By
Can We Stop Sixth Mass Extinction?
https://ift.tt/YhBpwRo
Since 2016, Americans have been in a virtual Civil War with each side believing it is right and the other side is “a threat to democracy”. Nationalists have been defending their nations from the globalists. So, few people notice that we are facing the Sixth Great Extinction! We have only enough top soil left to grow food for about 60 years! The bees which pollinate 30% of our crops are dying. Our oceans are polluted. The Amazon Rainforest, lungs of the Earth, is being destroyed.
What is the sixth mass extinction and what can we do about it?
The Original Instructions The West Forgot
Actor Floyd Red Crow Westerman said In the 2008 video Indigenous Native American Prophecy that Native Americans were told they would see America come and go. He said, “In a sense, America is dying from within because they forgot the instructions on how to live on Earth”. He warned that people who do not know how to live spiritually on Earth likely will not make it. He explained that when Columbus came, that started the true First World War. By WWII, the indigenous population of the Americas had dropped from 60 million to 800,000! The Native American population in the US is currently 8.75 million.
Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future
We Must Change Our Values Now
Chief Oren Lyons is a member of the Onondaga and Seneca nations of the Iroquois Confederacy in upstate New York – the world’s oldest living democracy. They travel on their own passport. Lyons works with communities across the globe as an activist for Indigenous and environmental justice. He often addresses modern-day conflicts by sharing traditional views on the laws of nature. He warns that can’t nature’s laws are non-negotiable and humanity is now on the brink. When Chief Lyons spoke at the United Nations, he warned that we must change our values to survive.
Value Change for Survival – Oren Lyons reports “In 1985 the United Nations established the GLOBAL FORUM OF SPIRITUAL AND PARLIAMENTARY LEADERS ON HUMAN SURVIVAL. This forum was charged to promote dialog between religious and political leaders in order to turn the tide of the growing environmental crisis.….
In 1993 They agreed their work could be distilled into these four words, Value Change for Survival. We either change our values or we won’t survive. Over the last 40 years, Oren Lyons has been active in the UN to secure rights for Indigenous People and to advocate for environmental healing.
Chief Oren Lyons speaks about Climate Change
Chief Oren Lyons speaks about Climate Change at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the UN Headquarters in 2007.
How We Can Help Now
Connecting with plants reminds us that our survival depends on the health of the Earth. Take some small steps that can make a huge difference not only in your life but can help restore health to the planet.
- Stop Trump’s Destruction of Our National Parks features Eric Hanson who is a freelance journalist, photographer, and filmmaker specializing in outdoor adventure and travel. Eric is the host of Epic Trails, a TV and digital series designed to showcase the people, places, and adventures that surround the world’s top backpacking trails. Epic Trails airs on Outside TV, Fox Sports networks, WPBS, National Geographic, and Amazon Prime. Eric is also the host of the popular Backpacking TV YouTube Channel where he shares his adventures on the trail as well as his knowledge and passion for all things hiking and backpacking. Eric has traveled to more than 80 countries.
In the video below , Eric warns that Trump is taking steps that will destroy some of our National Parks. He explains the impact for all Americans of President Trump’s cuts to the parks. Once the National Parks are destroyed, they cannot be easily recovered. Trump’s firing of 1,000 national park workers raises concerns about maintenance and operating hours.
Call (202) 224-3121 and provide your zip code to connect to your representative. Leave a message saying you oppose Trump’s plans that will destroy our National Parks. Ask your family and friends to do likewise now. If you belong to a group or club, ask the members to call. This can have a HUGE impact immediately and can help save the parks for generations to come!
The Real Reason Trump Is Firing Park Rangers
- Visit a park near you: Cell Phone Addiction: Symptoms, Causes, Impact, Treatment and Prevention explains that about 44% of adults experience anxiety when separated from their phones. Cell phone addiction has long-term physical health impacts, psychological and emotional consequences, and social and relationship challenges.
Take a walk through nature several times a week and enjoy the gifts of the trees, birds, squirrels. Spring is an especially beautiful time in America as the forsythia, jonquils, and magnolia go into bloom. The video below shows 16 powerful impacts on our physical, mental, and emotional health of just taking a walk in nature. That’s also good for our social interactions.
