Right Now

Mother Earth has told me that either we, or she, will end our present civilization and the human population it sustains, to be replaced either by: 1) new local Paleolithic human societies, numbering far fewer humans than are alive today, living within and in harmony with her and her changeful wilderness; or 2) our complete extinction. And she has told me that the process to accomplish this will begin right now, not in some vaguely defined future decade or century. I first heard – or, if you prefer, felt, since it was inaudible - this message from her in 2004, while standing alone on the rim of Devil’s Canyon in the heart of the San Gabriel Mountains, one part of L.A.'s true wilderness. At the beginning of 2011, our global tool-driven culture still dominates, and, as far as I can tell, no human communities which are part of it have taken significant steps towards ending it. Was, and is, my hearing faulty? I am certainly fallible, my mistakes over a lifetime are many and, despite my efforts to the contrary, they continue. Is this one of them, indeed my biggest? After considerable inquiry and reflection, I am convinced that I have not misheard. I have, however, in earlier messages on this website, misrepresented Mother Earth’s “right now”. I realized from the beginning that she is giving us a period of time, at least a generation, in which to complete the changes she requires. Only recently have I understood that she is doing something similar for herself, taking much more than an instant, even years, to transform us into a part of her wilderness, and that for her right now has already begun. Although she will, I think, finish her transformation of us in only a few more years if we do nothing, our humbling by her, while certainly dramatic, is unfolding, like a flower in spring. The evidence for this view will be considered below. But first, an aside, I hope valuable, about how to hear Mother Earth. This may be of help to you in deciding for yourself if she speaks at all, and if so what she says to you. Joan O’Laney, a close friend of mine and co-founder in Toronto, Canada of a group called Mother Earth’s Centre, recently told me that she is a member of a Toronto Christian church congregation which claims to be Earth-centered. She is not convinced that this claim is fully justified, and asked me for suggestions about what, for this community, might express a real centering upon our Mother. My response was that she might lead a representative few of her fellow members into a nearby wilderness area, to a preselected site out of view and hearing of human habitation. Invite them to choose a rock, or a log, or the soil to sit on, and to listen silently for a minimum of thirty minutes to the nonhuman voices – audible and inaudible - of Mother Earth found there. It would be important to acknowledge beforehand that every part of a true wilderness expresses their Mother, no less than we do at our best. As everywhere in wilderness, there will be a huge chorus in that place, singing for the most part quietly except for any nearby exuberant mountain stream. Afterwards, they should discuss what each of them has heard, and what to the listener was being expressed. Such a meditation, and the following discussion, could give to her religious group, or to any group of you, however small (where two are gathered…), a much clearer understanding of what being Earth-centered actually means. Any part of wilderness is her. Cities, where most humans today live, oppress her and make centering upon her extremely difficult, hearing her almost impossible without a prior, deeply rooted, connection with the wild. Her singular voice, inaudible but clear to those who seek it, the voice which tells me that we must rejoin her to survive, comes from wilderness, not meeting rooms. What I hear will differ from that which others hear, according to each one’s talents and personal histories. All are equally valid and significant. For much of my life, I was a political (as opposed to business) economist. What she tells me relates to my interest in her local and global intentions for my present species, and it is urgent and intense. We are in great peril, and yet face a marvelous opportunity. We can either recognize and respond to that peril, in ways outlined in this website’s other messages, or she will impose a transformation upon us, which could see the end of humans. Since she tells me she is determined that this not be postponed, that it will happen right now, is it taking place, right now? On our side, signs of a viable first response from us might be abandoning cars, or electricity, as the Amish have done. Since both of these practices is still seen as, at best, quaint and inappropriate for most of us, still rejected most certainly in Los Angeles and apparently in every region of her surface, I do not yet see any real change being initiated by human communities. Is she, then, already moving to end us? Signs of Devastation I believe that this is just what she is doing, and that this process of, at the least, removing the dominant global culture, she began in the past decade if not before, and that this will strengthen in the decade just started. Since this change is far from complete, I cannot prove that I am right. I can, however, point to events which illustrate a basis for my contention. Volcanic eruptions are one of the means by which our removal, I believe, will be accomplished. Consider 2010 and the young 2011 only. Eyjafjallajökull volcano, in Iceland, began erupting on March 20, 2010, causing in April the greatest disruption of air travel since World War II. This was despite the relatively small size of Eyjafjallajokull and the moderate scale of the eruption. Much larger eruptions are being forecast by geologists. Although they