I just finished reading a book by Frances Moore Lappe called “Getting a Grip - Clarity, creativity, and courage in a world gone mad”. The book talks about the current state of of the US Government right now, which she calls Thin Democracy; she spends much time talking about how as a people we have the power to create ‘living’ democracy. Learn more from her website.

Quotes….

Our ideas about reality determine what we see, what we believe is possible, and therefore what we become.

And when you think about it, how could we ever believe “the world” can change unless we experience ourselves changing?

The four hundred richest americans are all billionaires, with combined wealth of 1.25 trillion, roughly comparable to the total annual income of half the worlds people.

…as well as the need to feel that our lives matter, which for many people means contributing to something grander than our own survival.

Failing to bring meaning. Finally, Thin Democracy is dangerously vulnably because its materialistic premise can’t satisfy our higher selves’ yearning for transcendent meaning….Thin Democracy’s narrow, insulting assumptions about human nature cannot sustain dedication and sacrifice. Many US soldiers now risk their lives in war, believing they’re serving a high calling. But the built in logic of one rule economics mocks their idealism. Since 9/11, thousands of American soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq, while executives of US armament corporations have made a killing, doubling their own compensation.

Living Democracy-democracy as a way of life, no longer something done to us or for us but what we ourselves create.

And the most productive hunters share the most.

Worldwide, for example, more than a third of all grain and 90 percent of soy gets fed to livestock. Future generations may well scratch their heads: You mean, in the early twenty first century their feedlot system put 16 pounds of grain and soy in to cattle to produce only one pound of beef on their plates? You mean that with the amount of water they used for that one pound of beef they could bathe for a year?
Similar plenty appears once we drop the scarcity lens surrounding energy. Our sun wind, waves, water, and biomass offer us a “daily dose of energy” 15,000 times greater than in all the planet harming fossil and nuclear power we now use, says German energy expert Hermann Scheer.

We and the butterflies are in this together.

Beneath our awareness, perhaps, we are coming to realize that our acts do matter, all of them, everywhere, all the time.

One Choice We Don’t Have: In fact, we have no choice about whether to be world changers. If we accept ecology’s insight that we exist in densely woven networks, as just noted, then we must also accept that every choice we make sends out ripples, even if we’re not consciously choosing. So the choice we have is not whether, but only how, we change the world.

Monkey See, monkey do, suddenly took on a whole new meaning for me. Since we humans are wired like our close relatives, when we observe someone else, our own brains are simultaneously experiencing at least something of what that person is experiencing.

In private life, when we go to a friend for advice and that friend simply listens, we’re often amazed to discover it is we oursevles who have the answers. We may have had them all along, but formulating our ideas to make ourselves clear to someone else enables us suddenly to “see” those answers for the first time.

Most of us learn to deny that we’re squelching such needs; maybe it is just to painful to acknowledge how much of ourslves we’re giving up. But if these needs aren’t met, most of us don’t just roll over and pretend we don’t have them; we seek their satisfcation in less than ideal ways…unable to safisfy our yearing for connection through common endeavor, we try the next best thing, to feel included because of our outer identities, wearing what’s “in” choosing work we think will please our parents or bring us status…Our yearning for power gets twisted, too. Power, as I’ve said, means our “capacity to act” but if we feel we can’t make a dent positively, we go for control. If we feel put down at work or at home, not heard or seen, we’re temped to try to exert control over something, maybe our child, our spouse. In its extreme form, the response to thwarting our innate need for power is violence.

Sitting deep in the cushioned armchair, his sweet face framed by a stiff white priests collar, Reverend Njoya paused for only a moment. Then he said, “Fear is an energy that comes from insdie us, not outside. It’s neutral. So we can channel it into fear, paranoia, or euphoria, whatever we choose.” He rose out of his chair. “Imagine a lion,” he said, crouching. “When a lion sees prey or predator, it senses fear first. But instead of lunging blindly in defense or in attack, it recoils.” Reverend Njoya moved back, leaning on his left leg and crouching lower. “The lion pauses a moment, targets his energies. Then he springs.”

I’m just a drop in the bucket. My effort might make me feel better, but it can’t do much…..Every time we act, even with fear, we make room for others to do the same. Courage is contagious.

From this premise of lack, we are finished. We end up locked in a belief system that actually creates the very scarcity we fear.

“Seeing is believing” is a charming aphorism, but maybe it’s also wrong. More accurately, when it comes to humans, “believing is seeing.” We must believe another way of living is possible in order to see it actually taking shape around us.

