What matters?

Watch video here: .youtube.com/shorts/-CwKaRB_NSQ

In Tehran, amidst the rubble of the Honiak Music Academy, which Hamidreza Afarideh and his wife built, he chose to play his kamancheh. Afarideh said, "The last sound that remains here should not be bombs and missiles. It should be music."

Robots keep signaling me that I need to upgrade my software and get A.I. I'm fine with what I've got. The robots have other ideas. Some moments feel like an existential wrestle. I notice my temperature rise. I remind myself that for most of human history, survival has not depended on electricity, cars, smart meters, smartphones, Internet access, solar PVs, battery energy storage or targeted missile strikes (all here whether I like them or not).

Thinking that survival depends on nature, on abiding by nature's cycles"can seem like a kindergarten lesson that's no longer relevant.

I clarify that from conception until death, every living creature depends on an ecosystem of water, food, soil, air, insects, birds, fish and other animals. Actually, we depend on the biosphere before conception-- for healthy parents-- and after death-- when the body decomposes and returns to soil.

In what schools does nature serve as our teacher? Who still teaches that all life evolves from heating and cooling and drying and moistening? Glaciers, rocks, plants, animals and menstrual cycles all evolve from these two cycles. Since survival depends on healthy water-soil-plant relationships, could we stop covering soil with paved roads, parking lots, data centers (etc.)? Healthy soil absorbs and holds water. It grows food, cools the temperature and prevents fires. Why not stop cutting down climate-regulating forests (for solar and battery storage facilities, data centers and new housing developments)? Let forests that we have ruined regenerate themselves. Why not pause technological developments until we can do them without ravaging nature? Let go the belief that survival depends on making money and upgrading electronics. Reduce dependence on international supply chains, decrease military spending-- and learn to live by the food, water and energy offered within our region's watershed.

Even in highly populated areas, could we stop deploying new tech infrastructure and encourage people to grow food at schools, hospitals, office complexes, empty lots and windowsills?

Could we teach ourselves to abide by nature's cycles? I hear that when people do that, we genocide and ecocide become less common.

WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OIL Former Wall Street broker Nate Hagens explains that "the human economy, measured by people times goods and services per person, is now 1000 times bigger than it was 500 years ago. This lens is missing from virtually all mainstream economic and political discussions and analysis. We're making long-term plans, taking on long-term debts, building long-term institutions and financial systems"all based on the assumption that the energy and material largesse at the top of the carbon pulse is a permanent plateau. It isn't. It goes up and it will likely come down soon. The downslope has implications for every dimension of civilization, but especially our economic system, because the economy runs on energy." I highly recommend Nate Hagens' three brief videos: Oil 101; Oil 201; Oil 301.

Iranian/Canadian Kaveh Madani explains that because of its chemical debris, fallout from explosions, targeting of oil sites and desalination plants, WAR IS THE WORST THING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. Madani says that problems come from blaming only oil producers-- and from excluding oil buyers' responsibility. See his recent report, Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era.

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