April 22, 2009

From record heat in California to mega-droughts in Africa I think by now it is clear that the heating of the Earth is eminent and will be painful for us who will see it. It is unfortunate that if only we each made daily choices that were pro-earth and stopped looking at our surroundings as linear we could likely begin to start healing the vast damage that we’ve done.

Today, for Earth Day I shared with my students the image of the earth being like a large cruise ship. If the captain of the ship wants to turn the ship to the left he can turn the wheel, but it takes awhile for the large ship to react and begin to turn itself. It is the same with the brakes. It takes 3-5 miles for a large ship to fully stop. The Earth is the same. Once we begin to make changes in our lives and begin to live in tune with the Earth understanding that it is not at our disposal, it will take time for Earth to feel the change and begin to heal. Unfortunately, if we don’t begin to change until we feel the true effects of the damage we have done, we will have to live years of pain until nature can begin to renew itself. 

I am a proponent of Earth and I hope you will join me and begin now to make daily pro-Earth choices.

Back in the south April 14, 2009

We are traveling in the south of Chile and visited the island of Chiloe. Incredible place. We slept in a palafito, which is a house hanging over the water. The place was called Hostel Palafitos and it was wonderful. Great service, great breakfast, quiet and just so cool sleeping over the water. Here is the view from our place.

We also visited the coast and hiked to the water. The water was completely red as they are suffering from red tide. But it was still beautiful. On our way there we came across the most amazing mushrooms I’ve ever seen. They are called amanita muscaria and although they are poisonous you’d have to eat about 13 caps to die. They are also eaten for nutrition as you can cook them and then they are eatable. They are also hallucinogenic when eaten raw. We passed that up, but couldn’t help but take 1 million pictures of them.

I also followed Andres around taking pictures of him taking pictures.

Tomorrow we head to Buenos Aires for 2 days 3 nights of eating and shopping, yum yum.