Turn off your phone before you leave home and don’t check messages until you return. Use your phone only as a camera or apps to check plants and trees. Picture This is a great app.
16 Benefits of Walking in Nature
- Join a CSA: In early 2021, I joined the Community Service Organization (CSA) of the Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-op. The CSA offers delivery and pick-up for several states on the East Coast.
The CSA delivered my Fruit and Vegetable Shares to my co-op once a week. Joining a CSA gives you access to fresh organic foods. It also supports local farmers who are growing organically. So, joining a CSA supports your health, the health of the community, and the land.
Joining a CSA also provides a wider variety of fruits and vegetables than your grocery store. That also enhances your health and enjoyment. I learned to love many items new to me! I shared extras with neighbors to introduce them to the CSA. Lancaster emails lots of amazing recipes!
See the Lancaster Winter Shares and Summer Shares.
Grow sprouts and/or get an AeroGarden.
Get Edible Garden online or in various stores. I got Basil, Parsley, Mint, Rosemary, and Sage.
‘Beyond Organic’: Illinois Woman Starts Farm-to-Table Regenerative Farm
- Join a Community Garden: In May 2021, I joined the Myrtle Village Green Community Garden a few blocks from my co-op in Brooklyn, NY. It is about 1.5 acres. It costs only $15 to become a member and get a key. It has about 250 members. Joining the garden opened many new worlds for me.
I volunteered to help the Compost “cluster” on Tuesdays from 10-12 and enjoyed talking with people in the cluster. One of the volunteers taught me so much about beavers that I researched them and discovered they are a powerful “keystone species’, They are discussed further below. The compost bins are shown below. People drop off garbage scraps for the garden to compost.
I also joined the AgBed which is a communal property with about 25 volunteers. In the Fall, we harvest a wide variety of great crops including awesome potatoes, tomatoes, string beans, corn, peas, onions, garlic, celery, collard greens, Swiss Chard, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, pumpkins, peppers, etc. which taste SO much better than grocery store foods!!!
At the suggestion of one of MVG’s founders, I took the NY Master Composter Certificate Course and graduated in the Fall of 2021. The course requires completion of 7 workshops which I took at the beautiful Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The site shows which plants are in bloom. The Cherry Blossoms are awesome this time of year! The course also requires two field trips. I went to the Queens Botanical Garden and to Soil Start Farm on Governors Island. Finally, the course requires nine hours of volunteer compost-related activities which I did at the MVG garden.
In the Fall of 2022, I took the 10-week Earth Matter Compost and Farm Apprenticeship Program on Governors Island. It’s a lovely 10-minute ferry ride across the Hudson River with a wonderful view of Manhattan! Learn about the program in my Earth Matter Flip Book.
- Take a Foraging Trip: In the Fall of 2021, I took a foraging trip with Wildman Steve Brill in Prospect Park. In the fall of 2022, I took another trip with Steve in Central Park. It’s fun and informative. Steve’s website is a treasure trove of information as are his books. Note: If Steve’s website is down, it will be up soon. Steve is also on Instagram.
Foraging May be the Health Skill You Are Missing — “Wildman” Steve Brill explains, ““Widman” Steve Brill teaches adults and kids about the many common, overlooked, renewable wild edible and medicinal plants and mushrooms that people often destroy as “weeds.” By studying foraging and participating in nature in this non-destructive manner, we can increase our enjoyment of nature, grow healthier, and reaffirm our commitment to preserving and rebuilding our ecological riches.
In the video below, Steve explains that there has been only one “death” on his tours – when someone “died” of embarrassment for picking the wrong plant!
NYC ‘Wildman’ Steve Brill Takes Us FORAGING in Central Park 4/25/23
A dining experience that begins with a spring salad followed by jumbo jambalaya and ends in a sweet bliss of black raspberry ice cream. Sounds lovely, but what if the star ingredients are foraged from New York City parks? That is exactly what 74-year-old environmentalist and self-taught forager “Wildman” Steve Brill is cooking and taking residents on an organic, urban culinary journey living off the land.
