February Last Twenty-Thirteen

I have been working out a plan for a modern folk tale. Much like Pinocchio, it would be written in installments. These chapters would bring to life a new wooden boy, a bit like the lead character of the famous folk tale, but in this new incarnation, it would be loosely based on my own experiences as a bioregional boy, a son of the Great Lakes, father of three spirit guides in their own right, grandfather to a third generation of change makers and he who speaks for the trees. The bones of our civilization have been built with the skeletal remains of the forests which once carpeted the Great Lakes Region. I have sheltered amongst those bones for nearly my entire life and have come out of that woodwork to share unique insights that have been born in the crucible of living, borne on hope across vast torrents and tumult.

Like messages in a bottle, my words will be sent out into the digital seas that wash the planet and for those who wish to read my dispatches, I am asking to be paid. What seems odd is that other writers sell out to corporate interests, but I ask those who are interested in a story like mine to subscribe. I'm not exactly sure how to limit access to these writings, but I'm sure it will not be too hard. My goal is to have the stories begin in the fall, when story telling is supposed to take place, after harvest chores are finished and long winter nights come upon us again. If you are interested in receiving my installments, please let me know and I will keep you informed about how to get the whole story.

In other news...

Several interesting properties are available along the shores of Lake Superior and I have gotten assurances from a lawyer friend of mine that he will help establish a land trust to protect as many acres as we can in the headwaters of our greatest lake. Any and all proceeds from my installment book will go toward securing acreage in the Lake Superior Watershed. This land, by decree will only be used as for trace camping, ecological education tours, permaculture, retreats and reforestation projects. Donations to ECO-Tours of Wisconsin earmarked for land acquisition as well as donations for the actual reforestation efforts can flow through Paypal. Conveniently, our email address is the same as our paypal account number, so if you plan to visit or vacation in and around the Wisconin side of either Lake Michigan or Lake Superior, let us know and we can develop an ECO-Tour just for you! tnsaladino42@hotmail.com

Th 

This is a view to the north from our current home base. This yard has been alternately covered with Maypole activities, evening fire pit parties, landscape pots full of trees, bio-char demonstration plots, permacultural plantings and many other propagation efforts. Our burgeoning gardens are in beds made out of reclaimed concrete from ECO-Tours depaving projects.

When we moved here ten years ago, the soil was like a baked earthenware vessel, red and devoid of nearly all life. Today, it is frozen, but not for long. when it thaws, it will be the darkest loam around. The urge to set seeds is growing, but perhaps I will wait a few more days...

All of these blog posts are free, obviously, but please take a moment to consider what three and a half years of writing would be worth if you had to buy it on the open market. Nearly three hundred posts are available to you here and now, with more to come. Even at a dime a piece, that's thirty magic beans worth of writing. At one dollar per post, it would be three hundred magic beans. Believe me, when ECO-Tours of Wisconsin starts getting donations like that, we will be able to buy land the same day. Thousands of readers are out there. We, both readers and myself, just need to step up the efficiency with which we make change happen. I'm sure that my readers share a commitment to healing the planet. If you did not, my words would often be hard to read. Even on the limited budget that we have faced over the past seven years or so, we have continued to plant native trees. It took us over fourteen years to plant our first sixty-thousand  tree seedlings. The second sixty thousand we got planted in just over six years. Now, we have planted over one million tree seeds in a single weekend. Although this revolution is not being televised, we wish you to be part of the healing and to participate in our efforts when you get near North and East Wisconsin. As more people learn about what we do and how we go about it, we are growing exponentially and would like you all to become a more integral part of our efforts.

