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Grieving Change, Celebrating Rebirth
Grieving Change, Celebrating Rebirth
The end of one story, and the beginning of another
After fifteen years, I have parted ways with Deep Green Resistance over some disagreements on how to best build the movement. I feel profound sadness about leaving an organization that I helped build. But at the same time, a sense of openness fills me.
Change can bring grief, but it can also allow new flourishing. Like a wildfire that fertilizes the soil, brings sunlight to the forest floor, and allows the seeds of fire-adapted plants to sprout, that which seems like destruction is sometimes renewal.
Most of my work is continuing with no change. The last few weeks have been almost as busy before. I do this work for passion, not a paycheck.
Protect Thacker Pass is working on some ambitious collaborations with our Tribal allies to educate and build opposition to mining and energy projects. We continue to fight the lawsuit filed by Lithium Nevada Corporation against myself and six other water protectors, and to fight the $49,890.13 fine the Federal Government levied against Will Falk and I for building pit toilets for native elders praying at Peehee Mu’huh.
We need significant funding to make this possible, so please donate to our new fundraising page if you are able.
Note that we have a new fiscal sponsor, Fertile Ground Conservancy. Formerly known as Fertile Ground Institute for Social and Ecological Justice, FGC is a small nonprofit that I’ve been involved with since 2009. Some of you may remember it as the host of the Earth at Risk events in the Bay Area between 2010—2014.
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When The Lights Go Out
When The Lights Go Out
Dreaming of a power outage that lasts forever
Each winter, storms knock out the electricity to my home. I live in the country, over hills and past muddy pastures and brown meadows. Snow and ice grip the trees, pulling them past the breaking point, and the lights flicker and die.
The first thing I notice is the quiet. The hum of the refrigerator, the ticking of the hot water heater, the barely perceptible vibration of the electrical system itself. The sounds drop away. That is how I awoke this February morning; to silence, just the murmur of a million wet snowflakes settling onto the trees, the grass, the cabin roof.
As a child, I craved power outages. School canceled, all obligations swept aside — an excuse to bypass the siren song of television, jobs, routine, and to instead place candles on the table and sit together around the flickering light. All this, of course, after the obligatory snowball fight.
Luck and privilege underlie my experience; the luck of living in a temperate climate, where a small fire and sweatshirt keep us warm inside; the privilege of a family with just enough money to relax and enjoy power outages despite not being able to work.
Power outages are still magical times for me. Now, grown, I live far enough away from the city that outages can last many days. We sit around the wood stove after a day of chores, cooking dinner slowly on the stovetop, snow melting in a pot for tea. Nothing is fast. There is no rush, and nowhere to go, and nothing to be done beyond: talk, read, cook, wash dishes in a tub with fire-warmed water. It is a balm to a soul chafed by the demands of modernity — speed, productivity, constant connectivity.
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Our Energy “Needs” Are Driving a Mass Extinction
Our Energy “Needs” Are Driving a Mass Extinction
Nuclear, fossil fuels, and renewable energy all cause major harm to ecosystems. Are we willing to accept these limits?
The writer Martín Prechtel often talks of the Tzutujil Mayan culture he was adopted into, and that community’s relationship with technology. He describes that, in their traditional ways, the production of a tool such as a knife was a grave and serious matter. Throughout the physical effort of creating the knife, mounting a handle, and sharpening the blade, and extending throughout its use, many prayers and lengthy and exhausting ceremonies were required.
The power of the knife, Prechtel says, requires a spiritual expense, a lengthy reflection and meditation on the origins of the materials, the intended use, the ramifications of the technology, and the proper mindset with which it is to be used.
The Tzutujil Maya, Prechtel says, didn’t invent bulldozers or aircraft carries—not from any stupidity, but out of a cultural recognition of the costs (ecological, material, and spiritual) of such technologies.
The contrast between this approach to our physical tools and their impacts on the world around us and our communities could hardly be more different from the perspective on technology in modern civilization. Rarely do we ask the question, “should we invent this?” Even more rarely is that question answered with “no”—at least, not by the people with the power to influence the outcome.
Today, every new technology which can give military or business advantage is essentially automatically accepted. The ideology of progress has evolved from “manifest destiny” to “technological progress.” But the genocide and ecocide continues to underly the process of expansion. The Chickasaw writer Linda Hogan calls this “a sort of madness that is a god to people.”
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