Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
It is a law of physics that all matter is conserved—our bodies return, return, return. This is the message of ecologists, and of mystics—that each life is radically connected to all of life, always, with nothing so small that it can be lost.
Lyanda Lynn Haupt • Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit
“As climactic change begins to affect long-range strategic planning for human survival, as the Earth's stocks of pelagic food fish plummet, as dry-land aquifers are drained, we can easily believe we've been shortsighted in a loss of intimacy with place, in largely ignoring the impact geography has on our daily lives.” Barry Lopez from embrace
... See moreIn the same vein, we’re reminded of author Richard Louv’s description of “nature deficit disorder.” Louv recognizes our alienation from nature, but his choice of language is weak and conventional. His “nature deficit” and “Vitamin N” suggests that nature is something akin to a dietary supplement, something that we can purchase in a health food
... See moreFrank Forencich • The Art is Long: Big Health and the New Warrior Activist
Focusing mainly on philosophical rather than safety concerns, the authors discussed what it meant to be human, to pursue happiness, to respect nature’s gifts, and to accept the given. It argued the case, or more accurately it preached the case, that going too far to alter what is “natural” was hubristic and endangered our individual essence.
Walter Isaacson • The Code Breaker
View in the Farnese Gardens
Stephen Cope • The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling
This suggests a general operating principle similar to the Leopoldian land ethic, often summarized as “what’s good is what’s good for the land.” In our current situation, the phrase can be usefully reworded as “what’s good is what’s good for the biosphere.” In light of that principle, many efficiencies are quickly seen to be profoundly destructive,
... See moreKim Stanley Robinson • The Ministry for the Future: A Novel
Alienated from nature, human existence becomes a void, the wellspring of life and spiritual growth gone utterly dry. Man grows ever more ill and weary in the midst of his curious civilization that is but a struggle over a tiny bit of time and space. —Masanobu Fukuoka, THE NATURAL WAY OF FARMING
Stephen Harrod Buhner • The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicine to Life on Earth
a chastened version of civilization — one that’s learned to live within sustainable limits — stumbles through. That’s our best case scenario, if we’re being realistic.
Andrew Boyd • I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor
