I have recently and repeatedly mentioned the Give Back as an important part of my daily practice. It is a rite based on the study of ecology. No natural organism creates waste. The idea of waste in nature is completely unknown. Everything given is transformed into abundance. All cast off "waste" is actually raw material for another trophic level. I have seen several news stories about how giving to not-for-profit groups has expanded. Some NGOs (non-governmental organizations) have received donations of more than five times their annual levels just since the election! It seems that We the People are speaking in language the oligarchs understand.
For what my personal opinion is worth, I want to share information about several groups that I know of and trust to actually follow through on their mission statements and are effective at transforming the environment in ways that make a difference for the communities they serve and that will have impacts across the generations.
kiva.org provides microloans that allow recipients to greatly improve their quality of life and build community, because repaying the loans mean others become eligible to utilize the same money!
charitywater.org builds infrastructure that saves thousands of hours currently spent collecting polluted water from surface waters. Their water systems are efficient, low-cost, but effective. Life-changing!
grow-it-forward.org Like the Green Bay Garden Blitz, but their beds are gathered together in a community garden rather than spread all through the city tucked away in folks' backyards.
My personal favorite, because I'm partial to our work, is:
ecotoursofwisconsin.org We have planted over 60 thousand native tree seedlings and over three million tree seeds across Northeast Wisconsin. Our char classes are designed to create habitat conducive to healthy soil microbes, whose wastes feed the generations to come,7 generations!
Instead of letting our fear strike us to inaction, we need to continue to take reasoned steps to lead. The revolution that has never been televised has had to suffer the slings and arrows of being called "A bunch of crazy hippies.", They have even used the term "revolutionaries" in a negative sense, against the facts which are foundational to our positions. Peace has value, primarily because you get to stop spending money on war and destruction. Avoided costs are something even "corporate types" are beginning to understand. The writing on the wall has said the same thing for generations. Only billions of dollars of wealth being squandered to "convince" us of the opposite being true. solid steps to sustainability can be made in every part of our existence.
One friend switched all of their compact florescent lighting (CFL) to LED (light emitting diode) his savings for just his home, are twenty dollars a month on electricity! That is money he can afford to give back for others to benefit from his new-found "prosperity". The more ways you find to "give back", the more you will find the rewards are always larger than the investment. Many churches say "give until it hurts", but their follow through on how they spend the money may not always line up to the rhetoric. The groups I mention are thrifty as well as effective.
Building community and creating possibilities for future generations require us to actively focus on changing our culture to use sustainable practices, thrift and science-based decision-making. It is what humans are best adapted to do. About 100 watts of energy hit the earth per square foot, 283.6 BTU/hr. to be exact. We each have to find a way to get calories from this process and expend them. Science tells us that to determine if something is alive, we need to determine whether or not it exchanges gasses, uses energy for metabolism, grows, reproduces and both responds and adapts to the environment. All of these groups do these things as well, so by the scientific definition, our groups are alive, let us keep them and the soil vital and healthy!
For what my personal opinion is worth, I want to share information about several groups that I know of and trust to actually follow through on their mission statements and are effective at transforming the environment in ways that make a difference for the communities they serve and that will have impacts across the generations.
kiva.org provides microloans that allow recipients to greatly improve their quality of life and build community, because repaying the loans mean others become eligible to utilize the same money!
charitywater.org builds infrastructure that saves thousands of hours currently spent collecting polluted water from surface waters. Their water systems are efficient, low-cost, but effective. Life-changing!
grow-it-forward.org Like the Green Bay Garden Blitz, but their beds are gathered together in a community garden rather than spread all through the city tucked away in folks' backyards.
My personal favorite, because I'm partial to our work, is:
ecotoursofwisconsin.org We have planted over 60 thousand native tree seedlings and over three million tree seeds across Northeast Wisconsin. Our char classes are designed to create habitat conducive to healthy soil microbes, whose wastes feed the generations to come,7 generations!
Instead of letting our fear strike us to inaction, we need to continue to take reasoned steps to lead. The revolution that has never been televised has had to suffer the slings and arrows of being called "A bunch of crazy hippies.", They have even used the term "revolutionaries" in a negative sense, against the facts which are foundational to our positions. Peace has value, primarily because you get to stop spending money on war and destruction. Avoided costs are something even "corporate types" are beginning to understand. The writing on the wall has said the same thing for generations. Only billions of dollars of wealth being squandered to "convince" us of the opposite being true. solid steps to sustainability can be made in every part of our existence.
One friend switched all of their compact florescent lighting (CFL) to LED (light emitting diode) his savings for just his home, are twenty dollars a month on electricity! That is money he can afford to give back for others to benefit from his new-found "prosperity". The more ways you find to "give back", the more you will find the rewards are always larger than the investment. Many churches say "give until it hurts", but their follow through on how they spend the money may not always line up to the rhetoric. The groups I mention are thrifty as well as effective.
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| The sun is setting on fossil energy. The faster we understand that, the sooner we will face reality. |
