earth manifesto

Live according to the premise that the natural world is beautiful and must also be sustained. In the natural world, there is nothing that is not beautiful to the human eye. Think about it. From the smallest seed to the most grand canyon, it’s all perfectly formed, elegantly proportioned, and a treasure to behold. It’s when we get away from the natural world that we falter. And we have globally removed ourselves from the laws of nature to the point that our planet won’t survive if we don’t drastically change our course on every single level of civilisation.

Stop ecologically abusive practices at every level. Grasp that unnecessary use of natural resources will deplete the planet forever, leaving our children’s children to figure out survival…not because renewable energy is “the future” but because renewable energy is the only way they will not cease to exist. The generations living on the planet right now have become used to lifestyles that are completely unsustainable. Huge single houses, two cars, vacations on the other side of the world, vegetables out of season, as much plastic junk as Walmart and Amazon can send out to us - these things have become our birthright. But the reality is, every step we take in these lifestyles are killing the planet. Most people can barely sustain these super expensive, super stressful lifestyles as they spend the vast majority of time just trying to pay for them. Result? Exhaustion, sickness, depression, piles of useless stuff, homes that barely get lived in, lives that get lived in a fog.

Follow the laws of nature because they are simple and always right. There’s not even room for a whisper between science and living beautifully. They are intrinsically and infinitely connected. Making beautiful things and living a beautiful life are easy if we just follow the teachings that are all around us in the natural world. Grow things. Connect with nature.

Build community. We are going to go extinct as a species if we don’t recognise interdependence between people is the entire future. Care about the people around you.

If you’re not happy with your life, your location, your job, your situation, change it. Decide what you want. Understand there are no perfect situations but if you align your life with who you actually are, things become easier despite life’s difficulties. Pay attention to what matters. Stop the noise and the habits that keep you listening to things you know don’t matter and aren’t relevant to your life. Change. You can. You just have to stop thinking about it and actually do it.

We started on the course of living in the rhythm of nature and living in community with others when we moved to the Italian countryside in 2003. We had to fight hard to make a living and survive, and it taught us lessons that I am still unraveling today, almost 20 years later. One of the greatest things those 10 years in Italy taught us was that we’re in control of absolutely nothing. This was, of course, true of life before Italy, yet we ignored this and tried, with all our might, to control variables - which made us sick with stress and anxiety and the feeling that we were trying to fill a hole that could never be filled with money, things, and “lifestyle”. But attempting to live in balance with the Italian country side showed us once and for all who the real boss was. And to be honest, it was tough, but a relief.

I am a lifetime student of design. I love beauty in all of its forms. But I realised after so much living in the country side that beauty, real beauty, can only be achieved when we fully love and respect science and nature. Below are just a few truths I learned from hard fought lessons. I’ll add on to these periodically, because like I said, the lessons keep coming, and I stay as open to learning them as I can.

Do you have any ideas I can add to this list? Send me a note here and I’ll include them with credit. Let’s learn from each other!

Without bees we’re a gonner

What this means: Do things that support the long term existence of an insect without which we’re dead.

How to do it: Plant flowers that bees love. If you can’t plant flowers outside because you don’t have space, donate some cash to your local beekeeper, Support your local small allotments with money for flowers, or bring flowering plants directly to small allotment holders and give them out.

Paint is plastic. You don’t need it.

What it means: Your normal, everyday paint that you buy, whether it’s expensive and gorgeous or cheap and white, is plastic. It’s acrylic based and will be on the planet forever. Ok, so it’s stuck to your walls, but it’s also down the drain and in the environment in the form of micro plastic. Which we drink and eat and digest with our very tired livers and kidneys.

How to do it:: You can choose to buy paint with no plastic. There are two forms. One is based in lime/chalk, and one is based in clay. The colors are more muted and soft and a whole lot more beautiful than anything you can get from plastic paint. CAVEAT: “Chalk Paint” which is so hugely popular right now is not natural lime paint. It contains plastic to help with coverage. You really have to dig for lime based paints. Here’s a brand that is available in the US.

Save water however you can.

