August 4, 2018
Solving the Problem
A New Series on the Environment from the Question Line Duo
Machaelle's work, Perelandra, started with her caring about the environment. Beginning in 1975, while quietly working in her home garden she encountered problems, the kind we all encounter. She looked for help. The gardening solutions others were offering just didn't cut it as far as Machaelle was concerned. The answers provided by "garden experts" often waged war on nature. Even the "organic" solutions pitted man against nature. Finding no satisfactory help from humans on the subject, in 1977, Machaelle turned to nature for answers. That was over 40 years ago.
Today, the driving engine at Perelandra is still Machaelle's partnership with nature, and her research garden.
What drives the Perelandra business is you — your desire to stop waging war on nature and find a better way. You're the people who care about the environment and its impact on your health, your family's health and the quality of the food you're eating, the water you're drinking and the air you're breathing.
This is what Perelandra is about. Perelandra is not about simply enjoying nature. Perelandra is about how to work with nature to solve problems. This includes how to solve the enormous environmental problems we humans have created. And boy, do we have some problems.
For the past week, we've been watching calamitous news story after news story. You might be one of the many living those stories — more out-of-control wildfires across the globe, unprecedented heat-waves, droughts, flooding, tornadoes, algae blooms. That's just one week. One week. These environmental disasters are leaving no corner of the world untouched, with thousands of homes, businesses and lives destroyed daily. Entire communities are being wiped out in one swoop. The saddest part: We could have prevented this. We were warned in time and we were told exactly what we needed to do to prevent it — 40 years ago. But we didn't listen.
We'd like to bring our focus back to the heart Perelandra, back to where Machaelle began — solving environmental problems. In this weekly series, we are going to present just one simple thing you can do each week, one action to address the problems in your environment.
Yes, we are passionate about this. We've dedicated our lives to helping you connect with nature; to use the tools Machaelle and nature created to help make our world better, safer and healthier.
We have a very big problem to solve. And it's going to require all of us committing to solve it. So let's get started.
Your first assignment is to read this article. With absolute clarity, it gets across how we got to where we are today. If we are to stop running in circles, stop repeating our past mistakes, we have to first see we've been living in deep denial.
Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change
By Nathaniel Rich
NY Times Magazine - Photographs and Videos by George Steinmetz - August 1, 2018
"Everyone knew — and we all still know. We know that the transformations of our planet, which will come gradually and suddenly, will reconfigure the political world order. We know that if we don't act to reduce emissions, we risk the collapse of civilization. We also know that, without a gargantuan intervention, whatever happens will be worse for our children, worse yet for their children and even worse still for their children's children, whose lives, our actions have demonstrated, mean nothing to us." Continue reading »
This reads like a science fiction novel. Sadly it's no fiction. It's our recent history. A shameful history. It's a lengthy article, but to say, "I don't have time," is to continue to ignore what we are doing and to be a part of the problem.
We'll be back to you in a week with one simple solution. And the week after that with one more. As long as it takes.
We're in this with you,
Beth and Jeannette
The Perelandra Question Line Duo