Extinction Rebellion Upper Valley - A Bioregional XR

11 months ago

The solutions we need to the climate crisis might just be right under our feet.... ... See MoreSee Less

Extinction Rebellion Upper Valley - A Bioregional XR

11 months ago

CALL FOR A JUST TRANSITION
(long read)
From where I stand as a small farmer, I believe the time is now to press for reform of Vermont's agricultural economy. The need for a resilient local food economy has suddenly become tangible to a wide swathe of citizens.

The current crises we face, the rogue wave of pandemic and the tsunami of abrupt climate change, present us with a watershed moment to put the welfare of the biosphere front and center of all policy change and stimulus spending.

We recognize that the roots of all social injustice are bound up with the exploitation of land water and air. The colonial-capitalist system that historically and currently inflicts so much cruelty upon indigenous people and people of color is the same system that exploits and degrades the natural world. Reparations to one without the other will be meaningless.

We occupy indigenous lands. We recognize this history and reality with all its tragic implications for both the Abenaki people, the wildlife, and the ecosystems of our region. We aim to make reparations. The indigenous people of this bio-region should have land held by the government returned to them. We seek the guidance of indigenous leaders as we seek to find new pathways toward an ecological civilization. We commit to using current technology and practices in alignment with an agro-ecological ethic that respects ancient ways.

Corn squash and beans are making a comeback.

Acknowledgment is a great first step, but once we have done that we need to commit to healing.

The mindset that legalized the enslavement of African people was the same one by which European settlers justified commodifying nature. Where we stand was once an old growth forest that was more ten-thousand years old at the time it was felled by the settler’s axe. The settlers of New England burned down old growth forests and sold the ash back to Europe to fertilize their depleted soils.

We need truth and reconciliation with this land. We need to declare a moratorium on development. From here on “progress” should be measured by “reclamation.”



In 1972, under pressure from a burgeoning environmental movement, the Nixon administration passed the Clean Air and Clean Water Protection Acts. Until we pass a Healthy Soils Regeneration Act, we cannot have clean air and water---it is not possible without healthy soil. Ownership or leasehold or any other form of legal land tenure can no longer mean free license to degrade soils and disrupt ecosystem functions. Biocide and ecocide must be declared illegal.

Conversely, land stewards of forests and farmlands who can demonstrably improve soil and restore landscape functions should be rewarded with tax incentives and price supports.

These are just a few ideas of how to bring about a just transition. We protect what we love.

How can we who share a vision of habitat restoration mobilize this movement to make sweeping changes?

Regenerative land management offers us real solutions to restore biodiversity and mitigate abrupt climate change. How do we form a coalition to get across the message that restoring landscape functions is our last best hope?

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And let’s remember that the commons is an ancient approach based on a widely-shared worldview. Traditional farmers and indigenous communities around the world still retain vestiges of this form of societal organization. Many are struggling to reclaim it. Colonial and capitalist systems are antithetical to this approach and have compromised or obliterated communal land holdings wherever and whenever the two cultural approaches have collided.

Enslaved people were forbidden to grow their own food.

The food sources of indigenous people were purposefully destroyed.

It is time for all human communities to reclaim food sovereignty!

Ever since the process of Enclosure began in Great Britain in the 13th century the war on the commons worldwide has only grown in intensity. Corporate personhood is the culmination of enclosure. It is the total destruction of the commons. The current global civilization has become a death camp for nature. Neo-liberal Capitalism depends on the annihilation of nature. The GNP is a measure of destruction. Exponential growth is a form of mass insanity and collective suicide.

Under current law nature has no rights. It is time for us to recognize the right of nature to exist. Under natural law everything that lives has a right to live.



We recognize that the current political maps by which we organize civil society are arbitrary lines imposed on the landscape by land grants from colonial governments decreed hundreds of years ago and do not represent natural systems. We need to re-think the way we perceive landscape. Begin to read it by shape and inherent design rather than by imposed line. We need to learn again how to enhance landscape functions. We need to open ourselves to the natural intelligence of the land. Understand where and when it is best to simply step out of the way.



Each one of us and all of us collectively, in a subtle form of mutual aid, must begin the process of de-colonization of our minds, hearts, and bodies---right down to the cellular level---oppressor and oppressed. We are all traumatized by the singular fact of being born into a world already ravaged and damaged by forty generations of civilized humans. Some of us enjoy rights and privileges based on the color of our skin while others are exploited for their labor and face road blocks at every turn. There are historical wrongs in need of reparation that were perpetrated against both people and the land.

