Do you have Nature Deficit Disorder? Do you need a Nature Fix? Join a Coastal Cleanup!
Richard Louv coined the term “nature deficit disorder” to describe modern society’s lack of connection to nature.
Florence Williams describes the “Nature Fix” in her book of the same title:
Can nature really make us feel better, do better, and be better?
I think so!
And so do many researchers.
Children of all ages need to get outside and explore, play, and test boundaries by climbing trees, creating structures, and going deep into nature. But in the US, this just isn’t happening as much any more. The video below compares and contrasts childhood experiences with nature in the US with this elf children in Europe:
Read more…Rising Out of the Mud and Ashes
On Sat. Oct. 6, 2018, at 7:30pm in the 600 seat Lobrero Theater in Santa Barbara CA, OPUS Archives presents Out of the Mud and Ashes, an evening of reflection and entertainment featuring the recipients of the 2018 New Mythos Artist Grants — and I am one of the awardees! Read more…
Climate scientist Robbie Andrew, a senior researcher at CICERO (Center for International Climate and Environmental Research) depicts the increasing “wave” of CO2 riffing on the iconic painting “The Great Wave off Kanazawa” by Japanese artist Hokusai. At the current rate of increase, CO2 will be approximately 900ppm by 2100. A 900ppm CO2 atmosphere means a 4.5C increase in the global average temperature, rendering significant parts of the Earth uninhabitable for humans. At 650ppm, human cognitive functionality drops. More info here. http://artforclimatechange.org/1373-2/
“The dire and seemingly unsolvable fact of climate change—just like the unsolvable fact of our own morality—doesn’t signify the end of ethical thought but its beginning, for it’s only in recognizing the fact that our lives are limited, complicit, imperfect, and interdependent that we begin to understand what it means to live together in this world.” — Roy Scranton, “Raising a Daughter in a Doomed World”
On Sat. Sept. 8, hundreds of thousands of people will RISE for Climate, Jobs, and Justice.
“We need to learn to see not just with Western eyes but with Islamic eyes and Inuit eyes, not just with human eyes but with golden-cheeked warbler eyes, coho salmon eyes, and polar bear eyes, and not even just with eyes at all but with the wild, barely articulate being of clouds and seas and rocks and trees and stars.” — Roy Scranton, “We’re Doomed. Now What?”, New York Times, Dec. 21, 2015
And as this series of tweets from 350.org’s Bill McKibben shows, people are getting the message out NOW and in many creative ways. Read more…
Diversity and Burning Man’s Principle of Radical Inclusion
photo by Leori Gill of Black Rock Citizens gathered around the Man on Burn Night 2018
Just like any city in America, Black Rock City is made up of a wide range of people. Sometimes people are surprised to find that there are even families and children at Burning Man: in fact there are over 600 residents each year in KIdsville, the largest camp at Burning Man, and BRC is full of people of all genders, sexual orientations, and colors.
But while one of the 10 Principles is Radical Inclusion, Read more…
BE Creative
Right now, lots of my friends are doing something that they’ve been trained not to be — creative. Read more…
What’s this graph about you wonder? At Palmer Station Antarctica, starting in late July 2018, severe fissuring of the glacial sheet was equal to a magnitude 6 earthquake. What normally takes several hundred years occurred in one day in a section a little larger than Connecticut. This glacier helps lock down the others in place. Summer is coming to Antarctica and It’s already melted about 400 million tonnes of glacier.
So what are you going to do about climate change and global warming while we still can?
JUMP ON THE BUS with a dynamic group of activists for the Rise For Climate March in San Francisco on Saturday, September 8th. Take part in street art, music, chants and merriment as we demand government leaders take action on global warming. Details below on how to get on the bus! ‘
Or join our actions in Ventura, like the one I organized above on February 11 2017 and for the Climate March 2017!
In preparation for these events, this weekend, join an Artbuild in on Saturday in Ventura or on Sunday in Isla Vista with arts organizer David Solnit. We will be screen printing, painting flags and banners, and planning a street mural for the Sept 8th CA Rise for Climate march. Great way to meet people before the event! There’s also an Art Build in Oxnard Read more…
My Twitter bio lists two homes: Black Rock City, Nevada and Ventura, CA. One is the home of my physical body, and the other is the home of my heart and my imagination. I’ve been a resident of Black Rock City 18 times from 1992-2017. Read more about the early days of Burning Man here Part 1, about growing pains here Part 2, and about the 10 Principles here Part 3. Learn more about Burning Man founder Larry Harvey here. Read more…