Beyond Petroleum

BP's recent ad campaign showing us their trajectory toward carbon-neutral fuel sources would be commendable if the lie were not so deceitfully sad. Especially because of the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. The bucolic scenes of hard-hatted men, using cranes to install solar panels, climbing atop giant electric generating windmills and holding up beakers presumably filled with bio-fuels went a long way to getting across the message that they are doing everything in their power to promote sustainability. In the US, the big four oil companies, Exxon/Mobil (#19th largest oil company worldwide), Chevron (#21 worldwide), Shell (#22 worldwide)and Conoco/Phillips (#23 worldwide) along with Great Britain's BP (#17 worldwide) collectively made 25 Billion dollars in the last three months. Sorry, this is old data, they actually made more than that in the most recent quarter. These firms have capital and engineering expertise that could allow them to transform our energy future almost overnight. When the "govie" says that they need to get the sulfur out of diesel fuel or for that matter lead out of gasoline, they have the intellectual resourcefulness, the power and the money to redesign refineries and change their processes while still making a profit. Never mind the fact that they grumbled a bit about having to do the right thing after all these years. doctors and scientists knew for decades that lead, spewed by internal combustion engines, caused both short term injuries and lasting long-term deficiencies in human brains, but we waited to act until it was too late for millions of Americans.

The limited efforts that the fossil fuel industry, or for that matter, the nuclear energy industry make toward doing the right thing are nothing more than attempts to capture the largest portion of the corporate welfare available for transitioning to a more sustainable energy future. If we eliminate any sort of conscience about the matter, we are left with the naked fact that extracting fossilized fuel has been the most lucrative activity that human beings have every engaged in. Would anyone ever want to give that up? Serious flaws exist in the logic that says "Drill baby, drill." Every increase in production, and in the past few years we have seen many, carries increased costs as well. The more technically advanced our methods become, the more dangerous they are, the more opportunities for disaster there are and the more energy we expend to pull that last BTU of energy from the planet. It has been known for decades that the oil shale and tar sand resources would require massive energy inputs to become profitable, but for those who make petroleum based fuel are positioned perfectly to make money on both ends of the energy wasting scenario. Believing that these large corporations have our best interest in mind is farce. The recent economic downturn has spurred billions in spending on extraction of marginal deposits of oil for the sake of "jobs", but the truth of the matter is that we will be paying for generations for the wealth and greed of just a few at the top of the corporate ladder, with contaminated water, tainted air, and inhospitable landscapes. What we often forget is that solar panels are becoming available to everyone, despite the decades of "research" that big oil has done into them.

As with most things that are the right thing to do, the corporados only have an interest in them as long as they are getting paid. The most efficient machine for transporting human beings has been for over a century, the bicycle. Feet are actually number two. The health consequences on individuals alone from driving for part or all of the day are terrible enough, but the wafting fumes of our transportation industry assault us all. The time has come to re-think the electric car. Before you go all, "That means burning more coal." on me, understand that electric motors are capable of efficiencies of 85% to over 95%. The internal combustion engine blows through energy like a bandit, blowing massive quantities into heat and friction. The motor alone loses over half the energy that it takes in. Compare them directly to electric motors and you will find that IC (internal combustion) ranges from 25-30% efficient. Holding all forms of energy equal, that means that each and every watt of power, or BTU would take a car about three to four times as far if the vehicle ran on electricity than it can with gasoline. add to that the possibility of installing solar carports that could essentially fuel electric cars without burning a single once of coal and you have a realistic, and relatively cheap option. My brother purchased a Nissan Leaf, fully electric cat about a year ago and has traveled over 12,000 miles without using any gasoline. A comparison of costs seems almost farcical. My car gets fifty miles per gallon and is about five cents per mile to operate, his is between 1 and three cents per mile to drive. If he did time of use, charging his car only at night when rates drop, it would cost between 1.3 and 1.8 cents per mile to operate. I assure you, BP wants you to know none of this and they certainly have no interest in telling you that if you built a carport for your electric car to park under, you could charge it for free. The longer you operated the system, the lower your cost per mile would go.

Collusion Between Fox "News" and Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker

The illustrious governor of Wisconsin has reached into his bag of tricks and produced a budget that would lower taxes about $100 for a family of four making 80 thousand dollars per year. Point double zero one two five percent of their income will be allowed to remain in their hands. This, he says and the news repeats, will allow additional spending that will stimulate the economy. Now I look at this with a tiny amount of amusement because I often spend $100 or more on a single trip to the grocery or farmer's market. I have spent far more than that filling up our cars,just once, with fuel and a single pair of shoes that I buy for work often cost more than that as well. Our median income in Wisconsin has dropped by more than ten times that amount since the bugger took office and Fox "News" is touting his actions as not only wonderful, but essential to our "recovery". They also managed to glaze over several other facts that Mr. Walker highlighted in his speech last night.

