Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

When I was in college I took a lot of Political Science classes. I took them because they were taught by the best teacher I have ever had. His name was Robert Jessen (and I imagine it still is). He changed the course of my entire life by changing my cynicism about the world to a real desire to make things better. He helped me see that the ultimate solution is not to watch the shit hit the fan and then say "I told you so." He taught me that just being educated is only the first step. He also introduced me to my hero Scott Nearing. Without him I probably would not be working on this farm now.

One of the classes I took focused on environmental politics. One of the books we read was Hope, Human and Wild by Bill McKibben. The book was incredibly interesting and offered some real hope that not all governments and people were incapable of dealing with the major issues that plague the world today.

Yesterday Bill McKibben spoke at Long Trail School in Dorset and I was able to go see it with the Teleion Holon crew. The talk was short and not really mind-blowing in any way, but I think it was important. What Mr. McKibben was trying to get at is that each of us as individuals can not single-handedly stop global climate change. What we do as individuals is important, but the time has come for the governments of the world to step in and really get things moving quickly and drastically. He believes that if the whole world were to become more aware and have a goal and standard that is easily understood, it will be easier to demand better policies from our governments. He is basically trying to spread the word one person at a time. So here is the website he is promoting, which I encourage people to check out. Education is the first step. By raising awareness to people everywhere world governments would have an impossible time continuing to ignore the issues and the much needed solutions.

So yes, maybe the shit really is hitting the fan right now, but it's not over yet. Things don't have to get worse. I think the world can recover from this. Nature has the most amazing ability to heal itself. If we can stop making the problem worse, then maybe over time things can get better. I'm not sure that Mr. McKibben was right when he said it was too late to fix what has already begun and that our only option is to stop it from getting worse. We were wrong about how long it would take to see the effects of global warming, I can only hope that Mr. McKibben is wrong about how well the Earth can heal. I don't consider myself an optimist, but I need some optimism on this situation. I don't know if people can function on such a large scale if they don't have a glimmer of hope to aim for.