Green Wizards

(This is the first of two posts, on the basic concepts of Green Wizardry)

There WILL be Homework.

While much of what you will learn here, as you read through the tutorials and blog posts, interact and exchange ideas with others on the Forums, is going to be practical and useful to you in your day to day Life in a World Made Harsh, I hope that is not ALL you take away from this site.

There is a more important lesson you need to learn here.

We were going to start with our review of the core disciplines of Green Wizardry, "Thinking In Systems" this week but a recent article in the news needs to be discussed.

"How Big a Deal Is Trump’s Fuel Economy Rollback? For the Climate, Maybe the Biggest Yet"

The current 2012 Obama era standards will require automakers to double the fuel economy of autos by 2025 to an average of 54 miles per gallon. Those same rules also granted California permission to create a separate program mandating that 8 percent of all new cars sold be zero emission cars, such as hybrid, electric or hydrogen fuel cells. Nine other States have adopted a similar program. This zero emission program has been one of the biggest influences in bringing electric vehicles to the market, helped along by the increase in fuel efficiency. The Trump Administration has proposed freezing fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks built after 2020 which would be 30 miles per gallon as well as challenge the rights of those states to set more stringent pollution standards

Their argument is that meeting the current goals would be too costly for auto makers. You could also argue that Trump's affinity for reversing anything Obama did, the doubts he and his Administration's top leaders seem to have concerning climate change as well as their stated goal of increasing fossil fuel production here in the United States may also be a factor.

Do you remember what you were doing on December 12th, 2012 when the Mayan calendar predicted the World would end? Were you hiding out, surrounded by a cache of food waiting and guns out, or were you at a local pub partying like the last night on Earth? If so, did you get laid?

Be honest, didn't you really want to see the end of the World? Even a just little bit?

"The Long Descent"

You'll see us use that term a lot here, "The Long Descent".

It goes hand and hand with "The Collapse." If you are new to this site then you have to be asking yourself, "What the heck are these people talking about?" Let me explain then why this site was set up and what we expect to happen in the Future.

And why YOU should be getting prepared to live in a World Made Harsh too.

Have you ever played hookie from work?

Of course you have.

You know, called in to your employer. Faked an illness or a personal problem just so you didn't need to go in that day. Its the ultimate indulgence. You even feel a little bad as you climb back under those warm covers for a few more hours of lazy sleep. Society's yoke is heavy and the opportunity to throw it off for even a day feels so good.

Maybe we should all play hookie from the World for a day or two...

Each season, I hope to post here a review of the books I've read recently that I think other Green Wizards may find useful and informative. For this Summer Review, I have two books to highlight, the first by ADR and Ecosophia regular Bill Hulet (aka Cloud Walking Owl) titled "Walking The Talk" and the second is "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Healing Remedies" by C. Norman Shealy.

Last year I bought a fancy bird bath.

That was stupid. I knew as the sale's clerk was ringing the purchase up, that no bird in its right mind was gonna use the bird bath I was buying. For one thing it was deep. It was sort of two level, with a deeper part in the center. To make matters worse, it was plated in a slick blue coating. I can't imagine a bird with sense is going to walk around on some slick surface, and risk breaking those tiny legs.

Like many of you, I am old enough to have seen the movie "Soylent Green" when it first cam out at the theater. I don't remember it was that scary to me. It was 1973 and I was a sophomore in high school. The idea that we could so ruin the planet that we would be forced to eat our dead wasn't something I took too seriously then.

I do now.

The Green Wizards' Benevolent and Protective Association, Tower No. 412, and the Rememberers' Guild, Local 412 of Pittsburgh, are pleased to announce their July meeting. Salvus per ignem!

We will meet on Saturday July 7 to attend the Whiskey Rebellion Festival in Washington, PA (south of Pittsburgh). We will plan to meet at 2:30 p.m. at the Bradford House, where we can tour the historical sites and see historical demonstrations. If you plan to attend, please send me a private message so that we can find each other. As we tour the events, we also can discuss topics from Ecosophia.

Last month's post touched upon the practical matters of Green Wizardry, but there will also be a heavy measure of more eclectic subjects we will discuss. This is the first in a series on the mental and metaphysical disciplines of Green Wizardry, as "I" see them. Hopefully others will be willing to post their thoughts on the matters of the mind and spirit.

(Remember, we support any and all view points and I expect once I have opened this door, we will see quite a few post being introduced on this subject.)

We, as a civilization have seemed to have "lost" our touch to the spiritual. It wasn't that long ago that religion, faith and the mysteries of the spirit was central to everyone's idea of their selves. We knew there was much more to our World than the mere physical realm. We need to relearn that.