Mare Mead “Big campaign donors aren’t in it for altruism. They don’t consider their money a contribution; they consider it an investment.”

Which head of lettuce you pick up today or where you buy your next T-shirt may not seem like a world-chaning decision. But it is. The Spiral of Powerlessness is generated not only by laws on the books but by norms that our daily acts create. If we buy pesticide sprayed food, we’re saying to the food industry, yes, yes, give me more of that. If we buy organic instead, we are stimulating its production. (Why do you think McDonalds serves organic milk in Sweden but not here?)

I had this open in my browser for two weeks until I finally had time to watch it. PBS is such a fantastic resource, and since I rarely watch TV, having access to programs like the one I link to below is perfect.

Much of what was in this documentary is what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was pointing toward in his speech last week.

I hope you can make some time to watch this documentary, click here then on “Watch the Full Program Online”. Yes it’s US politics, but it is truly a global issue…Go Barack!!

An interview with one of my favorite authors; Ken Wilber tells it like it is, through his brilliant integral perspective which has helped me make sense of the big questions, helped me make sense of the science vs religion arguments that just can’t be ignored in todays times. If you make it through the interview, a good chance you may just pick up one of his many books for more.

Ken Wilber Interview

an exert….

You’ve written that there’s a philosophical cold war between science and religion. Do you see them as fundamentally in conflict?

Personally, I don’t. But it depends on what you mean by science and what you mean by religion. There are at least two main types of religion. One is dependent upon a belief in a mythic or magic dogma. That is certainly what most people mean by religion. Science has pretty thoroughly dismantled the mythic religions. But virtually all the great religions themselves recognize the difference between “exoteric” or outer religion, and “esoteric” or inner religion. Inner religion tends to be more contemplative and mystical and experiential, and less cognitive and conceptual. Science is actually sympathetic with the contemplative traditions in terms of its methodology.

When you refer to mythic religions, are you talking about the kinds of stories we read in the Bible?

Or any of the world’s great religions. Laotzu was 900 years old when he was born. According to the Hindus, the earth is resting on a serpent, which is resting on an elephant, which is resting on a turtle. Those kinds of mythic approaches aren’t wrong. They’re just a stage of development. Look at [Swiss philosopher] Jean Gebser’s structural stages of development. They go from archaic to magic to mythic to rational to pluralistic to integral and higher. Magic and mythic are actual stages. They’re not wrong any more than saying “5 years old” is wrong. It’s just 5 years old. We expect there to be higher stages. There was a time when the magic and mythic approaches years ago were evolution’s leading edge of development. So we can’t belittle them.

Where do you think the scientific worldview falls short when dealing with religion?

Conventional science has correctly dismantled the pre-rational myths but it goes too far in dismantling the trans-rational. The mythic and magic approaches tend to be pre-rational and pre-verbal, but the meditative or contemplative practices tend to be trans-rational. They completely accept rationality and science. But they point out that there are deeper modes of awareness, which are scientific in their own way.

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First off I have to say that I think Mr. Kennedy’s speech should have been the one that cost $200, not Clintons; I think considering the fact that Kennedy received a standing ovation and Clinton didn’t was testament to that. Both are doing amazing things for the environment, but Kennedy spoke with certain passion that I really took to.  Below will be my best regurgitation of his speech which was packed with details and facts and stats. One of the key reasons I can relate and respect Mr. Kennedy so much is his honesty about his connection to the wilderness. He states that Nature is not God, but that God communicates through Nature most clearly and powerfully, which is why all the great prophets went out in to the wilderness to allow the great teachings of the ages to come to them.

Near the beginning he remarked that he though of the US as a 14th province of Canada, a nice compliment to us Canadians; and that we must protect nature because it is the very infrastructure of community. He jumped in to the references to Kyoto, much like Clinton did, but made an interesting comparison to the Slave Trade Act. In Great Britain it made up 25% of the economy; they new it was immoral to continue with slavery but were scared to abolish it overnight as it would ruin the economy. When they did abolish it in 1807, there was an economical explosion, the slave trade was holding Britain back, and what followed was the launch of the industrial revolution. In more recent times, such as the 70’s, Iceland was one of the poorest nations, but they were one of the first to recognize the detriment of importing energy, so they kicked the habit, switch over to sustainable methods, and are now 100% sustainably energy independent. In ’96, Sweden was one of the poorest Nations, but moved to abolish carbon emmisions, which spurred entrepreneurs to come up with new solutions which boosted their economic standing to #6 in the world based on GDP. As Kennedy proclaimed “they reward efficiency and punish inefficiency while in North America we do just the opposite.”

