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For the fancy* people who have access to healthcare. And who passive-aggressively shame people for not wanting to hang out in indoor spaces.

If you truly feel that I am “living in fear” for masking-up in indoor spaces (or minimizing indoor time) where the other people demonstrably do not give one tiny shiny rat’s patootie about my health or the public health, then you and I are maybe not longterm compatible. And I might still hang with you but not indoors. #SorryNotSorry

*Of course, everyone should all have access to healthcare. I was using the word “fancy” in a facetious way to mean people who forget that not everybody has the same access. And also that even people who have access can still have health conditions that make it necessary to be cautious.

BTW in recent times, I am noticing mask-shaming and “fancy bubble vibe” as much from liberalish types as from anyone else. People I didn’t expect it from. It’s been really emotionally shocking. Navigating it and processing it.

Added July 12: I learned a new term and concept today: “mask bloc.” (Thanks Li’l Accomplices!)

“MaskBloc.org lists active Mask Blocs around the world. Blocs provide masks, COVID-19 tests and other equipment to their communities for free.”

“Are you invested in the survival of the human species?”

This question came from someone in my city public works department who I often communicate with on important matters regarding daily living environment and ecosystems in my neighborhood. He has a huge heart along with his detailed expertise in his field, and in areas outside of his field as well. He always takes time to answer my questions and listen to my concerns, and I value his opinions and questions immensely.

The implication behind that question “Are you invested in the survival of the human race?” was that maybe I / we shouldn’t get so worked up about environmental issues (such as what I call “intrusive and violent” landscape maintenance norms). After all, we’ve had multiple extinctions over the past several gazillion years.

I had been percolating his question and attempting to formulate my answer, when fortuitously from my Facebook feed, came a beautiful on-ramp! (See, social media is not all bad! Sometimes it gives us a little boost!)

A person on Facebook named Nigel Jones (good page; instant follow!) made reference to trying to avert the sixth extinction.

To which I responded:

— Regarding the OP’s comment about averting the sixth mass extinction, I don’t know if that’s possible anymore at this point, but I’m certainly going to keep trying and never give up! That aside, regardless of whether the extinction is inevitable, I am here to ease the suffering and increase the joy and comfort of my fellow humans and other fellow creatures here and now, while we are on the planet.

And to make an analogy between collective survival and my individual lifespan — yes I know I’m not going to get out of this world alive, but that doesn’t mean I’m out here trying to do things to hasten my own suffering and death either!

More thoughts:

• We human beings do not have any more right to be here than any other species. If, through our own foolishness and lack of care, we end up taking out ourselves and a bunch of other species with us, we will have no one but ourselves to blame. In that sense I am not invested in our survival. We might survive if we turn around our various harmful norms and practices – but maybe not even then. It’s a shame though, because it’s disproportionately we humans in the rich industrialized nations that are causing the damage. So many innocent people have died and will die from our greed and lack of willingness to change.

• We have a huge amount of data at our disposal. But still nobody really knows for sure when and what the tipping point will be for the human race’s extinction … or possible turnaround for survival. Although nobody knows for sure, I’m a strong believer in the precautionary principle. It’s one of those principles where you just can’t really go wrong. It’s no great sacrifice to not mow grass in a space we are not using; or not spray poison on other species’ food and habitat. It’s no sacrifice to leave the fallen leaves under the trees instead of scraping and blowing them away and replacing them with dyed mulch. It’s no sacrifice to let shrubs and trees emerge instead of constantly keeping empty lots in a state of arrested growth. The only sacrifice it might entail for some is being willing to reexamine our aesthetic norms.

• Speaking of aesthetics, there are more and more beautiful examples of high-level professional work that includes tall prairie grasses, soft-edged shrubs, native vegetation, asymmetrical geometry, and chemical-free maintenance. We as ecologically minded activists can help by sharing these appealing visual images widely on every channel available to us. Including constructive emails and public comments to our local governments.

• There is absolutely a moral dimension to all of this, beyond simply trying to ease human suffering. If someone had plenty of food to eat, and a place to live, but they still insisted on breaking into your house and taking over your house, and taking your food and then not even eating the food but leaving it to spoil, would that not be morally wrong and would you not be outraged? Of course! And yet, this is exactly what we do to all other species. We destroy their food supply and their habitat, even when we’re not even using it. (Empty lots can be put to great use even if someone’s not ready to build on one. We can be letting them get regrown so they pull their freight in terms of heat mitigation and stormwater absorption, and biodiversity. And then we can simply clear a lot once someone’s actually ready to build on it.)

