Toxic Tar Sands Could be "Game Over" for Earth.

Even as a child, I felt a calling to Mother Nature. It all started with a book by illustrator, and children's author, Bill Peet. He was known for being able to convey deep topics to children while maintaining a creative and imaginative story to keep the kid's attention. I was an advanced reader with a serious-mind, so I often eschewed the usual fare of children's books that seemed to convey nothing but silly, fluffy rhymes about nonsensical story lines. Eventually, I found Bill Peet's book, "The Wump World" in a dusty corner of the library where I'd hide out during recess to avoid being bullied.



In this book lived these creatures called, wumps. They are a simple but noble community of beings whose planet was taken over by rampantly consuming and polluting humanoids known as the "Pollutians." After they trash the planet and use up all the natural resources they jet-off into space to find another planet to exploit. But, not all is lost when the wumps emerge from hiding and discover one small plant survived. It stirred me deeply and I mourned the actions of the Pollutians but it also stirred a passion for protecting nature that would develop in adulthood into a full-blown activism for Mother Earth. Yet, the Pollutians of planet Earth are still amongst us and about to rape the Earth so ruthlessly that such actions could be the breaking point for our environment.



The Pollutians of Earth are pushing to install a scarring, oil sludge pipeline (known as "Keystone XL") from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. It would cut across the heart of the American prairies that grow food for America and the world. But, this shit isn't just any oil--"It's not just regular oil, but highly corrosive and particularly carbon intensive. The process of extracting the oil from the sands is more energy intensive than drilling for crude. It entails destruction of Canada's Boreal forest, which serve as a carbon sink, making this particular resource extraction a global warming double whammy."



If these tar sands are tapped, the federal government’s premier climate scientist James Hansen says it would be “essentially game over for the climate.” "It would cross under 11 major rivers between Canada and southern Nebraska, according to TransCanada officials, and also would pass beneath several hundred smaller streams draining into major rivers. TransCanada has a dismal record of pipeline spills. Its Keystone 1 pipeline, which began operating in June 2010, transports tar sands crude from Canada to Illinois refineries and Oklahoma tank farms. TransCanada reported an astonishing 12 leaks the first year" [...] Beyond polluting major rivers and countless streams, toxic crude oil leaks could poison a major aquifer. The Ogallala Aquifer lies underneath parts of eight states, and most of the residents in those states depend on it for their drinking and irrigation water.



So, I am putting out the call to the grove that our Mother Nature needs us. She shelters, feeds and entertains us with the patience that only a mother can display. However, she can't help us if we continue to poison her mystical source of life. We have dishonored our mother by abusing her with pollution. We have exploited her gifts for our own greedy desires, which has often left Mother Nature powerless to protect our fragile animal cousins. But, all is not lost--she has given birth to a vast and diverse family of children; luckily, some of them have not strayed from her heart very far and are standing up to push back against the forces of destruction.



If you want to help protect our benevolent Mother then please join me in donating to stop the Canada Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Two organizations on the front lines that I'd suggest are: "Greenpeace Canada" (click here to visit their page). Then, visit "Tar Sands Action" (click here for their site) to sign a petition to stop this rape of our dear Mother. Whether you are in the United States, or Canada, I ask one last thing from you; please, email or call your political leaders and beg them to stop this risk to not only our climate but our health (and that of our children). President Obama's administration is leaning toward going ahead with the American side of the pipeline, so we have to act now.

~The Green Man has Spoken~

John Muir: Attached to the Rest of the World.

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." -naturalist, John Muir

John Muir was a tireless defender of Mother Nature, Mystic of the Woods, and Advocate for the preservation of our Sacred Temples of Earth. As with a shaman, Muir survived a brush with bodily harm, which beckoned him to a higher calling of the spirit. After a sawmill accident nearly left him blind, John received a revelation, "he saw the world—and his purpose—in a new light," wrote author, Amy Marquis in her book, "A Mountain Calling."



John Muir recalled, "This affliction has driven me to the sweet fields. God has to nearly kill us sometimes, to teach us lessons." According to biographer Donald Worster's book, "Passion of Nature," he saw that purpose to be, "saving the American soul from total surrender to materialism." Thus, disillusioned by the addiction to materialism that belched forth during the Industrial Revolution, Muir disappeared into the woods to be embrace Mother Nature's spirituality. To many in that era, the idea that nature was spiritually on par with "God" was heresy. At the time, unlike past eras, much of Christianity saw nature as something to be tamed and exploited. It was a careless attitude that stemmed in large part from a ego-distorted view of the Biblical verse granting humanity dominion over the Earth.



As he wandered the land, John Muir stood at the feet of the cathedrals of nature and proclaimed that no temple made by the hand of man could compare to those within the environment. As he explored further, Mother Nature opened up and revealed a realm of such complexity, grandeur and interaction that Muir was understandably humbled. It was dramatically clear to him that humanity was but one spoke in a giant wheel of environmental interdependence and not its master. Mother Nature spoke to him through the whispering pines and the singing rivers that these natural sanctuaries could heal the wounds of the world. It was a world that was poisoning itself with urban pollution, dehumanized by rampant greed and spiritually lost.



Yet, the magic of these natural worlds were quickly disappearing within the so-called jaws of "industrial progress" and John Muir understood what was to be done. He hoisted the banner of Mother Nature and beckoned a war-weary country to be healed by her powers; and the people came. He extolled the virtues of the land and guests to those temples left converted protectors of those rediscovered treasures of Earth. I guess you could say that John Muir was the Savior of the American Wilderness. May we honor the gift he has given us by passing on his wisdom to future generations.

~The Green Man has Spoken~

The Sacred Chamber of Ruby Falls.

Deep in the bowels of Lookout Mountain, in Tennessee, hides an ancient cave system named, Ruby Falls caverns. The dank, and musty air within its serpentine passages whisper secrets of eons gone by that remind you that you are a guest in this otherworldly realm. You are at the mercy of nature, sitting deep below a mountain such as this one. The low ceilings require you to humbly bow your head, in respect, for the spirit of the cave. Upon showing this submission, the seeker may enter the inner sanctum of the cave; a vaulted chamber carved out of solid rock by the spirit of the cave--the goddess waterfall.

The roaring of the falls humble you with the overwhelming power of her archaic magic, while the delicate and lacy dance of the water rejuvenates you with her sensual femininity. As I stood at her feet, I raised my arms and head into the spray of her aquatic magic, to honor her energy and be cleansed by it. I left that cave deeply grateful to exist on a planet with natural temples such as the one safe-guarded 1,120 feet below, Lookout mountain.

~The Green Man has Spoken~