Linda Buzzell at Alternet writes
Living under unnatural time pressures causes a myriad of psychological, social and physical ailments:
In the last 150 years, however, the human relationship with time has radically changed. Some say the problems started earlier, with the development of agriculture or writing, but it was really the Industrial Revolution -- the rise of the Machine -- that put humans in thrall to mechanical processes and machine time. And the recent exponential speeding up into Cybertime has accelerated the process still further. Industrial time was bad enough (Charlie Chaplin did a wonderful job of visualizing that "cog in the wheel" feeling in his film "Modern Times") but Cybertime can be dizzyingly discombobulating for a Pleistocene primate.
And that's how many modern people feel -- completely frazzled and out of synch with our deepest selves.
The results of this disconnection from nature and nature's pace show up in therapists' and doctors' offices every day. Living under unnatural time pressures causes a myriad of psychological, social and physical ailments. Delinked from the natural rhythms of our bodies and the rest of the planet, we struggle with diminishing success to adapt to the strange mechanical and disembodied world we have created.
As a practicing psychotherapist and ecotherapist, when I see patients who are suffering from depression or anxiety I ask them to keep a time-journal in which they record the hours and minutes spent each day outside, as well as the hours spent inside in front of a screen. My clients are often shocked to realize how disassociated they have become from nature and our species' natural ways of living, and the effect this disconnection is having on their psyche. In fact, a 2007 study from the University of Essex shows that a daily "dose" of walking outside in nature can be as effective at treating mild to moderate depression as expensive antidepressant medications that can sometimes have negative side-effects. |
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The rescue begins below and continues in the jump. If you haven’t already joined, please consider signing up for DK GreenRoots, the new Google Group for eco-blogger activists.
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In a DK GreenRoots-tagged diary, My Lake Has Singing Sands, Muskegon Critic wrote: "It's called singing sand. The sand along Lake Michigan squeaks when you walk on it, given the right temperature and humidity. Singing sand. Rrrt, rrt, rrrt...like so. While walking along the singing sand beaches of Lake Michigan, as the cool waters dance around our bare feet, I tell my five year old son that the lake is ours, so we have to take care of it. Ours not in the sense of ownership, but in the sense of father to son, brother to brother. I know it isn't precisely true; That it's our lake. Details, details. I tell my son lots of crazy things. For example I also tell him that the 1998 Ford Escort is the best automobile ever made, EVER."
rb137 lamented a slaughter in the DK-GreenRoots-tagged diary, Blood Stains on Green Technology: "There is a brutal civil war taking place in The Democratic Republic of Congo -- a war where the government is not strong enough to do more than patronize the bloody militias that fight amongst themselves. But what does this have to do with the environmental movement? The DRC is rich in natural resources. Many of the metals that are used in green technology are found there. Electrodes in your cell phones, components in your computer, your catalytic converter, and materials of the green economy are regularly mined in The Democratic Republic of Congo. You might find electronic devices that funded this conflict in your pocket right now. These metals must be regulated just like the blood diamonds of Sierra Leone. ... We need to work toward a blanket prohibition on using blood minerals that come from The Democratic Republic of Congo."
Schedule for DK GreenRoots
All listed times are PDT. Full week’s schedule can be found here.
Friday July 3:
9am: Turkana on beef (and more)
3 pm: TXsharon
5 pm: Meteor Blades
7 pm: Spirit of Brash Optimism by Land of Enchantment
Friday Series:
Morning Feature by NCrissieB
Mojo Friday by rbutters
Frugal Fridays by sarahnity
Friday Night at the Movies by Land of Enchantment
Overnight News Digest by Oke
Green Diary Rescue by Meteor Blades
Plus there'll be music on environmental themes in jotter's High Impact Diaries every morning, along with schedule updates. We can make more slots as needed - anyone who has an environmentally-related story they want to post this week, we’ll create a place on the schedule for you.
gmoke took a look at Under-Utilized Installed Solar Capacity in Afghanistan: "By my count, over 700,000 solar/dynamo radios have been distributed throughout Afghanistan by US and NATO forces. As built, they charge only the dedicated, internal, hardwired radio batteries. With an easy modification, they could charge standard size rechargeable batteries. Then people could always charge an extra set of batteries. They would have a reliable source of low voltage DC power, day or night, by sunlight or muscle power. Through battery switching, charging one set of batteries while using another, they could power LED lights, cell phones, tape and CD players, walkie-talkies, possibly even computers. Some of our soldiers know how to do these modifications. Are the people of Afghanistan doing them too?"
