Simply Human

 Genesis to the film by Yann Arthus Bertrand 

***For a full movie click here

Related post: Power to change

The language dominion

What do we even aim for when we talk environment?

Video: The language dominion by Tom Butler

Tom Butler was one of 45 leading scholars, authors and activists who convened at The Great Hall of Cooper Union, New York City, on October 25-26, 2014, for the public presentation: "Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth." Speakers discussed the profound impacts—environmental, economic and social—of runaway technological expansionism and cyber immersion; the tendency to see technology as the savior for all problems. For more info, see http://ifg.org/techno-utopia/program/ .

The Economics of Happiness

It is pointless to talk of all the crisis we are living. Better would be to know a way out. How can we dismantle the craziness that takes us to collapse? How can we recover and return to happiness?

"Going local is a powerful strategy to repair our fractured world, our ecosystem and our selves…"

Movie Trailer "The Economy of Happiness" by Helena Norberg-Hodge

RELATED: Happiness and materialism far apart

Happiness and materialism far apart

"At present, we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it GDP" Paul Hawken (2009)

As Club of Rome releases its historical Limits to Growth in the United States in 1972, the same year the term "gross national happiness" (GNH) is coined in the Kingdom of Bhutan. In pursuit to build an economy that would promote Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values, the emperor of this landlocked Himalayan country of less than one million (746,500 people today) introduced a five-year planning based on GNH. 

Slogan about Gross National Happiness in Thimphu's School of Traditional Arts

Since then, for over 40 years, the kingdom of Bhutan is placing environmental concerns and spiritual wellbeing over rampant capitalism. As Paul Hawken further states: "working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is to be rich".

Video: Bhutan, Gross National Happiness and Sustainable Development

Years of Living Dangerously

Hot from the owen, this is the recently released first episode of an excellently narrated documentary. An account that joins the dots for us to see the bigger picture of the consequences of our modern living based on excessive consumerism, which we claim necessary and which multiplies as the global population and hunger for Western living-style rises.

In the "age of rights" for humans we have forgotten our responsibility. We all fall victims to our inability to see and account for the our disconnection with the nature. Unless we fix our understanding of the world of nature, of which we are an inseparable part, we will make the history as the next extinct species.

Time is counting…

Years of Living Dangerously, 2014 (movie 52min)

Give yourself a present: find who who you are....

Do we ever ask the most important question of our life? Are we ever questioning our assumptions, labels, descriptions that we or others gave us? When we ask, we tend to run into many misconceptions which effect our actions. 

This holidays give yourself the most delightful present: ask and find who you are. :-)

A short video: Who are you...? by Kosi Freedom 

(subtitled in 40 languages)

Change your way of thinking, change your world!

You are what your deep, driving desire is. 

As your desire is, so is your will. 

As your will is, so is your deed. 

As you deed is, so is your destiny.

                              (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad)

There is nothing impossible, we just shall change our way of thinking. There is always a different way, another possibility... Can you see it?

Keep it sunny side up!

Wastefulness reinvented - think in circles

Why every time we do something we need to pollute?
Why every time we eat something there is so much waste produced from transportation, packaging...?
Why every time you want to buy new jeans there is such a huge environmental footprint?
Why every time we talk sustainability we think about making less bad rather than making all cycle good?

Why there has to be a beginning and an end? Would not a cycle be better?

It is all about our way of thinking. Can we rethink our ways of doing?

Video: Circular economy 

Best ideas are simple! :-)

Picasso's organic landscapes by Douglas Tompkins

When I met Douglas Tompkins and spoke to him over a delicious but frugal Country-Life vegetarian dinner, I was amazed how his values resonated with mine. 

It was even more amazing that although I missed his contributions to the 2013 German BioFach congress forum where he was one of the panelist of the "Imagine... - the beauty of organic farming", I virtually "bumped" into him later in Prague. Both of us were supposed to be elsewhere. Whether this is a coincidence or a destiny, his documentary presentation swept me off my feet. The unparalleled beauty that he and his team created by, what he calls, "painting the landscapes", has showed before only in my dreams.

Douglas Tompkins is an American environmentalist, conservationist and a former owner of two clothing companies, The North Face (outdoor outfit) and the ESPRIT. In 1989, he left the business arena to dedicate himself to environmental activism and land conservation. Together with his wife, Kristine Tompkins, over those years, he has conserved some 8,100 km² of wilderness, in Patagonia (the southern part of Chile), as well as in Argentina. He currently runs four foundations dedicated to conservation.

