Earth Calling: A Climate Change Handbook for the 21st Century

384 Pages·2014·2.69 MB·English

by  Ellen Gunter

Copyright © 2014 by Ellen Gunter and Ted Carter. All rights reserved. No portion of this book,
except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
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Cover photos: Nest © iStockphoto.com/malerapaso; Earth © iStockphoto.com/jimmyjamesbond;
Collage by Mary Ann Casler
Cover and book design by Mary Ann Casler
Earth Calling: A Climate Change Handbook for the 21st Century is sponsored by the Society for the
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develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and
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and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Gunter, Ellen, 1947-
Earth calling : a climate change handbook for the 21st century / Ellen Gunter and Ted Carter;
foreword by Caroline Myss.
pages cm
Summary: “Nature - Environmental Conservation & Protection”—Provided by publisher. ISBN
978-1-58394-767-8 (pbk.)
eBook ISBN 978-1-58394781-4
1. Human ecology—Philosophy. 2. Environmental degradation. 3. Climate change—Social
aspects. 4. Mind and body. I. Carter, Ted, 1956-II. Title.
GF21.G86 2014 304.2′5—dc23 2013034234
v3.1
For Johnny, called home first
—ELLEN GUNTER
For my life partner, Greg Bembry, and my parents, Bob and Julie Carter
—TED CARTER
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword by Caroline Myss
Introduction
PART 1: WE SNOOZE. WE LOSE.
Chapter 1: Understanding What We’re Made Of
A Stroke of Good Fortune
Our Spiritual Skeleton
Why the First Chakra Is Important
The Earth Is an Energy Being Too
Our Common Immune System
Nature as the Cure to Our Disconnection
A Marriage Made in Heaven
How We Start Healing
Chapter 2: The Bed We Have Made
The Microcosm of Us
New Orleans PK
The Widening Impact of Global Warming
Drying Up—Our Dwindling Water Resources
The Heat Is On
Saving the Oceans: Earth’s Blue Heart
The Age of Wildfires
Stormy Weather
A Hurricane Cassandra
The Coming of the Whirlwind
Prophets without Honor
The Way We Were
PART 2: WAKING UP
Chapter 3: Oil Is One
The Opposite of Nature
Spindletop: The Mother of All Salt Domes
Oil and the Open Road
The Merchants of Light
The Birth of the Energy Age
Changing the Face of War
Fueling the Postwar Boom
Emerging Uncomfortable Trends
The End of Easy Oil
Mining the Deep
Keystone XL: The Real Price of Remote Oil
Boom Times in the Bakken
Gas Fracking: Cracking the World Open
Squeezing Oil from Rocks
Coal: The Eighteenth-Century Ideal
Rainforests, Oil, and the Air We Breathe
Externalities: The Real Cost of Things
Different Kinds of Efficiencies
Seeing Ourselves Anew
Where We Go from Here
Chapter 4: Seeds of Discontent
The Seed Savers
The Seed Safes
The Dangers of Lost Seed Diversity
A Slow Process That Hit the Fast Track
The Seed Changers
The Case of the Unknown Illness
Fail: GMOs Enter the Marketplace
Farmers: GMO Crop Contamination and Farmer Liability
Environment: Frankenfish and Gene Jumping
Us: GM Products We Live with Today
Biotech and Industrial Agriculture Myths
How Did GMOs Get Past the FDA in the First Place?
The Distinction Is the Difference
Public Distrust Is Driving More Openness
The Seed Healers
The Modern Origin of Our Break with Nature
The Cost in Despair
The New Earth Stewards
PART 3: YOUR EARTH CALLING
Chapter 5: Reconnecting to the Earth
Stepping into Your Soul’s Journey
Witnessing Yourself: Keeping a Journal
Waking Up: Learning to Look
Your Place on Earth: Seeing Where You Live
Learning Your Bioregion
Waking Up: Learning to Listen
Biodynamics: The Earth’s Healing Power
Findhorn: Mother Nature as Miracle and Mystery
Beginning an Earth-Based Spiritual Practice
Getting Started: Reconnecting to the Earth
Forgiveness Prayer
Chapter 6: The Alchemy of Action
What Moves You?
Start with Dirt
Plant (or Help Tend) a Vegetable or Flower Garden
Plant a Meditation and Healing Garden
Be a Conscious Consumer
Grow Hemp (If It’s Legal)
Getting Started on Your Activism
Earth-Advocacy or Green Organizations
How to Fight Fracking
GMOs and Global Food Security
Healthy Living, Eating, and Gardening Organizations
Ocean Conservation and Action
Offset Your CO
2
Repurposing and Design
Seed Saving and Activism
Tree Advocacy Groups
The Act Part of Action
Civil Disobedience: Putting Skin in the Game
Climate Activism
Everything Breathes Together
Bibliography
Notes
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Foreword
If I could, I would make this book, Earth Calling, essential reading for
every single person drawing a breath on this planet. There is not one
living human being whose survival is not intimately woven into the
exquisite ecological systems of this Earth, all of which are designed to
support the whole of life. Let’s face it, when it comes to the business of
living, we human beings are takers. We have to learn how to be givers.
We consider it a progression of our conscious awareness to come to the
realization that we should not litter or pollute, though we are making
meager progress on that front. We still think of recycling as an
environmental advancement. Let’s be honest—we are still living in a sort
of haze about the environment crisis brewing in our atmosphere. It’s sort