The solutions are here, he claimed that the US has enough sunlight and wind to power the country easily, but it is tough to make prompt changes when the worst environmental government in history is in power. Kennedy went in to detailed account of just how corrupt the Bush government has been, and the key factor in this downfall has been the relationship of corporations with Government decisions. Thin Democracy as described by Frances Moore Lappe. As Jim Hightower stated “The corporations don’t have to lobby the government any more. They are the government.”   Corporations have a corosive impact if entangled with government interests. An example Kennedy used was that of the fishing license he takes out every year, and it now comes with a thick guide listing all the places that are illegal to fish in because of high levels of mercury in the fish, and so he thought to himself  “that son of a bitch George Bush”. Others in that situation, he went on to say, don’t seem to make the connection to Bush. The mercury levels in most of these lakes (go to the Waterkeeper Alliance for info, and here for mercury tests kit) is directly correlated with the over 400 illegally operating coal burning power plants who no longer have any responsibilities for their polluting actions, Bush has made that so. The regulations once in place over 7 years ago are no longer enforced. 

One example he gave (and the following below was copied from his recent article in Vanity Fair) to show just how corrupt things have been was the case of Phillip Cooney, “who was the chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. His job was to advise the president on the environmental implications of decisions that he makes. Cooney’s previous job had been as the chief lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute. His preoccupation during his four-year White House stint, according to news accounts, was combing scientific documents issued by the various federal agencies in order to remove damaging statements about the oil industry and the coal industry. He suppressed or altered several major studies on global warming in order to protect the interests of his former clients. After the Times revealed the alterations, in 2005, Cooney left his job and went to work for ExxonMobil.”

Kennedy also said that true freemarket capitalism would be good, and we should try it sometime; right now it is the polluters who are getting rich by making others poor. He stated that 80% of republicans are actually democrats who don’t know what’s going on. He recently did a speech in Alberta for a bunch of oil execs and received a standing ovation (he said that could only happen in canada) and he had people come to him and ask how come I never heard of this before?? Well that answer opens up a new can of worms, media.

In ’88 Regan abolished the Fairness Doctrine which enforced media to use airways to serve public interest, and always tell both sides of the story so citizens can then go on to make rational decisions on critical issues. Now all major media in the US is controlled by just five major corperations, and they alone decide what is broadcast, and these are the same corperations that buy their way in to government policy making.  “There can be no true democracy with an uninformed public”, Kennedy said, and the media channels today ensure that the public remains ignorant. He also shared the obvious fact that “we as a people know more about Brad and Jennifer than that of issues that matter. We are the best entertained and least informed nation.”

Bill Clintons keynote speech lasted about 40 minutes, in which time he covered many key action items he and his team (Clinton Climate Initiative) have been working on. A quick glance around the audience showed a medium age of I would guess about 45, and many political guests were present such as the Green Party’s leader Elizabeth May, Ontario’s Premier, Minister, and many others. I was fortunate to finagle a last minute ticket which I later learned was worth $200, nice!

Clinton jumped right in to the current state of the Kyoto protocol, lamenting the USA’s failure to ratify and by saying that it is because of  the current governments insistance on “supporting yesterdays interest groups instead of investing in tomorrows energy future.” He shared the fact that the countries that are leading the Kyoto Accord are subsequently the ones that have shown the most economical growth, such as Denmark who showed a 50% (whew did I hear that correctly?) growth in their economy; or Great Britain who have taken swift action (creating plenty of new jobs) on energy efficiency and are well on their way to meeting Kyoto targets. This while the USA economy has been stagnent over the last 7 years, and any signs of job growth have been primarily linked with post 911 militarization.

He talked about the importance of citizens to take action starting with the ‘low hanging fruit’, and I’ll refer you to David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge for that.

One of his intitiatives is the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Toronto is one of them. Essentially what they are doing is targetting large infrastructures and upgrading energy efficiency. His example was with an old low income housing community in NY City where they did a full energy audit on the buildings, the energy bill was tallied at 5 million/year. They figured they could garuntee to reduce this bill by 30%, at which point they front the money, install the new technology (whether it be efficient heating or replacing light bulbs, etc) after which the new yearly energy bill was 3.5 million, and the up front money is paid off from the energy savings, viola. He asserts that this process needs to happen on a much larger scale, and it is through the people with the ability to put this approach in to action that need to step up to the challenge, hence the C40.

