For the first time in my life I claimed responsibility for a garden patch, and I enjoyed the experience immensely so far. If I had still access to my facebook profile, I might pinpoint the time when it all began, I guess it started in January or so.
Due to some accident we had a large branch of a tree in front of the warehouse I'm working in. It looked ugly, took up valuable space and invited itself to be upcycled as sculpture for the front yard. The garden bit was overgrown with weeds at the time, with a healthy parsley bush and some rosemary worth keeping.
Together with Jonyo we decided to create an arch out of two large pieces, after we spend a couple of hours digging up the patch and removing everything not wanted. To make it sturdy, we cemented the base of the branches into the ground, and screwed the other ends into an arch.
As his backyard thrives with plants, Jonyo came back with heaps of cuttings ready to go into the ground, as well as some cans planted with succulents. I enjoyed finding a random arrangement for all the plants given, quite oblivious about their names, growth needs and likeliness to spread. As I finished, it started to rain for a good watering in.
I did know at the time that mulching has plenty of advantages, and enjoyed that the local council provides mulch for free. The parsley and rosemary were still thriving, about twenty or thirty other plants fought for initial survival.
A few weeks after the second of mulch, fruiting bodies of mushrooms appeared. For a few weeks, I could trace the mycelium by connecting the mushrooms sticking their head out. Strike! Shrooms provide a plant nutrient internet, essential for recycling carbon based materials. A fertile canvas opened up, ready for careful experimentation with creating a mini eco system.
While most people enjoyed the transformation, Adrian wanted to plant the front yard as well, but didn't get around doing it. With lots of empty space available, I invited him to cooperate. We found some good spots for heaps of sunflowers, some pepino and chamomile.
I treated all the wooden bits (two planter boxes, the arch and the top of the compost bin) with some old vegetable oil I found in the warehouse. It darkened the milled bits of timber, and brought out plenty of colour in the tree branches. I couldn't resist and integrated a small tensegrity structure.
The chaos came in the shape of a big dog named Wolfie. He enjoyed the garden so much that he dug for sticks, ran over succulents and laid some big heaps of poo. It took me a while to find out the culprit, restoring an unspoiled look of the garden project of mine. Some of the artistic components, a broken vase, a mini chair and a mouse shaped piggy bank have vanished as well. Other bits which might be easy enough to nick still remain. The biggest acts of vandalism are done by visitors to the warehouse usually, and have been sufficiently minor not to be disheartening.
Sometimes neighbours helped themselves to some of the edible parts of the garden, especially while the parsley was thriving. Some of the produce ended up in the kitchen - parsley, rosemary, chard, mint - and I used lots of comfrey for a healing creme.
Winter and some accidents acidifying the soil reduced the variety of plants and colours, and brought some new competitors on. The pineapple sage managed to establish itself and grew into a nice bush, currently flowering in shiny red. Mint and comfrey appeared, and currently thrive as well. Some of the succulents grow very prolific, and take over lots of space.
Watering the garden with an old-fashioned watering can has become a contemplative routine, and a great opportunity to notice what happened with to my plant friends. I hope some of the tomatoes will grow tall and have some fruit, and I'm still waiting for the pepino fruit to ripen. The aloe vera plant which got buried for some while, recovered. It got overgrown by a chard leave as well, but it looks like some of the succulents don't mind living in the shade for a while.
Sorry if I stretched your attention span without eye candy to illustrate the process I witness for nearly a year now. The popular concept of abundance becomes palpable when you stick your hands into soil and keep a garden growing. It takes nurturing, sometimes pruning and weeding out for a good harvest. The hours I spend caring for the front yard never felt like work and gave me a good deal of inner peace.
Showing posts with label system theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label system theory. Show all posts
Friday, December 04, 2015
Friday, April 01, 2011
There is no doubt that the engineering of human society is a difficult and complicated problem of tremendous ethical responsibility, for it involves the welfare of mankind throughout an unending succession of generations. The science of Human Engineering can not be built upon false conceptions of human nature. It can not be built on the conception of man as a kind of animal; it can not be built on the conception of man as a mixture of natural and supernatural. It must be built upon the conception of man as being at once natural and higher in dimensionality than the animals. It must be built upon the scientific conception of mankind as characterized by their time-binding capacity and function. This conception radically alters our whole view of human life, human society, and the world.
Portal
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Global Whining
Our planet offers an amazing abundance, basis for all sort of life. All these life forms have co-evolved with their Umwelt, the climate being part of this Umwelt. Simply being alive means altering the enviroment, transforming food into energy for movement and into various metabolic byproducts.
The abundance of life-sustaining 'stuff' becomes fairly obvious when one considers the amount of energy currently used to propagate a global scare campaign about the climate. It's quite amazing to see how much pollution is created to squabble about global warming. If someone believes strongly that Co2 is the culprit for seemingly catastrophic climatic changes, why don't they use modern technology like video conferencing instead of physically traveling around, creating masses of Co2 in the process?