of real, but not really real. A crisis that is represented through statistics
and predictions can only inspire people to change so much, right?
Reports of melting ice sheets that will subsequently cause water levels
in the oceans to rise—which, in turn, will cause the eventual
disappearance of small islands and coastal cities—seem like the makings
of a good Hollywood action film. Actually, Hollywood has made several
films already capitalizing on the threat of ecological disasters, making
them not more real for viewers but, sadly, more make believe.
Meanwhile, as film watchers enjoy the fictitious presentation of the
breakdown of Earth’s ecological system, Al Gore continues to trumpet
his powerful message, presenting some of the same scenarios being
depicted in Hollywood films, only the possibilities and probabilities Gore
speaks about are real. While Gore has acquired world-wide recognition
and growing support for his relentless efforts to raise global awareness
that the Earth’s ecological system is in crisis now—right now—he is
constantly derided by a largely skeptical public that still wants the facts
delivered Hollywood style. And it has to be noted that among those
skeptics are Earth’s major power brokers—that is, those who would have
to change their way of making wealth if they actually admitted that their
“taker” lifestyle is contributing to the destruction of the life system of
the planet. We’ve never had global crimes or global criminals before, but
we do now.
The majority of the population, of course, still wants to simply believe
that all this business about climate change and a multitude of
environmental problems—from personal health to the destruction of our
soil, our seeds, and our animals—is the stuff of good fiction and great
films. I don’t blame them. I’d love to live in that bubble, too. But I know
far too much, and so does Ellen Gunter, who with great care and, I might
add, with enormous personal anguish, devoted years of her life to
writing a book with the intention of shattering personal bubbles.
I can’t tell you how many times I called Ellen and asked, “How’s the
writing going today?” only to find her in a dark, sad place. Perhaps that
day or that week she was organizing the data about air pollution in
China, the latest oil industry scandal, a disappointing ruling from the
EPA, or what GMOs are doing to our health. Every deep researcher of
social, political, medical, or any truth experiences a particular type of
exhaustion that comes from acquiring an overload of facts that so many
people do not know, but should. With Earth Calling, Ellen has been able
to pair that with an even deeper desire to find the right words that can
inspire people to realize the significance of all that she has learned.
More importantly, Ellen understands that if enough readers actually
“get” the urgency and power of her message, we can shift the direction
of the Titanic. We don’t have to hit the iceberg this time. We can each
do our individual parts, and together we can weave an alternative to
endless pollution, underwater water reserves being poisoned by fracked
gas and oil, and corporations determining what vegetables you can plant
or buy. The list is so long. And it’s all in this book.
This book owes much to Ted Carter’s understanding of how the Earth
works and how it speaks to us in countless ways. He was a tireless source
of wisdom, insight, and clarity, and his steady voice was a constant
through this long birthing.
Ellen and Ted gave the book the title Earth Calling, and nothing could
be more appropriate, as Earth is a living Being—granted, the largest
living Being you will ever encounter—and it is calling each of us to fall
back into alignment with the laws of nature. That call manifests through
our intuition, through our organic knowing that something is not right
with how the forces of life feel. We can all sense this in our bones and in
our blood. We can feel the pain in the animal kingdom—admit it. We’ve
grown more sensitive to the feelings of animals. We are all becoming
“animal whisperers” now, whether we want to be that sensitive or not.
We are all awakening to the understanding that it’s not okay to do
nothing when you know something should be done. No more looking
around like some sort of helpless ninny and saying, “Someone should do
something!”
If someone said that to me now, I would hand that individual this
book with these instructions: Read until you are fully inspired.
Don’t worry; you will be.
Every one of us is living through a historic time, one of environmental
and ecological transformation. Earth itself is a participant—indeed, the
greatest participant of all. If she does not make it, none of us will. As
human beings, as spiritual brothers and sisters, we have a calling to
participate in this transformation of life that is unfolding before us—and
within us. We have a calling to walk this beautiful Earth together, to
participate in our own and in the Earth’s transition into a global human
community. Perhaps none of us will live to see that, but we must all
begin to walk together in that direction—it’s where we are all being
called.
Earth is calling. Of that I have no doubt.
Caroline Myss
Oak Park, Illinois
January 2014