How Keystone Species Enhance NatureOne of the volunteers in the Compost Cluster of my community garden taught me so much about beavers that I researched them and discovered they are a “keystone species’. I learned about other keystone species and wrote several articles about them.
Wolves Re-Introduced to Yellowstone National Park
Wolf Reintroduction Changes Ecosystem in Yellowstone explains that the re-introduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park radically enhanced the ecosystem. Wolves help keep forests and streams healthy which allowed many other animals to return and thrive.
How Wolves Change Rivers – George Monbiot says: “This is the story of how wolves changed the course of the rivers in Yellowstone National Park. It is a story that explains trophic cascades; that all life is connected and any changes in the web of life affect all other species, even the way that rivers flow. This story teaches us that our action, great and small, can have dramatic effects on life itself. Instead of viewing each individual species as separate from the whole, we must begin to see how all life is interdependent upon one another.”
Beavers: Architects of Environment
Native American tribes know beavers’ role in enhancing the environment.
The video below explains, “Beavers are ecosystem engineers second only to humans”. They help protect against droughts, floods, and wildfires and provide habitats for about 80 species including mammals, fish, and birds while cleaning rivers.
Why beavers are the smartest thing in fur pants
Beavers have done more to shape North American landscapes than any animal beside humans. We don’t notice them much today because there aren’t many left, but before colonization, North America was home to hundreds of millions of these furry engineers. This week, we show you why Earth’s second largest rodent is more amazing than you ever knew, and why they’re the smartest thing in fur pants.
Beaver Conservation Strategy
The Beaver Restoration Guidebook
Working with Beavers for Watershed Health
Leave It to Beavers: Keystone Species Provides Nature-based Restoration
How beaver dams—and human-made replicas—help save wildlife and restore freshwater habitat
Beavers: Nature’s Hydrologist – Part 2 explains: “When beavers make a series of dams and ponds within
a drainage basin, the water cycle in the entire watershed is affected.….When Europeans came to America, they trapped beavers by the millions to ship beaver pelts to European countries, especially for making hats. The beaver loss was dramatic. Since the arrival of Europeans, the beaver population of the United States has dropped from perhaps 200 million to 10 million. If each of the lost beavers had built only a single acre of wetlands, then an area of more than 300,000 square miles — a tenth of the total land area of the United States was beaver-built wetlands. Now these wetlands are gone.”
If California had not gotten rid of all its beavers, it might not have a “fire season” each year or have to deal with devastating droughts and flood.
Rediscovering The Earth’s System of Economics
Dr. Lyla June Johnston (aka Lyla June) is a musician, scholar, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. Her messages focus on Indigenous rights, supporting youth, traditional land stewardship practices and healing inter-generational and inter-cultural trauma. She blends her study of Human Ecology at Stanford, graduate work in Indigenous Pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives, and solutions. Her doctoral research focused on the ways in which pre-colonial Indigenous nations shaped large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems for humans and non-humans.
In the video below, Lyla June explains how Native American practices enhanced the Earth for all species for thousands of years. She proposes “The Seven Generations New Deal: Ecology + Economy”. Native Americans function as a “keystone species” – enhancing habitat for plants and animals.
3,000-year-old solutions to modern problems | Lyla June | TEDxKC 9/29/22
“In this profoundly hopeful talk, Diné musician, scholar, and cultural historian Lyla June outlines a series of timeless human success stories focusing on Native American food and land management techniques and strategies. Lyla June is an Indigenous musician, scholar and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages.
Her dynamic, multi-genre presentation style has engaged audiences across the globe towards personal, collective and ecological healing. She blends studies in Human Ecology at Stanford, graduate work in Indigenous Pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives and solutions. Her current doctoral research focuses on Indigenous food systems revitalization.”
Native Americans: Architects of Abundance
How The Native Americans Built A Legendary Civilisation | 1491: America Before Columbus
“Architecture and urban design. Whether living a nomadic existence or in sprawling urban centres, indigenous people throughout the Americas created their homes and community structures to fulfill the needs and values of their society.”
Architects of Abundances: Indigenous Food Systems and the Excavation of Hidden History
“Lyla June discusses several examples of Indigenous food systems both in pre-Columbian times as well as in the present. These examples show us ways in which we can live in more harmony with Earth’s processes to create abundance for all life, including, but not just for humans.”
