"All the world's problems can be solved in a garden"

I'm reading a fellow student's research proposal regarding the impacts humans are having on the Albertine Rift Watersheds in East Africa. It's extremely disturbing and has gotten me very upset. I feel the need to share a video that I watched last night entitled, "Greening the Desert II, Greening the Middle East."

Here is a link to the famous "Greening the Desert" Part 1 video on Youtube (this is what inspired me to become a permaculturalist.) Watch this first: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk

Here is the link to the movie I watched last night (Part II) : http://vimeo.com/7658282

Here is my rant: We think we are so smart, so much more advanced than the generations before us who lived so "primitively." Yes, it is amazing what we have accomplished as a species over the last few centuries. We have made strides in technology that at one time seemed like science fiction. But where has it led us?

The world is dying. I'm an extremely positive person but there is no question that so much destruction is happening every second of every day on all parts of the planet. We are consuming resources much faster than can be replenished by the earth. We are the most unsustainable species to have ever walked the planet.

It takes in-depth scientific studies for people to even consider that what they are doing is wrong. Destroying nature is wrong. The indigenous people's knew this and most of them lived in accordance with the world. They understood "The web."

It blows my mind how stupid humans can be nowadays. If you deforest the land near a river basin, then yes... the fish in that water body will be affected. But the impacts go further than just that river basin... The indigenous people's knew that that hurting one part of our planet will hurt all other parts of the planet and all forms of life (it may not be noticable, but I believe wholeheartedly that everything is connected.) And they did this without scientific studies and advanced technology. Those who lived with the land believed in the "oneness" of all things.

The solution to many of the world's most severe problems is simple: take care of nature and you'll be taking care of yourself and all other living beings. And one way to do this is for everyone to grow food in their local communities (on land that is already cleared like grass lawns and greenspaces... not deforesting more land for agricultural purposes.)

It seems appropriate to post the first real poem I wrote this past summer.
It is called The Web:

The Web you see
is the key to it all.
For it is strong,
so strong
that even snakes are unable to escape.

But like all things, webs break.
They regenerate, and they vibrate.

The Web,
no matter how large, vast, tall or wide,
what happens on one end
is felt on the other side.
That's how Earth Mother designed.