreme
leader, no church buildings and in which each and every individual is
encouraged to develop a personal relation with the Creator and Sustainer
through the pursuit of the knowledge of reality in the hope of curing the
spiritual corruption that has enveloped the human spirit. The tenets of The
Truth of the Way of the Lumière Infinie are spelled out in detail on
this web site by the author. Violent acts against individuals due to their
religious beliefs in America is considered a "hate crime."
This web site
in no way condones violence. To the contrary the intent here is to reduce the
violence that is already occurring due to the international corporate cartels
desire to control the human race. The international corporate cartel already
controls the world economic system, corporate media worldwide, the global
industrial military entertainment complex and is responsible for the collapse
of morals, the elevation of self-centered behavior and the destruction of
global ecosystems. Civilization is based on coöperation. Coöperation
does not occur at the point of a gun.
American social mores and values
have declined precipitously over the last century as the corrupt international
cartel has garnered more and more power. This power rests in the ability to
deceive the populace in general through corporate media by pressing emotional
buttons which have been preprogrammed into the population through prior mass
media psychological operations. The results have been the destruction of the
family and the destruction of social structures that do not adhere to the
corrupt international elites vision of
a perfect world. Through
distraction and coercion the direction of thought of the bulk of the population
has been directed toward solutions proposed by the corrupt international elite
that further consolidates their power and which further their purposes.
All views and opinions presented on this web site are the views and
opinions of individual human men and women that, through their writings, showed
the capacity for intelligent, reasonable, rational, insightful and unpopular
thought. All factual information presented on this web site is believed to be
true and accurate and is presented as originally presented in print media which
may or may not have originally presented the facts truthfully. Opinion and
thoughts have been adapted, edited, corrected, redacted, combined, added to,
re-edited and re-corrected as nearly all opinion and thought has been
throughout time but has been done so in the spirit of the original writer with
the intent of making his or her thoughts and opinions clearer and relevant to
the reader in the present time.
Fair Use Notice
This site may contain
copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically
authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our
efforts to advance understanding of criminal justice, human rights, political,
economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe
this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for
in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.
Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those
who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for
research and educational purposes. For more information see:
www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted
material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |
 Copyright
© Lawrence Turner
All Rights Reserved
|