Ten, twenty, thirty years ago, today’s headlines were the predictions of fringe extremists.

And yet, they’ve come true. 

Conversations about how to avoid what’s coming aren’t important any longer. What was coming is here, and the proof is all around us. 

2021 is shaping up to be one of the hottest years on record, causing unprecedented heat waves in parts of the world unprepared for them. But it isn’t just the heat that has people panicking…

It’s what the heat changes. 

All of the systems we have in place are dependent on conditions remaining stagnant. Weather, financial, social – we can’t falter or we fall.

In case the headlines from the last month missed your inbox, here are some of the more horrifying stories that indicate our planet is trapped in the cycle of our endless demands.

The Arctic Is Sweltering

Temperatures in Siberia climbed to 118ºF this past week – an almost unthinkable level of heat.

Though not quite as high as the highest ever recorded temperature in Siberia (which happened last year), it’s only May. 

Because of the rapid rate of ice thawing and the persistent heat wave, methane trapped in the ice is being released into the atmosphere. This compounding effect – gas released by a heat wave causing additional heat waves – doesn’t show signs of stopping. 

Power Lines and Crucial Infrastructure Are Melting

In the Pacific Northwest, where temperatures are reliably in the 70s and 80s, temps have exceeded 100º in the past week or so. 

Not only are streetcar services suspended in Portland due to high temperatures melting power cables, but citizens all across the region are losing power – 9,000 in Spokane, Washington alone.

Rolling blackouts have been instituted to avoid overtaxing the power grid. 

Roads are buckling as the heat melts asphalt. 

Buildings Are Collapsing

The beachside condo that collapsed in South Florida? 

Experts believe that the collapse was due to the rise of the sea level directly underneath the foundation of those beachside condos.

In the ‘90s, USA Today reported that the building was sinking at a rate of 2 millimeters per year. Fast forward 30 years, and we may not have to think too hard about what the surrounding conditions of the horrifying crash were.

Miami faces the worst risk of any coastal city in the world, per a recent report. 

Alaska is Experiencing Ice Quakes

Because of the heat wave terrorizing Alaska, the state is reporting “ice quakes” – seismic activity triggered by glaciers melting too fast. 

Ice melting, refreezing, and expanding enough to cause quakes is rare for Alaska… but likely more common moving forward.

25 miles off of Juneau, the magnitude of the ice quake was 2.7. 

Fireworks Are Banned Due to Dry Heat

Just in time for America’s favorite firework holiday, many places across the country are banning their usage – including Oregon. 

Fireworks were the cause of the Sky Fire in California recently as well. Because of the dearth of rainfall and the record dry heat, 100 fire scientists signed a letter asking that fourth of July celebrants don’t express their joy through fireworks. 

Detroit’s Streets Became a River

Last week, Detroit experienced a storm which flooded the city with 7 inches of rainfall in only a few hours. 

It’s estimated that more than 1,000 cars had to be abandoned in the highway flooding as they had no other choice.

When the weather gets warmer, the water cycle changes. Basically, more water is evaporating because of the extreme heat, which means heavier rainfalls are the logical end. 

Hydropower Plants in Danger as Reservoirs Drain

One reservoir in particular, Lake Oroville in California (its second largest), announced it would be forced to shut down the connected hydropower plant for the first time ever.

Due to intense dry heat and an unrelenting drought, the water levels in the reservoir simply cannot sustain the plant, which can power up to 800,000 homes when operating at its highest capacity.

Unfortunately, we can’t change weather patterns once they’re already happening.

We can’t, for example, reroute Detroit’s rain and give it to California.

We are capable of changing the climate, and thus changing weather patterns.

That’s why we are where we are.

No more time can be wasted trying to prove that we can and will heat the earth – the earth is already heated.

The climate crisis is here.

The post Climate Chaos Has Arrived – This Is What it Looks Like appeared first on The Urban Monk.

It is a matter of life and death, and there isn’t any other spin, sheen, or gloss to it. 

The protests, marches, demonstrations, riots, and uprisings that have officially touched all 50 states, 400 cities contained therein, and countries from New Zealand to Germany to Syria, have one thing in common: They call for the lives of Black citizens be treated with the same care and respect by the police that white lives are.