cannot predict accurately the moment of eruption, of, for instance, the super volcano in the U.S.’s Yellowstone National Park, they are considered to be overdue. An eruption at Yellowstone could produce enough ash to cover the entire planet with a blanket sufficient to bring a multi-year global winter, in addition to the destruction of most human structures in much of western North America. There are other volcanoes which could have a similar impact, waiting for a trigger from her. Any of these events would cause the instant or near-term death of many millions of humans and, of even greater importance, render rapid reconstruction of contemporary civilization in these regions practically impossible. Earthquakes, and the tsunamis which they may generate if the quakes are undersea, are another means by which Mother Earth will dismantle our civilization (in fact, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions tend to come together, the one causing or enhancing the power of the other). The obvious illustration here is the March, 2011, quake and tsunami which has destroyed much of the human construction on the northeastern coast of Japan, killing as many as 25,000 people. The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has become the most dramatic element in this event, raising radiation levels not only in Japan but in North America, especially on its west coast, and globally. The small but still deadly increase in radiant particles infesting the wildernesses for hundreds, even many thousands, of years, greater at higher altitudes where the most vibrant of western North American wilderness remains, is particularly grievous. Flooding caused by elevated levels of rainfall and/or rising sea levels are thus far the most widespread of natural disasters, and the only disasters directly attributable to global warming. According to Wikipedia sources, the number of notable floods globally has experienced a dramatic increase since 2008. In that year, fourteen major floods occurred, from India to the U.S. Midwest, to Vietnam. In 2009, eighteen major floods were recorded, among them floods in Europe, along the Red River in the north central U.S. and Canada, and in Turkey. There were thirty-six major floods in 2010, again in the U.S. Midwest, in Australia’s Queensland region, and in Pakistan. The damage in Pakistan was severe, putting under water close to 15% of the country’s total land area, including much of the most fertile agricultural land, causing an estimated 2.000 human deaths, and the death of many thousands of livestock. One consequence is a major decline in the amount of stored food and current year food production. Industrial production and employment has also been cut. A dramatic increase in hunger and other expressions of poverty among Pakistanis can be expected, this year and in at least several years to come. The first two months of 2011 have seen seven major floods over Mother Earth’s surface. If this pace is continued or exceeded over the rest of the year, the number of floods in 2011 will be considerably greater than in 2010. The 2011 great earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan is especially significant, not the least because of the resulting and continuing irradiation of Earth's surface by the collapsing Fukushima nuclear power site. If the many remaining nuclear power plants scattered across Earth are not shut down right now, this irradiation will be greatly multiplied. A new age of functional mutated species may be one result which might please her. The concomitant suffering of existing life will not, nor will it help any remaining humans seeking to prosper in her new wilderness. Alternatives, Right Now I hear from our Mother that these assaults by the wild are only the precursors of what is to come. They are warnings. Effective responses are available to human communities if we are willing to open ourselves to her. There are other warnings, such as the declining effectiveness of antibiotics and the consequent increase in the number of deaths globally from tuberculosis and pneumonia. Either of these wild illnesses, or others, could become terrible plagues, capable of wiping out the bulk of Earth's human population. It would however leave essentially untouched the machines, the nemesis of Mother Earth's creation, whose use by the humans remaining would likely continue and expand. The great difficulty for us, and the wonderful promise, is that no response to these warnings will preserve today’s dominant global culture. It, and its attempts to control, attack, and raise walls against wilderness, stands between us and her, and it will end; its ending has begun, right now. In an essay/message entitled "Water" posted on this site, I suggested that for the human community of Los Angeles, the most accessible first response is to remove the dams in our region which are designed for flood control. It would be a clear step towards returning to her wilderness. The way would then be open to other changes, in the present generation, so that this land of three rivers could embrace our species, and we could recover a culture suited to our true nature. Other regions may have other beginnings, although wherever structures have been raised against the flow of wild waters, removing these is one of the first steps we and she would want us to take toward fusion with the wild. Certainly, such structures including dams, levies, and water diversion systems have been built to confine, impede, direct and derive electrical power from most large river basins planet-wide. These wilderness prisons have no place in our nows to come. As I suggested earlier in this essay, abandoning motor vehicles and electricity are meaningful first steps as well. Even eating nothing but regionally grown foods, promoting