Natural Communities May Reconnect Us To Earth

7 min readMay 28, 2021

The living wild Earth is dying. How soon, when will it affect us, what are we to do, how is our seventh generation to make a livelihood? Our mother, AKA Nature is telling us the civilized way is shut. If we learn from her, she will teach us as the way forward? Working with Nature, not against her got us through evolution to today.

What Is Civilization?

Our social organization system relies on dominion and domestication of other species. We call other species Nature. Domestication is slavery, and genocide of wild species. Civilization requires mining not only inert materials, but also living systems from topsoil built over millenia to living populations. We consume domesticated animals just as aliens would descend and eat us. Ranches are cow death camps. No different than human death camps, just morally sanctioned because it’s a different species. Cow flesh is cut and ground up, and proudly displayed for sale at your market. Imagine human body parts for sale to be eaten next time you visit the meat department, and human breast milk in the dairy section. Civilization has made us blind to our cruelty.

As we distract ourselves on the internet, civilization spreads and consumes as a cancer of Earth. The cancer killing is not caused by humans per se, nut is caused by our new social organization system caused by the taker, or dominion, or control system mind-diseases. The slave traders Columbus did not bring technology to the indigenous Americans living in balance with Earth, he brought a mind-disease or meme.

Maybe A New Spirituality?

Something has to overcome this mind-disease. Maybe a new spirituality? I intentionally offer spirituality instead of religion. I view religions as hierarchical, rule based, generally male dominated organizes demanding your money, and allegiance. Religions offer nothing except clubbiness in return. They have no answer to where life came from, where we go when we die, or the nature of life.

If you want to know the purpose of life, go to the old-growth forest, or intact desert. The mother will teach you. The purpose of life is to beget biodiversity; to beget other species; to pass your fire of life on to the next when you die. Nature burns green with the fire of life. She is forever yielding. The fire of life is green because of the Magnesium at the center of the chlorophyll molecule; while Iron is at the center of our hemoglobin molecule. If you listen, the clean water, air, and fecundity of life will realign you to the way.

Maybe A New Livelihood?

We protect how we make a living. Humans addicted to civilization for their living will defend civilization to the death. The same is true for indigenous peoples protecting Nature. Empty food shelves at the grocery store would be a blessing, and a calamity. Earth would get a reprieve while humans with no alternative to domesticated food would perish. A calamity to be avoided, but someday will haunt our future children when we run out of fossil fuels, topsoil, biodiversity, global deforestation, or stable weather.

Many are shocked to learn that the 1 billion human population of the 1800s was supported without oil. Today’s nearly 8 billion are supported by industrial farming. In other words, 7 billion of us are here because of oil. When oil goes away so does the food. Further, you can’t make alternative energy without fossil fuels; you can’t make a solar panel with a solar panel.

Why Can’t Technology Save Us?

Some ask, “Why can’t we build topsoil with all the technology we have today?” The problem is technology is the problem; it kills topsoil. The only thing we can do to create more topsoil, and biodiversity is to stop doing, and stop interrupting Nature’s succession to repair herself. Stop and reverse urbanization, farming, forestry, fishing, mining, and manufacturing. Nature will only be able to begin healing herself when there are 100x fewer people on the planet. Until then, we will grinding the Earth’s remaining life force into the ground.

Small Is The Way Forward — Think Tiny

The only way forward is a smaller, lighter population in alignment with wild, biodiverse nature. The energy does not exist long-term to feed large populations. Populations ultimately will survive if they are small enough to be re-indigenized. The only way to reduce human population without calamity is one-child families. Earth will do it for us anyway. The brightness of the future is related to healthy biodiversity. However, we are screwing our children’s future smothering biodiversity everywhere with our urbanization, farming, fishing, and forestry.

Over the next 1000 years, we must reduce population by 100x. 80 million is a high probable human population for the Americas in the next millenia. This is similar to the pre-Columbian American population of 100 million. The future Americas will be vastly depleted of topsoil, clean water, historic moisture levels, stable temperature, diverse old-growth forests, wild fisheries, and healthy prairies. Our children’s decedents will have almost nothing the original invaders or colonists benefitted from.