People of color have been fighting this fight for centuries. Activists, friends and family, and members of Congress have numbered themselves among the many who know the fight for racial justice didn’t end in 1968 with the passing of the Civil Rights Act.

It’s been a long, bloody, and wearying experience, never letting the banner fall. 

And now that we live in a world where we’ve:

1. Tried several methods of national police reform already
2. Developed smartphone instant streaming and are wielding it 
3. Already been through a hell of a year…

More people than ever have wanted to get involved and show their support. 

Unheard of numbers of protestors have been hitting the streets for three weeks now. Corporations from Ben & Jerry’s to Bank of America have expressed their support of the movement. Recently, the oft-forgotten third amendment was even invoked to magic away the National Guard in one city.

And though there have been counts of egregious looting and violence, most of the world is watching in horror as videos of peaceful protests are met with tear gas, rubber bullets, vans hitting crowds, and other counts of documented police brutality.

Allies who want to show their support have been asking all over the internet how they can help. After all, there is still a very real global pandemic. Not everyone should be protesting in the streets. 

How can we reach out to our fellow people and help them bear the burden they’ve been given, lift them up, offer support?

Let’s do some brainstorming…

Educating Yourself

It’s commonly known that schools don’t teach American history from the perspective of people of color. A lot gets missed, glossed over, or factually misrepresented.

You have the opportunity to learn for yourself what being a person of color in America has been like for the last 400 years – use it!

Read books. Watch movies and documentaries. Study the history of white supremacists in law enforcement. Listen to podcasts about history, legal cases, philosophy. Introduce more people of color into your media consumption. 

We are sentient and thoughtful beings – the onus to explain racism does not belong to people of color. It belongs to allies. 

Providing Ancillary Support

If you can’t make it to a rally, that’s alright! You can still contribute to the cause.

Consider getting in touch with the organizers in your city and asking if you can donate water bottles, hand sanitizer, band-aids, snack bags with sandwiches and celery and chips, cardboard to make signs with, old markers you’re not using, etc. 

Ask them what they need.

You can volunteer for the clean-up committee, too! The point of these protests is not to turn cities ugly – it’s to unmask the ugliness that is an indelible reality for people of color.

Something as simple as giving extra care to the people of color in your life, who can only be exhausted at watching the world turn itself over once again over racial injustice, can go a long way.

Can you bring your friend dinner? Lend an ear for non-judgmental listening? Contribute in a way that’s meaningful to them?

Donate Money and Time

Can you afford to support locally-owned black businesses? Do it. 

Can you afford to donate surplus cash to causes that are helping? 

Like, for example, The National Bail Project, working to raise bail for countless low-income incarcerated citizens across the country.

Or The Black Lives Matter Global Network itself, which funnels donations into overturning archaic and racist legislature. 

Or how about the National Police Accountability Project, which helps develop and fund police reform initiatives? 

Or what about for bail funds across the country, holding jailed protestors who will allow no peace until there is justice? Just search for the bail fund for your city, and you’ll find it!

What about signing petitions for police reform initiatives, or this petition created by the NAACP to protect jailed protestors, or for the charging of officers currently on administrative leave, like the ones responsible for Breonna Taylor’s death? 

Our friends are hurting. 

And though we hurt for them, we aren’t hurt as they are.

Share information. Have difficult conversations – don’t just not be a racist, be anti-racist. Donate where you can. Believe the experiences of people of color when they’re told to you. Offer up the space you normally occupy for a time to allow the pains of many to supersede the inconveniences of few in the national conversation. 

Above all, speak to the non-POC in your life – with grace, facts, and solemnity.

And when it comes to POC? Be quiet and listen. 

The post How to Be a Stronger Ally to your Neighbors appeared first on The Urban Monk.

Will it be solar power? After all, the sun is the source of all power for all living things. Harnessing its rays doesn’t reduce the availability of rays to be harnessed, and we’ve definitely got a while left with our favorite life-giving star.

What about wind? Wind occurs naturally, and plenty of studies are showing that the more wind turbines we build, the cheaper it gets to store and use energy derived from wind. For coastal towns especially, this type of energy makes a lot of sense.

Maybe eventually we’ll land on hydroelectricity, or geothermal energy, or biomass energy, or any of the many brilliant ways this generation of thinkers has come up with to replace fossil fuels.

