We humans are self-organizing systems, we do not have to tell our hearts when to beat. We have, in our collective history also developed many examples of stable, self-organizing communities, based on psychic structures, concepts of reverence, transcendence and the sacred, that permitted voluntary internalizing of restrain in our behavior . . . This ability to self-organize is encoded in our DNA. We know how it could be – we’ve always known: the vision of empathy between humans and their harmony with the ecosystem. . .
-Hazel Henderson, Creating Alternative Futures (1978)
This article was published in 2006, in Vol. 6, No. 3 & 4 of Gaian Voices – and elsewhere too, I just haven’t kept track. When I wrote it, I was living in Fryeburg, Maine (I’m in NY State now), my garden was established, but still young. Though sixteen years have passed since this piece was first published, its relevancy has not diminished, only increased – dramatically! I rediscovered this piece looking for my interview with Hazel Henderson (to add to the website) in the same issue. I welcome your comments and ideas!
In 1988, my book Economics as if the Earth Really Mattered was published. David Albert, founder of New Society Publishers, approached me at my first Bioregional Congress (the second held in North America) in the summer of 1986. I had been publishing Catalyst: Investing in Social Change for about a year, a newsletter that profiled organizations, projects, and enterprises that challenged the status quo of capitalism by striving to put people, communities, and the Earth before profit. David liked what I was doing and wanted me to write a book. I was surprised. And thrilled. Being a published author was one of my childhood dreams. So after thinking about it for maybe a minute, I agreed.
At the time, ecological economics (what I called Gaian Economics) was an original idea. Very few people were aware of community-based economics and even fewer gave much thought to the Earth in the context of the economy. Which made no sense since the Earth is the foundation for all life, all human activities, including economics. It was an exciting time. Organizations like the Institute for Community Economics, Co-op America, and the E.F. Schumacher Society were beginning to pioneer models like community land trusts, revolving loan funds, worker-owned businesses, various forms of co-ops, and exploring what it meant to be a socially responsible business with more than a financial “bottom line”.
In 1985, at a conference on Whidbey Island, WA, I met Michael Linton whose LETS system in British Columbia pioneered an expanded barter/trading system using debits and credits which created a barter community rather than the standard one-on-one barter relationship most were used to. Today LETS systems exist around the world, as well as community currencies modeled after ITHACA HOURS in which an actual currency is exchanged, the value of which is determined by the community that creates it. The idea was that these and other community-based models would make it possible to transform the economy from the ground up. That these grassroots efforts would grow and spread, and capture the people’s imaginations to make a real difference in how we lived our lives. (Note: for updated info on Michael/LETS, see link at the end of the article. Unfortunately ITHACA HOURS is no longer in circulation. Still, it is a viable model that has a proven track record – not just in Ithaca. Community currencies with physical money have been used in many places, even back in the depression when it was called “script”. The Schumacher Center for for a New Economics (formerly the E. F. Schumacher Society mentioned later in this piece) is evolving community currencies, and other community-based economic models to this day. See link at the end of the article).
Still, while community-based economics did a decent job dealing with social justice issues, Earth and spirit were rarely, if ever, discussed. How, I wondered, other than environmental impact assessments, could we give Earth a voice? Some championed the idea of sustainability, but who defined it? And towards what ends? Eventually the Bruntdland Commission determined that something was sustainable if it provided for today’s needs not at the expense of future needs. Again, whose needs? And who decides?
The hardest part of writing my first book was the section on Gaian Economics. When it became clear that I had to define what I meant by a Gaian Economy, rather than demonstrating it through examples (in other words, I needed a theory, I needed concepts), I doubted whether the book would ever come out. I didn’t have the language of economics to work with, nor did I have a grasp of the technicalities of the subject. All I had was a vision and my personal relationship with Earth. Intuitively, I knew that an economy that took Earth’s needs into consideration would need to be modeled after healthy ecosystems. After all, we’re all ONE here. Humans and our human constructs are not separate from soil, water, trees, insects. Everything impacts everything else.
So I took myself and my yellow-lined pad to a quiet, peaceful place and I observed and I felt. And I asked for guidance. I asked to be a voice for Earth and I promised to do my best to listen and translate. And I came up with Chapter Two, “An Economy for the Living Earth”. The first step, I realized, to creating a Gaian Economy is changing our perspective, changing how we see and think about ourselves, our lives, our purpose, and our relationships, including our relationship with the natural world.
To me, everything has meaning and a story to tell. There are no accidents, as my grandmother used to say. So I gave this example to illustrate what I meant by changing our perspective: You’re walking down the road, deep in thought, not really paying attention to what’s going on. The breeze picks up and a beautiful, red maple leaf flutters in your path. You have a choice. You can notice it, pick it up, and see it for the gift it is, or you can ignore it and walk on. If you pick it up it becomes part of your story. You are touched by its beauty and perhaps it even has a message for you, something to do with whatever you were in deep thought about. You look up, see the tree from which it fell, and smile, maybe even feel grateful for the gift. Your choice to pick up the leaf opened you, perhaps made you smile. Then you meet someone walking on the path and you smile at him, and he smiles back. And so on. But if you had ignored the leaf nothing would have changed. Do you see what I mean? It’s a subtle thing but no less real for that. This is one of the many ways Earth, Gaia, participates in our lives if we remain open and aware.
So this open perspective, this type of mutual, active participation is a prerequisite for creating a Gaian Economy. We must become conscious of the many ways our lives and the life of Earth are connected – and not just as us using Earth’s resources to make stuff. And as our relationship with Earth becomes more personal we will make different choices. Beyond this there are certain natural processes essential to healthy ecosystems that can be translated into principles to guide us as we create a Gaian Economy.
Here’s what I observed: Everything has a place and a purpose from the largest boulder to the most infinitesimal bacteria. This is the web of life and we are a part of it, connected to that boulder and that bacteria just as surely as we are to our children. So we need to have respect for this web and we need to learn how to cooperate so as not to tear the web, and ultimately ourselves, apart. This is pretty basic. Our current economy is based on competition, self-interest, and profit above all else. This perspective is tearing apart the web of life, destroying whole ecosystems, along with human communities and cultures. This is even more obvious today than it was twenty or so years ago, so in theory it should be easier to integrate the principle of cooperation into our economic practices.
Paying attention to relationships is key to both the quality of our lives and the integrity of Earth. We know what happens when we ignore or fail to nurture our relationships with others – friends disappear, lovers leave, our children become distant strangers. Same with Earth. Ignoring our relationship with the place we live separates us from the web of life, makes it easier for us to act selfishly when it comes to the environment. We begin to believe that what we want, what we think we need, is all that matters. One of the most important relationships we have is our relationship with the place we live. There is no other exactly like it. When we know our place we can feel at home. Also, places shift and change sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically. Observing these changes and how our places adapt is key to understanding and ultimately acting responsibly.
My garden, which I did not have when I wrote my book, taught me so much about the importance of relationship to place. Every time I walked through the garden gate I entered a special, magical place and it was never the same. There were bees feasting on newly opened blooms or the resident toads to greet, birds to converse with, and tiny hummers who sounded so much like airplanes coming in to land, to praise. There were interesting and beautiful insects to observe, like the tiny bright red spiders in the soil (that aren’t really spiders, they’re predatory mites and are garden friends) or the large white ones cocooning in the bean leaves. Of course my garden was a human constructed place, but over the years it took on a life of its own that I respected. When herbs moved from where I planted them to a place they liked better, I let them be. Sunflowers planted by the birds were always welcome, along with mullein wherever it decided to grow. Over time a certain balance was achieved between the wild places and the beds where I planted herbs and vegetables. And it worked. This taught me about balancing my desires with what came naturally to that specific place. And the rewards – and beauty – of letting some things just be are worth more than whatever I would have gained in quantity of produce had I forced the spirit of the garden to conform to my will.
Just as much a part of my garden was the view of the mountains in the distance, the huge maple a few feet away, the ancient crab apple next to the compost, and the Old Saco River that flows (or not, depending on how much rain we have) at the border of my property. This was the larger context of my place: the White Mountains and the Saco River Watershed which has always been in my heart. The garden was the microcosm where I connected to it. I was intimate with the soil, the worms and roots and beetles. The dirt under my nails, the brown stains on my fingers, the insect bites on my ankles, were (and are) part of how I connect with my unique and sacred place. When we really get to know our specific place it becomes an integral part of our lives and we are much less likely to allow it to be compromised or destroyed. Therefore relationship to place is another key value of a Gaian Economy. It is our foundation and from here we can expand to the larger web farther away.
