One thing I really try to highlight is teaching people to embrace their culture and heritage through the Traditional Trades. Why? Because this ties them to the natural world immediately around them. Throughout Europe, for example, hedgerows have existed for a thousand years or more, and while people will claim that they're "manmade", we forget that those hedgerows served not just as a 'wildlife corridor', but were a valuable asset for the people living there. The people used the wood to heat their homes, sure, but also to make thousands of different things they used every day. The woodsmen would care for the hedgerows, keeping them healthy, and all the wood they removed was then used to make baskets, buckets, troughs, chairs, hurdles, gates, fences, cups and cupboards, doors and tables, etc. Even better, because there was so much regional variation in style, people had a wonderful "sense of place". Their craftsmanship set them apart from the people right down the road who made things similar.... but just a little different. Today, whole libraries about these regional variations are written by archeologists and collectors. We talk about the ecosystem and too often forget that we're a part of that system. We're supposed to be the stewards carefully safeguarding the system, preserving it so it can be passed down to future generations. Sadly, people listened to the snakes in the grass who promised them better and cheaper, never thinking that everything comes at a cost. Today, you can buy a mass-produced rake made in some factory on the other side of the world, shipped thousands of miles to a store near you.... but you can't find a local craftsman making rakes from local materials for local customers. Think about what that does to the ecosystem as well as the local economy. We complain about how there are not good jobs anymore, even as we work overtime to drive those jobs out of our lands. Fixing the situation is really pretty simple, but I don't think it can be truly fixed so long as people don't feel a tangible connection with the land around them.
One thing I really try to highlight is teaching people to embrace their culture and heritage through the Traditional Trades. Why? Because this ties them to the natural world immediately around them. Throughout Europe, for example, hedgerows have existed for a thousand years or more, and while people will claim that they're "manmade", we forget that those hedgerows served not just as a 'wildlife corridor', but were a valuable asset for the people living there. The people used the wood to heat their homes, sure, but also to make thousands of different things they used every day. The woodsmen would care for the hedgerows, keeping them healthy, and all the wood they removed was then used to make baskets, buckets, troughs, chairs, hurdles, gates, fences, cups and cupboards, doors and tables, etc. Even better, because there was so much regional variation in style, people had a wonderful "sense of place". Their craftsmanship set them apart from the people right down the road who made things similar.... but just a little different. Today, whole libraries about these regional variations are written by archeologists and collectors.
We talk about the ecosystem and too often forget that we're a part of that system. We're supposed to be the stewards carefully safeguarding the system, preserving it so it can be passed down to future generations. Sadly, people listened to the snakes in the grass who promised them better and cheaper, never thinking that everything comes at a cost. Today, you can buy a mass-produced rake made in some factory on the other side of the world, shipped thousands of miles to a store near you.... but you can't find a local craftsman making rakes from local materials for local customers. Think about what that does to the ecosystem as well as the local economy. We complain about how there are not good jobs anymore, even as we work overtime to drive those jobs out of our lands.
Fixing the situation is really pretty simple, but I don't think it can be truly fixed so long as people don't feel a tangible connection with the land around them.