But you see, renewable energy isn’t only a concern for the environment.

It’s also a huge concern for ourselves.

Human beings are designed to not have to think about our energy.

Societal developments like stimulants, caffeine, energy drinks, drugs, or other sources of external energy have appeared relatively recently on the world stage.

And oftentimes, their rise to popularity tends to coincide with other major events – the agricultural revolution, mass migration and colonization, the industrial revolution, slave trade, etc. 

Why is that?

It’s simple: With every “advancement” of humanity, we’ve changed our habits, even just a little bit. We introduce new foods, new pesticides, new work schedules, new air quality, new forms to fill out, new germs, new rules, new bacteria.

We’ve been evolving for a long time – the oldest dated homosapien remains are about 300,000 years old.

More or less, our bodies are the same.

But we’ve added so much to our environments and changed how we eat and drink and move and live. 

We don’t eat food from out of the ground anymore. We’re so far removed from that process that the preservatives used to keep the food “safe” to eat from the time it’s grown or killed to the time we eat it have to be listed as another factor in our evolving chemical make-up.

What was once a self-sustaining system of energy now has to contend with unnatural additions to our bodies.

On top of the external changes to the physical world we inhabit, altering what we absorb and consume, we’ve added much more to our plates than we used to have to deal with.

We know cavemen and early farmers certainly didn’t have to stress about health insurance providers and deductibles and car payments and repairs and bus schedules and homeowner’s associations and the rising cost of rent.

Humans three hundred years ago didn’t have to deal with any of that either.

Granted, they certainly had problems of their own – stress has always been a factor in human life, from the Romans and their wars to famines in African cities to tidal waves in Japan and so on.

We’ve got built-in mechanisms for dealing with stress – thank your adrenal glands for giving you adrenaline and cortisol when you need it.

The difference is, we’re not built to deal with stress all the time. 

We’re messing with our hormone production by calling for constant engagement, forcing downtime to become a time for side hustles and productivity, filling our waking hours with extracurriculars and activities, disconnecting from the art of meditation and movement in favor of bursts of activity at the gym followed by extended sedentary periods…

You get the idea.

This isn’t normal. 

And we can all tell something is wrong.

Our internal energy systems are meant to be renewable. We have a method for obtaining nutrition from food, absorbing and properly distributing those nutrients, storing and transferring and using energy, and winding down when it’s time to rest.

But we’ve tried to change our natures and control the means of production through outside sources that don’t jive with the way we’re supposed to operate. 

And just like we’re ravaging the Earth and its atmosphere by digging for oil and burning dirty fuel, we’re ravaging our internal turbines. 

Renewable energy exists within us – but we don’t know enough about how it works to identify where a breakdown is happening. 

Energy isn’t just the will to get out of bed in the morning. Energy affects our bodies’ abilities to fight off diseases, run our brains efficiently, create memories, repair traumatic neural pathways, enjoy a healthy sex life, and pursue our dreams.

Without it, we’re nothing but exhausted.

Which is why my friend and fellow natural-healing filmmaker, Nick Polizzi, and I developed this brand-new docu-series, Exhausted! 

In nine episodes – cut down from thousands of hours of interviews with the best medical minds in the functional, ancient, and integrative healing space – we take you through your entire body’s journey to create energy.

It debuts today at 9 p.m. Eastern, and we’re releasing it at no cost to you. 

We got ourselves into this mess…

And the only true way out is to know what doesn’t work, what’s hurting us more, and why. 

Click here to make sure you get the email to tune in, and we’ll take the first step to returning to renewable internal energy together. 

The post The Battle for Renewable Energy Starts Much Smaller Than We Think appeared first on The Urban Monk.

To start with, you’d probably want to approach the International Criminal Court (ICC) which oversees the four categories of international crime…

Genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression. 

One of the prerequisites across the board for each of those crimes is human harm. To successfully convict a person or government, you must be able to prove that their actions fell under one of those four categories and directly resulted in the harm of individuals.

At the moment, ecocide isn’t recognized by the United Nations. The Oxford Languages dictionary defines it as…

The destruction of the natural environment by deliberate or negligent human action.