What it means: Water is the only thing keeping our planet from burning up into a crispy peace of cosmic toast. Using it carefully is what’s going to allow your kids and your kid’s kids to live. Period.

How to do it: Here are a few ways to start. Assume you’re not as dirty as you think you are, because you’re not. A 30 -45 second microshower will clean you as well as a 30 minute shower. Water on, get wet. Water off, soap up and shampoo. Water on, rinse vigorously. Water off, condition your hair. Water on, rinse again. If you don’t need to wash your hair ever day, then do this every other day. On the non shower days, take a sponge bath with a loofa or a slightly abrasive washcloth. You’ll actually get cleaner than the shower days. I dropped from long showers to short when we moved to Italy and never looked back. Water is such a valuable resource and so is all that energy needed to heat it.

Get rain barrels and have your gutters cut to collect water. Water by hand. Understand the value of mulch for keeping water in the soil.

Reuse your pasta and vegetable water. Collect it, let it cool, and water your plants with it.

Soil is everything

What it means: Do things to enrich soil around you so that the earth will support life.

How to do it: Compost your plant shavings, eggshells, and other nutrient dense vegetable waste and make a small compost. If you can’t do this because you have no place for a composter, buy and give a composter to someone who has the land but can’t afford the equipment. Go to your local small allotments and ask people what they need to enrich the soil naturally, and help them get those things. Splash the cash on natural healing food for the soil, so that soil can grow beautiful plants to sustain life.

Weeds are life. Glyphosate is death.

What it means: Glyphosate is the active ingredient in many retail herbicides. It seeks out and destroys “unwanted” weeds from large crops, and keeps the areas in between your garden path weed free. The cost is enormous. By killing off weeds, you kill off biodiversity and plant culture. It destroys the soil in two ways: first, it poisons the soil directly. Second, it kills all the living organisms that keep biodiversity going, and only allows certain crops to survive.

How to do it: Watch Kiss the Ground.

Stop using all herbicides and pesticides. Stop having a lawn. Create a biodiverse garden instead that attracts wildlife and regenerates itself. Look into natural ways of keeping pests away that does not destroy the ecosystem. Lawn, done well, is a nail in the casket of our planet. It requires water and herbicides and gives nothing back. Think about what you want your space, your property, to be about. Do you want it to be about life? Or the death of the planet?

Weeds are not weeds. They are a biodiverse selection of plants which feed the soil and create natural resistance to pests and insects. If we completely remove the weeds, we are leaving the soil barren, releasing insane amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.

You don’t have to be like everyone in McMansionville. You can start a new trend. Your children can learn about how to care for the planet. It will take them away from their small screens and get them outside in a meaningful way!

Permaculture isn’t just for hippies

What it means: Permaculture gardening is a holistic way of healing soil and creating an ecosystem that will continuously support plant life and provide an abundance of vegetables and fruits for many people.

How to do it: It’s done by layering nutrients in the form of twigs, natural mulch, leaves, humus, manure, and top soil, all of which is then covered with a layer of natural mulch that gives the soil the right pH. It’s easy to do if you have land. As you plant a mix of vegetables and fruits (and there are plant relationships that need to be respected), you can water the soil with collected rain water which the mulch will maximise, and grow vegetable forests. Dense nutrients create huge crops. The mulch cover keeps all the CO2 in the ground where it needs to stay. Healthy plants breath in CO2 and lock it into the soil. You can learn more about regenerative gardening here.

Stop eating sugar

It’s poison. You know that, right? It’s the cause of the Great Sicknesses of The World. All of it. Diabetes 2, obesity, and a host of ailments that make you feel like crap. Just get rid of it. Ok, so the common science is that the human body can successfully digest and metabolise 7 grams of added sugar a day.

Now look at your can of soda. You’re basically killing yourself with it.

The weird thing is, after weaning yourself off added sugar, all the savoy foods start to taste so much sweeter.

Have your piece of cake a week. One. If you have to. But get rid of the rest. Get rid of processed foods, the devil’s drink known as soda, get rid of all the cereals and breads that list sugar or honey. Think about what you’re putting in that body of yours. Envision your beautiful body and treat it as you would your best friend. Love it. Don’t let stupid sugar take it from you.