THE GREEN POWERS OF TEN

By Jim Channon
THIS STRATEGIC BUT LOCAL READERS STAYED TUNED FOR ITEMS 1,2,3
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Ray and Charles Eames wrote and created a short documentary film called “powers of ten” where the camera eye moves from a person on a blanket in Florida and zooms out at a geometric progression into and past the stars and then comes screaming back into the inside of that person and goes into the tiny known form of matter at the same geometric speed and distance. This concept will be a model for the steps taken below by Jim Channon to zoom out from his personal point of view and green footprint on the land in Hawaii to a larger and larger progression of footprints until the world is seen wrapped in the World Wide Web. This is, Jim’s believes, the nature of the world to come. Oh, and google the film … it’s worth the ride.

The following progression of footprints starts with the place where I spend most of my day.

POINT OF PARADISE

This is ground zero. I spend most of my work day here. This is a place where I sit and do much of my thinking and writing. Actually in this seat I have arranged to see twenty-seven of the finest sights nature has to offer me including lovely items for my comfort. I have layered the wonders of the world around me. The view includes a majestic mountain, a stretch of ocean, a cute global village, at totem pole, a small pond with lotus flowers, a huge variety of whispering and swaying trees, a feeding place for seven species of birds, a fireplace for warmth and the dancing power of flame. Then I have the access to controlled lighting, food, numerous pillows of different qualities, water, a controllable fan, an incense burner, a video projector, and any kind of music I desire. I am open to nature here with just enough roof over my head to keep dry when it rains. The rush of prana (fresh air) fills my being and the sounds of nature abound in layers of active delight. There are only occasional machine sounds, annoying odors, or distracting sights. This concept of layering the beauty of the world around me took a dozen years to bring about but convinces me I live in a paradise on this earth most of my waking day.

THE BIO-ISLAND

I have five bio-islands on my land and many micro-gradens. A bio-island is about the size of a basketball court shaped in an oval. It is six or seven tiers of plant material starting with tubers under the ground, the some vegetables, then bean bushes and small fruiting trees, then a fruit tree tier, followed by flowering trees, and topped off with hardwoods that produce either building materials or firewood. I have chosen to use the Fukuoka style of cultivation where all the respective plants pretty much tend to their own needs. There is a propagation room inside some Mexican bamboo that has a composeter and potting area. There are three others wire containers for mulch of sorts and other soil builders. At one side is a beautiful pond with a variety of flowering plants and papyrus that reaches up with its little burst of magic at the top. A pair of grass seats have wonderful stone chair backs and places to set drinks. I sit there on outdoor cushions and gaze at the pond life as it swirls around me. There are dancing butterflies, dragonflies, and the windswept palms that dance endlessly to the flourishing sounds made by the fronds.

THE ECO-HOMESTEAD

Here is a three-acre footprint that can serve from one to a dozen people and still have plenty of room for the bio-islands to give each shelter the privacy of sound and visual separation. This tropical forest with harvestable everything is laced with winding paths just big enough for a vehicle, also water catchment systems, renewable energy devices, firewood stacks, mulch piles, and the widest possible variety of food, natural medicines, and flowers. In all there are a hundred plus fruiting trees, two dozen timber trees, and a grand variety of vegetable gardens with herbs interspersed. It takes time to get all the trees to fruit but it’s worth it. Then there are grandfather trees from seven species and outrageous ornamental that punctuate the scenery with all kinds of attractive shapes. There can be a sweathouse, a massage hut, a small temple, an artist’s studio, a storage shed, a farm building, and a tool shed. We have an amphi-theatre, a hot tub, a tree house, a dance zone and other playful venues. Yi ha!