Described as a deep ecologist, he believes that true ecological sustainability and species extinction can be achieved only through rethinking our values where nature is no longer seen merely as a commodity for human exploitation and profit. Rather it must be seen as "a partner and model in all human enterprise".

Video: Laguna Blanca, 20min

Deep ecologists see the main culprits for current state of Earth in:

• "The loss of traditional knowledge, values, and ethics of behavior that celebrate the intrinsic value and sacredness of the natural world" and instead dwells on an "assumption of human superiority to other life forms"

• The prevailing economic and development paradigms of the modern world" which is "fundamentally incompatible with ecological sustainability on a finite Earth"

• "Technology worship and an unlimited faith in the virtues of science; the modern paradigm that technological development is inevitable, invariably good, and to be equated with progress and human destiny. From this, we are left dangerously uncritical, blind to profound problems that technology has wrought, and in a state of passivity that confounds democracy."

• Overpopulation                                Source: Foundation for deep ecology

When I saw his documentary Laguna Blanca, I sighed: "This is what it looks like when dreams come true!"

Business of creating miracle: our way forward...

As we are awakening, our purpose becomes more obvious to us. 

Thank you, Charlie for sharing your vision.

Video: Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein - 12min documentary

Planned obsolescence - another unjudged crime

A few years back I was irritated that my not so old gadget broke down. "How could that be, it is almost new!" I exclaimed. My friend smiled saying "things are made to break down, ideally, before you reach your home from the retail shop". I laughed thinking it seemed like it. Little did I know that there was a term and a whole strategy behind such an idea.

Planned obsolescence, a term known to environmentalists, those who inquire about our ways of living or economists who know this term as a golden rule for depreciation. In industrial design this is "a policy of planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete, [...] unfashionable or no longer functional after a certain period of time. Planned obsolescence has potential benefits for a producer because to obtain continuing use of the product the consumer is under pressure to purchase again, whether from the same manufacturer (a replacement part or a newer model), or from a competitor which might also rely on planned obsolescence." (Wikipedia)

Perhaps in 1950s, when the idea was popularized by an American industrial designer, Brooks Stevens and when the world's population was roughly 2,5 billion, built-in obsolescence could have been "excused" or ignored. Nonetheless, today when the population mark has passed 7 billion and is expected to grow over 9 billion by 2050, this practice is a crime!

Obscolescence might be hidden under the "fashion" claims or functionality failure. Does your IPhone 3G no longer allows updates for main applications such as Viber, Skype or Whats App? Do you get a messages "only higher versions of your Apple gadget support this product?" Then you know what this means, body. The next version is out! Better? No, shinier...

What happens tech once its trash?

No matter how much upcycling and repairing we do, no matter how green we attempt to be, if we do not stand up to such shallow practices that impact grossly on our planet. It is frightening to see how we have became accomplices of such strategies without even noticing. The cancer of the society slowly spreading through our consumption. Planned obscolescence is part of today's business curricula, while sustainability has not reached or is only timidly tapping into the classroom of future innovators, managers and leaders at large. We all have fallen victims of this culture, we all have been sinning to smaller or bigger degree through promoting and being silent about wastefulness. 

As we indulge in new fashion, as we update our gadgets, appliances or our outfits, we are supporting crimes against Earth! Complacent with the claims of our retailers "...it all gets recycled, don't worry", we destine our trash to hidden landfills further ashore that leaches toxic substances into the land, water streams and air.

The light bulb conspiracy (trailer) 
Movie on the birth of Planned Obsolescence here (Spanish), 52min

Ecocide is a crime, and so should be Planned Obsolescence!

RELATED: Life sentence for Ecocide!
The story behind electronics

2012 - Shift of Consciousness

L_O_V_E is the only constant to sustain this world...

Click to view the movie THE MESSAGE OF HOPE here

Food in hands of mafia

You might have heard of Monsanto. You might be even using their products or eating food grown with their seeds. Life is good if we can secure plentiful produce, but at what cost? Do we need GMOs and weed control? Some claim: 'yes otherwise we will not be able to feed the whole planet'. Meanwhile, a lot of food is thrown out even before it reaches the consumer and, in different parts of the world, many go hungry. 

Monsanto has been in the eyes of those concerned about health, environment as well as food security and even global security. It is a monster that has penetrated every corner of this planet and most agricultural produce: mustard, okra, rice, cauliflower to name a few. 

Monsanto wanted by Greenpeace and others.

Monsanto crowd established a mechanism in which seed can be owned as their property. There is a simple equation: if they control seeds, they control food, which is the best way to control the world.


I can hear you saying: "Wait a minute food and global security? What does that have to do with me? Leave it to the big guys!' That was what I though as well. But who are the big guys that should protect us, if the regulations bodies such as the FDA (Food And Drug Administration) and governments themselves have been penetrated by Monsanto's malitia?

World according to Monsanto 

Click here for the full movie, 109minutes

The story behind electronics

Today's electronics and gadgets are designed for the dump. Is that necessary? Is there a way out?

Annie Leonard's the Story of Electronics

For your own action click here. Everyone's contribution counts.

Related: Indoor pollution

              Green treasure worm composting

              Green your office start today

Food dictatorship

Have you ever thought about where the food you are eating comes from? 

Are we getting the nutrients that we need?

What are we eating? 

Chicken is grown in 49 days?

Corn in ketch up, juice, cheese?

In the US, farmers cannot grow the seeds they want?

Who is behind the production of our food?

Watch the whole movie here FOOD Inc

(English version with Czech subtitles)

Related: Story of stuff

               Three main reasons to become vegetarian

               Super natural cooking

Power to change

My favorite photographer, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, has so authentically depicted the story of our lives to help us to see what we have forgotten. Although we so heavily depend on natural resources, our daily lives focus on their depletion and abuse. We are very bad tenants who don't care about destroying their Home.

Have we come to the planet to use it and abuse it, or rather are we here to preserve it while creating? Why do we selfishly overexploit our treasures?  Why are we so disconnected from the nature? 

Home - watch and listen to your story and decide what to do next
(Full movie in English) 

The good news is that we all can protect the planet's beauty, we all can change our everyday habits, we all can do it in every aspect of our lives and we all can and must do it now. You decide...

As Moliere said "It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do." 

Watch HOME by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the 90 minutes movie for free on You Tube in one of the 10 languages.

RELATED: The Story Of Stuff
                       Three main reasons to become vegetarian

Organic vegetables cure for cancer

And I guess this is another valid reason for going vegetarian. Raw organic vegetables diet has proven to cure cancer and other degenerative diseases. This therapy by a German physician Dr. Max Gerson who believed to cure cancer by applying a strict fat-free, salt-free, low-protein, vegetarian diet, based on great quantities of fresh organic vegetable juice, supplements, and systemic detoxification. His therapy dates back to 1928 when he started to use this method, previously efficient in curing migraine and tuberculosis, for cancer.

Ms. Gerson explains: "Dr. Gerson found that the underlying problems of all cancer patients are toxicity and deficiency. He had to overcome both these difficulties. He found that one of the important features of his therapy had to be the hourly administration of fresh vegetable juices. These supply ample nutrients, as well as fluids to help flush out the kidneys. When the high levels of nutrients re-enter tissues, toxins accumulated over many years are forced into the blood stream. The toxins are then filtered out by the liver. The liver is easily overburdened by the continuous release of toxins and is unable to release the load. Dr. Gerson found that he could provide help to the liver by the caffeine in coffee, absorbed from the colon via the hemorrhoidal vein, which carries the caffeine to the portal system and then to the liver. The caffeine stimulates the liver/bile ducts to open, releasing the poisons into the intestinal tract for excretion." 

It has been explained that digestive system of a sick person is not functioning well thus not allowing to assimilate the nutrients in raw vegetables as they contain the pulp or fiber. If the pulp is removed, the nutrients pass directly into the blood stream feeding the cells and restoring the immune system within minutes after consumption. This is why Dr. Gerson chose juice form.

You probably ask why is this method not applied standardly if it has promising results. And it does! In brief, it is too simple and too cheap. Pharmaceutical industries are not interested in releasing such knowledge. Dr. Gerson faced many issues with the US pharmaceutical concerns and he was finally poisoned with arsenic that was found in his afternoon coffee.

A fantastic account of Gerson's struggles and successes are narrated in a documentary Dying to have known by Steve Kroschel.  

War on plastic

So how many of you love the sea, the ocean, the beautiful holiday on the water... nice... if it is not close to the plastic island, though.

It is hard but after seeing the videos below, not using plastic is not enough, we shall declare a war to it. Do we really want to be feeding it to the marine life and other natural system and, eventually, eating it ourselves?

Yackie, no more please!

Watch the plastic island

If you have not yet, start with the plastic bottles. We can achieve a change is we start at our end as consumers first! And don't thin that recycling is enough, it is not.

 Watch the video "Story of bottled water"