Diversity is a key element in healthy ecosystems. Diversity allows healthy systems to be flexible, to respond to change, to recover from disasters, to be sustainable over time. As already stated, everything has its place and purpose. Extinction is the enemy of diversity and of healthy systems. And the rate of extinction today is unfathomable and unprecedented. The current economy and the perspective that allows it to continue are directly responsible. Just as diversity ensures healthy ecosystems, so it also ensures a healthy economy. When a community relies on one or two major employers, for example, it is devastated if one of them leaves. But when there are numerous smaller employers, a loss is difficult certainly, but the community recovers faster and is more likely to attract a new business to fill the gap. Another aspect of diversity is self-reliance. Take our food system for example. Currently most places in the U.S. rely on food imported from far away, sometimes even from overseas. This is true even in places that have many farms. This makes no sense. Instead of growing acres and acres of potatoes, for instance, it seems more practical to diversify and grow a wider variety of crops. Instead of shipping them halfway across the country, then importing others to take their place, why not simply sell them locally? Then we can import those products we can’t grow for whatever reason or those specialty items we value. This accomplishes two important things: it benefits the community which is no longer dependent on a failing, oil consuming, greenhouse gas emitting transportation system for basic food needs, and it benefits other communities, especially those in other countries that are currently exploited to grow food for export – except those value-added items that can be traded fairly. Eating what grows nearby greatly reduces our carbon footprint, helps us know, intimately, the vagaries of our specific place, and might actually lead to better overall health. Not to mention the benefits gained from having an actual relationship with local farms (the land) and farmers.
Ultimately, the web of interconnected, diverse, essential parts of an ecosystem must be balanced in some sort of harmony. Harmony is the heart of Gaia. It is the appropriate, dynamic balance of the many cycles and systems, the local and the global, life and death. Translating this to economics means paying attention to scale. True, the Earth does sustain some large life forms, but they are supported and balanced by a myriad of small and even microscopic life forms.
Our current economy is based on the concept of continual growth and ever-expanding development. Small businesses dream of expanding. Corporations exist to gobble other corporations, including that now-expanded small business. That Earth is finite is an irrefutable fact but it doesn’t seem to influence business-as-usual. Eventually, of course, the bubble that our economy has become will burst, just as an uncontrolled algae bloom will kill the body of water that sustained it. Yet if the ecosystem had been healthy, possessing all the dynamic parts that provide checks and balances the algae would have continued to play its part in the overall health of the whole. So too with the economy. Yes, there is a place for larger production facilities, but given our energy crisis, given the fact that our highest paying jobs have been exported to other countries where wages are low and environmental regulations are lax or nonexistent, it seems past time to transform the nuts and bolts of how we do business, how we manufacture goods (and what goods we manufacture), and how goods are transported. Scale must be determined by what our places can handle: the available resources*, the needs of the community, our growing awareness of the limits of Earth, as well as the economics of production.
* Speaking of resources, I cringe whenever this word is used, by me or anyone else, to refer to what are, in actuality, gifts of Earth. Trees are not “board feet”, mountains are not mines waiting to happen, water is not “gallons per minute” to be bottled and sold, and so on. Every plant, every animal, every element of Earth has, to quote Native American activist Winona LaDuke, “standing” and thus deserves our respect and consideration, even when we make the choice to make use of it. And when we do so, gratitude is in order. Saying “thank you” is basic, something all of us are taught at a young age. But gratitude isn’t something reserved just for our relationships with human beings. Gratitude is called for every time we harvest our food, cut a tree, turn on the water tap, or breathe deeply of fresh air after a spring rain. When we become consciously grateful for all the gifts of Earth, our perspective will gradually shift to one of respect and participation rather than one of mindless taking and a feeling of entitlement.
