Weekend Update
In 1989, a group of international scientists, frustrated with piecemeal and isolated solutions to environmental deterioration, came together to draw up a set of principles to guide societies (citizens and businesses) in a whole-system approach toward social justice and sustainability. They came up with four "system conditions" that have scientific consensus:
(1) Nature cannot withstand a systematic buildup of dispersed matter mined from the Earth's crust (eg. oil, minerals, coal, etc.)
Right now these substances are being dispersed into the air and onto/into the ground faster than they can be reintegrated (not just buried) into the crust of the Earth. The buildup of the toxins from these dispersed substances continued unabated threatens the health and continuation of all life.
(2) Nature cannot withstand a systematic buildup of long lasting compounds made by humans (eg. PCBs, DDT, teflon, polystyrene)
Like the above, these cannot be reintegrated into the Earth's crust at the same rate we are producing them. Because they are unnatural, these take an even longer time to break down, and at the current rate, the amount of concentration of these unnatural materials in our environment, some yet lacking long-term studies on our health, threatens the health and quality of all life.
(3) Nature cannot take a systematic deterioration of its capacity for renewal (ie. deforestation, overfishing, the loss of fertile land)
The health and quality of life for everyone on this planet depends on nature's capacity to turn our wastes into new resources with processes that recycle everything. We have to allow for these processes to happen instead of letting nature deteriorate beyond the point of it being able to heal itself. The failure to correct the environmental detertioration in the long term means the loss of biodiversity and health for all living things.
(4) Conditions (1) - (3) can be improved by (a) being more efficient in our use of resources on this planet and (b) promoting justice for all people on this planet. Poverty frequently leads the poor to destroy near-irreplaceable resources for short-term gain. Global social stabiility and cooperation is needed to ensure everyone's long-term survival.
I had to retype and rephrase the above in some of my own words from The Natural Step and The Cultural Creatives (When will I stop talking about this book?!) because I can't believe how well The Natural Step (the overall name for the principles of sustainability, the group's findings and suggestions) condenses what is a huge topic of global environmental degradation into 4 easily explainable and demonstrable ideas.
That said, I'm going to try and make all my art producing from this point tree-free, and chlorine-free too, if possible. This week I finally got to experiment with the paper I got from http://www.greenfieldpaper.com, and their Hemp Heritage paper (25% hemp, 75% post-consumer recycled paper) is absolutely amazing. I've also been fighting the strong temptation lately to make my own paper from used paper, but I think my multi-purpose work desk (ie. the kitchen table) cannot only take so many tasks at a time. Ah well. Maybe when I can "expand my operations" into the outdoors during the summer, I'll try it.
Oh, and my site was updated this weekend. With my 2005 Holiday (take that, Bill O'Reilly) and new year card, to boot. It's also for everyone reading this, so here you go, it's...
A Little Light
A new painting style also. Sometimes I think the ideas I receive are only trying to make me look schizophrenic.
(1) Nature cannot withstand a systematic buildup of dispersed matter mined from the Earth's crust (eg. oil, minerals, coal, etc.)
Right now these substances are being dispersed into the air and onto/into the ground faster than they can be reintegrated (not just buried) into the crust of the Earth. The buildup of the toxins from these dispersed substances continued unabated threatens the health and continuation of all life.
(2) Nature cannot withstand a systematic buildup of long lasting compounds made by humans (eg. PCBs, DDT, teflon, polystyrene)
Like the above, these cannot be reintegrated into the Earth's crust at the same rate we are producing them. Because they are unnatural, these take an even longer time to break down, and at the current rate, the amount of concentration of these unnatural materials in our environment, some yet lacking long-term studies on our health, threatens the health and quality of all life.
(3) Nature cannot take a systematic deterioration of its capacity for renewal (ie. deforestation, overfishing, the loss of fertile land)
The health and quality of life for everyone on this planet depends on nature's capacity to turn our wastes into new resources with processes that recycle everything. We have to allow for these processes to happen instead of letting nature deteriorate beyond the point of it being able to heal itself. The failure to correct the environmental detertioration in the long term means the loss of biodiversity and health for all living things.
(4) Conditions (1) - (3) can be improved by (a) being more efficient in our use of resources on this planet and (b) promoting justice for all people on this planet. Poverty frequently leads the poor to destroy near-irreplaceable resources for short-term gain. Global social stabiility and cooperation is needed to ensure everyone's long-term survival.
I had to retype and rephrase the above in some of my own words from The Natural Step and The Cultural Creatives (When will I stop talking about this book?!) because I can't believe how well The Natural Step (the overall name for the principles of sustainability, the group's findings and suggestions) condenses what is a huge topic of global environmental degradation into 4 easily explainable and demonstrable ideas.
That said, I'm going to try and make all my art producing from this point tree-free, and chlorine-free too, if possible. This week I finally got to experiment with the paper I got from http://www.greenfieldpaper.com, and their Hemp Heritage paper (25% hemp, 75% post-consumer recycled paper) is absolutely amazing. I've also been fighting the strong temptation lately to make my own paper from used paper, but I think my multi-purpose work desk (ie. the kitchen table) cannot only take so many tasks at a time. Ah well. Maybe when I can "expand my operations" into the outdoors during the summer, I'll try it.
Oh, and my site was updated this weekend. With my 2005 Holiday (take that, Bill O'Reilly) and new year card, to boot. It's also for everyone reading this, so here you go, it's...
A Little Light
A new painting style also. Sometimes I think the ideas I receive are only trying to make me look schizophrenic.