Towards a Miomarmo Manifesto

The World We Live In
We live in a world beset with enormous challenges in every category of human endeavor.  The struggle for peace, prosperity, and liberty has taken on a desperate, shrill edge.  Although daily news reports of atrocities and catastrophic trends in our weather and atmosphere are older than the Dead Sea Scrolls, our progress toward self destruction is clearly accelerating at a rate that only 100 years ago seemed inconceivable to all but the most profoundly radical thinkers.  Wells, Einstein, Thoreau, Huxley and the like foresaw vast social and environmental collapse brought on by fast changing technology and human population growth.   They painted harrowing pictures of unchecked and unsustainable exploitation of the planet. But they were dismissed by practical minded men as eccentric philosophers and purveyors of science fiction.   In the hubbub of everyday life, our planet seemed an inexhaustibly renewable source of human consumables.  And, only 100 years ago, common sense seemed to dictate that the Earth’s bounty was indeed inexhaustible and endlessly renewable.

But times are changing and today’s voices are resonating more distinctly and effectively.   Rachel Carson, Al Gore, Edward Wilson, and the like,  clear-eyed observations that the Earth is showing undeniable signs of exhaustion.  At the same time, man’s inhumanity to man is fueled by rampant economies driven by cheap labor and a culture of violent politics that prize weapons whose killing efficiency over matches debate and compromise.  Voices of peace and reason rise, and then are struck down by ruthless opponents. Animals, land, and vegetation are plundered with a reckless, efficient pursuit of excess and wasteful consumption.  There are many, many places in the world and hundreds of millions of people who have never known the feeling of a bountiful and safe Earth.  Animal and plant populations, both domestic and wild, are wiped out or consumed with horrific efficiency to attain objectives of comparatively little value.  Forests are cleared, oceans stripped of life, and toxins dumped into the food chain from multiple sources.

Not a pretty picture.  Yet we believe humanity and life on Earth will abide.  As science and common sense come together to point to clear priorities for human conduct in the years ahead, many of us hearken to voices of the past as well as emerging voices of our time for guidance on practical modes of living.  We are coming to understand that the single act of conservation or kindness repeated over and over can be part of a global pattern of such acts and persons.  MioMarmo is a place for where we come together to share insights, advice, experiences, resources and paths to practical action for improving all life on Earth by improving our own lives.