We are molded in a society propped up by the destruction of the natural world. We are expected to take it as normal that that forests be cut, wetlands drained, and grasslands plowed down to feed the needs of human expansion. We all bear responsibility for habitat loss. We all stand on ground that was violently taken from the original inhabitants. This same earth still upholds each one of us. We have an opportunity to become the healer.



We are living perhaps the most critical moments in all of human history. The very survival of our species is hanging in the balance---depending on what we as a global civilization decide. The climate scientists are telling us that we have about a two year window to halt emissions and begin drawdown if we are to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of abrupt climate change.



If we are to solve the climate and ecological crisis we will have to cooperate and legislate at an international level. Ultimately nation states will become meaningless. Giving way to cooperating Bio-Regions. A world government that works justly for all humans and all species will be comprised of democratically elected representatives from fully autonomous sovereign regional governments overseeing bioregions. If humans can evolve to become a successful keystone species it will be because we will go on to create a planetary regenerative culture rooted in ecological enlightenment.



In the world we will co-evolve together ecocide and biocide will be abolished under planetary law!

Every person will have access to a base universal income, land, clean water, education and healthcare.

We know what we stand against. And while we engage in creative non-violent resistance---let us not forget to take time together to envision the world we want to see. Not the world we think is possible---but the world we most want to see with our deepest longings. To not be afraid to speak our childish dreams. To unleash the pure light energy of our imaginations.



A bioregional eco-socialist organization of society will allow us to reclaim the commons for all humanity and for all creation. Bioregions defined by watersheds will recognize their interdependence yet be decentralized and autonomous. Right of use replaces private property. Mutual aid replaces alienated greed. Individuals and families still retain personal property but these are articles and goods not land and water and air and all that lives and breathes upon them and within them.



Imagine a future world in which one half of all land is designated as wildlands in perpetuity. Managed by humans as food forests and fields to promote maximum biodiversity.

Wildlife corridors are established to prevent habitat fragmentation.

The privatization of nature is abolished.



We will no longer speak of ourselves as consumers. We will become ecologically enlightened producers. This is a transformation that occurs not only in the mind but from engaging completely with a particular place. The story lines in the landscape become written in your DNA. The soil biome is mirrored in your gut.



I am a small farmer and this is what I am just beginning to understand after thirty-five years of practicing the craft:

Restoration of the Soil Carbon Sponge is the most effective tool we have at our disposal to mitigate global heating. Not only does healthy soil sequester carbon it also holds water. When soils are degraded or destroyed the water goes into the air as water vapor and adds still more heat to the greenhouse effect. Restoration of soil in every habitat from forest to rangeland to desert will restore the planet’s natural hydrologic cycles and naturally cool the environment. Passing over healthy soils there are abundant clouds. We have always assumed that the forest needs rain but now we understand that rain needs forests.

Right rain requires healthy soils.



People who take care of land. Serve land as faithful caretakers. Who know when to step out of the way and let nature heal herself---these are the real revolutionaries.

Show me the healer and I will show you the real revolutionary.



Now is the time when we all must become those good caretakers. Every one of us needs to become engaged land managers. We all need to become earth healers. This is the most important direct action we can undertake. It’s going to take every one of us working together to break free from the chains of the predatory capitalist system and to free all the other species from the certain death sentence of an unchecked industrial growth society. Our direct action. This rebellion for LIFE. Compels us to demand an immediate transition to an ecological civilization.

We hunger to live in right relation with the planet. We are her children. And we are her eyes and ears, hearts and hands, awakening to our senses.

The time is now.

We are in a climate crisis. We make these four demands of our elected representatives:

1) Local, state, and federal governments declare climate and ecological emergency!

2) Halt biodiversity loss and go carbon neutral by 2025

3) Create people’s assemblies to oversee a just transition in every sector

4) Prioritize peoples who have endured generations of environmental injustice ... See MoreSee Less

