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| In Olympic NP about to bond with a Doug Fir |
Well hello! You are
here, and I’m so glad. I love reading
blogs for two reasons. First, I might
literally be the nosiest person alive and I love to hear people’s stories. I feel we can learn so much by looking at the
experiences of others. Second, I love
the freedom of information that comes with blogs, but, as a lover of critical
thinking (who isn’t really?) I also love reading an entry and thinking “that’s
crazy talk.” For this second reason, I’ve
always been a little hesitant to start my own blog. I do a whole lot of crazy talking. But I think I have finally settled on a topic
about which I can mad gab with some authority.
The idea of viewing
myself in an ecosystem context was born a few years ago when I was
attempting to read Jim Merkel’s book Radical Simplicity. He talks about equitable living and how much
land space would be available to support each human life if the productive land
on Earth was shared equally (spoiler alert, it isn’t). That was about 4.5 acres*. These 4.5 acres would have to produce
everything to meet an individual’s needs:
food, shelter, clothing, transportation, etc. At this point, I wasn’t too freaked out by
the idea. I like to share and I live a
pretty simple life, so 4 acres should be more than enough for me! Then Merkel points out the obvious flaw in
this plan… that’s for 4 acres for each human. Just people.
My mind was literally blown. What
about the orangutans (my faves), walruses, clown fish, fruit flies, and guava
trees! How many resources should we be
leaving for them? I literally couldn’t believe
I had never thought about this. Certainly,
my personal choices have been influenced by social justice and environmental issues,
but seeing the two paired in such an explicit way was shocking. What was a little hippie-ecologist to do?!
