Saving the ancient skills of the Now for the Future

[le Voyageur 72]

The only way in which we can communicate to the future is through generations of yet unborn children. Looking ahead a thousand years, what skills should we pass along that will ensure these generations their survival. Consider, at this moment in time, with over 6 billion souls on this pale blue dot, the carrying capacity of this planet has been exceeded, and is only being maintained by techonolgy. We have become a virus on the only piece of real estate that we can live on. It is easy to forsee a dark future within this span of time, techology will fail as resources give out. And with the death of technology, countless wars will be waged to control remaining resources (oil and coal will be fully depleated, and non renewable), societies and nations will pass away into the dust of history just as Rome. Those far generations waiting to breathe life will in time cease to be Americans, or ???, but instead, tribal or clan members eeking out an existence on the left overs of past generations.

So again, the same question repeated...as wise, and ancient elders what skills should we preserve now and pass on...

[littlebillie 10]

wind and solar energy.

belief in a better tomorrow.

indoor plumbing.

[SR540Beaver 116]

Probably not to play "chicken little". I agree that we could all move to a more "green" attitude, but I look around me and don't see all the problems that tree huggers claim. Yes, if you go to LA, it is smogsville. If you go to Dallas, it isn't. LA is overtaxed. Dallas, as big as it is, is not. I've literally gone from coast to coast and from border to border in this great nation and traveld abroad and I see tons of livable and farmable land sitting fallow. There are many places you can go in the world and never see another human being. How can you say that the carrying capacity has been exceeded? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we can cut, burn, drill and pollute to our hearts content. We do need to be better stewards of the Earth, but we have made great strides comaped to where we have been over the last 100 years in that respect. From my corner of the world, I just don't see the evidence that all the chicken littles see.

[ASM7 10]

le Voyageur

 

Sounds like a revelation to me.

 

Doug

[le Voyageur 72]

 

Just moving one of the topics from last weekend's campfire over to here...

[OldGreyEagle 5]

The ability to read and write

The ability to perform mathematics

The ability to make fire without "civilized" acoutrement

 

OGE

Matt 7:1-5

[NativeTexan 10]

I believe we would need to pass on resourcefulness. Scouting taught me how to use what was at hand to complete a task. I in turn am trying to pass this quality on to the boys in our troop and pack today. Many of these boys don't have to be resourceful at home or school or elsewhere in the disposable suburban environment in which they live. No finger pointing on my part. I just want to pass this on to them. I really find it funny when a new boy will ask "Why do you keep all those old coffee cans?" and one of the older boys will answer for me "So we can build stuff out of them".

[red feather 10]

The ability to read and write.

The ability to question and learn.

The ability to be resourceful and confident.

The points of the Scout Law or a variation thereof.

The ability to analyze, adapt and overcome.

The ability to look yourself in the mirror without fear.

The ability to follow the golden rule or if need be its corollary.

The ability to have fun and enjoy what is around you.

The ability to improvise.

 

and just for fun a quote that I like:

 

"Remember this, foolish mortals, when ye stare headlong into the mind-paralyzing void, the inky black nothing of existence, the hellish yawning maw of the abyss-- it's pretty da-- dark, so give it a few minutes for your eyes to adjust"

 

Frank M Carrano

 

Sometimes it is hard to take that moment.

 

YIS

 

[evmori 11]

Playing unorganized sports with you friends on your street.

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[le Voyageur 72]

Here's a short list of skills.....most of which will probadly become extinct in time....

 

The ability to heal using natural remedies.

 

Being able to turn a field of flaxs, or cotton, or the wool of a heard of sheep into clothing and blankets.

 

Able to forge metals such as iron, copper, and brass.

 

The ability to preserve foods without refrigeration.

 

The ability to farm and grow food for the table.

 

Being able to hunt and fish

 

Able to turn clay and natural materials into baskets, pots, and jars.

 

Able to turn a piece of wood into a bow, and cane or willow into arrows

 

Knowledge of making rope and cordage

 

The joy of music

 

...........

