Starting to Explain Descent Culture

A Descent Culture recognizes that we need to transition to more localized and cycled resources in order to meet the needs of our lifestyles.  Clearly, there are huge challenges in the transition because we exist in a civilization addicted to fossil fuels, growing our economies for the sake of growth, and consuming and throwing away as if the resources that allow for our consumption are limitless.  We can promote descent with our personal choices, by advocacy, or by profession, but however we find a Descent Culture we should use guiding ethics to help us and our communities look out for each other.  I like the ethics of Permaculture:  People Care, Earth Care, Redistribute Surplus.

Permaculture is anthropocentric.  We do not want to save the 6,000 species that go extinct every year because we are altruistic.  We want to pay attention to that global pattern because it speaks to the health of ecosystems worldwide, and we depend on ecosystems to support our own species.  We are connected to and in fact entirely dependent on the life-support systems on this planet.  

A good friend of mine recently told me that humans are superior to the rest of nature and that technological advancement will carry us through the current resource depletions and global ecological collapse we are witnessing.  I tried to explain to him how risky and arrogant this notion is.  Why are we betting on inventions that do not exist to save us from our own destruction?  Isn't it more conservative and wiser (let us live up to our species name "homo sapiens sapiens" or "man, the wise, the wise") to work toward a sustainable, or better yet, regenerative species existence?  In other words, it seems smarter to promote the health of the systems that create the resources we depend on.

The introduction of Microcosmos by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan is an articulate response to my friend.  The authors flip the dominant attitude that humans are the supreme creation of nature by saying that actually, microorganisms are far more advanced and important to the health of this planet than humans.  The first forms of life on this planet--originating about 3.9 billion years ago, possibly in a nutrient-rich "soup" struck by lightning, thereby ordering the inanimate chemicals into a structure that was capable of self-animation--were microorganisms.  Very quickly, microorganisms have been developing for 3.9 billion years, while the human species showed up about 2.7 million years ago out of the mammalian class, which is about 70 million years old.  Microorganisms are far more active members in global nutrient and resource cycles and are also incredibly resistant and adaptable life forms.  It would be impossible for microorganisms to go extinct without destroying the self-regulating global life-support system.  Life would cease on Earth.  However, the extinction of the human species is a realistic prospect for the story of this planet, and one that would not necessarily harm other species. 

But lets try to avoid this.  We can be wise!  We can contribute to global ecological health! We can use our heavy brains to thoughtfully manipulate natural landscapes and even regenerate resources as we consume them (a potential vector for new technology).  Descent is an integrated approach to converging crises.  I see the guiding principle for social and economic change as promoting individual and community empowerment.  Extracting wealth and resources from one part of the world and shipping or piping it to another needs to minimized.  Localize wealth creation and cycling.  Let us improve the quality of our food, air, and water by relying on ecologically responsible systems.  At the core of our businesses and organizations should be a care for human health and life-support system health.  Not limitless profits (see Biomimicry as a Business Model).  

The problems are systemic.  Descent Culture solutions are systemically minded but locally or regionally geared.  This idea is not new, it is espoused by many organizations and part of mission statements all over the world.   Descent Culture is unique because it promotes human empowerment through low-tech, low-cost solutions to large problems.  Let us teach each other what we are wise about, to promote homo sapiens sapiens, and lets build our confidence do things we have not been trained to do.  Build a compost bin, tune your bike, retrofit your plumbing to redirect greywater, build a lean-to greenhouse and start a garden, ferment your own sauerkraut (like my sister just started doing) or honey wine, build a cob oven and bake your own bread.  Take action toward a Descent Culture!