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A presentation by Mary Emeny:

     We have heard so much about what isn't working and what we have to do about global warming that I find myself feeling overwhelmed by guilt, confusion and all those emotions of frustration that come when my mind is on overload with what's wrong.  So, I've turned my focus toward understanding the principles behind what is sustainable, how things can work for everyone, and, more specifically, how that affects what I personally can do to live in harmony with my deepest beliefs and aspirations. What I'd like to share with you today is what I have learned about the basics of sustainability - the mindset that is helping me turn my creativity towards our goal of living in harmony with our planet, our neighbors and ourselves.  I hope you will find this as surprisingly understandable as I have.

The principle of Abundance:

     Natural systems are based on giving away or reinvesting surplus.  Plants have to give to live and provide for succession.  So do animals.  As I heard in a wonderful talk decades ago, we are here for giving.  If we think we're here for getting, we are forgetting who we are. (The pun is very much intended). Take a tree for example; it has to drop its seeds each year--seeds that start new trees, feed people and/or animals, and leaves that mulch and add compost to the soil to feed the tree itself.  And look at all the things a tree does in the process - provides shade and shelter for critters of all kinds, breathes in C02 and breathes out oxygen, gives food to countless organisms, and modifies (softens) the environment.
Trees shading a street can reduce the ambient temperature by as much as 15 degrees. How many of the things we collect have as many uses as a tree and can totally be recycled to create more of themselves?

 The Principle of Enough rather than more:

     This follows naturally when we truly live the principle of abundance, but it goes directly against the grain of Adam Smith's economics, which is based in the idea of scarcity.  The Wealth of Nations was written in 1776 and expressed a new idea for that time, a time period in which people were recognized as having inherent individual rights, really for the first time. Adam Smith saw self interest as all-important. Also, with the Enlightenment came the idea of linear time.  This was  partly because that period saw the beginnings of mechanization, which may appear to reduce physical labor, but allows-- and then almost requires--that as much of the machine's product be made as possible to maximize profit. Ithas more often worked to fit humans into the needs of the machines than the other way around. Profit rather than sufficiency became the standard of measurement, and profit is seen in linear terms, over time.  In pre-industrial society, time was related to seasons, usually marked by religious calendars and cycles. While the period since the Enlightenment has led to remarkable discoveries, inventions and understanding of individual things--and for many of us an easier way of life--it has also led us away from . . .