Earth and Psyche

Liberty Smith and Sophie Windsor Clive: A Murmuration of Starlings

The movement of the starlings -- called a "murmuration" -- is awesome enough, but I also connected with what I saw as the joy and amazement of observer Sophie Windsor Clive, which very much resonated with my feelings as I watched the video. Because of that experience I decided to post this video at Earth and Psyche instead of one of the other blogs I write for which the encounter with nature recorded here would have been appropriate.

For me this speaks to how encounters with other species can evoke strong feelings that inspire humankind to explore our relationships to nature more deeply.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

 

USGS: Observations of Climate Change from Indigenous Alaskans (9/13/2011 12:30:35 PM)

The USGS coordinated interviews with Yup'ik hunters and elders in the villages of St. Mary's and Pitka's Point, Alaska, to document their observations of climate change. They expressed concerns ranging from safety, such as unpredictable weather patterns and dangerous ice conditions, to changes in plants and animals as well as decreased availability of firewood. 

"Many climate change studies are conducted on a large scale, and there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding how climate change will impact specific regions," said USGS social scientist Nicole Herman-Mercer. "This study helps address that uncertainty and really understand climate change as a socioeconomic issue by talking directly to those with traditional and personal environmental knowledge." 

via www.usgs.gov

Outrage: As Mountaintop Removal Linked to Birth Defects, Politicians Gut Clean Water Act | Common Dreams

I decided to start posting excerpts from blogs and articles I read in which people are speaking of their relationship to the Earth.

I think this one--from a recent article by MaryAnne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign and someone I know from my work as an activist here in Appalachia--reflects her experience of deadly mining practices as an assault on her child and her homeland.

Some background: This week a new study was released that explores the connection between mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia and an increased risk of birth defects. Within days of the release of this study, in a largely party-line vote, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved H.R. 2018, a bill backed by the top Republican and Democrat on the committee, Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.).

According to EPA's legal analysis the bill essentially "would overturn almost 40 years of federal legislation by preventing EPA from protecting public health and water quality."

When our leaders fail to act in a way that recognizes the suffering that surface coal mining imposes on citizens, do we wonder why many people would be outraged by Congressional complicity? Betrayal by the leaders elected to serve the people's interests?

So how would you feel if the very place where you live -- the air you breathe and the water you drink -- means that your baby is at greater risk, even if you take perfect care of yourself? The list of birth defects that threaten babies in the Appalachian coalfields, according to this new study, is gruesome, including circulatory/respiratory, central nervous system, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, and urogenital problems.

My daughter is an 11th generation West Virginian, and we are turning her heritage into a toxic waste dump, unfit for the next generation of West Virginia's children.

Given this groundbreaking new study, I find it particularly enraging that the US House of Representatives is currently trying to pass a bill (HR 2018) that would actually gut the Clean Water Act in order to make it easier for coal companies to continue blowing up Appalachia's mountains and spewing pollution into the air and water of nearby towns and homes.

via www.commondreams.org

Duane Elgin: Why Climate Change Requires A Consciousness Change

Einstein famously said that we cannot solve problems with the same level of perception that created them. We have to step up to a higher and more inclusive level of seeing what is going on in order to understand and solve great challenges. Certainly climate disruption represents one of the greatest tests humanity has ever faced because it is a much higher level problem than the actions which have created it: countless local actions (driving cars, running factories, etc.) have produced global consequences that respect no national boundaries and that imperil our collective future.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Last Mountain

CBS had a great interview with RFK, Jr, Bill Haney, and Clara Bingham on their film, Last Mountain. I couldn't get the video to embed, so here's the trailer, with a link to the CBS interview below it:

 

 

Link to the CBS interview of RFK, Jr, Bill Haney, and Clara Bingham on their film about West Virginia mountain activists and their fight for democracy in Coal River Valley:

RFK Jr. takes on big coal in new film (CBS video)

The issue of mountaintop removal mining and its disastrous impacts on people and nature in Appalachia -- seen through the film, Last Mountain -- speaks to the questions I ask in my research: what moves people to action or prevents it where there is evidence of egregious assault on Mother Earth, and genocide of fellow citizens?

Resistance to Change: a key from cognitive neuroscience (and psychoanalysis!)

I got some links from Joe Brewer at Cognitive Policy Works today that included this video presentation on what needs to happen in order to bring about change in behaviors that are harming people and nature. Joe focuses on some key ideas from cognitive neuroscience that I'll be weaving in with whatever I write about my earth and psyche research project. I decided to post this so I can link back to it in future posts.

Joe's video is brief but has some really fundamental info that, sooner or later, activists, healers, policy makers and just about everybody else I can think of will need to be aware of: