Focus on Arts and Ecology

Hi, this is Geoff,

This is the first time in ages that I’ve put together a special video bringing attention to something that needs to be actioned immediately. After you watch it, I think you’ll understand my sense of urgency. With it, we start off the Friday Five...

Xin chào, đây là Geoff, 

Đây là lần đầu tiên kể từ lâu lắm, tôi đưa ra một video đặc biệt nhằm đưa đến sự chú ý của bạn đọc tới điều cần được thực hiện ngay lúc này. Sau khi bạn xem video, tôi cho rằng bạn sẽ hiểu được ý nghĩa về sự cấp bách mà tôi nhắc tới. Với điều này, chúng tôi khởi động blog mới với tên Friday Five…

Đây là lần đầu tiên kể từ lâu lắm, tôi đưa ra một video đặc biệt nhằm đưa đến sự chú ý của bạn đọc tới điều cần được thực hiện ngay lúc này. Sau khi bạn xem video, tôi cho rằng bạn sẽ hiểu được ý nghĩa về sự cấp bách mà tôi nhắc tới. Với điều này, chúng tôi khởi động blog mới với tên Friday Five……

Paradise Threatened: The Los Cedros Biological Reserve is under serious threat. This utterly unique reserve is deeply important to me, personally, and should be important to every creature on Earth. I outline why this is the case in an impassioned 6-minute video I put together expressly for this. If after watching it you want to learn more about Los Cedros and what you can do to help, please take a look at this in-depth piece just published at our sister-site, www.PermacultureNews.org. Links to a background video about Los Cedros, an online petition, and a fundraiser are all included.

Food Rescuers: Switching tone from a paradise under threat to something decidedly positive and full of optimism - I love this project, home-grown right here in Australia: “OzHarvest is the leading food rescue organisation in Australia, collecting quality excess food from commercial outlets and delivering it direct to more than 900 charities who support people in need across Australia. It operates in in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Newcastle and Perth and in regional communities across the country and since 2004, has delivered over 60 million meals and saved more than 20,000 tonnes of food from ending up in landfill.” 63 MILLION MEALS - that’s incredible, and worthy of our admiration. A quick overview video here, and complete information about OzHarvest here.

Averting the Apocalypse: Don’t worry, there’s a positive end to this :) But how’s that for a headline, or this for the lead-in to the story: “While apocalyptic beliefs about the end of the world have, historically, been the subject of religious speculation, they are increasingly common among some of the leading scientists today. This is a worrisome fact, given that science is based not on faith and private revelation, but on observation and empirical evidence.” Doesn’t seem to leave much room for hope, does it? However, after outlining some of the evidence-based risks and threats confronting us, the author of the piece transitions to a focus on optimism and what we can do: “To be clear, the situation is not by any means hopeless. In fact, there is hardly a threat before us — from climate change to the sixth mass extinction, from apocalyptic terrorism to a superintelligence takeover — that is inevitable. But without a concerted collective effort to avert catastrophe, the future could be as bad as any dystopian sci-fi writer has imagined.” Torres also points to a book by Peter Diamandis, Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think, that has been well-received by many of those same concerned scientists. The upshot: Let’s open our eyes to get a clear-eyed vision of the problems we must confront, then roll up our sleeves to get working.

Tool watch: Something practical for our readers who suffer from physical pain when doing too much garden work - this tool may be welcome news: “Prongs are designed to dig hard soils and lever out roots, rocks and other hard to remove debris in soil. Prongs do not replace any gardening tool. However they will give the shovel and garden fork a few days off. Prongs are ground engaging tools designed to save time and back breaking digging using the very simple process of optimising leverage. There are no moving parts.” Several videos outlining how the tool is used, the science behind it, and the Prong in action can all be found here.

In case you missed it: A few pieces of interest this week from our sister site, the non-profit Permaculture Research Institute:

If you enjoy these posts, be sure to bookmark the site as several new articles go up weekly, or check out thousands of other past articles, here.

That’s it for the Friday Five.

Again, if you have something to share that you think would work well as a Friday Five post, please don’t email me or hit reply. Not because I don’t want to hear from you (I do!), but rather, so that our entire community can benefit from your insights, and join the discussion. Remember, these are meant to be conversation starters, not mere broadcasts :) so I kindly request and would vastly prefer that you share your comments and thoughts on the blog-version of this Friday Five (and all past + future Friday Fives), all housed here.

Cheers, and have a great weekend

Your friend,

Geoff

PS - Again, what’s about to happen in Los Cedros right now is an absolute crime. And once committed, it will be impossible to reverse. We’re talking about extinguishing an entire ecosystem, not just a single species or two.

Please, get informed, and do what you can.

Thank you.