He acknowledged that no matter how much we do along these lines, that if the developed nations don’t also help the 3rd world countries skip the mistakes we made, that these steps will be made in vain. Both need to happen. China for instance can’t build new coal plants fast enough, this is not good. An example of something he’d like to see in a country such as Liberia, is to have the financial support of the World Bank, and with the technology available build an energy infrastructure that is totally self sufficient, clean, and independent from other nations. If other countries could only see that this is possible, then faster action may spread. 

Another item that he admitted he was no expert on was deforestation, which contributes 18% of the worlds green house gas emissions, whew!! A big part of that is from methane which is actually worse than CO2. He asked the audience that he needed ideas on how to help combat deforestation and claimed to be able to provide the capitol to make some positive changes.

After his speech came a 20 minute Q&A style dialogue with the CEO of Green Living Enterprises, Laurie Simmond’s. Clintons last comment was that action needed to be taken immediately, not just from political leaders, but from all people, and that his generation will never forgive themselves later in life if they delay any longer. I have to agree, I have two beautiful nephews, and 30 years down the road I want to be able to look squarely in their eyes and say that I did everything I could toward creating a clean, happy planet Earth.

The following article is the first of a series I am writing for Mountain Biking Magazine….

In 2000, Carey Hart put it out there when he attempted the holey grail of FMX, the back flip; now it’s in every pro’s trickbook. Just a few short years ago Darren Berrecloth put it out there with some huge 360 drops; now it’s standard practice in any slopestyle comp. Audacious individuals are often the ones responsible for progression in alternative sport. Another example of this same concept would be Al Gore and his environmental activism; all the scientific data was there, but he put it out there that action must to be taken; David Suzuki in Canada is doing the same thing.

People like this start a trickle of action, then maybe a small stream depending on the importance or demand; and if the idea or trend is worthy, a raging river. Now of course we could get by with just a small trickle of people doing 360 drops, the hospitals couldn’t handle much more, but we do need a raging river of people being environmentally responsible. I guess my motive for this new series of articles on bicycle ecology is to help divert a few more of those random trickles of water in to a desperately needed raging river.

To get a little more scientific, Everett Rogers from Stanford did some extensive research on the ‘diffusion of innovation’ (trends). First are the innovators, as mentioned above, then come the early adopters, which make up 15% of the population, they seek the new and have a higher tolerance for experimentation; this might be where you find the competitors of Hart and Barrecloth, or those following the recommendations of Gore or Suzuki. Then all of a sudden a bright idea will metastasize and spread rapidly through the next group called the early majority (35%). All those young groms sessioning the dirt jumps after school in hopes of being the next big name may be in this group. The next batch according to Rogers research, which spanned some 50 years and targeted over 500 major trends, is called the late adopters (35%). The remaining 15% are the laggards, they are off the back and tend to be on their own program. So just as good tricks spread rapidly through the population of capable riders, so will environmental responsibility for everyone, but I don’t think it has quite hit home for most people.

When I’m learning a new trick or technique, I have to practice it over and over and over. When I need to update or modify a technique, it takes even more effort and dedication. Is the reward worth it? The satisfaction of nailing a new move clean is amazing, totally worth all those failed attempts and practice. A large part of the solution to global warming will be like modifying an old trick, in other words we have to change our habits! Will the reward be worth the effort?

The mountain bike world seems full of coffee drinkers, am I right? Now I’m more of a tea guy although I do love a good java here and there, but anyway, I personally drink two cups of tea a day. One of my recent road trips lasted 75 days, so that’s about 150 cups that didn’t end up in a landfill because I managed to create a habit of bringing my re-usable mug with me. To help solidify this habit, I would often punish myself from caffeine if I forgot my ‘to-go’ mug. A bit crazy yes, but it worked, caffeine is a strong motivator!

There seems to be disconnect between understanding a problem like global warming and actually acting on that knowledge, in future articles, I’ll explore this further. But for now,  consider this, it is said that if insects disappeared from our planet life would cease in five years, but if humans disappeared from this planet life would flourish in five years. Yes, we have some work to do. So can we put in the effort toward this critical goal of a sustainable world? Can we change our habits and inspire others to do the same? Can we put it out there? Well I have to agree with the charismatic words of Barack Obama, “Yes We Can!”

Stay tuned for future BikEcology articles on all sorts of green topics. Check out my blog at ryanleech.com for more.

If you haven’t read Yvon Chouinard’s “Let My People go Surfing”, perhaps after watching the speech below (about 60 minutes long), it might leave you wanting more. It is one of my favorites reads, click through on the link from my book list if you’re interested, and enjoy the words from this wise man.

A message reminding us how vital the US Presidential preliminaries are to the World….

And a little reality check is always a good thing…