Deep Green
It's not easy being Green, but it's so very necessary today.
We know that human civilization today has had a serious impact on the planet. It seems every month more and more data comes in about melting ice caps, severe weather, and other climate changes. We know that it's affecting flora and fauna worldwide. We know that these changes are influencing our societies and global culture.
With all these changes and challenges it can be frightening and confusing to know what to do.
This last month our congregation hosted two events with different individuals and different perspectives on being Green. Lester Brown and the Reverend Michael Dowd both helped us to understand how necessary it is to develop sustainable living... and eased the way for us with their inspriational insights and hopes for the future.
While coming at sustainability from different directions neither of these men are a light shade of Green. They are both Deep Green as they come to their realizations about who we are and what we must do to save civilization from compassion and concern for all the beings of our planet.
Please check out Lester Brown's presenation here:
And the Reverend Michael Dowd's website here:
Civilization is the process
Civilization is the process of civilizing or becoming civil. A civilized society is often characterized by advanced agriculture, long-distance trade, occupational specialization, and urbanism. Aside from these core elements, civilization is often marked by any combination of a number of secondary elements, including a developed transportation system, writing, standards of measurement (currency, etc.), contract and tort-based legal systems, great art style, monumental architecture, mathematics, sophisticated metallurgy, and astronomy mcts 70-536. "Civilization" is often used as a synonym for the broader term "culture" in both popular and academic circles. Every human being participates in a culture, defined as "the arts, customs, habits... beliefs, values, behavior and material habits that constitute a people's way of life". However, in its most widely used definition, civilization is a descriptive term for a relatively complex agricultural and urban culture 70-553. Civilizations can be distinguished from other cultures by their high level of social complexity and organization, and by their diverse economic and cultural activities.
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70-554