Turning her regular morning feature over to DK GreenRoots, NCrissieB wrote about Wolves and Predators: "Once nearly extinct in the lower 48 states, grey wolf populations now top 4,000 in the Great Lakes region and more than 1,300 in the Rocky Mountain region. Estimates for Alaska range from 8,000-11,000. It is among the signal successes of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, and the presence of wolves may be helping revive forests in Yellowstone National Park. As forests are our planet's lungs, scrubbing carbon from the air, that would seem to be a win-win outcome. Predators and prey. But some ranchers disagree."
Bruce Nilles provided a great example of turning a government document into something politically useful for local activists in his DK GreenRoots-tagged diary Poverty Near The "High Hazard" Coal Ash Sites: "The public’s right-to-know scored a victory this week when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally released the list of the 44 coal ash sites deemed "high hazard." This comes two weeks after a coalition of organizations including the Sierra Club filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding the release of the list. Since then we’ve been crunching some numbers to learn more this list of coal ash storage sites. First of all, we’ve put the 44 sites onto Google Maps so you can see just how close you are to one."
In the 15th installment of Casual Wednesday’s excellent series on House and Senate committees, DK Greenroots: Considered Forthwith, attention was turned to "the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. This select committee was formed in March, 2007 after the Democrats took control of Congress to study policies intended to reduce America's dependence on fossil fuels, especially oil from overseas, and reduce greenhouse gasses."
scorpiorising let us know about a New Proposal: tax oil futures and options: "Peter DeFazio (Or) is proposing to raise billions by taxing oil futures and options, a move that potentially could discourage dangerous, speculative trading. It would also be a stand up to Wall Street, and this is sorely needed. After all, they ‘own the place.’"
Let's Be Careful What We Wish For on "Shrinking Cities" wrote Kaid at NRDC: "Readers of a certain age will remember Joni's Mitchell's iconic anthem "Woodstock," celebrating the famous 1969 music festival (which, incidentally, she did not attend, but I digress). The song became a monster hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (who did attend) in 1970. Its chorus, propelled by the group's trademark high harmonies, called us to get ‘back to the garden.’ It was, and is, a fantastic song. But it is not, I repeat not, a reliable environmental solution to urban problems. Unfortunately, it does fairly characterize where a lot of the environmental movement's sentiment and energy was in the 1970s when we, pretty much like everyone else, vilified cities and romanticized the countryside. What we didn't realize then, but now do, is that auto-dependent sprawl with solar panels and compost is still, well, auto-dependent sprawl. And that compact, walkable cities, suburbs, and towns are not the problem but the solution."
lisamoe wondered When did my house get so small?
I live in a tiny little cottage. Just this morning it seemed like a normal house, but sometimes it gets much smaller when I see it through someone else's eyes. ... I'm not against people living in whatever size house they can afford and want to live in, I'm a live-and-let-live girl, but I wonder how it got to be an American middle-class expectation that we'll all have giant houses with high ceilings and three bathrooms and a two car garage and a TV room, and anything less is pitiable. I drive through my neighborhood and other places around town and I see the old houses like mine and I wonder who lives there now, because my children's friends, middle class folks like me, all seem to live in suburban palaces. A suburban acquaintance of mine (who grew up poor herself) recently opined about a mutual friend's 1100 sq. ft. one-bathroom home that she didn't know how she could live there with three kids and a husband, that it was just awful. When did those of us living in the kind of plain homes we grew up in become objects of pity?
