For more than 50 years, the
Xavante indigenous group has been fighting to regain sovereignty of the
Marãiwatsédé Indigenous Reserve in Mato Grosso state. The most recent
obstacle is the federal government’s plan to pave BR-158, the interstate
highway that cuts through the middle of the reserve.
Marãiwatsédé
is the most heavily deforested indigenous reserve in the Legal Amazon:
around 75% of its native vegetation has already been cut down. The
Xavante suspect that paving the dirt track is part of the federal
government’s plan to authorize leasing part of the reserve to ranchers
in the region.
In 2009, the Xavante began a lengthy
negotiation process with government agencies to define alternatives to
the original roadway. It was decided that BR-158 would circumvent the
reserve, running to the east of its borders. But the government of
President Jair Bolsonaro does not support the change, resulting in a
stalemate that has escalated tensions in the region.
[Image Description:
A black and white photo of FannyAnn Eddy, dark skinned black woman with a black pixie cut. She wears a white collared button up and looks thoughtfully at the camera.]
Ptolemy I portrayed as pharaoh of Egypt, late 300s BCE. After Alexander the Great died without having named a successor, his empire quickly fell apart as his generals fought a long and bloody civil war for dominance. One of these generals, Ptolemy, stole Alexander’s body and brought it to his base in Egypt, using it as a sign that Ptolemy was the rightful heir to Alexander. Ptolemy was unsuccessful in expanding his power very far beyond Egypt, but he did establish a Greek dynasty of pharaohs that would last until Cleopatra died in 30 BCE. As the artwork demonstrates, this Greek ruling dynasty went to great lengths to present themselves as traditional Egyptian leaders.
Six talking points to use when debunking the myth that overpopulation is the root of the environmental crisis:
1. Rates of population growth are declining: Between 1950 and 2000, the world population grew at a rate of 1.76%. However, between 2000 and 2050, the rate of growth is expected to decline to 0.77%.
2. Overpopulation is defined by numbers of people, not their behaviors: Industrialized countries, who make up only 20% of the world’s population, are responsible for 80% of the carbon dioxide build-up in the atmosphere. The United States is the worst offender, with 20 tons of carbon emission per person. Therefore, it is not the amount of people that leads to degradation, but what they are doing. Permaculture design illustrates how humans can have a positive impact on the health of our ecosystems, bringing greater health and equity.
3. Overpopulation justifies the scapegoating and human rights violations of poor people, women, people of color, and immigrant communities: Often times the subtext of “too many people” translates to too many poor people, people of color, and immigrants. This idea has been used to justify such practices as the forced sterilization of 35% of women of childbearing age in 1970′s Puerto Rico, under the control of and with funding from the US government. This is a human and reproductive rights violation.
4. Overpopulation points the finger at individuals, not systems: This lets the real culprits off the hook. When we look at the true causes of environmental destruction and poverty, it is often social, political and economic systems, not individuals. We see militaries and the toxic legacy of war, corrupt governments, and a capitalist economic system that puts profit over people and the environment.
5. Supports a degenerative mental model of scarcity: Much of this ideology was created by Thomas Robert Malthus, an 19th century English scholar. Malthus gave us the erroneous idea that the reason there is famine is because there are too many mouths to feed. This hides the reality that we have a distribution problem, not a scarcity problem. Malthus’s work has been used as the philosophical bedrock to justify many human rights violations throughout history.
6. Focusing on overpopulation prevents us from creating effective solutions and building movements for collective self determination: Permaculture teaches us that how we define a problem determines how we design solutions. How does viewing overpopulation as a root problem impact the way we think of and design solutions? What would solutions look like if we viewed people, all people, as an asset? The myth of overpopulation has lead to solutions of population control and fertility treatments, rather than overall health care and women’s rights. The more we blame humans and think we are bad and evil, the harder it is to believe in ourselves, count on each other, and build a collective movement for justice and self determination.
This is actually pretty exciting. They’ve found a way to turn plastic into food.
Mushrooms are such amazing things. Most are decomposers, meaning they break stuff down into its original components. Some break down dead wood, or animals, others can break down toxic waste, and apparently this one can break down plastic. How cool is that?
catch me running biorecycling plants filled with pestalotiopsis and waxworm caterpillars, BOTH OF WHICH ARE EDIBLE,
(via )
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“In civil life we can scarcely meet a single person who does not complain of his existence; many even throw away as much of it as they can.”
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality (via philosophybits)
