Sustainability is the new buzz word in humanities’ quest for immortality.

I wrote that line and the title then I couldn’t bring myself to write more. Out of my thousands of photos I had nothing that captured exactly what I wanted to get across. I have a hard time visualizing blog entries without pictures sometimes.

Jeff was headed over to the landlord’s to finish the High Tunnel.

I decided to go with him both for company and if he needed an extra hand. I also figured I’d takes some photos while I was up there and maybe I’d find a few bugs. Either way it would all lift my spirit a bit. It had been a challenging day for me emotionally and hormonally. I took a few pictures and helped Jeff. I took a few more pictures. I helped Jeff some more. I got to a stopping point and took a break to take a few more pictures.

I noticed this…

Even though it was clearly some type of fly it wasn’t behaving like one. It was bouncing around from blade of grass to blade of grass just like the grasshoppers and crickets I had snapped shots and observed before.

Then I noticed the wings. They were all crumpled and the fly didn’t seem to be trying to open them or even use them. There were no empty pupae lying around either.  I was left really wondering about this creature. What was it exactly? A wounded fly? A deformed fly? Or maybe some mutant?

Whether it was a freshly hatched stable fly or a mutant one it circled me right back around to this blog entry and the concept of sustainability vs. adaptability. Whatever the cause of this fly’s crumpled wings he was doing just fine. It had adapted well to his/her state of being. Something, I think, we humans often forget how to do.

There is a lot of talk about conservationism and sustainability. We want the earth to remain the same and we want to be able to keep it the same. Both are instruments of control. Both are full of contradictions.

Sustainability really is an extension of conservationism, so I’ll start there. What are the goals? According to Conservation International there are plenty. The following are a just a few, with my comments following.

Stabilizing Climate: CI is committed to securing the health and well-being of the world’s biodiversity – every plant, animal and human being on Earth. One of the greatest threats to these efforts is climate change. In fact, scientific evidence suggests that the current trajectory of climate change patterns surpasses even worst-case scenarios, and could lead to catastrophic and devastating consequences for all life on Earth.

Are they serious? Is this something people are buying into? REALLY? It’s a huge organization so I’m guessing yes but every plant, animal and human being on earth. Do these people eat meat? Do they swat and kill mosquito or crush ticks?

Then there is the whole question of how do you protect one with out messing with another? I see this often in animal sanctuaries. The kids and visited a wildlife sanctuary a couple of years ago in Maine. They had a cage filled with predatory birds: owls/hawks and such. Zoe piped up to ask how/what they are fed. The lady told us they buy mice from a lab. Then chuckled a little and said they call them popsicles when letting the birds know it’s time to eat. What makes the bird’s life more valuable than the mouse? The irony was directly across the walkway from the owl cage was a cage filled with wounded squirrels that were being rehabilitated. Wounded squirrels. Why not put them together and let mother nature figure it out? Oh wait, that’s right we know better.

Saving Forests: Human activity is the main cause of deforestation, usually tied to economic development, increasing consumption rates – in both developed and developing countries – and extractive industries such as logging.

What about when other animals are the destructive ones?

This destruction was not caused by humans. It was caused by beavers. We still try to control it. And the efforts directly contradict other conservation efforts. Check out the words of this NY State Environmental Conservation page:

(Note: Except under authority of an ECL Title II Permit, it is unlawful to disturb any structure made by a beaver. A complainant or agent who breaches a beaver’s dam under such permit authority is personally liable for any flooding damage done to downstream property.)

If the beaver is not killed, dam removal is a very short-term solution. Beavers usually rebuild dams quickly and sometimes in larger volume. Beavers are most active at night, therefore, dams should be breached in the morning to allow water to flow all day.

Section 11-0521 authorizes the DEC to issue permits for the removal of nuisance beavers. This permit will be issued to the landowner upon whose land the problem is occurring, an adjacent landowner upon whose land the beaver resides or either landowner’s agent. The permittee may designate in writing an agent who will kill the beaver.

So, we need to protect them unless they are a deemed a nuisance?

Biodiversity: …keep a look out on our site for new stories, photos and videos about the planet’s most fascinating species – and why their protection is critical for human well-being.

Protecting everything from extinction. Really? At the same time we are to celebrate the finding of new creatures? Huh? And how is that even sustainable? Actually, never mind the how, what about the WHY? As much as I’d hate to see some creatures go extinct I realize it’s part of the natural progression of life and species here on earth. I’m not *entirely* opposed helping stem extinction of some species but I’m not sold on creating laws to do it or even that it’s a good idea in the first place.

It seems to me, from a logical perspective, that many of these problems are caused by our meddling in the first place. In turn why/how is more meddling going to help?

Just look at the beavers or even the Canadian geese? Here in New Hampshire people have created such an inviting landscape the geese are deciding to nest here instead of just flying over. Now one might think that would be a good thing, especially to conservation types. Nope. The geese are creating problems for landowners to the extent that government officials are being hired to kill them.

The conservation and sustainability crowd generally believe in evolution but attempt to stop it by not allowing animals to evolve and adapt or by destroying invasive species of plants or animals. Why not step back and let things evolve and observe the incredible ability of humanity, the earth and other creatures (plants and animals alike) to adapt and evolve?

Nothing is sustainable indefinitely. And even these modern day efforts at *sustainable* living seem bizarre to me. How does anyone know what this world is going to be like in as little as ten years from today? Think of how much things have changed in the last 10 years? How about the last 20? The last 30? What if we had focused on this concept of sustainability then? Would we have the kind innovations that we’ve had? The advancements? What makes us really think we know what is sustainable anyway?

I don’t want anyone to think that any of this means I don’t care about the environment or animals or that I don’t think any of those things are valuable or important. I do. I value clean air to breathe. I value diversity of animals. I value beauty in nature and quality of food, energy and water. It’s all very important to me. It’s just I think when we focus so much on *sustainability* and *conservation* it is at the very least a distraction from bigger things and at the most it is hubris, an attempt to control something far beyond our ability or control.

Often we, as humans, focus so much on ourselves we forget how very small we are in the context of the world, time, the universe, (or for religious folks God) etc. We are but a blip and a spec. We may be and can be grand in relation to each other, our children, insects, atoms, our community etc but it is all relative.

If we focus on what each of us can do as individuals. If animals/plants/species are important to us we can make choices to reduce suffering by being vegetarian and/or vegan. We can care for the land we live on. We can eat locally. We can reduce waste.

As a society we can choose to embrace freedom.

We can allow mother nature, the earth, animals, plants, humans the freedom to adapt, change, evolve, grow, expand and create. We can stop meddling. We can stop making laws that micromanage the world and every human being, animal, body of water, plant, element, rock, mass of land…etc in it, on it or around it.

The following is from the Tao Te Ching

The Way bears all things;
Harmony nurtures them;
Nature shapes them;
Use completes them.

Each follows the Way and honours harmony,
Not by law,
But by being.

The Way bears, nurtures, shapes, completes,
Shelters, comforts, and makes a home for them.

Bearing without possessing,
Nurturing without taming,
Shaping without forcing,
This is harmony.

To understand the impermanence of nature, being and things, be accepting of adaptability and trust the nature of freedom is to be harmonious and ultimately is a path to sustainability.

Peace,

Kelly