RLMiller wrote a follow-up to a DK GreenRoots-tagged diary, Help! Obama has a drinking problem -- need pix, logo: "Calling all TV watchers, photo diarists, and photoshoppers! I'm starting a campaign to ask President Obama to put down his ubiquitous plastic water bottles -- but I can't do it without your help!"
A Siegel delivered another in his extensive Energy COOL series, Ford's Putting Feedback Into Practice: "Putting fuel efficiency feedback systems on the dashboard of every American automobile (both existing and new) could well be one of the most cost effective tools for quick reduction in America's oil dependency and, as well, to improve traffic safety (and reduce) fatalities. The potential power of feedback systems to inform consumers and, in aggregate, change behavior to greater energy (and other) resource efficiency fascinates me. When it comes to cars and automobiles, the ‘Prius Effect’ is becoming somewhat legendary, with couples arguing about who gets greater fuel efficiency and Prius drivers' speaking of how the system information is fostering changed driving habits. Toyota is far from alone in this arena. One of the differentiators for the new Ford Fusion Hybrid is its ‘SmartGauge with EcoGuide.’"
TheFatLadySings introduced the Health Series to DK Greenroots: "I read through Children’s Health and the Environment: A First Report on Available Indicators and Measures (Country Report: United States) prepared by the EPA. Let's get two things out of the way immediately: (1) I am a geek; and (2) it was a worthwhile exercise even if you are suspicious of recent EPA reports. This document was published in 2005, the dark night of the Bush years. Nevertheless, the EPA found that government interference and regulation consistently resulted in improved health for America's children."
boatsie discussed Green Social Networking in her DK GreenRoots-tagged diary: "Using wikis, nings and blogs, the success story of the UK Transition Towns initiative has become an international phenomena since the movement started in the UK from the work of Rob Hopkins author of the Transition Handbook (here's a free, editable online version. The goal of TT is to ‘rebuild community resilience and self-reliance by bringing the head, heart and hands of communities together to make the transition to life beyond oil.’"
In a DK GreenRoots-tagged diary, SensibleShoes discussing an eco-issue to existing and would be writers in Write On! Have you been stripped?: I use ten reams of paper a year. The weight ratio for turning wood into paper is 2.56:1, teh Google tells me. A ream of paper that comes directly from wood, with no recycled content, contains about 7.68 lb of wood. That means if I buy unrecycled paper I'm consuming 76.8 lbs. of wood a year-- a small tree. Most of the paper labeled "recycled" at office supply stores is actually 30-50% recycled, cutting it down to half a small tree (or all of a much smaller tree. They don't come in standard sizes). Missing from this calculation is the fuel burned in cutting and transporting the trees, making the paper, and transporting the finished product."
In the second labor-DK GreenRoots diary of the week, djtyg looked at the Apollo Alliance in his Labor Diary Rescue: "The Apollo Alliance, like the Blue Green Alliance, is a group of unions and environmentalists to create new advances in clean energy. From their website: The Apollo Alliance is a coalition of labor, business, environmental, and community leaders working to catalyze a clean energy revolution that will put millions of Americans to work in a new generation of high-quality, green-collar jobs. Inspired by the Apollo space program, we promote investments in energy efficiency, clean power, mass transit, next-generation vehicles, and emerging technology, as well as in education and training. Working together, we will reduce carbon emissions and oil imports, spur domestic job growth, and position America to thrive in the 21st century economy. "
In her DK GreenRoots diary, Jill Richardson discussed Food and Energy Independence: "Agribusiness likes to claim that ‘farmers are the first environmentalists’ – a statement that should be true. Sadly, the large corporate interests that drive the agribusiness lobby like to hide behind the image of the American family farmer. And while the American family farmer may in fact be an environmentalist, the new climate change bill further entrenches the status quo of an agricultural system based on unsustainable usage of oil, water, and soil. Soil represents one of our most powerful tools to sequester carbon, removing it from the atmosphere. However, in the last half-century oil-intensive industrial farming practices degraded our soil from up to 20 percent carbon to between 1- and 2-percent carbon.