Which logic dictates that it's okay to destroy old growth forests, which are nature's carbon dioxide traps, when 'climate change' is of such importance? But logic and reason, so it seems, are not part of any proposed solution to the perceived problem.
Rhetorics dictate the media discourse, the old meme 'us vs them' makes 'climate change deniers' to Holocaust deniers, all the while none of the participants of official talks shows any sign of personal responsibility. Politicos claim scientists have found the truth, citizens trust into their politicos, especially if those don't follow their own opinion, but those of impeccable and infallible scientists.
That's right. In any given time of history, scientific knowledge was incomplete, and most assumptions and conclusions wrongly oversimplified. But now, in the 21st century, thanks brilliant fundamentalists like Dawkins, that has changed. Scientists stopped to err, like the Oracle of Delphi they cannot but tell the 'truth'. In earlier times of history saints channeled divine truth to their communities, now scientists are blessed with this job. Hurray, finally I can stop to think for myself, I just find a scientist to answer all my questions.
One of the factors that taints the credibility of contemporary science is the idea of causation. Let's take a simple example, a man stabbed with a knife in his heart. Obviously, the knife caused the death of the man, but it's not weapons, but people that kill people, so the 'cause of death' is the stabber. The 'stabber', however, is not primarily a cause of death, any investigator would look for a motive.
Neither the knife, nor the stabber, nor the combination of knife and stabber suffices as 'cause' for death. The amount of detail about the circumstances of that killing event is theoretically limitless, a judge would certainly require lots more than I made up on the spot to determine whether the deed will be penalised as murder, as man slaughter or as act of self-defense.
Any credible scientist will avoid stating any definite causal chain, as our planetary climate is a highly complex system. System theory as a discipline of science is less than a century old. Chaos theory, an offspring of system theory, became popular during the 1980s, and most definetely deserves consideration when attempting to make predictions about the climate. A 'young' science like that is highly prone to be wrong, new territory needs time for exploration before usable pathways are found.
Mankind is part of the 'finite' system planet Earth, and its activities, especially the technological aspects, affect the entire system. The pollution of man made industry spread through the atmosphere around the globe, it sounds retarded to deny human influence to its environment. Many cultures in history ended in ecological desasters, the lack of understanding of the interconnectedness of nature doomed many civilisations.
If mankind would want to learn from history, than treating nature with more respect must be the consequence. Indigenous people managed to survive for centuries, until globalisation destroyed the balance of their Umwelt. Only sustainable approaches to live with the natural environment succeeded, imposing control over nature with anthrocentric approaches always ended in doom.
It sounds quite hypocritical to claim that controlling CO2 emissions will avert an almost certain catastrophe. Most contemporary species have survived for millions of years on this planet, with about 30,000 years we have just started to use our survival potential as species on this planet. The thought of us (mankind) wiping ourselves off the planet in maybe only a century is way too pessimistic for me to buy into, although I certainly believe that we have the technological capacity to exterminate all human life on this planet.
But okay, let's assume for a second that reducing Co2 in the atmosphere will safe the planet. First priority then should be the preservation of existing 'carbon sinks', which is good old rain forest, saved from activists around the planet since the 1970's, nevertheless shrinking at an alarming rate. Instead of getting hyperactive simply doing less. Less rain forest killed means less heavy machinery running on fossil fuel, less global transport of those goods, and mainly a living ecosystem binding massive amounts of Co2.
And course, reducing emissions at the same time, or at least, not increasing them. Although I'm not a friend of nuclear power, generating energy in this way certainly wouldn't contribute to more Co2. Instead of hailing Iran for its nuclear program as spearhead for non-carbon based energy production, she is demonised. Instead using Australia's sunny predisposition to become world leader in solar technology, sun-deprived Germany, smaller than Victoria, generates more solar energy than entire Australia.
O wait, there's a catch. In global fascism nobody beats its own drum, all march in step. Those hippie ideas of saving forests and green technology creates too much autonomy, and require different solutions for different areas. Once the sheeple have grazed the idea of Co2 causation, their next meager meal is a hidden tax to finance a trading scheme.
The fear mongering in the name of science is already hard to swallow, but a positive influence of trading on the climate sounds like a pretty drug-crazed idea. It's a bit like reinventing the rain-dance, just in a suit, without music, dance and others to pick up the bill. Please, my local politico-parasite, present me a scientist to prove that trading cools this planet, and until then, stop the systematic rape of nature in this country.
Our planet offers an amazing abundance, basis for all sort of life. All these life forms have co-evolved with their Umwelt, the climate being part of this Umwelt. Simply being alive means altering the enviroment, transforming food into energy for movement and into various metabolic byproducts.
