James Samuel

After watching this video, I followed the link to the Natural Homes site, and discovered this beautiful gallery of photos (below), which led me in turn to the Facebook gallery with explanations of each photo according to that most inspiring book “A Pattern Language“. I was given this book by my wife when I was [...]

After 30 years, and a lot of work, my mother is moving on. If you’re looking for land (or know someone who is) then check this out. This is an off-the-grid 66 acre rural property in the Far North of New Zealand, with a beautiful river, established orchard, comfortable home, and so much more.

“…when a society reaches the limits of its stability, and turns chaotic, it becomes supersensitive, responsive even to small fluctuations such as changes in the values, beliefs, world-views and aspirations of its members.”

There are some quite well developed plans afoot which speak about extracting and utilising large volumes of very low-grade carbon-rich coal from mines in Southland. This carbon, which has been safely locked away in the ground for millions of years, would be unlocked and dispersed into the atmosphere. No matter what we do with coal, the end result is the same – the volume of carbon in the atmosphere will increase.

Hosting this Biosphere Reserve meeting on the Marae, seemed entirely appropriate given that the move to become a Biosphere Reserve is a move from the western-dominant anthropomorphic world-view to one that puts humans in their rightful place as part of, not apart from, ecology.

His analysis ends with a fatalistic statement: “Determined action at the global level will become possible only when climate change is no longer some scientific prediction, but a reality that people feel … A world incapable of preventing climate change will have to live with it.”

I put facilitating the buying and selling of land, in the same basket as brokers trading on the stock market. Neither contribute much to the general well-being of the community in which they operate. I don’t believe that any cash benefit to the community, of selling Waiheke land (and homes) to the highest bidder, has outweighed the detrimental effects of the changes that have come about, albeit as unintended consequences.

Talk of sustainability is largely futile while we have a global monetary system whose very design widens the gap between rich and poor and forces continual economic growth. To struggle for social justice and reversing of the destruction of our habitat without introducing a diverse and benign money system is largely misdirected effort.

A few bits of data, with links, to help us get a clearer picture of the landscape. It seems to be part of my role, to feed information, and that includes data to show that yes, we are indeed on a path that is leading to breakdown of society as we know it.