We Knew It Wasn’t Going To Be Pretty…
BUT first things first:
HAPPY EARTH DAY!!
We’ve never had a more important celebration of our planet than this one.
WHY? We’ve never had these levels of pollution, extinction, and threat to all life and ourselves before, and at the same time, we’ve never had better proof that the Earth Can Heal than this coronavirus pandemic lockdown and global economic crash.
It’s certainly not pretty, but we all knew the end of an era would get ugly in some ways — we just didn’t think it would be like this: oil producers are paying buyers $40 to take barrels of oil, wild animals have returned to unlikely places, the air in the most polluted places on earth is crystal clear, Venice’s canals clarified within days and look almost Bahamian, and it seems that ALMOST everyone online is questioning the status quo, our old economic system, and even our political structures as NONE OF THEM can respond to the current crisis. That means quite simply they don’t have the ability to respond to this i.e. they can’t take responsibility: BUT it’s more than the individual, it’s the entire system they are couched in.
Dan Barber, famous chef, is even saying that the Farm-to-Table system is broken and failed us — we are in completely NEW TERRITORY. Folks are realizing we need something NEW but for almost everyone, there’s no clarity YET on what that is.
We can tell a few things about what people need even if they can’t articulate it well YET:
#1. An AntiFragile Economy — it can’t be based on speculation, oil, war, or even trade. It has to be bioregional and adapt and grow stronger with disruption and shock — the exact way that natural systems or organisms strengthen in nature.
#2. Jobs and Careers of Meaning & Integrity — people don’t want to go back to work. They are happy being stuck at home though they are increasingly worried about money, the future, and their friends and families stuck in the same situation.
#3. Real Healthcare — our healthcare systems must spread health, not just react to health problems. Currenlty, our healthcare systems foster fragility and dependence on patented medications and expensive procedures. In the US, we’ve always touted our miraculous healthcare system to solve problems, but it’s failing miserably at this current challenge because it looks to a patentable solution only to the current problem. We need preemptive and preventative care — we need honest solutions, not patented and profitable prescriptions. We need to be outside more, physically more active (i.e. cardiovascular workouts are needed), eating regenerative organic food (organic is NOT good enough), and we need to recognize that our Health is intrinsically linked to the health of ALL LIFE on this planet. Cities are hardest hit by coronavirus especially because they are places lacking nature: they don’t produce their own oxygen, they are low oxygen environments to begin with, and in winter fresh oxygen comes from the oceans in areas where everything is dormant, and places like NYC are far from the West coast and have very low oxygen levels in winter which is likely why we are seeing such a divergent reaction between California and New York in relation to the coronavirus (also proximity is a factor: Californians have built-in social distancing compared to Manhattan). SO the west coast’s kelp forests, the bacteria in the air that form clouds, the gut bacteria inside of us — they are ALL part of nature and we must recognize, respect, and work with them if we want to be truly healthy.
The fact is we’d be healthier and happier if we had a system that honored people, the planet, and our collective futures — it just wouldn’t make hand over fist profits for a small group of people: that’s the reason we don’t have an ethical system yet. A small group of people in power in each of our individual cultural and governmental systems and global economies makes these decisions and that too is fragile, prone to failure, and spreading problems just by its flawed nature, BUT at this time, their control, their power, and their profits are EVAPORATING. They are losing everything, and opportunity for real change is COMING FAST!!
What Can We Do?
#1. Plant a Garden — there’s nothing more revolutionary, health-conscious, ethical, or pragmatic than planting a garden, saving the seeds, and preserving the harvest. DO IT TODAY!
#2. Plan Your Future — there’s nothing worse than someone else deciding your future for you: that’s what it is to have a boss, to be stuck in the status quo hamster wheel, and to be in debt. While we are stuck in our homes, this is the time to plan to rise like a phoenix out of this situation, to break the bonds on our imprisonment, and step into the life we were meant to live.
#3. Make Big Moves — I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: we cannot shift into a regenerative future by taking steps in the right direction, we must instead take bold LEAPS to make it happen. The opportunities to reverse the damage to our planet, ourselves, and our future are further apart every day, so it’s increasingly harder to make these changes as the situation further degrades rapidly. Desertification is spreading like wildfire, Oxygen levels are dropping in cities, Ocean acidity is rising FAST…
…And there are things outside of our control that are going to make things HARDER:
“Famines of Biblical Proportions” Are Coming if drastic actions are not taken now and may be unavoidable. Locust swarms, record low rainfall, drought, and the coronavirus crisis has brought our fragile globalized economy to its knees and the most vulnerable are already feeling the severity of it. From the BBC, though it’s nearly everywhere as a headline:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52373888
The Poles ARE Shifting (the US Navy has requested new maps with a new location for the North Pole) — this could have totally unforeseen consequences, like plunging Europe and the US East coast into a localized ice age, OR it could just mean incredibly bad winter storms and deathly cold spikes. Despite almost 100 years of patented weather modification techniques, we cannot turn off weather events, we only can nudge existing patterns and without true precision still. If you think this is conspiracy theory, please check out what the US Navy, Washington Post, & scientists are saying here & WHY the Crisis is Making it Harder to Track: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/01/17/north-pole-is-moving-shutdown-means-we-arent-keeping-up/
Food, seed, & medical supply shortages, supply-line disruptions of all kinds, and bioregional collapse of economies and governance are going to continue because our policy makers and governments have no plan for fixing the current system. They are only trying to react to the current problem and get things back to status quo, BUT nothing can go back to the old system in reality: it’s TOO FRAGILE, and we all know it now.
There’s always a 2nd Wave in these Pandemics. With the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak that killed millions, the 2nd wave was the MOST DEADLY. Keep that in mind as people push and rush to get back to the status quo, back to work, back to the crammed subway cars, back to pushing ourselves for a paycheck, back to bosses and meaningless deadlines and objectives… they are risking their lives and the lives of everyone they encounter.
So… What is going to happen?
It’s really up to us to determine what is going to happen — we have the ball and it’s up to us to run with it. I think folks are finally beginning to realize that right now — this is our moment.
My hope is that we will double down on regenerative living and bioregional economies. Local regenerative businesses and permaculture homesteads are the best safety measures in these kinds of crises because they rely upon local bioregional abundances that are either naturally available OR self-generated. They do not rely upon outside and unnatural patterns — they are antifragile, adaptive, living systems that we can participate in and strengthen. The grazier with his cattle and holistically managed acres doesn’t change his pattern during this crisis. The market gardener and mushroom farmer are likely sold out every week already this year. They’ve added new protocols for safety but everyone is desperate to get a stable local supply of food setup right now: they are NOT threatened by the current situation but encouraged to step it up, to adapt, and to even thrive in service to their community. Homesteaders are planting more, sharing seeds, and stepping deeper into their understanding of permaculture and applying it more and to more aspects of their life.
It is a time of adaptation, alignment, and reflection.
For me, it has been a time of deep gratitude for the preparation we’ve been able to have the past decade or so of time — we had the food storage, the seed bank, the gardens, the biodigester, the generator, and the greenhouses. My business was already online and robust — I was prepared for this and we even went into isolation weeks before that even became a talking point because we had the luxury of reflection and perspective to guide us. That doesn’t mean we are perfect or that I’ve always done everything right — hehe — I’ve learned almost always by doing things wrong first, but I’m very grateful this time that my family, my boys and my wife, didn’t have to learn this lesson first hand. Seeing how many people have been affected, how many healthy people have succumbed to it, and knowing our family’s history of health — we are superbly grateful for the land we are on, the preparation we’ve been blessed to have, and the resources we have to share with others that can help and protect them at this time.
#1 Share Free Resources — Many if not most of you have already downloaded the free ebooks I offer on my sites — there are also free courses and other downloads that can serve at this time. Please share my resources with people who could benefit from them. They all can be found at ThePermacultureStudent.com — now is the time to help everyone out & share free resources that can help them in real-time. Send them the link to The Permaculture Student 1 which is like a PDC on paper, endorsed by Rosemary Morrow, Neal Spackman, Maddy Harland of Permaculture Magazine, & Geoff Lawton & even used by him in Arabic in his Greening the Desert PDCs, it’s a FREE DOWNLOAD with a Free Introduction to Permaculture:
https://www.thepermaculturestudent.com/get-the-permaculture-student-1-free
#2 Invite your Friends & Family to a Permaculture Course — Are you encountering folks that were uninterested and close-minded before the lockdown that are now suddenly very interested in gardening and regenerative solutions? They’re home, spring is coming or arriving now, and they now realize it: they NEED to start NOW. Help them out: send them a free course or invite them to a course to get them started or to a next level they are needing right now. Maybe invite them to Your Best Garden, the free gardening course to get them started:
https://matt-powers.mykajabi.com/yourbestgarden
#3 Level Up Yourself — Join a learning community or program that challenges you to level up, to take your practice to a new stage of performance. Gain new skills and understanding, connect with experts from around the world, and build your regenerative repertoire despite the chaos unfolding in the world around you. Currently The Advanced Permaculture Student Online has a 60% discount and $50 a month payment plan NO INTEREST scholarship/hardship signup option for everyone affected by the lockdown — you can signup for that here:
https://matt-powers.mykajabi.com/the-advanced-permaculture-student-online-signup-page
This Earth Day is a CALL TO ACTION
We don’t have much time, but we have an opportunity to make real change in our lives, in the lives of every living thing around us, and for the future of all life on this planet. Your impact is immeasurable — it’s time to make it happen, to take steps to live regeneratively, to embrace Permaculture ethics, to partner with Nature, to live the life you were born to live.
JOIN US IN THE REGENERATION!
EARTH CARE, PEOPLE CARE, & FUTURE CARE!!
Grow Abundantly, Learn Daily, & Live Regeneratively,
Matt Powers