Earth Care for Mother’s Day

/ May 5, 2021
Spring in the Ozarks, Lake Wedington, April 2021

Earth Care for Mother’s Day

I’ve had this post ready for a while, intending to go back and flesh out more solutions. Instead, I decided to publish it as a tribute for Mother’s Day. Earth is in fact the mother that feeds and supports us all in living on this beautiful planet. It would be nice if we learn to treat her as the precious mother she is.

This year of covid has given us time to ponder our lives and see how nature can rebound with less consumption, manufacturing, and human activity. Unfortunately, the trends are still toward destruction of our beautiful planet, and I wonder if we will wake up in time.

This post explores some interesting ideas for helping tackle climate change and related challenges. I was interviewed by a young woman working on her master’s project in sustainability. Her questions helped me realize that I want to further align my actions with my values about living gently on this beautiful planet. And writing about environmental solutions is one way that I can help.

I believe the main drivers of climate change are our modern way of living with two key stressors on the planet; too many people consuming too many resources. Most of us have consumption-oriented lives with the majority of our energy sourced from fossil fuels. On a broader level, the environmental problems are also caused by our economic systems that value profit and corporations over people and planetary health. Those are the root causes of many of the world’s problems ranging from environmental to social justice, poverty, and food scarcity.

Skysource

Deforestation along with growing areas of desert and drought are two symptoms of this over-consumption. A competition was created to motivate teams to address the global water crisis with energy-efficient technologies that harvest fresh water from thin air. Specifically, they were challenged to create systems that would extract at least 2000 liters/ day of drinking water from the atmosphere. Two California designers, David Hertz and Rich Groden have built a system that integrates a biomass gasifier and an atmospheric generator called WEDEW in a creative energy-efficient way. The Skysource WEDEW system converts biomass into freshwater while sequestering greenhouse gases and generating excess energy. They won the $1.5 million prize for the most innovative approach out of 100 teams. Hopefully, they will be able to help decentralize water access by an equally creative way to bring this technology to people in need. They have in mind to use low-cost loans to set up micro-businesses related to water and biomass.

Big Ideas to Save the Planet

This Washington Post article offers 11 policy changes that could help mitigate climate change. Most suggestions I see aren’t big enough to make the impact needed to address the problems we face. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared that we have until 2030 to implement “rapid and far-reaching” changes to our energy, infrastructure and industrial systems in order to avoid catastrophe. The article features short articles on each policy idea that you can review.

The ideas that resonate with me are smart nuclear, carbon offset farming, alternative fuels and materials, electric vehicles, reduce meat and dairy use, pass a new green deal, and of course, consume less. Hemp and bamboo are two amazing plants. They are fast growing, use less water, and need little to no fertilizer making them ideal replacements for trees, cotton, and much more to make food, fuel, building materials, paper, clothing, and medicine.

What do you think we need to do?

In honor of our planet,

Happy Mother’s Day!

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66 thoughts on “Earth Care for Mother’s Day”

  2. Yes to all of the above, Brad. I agree that, “unfortunately, the trends are still toward destruction of our beautiful planet, and I wonder if we will wake up in time.” As I have probably already noted in a blog post or comment somewhere (along with many other thoughtful observers…) our lack of education about (and respect for) scientific truths regarding how interconnected everything is here on this extraordinary, generous planet — have been discouragingly demonstrated by how we have responded to our current COVID-19 crisis as a human species. Please keep writing about these fundamental, profound challenges we all face! I’ve already cut my use of fossil fuels by biking/walking almost everywhere AND not taking big, carbon-intensive vacation adventures. Now I’m seeing if I can eat less meat and dairy…

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    • Thank you for caring so deeply Will and adjusting your life to be more mindful and less impactful. All of our actions matter and it seems we need coordinated large scale changes like the article talked about. I will keep writing and tilting at windmills. 🙃 It’s part of my path!

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  4. i love your caring heart for our earth mother, brad. thank you for sharing this wonderful and insightful post to invoke greater mindfulness and support of innovation toward sustainability, conservation, living in harmony…and yes, experience over things, as you said. awareness is a way to help educate people to understand the relationship we have with earth so the more we can bring to light, the more people will have that light bulb ignited. one person at a time. ❤

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  5. The Earth is indeed our Mother Brad…. My heart is with you in that we have industrialised and poisoned the planet with our systematic destruction of Nature… Cutting down the Amazon rain forests to replant with Palm Oil…. Taking the Lungs from our planet…. Ironic in the given Pandemic scenario in that now our own breath is being restricted….
    Lets hope we can rebuild True community hubs of people who learn to respect each other and nature… And find Real solutions.. Not ones that only line the pockets of those who dish out green taxes that do little in tackling real problems on the planet…

    While Trillions were given to Haiti they still live in poverty, no proper sanitation or clean water… Where did all of those millions go I wonder.. NOT to helping the people…

    I am all for regeneration of our planet Brad…. and welcome any positive ideas to help Mother restore her balance… But the greedy have to be dealt with, and often those who put these ideas into action have no intention of making our world greener… The only green they know is the dollar in their bank balance in the profit they are out to make..