It’s important to understand that the economy isn’t separate from everything else nor was it handed down from on high. The economy as it currently exists was created by human beings. The growth mentality that most seem to accept as natural law (since most people alive have little or no experience with anything else) isn’t natural at all, rather it’s the law of the cancer cell, which ultimately kills its host. The biggest block to transforming our economy is our mindset, our way of thinking about business and money, about power and control. We can, and must, change the systems, the policies, and legalities under which businesses and corporations operate. We can, and must, demand accountability, not only to our communities but to Earth.
How do we do this? Years ago, when I wrote Economics as if the Earth Really Mattered I would have responded that what is needed is to focus on the grassroots, work locally to put in place the models and concepts I wrote about with such hope. I still agree with that, of course, but the world has changed dramatically. Fact is, many of the projects I wrote about back then are still going strong and many of the concepts and ideas are now part of the mainstream. No one thinks it’s unusual for women or workers to own their own businesses. When Michael Linton began promoting his LETS system back in the early-1980s people had a difficult time grasping how it would work. Today, even though local currencies don’t exist everywhere, the concept of community money is easily explained and understood. Kind of like young kids taking to computers like ducks to water whereas their grandparents (like me!) had such a hard time figuring out the technology. Community supported agriculture programs are almost everywhere today, but I can remember painstakingly explaining to workshop participants how such a thing worked, and not everyone “got” it. Today everyone knows what a carbon footprint is, and most understand the concept of carrying capacity. And yet the corporatized global economy is even more rapacious, gone are the mom and pop stores, the independent groceries and pharmacies and hardware stores, and Earth is more endangered than ever. Our rivers may not be as polluted overall, but industrial toxins are everywhere and in everyone, from the most seemingly pristine ecosystem to mother’s milk. And climate change is advancing so quickly (faster than anyone imagined possible) there are those who think it’s too late no matter what we do. And they could be right.
So yes, we need to begin at home, in our communities. And perhaps the first thing is to have some serious conversations about what it means to be a human being alive in these times, and about how we relate to our unique place and to Earth, and get specific. We need to transform all our systems from the ground up: food, transportation, energy, education, health care, housing, and so on.
At the same time, and equally important, we need to open ourselves to hear the voices of Earth as they come to us through plants or rocks or trees or mountains, however our hearts and spirits allow. If you feel called to take up kayaking, as my son and his family were, then do it wholeheartedly. Get on the water, open your eyes and ears and mind to the voices there. Pay attention. If you feel that plants are your teachers, find ways of getting to know them through gardening, spending time in the fields and woods where you live, even planting herbs in pots is a beginning. Don’t do any of this for the obvious benefits – exercise, fresh air, food, whatever – instead open yourself to the subtle. Give your senses free rein: smell, taste, touch, sit quietly and listen, close your eyes and dream. Become fully human!
In my days of giving speeches I was fond of saying that what we need to do is fall in love with Earth and then everything will change. I still believe this is the one most important thing we can do because only love will save us. Only love can guide our hearts and minds to do what is right in the long term. Yes we will make mistakes. We are, after all, human. But as my beloved grandmother used to say to me, over and over, “Love is the most powerful force in the universe. All things are possible in Love”. And she was right. This is what it comes down to. And that “all things are possible” part? That’s what I’m holding on to. For myself, for my sons, and for my grandchildren.
There are no easy answers. No one right path. I know I’ve said this before but I’m going to say it again: Each one of us has a unique gift and our purpose is to learn what it is and offer it to the world. We did not come here to get rich or own lots of stuff or be comfortable. We came here to learn and love and give and hurt and love and give some more. And I believe with all that I am that when enough of us wake up and find our unique path, things will turn around.
You know how, when you’re trying to untangle a chain or a rope, at first it’s a struggle to figure out what to pull to straighten things out but eventually as you keep at it the tangle gets less and finally you undo one knot and the whole tangle gives way? That’s how I see our situation. We’re in one hell of a tangle, a tangle that threatens to strangle us alive and all who live here as well. But we can’t give up the struggle and if we stick to it, eventually (I pray) we’ll find that one last knot and the paradigm will shift and nothing will be the same again. It will not be easy. And there are no guarantees we’ll succeed. But it is possible and for now that has to be enough.
- RESOURCES
- For an update on Michael Linton and LETS: https://www.lowimpact.org/posts/lets-origins-michael-linton-letsystems
- Schumacher Center for a New Economy: https://centerforneweconomics.org/