THE NEIGHBORHOOD RESILIENCE NETWORK

Around the eco-homestead in the next larger footprint are more than a dozen neighbors who have decided if there is any kind of emergency they will team up to help each other out. This means they meet once a year for a picnic at the most prominent landmark in the zone and sort out all the tools and skills they have together that could be used during an emergency. They review their gathering plans, telephone numbers, medical skills, tractor/truck availability and all the other emergency valuables they can think of. Here members who had CERT (community emergency rescue training) could be identified so they could be ready on the spot just after an earthquake or like emergency. It is
Usually this is a very happy affair. In the modern world we move beyond our local neighbors in so many ways the horse and buggy days used to support. This kind of alliance is extraordinarily easy to awaken and evolve

THE AG HAMLET

At a slightly larger level, depending on how much actual farming is going on, there is the Ag hamlet. The difference between a hamlet and a village used to depend on whether or not there was a church or a clock tower to be seen. In present circumstances the most important assets would be a small fresh food market and trading post and perhaps a great little pub. Here farmers no matter their yield would be able to move extra foodstuffs along so that waste or storage or putting things up wouldn’t be required. This would also be a great place to have someone who had the short wave radio and someone else with good seed stash. In some places access to fresh water would be important.

THE GLOBAL VILLAGE

In my little town there are forty-two ethnic groups represented in the population of about three thousand. That means our village main street or micro-politan zone can be rich with fun, fashions, food, and places to dance! Traffic lights ... very optional. Here the primary focus, besides a hopping little global culture, is support to farmers who produce enough food so that it must be processed to avoid waste and still keep volume up. Essentially there is no rural community with good soil that shouldn’t aim for self-sufficiency in the food department. Also a water system that is powered by renewable energy is a plus. Emergency services are important and they should also be independently powered. Ideally a small Ag park with a dehydrator, water treatment facility, an alternative energy production house, and a commercial kitchen to process raw foodstuffs is basic. If the trash can be handled there so that the large percentage of waste that can be converted into soil builders that’s essential. So, co-locating the waste, food processing, and alternative energy works is the way to go. A high option is to have an Earth battalion or natural guard unit established so that all emergency situations or cultural events have a built in team to support the action.

BIOREGIONAL GREEN SOURCE CENTER

Governments can decentralize and provide regional services that are congruent with the actual natural land resources in each part of any country. Countries by and large were created by political conquest and are unacceptably inefficient as managers and creators of natural resources. Nothing personal…times change … it’s been that way for centuries.
There are a whole host of more specific services that regional centers can provide. Ideally they will host a more global entertainment venue, special medical facilities, unique one of a kind manufacturing support services and the like. The important thing here is to make our laws and zoning specific to land resources not old boundaries. The web will take on all the information duties normally performed by government but at a very inefficient level.

NATURAL RESERVES AND BIONET

The next footprint are the new biopreserves both in the their large areas of wilderness and then very small preserves that are available at the neighborhood level for wild zones that include foraging places. The deepest food reserves we can have can be local wild fruit and nut trees. The local Natural Guard and the Earth battalions can tend them. They can have wild classrooms and other camping facilities for youth to spend time learning outdoors. The larger like the ones presently under management by countries can be managed at the bioregional level by what remains of former governmental concerns. The bionet will be the global source of intelligent action and inform all about the present state of their global reserves.

PLANETARY COMMONS

Here we have all the wild lands, oceans, and atmosphere not being attached to a population of any kind in particular. The New Earth Armed Forces will monitor, plan for, and care for these resources. The provisions for their management are contained in the document OPERATION NOBLE STEWARD that has set forth the decisions of responsibility for these entities and their stewards. The state of affairs with these resources will be constantly available on the Bionet. Bioregional centers will co-ordinate such care.

THE BIOSPHERE PROPER

Here we speak of the living earth and her shield the biosphere. We most properly should understand that the biosphere is our home. All purely land-based notions are no longer comprehensive enough to comprehensively legislate the whole system parameters of our Natural world. The elevation above seal level will be determined by what ever earth based systems are launched their as well as the presence of earth connected layers of measurable chemical and magnetic import. We should understand that other life in the galaxy and beyond would likely name us by this biosphere we present to them. So, in that light we might think to call ourselves something besides earth. The operant constitution of the living part of this celestial planet body is water not earth and as such the care and awakening of her potential is essentially not just land-based.

This document was prepared in the presence of the living biosphere outside my paradise point and in the presence of a cat, many bird friends, and both sun and rain. What a sweet world this is.!