Schools will face new "tests", designed to reduce spending in "poorly performing" districts and shift those dollars, from the schools with arguably the greatest need and give that money, plus millions in new spending to private institutions. All of this will continue to undermine unions, shift public dollars, circumvent oversight on how those dollars get spent and funnel even more money into the hands of private corporations, leaving taxpayers in a more forlorn state without any type of recourse. Rather than mention any caveats or questions about these new policies, Fox proudly told us exactly what the governor wanted us to hear. Their "fair" and "balanced" news network succumbed to the deafening stunned silence that most people in Wisconsin felt at the utter stupidity of the governor's statements.

Scott Walker acts as a stooge for corporate welfare recipients, undermining the interests of the majority of state residents for the enrichment of wealthy out of state folks and hides his transgressions with a fig leaf of false sincerity. I thought that his utter stupidity was all an act until I saw the footage this morning. The times his driver blew past us, with him in the backseat of his limo or SUV, looking incredulously at the massive crowds gathered to protest his policies, I wondered if he was just that out of touch, or if he was in fact standing for something. Now I know that there is nothing supporting him other than a desire to give as much of our hard earned money, as many of our community resources and as much of our productive capacity as possible to those out of state interests who put him in office, defending him from the recall. Out of his extreme poverty of spirit and intellect, he must be growing a considerable nest egg in offshore accounts. If all those serving him are all as corrupt as those on the mining rules re-write committee, no good can come from leaving them in power.

There has not been a single news story on Fox that mentioned that the governor has violated the law by shifting money into a legal defense fund for himself. State law specifically prohibits such activity unless the Governor has been specifically charged with a crime. This month alone, another forty thousand dollars was put into his legal defense fund. This is the same man who was permanently barred from political activity in college for stuffing the ballot boxes, the same man who encouraged his staff to spend tax dollars on campaign activities and the same man who claims ignorance of the facts that his staff have been involved in theft, malfeasance and election fraud and mismanagement. His pet projects have squandered and mismanaged millions of tax dollars and have crushed the public trust in government, yet the Fox "news" team has looked the other way throughout the entire term of his governorship.

Only one thing can save us from these misguided policies...Not fear, not hate, not retribution...only love, no matter how awkward it may seem at first, we need to send the message, even to those who would exploit us, in whatever language they might understand and in as many ways as humanly possible that they are loved.

President's Day

Today, we have the great honor of honoring dead Presidents. Ironically, it focuses on just two of them, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. George, the owner of Mount Vernon distillery, which produced over 11,000 gallons of Whiskey each year back in the early days of our "nation" and Abraham would be appalled at the condition of things. The big money has always been on things remaining pretty much the same, but today, more than at any other time in our history, the wealthy power brokers are taking a larger slice of the pie, treasonously threatening collapse of our economy if they are not given their way and foisting their brand of terrorism on the rest of us by demonizing our teachers, the downtrodden and the educated.

Abe Lincoln was the first Republican President and he is probably spinning in his grave over what that party has become.

I propose that we celebrate the first woman president. Perhaps that will change the discourse a bit.

I have written often that we need more women making decisions in our culture. It has been proven out by experience that when women are allowed to own property and get an education that poverty is reduced, investment in quality housing and better nutrition for families flows from that wealth and education. Fewer children are born and those that are are healthier and smarter. Entire communities are enriched by the nurturing hands of our mothers and grandmothers, all that is required is to treat them with fairness and trust.

Men, on the other hand will often preach peace and arm for war, speak at length about the "free market" and simultaneously dole out corporate welfare. The more we mythologize about our leaders, the less we seem to care about solutions to problems that we confront today. The current discussion of Lincoln, and the fascination that many of us feel for him is primarily based on his rise from the ash heap of youth, through the self-made man process where he was able to educate himself and go on to greatness. Yet, our culture devalues those who dare to think for themselves and attempt to learn as much as possible, making the world just a little better than they have found it.