• People who care about other species are viewed in this society as being sappy, sentimental, unrealistic, so-called hippies and treehuggers. But the fact is that we depend on other species. We all depend on each other. It’s a huge web of life. So we’re not just being gooey-eyed weirdos when we try to protect other species. We have a self-interest in their survival.

Disastrous floods are happening in more and more places. One day recently I was shocked to look at my list of cities on my weather app, and see severe flood or storm advisories in about 10 different places widely scattered all over the country. Including of course central Texas, where I lived for 15 years before moving to Florida and where I still have deep ties. This is not abstract for me; I have lost track of the number of people I know who have lost their homes, cars, precious family memorabilia, and many other possessions in floods. In Texas, in North Carolina, here in Florida, and all over the place. A growing body of evidence is pointing to soil depletion and tree removal / de-vegetation as a major contributing factor to flooding — both indirectly via extreme heat, and directly via runoff from bare slopes. To me it’s so very preventable. Not that there will never be floods; just that so many of them need never have happened.

(By the way, if you keep repeating and quoting facts, and sharing visuals (temperature-gun data, pretty water-cycle animation etc.), and people don’t seem to be listening, it doesn’t mean give up; but it might mean take a break and/or share stories instead of facts. Definitely please don’t give up on giving input to your local government bodies. I know it’s easy to get cynical, but we have to keep sharing our thoughts and experiences with our elected officials and staff. Make it fun — recruit friends & neighbors to go with you, and then go for a meal or drink afterwards. We do that!)

• I said “no great sacrifice” above, but the fact is that the mow-and-blow industry is something like a $3 billion industry, or it might even be trillion with a T. So some people might reasonably feel threatened by loss of livelihood. But that’s still no excuse, as there is and will always be plenty of landscaping work to be done. Reforestation, stormwater-sponge earthworks, pond design, native and edible landscaping. Nobody need ever lack employment in the landscaping field even if we drastically reduce the area of tightly mowed turfgrass. Also, ride-on mowers and edgers aren’t going away completely, though they might not be needed as often or in as widespread a way. (Elsewhere I have set forth descriptions of how a permaculture design practitioner or ecological landscaper can form a mutually beneficial relationship with a mowing company.)

I use a lot of examples from landscaping simply because that’s one of my professions, and also because it’s a huge leverage point for ecosystem health, temperature moderation, and human health. But of course there are many other leverage points for voluntarily reducing unnecessary consumption as well. (Of course, one person’s unnecessary is another person’s necessary. There is a wide menu of things to choose from.)

Other big leverage points include leisure travel; and the war industry. (Speaking of travel, if our own streetscapes here at home were more soothing and walkable, with plenty of little parks and trails, shaded sidewalks, and fountains and linear pools for swimming and wading, and a drastically reduced level of unnecessary noise from mechanized equipment, maybe we wouldn’t be so obsessed with constantly hopping on planes and cruise ships and treating other countries like our own personal VRBO theme-parks. “They have such cute buildings and cozy little roads “over there”!” /s When you get home, why not try advocating for similar beauty and charm in your own place. Get inspired by things you have loved, and be an advocate for them in the place where you live.)

Regarding curbing our incessant war habit, I strongly suggest joining Veterans for Peace. They have an excellent website (including extensive archives) and email newsletter with various tips about how to “wage peace.” https://www.veteransforpeace.org

Am I invested in the survival of the human race? Not inordinately. Especially in the case of rich industrialized humans, our track record and resistance to leaving our comfort zone may not merit our survival.

But then again, I sure don’t want to be the one to withhold an action or dismiss an idea that might make a difference in the ability of our species to enjoy this sweet beautiful planetary home for at least a little while longer! I don’t have any kids of my own, but other people’s kids matter to me. I’ve had a beautiful life and I would like others to have that chance too.

Further Exploration:

• “Maybe we’ll succeed in surviving, and maybe we won’t. But at the very least we can rescue ourselves from spending one more day on this amazing blue world trying to live by the rules of lunatics.” — Don’t Take Instruction On How To Live Your Life From A Stark Raving Mad Society. Caitlin Johnstone; July 13, 2025. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/dont-take-instruction-on-how-to-live

• Sources of images and verbiage to support a softer and more naturalistic approach to landscaping. Search any of the following terms: Homegrown National Park – Doug Tallamy; Rewilding movement; native plant society + your city or area (almost every region has at least one chapter of native plant society nowadays), food forest, edible landscaping, stormwater sponge, rain garden.

• Essential reading (or re-reading): “Hieroglyphic Stairway” by Drew Dellinger. https://hellopoetry.com/poem/1336778/hieroglyphic-stairway-by-drew-dellinger/ It’s a heartbreaking yet motivating poem. Especially essential reading if you have kids! Or anyone in the younger generations who you care about. It starts out: “it’s 3:23 in the morning
and I’m awake
because my great great grandchildren
won’t let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered? …”

• Alistair Langer podcast episode #66: Interview with Julia Watson. https://youtu.be/sa5AGaHiaLc?si=uurH7vVmmERm7eD3 “Highlights: Decolonizing Design – Why sustainability must move beyond Western paradigms to honor and integrate indigenous stewardship. Circular Time & Deep Resilience – How cyclical timekeeping and regenerative systems can restore planetary balance. The Future of Cities – From sponge cities in China to AI-powered mapping of ancestral technologies, Julia envisions urban ecosystems as living, breathing organisms. Two-Eyed Seeing – A framework for merging Western science with traditional ecological knowledge for equitable and enduring solutions.”

Great post! I instantly follow this Facebook page (Nigel Jones) and thanks to my friend Tim Bushell for sharing.

A couple of thoughts:

— My favorite alternative to air travel is … Just not choosing to fly anymore. It actually opens up worlds in many ways.

I’ve become more present and rooted in the place where I choose to inhabit.

And any travel I do – very infrequently, by bus and train, becomes a rich adventure. Even a city bus trip is filled with adventure, on a deep and granular level. Same goes even for a walk across the bridge in my own city.

That said, the OP offers many suggestions for international and even overseas travel with a low footprint. Since I am committed to no longer fly, I will use one of those modes if I should get some wanderlust in my older age. (I got to travel plenty as a young person, in a very low-key way.)

I have to say though, I’ve gotten sensitive about how we are wrecking other countries’ cultures and ecosystems. So I’ll probably just be a little old lady on foot and bicycle!

— And, Tim or any other friend reading this, I hope I’m not the only person you know who gets around by bicycle! That’s something that has to change. It’s a problem in my area too. A person who gets around by bicycle becomes “that (weird, fringe, unusual) person who rides their bicycle.”

As opposed to someone who is sensibly utilizing a mode of transport that is practical for billions of people worldwide!

— Regarding the OP’s comment about diverting the sixth mass extinction, I don’t know if that’s possible anymore at this point, but I’m certainly going to keep trying and never give up! That aside, regardless of whether the extinction is inevitable, I am here to ease the suffering and increase the joy and comfort of my fellow humans and other fellow creatures while we are all here. A mind-set that is sort of parallel to my work as a death Doula.

Great page Nigel Jones and thanks for your thought-provoking post with lots of tips based on your rich experiences. Love your trans-oceanic travel examples!

Every place has a prevailing culture. If you move someplace, to an extent you’ll do better in that place if you adjust to the culture at least somewhat.

And yet, for those of us who do activism, there are often things that we really feel an obligation to speak up about to try to change.

Sometimes speaking up can lead to feelings of shame. Like, how dare I speak against the prevailing norms.

And yet, not speaking up can lead to feelings of deep regret as it can be a violation of our moral code.

If we speak with thoughtfully strong wording, we have the potential to shake up people’s thinking and maybe shift the harmful status quo norms a bit. But then again, with strong wording we also risk being branded a fanatic or hard to deal with. (This has happened with me when I refer to mow-and-blow landscaping as “intrusive and violent.” In my own mind I’m just telling it like it is; but to the establishment it can feel like ridiculous hyperbole. And it can actually increase the resistance on the other side.)

And then again, if we try to keep our wording palatably mild and inoffensive, we risk failing to communicate the urgency of a situation.

Maybe one of the hardest things is accepting that we will rarely or never do it perfectly. But that we have to keep trying our best anyway to walk that line.

By the way, the cultural adjustment thing can also apply to cultural drift that can happen even if you’re staying in one place for years as opposed to moving to a different place.

And, to end on a positive note … Fun motivational language tidbit I saw today: A successful small-scale neighborhood developer referred to his block of various examples of “missing middle” housing as a “petting zoo of ‘missing middle’ housing.” There’s something charmingly adorable about that phrasing that piques people’s interest and doesn’t threaten their sense of safety and stability. Maybe we need some wildflower or prairie “petting zoos.”

The following paragraphs were sparked by a prompt in our group in Desireé B Stephens and Kokayi Nosakhere’s class on dismantling white supremacy culture. That class will be offered again in September by the way, and I will post the contact info. In the meantime, I highly suggest you join the intersectional allies group on Facebook, and or the EAGER group on Facebook. Both are communities of European Americans fully committed to dismantling white supremacy. This is a task that must be done in community.

Kokayi started out his post by sharing a TikTok video which I will post the link to below. The video is six minutes and very well worth a listen. I will link it below.

This TikTok creator essentially is saying that because of the extreme actions of the Trump administration, the white race is done for. Nobody is going to want to mate with us.

My response:

OK now that I have watched the video, I can say I agree with what she is conveying. Thank you so much for sharing this video with us!

Now I am going to comment from my perspective as an environmental activist / permaculture designer.

I have been very pained at the destruction wrought by white supremacy culture — which I have come to realize is the underlying culprit of all the environmental destruction including the wars etc. I feel a bottomless sadness that it took me to so late in life — and late in my career — to realize this.

However, for the rest of my life I will be working to dismantle white supremacy culture regardless of whether there’s any hope for the future of the human race on this planet or not. (As in, White supremacy culture is so destructive that I feel it could imminently destroy ALL human life on this planet.)

I actually do think there is hope, because Gaia is very forgiving if we just get our rapacious nature out of the way.

I would like to think that humans will thrive and get to have beautiful lives beyond white supremacy culture. I would like to think we can dismantle it sooner than waiting for the physical bodies to just die off.

This is also important because white supremacy culture has been internalized in many people who are not white-bodied.

Once again I am so thankful to you for choosing to engage so deeply as to teach us EAs how to dismantle white supremacy culture. What a gift, what an opportunity.

Some years ago, I wrote a book that was meant to be a practical manual for fellow environmentalists To take steps in their daily lives that would reduce their footprint and our collective footprint.

My book, with my level of awareness at the time, I was referring to the toxic destructive culture as “mainstream USA American culture.” Or “mainstream USA consumer culture.”

A few years later I started thinking, well, it’s NOT Black or brown people who are driving this. So what do I call it, so then in my talks & writings I started calling it “AENA, Anglo Euro North American culture.”

No corner of the planet is safe as long as one single particle of this culture remains. We simply must dissolve and dismantle this toxic culture.

Cultures are made up by people. Built over time, most of them. Most of them organically evolved over time in response to their environment And what brought them joy and peace and satisfaction.

Only the Anglo euro North American, white supremacy culture, was synthetically created in a relatively short burst of time and toxic energy with The most deeply unsavory of all motives.

I am grateful as an environmentalist to now have a more appropriate focus for my work of getting people motivated to care for the planet: Restore the water cycle; support and restore biodiversity; be uncompromising about equity and social justice.

Regarding what she said in the video – I would even go further than just no one’s going to want to mate with us. No one’s gonna want to hang out with us, period! Already nobody does, mostly.

Nobody is going to want to form organizations with us. Nobody is going to want to even eat with us. Nobody’s going to want to go shopping or swimming or walking or to the pub/coffeehouse or anything with us.

Humans are fundamentally social creatures. The threat of such well-deserved shunning will, I hope, be the final straw that motivates us to wake up and do the major dismantling thing to completion!

Although I really would like the motivation to stem right this minute right now from the wish to simply avoid doing more harm than we have already.

Further Exploration:

• “Trump will end the white race” — video from Winnie Lisa Auguste on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT6dPuebN/

• Class: “Self-love meditations for white people” – Next class is in September and I cannot recommend it highly enough. This is a 4-week zoom series. Contact Desireé B Stephens or Kokayi Nosakhere. (Also highly recommend following both of their pages if you are not already.)

We are doing somatic work to metabolize the trauma from the destructive toxic culture we were born into without our consent.

We are digging deep into case studies and into unpacking our own experience and beliefs together.

The purpose is to dismantle this culture and stop the deep rooted harm it’s causing all over the planet.

For more information / registration, contact Desireé B Stephens https://desireebstephens.substack.com and-or Kokayi Nosakhere royalstar907@gmail.com. (And in the meantime also follow both of their Facebook pages, their content is absolutely gold.)

The next class is being offered in September. It’s a four week series by zoom and I cannot recommend it highly enough! Not only is it in class, it’s a whole community and a nurturing container of very authentic love and accountability.