Extinction Rebellion Upper Valley - A Bioregional XR

11 months ago

Regenerative land management can cool the planet, restore biodiversity, and save humanity…but for any of that to happen we need to understand that soil is the matrix of life and as such is the very essence of the “commons”. Let’s provide farmers with the training and incentives they need to transition to regenerative practices. We must not only reward farmers for ecological services, such as growing nutrient-dense food, providing cleaner air and water, and sequestering carbon---Land managers who are capable of growing topsoil while providing food, medicine, fuel, & fiber must be justly compensated in the same way that civil society supports all other essential infrastructure and basic service providers.
The Novel Corona Virus is telling us many things. One clear message is that this global pandemic has the same root causes as abrupt climate change. We have created this situation through land degradation & loss of habitat. The predictable tragic outcomes of an unfettered capitalism that commodifies nature and externalizes environmental costs
On the other side of all this death and suffering---collapse of the global economy----we have before us a watershed moment for change on an unprecedented scale. We all have feet on the ground. This is the place to begin. Just as in the Great Depression---government will act to save our economy. We must be ready to lift our collective voices to ensure that change comes in the form of a Green New Deal---which recognizes habitat restoration as the basis of true societal wealth.

People’s Assembly
Come join in a People's Assembly on a Just Transition in Agriculture to be held on the lawn of the People's House in Montpelier on September 1st 2020 from 11am to 1pm.
Main event is an assembly to discuss a just transition to a resilient, sovereign, re-localized food economy in our region---with the aim to draft a proclamation to present to our elected representatives for immediate deliberation.
Participants are encouraged to express their views using any form of communication they are most fluent in, including but not limited to:
Speech, dance, music, art, poetry.
Physical distancing and mask wearing.
Coalition building!
Bring your own beverages, foods and blanket to sit on.
Bring something you produced from the land to add to a community display. ... See MoreSee Less

Extinction Rebellion Upper Valley - A Bioregional XR

11 months ago

As a society we must recognize soil as basic infrastructure. This means agriculture should not be operating in a purely unfettered capitalist system. New deal elements such as debt forgiveness, price parity and supply management must be built in---along with other means of insuring basic livable incomes for farmers and farm workers so they can operate farms to maximize ecological services and local food production without having to compete within globalism and against the corporations that would like to see all small farms disappear.
This would mean a progressive tax system to make nutrient dense local food affordable for low income people whilst paying farmer a living wage and revamping the land grant universities to train a new generation of regenerative farmers and field agents. Replace the soil conservation corps with a soil regeneration corps! Put young people to work planting trees and restoring habitat---and not just in farm country but re-greening urban landscapes, too.

We know that agri-bizz is heavily subsidized---big oil, big pharma, transportation---all these lobbying groups make sure that it is so. Small farmers have proven they can compete even with the odds stacked against us---now is the time to turn the tables.

Healthy soil can sequester 3-10 tons of carbon per acre. It is estimated that if all 8.3 billion acres of rangeland and 3.8 billion acres of cropland on the planet were converted to regenerative land management we could sequester enough carbon to bring CO2 in the atmosphere back down to 350/ppm in just 5 years!

And to top that off, the benefits of regenerative agriculture go far beyond carbon sequestration. At 90%-----Water vapor is the most prevalent greenhouse gas. CO2 is a mere 0.04%. One gram of soil carbon can hold 8 grams of water. We can restore the hydrologic cycle. Restore the small rain cycles. Cool the planet one micro-climate at a time. Mitigating both flood and drought, while extending plant longevity.
Right now health care is listed as the most important issue to people in our region.

Why are we getting sick? What is the best health care?

We are getting sick from the contamination and degradation of our habitat. The best health care is reparation of our environment. All life on terrestrial earth this begins with soil.


XRUV General Assembly: 8/13 qt 5pm in Lyman Park, WRJ
People's Assembly for a Just transition in Agriculture: 9/1 at 11am on the VT statehouse lawn (see note below)
Come join in a People's Assembly on a Just Transition in Agriculture to be held on the lawn of the People's House in Montpelier on September 1st 2020 from 11am to 1pm.

Main event is an assembly to discuss a just transition to a resilient, sovereign, re-localized food economy in our region---with the aim to draft policy directives to present to our elected representatives for immediate deliberation.

Physical distancing and mask wearing.

Coalition building!

Bring your own musical instruments, beverages and foods.

Bring something you have produced on your land to add to a collective display---food, fiber, medicine, etc.

Hope to see you there! ... See MoreSee Less

Extinction Rebellion Upper Valley - A Bioregional XR

12 months ago

Timeline Photos9 de Agosto Día Internacional de los Pueblos Indígenas "Pandemia, derechos y pueblos indígenas" escrito por Jesus González Pasos de Mugarik Gabe, clacpi.org/2020/08/04/pandemia-derechos-y-pueblos-indigenas/ "
International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples "Pandemic, Rights, and Indigenous Peoples " by Jesus González Pasos de Mugarik Gabe.
#WeAreStillHere
#LivingPeoples
#IndigenousRising
#IndigenousPeoples
#PueblosOriginarios
@clacpi
Crédito del Arte: elijodignidad.org ... See MoreSee Less

Extinction Rebellion Upper Valley - A Bioregional XR

12 months ago

Time for a Just Transition in Agriculture
The time is now to press for reform of our regions agricultural economy. The need for a resilient local food economy has suddenly become tangible to a wide swathe of citizens.
The VT Green Mountain New Deal and the Federal Green New Deal need to place at least as much emphasis on incentivizing regenerative land management practices as they do on conversion to renewables. Emphasis should be placed on retooling farms to a human-scale geared towards local production. We can restore health to people, land and climate by working to support and regenerate basic landscape functions. Technological solutions alone won't save us---we must repair our relationship with the biosphere.
We need research and development focused in the applied sciences of regenerative biomimicry.
The current crises we face, the rogue wave of pandemic and the tsunami of abrupt climate change, present us with a watershed moment to put the welfare of the biosphere front and center of all policy change.
To transform our society we need to grow out these three branches:
-Education
-Small Farm Promotion
-Just Transition for Dairy Farmers and farm workers

How can we reach out to farmers, loggers, ranchers and private land owners to engage with these issues?
Can social democratic reforms build upon the original New Deal to bring about a more just and compassionate society? Can we awaken ecological literacy among our general populace? We need full citizen participation to repair and reinvent our relationship with earth.
Is non-violent civil disobedience an effective tool to leverage government, industry & financial institutions?
What about boycotts?
On thing is clear---sustainability no longer cuts it. We have so damaged our environment that we must embrace regenerative practices to repair it.
What are the catalysts to bring about a change of hearts and minds that will allow regenerative culture to become embedded in policy? How do we as a society embrace an ethic of habitat repair?
Our only hope for survival lies in understanding the fundamental role healthy soils plays in supporting all of life. This is why land managers who are capable of growing healthy soils as they produce food, medicine, fuel, fiber, building materials, etc., must be rewarded with a living wage and benefits by society at large. Collectively, we need new agreements that recognize soil as the fundamental infra-structure---the essence of the "commons". The wanton destruction of soil can no longer be a "right" of land owners or corporations.
Conventional and traditional organic farmers, ranchers and foresters need access to training, tools and incentives to transition to regenerative practices. Farm workers and migrant laborers should be guaranteed full equal rights and justice under the law. Climate refugees who want to farm should be given access to land, tools and markets.
A re-localized agriculture will require human labor. Many more citizens should have the opportunity to enjoy meaningful employ on regenerative farms in every city, town and village of the state. Young people should have access to training and grants to start up small farm businesses in a revitalized agricultural economy. Society must guarantee that regenerative farmers receive a living wage---this is key to restoring biodiversity and stability to our climate.
It is time to explicitly link "a just transition in agriculture" to racial injustice, social inequity, loss of biodiversity, abrupt climate change.
One way to achieve these ends is to press our elected representatives to pass a Healthy Soil Protection and Restoration)Act. This legislation could be embedded in a wider green stimulus bill or green new deal---or stand on its own.
The path to healthy soil is a revolution.
Such an act could include:
-Reparations to those historically disenfranchised from their land
-Incentives for land owners to adopt regenerative land management practices
-Establishment of "new commons" (through partnership between government, NGO's and land owners) to grant access to farm land to climate refugees, young and new farmers, people of color, women farmers
-Research and development on biomimicry
-Field agents trained in regenerative land management
-youth soil regeneration corps for habitat restoration.

Hope to see you at "The People's Assembly for a Just Transition in Agriculture"---September 1st, 11am on the Vermont Statehouse Lawn ... See MoreSee Less

Extinction Rebellion Upper Valley - A Bioregional XR

12 months ago

Hello friends & neighbors,
This is a call for an XRUV General Assembly.
It's been a long time!
I propose that all who safely can, meet at Lyman Park in WRJ from 5 to 6:15pm on Thursday, August 13th.
(physical distancing and masks)
How does the climate justice movement continue in the time of Covid?
I would like to add to the agenda:
-Holding a "People's Assembly on a Just Transition in Agriculture".
-Advocating for our elected representatives to pass a Healthy Soils Protection (and restoration) Act.
Stand up for life!
Health & Peace
Stephen Leslie ... See MoreSee Less