One of my favorite stories about "Honest Abe" was about how he helped to rescue a barge that had come up upon the lip of a dam. It was said to have been rammed up onto the structure in an attempt to make it over, but the load was heavy enough that it bottomed out on the lip of the dam. He used his intellect and moved some of the load to the part of the barge that hung over the edge, tipping it slightly forward. Water continued to push up on the bottom of the raft, and once the barge was tilted just so, he drilled a hole through the bottom, above the dam. Water gushed in through the hole, flooding the foredeck and eventually it teetered over the obstacle. once on the downstream side of the dam, he shoved a cork in the hole and it continued to float downriver requiring just a bit of baling to make the rest of the journey.

The insight required to observe a "problem" just a little bit differently and Abraham Lincoln's ability to impress others with his wisdom was as much a function of stature as it was breeding. I think we too often forget that there were millions of chances to solve problems with intellect that were passed over in favor of wealth, expediency, or just good old oppression of native people or the womenfolk, back in history, and just as often it continues to happen now, we allow rich and powerful people, most often males, determine what we do, how we do it and when. If there has ever been a time for making sound choices about what to do and when, it is now. we must realize that our Presidents have not been folk heroes, they have been people just like us, and that we have trusted them to make the best decisions they could. Simultaneously, we need to realize that whatever they wanted to accomplish, they were limited by wealthy and powerful interests who wanted to preserve the status quo.

Perhaps what we should be celebrating is not so much the men who were our leaders, but their ability to stand on their principles, regardless of what wealthy interests wanted them to do. If they had been any less committed to the country we have inherited, the grand experiment would have surely failed by now.

Still Waters Run Deep

There has been deafening silence on so many issues that matter that it makes one wonder what sort of responsibility, if any, the press and media outlets feel toward the education of the American (again, let me apologise to those non-United States born Americans) public. Mainstream media has branded the continuing #Occupy Movement "privileged, naive, idealistic young people" and completely ignored Idle No more. The same network-owned cameras that hyped the Teathuglicans, who share many of the same basic ideals and values, bringing their antics to our living rooms almost daily just a few years ago are turned away from the continuing XL Pipeline protesters, the pro ecological interests, the tar sands protesters, and the horrible, toxic, deep well injection crowd who are fracking the crap out of our country. The protesters of today are well-established, thougthful and focused, yet the millions of news segments produced each day prefer to point the cameras with laser accuracy on the lone wolves, misinformed psychopaths, tragic but insular events that "prove" to their viewers that the world is a menacing, threatening and scary place.

Perhaps my writing seems bombastic to some, but the working for change that I have done over the years has informed me about the true state of each and every issue that we might choose to confront. The issues, in the end, are always the same. Ultra-wealthy individuals are picking our pockets for their self-aggrandizement, reaping greater and greater reward and simultaneously trashing our health, our economy, our planet, our educational system and our families. We are continuously told what our values need to be and those people telling us are doing so at the behest of commercial interests bent on enriching only themselves. That is why the noble opposition is still out on the streets, protesting the oppressors, calling out thuggery and speaking out against the corruption and greed, the deceit fear and hate that fuel the current rush to making bad judgements, stealing from the future to make hay today and the ignorant minority who the current slate of representatives often dub "job creators", thus absolving them from any responsibility or requirement to make good decisions.

We have plenty of examples of pompous asses, willing to jump up and down, scream and yell about intrusions on their"rights", but for the time being, let us focus on what we all owe one another. Many who decry the value of a free market are forgetting why we have regulation of markets in the first place. Abuse has always been alive and well in the marketplace. Caveat emptor or buyer beware dates back over two thousand years. Sadly, what we are "buying" today is a whole sack full of crap bought and paid for by the ultra-wealthy who have the heinous intent of securing even more wealth before the planet is reduced to a cesspool. Their track record is clear. Every single place on the [planet that has been deemed commercially viable by these interests has been deforested, or the native vegetation has been eliminated, the rivers oscillate between raging torrents and dry ditches, the squalor reflects poverty and those who were enriched by the boom times have moved on, leaving whoever has done the most work for them in the process to fend for themselves after the bust.