The abundance of life-sustaining 'stuff' becomes fairly obvious when one considers the amount of energy currently used to propagate a global scare campaign about the climate. It's quite amazing to see how much pollution is created to squabble about global warming. If someone believes strongly that Co2 is the culprit for seemingly catastrophic climatic changes, why don't they use modern technology like video conferencing instead of physically traveling around, creating masses of Co2 in the process?
Which logic dictates that it's okay to destroy old growth forests, which are nature's carbon dioxide traps, when 'climate change' is of such importance? But logic and reason, so it seems, are not part of any proposed solution to the perceived problem.
Rhetorics dictate the media discourse, the old meme 'us vs them' makes 'climate change deniers' to Holocaust deniers, all the while none of the participants of official talks shows any sign of personal responsibility. Politicos claim scientists have found the truth, citizens trust into their politicos, especially if those don't follow their own opinion, but those of impeccable and infallible scientists.
That's right. In any given time of history, scientific knowledge was incomplete, and most assumptions and conclusions wrongly oversimplified. But now, in the 21st century, thanks brilliant fundamentalists like Dawkins, that has changed. Scientists stopped to err, like the Oracle of Delphi they cannot but tell the 'truth'. In earlier times of history saints channeled divine truth to their communities, now scientists are blessed with this job. Hurray, finally I can stop to think for myself, I just find a scientist to answer all my questions.
One of the factors that taints the credibility of contemporary science is the idea of causation. Let's take a simple example, a man stabbed with a knife in his heart. Obviously, the knife caused the death of the man, but it's not weapons, but people that kill people, so the 'cause of death' is the stabber. The 'stabber', however, is not primarily a cause of death, any investigator would look for a motive.
Neither the knife, nor the stabber, nor the combination of knife and stabber suffices as 'cause' for death. The amount of detail about the circumstances of that killing event is theoretically limitless, a judge would certainly require lots more than I made up on the spot to determine whether the deed will be penalised as murder, as man slaughter or as act of self-defense.
Any credible scientist will avoid stating any definite causal chain, as our planetary climate is a highly complex system. System theory as a discipline of science is less than a century old. Chaos theory, an offspring of system theory, became popular during the 1980s, and most definetely deserves consideration when attempting to make predictions about the climate. A 'young' science like that is highly prone to be wrong, new territory needs time for exploration before usable pathways are found.
Mankind is part of the 'finite' system planet Earth, and its activities, especially the technological aspects, affect the entire system. The pollution of man made industry spread through the atmosphere around the globe, it sounds retarded to deny human influence to its environment. Many cultures in history ended in ecological desasters, the lack of understanding of the interconnectedness of nature doomed many civilisations.
If mankind would want to learn from history, than treating nature with more respect must be the consequence. Indigenous people managed to survive for centuries, until globalisation destroyed the balance of their Umwelt. Only sustainable approaches to live with the natural environment succeeded, imposing control over nature with anthrocentric approaches always ended in doom.
It sounds quite hypocritical to claim that controlling CO2 emissions will avert an almost certain catastrophe. Most contemporary species have survived for millions of years on this planet, with about 30,000 years we have just started to use our survival potential as species on this planet. The thought of us (mankind) wiping ourselves off the planet in maybe only a century is way too pessimistic for me to buy into, although I certainly believe that we have the technological capacity to exterminate all human life on this planet.
But okay, let's assume for a second that reducing Co2 in the atmosphere will safe the planet. First priority then should be the preservation of existing 'carbon sinks', which is good old rain forest, saved from activists around the planet since the 1970's, nevertheless shrinking at an alarming rate. Instead of getting hyperactive simply doing less. Less rain forest killed means less heavy machinery running on fossil fuel, less global transport of those goods, and mainly a living ecosystem binding massive amounts of Co2.
And course, reducing emissions at the same time, or at least, not increasing them. Although I'm not a friend of nuclear power, generating energy in this way certainly wouldn't contribute to more Co2. Instead of hailing Iran for its nuclear program as spearhead for non-carbon based energy production, she is demonised. Instead using Australia's sunny predisposition to become world leader in solar technology, sun-deprived Germany, smaller than Victoria, generates more solar energy than entire Australia.
O wait, there's a catch. In global fascism nobody beats its own drum, all march in step. Those hippie ideas of saving forests and green technology creates too much autonomy, and require different solutions for different areas. Once the sheeple have grazed the idea of Co2 causation, their next meager meal is a hidden tax to finance a trading scheme.
The fear mongering in the name of science is already hard to swallow, but a positive influence of trading on the climate sounds like a pretty drug-crazed idea. It's a bit like reinventing the rain-dance, just in a suit, without music, dance and others to pick up the bill. Please, my local politico-parasite, present me a scientist to prove that trading cools this planet, and until then, stop the systematic rape of nature in this country.
century climate co2 death energy forest global history idea instead kill knife life man mankind nature planet science scientists sounds system technology umwelt
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