Author Archives: 24-6.org

The return of cheap oil. This time don’t waste it.

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Courtesy Getty Images

Boycott!

The price of oil tumbles but the devastating human cost remains.

What an astonishing and unpredictable moment. Crude oil prices are tanking and the US, producing 70% more in the last six years, is on the cusp of becoming, in a few months, the world’s largest oil exporter – more than Saudi Arabia!

This is good for consumers and our economy – temporarily.

Instead of decades of the punishing OPEC cartel and petro-state extortion, America has a real chance to get its groove back.

Consumers can send a powerful signal and we will never have quite this opportunity again – to alter the fossil fuel path – definitively.

Fossil fuel divestment is a real part of this change. But OPEC won’t be happy and will be back.

Capitalists praise the power of disruption to foster innovation but prefer inertia and an energy-addicted consumer.

Now it’s up to all of us. The stewards of our future.

24-6 Boycott. One day a week off the grid.

We, consumers all, can send prices even lower, enough to signal multinational corporations and repressive petro-states, that there’s more profit in responsible leadership. And we’re serious.

Help Oil Giants become sustainable Energy Companies.

Support coal miners transitioning to new livelihoods.

Acknowledge oil workers with whistle-blower protection and safer work conditions.

Spend a little time with our families and friends.

Bundle up in sweaters building snowmen.

Marvel at an astonishing Universe under a cold clear sky.

A spectacular sustainable future awaits.

With Big Oil extinction.

When Cultures Collapse.

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For the 350th anniversary of my town’s founding in 1661, I was asked to draw the ten items that the Sinoway (An Algonquian-speaking people of the Wappinger Federation) traded for their coastal lands. The concept of actually owning land was as foreign to Native-Americans as the concept of money.

This is a mural that graces a wall in our town’s library titled: The Purchase of Mamaroneck from the Siwanoys, 1661. It was painted with the auspices of the W.P.A. (Works Project Administration) in 1936 by Warren Chase Merritt d.1968.

This is a mural that graces a wall in our town’s library titled: The Purchase of Mamaroneck from the Siwanoys, 1661. It was painted with the auspices of the W.P.A. (Works Project Administration) in 1936 by Warren Chase Merritt d.1968.

Drawing the traded items gave me a few days to contemplate what we value when civilizations collapse. It was a nice detachment from time but rooted in place. (A couple of 24-6 days off the grid to just consider history and draw).

These are the trade items I drew.

2 Firelockes, 12 Bars of Lead, 20 Coats, 20 Hands of Powder, 15 Hatchets, 15 Hoes, 3 Kettles, 12 Shirts, 1- Pair of Stockings, 100 Fathom of Wampum

Items for the purchase of Mamaroneck in 1661; 2 Firelockes, 12 Bars of Lead, 20 Coats, 20 Hands of Powder, 15 Hatchets, 15 Hoes, 3 Kettles, 12 Shirts, 10 Pair of Stockings, 100 Fathom of Wampum

Wampum, “white man’s money”, had more to do with agreements and treaties than currency before European contact.

As you can see, when these descendents of a thousands year old culture dispersed, what refugees needed was just enough to get the hell out, find some safer place, move in with distant relatives — assimilation if possible or exodus.

Sound familiar?

 

The Apocalypse is Having a Real Moment.

With films, novels, journalists and Grammy award songs capitalizing on our angst The Apocalypse is having a resurgent moment. Even climate denial can make hay from our apocalyptic neuroses.

Exactly what you might expect to see today when society loses cohesion.

In an interview of Oren Lyons by Barry Lopez for Orion Magazine, Oren relates exactly what democratic leadership entails. He is a Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan among the Onondaga people and sits on the Council of Chiefs of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. He speaks to the inspiration his ancestors provided in forming our early American democracy – the one we still aspire to. It’s a matter of survival for a thriving culture.

America’s leadership goes beyond trade and power or a willingness to squander blood and treasure. It rests on the promise that we prize equality and freedom over exploitation and despoliation.

Surely with our wild streak of independence it’s naïve to think compromise will restore our faith in government or if we compromise enough it will lead to sustaining civilization. Our destiny demands a special accommodation for generations to follow.

The least we can do is be informed and to vote. Always vote.

In the end we only do as well as other people do, and we get the government we deserve.

— Steve Mitsch

Did the Peoples Climate March matter?

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At the time did the various protests for racial equality, women’s suffrage, labor rights, anti-war, bring about change?

Yes — and not completely, immediately or globally.

Although all of these causes, while intolerably endured, even to this day – the marchers recognized a common cause, to take immediate action for a habitable earth.

To say, you had to be there, is more than a saying when the stakes are the demise of the only climate that nurtured Homo sapiens and we have ever known. You can’t just be a bystander.

But what immediate action?

How could it be that we demand political action, corporate leadership, human rights, a scientific certainty and a total remaking of the world’s energy infrastructure – immediately – but not change our own consumptive habits? (Not to discount that all this needs to happen).

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The miles-long march was divided into segments: People most effected, Building the future, Solutions, Who’s responsible, The debate’s over, To change everything we need everyone.

