My

Worth the read.

Wake Up and Smell the Roses

One of the dominant themes in my book, Through a Lens of Emptiness: Reflections on Life, Longevity and Contentment, is the unity of man and nature. Although I draw heavily on the Symbolism in Asian style gardens (particularly Zen Gardens), I have always felt a kinship with the natural world. I am sure my children and grandchildren will remember how I would rather capture a spider found inside our house a release it into the garden rather that killing it. Life after all is life.

In addition to the inherent reverence for the natural world that in integral to Buddhist and Daoism traditions, I have also been inspired by the American Transcendentalists and the Romanticises. The significance of the unity of man and nature was recognized yet again by a Global Conference on the Environment. The Paris document holds great promise if and only if it is acted on wit deliberation.

Perhaps there is a future for fossil fuels if time, money, and energy are directed toward innovation. Are there new technologies that can be brought on line to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions of these products? I would think that the petrochemical industries would have a vested interest in doing so. Research costs money. Rather than spend that money on improving extractive technologies, why not invest in cleaner utilization technologies and highly efficient renewable energy technologies instead. The almighty bottom line needs to be redefined from profit, dividends and wealth generation to a new bottom line that reflects expenditures which massively diminish the impact of climate change on the peoples of the world.

Urban habitat restoration project.

Capitalists exploit the resources of the world for profit in the guise of improving life for the masses. The pure and amoral pursuit of the scientist exploits technologies to improve life for the masses. Capitalists exploit Science and Technology to improve its bottom line. If that exploitation happens to benefit humankind they are the first to “toot their horns.” If that exploitation makes a profit but is harmful to man, then they either stay mum, actively deny the facts, or try to “put lipstick on the pig,” and make us all feel better about what they are doing to make our lives better.

If politicians and the captains of industry would only live by the axiom “Do No Harm,” the world would likely be a better place. If they felt the “unity of man and nature” in their bones, the sentiments of the Paris Agreement would be a clarion call to mankind and have as profound an effect on the human psyche as “The Rights of Man”.

Wake up and smell the roses” is not such a cliché anymore.

Project Biosphere in 2015

Project Biosphere initiated on Earth Day in 1990.