And in the meantime I highly suggest everyome follow both their pages. This is so what’s on our plates right now (as European Americans dedicated to social / environmental justice and ecological restoration).

Added later – July 11 –

Regarding the very real feelings of despair that this video can bring up:

• Regarding the idea that people in the global majority would prefer we die out, it’s worthwhile to remember that a lot of these people who would (very rationally) wish us physically gone, aren’t familiar with the concept that we CAN deconstruct the white supremacy cultural programming. In other words, we can dismantle the software regardless of whether the physical white bodies die out. If (WHEN) we dismantle this horrific toxic culture, we won’t be brutalizing the rest of the planet anymore.
• Physical races take generations to be bred out. However, toxic cultural programming can be dismantled who knows how fast? It might be faster than we think, if we get enough of us working on it in community together!

AND

— Imagine bearing and raising a child who is born FREE of murderous toxic white supremacy programming. Because the child’s mother has done the work of metabolizing her generational harm and trauma. ❤

Further Exploration:

• EAGER Community — community on Facebook

• Intersectional Allies for Transformation — community on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1KnbgkhfPb/?mibextid=K35XfP

Clotheslines + rainwater tub + gentle homemade soap = my favorite at-home eco laundromat!!

It may sound weird but I feel like it’s less work than having a washer and dryer, because I’m having a washer and dryer seems to induce people to do more laundry, bigger loads, own more clothing, etc.

Also, handwashing with mild soap in this very small-scale and gentle way means that young kids can help too! You know how little kids (and older kids too sometimes!) are always wanting to help, and they can actually get quite good at it! There are less fun activities and splashing around a rain tub on a hot summer day.

BTW here is me this morning using my “miniature washing machine” which is great for tiny loads of socks, underwear etc. We got a pretty good rain yesterday so I get to wash the clothes in nice clean rainwater.

(The miniature washing machine is a sturdy, wide-mouth big plastic jar, transparent, that used to contain some kind of snack I believe. Such containers are quite widely available in the waste stream. I’ve used old peanut butter jars as well. Of course, after the ants and a bit of dish soap have totally cleaned out the PB residue!)

The wash water can be tipped onto the patio for evaporative cooling, or used to water trees and shrubs.

See photo here on my deep green Facebook page (for as long as the will of the various technocrati moguls shall allow)!

Can anyone guess why I suddenly got the idea of putting a couple of boogie boards in our attic, after finding them discarded on the beach?

(If you guessed the answer right away, hold your answer for a second to give some of the other people a chance.)

BTW in case it’s not a widespread term, boogie boards are those foam boards about the length of a person’s torso, that people use to play in the water.

They are typically covered with some kind of stretchy fabric which helps hold the foam together and also probably helps cut down on the squeaky foam phenomenon. There’s often a cute design, superhero character, or some other interesting thing printed on the fabric.

I found these two boogie boards discarded on the beach over the past week, as one often does when one lives by a beach that attracts a lot of tourists who might not have room in their luggage to take home the beach toys.

OK, so have you figured out why I put them in my attic?

If not, here’s another hint: I live in a hurricane-prone region. People sometimes have to escape from their houses through the attic, or just stay up in the attic for a while til the floodwaters recede.

Now, my house is not situated in a very flood-prone part of my city, and I probably wouldn’t have thought to put those floaty recreational devices in the attic unless I had found them on the beach. (I always feel bad about the volume of unwanted stuff that gets left on the beach, so I was happy to think of a practical use!)

After sticking them up there, it occurred to me that if you had a bunch, it could double as extra attic insulation. Again, not something I’d go out of my way to buy, but if I find more on the beach they might just end up in our attic!

This little story illustrates a couple of my favorite principles of Permaculture Design: 1) making use of found/on-site resources; and 2) stacking functions (every item serves multiple functions).

Come to think of it, this also makes use of a third principle of permaculture design: “energy cycling.” This means getting the most out of the embodied energy that went into making an object, marketing it, etc., rather than just throw it away.

See this post with a photo on my Deep Green book page on Facebook. And please feel free to share this or any of my posts. The slightly quirky posts like this one might reach people that other more “heavy” posts cannot. Every person reached is somebody who might really be needing and wanting this information to get inspired and re-energized about escaping from the consumerist treadmill.

For the same reason, if you know any podcasters who might be interested in my content and philosophy, please feel free to suggest me as a podcast guest. I’ve seen synergies between host and guest reach whole new levels of people’s hearts, minds, and hands.