At the climate march I walked behind the large banner of “We Have The Solutions” with my 24-6 Boycott sign. Near me was the only group that suggested individuals do anything to use less energy – Vegetarians. One vocal woman handing out Go Vegan flyers, rightly, but a bit forcefully, proclaimed there is no better way for an individual to reduce atmospheric carbon than to not eat meat. (You had to love their enthusiasm). I goaded her a bit asking if it was ok to just do meatless Mondays. At first she resisted “No, no, no. You have to only eat plants!” But her friends consoled me with “That would be a good start.” and she encouraged that.

That is how 24-6 works. One day a week off the grid. Something we can do immediately to change energy consumption – right now.

It becomes a little through the looking glass epiphany to experience a different possibility. We can all do things – actual fun, joyful, simple, liberating things – this week – just for yourself without waiting for anyone to tell you what to do or wait for anyone else to make it happen.

Heading the opposite way when everyone was heading home I saw only one — one lanky young guy holding his solitary message scrawled on a torn piece of cardboard; “Consume Less”.

I think it was directed to us climate marchers.

Yes we are long past small, individual actions but the banner to wrap up the march stated; “To change everything it takes everyone. My carbon footprint for walking all day in this uber-passionate, carnival of a climate protest, was pretty much zero.

The enormity of the crisis is dispiriting but the possibilities seen in New York City that day were inspiring.

Steve Mitsch

Running Meditation

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Running. It was boring, exhausting, and repetitive and didn’t do much to make a person look all that good.

Discovered by complete accident, I was once told, “To burn body fat it’s not how fast you run but how long you run”. So I started going further.

What makes jogging a 24-6 pastime is that it requires no fossil-fuel energy, starts a day off the grid and you’re in the elements. You don’t need new-age trainers, gyms, treadmills or anybody’s permission (check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program though mine would be skeptical).

Of late, I tell myself that I feel like running and then, to just keep on running. At times it seems to help put the past behind and free my thoughts.

Believe it or not there are many people who run all day.
They’re called Ultra Runners and though that sounds like the province of elite athletes or exceptional humans – perhaps not always.

To spare you the long story here’s all you need to know.
Slow down a little and stay on the ball of your foot.

But the long story is a great one. And the anthropological record suggests that humans are evolved as a running species.

The book that explains a lot of this is Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen written by Christopher McDougall. The main character, Michael Randolf Hickman, a.k.a Micah True or Caballo Blanco was beautiful. He believed what he did was “running meditation” and his motto was ”Run free”. This I know against all expectations to be true. Even though I am a terrible athlete and way past my prime.

(I resist attaching links because 24-6 is s’posed to be your “Exit Ramp of the Information HighwaySM” but here it is). https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6289283-born-to-run?ac=1

Exercise for mind and body should seem obvious but perhaps not as much to a western mind. Remarkably, there is a quality of experience when you realize you are your body.

Running at a modest comfortable pace becomes easy to maintain.

Your breathing becomes regular.

Your thoughts range as in sitting or walking meditation and you, by necessity, return to your breath.

Silly of me to suggest this is a spiritual equivalent of other ancient practices or the current vogue of “mindfulness” but damn if it doesn’t have some merit to it. There is a crossing over of ordinary consciousness and perceived physical limits. To “run free” is not the cliché theory of runners’ high but our more evolutionary human state.

Who knew, or did we forget?

Steven Mitsch

Dog

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We live with a 9 year old female Akita.

Akita’s are a canine breed that was created in Japan.

Once, when she was younger and took longer walks, we passed a man returning from Temple and, as often happens with people, he stopped to remark on her presence. (She weighs in at a fit 120 pounds). What he said to me was not just that I had a beautiful dog but did I know that a dog is a gift from God?

Though I am agnostic the sentiment of a miraculous relationship with other animals, especially this dog, seems evident. And the 15,000 years of co-evolution with our human species does give us a unique history of mutual alliance.

What makes an Akita interesting is that the story of canine DNA establishes them at nearly most like the wolf. They are very independent in nature and are a loyal member of the family pack only insofar as if you are not the leader they will intervene on your behalf – an extremely dangerous prospect.

At about a year old her puppy frolicking at the dog park turned serious and people were afraid she would hurt their dogs. In our apartment building, she had bitten 2 of our neighbors’ dogs – not all her fault and not fatal. Still, we had to learn to control her. Fortunately, the last incident happened while the other owner knew were at a training school and gave us some leeway (and an expensive veterinary bill).

You could say that raising her has given our family a life lesson in animal nature that another breed, let alone, species, probably wouldn’t.

The responsibility is different than owning a “pet”. In other times the whole idea of breeding is to make animals useful to ourselves as protection, territorial claims and workers. Modern dogs aren’t all that different – as companions, accessories or even strangely, extensions of ego. But I think our companion taught us a little about wild animal instinct in the best way – that respect and nature are the practice and reward and friendship of a lifetime. That mastery is the diligent awareness of navigating life together.

As she gets older she seems comfortable to trust her welfare with us. Imagine how difficult it is to ambulate around the human landscape as an animal.

She still adores the neighborhood kids and howls a greeting to most people who stop to pet her, wary of some who approach her tentatively. But when it comes to all but one, very large mastiff who was her playmate, she would just as soon avoid dogs as dominate them.

It is her nature. We are just glad that there‘s room for that version of wildness to exist in our world.

– Steve Mitsch