I am not an angry young man. I am not trying to prove something to someone. I am asking everyone to look deeply into issues of life, liberty and the pursuit of property. Life, perhaps the most important of these, is confused more and more with mere existence. Couch potatoes, video game addicts and shopaholics may feel alive when the adrenaline is flowing but the tidal surge in depression means that more and more folks are just giving up on their most famous inalienable right. The powerful interests that have found a way to placate and eliminate the threat from the majority of people unhappy with the way things are going is nothing short of genius, but it is, nonetheless, evil. Liberty as well has been morphed into the opposite of what it meant to our founding fathers. They actually envisioned everyone being able to experience leisure, pursue their dreams and learn from their mistakes. Instead we have created system after system that deems those who are not "productive" "takers" and those who destroy the environment or crash the economy, "makers". It seems that our current world view only allows liberation to flourish under the whip of capitalism. Whatever one wants to do is only considered viable if large sums of money flow away from individuals and into the hands of fewer and fewer top dogs. Property itself has been debased and the pursuit of it has led to the largest increase in debt ever recorded. It seems that all the things we desire are now presented to us with a multi-generational  cost.

I have been searching for truth for half a century and this is what I have found. I do not seek the casual attention of easily led sheep. I do not give one iota of my attention to those who are comfortable in their placid acceptance of the way our country is headed. I will not jump up and down if I do not get my way. Instead I try to reflect the truth that I have seen, love those who make excuses for the way things are and forgive those who have been abused and neglected in their past that seek to foist their hate, fear, greed and deceit on the rest of us,to help soothe the deep wounds that have crippled their souls. We can stand up for our right not to be poisoned. We can stand for the rights of children to drink clean water, breathe clean air and eat food grown on uncontaminated soil. We can stop the insanity of corporate greed and deception. We can build sustainable communities. We can create a better world for the next seven generations, but it will require effort. It will require tenacity. It will require making corporate raiders responsible for their waste, their abuses and their short-sightedness. The revolution is not being televised. Standing for what is right rarely makes good television, but it is essential that we all do it now, the toxic legacy that is being spread across the planet will last longer than any of us. Surely, we love our children enough to spare them the pain and suffering that we see increasing all around us. No matter how much money we amass, we can never buy ourselves another planet.

To Future Generations...

As we often hear claimed, when you post to the internet, it lasts forever. I hope that is true. I have something important to say and everyone, even the ones from my time need to have heard it. We often have seen the example played out that all facts go through three stages. First they are denied, later questioned and finally accepted. Think of what went on the last time you heard someone had passed away. Initially there was a reaction to the new information, "No!" it can't seem true, because we have yet to integrate that change in our reality. Then, we typically ask, "How did it happen?" Only after we have begun to make sense of the information can we then share it. The reason that I mention this is because each generation in turn tries to speak as much truth to power as we are able and to understand that those who have become the most complacent have a vested interest in not hearing, or not listening. Billions of dollars have been spent, in half my lifetime trying to convince people that climate change can't be true. Twenty years prior to that, vested interests successfully avoided reigning in production of CFC (chloroflourocarbons), even though science accurately predicted the depletion of the ozone layer.
These callous denials of truth speak volumes to the fact that money has far too much sway over our public discourse, the political landscape and the nature of the debate. I am currently fifty years old and may seem like I'm much older, but from the age of seven I knew that my entire life would be dedicated to teaching people about ecology. When the first Earthday took place, my parents refused to let me participate because as they said, The wealthy polluters will co-opt the environmental movement and green wash everything without changing their behavior one whit. My point is that the long history of activism has never let up our push toward truth telling, our urge to change things for the better. In my time there is a tendency to draw the political map as an arc. On the left, they say, are "Democrats", socialists and communists and on the right are what have been called "Republicans", conservatives and fascists. In my own pursuit of truth I have found that all of these terms can be more confounding than anything, obscuring the facts about both the political sub-cultures that exist, but the primary fact that all of us agree on far more than we disagree over. In fact, I am not the first to mention it, but when you swing the arc all the way 'round, you can come at "no government" on either side as you move around to the top of the circle. The Left approaches total freedom through Anarchy and from the other side of the political spectrum it is approached through Libertarianism.

