living on Planet Earth – some observatipns
In the last century or so, a radical and alarming divide has emerged between people and the Earth. For the first time in human history, we have separated ourselves from nature and confined ourselves within impersonal concrete cities.
We have forgotten that we come from the Earth, wherein we have evolved, seeing Her as little more than a mere 'resource', a storehouse of minerals, oils and other raw materials that we need to use in the furtherance of our physical and material needs.
The race that is today's development model is being encouraged only by profit motives. We see things in fragments, through the eyes of our present paradigm. We have completely forgotten the notion of inter-connectedness of a system, things, forms etc and are driven only by market trends.
What is needed is a change in our 'cosmic vision', to see the Earth as our mother, like indigenous peoples all over the world have done from the beginning of time. There is no question that we have deviated from our nature by exclusively worshipping the technological creations that so passionately preoccupy us.
In 1854, Native American Chief Seattle said: "The Earth is our Mother. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. If Men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know: the Earth does not belong to Man: Man belongs to the Earth."
Tribal people believed in co-operation rather then competition. Their sense of 'rights' was community oriented and not individual. They believed that a consensual approach to problem solving was better than a confrontational one. They did not plunder the Earth and save for the months ahead. They lived each day as it came, collected food only for that day. If they took a tuber out of the ground they let a portion remain to regenerate. For them the Earth was Mother. There was no question of speculating on their Mother, of buying or selling her.
According to HRH Prince Charlesof Wales, religion and science have become separated, and science has attempted to separate the natural world from God, with the result that it has fragmented the Cosmos and placed the sacred into a separate, and secondary compartment of our understanding, divorced from the practical day-to-day world of Man.
Our environment has suffered beyond our worst nightmares in part because of a one sided approach to economic development which, until recently, failed to take account of the inter-relatedness of creation, and the importance of finding a sustainable balance working within the grain of nature and understanding the necessity of limits.
read more about Permaculture Design:
In the last century or so, a radical and alarming divide has emerged between people and the Earth. For the first time in human history, we have separated ourselves from nature and confined ourselves within impersonal concrete cities.
We have forgotten that we come from the Earth, wherein we have evolved, seeing Her as little more than a mere 'resource', a storehouse of minerals, oils and other raw materials that we need to use in the furtherance of our physical and material needs.
The race that is today's development model is being encouraged only by profit motives. We see things in fragments, through the eyes of our present paradigm. We have completely forgotten the notion of inter-connectedness of a system, things, forms etc and are driven only by market trends.
What is needed is a change in our 'cosmic vision', to see the Earth as our mother, like indigenous peoples all over the world have done from the beginning of time. There is no question that we have deviated from our nature by exclusively worshipping the technological creations that so passionately preoccupy us.
In 1854, Native American Chief Seattle said: "The Earth is our Mother. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. If Men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know: the Earth does not belong to Man: Man belongs to the Earth."
Tribal people believed in co-operation rather then competition. Their sense of 'rights' was community oriented and not individual. They believed that a consensual approach to problem solving was better than a confrontational one. They did not plunder the Earth and save for the months ahead. They lived each day as it came, collected food only for that day. If they took a tuber out of the ground they let a portion remain to regenerate. For them the Earth was Mother. There was no question of speculating on their Mother, of buying or selling her.
According to HRH Prince Charlesof Wales, religion and science have become separated, and science has attempted to separate the natural world from God, with the result that it has fragmented the Cosmos and placed the sacred into a separate, and secondary compartment of our understanding, divorced from the practical day-to-day world of Man.
Our environment has suffered beyond our worst nightmares in part because of a one sided approach to economic development which, until recently, failed to take account of the inter-relatedness of creation, and the importance of finding a sustainable balance working within the grain of nature and understanding the necessity of limits.
read more about Permaculture Design: