Little Book on Applied Ecology/PEACE: WHY? WE ARE DEVELOPING THIS BOOK! (One draft of an “Introduction”):
In the upper right-hand corner a little bird will say:
“Why? don’t you humans practice what you preach?
… the Golden Rule … PEACE … Love … Humility.”
Why? We Developed This Book!
“The Sky Is Falling!” for some living things at various points in time in the universes. This can be observed through lens … of the Hubble space telescope, … at eye level here on Earth, or … the use of micro & nano views. On the other hand, at all of these levels in certain spatial/temporal sectors for some species complexes (ecological communities), “Life Is Good!” Moreover, this dynamism, incongruity, dilemma, enigma, mystery of Nature* and Eaarth*—which includes War* and catastrophes, and lovers’ love and beautiful harmonies–can be studied and to some extent solved via physics, chemistry, geology, paleontology, anthropology, sociology, and psychology, etc. and/or a combined application-process of all of these which holistically, profoundly, and comprehensively focuses on life and living systems, i.e., biology and ecology.
Despite the enigmatic mysteries, and probably because of them, we all love life!! and we especially might love life, for example, on a day in my place of residence, Clean (or Real) Seguin, Texas, U.S.A. when we have the grandkids over and it’s a cool fall day after recent rain; the birds are chirping … and we’re sipping on a caipirinha made with quality cachaça, partaking of some of cousin Gilda Colley’s crunchy, tasty strudel, and we’re listening to John Prine singing “You Got Gold” (or even “Some Humans Ain’t Human”).
We who collaborated in developing this book do love life … and especially kids and grandkids!
But beyond offspring, life includes all species, and the authors seek quality life and healthy life systems for ALL, and for as long as possible. We are, as Edward O. Wilson proposes, holistically biophilic.
Furthermore–in order to realize this love and to have healthy, quality lives for all–we recognize the urgent need for: comprehensive, in-depth education or ecology across curricula & campuses of all human organizational entities. And the appropriate application of this knowledge will inevitably involve a process of: reducing growth of human and domestic animal numbers, a reduction of consumption and collective ecological footprints … and redistribution of power to powerless humans, and other species. Herein we are using the symbol of 1 , and the phrase “Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology/PEACE”* for this process.
A key collaborator on this little book, paul bain martin (pbm), is convinced that if everyone in the world lived humble, frugal, and sharing lives of small ecological footprints, such as that of his parents, Luther Alton Martin & Lousie Katherine (Kneuper) Martin, the world would be relatively sustainable, and much better in terms of quality life for all. During his formative years, paul was raised by Alton and Louise, or rather Louise and Alton, in a family of eight on a five-acre diversified hog farm in a two-bedroom home, and after Alton booted him out to sort of fly on his own … he earned degrees in (agricultural) entomology from Texas A&M and the University of Florida. He started adding to what he learned about applied ecology from Louise and Alton, Ms. Ruth Allen, Mrs. Marshall, and Henry Moss and others in the Devine, Texas and environs … with more academic learning facilitated and taught through direct guidance and/or books of R.L. Ridgway, E.J. Dyksterhuis, P.D. Lingren, D. Pimentel, Archie Carr, H.T. Odum, E. Farber, V. Smil, H. Haberl, and others. Later Miguel Angel Altieri, P. Sechrist, P. Maddox, D. Birkenfeld, Lupe Romero Ramsey, Rosa Lilliam Gomez Diaz, and Marvel Maddox helped push him into applied ecology efforts which involved advocacy and activism. Others who very significatly inspired paul have been Dr. Joseph Schaffner, E.O. Wilson, D. Suzuki, Wendell Berry, D. Orr, J. Diamond, W. Jackson, D. Worster, V. Prashad, F. Kirschenmannn, C. Miller, and J. Kiel. And recently Hilario Martinez, Susan Kinne, and Alphonso Rincon have been wonderful role models.2
But it was his wife Betsy, and his children, their spouses, and grandkids who have sacrificed most and gave him a major impetus in his efforts toward PEACE.
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paul’s life began immediately after World War II in the baby boom of conventional capitalism and massive advertising propaganda, consumerism, and materialism. However, his parents, influenced greatly by the Great Depression and a simple rural ethic, were humble, cautious, and frugal, and demonstrated that life can be full of love, learning, and robust community interactions while being “Sabido (Wise), Simple, Small, Slow, Steadfast, Sharing, i.e., relatively Sustainable”* (the “7 Ss”*). Moreover, Catholic schoolings, teachings, and preachings enforced in paul a desired lifestyle of the 6 Ss, and the civil rights-, anti-War-, and holistic ecological health-movements of the 1960s and 70s expanded a personal desired ethos of empathizing and sharing with other humans and other species , i.e., an Ethic of Reciprocity*, or a comprehensive and profound Golden Rule.
Even though paul has always had trouble articulating it, and still does, he eventually began to passionately believe that rather than seeking individual and tribal power, money, stuff, glamor, and arrogant satisfaction, …
- We need to fervently and massively work toward reducing the individual and collective ecological footprints* of the Haves (perhaps 0.5-1 billion humans, 2017) and living the Ss. (Reduction should be from about 150,000-300,000 kilocalories* used /capita/day to about 60,000, or a reduction of about 2/3rds. In acres the ecological footprint in the U.S.A. should be reduced from about 20 global-acres/capita to 7. … Also, growth of human and domesticated animal population numbers needs to be reduced.
- The power over the natural resource base (top soil & quality air, quality water, biodiversity*, free available energy*) needs to be shared and shifted toward the 3 billion (2017) Have-nots, and especially to the 1 billion in extreme poverty, and to other species (Ethic of Reciprocity).
- Major actions and progress toward a world of the 7 Ss would include:
• Realization of Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology-PEACE across curricula and campuses of all human organizational entities. (All parents/adults should be tasked with teaching their children/other kids … biology and PEACE.)
• Open borders (but with regulation and caution in realizing this in order to not have net harm to Have-nots and other species.)
• Setting aside ½ of Eaarth* (with a goal of it becoming Earth again) to Nature. (Proposed by E.O. Wilson et al.)
• Realizing appropriate applied agroecology* (as proposed by Dr. M.A. Altieri et al.)
• Having a significant (critical) mass of humans from everywhere who would go to war zones, and actively, but peaceably!!/non-violently!, protest against actions of War and the possession and use of armaments/weapons.
• Through legislation, regulations, protest, lobbying, and a dramatic change in buying habits, force corporations and other primary manufacturers, processors, and packaging to appropriately deal with all negative externalities like pollution, trash, waste; loss of biodiversity; and resistance to antibiotics.
When we begin to propose the aforementioned ethos and actions to others, we almost immediately receive “a deer in the headlights”-, “You are crazy!”-, or “Yeeaaah. Right.”- look/response. These general responses come from close family and friends, “Progressives”, “Nazis”, Christians, Muslims, ignostics, capitalists, socialists, anarchists, etc., etc., i.e., almost everyone.
Herein, we are making another stab at articulating what is inevitably, logically, and ecologically, morally and ethically, necessary! We are hoping it might open up holistically constructive and robust dialogue in community toward an end of quality life for all.
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Some years ago the non-profit organization, Ogallala Commons, has its first community intern, Angela Ludolph, in the Seguin area, and she wrote this in her portfolio for this internship (and this is very relevant to the mission of this little book on applied ecology) :
“Sustainable agriculture, which should always be a community affair and involve community gardens, was addressed via the U.S. 1985 Farm Bill as LISA*, Low Input Sustainable Agriculture. That’s the way a conserving, resilient, sustainable agriculture has to be: An agriculture which puts the Precautionary Principle* up front and is slow with respect to energy flux and transformation and material flow, and that places women and a mothering instinct in the driver’s seat. Nevertheless, barriers to what is truly sustainable agriculture — and low input and community and gardening — were quickly set in place in the 1980s via controlling high-energy (fossil energy and fossil energy-dependent high-input “renewables”*), status quo interests.
[OC intern supervisor] paul b. martin believes there are several major reasons that LISA, community gardening, and conservation and sustainability are largely ignored in South Central Texas and other parts of the world:
- Our socio-political/economic systems emphasize an artificially-built environment, mechanization, and instant gratification, which replace Nature and natural cycles and processes. They reward quantity over quality and an increasing accumulation of unnecessary material goods which are not conducive to quality life for all (including other species). They do not reward ecological soundness and resilience. … Moreover, they do not adequately reward social justice and humaneness.
- Our education systems do a very poor job in facilitating a development of knowledge of ecological principles and processes.
- We do not critically think about:
- What quality life means as individuals and in community (locally and globally, and including other species);
- How Nature and the natural and sense of place are necessary; and
- The fact that a high rate of local and global energy transformation is harmful to quality life.
For these reasons we cannot and will not sit down at a common table and begin to communicate about what quality life means and how we might go about realizing it, i.e., what our local and global community goals are and what are the objectives, a8ction items, and assessment tools for realizing these.
In addressing the points in the previous paragraph, paul also emphasizes that one cannot truly be a master gardener unless she/he is a master naturalist. Moreover, conservation and development of sustainable community (which must involve community gardening) should be primarily reliant on inputs from the local community and not dependent on grants, fossil/mined energy, and materials from outside (including plastics). As much as possible, the system should be closed and should be [mostly] utilizing local solar energy received on a daily basis.”
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The collaborators who developed this little book on applied ecology do not think in vogues such as biochar, photovoltaic systems, conventional organic food production, high tech, etc., etc. are moving us much toward community resilience & sustainability. On the other hand, what makes more sense is: planned controlled grazing, passive solar designs of buildings, lowering consumption, low-input & -throughput-/appropriate-technology, and building of small schools in concert with the Land/Nature and with positively ethical applied community ecology across the curricula and campuses.
Moreover, we do recognize that we haven’t done much of significance in our collective many years of life. “We Are All Sinners!” and can do better … and “Today Is the First Day of the Rest of My Life!!” (And efforts toward smaller schools and ecology across curricula/campuses is where we should be expending much of our energy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_schools_movement http://www.ecoliteracy.org/change/greening-campus ) Also, we strongly believe that for those who are broadly- and deeply-learned, experienced, moral, and ethical, most of what is in this little book on applied ecology is obvious and is nothing new!
Finally, holistic, comprehensive, profound worldwide peace is our goal. However, we do not want anyone to be comfortable, complacent, entirely peaceful until all in the world have peace. PEACE, or Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology is an agitation process toward peace.
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*All kids—from 12 to 120, should have these words/phrases in their vocabulary, and thoroughly understand them. (There is [will be] a Glossary in the Appendix [of “Games We Play: …”.)
1 See the glossary.
2 There were also many others, including Pope John the 23rd, M.L. King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, leaders/teachers/coaches in pbm’s home town Devine-Texas, … . But we cannot list them all.