We have been sold a bill of goods about politics. Those who, we have been told, constitute "the middle" are not. That improper designation has altered the course of history more than most of us would have liked. In fact, there are probably nearly as many libertarians and anarchists as there are folks between Democrat and Republican, socialist and fascist, communists and conservatives. this may be the first time you have been told this, so let me try describing this a different way. Some people believe that their rights to do whatever they want supersedes the public's right to stop them. Others believe that their rights end where the next person's nose begins. In an oligarchy, where capital supersedes the good of all, you could use anarchy to lend cover for exploitation, you could use democratic principles (if enough people could be convinced in the need for capital to flow unfettered). You might even be able to claim national value and find support through a fascist state. what changes is not the final state of affairs, just the route than needs to take place to allow the power and control to flow from whatever caprice strikes the powerful elites who wield the most power. Politics is the side effect, not the disease that we must eradicate from the planet if we (you) are to have a chance at survival.

In my time, I have worked in several dozen environmental "struggles", at least a dozen more social human rights and justice "struggles" and several dozen more "mobilizations" for peace. After a lifetime of standing as a continuing testament to sanity and rationality in decision-making, it seems that the powerful elites have only gotten better at their feigned disbelief. No matter what issue one chooses to take up, no matter how modest a proposal one makes, our representatives and leaders seem to blink in ignorance. sadly, far too often, our leaders are unable to even formulate a cogent question designed to help them understand the issue better. Many, who felt the time was right in the sixties to ban the bomb, Love Mother Nature and make love not war had the fight wrung out of them by encroaching responsibilities, like paying a mortgage or having insurance...heck, many had to give up a vagabond's life by just having to pay rent. But back in those days, there were far more people who considered themselves socialists or communists than there may be today, but it is not because their core beliefs changed...it is because other folks have perceptions the push them away from using those terms. Especially in farm country, but all through the nation co-pos exist. places where people who can't afford big ticket items pool resources to share an expensive thing. Truthfully, even some corporate execs "share" jets. This is socialism. If you took the time to explain to most farmers that they were indeed socialists, because they hire out planting or harvesting because of the high cost of equipment, or take their seed to a cooperatively owned grain elevator. Perhaps something as simple as volunteering for the local fire company might just seem like the "right thing to do", but in their eyes, perhaps none of those things seem socialist to them. Same with the "conservatives". They might claim that they have every right to squander whatever resources they have the wherewithal to pay for. This is a common belief amongst those who gobble up more than their share of resources. Conserving has nothing to do with the term conservative.

The USA has a peculiar way of saying that people are either "conservative" or "liberal", but in my lifetime most "liberals" were the ones driving foreign cars and conserving fuel, decades before the first "oil crisis". Conservatives will say that "they" support limited government, (quizzically many liberals agree on that point) but under their leadership, government spending has risen more under than under administrations that leaned "left". There have always been those who knew that the in fighting and debates over what terms to use for debate, or what part each of us plays in the political spectrum have all been created falsely by those who seek to divide us and conquer public opinion. The people of the planet need to help leaders from every continent see the fallacy of opposition. what we are all opposed to is Imperialism, nationalistic fascists, religious zealots and ideologues, oppression in every form, and the extractive economies that pay no heed to the suffering they create amongst the people. Now, and for future generations the people of the Earth must stand for protection of mother earth, protection of the "commons", so that the planet can support as many of us in the future as possible. Our drive needs to change from amassing large fortunes to distribution of wealth, and resources more equitably. We are creating ever-larger food deserts and forcing more and more people into spending more and more of their lives in them, just to support ultra wealthy individuals and corporations. It seems that the harder that the public fights for limits, the more violent, and well-funded, the opposition to create any meaningful change becomes. In the future you may ask, "Where were the people, when these fights needed to be fought?" I say to you that we have not lost on account of lack of trying, but rather we were often overlooked or marginalized by well-funded elites bent on having their way with the future. Public subsidies in the form of birth defects, poverty, bankruptcy, dislocation, disease, disability or creating squalor for the sake of "development", or profitability are criminal. They always have been and they will forever be unjust, but until we can teach the oppressors that they will not be tolerated, they will continue to crush our rights to lubricate the machines of capital, aka power and control.