[SR540Beaver 116]

Here is an interesting article addressing those who think we've just about used up the Earth.

 

46 percent of Earth is still wilderness, researchers report

By Paul Rogers

Mercury News

 

Despite population growth, logging and other environmental threats, nearly half the land on Earth remains wilderness -- undeveloped and nearly unpopulated, according to a study released today. The study by 200 international scientists, the most comprehensive analysis ever done on Earth's wild places and population trends, was seen by some experts as a surprising cause for optimism. Biologists also viewed it as a warning, since only 7 percent of the wilderness is protected.

 

``A lot of the planet is still in pretty decent shape,'' said Russell Mittermeier, a Harvard primatologist and president of Conservation International, an environmental group in Washington, D.C., that organized the study.

 

``We should be happy about that, but we should do everything we can to maintain it. A lot of areas, particularly tropical forests, are under the gun.''

 

Using databases, computer maps and satellite photos, the study found that 46 percent of the Earth's land can be classified as wilderness -- from the forests of Russia, Canada and Alaska to the Congo, the Amazon, the Sahara and New Guinea.

 

That area, totaling 68 million square kilometers -- more than seven times the size of the United States -- is home to only 2.4 percent of world population, or 144 million people.

 

Antarctica and the Arctic tundra make up roughly a third of that wilderness, or 23 million square kilometers.

 

To qualify as wilderness, researchers required areas to have fewer than five people per square kilometer, or 247 acres; at least 70 percent of their original vegetation; and a size of least 10,000 square kilometers, about the equivalent of Yellowstone National Park.

 

The research was done over two years by scientists from such institutions as the World Bank; Cambridge and Harvard universities; Zimbabwe's Biodiversity Foundation for Africa; and the National Amazon Research Institute in Brazil. The results will be published in a 500-page book next year: ``Wilderness: Earth's Last Wild Places,'' by the University of Chicago Press.

 

The study was bankrolled in part by donations from Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, of Woodside, a major donor to Conservation International.

 

The developed world should do more to safeguard wilderness, said Thomas Lovejoy, president of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment in Washington, D.C.

 

``There is also an ethical and moral reason,'' Lovejoy said. ``We are all -- every amoeba, every person, every rhinoceros -- the end point of 4 billion years of evolution. You just don't snuff that out.''

 

Others noted that civilization's footprint is worldwide.

 

``There's not a square centimeter on Earth that's not affected by humans and what we produce, from chemicals in the atmosphere to global warming,'' said Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden. ``But this is interesting. It makes the point that there are lots of little-affected areas, more than most people might think.''

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED

 

To learn more about the study, go to www.conservation.org

 

[le Voyageur 72]

 

The study is too short sighted and does not address the time span in question. That is, the human population growth over the the next 1,000 years...here's my caculations, in the year 2017 npg (net population growth) will exceed 15 billion, by 2050/55 near 40 billion, and in 1,000 years, over 450 billion.

 

here's a site for some easy basics for understanding the problem that we humans are creating....

 

http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65/lec16/b65lec16.htm

 

we need to start preparing the next few generations as guides for future generations on their way back to the stone age....

 

 

[littlebillie 10]

so 1/3 of the wilderness is frozen and not much use. how much of the remainder is desert? how much of the remainder is mountain?

 

less than half of the earth remains uninhabited or relatively so, even as human lifespan has trebled and quadrupled, and the bearing of children and the burning of virgin forest remains a HUGE part of the agricultural subsistence formula...

 

46%? that's pretty scary. esp. when we think about how much of the ocean remains "untainted".../

[scoutldr 732]

How to parent.

 

Procreating is instinctual, parenting must be learned.

[le Voyageur 72]

Desertfication is often seen in the traditional sense as to what is now happening in northern Africa. However it is the man made deserts of cities, urban spraw, and roadways being created to meet the demands of an ever increasing population that are one of many problems impacting industrialized nations. In the past, the solution to obtain more room was through conquest. I've a feeling that policy will be revamped with a fury in the future...base survival knows only the laws of the jungle...