Deeper Understanding of Our History
A deeper understanding of the history of the Americas and Europe will allow Americans to realize how advanced Native American societies were – and how much they can help us again today.
Charles C. Mann is a correspondent for Science and The Atlantic Monthly. A three-time National Magazine Award finalist, he has won awards from the American Bar Association, the Margaret Sanger Foundation, the American Institute of Physics, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, among others. His writing was selected for The Best American Science Writing 2003 and The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2003. He lives with his wife and their children in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Mann is the author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.
He explains, “Until Columbus, Indians were a keystone species in most of the hemisphere. Annually burning undergrowth, clearing and replanting forests, building canals and raising fields, hunting bison and netting salmon, growing maize, manioc, and the Eastern Agricultural Complex, Native Americans had been managing their environment for thousands of years.”
1491: Rewriting the History Before Columbus – Charles C. Mann
Amazon Description
What were the Americas like before the arrival of Europeans? Research suggests that they weren’t the vast, uninhabited wildernesses once believed to be. New archaeological research shows that much of the information in the past has been incorrect.
Praise for Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491: In this beautifully illustrated and concise adaptation of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Mann paints a superb picture of pre-Columbian America. He overturns the misconceived image of Natives as simple, widely scattered savages with minimal impact on their surroundings. Well-chosen, vividly colored graphics and photographs as well as the author’s skillful storytelling will command the attention of even the most reluctant readers.
Mann constructs the narrative around three crucial questions: Was the New World really new? Why were the Europeans successful? What ecological impact did Natives have on their surroundings? From the pre-Columbian genetic engineering of maize to the existence of pyramids older than the Egyptian variety, Mann’s lucid answers represent current scholarly opinion and point the way toward future exploration and discovery.
How Native America Transformed The World
16 Indian Innovations: From Popcorn to Parkas says: “Nearly half the world’s leading food crops can be traced to plants first domesticated by Indians. Native farmers introduced Europeans to a cornucopia of nutritious plants, including potatoes, peanuts, manioc, beans, tomatoes, sunflowers, and yams. Maize, or corn, was by far the most significant contribution, now grown on every continent except Antarctica.”
Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World by anthropologist Jack Weatherford explains: “After 500 years, the world’s huge debt to the wisdom of the Indians of the Americas has finally been explored in all its vivid drama by anthropologist Jack Weatherford. He traces the crucial contributions made by the Indians to our federal system of government, our democratic institutions, modern medicine, agriculture, architecture, and ecology, and in this astonishing, ground-breaking book takes a giant step toward recovering a true American history.”
In Native Roots: How the Indians Enriched America, Weatherford says: “Conventional American history holds that the white settlers of the “New World” re-created the societies they had known in England, France, and Spain. But Weatherford brilliantly shows the Europeans grafted their civilization onto the deep and nourishing roots of Native American customs and beliefs. Our place names, our farming and hunting techniques, our crafts, the very blood that flows in our veins — all derive from American Indians ways that we consistently fail to see.”
Bolivia honored Weatherford for his work. Weatherford taught for 29 years at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he held the DeWitt Wallace Distinguished Chair of Anthropology.
The Columbian Exchange
Christopher Columbus was not the first person to arrive in the Americas. The continent was peopled 15,000-20,000 years before Columbus’ arrival. To claim that he “discovered” lands where there were vast cultures for millennia is like going to Europe now and claiming to “discover” it!
They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America by Rutgers Professor Ivan Van Sertima shows that the Olmecs were the mother civilization of Central America. Van Sertima pointed out, “We came to this continent first as masters, not as slaves”. Olmec society lasted from 1600 BCE to 350 BCE. The Norse and Scandinavians visited the Americas about 1,000 years ago. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus shows the Chinese came to this hemisphere before Columbus.
However, the year after Columbus got lost trying to reach India, the Catholic Church issued The Doctrine of Discovery which authorized (Christian) Europeans to claim any lands not occupied by Christians! It sanctioned theft of continents, genocide, and enslavement. So, on the basis of that doctrine, Europeans had the right to own the whole Earth. No one else had the right to own land, to be free, or even to live.