the development of local urban agriculture, and allowing wilderness to return to urban lands not used for food production, could be first steps that Mother Earth, and we, would recognize as steps towards her. It seems to me, regretfully, that the vast majority of humans imbedded in the dominant culture do not find these alternatives attractive. They prefer, by their actions if not their reason, to test the power of machine-dependent humans against the power of Earth. They appear to believe that our machines will prevail, and we with them. The contest is already engaged, right now. For those of us who can accept that our Mother will not be denied, and that our machines and most other tools are approaching a vanishing point, there are also options. If we cannot move whole communities, we can at least move ourselves, family and friends. The direction which Mother Earth invites us to move is the same – the direction of wilderness. If we can do nothing about the views of our neighbors, we can at least work now to include ourselves as joyful humans in her future. We must learn how to live in our region’s wilderness. The fortunate ancestors who dwelled here in Los Angeles three hundred years ago knew how. Some of their descendants today retain knowledge about the natural technologies possessed by the pre-European cultures of their ancestors. In other regions, similar knowledge appropriate to those regions is held by present-day native peoples. We who are wholly or largely ignorant of these techniques need to learn them, from whoever is willing to teach us. We must seek out such teachers. They exist not only among native peoples, but among others as well. Christopher Nyerges is one of those, in Los Angeles. Christopher is the author of seven books, including Guide to Wild Foods and Enter the Forest, and is currently the editor of Wilderness Way magazine. A link to him and his work is found in the Links section of this website. All of those who, like him, possess wilderness technical skills or knowledge and have the wisdom to be willing to teach others without prejudice are to be venerated. If we wish to survive and share the blessings of wild ways in the nows immediately ahead, we need to be their students, myself and members of my own family included. Among other printed sources, perhaps the best for all of us in North America is a book titled Primitive Ways, which can be ordered directly from their “Clan” at primitiveways.com. I would appreciate any recommendation of other printed material which readers of this site may have and will include them in later essays (so long as I live and Mother Earth permits). Next?

This is not easy to write, or even think about. I am human, and much of what I love is human, or human-made, including great works of art, and music composed and performed, with instruments of metal or metal parts. Despite the far superior pleasures and wonders of Mother Earth’s wilderness, it will not be easy for me to lose the parts of today’s global culture which I value. It will not be easy to lose any friends or family, or to lose my human self for that matter, although it is in any event inevitable. And I will not easily welcome the mass deaths of millions, and then billions, of my kind. Our suffering is coming, right now, because we remain collectively arrogant in the face of our Mother, and reject as nonsense a measured, minimally troublesome diminishing of tool-centered power and the population which it sustains. Collectively, we behave as though we prefer the closed fist to the open hand. We prefer to enter paradise not with a warm wind at our back and a welcoming embrace by wild creation, but instead driven by an all-consuming flame which at best only a few will survive. I write this in early April, 2011. The first blow to Haiti and Pakistan - in 2010 - and Japan – in 2011 - has come and all three of these states still remain. Their time left, and ours, is nevertheless brief. I recently heard an item from the Associated Press that more people died from natural disasters in 2010 than in the previous forty years taken together. The present year I fear will greatly exceed the human losses of 2010.Those who listen to the news anywhere on our Mother’s surface seem to be waiting, uncomfortably, for the next blow to fall. I expect, and deplore, that we will bring upon ourselves this year blows more numerous and more effective than any yet witnessed; Los Angeles may be among the regions struck. I have not heard from her how long we will continue to be warned, and how long after that she will need to end our madness and the daily havoc it brings to her skin. Perhaps we will all learn that we face termination, yet with time to respond sensibly. I don’t know. I hope that we will. So does the famous promoter of the Gaia concept, James Lovelock, although his sense of an appropriate response is very different from what I hear. Some believe that the end to this human epoch will come next year, in 2012. Lovelock thinks that it will take a few years longer. What I hear from her is not so precise. I don’t know. In truth, I, like all of us, only know about this day, and the part of this day that I am living, right now. But rightly or wrongly, I do believe that she is saying, if we remain stubborn, this generation is the last to attempt living outside wilderness. I also believe that this is a cause for rejoicing, and not for despair. I believe that, if we are wise, I and my family circle can be among the survivors, and so can you and yours. One piece of this wisdom is learning to live practically in her demanding, splendid wild paradise. About this I can say, just do it. Beyond that, and as part of that, listen for Mother Earth and her many created others. This is our guide. Bill Luttrell, one voice of Mother Earth