    I agree, I cut my own emissions.. I put a brick in the system of our toilet cistern tank… I lower the heating… I recycle, I try not to buy plastic …. I grow my own food….. BUT its not the little folk, who always bare the brunt of greenhouse tax, but the BIG BOY GIANTS across the globe who do not adhere to their own rules..
    Information you can find facts on Palm Oil products here at this site
    https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/top-10-facts-you-need-to-know-about-palm-oil/

    Its the Manufactures who still wrap everything in plastic, its the big pharma industry, GMO, so many things… We have to really open our eyes and look at the trivia of THINGS.. What we need and what is essential… It is all about educating people…. So many things we buy that keeps the chain reaction going, and while ever we are the consumers who buy, buy, buy these ‘THINGS’ we don’t really need…. Then the Amazon rain forests are going to continue to get Palm Oil grown… instead of oxygen we are in turn all going to be synthetic Cyborg Beings!…

    Thank you dear Brad.. Our Mother Earth is truly my Passion…. as is wild life.. the bees, and growing our own organic food with no pesticides or herbicides…
    Many thanks for sharing your Passion of Mother with us…
    Truly loved your post and hope you forgive my own rant.. lol.. 😉 ❤

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  7. Hi Brad,
    Great post! There is no easy answer.
    As for me, I try to buy less, recycle more. I try not to waste anything.
    I am more and more, going towards living minimally and simply.
    Still, I can and should do better.
    Thank you, and blessings to you! ♥♥

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    • Thanks for caring Ana. We all do the best we can. The technical means are available, it’s a matter of enough people choosing and/or pushing the governments and corporations to change their priorities so that mass shifts take place. 🙏

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  8. What an awesome post Brad, yes dedicated to Mother Earth this week as we come to celebrate all the mother roles we play❤️ Thankyou! If only we each commit to being mindful of our consumption of everything non-natural, non-local and non-seasonal we would be well on our way to living modern yet considerate of the good old days❤️ We are doing it! Much love, Barbara. Will you be off to see your mum? Enjoy x

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  9. A very thought provoking post Brad. It’s good to see advances being made but 2030 is just around the corner and I wonder if we can do enough. It’s the large scale corporations that have the biggest impact and unfortunately power and greed still rules. Still, awareness and everyone doing their bit in reducing our footprint can only steer us in the right direction. I try and play my part in any small way I can, in caring for this beautiful planet, our one home. Thanks again for a caring post Brad. 💚

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  10. I love the title. I do feel our planet is our Mother who deserves a very high reverence and respect for what she has to offer us. I am humbled in gratitude for how much I receive from her. Living aligned with what I can contribute to her seems a very heartfelt courageous intention and I am only beginning to explore how I can do my best. Thank you for your encouraging and motivating post.

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  11. Brad, thank you for the informative article that is fueled with your passion. Our Mother Earth is our first sustainer. I wrote a poem this time last year about our two mothers. Your post inspired me to repost on Mom’s day. It does feel like individual choices will make little impact, like me using my own straw, for example, but collectively we can make a difference. I am vegan and have been for over one year. I have been a vegetarian in the past, but giving up all meat, dairy. and eggs was a transition. I found it easier than I thought it would be. The trick is getting enough protein in other ways. Anyway… sharing a bit about my experience making lifestyle changes for the greater good (and my health too).

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  12. Hi Brad, a lovely post. One of the most important things is to reduce the population going forward. This can be done through education about family planning and maybe tax and benefits incentives. In third world countries, 5 children is still the average.

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  13. Hi Brad! I love that you have dedicated this post to Mother Earth, who the human population really is abusing so much on a daily basis. I think for me its more about each person taking responsibility for their own actions and doing as much as they can to spread awareness and to live as environmentally friendly as they can, If we all did that it wouldnt have gotten to such a scary place, but unfortuantely the majority of the human population is so self absorbed that they dont even see the damage that they inflict and they dont even care about the consequesnces of their actions. That puts more pressure on those that are aware of the problem and that do care.

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  15. Thank you dear Brad for this profound and impactful post of our Mother Earth. We all have to take care very lovingly and compassionately our environment which is getting polluted and gases that are working against all of us. Today we are suffering because we have randomly cut down trees that gives us so much oxygen and so many other things in life. Beautiful picture.

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  17. I love this post, Brad. Well said. And I agree with everything with the exception of carbon offset farming; carbon sequestration is a kick-the-can-down-the-road solution that actually costs more than renewables and enables polluting fossil fuels industries to continue operating. That said, it could be part of the bridge solution we need to get to 100 percent renewables, but in my view it would need to have a firm, statutory sunset dates for any projects. Anyway, love the post, especially the reminder that everything we’re all talking about is inextricably bound to Mother Earth.

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  21. Perfect marriage between Mothers Day and the issues with face as we desecrate Mother Earth!! Great post! We all have a stake in the outcome of the damage we have done to our planet and it will take all of us to fix it. Again, great post!!

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  23. Great post, Brad. So many things need to happen on a large scale that individual contributions seem like mere drops in the bucket. It can get discouraging. Even so, every drop helps fill the bucket. My hubs and I live pretty responsibly when it comes to planet preservation, and we’ll gladly go along with any large scale changes (rather than protest about our right to destroy whatever we please). I’ve heard recently about new technology that will turn waste water into drinkable water. Water is going to be a huge challenge in the future, and I’m glad it’s getting some attention. 🙂

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  24. Thank you for sharing these wise and practical strategies. I hope they are implemented soon. A moratorium on new factory farms, a.k.a. CAFOs is especially attractive to me since I’m about 95% vegan and factory farms are cruel to animals.

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