We and our children will be fine. But, civilization will inevitably crush the diversity of all wild, natural, diverse life. Civilization is a atomic war on life; ultimately on ours as well. You can see it today when I run through the Ashland, Oregon watershed above where I live. The entire 14,000 acre water shed has been turned into one Douglas Fir tree farm of 30–40 mono-aged trees. The last remaining tiny 10 acre old-growth path was scraped last month by the aptly named Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project a couple weeks ago. Almost completely gone are the original Ponderosa Pine, Sugar Pine, White Pine, and Red Cedar. They are not reseeding because of inept mismanagement. The top soil contains almost no mycelial life. The ground cover, under story, bird life and animal life are gone. The springs, and rivers are drying up. Invasive tree species are starting to take over. Fisheries no longer run to the sea. Forests do not regrow after fire because the seed-bank, topsoil, mycelium, and supporting rodents are gone. The densely packed tree plantation is the cause of catastrophic fires. Gone are the fireproof old-growth forests that created the rain and springs. I can see hillsides burned by fire over 10 years ago that cannot regenerate a native forest ecosystem; deforestation is all that is left.

We Were Warned Long Ago

If you don’t believe me, go walk Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. There is now just a dry arid or desert landscape. Over 2000 years ago Greek farmers were told to grow olive trees because these were the only tree species that would grown on the denuded landscape. Fires for Bronze Age furnaces claimed old-Europe’s forests.

Civilization leaves deserts in its foot steps. Today there is now no where else to move to, or new world to exploit. No more ancient forest to chop down. No more prairies covered in perennial food to plow under. No more fisheries to harvest; dams, fish hatcheries, and logging have long killed the rivers and fisheries. We don’t see it yet, but all is dead or dying. Even when I lived in Minnesota 20 years ago, I could see that farms had lost the dark soil on their hill tops. Every year the bald spots grow larger. Just dead material matter is left. There has not been life in midwest farm soil for a century.

About Community

Today we have the luxury of traveling to explore communities. However, we offer few skills of value. Our communities are largely social; be it arts, music, suitability, and new culture. Bill Mollison, the co-founder of permaculture, wrote, “Look for skills not money.” He is right. Look for people who can wildcraft food, herbal medicine, mushrooms, shelter, and plant self-regenerating forest gardens. Given the group’s skills, develop a tribal business to interface with the outside world. Think forward; the food forests for the seventh generation will be planted today.[1] Look for clear minds and hearts. Our survival depends on developing interdependent community livelihood skills. Offer cradle-to-grave security. Support others in spirit of the wild. For the big picture, the feminine must lead the way; goal-oriented man must once again follow.

What matters most in the future is protecting biodiverse-watersheds, wild species, plus seasonal knowledge. There is security in diversity of species, and culture. Egalitarianism is the future, not hierarchy. All people and species are be equal. The beautify of the wigwam is that all live equally. Power over others and Earth must be forsaken as great sin.

Hence, communities of the spirit, not the ego.

Design A Permanent Community

Have a community business to earn money to interact with the rest of society, and keep your land protected. There is lots to be said about how to sustain community, but for now focus on making a living from the wild. Try to indigenize the community. The Amish do have a tight knit community, but still rely on domestication of land and animals. Don’t take the bait, and that mistake. The future lets go of domestication, reconnects with nature. A healthy community builds topsoil and biodiversity, not by importing biomass and plants, but by stop interrupting Nature’s succession. If we get out of Nature’s way, she will care of our small one-child families.

Share these ideas with others. Don’t just read this. Post link to these stories on your social media for others to learn. Our speech is not free if essential messages are hidden by mainstream media, and search engines. You found these ideas, now share them with others!

Chuck Burr is author of Culturequake: The Restoration Revolution. Revised Fourth Edition. 10th Anniversary.