Archive Fever: Writing and thinking with oceans, memory, and attention.

What can we learn from First Nations peoples about sustainability? I have to believe that there are important practices and epistemologies that can be learned and honored from peoples and cultures who have a proven environmental consciousness. For instance, if we read Jimmie Durham or even Chief Seattle's purported speech there must surely be some takeaway for those of us looking to build a 21st century environmental consciousness. I recently listened to Jay Walljasper discuss his new book "Field Guide to the Commons" and I am curious about what a synthesis of Durham and/or Seattle would look like when applied to some of the suppositions Walljasper introduces.

What sort of ethical or moral commitment does a government have to the environment? Does it matter if it's the federal, state, or local government? This story from Treehugger about the GOP's disdain for the EPA speaks to a certain contingent's notions about these concerns. Of course, I read the Treehugger account after a class discussion on public transportation, one that used Portland's TriMe t as a jumping off point. Pretty cool TriMet video below.

So, I wonder about the meanings that are made, symbolically and spiritually, in our everyday "environments". I especially wonder about what epistemologies have been levied upon us due to technology fetishism and detachment from our natural surroundings in favor of consumerist built surroundings (think detachment from and abstraction of nature here). It's for these reasons that I like the narrative of the spirit bear. Do we have these narratives today, or does our technology-driven industrialized scam only allow for consumerist fantasies articulated in the hyperreal ?