Home Life Could Be Simpler

Home Life Could Be Simpler:  
Perceptions of Home Among Married Couples While Staying at an Eco-lodge

Dr. Tal Litvak Hirsch, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Dr. Alon Lazar, Independent scholar

Eco Lodge NegevAbstract
Individuals relate to their homes in a myriad of ways. The current study suggests that in order to expand our understanding of people’s perceptions of “home” it would be beneficial to also consider these perceptions when individuals are on vacation, and especially in locations in which living arrangements are very different from their homes. Inspection of the perceptions of married Jewish-Israeli couples who holidayed at an eco-lodge in the Israeli desert revealed that the disparity between the two abodes was generally positive and similar. The wives were more prone to point out that the stay at the eco-lodge, led them to consider the possibility of conducting their homes in a simpler manner. The results are discussed in light of social behavior , connectivity to nature and consumerism.

FOR MORE
Download a PDF of the full article – Home life could be simpler
Download a PDF of Tables – Home life could be simpler – Tables

Articles, Research Shortlink

Sing for the Climate

~ submitted by John Scull

Sing for the Climate is a big singing manifestation that first took place on September 22 and 23 2012 in Belgium.  More than 80.000 people in more than 180 Belgian cities and communities sang the song “Do it Now”, urging politicians to take more ambitious climate measures both on local, national and international level. This video is a synthesis of recordings that were made in all locations. The success of ‘Sing for the Climate’ proves that a mass mobilization around climate change is still possible even after the COP15 in Copenhagen.

But Belgium is a small country and climate change is global problem, which needs to be tackled on an international level. Therefore we appeal to local groups and organizations worldwide to organize their own version of Sing for the Climate.

More information, tools and support for your local action can be found on http://www.singfortheclimate.com

Sing for the Climate is the culmination of three years campaigning for ‘The Big Ask’.
Learn all about this story in the video.

 

Art, Events, Links, Media Shortlink

The Earth Manifesto

Earth Manifesto

The Earth Manifesto:  Saving Nature with Engaged Ecology
by David Tracey
Rocky Mountain Books
ISBN 9781927330890

Reviewed by John Scull

Here is a small review of this deceptively small book (132 pages), which is much bigger on the inside.  David Tracey (author of Guerilla Gardening) introduces the idea of “Engaged Ecology”, or E2, which has six laws:

  1. Nature is Here
  2. Wilderness is Within
  3. Cities are Alive
  4. The Earth is Our Witness
  5. We Have the Right to Clean Air, Pure Water, Healthy Soil
  6. Engaged Ecology Creates a Community

The first three chapters cover the first three “laws”, which come down to connecting to your place and with yourself.  Then the next three chapters cover what to do with this connection – join a small group where you are and do what you can to cool the earth and support biodiversity.  Engaged Ecology is what Ecopsychology should be about  — local, personal, and reflective, but also global, communitarian, and active.

Books, Reviews Shortlink

Being moved from Entitlement to Enlightenment

2014 enlightened-consumerAn article by Jonathan Stein

“Sadly, most people in the western world remain in denial of their inherent interconnection with all of life, merely through their avoidance of anything that remotely reminds them of their mortality (pain, discomfort, suffering, etc.), and they endure, much to the detriment of The Whole, self-selectively abdicating the responsibilities of their true nature as rescuers with a deep and powerful purpose. Instead, most wait, hoping that somebody or something “out there” will come and make everything all better again.  Awakening in this time of crisis requires a more courageous response. It involves choosing to become conscious of the deleterious effects of one’s own sense of entitlement and how it is contributing to destroying life on planet Earth.” – Jonathan Stein

Read the article here – being moved from entitlement to enlightenment

Articles, Commentary, Links, Reflection Shortlink
Enlarge

An Ode to Nature

by Madison Woods
This poem was previously published in Madison’s blog.

Madison Woods writes, creates, and communes with nature from the Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas. She and her husband founded Wild Ozark, LLC with a desire to align their passions with their livelihoods. Madison offers readers an opportunity to reconnect to nature through her blog, photography, stories and books.
Contact her by email.

Here are the words of the poem, in text:

Continue Reading →

Poetry and Prose Shortlink

Untitled Poem

By Larry Robinson
Sent in by Robert Greenway

Here’s a poem that a former student and now colleague sent in the other day. F’or me, it reveals the way a poem — in part by its very ambiguity, in part by it’s “rhythm” — reveals nature, ecology, big mind, little mind, egoic mind, etc.

easiest-to-relate-to-the-airOnce there was a time when it was necessary
to remove ourselves from nature. Once.
To distinguish, to see within
these selves is the objective. It’s second nature

now. This chain-of-being buried
& nearly forgotten. Paved over in sediment
like walled in cities, lessons in childhood,
other experiences qualified or in need of

the missing link. “Man is held highest on Earth
& below the Angels.” The intention:
toward God. Then later, toward a controlled state –
technology. The competition is fierce

& it is not. An Angel (many?) who inhabits
the rock suggests you skip its flat surface
on the river. Interfacing the world of eyes,
you pick it up: sentient self awareness

beyond the organs of particularity. Yes, you are
the rock & each plant & animal whose dust
compresses here. A moment of your time.
It is easiest to relate to the air.

Poetry and Prose Shortlink

“This Changes Everything” – A book review

Screen Shot 2015-03-23 at 7.25.05 AM
This Changes Everything
by Naomi Klein
Knopf Canada, 2014.

Reviewed by John Scull

“At nearly 500 pages plus 60 pages of endnotes, Klein has written an imposing book. Most of the space is taken up with case histories to illustrate and reinforce Klein’s arguments. Klein is a very good storyteller and she has done a great deal of research; the book is a goldmine of specifics. In this discussion I summarize her conclusions, omitting most of the factual background for those conclusions. I assure you it is there.

In chapter after chapter Klein convincingly makes her points, but I do not believe she succeeds in her main point that it is capitalism vs. the climate. In fact, she even suggests several “capitalist” solutions to the climate crisis. As I will describe later, I believe she has done something even more valuable by reframing the issue as Extractivism vs. Blockadia, abstract economics vs. our connection to the earth.”

Read the full review here.

 

Books, Reviews Shortlink