This doctrine has been the basis for The Myth of White Supremacy that has ruled the world for five centuries. Without that doctrine, Europeans would have had no claim to the Americas, Africa, or elsewhere. The Myth maintains that only Whites have contributed anything to civilization. Everyone is primitive, barbaric, backwards, stupid, and sub-human. On March 30, 2023, the Pope finally renounced The Doctrine of Discovery after years of appeals to do so.
Christopher Columbus’ arrival in North America created large-scale connections between Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas that exist today. It also dramatically changed the environment, economic systems, and cultures around the world. This transfer of goods, people, microbes, and ideas is referred to as “The Columbian Exchange”. The Columbian Exchange was a period of rapid cultural change that connected almost all of the world through new networks of trade. The inter-continental transfer of plants, animals, knowledge, and technology changed the world as communities interacted with completely new species, tools, and ideas.
Crops from the Americas revolutionized cuisines in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Imagine Italian food without tomatoes, Indian food without chili peppers, or Irish food without potatoes! Yet, before The Columbian Exchange, none of these crops were known in Europe, Asia, or Africa. Plants from the Americas not only changed cuisine and culture but resulted in major economic and environmental shifts because many of the new crops, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, and cassava were calorically rich and quickly became staple crops.
Potatoes and other crops from the Americas did well even in rough environmental conditions. Land no one thought was very useful could be used to grow these new crops. The potato, for example, thrived even in the freezing temperatures of northwestern Europe. It became a common food of the people in places like Ireland. It led to massive population growth and increasing urbanization.
Patterns of production and distribution shifted as millions of people moved from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas, both willingly and forcibly. Goods—many of which were produced in the Americas by African and indigenous peoples—were distributed around the world. These goods were circulated in broad networks, creating webs of exchange that shape the world today.
The Americas are “new” ONLY from a Euro-centric perspective. European culture, which is about 2,000 old, is erroneously referred to as “the Old World” (giving it seniority and legitimacy) while the Americas where people have lived for over 15,000 years is referred to as “the New World”. That terminology falsely implies seniority to the cultures of Europe and inferiority of the cultures of the Americas. It should be abandoned now.
The Concept of Freedom
The Columbian Exchange fails to mention the most important gift of the Americas – the concept of freedom. Americans proudly refer to this country as “the land of the free”. However, when Europeans fled Europe, they did so to escape pollical, religious, and economic persecution. They had no concept of freedom. They learned about freedom from the peoples of this hemisphere, the only peoples on Earth who have that concept.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin studied with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) –the world’s oldest living democracy — still in upstate New York. In 1989, Congress formally acknowledged that the US Constitution was inspired by the Haudenosaunee system of government . However, the US Founding Fathers learned only part of the vast wisdom of Native America.
When Europeans first came here, they were identified by their country of origin — as English, Dutch, French, or Spanish — and called the peoples of this hemisphere “Americans”. However, when the US Founding Fathers formed the United States, they adopted the name “American” for the people of the new nation. So, we are all Indians now!
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a scientist and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the NYT bestselling Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Dr. Kimmerer is a professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. She is the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Kimmerer is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. The MacArthur Fellowship is a $800,000, grant for individuals who have shown exceptional creativity in their work and the promise to do more.
Robin Wall Kimmerer: “We the People”: Expanding the Circle of Citizenship
Current debates on the future of public lands call for a focus on who is included in the ‘public.’ Who is inside the circle and who is not? Whose voices are heard, and whose are silenced? Indigenous people have largely been excluded from decision-making involving public lands—as has their sophisticated environmental philosophy and practice, derived from traditional ecological knowledge. How might the indigenous concepts of the personhood of non-human beings expand our notion of the public good? This talk explores facets of how respectful engagement with indigenous knowledge might re-draw the boundaries of “We, the People” as we consider our relationship to ancestral ‘public’ lands.
The post Can We Stop Sixth Mass Extinction? appeared first on Activist Post.
news
via Activist Post https://ift.tt/iMIeUSW
April 3, 2025 at 08:01AM
April 3, 2025 at 08:06AM
via Comments on: Can We Stop Sixth Mass Extinction? https://ift.tt/YhBpwRo