The natural environment could mean human beings…

But the groups fighting for ecocide to be coded officially as crime would expand “natural environment” to include ecosystems as well as other living species. 

What if we shifted the way we thought about natural disasters and tragedies? What if we named them what they are – crimes – and thus stopped passively exonerating the corporations responsible? 

Incredibly rare storms becoming predictable didn’t just happen. Record-breaking temperatures in the Pacific Northwest aren’t an accident. Rising sea levels in coastal towns all over the country – and world – aren’t a fluke. 

However, the fight to codify ecocide has been raging long since the evidence of climate change was this well-documented.

Ecocide Through the Ages

50 years ago in Washington D.C., the biologist and bioethicist Arthur Galston used the word “ecocide” at the 1970 Conference on War and National Responsibility. The context of this first recorded usage was an attempt to ban it internationally. 

Two years later, the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme predicted we’d be here. He made a speech at the 1972 U.N. Conference on the Human Environment wherein he warned that global industrialization would become insupportable for ecosystems everywhere.

In the ‘80s, the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights commissioned the Whitaker Report to investigate methods of genocide prevention. 

The report asked them to consider “adverse alterations, often irreparable, to the environment – for example through nuclear explosions, chemical weapons, serious pollution and acid rain, or destruction of the rain forest – which threaten the existence of entire populations, whether deliberately or with criminal negligence.”

In fact, when the ICC came into effect as a body in 1998, ecocide almost made the list of the four international crime categories on the Rome Statute – the document to be referenced when making an accusation of crimes.

No dice, though. 

Things have sped up quite a bit since then, however. 

And this most recent attempt to formally recognize ecocide as a punishable crime by the globe’s largest governing body looks like it may actually stick.

Who Do We Have to Thank?

In 2017, the Stop Ecocide Foundation decided to champion the cause. 

The first step in getting ecocide recognized as an international crime is to propose and agree upon a definition. The Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide has spent the last six months working closely with organizations, including the Stop Ecocide Foundation, to wind up the strongest punch it can to prepare for the annual meeting in December.

The body presented its definition in the form of a draft recently:

For the purpose of this statute, “ecocide” means unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.

A glossary of sorts is printed below this 165-word proposal, defining the words “wanton,” “severe,” “widespread,” “long-term,” and “environment.”

Most striking is that “environment” refers to the earth, its biosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere, as well as outer space.

Phew. 

No getting away with anything here.

What Happens Next?

This isn’t a linear process, exactly. Bureaucracy never is. 

First, a member country of the ICC has to submit the proposal. There are 123 countries in the club – the U.S, China, and India are notably not.

At the annual assembly in December, a majority of those 123 countries must vote on the proposal. 

Then, everyone gets to fight about the wording. Once the wording is agreed upon, 2/3s of the voting countries have to vote in favor. 

That vote must be ratified, and then a year later, the new rule comes into effect… but only in countries that ratified the vote. 

However, if you’re a citizen of a country that didn’t ratify the vote, but you commit ecocide crimes elsewhere, you can still be held accountable.

The details get fuzzier and hazier the more you learn, but the twelve lawyers making up the proposal panel feel more confident than anyone has in years that this proposal will not only be heard, but instituted.

We’ll be watching come December. 

The post How to Create a Legal Precedent for Prosecuting Ecocide appeared first on The Urban Monk.

Anything that hasn’t been outright canceled has been hybridized – something that’s difficult for everyone, but especially for children.

And now? Some kids are in school, some have already been sent home, and more are home-schooling than you might think. (In fact, home-schooling has more documented benefits than proponents of public schooling would have you believe. More on that later…)

One thing that hasn’t changed much is the space they occupy in the system of racism running through the veins of our legislature and law enforcement hasn’t budged an inch. 

The lived reality of many children in America has been predetermined since their births – since they emerged into this world as people of color.

Now… plenty of us grew up with parents who said things like “It’s not polite to talk about race, religion, or politics” or “I’ll explain that to you when you’re older.”

It turns out, according to an article for the American Academy of Pediatrics, children can internalize racial bias as young as between the ages of two and four. 

And for older children, from nine to 17? They probably know more than you realize. 

School, TV, video games, and the internet are all ingredients in the cauldron of consciousness your child develops as they grow. That’s alright – if they’ve internalized any information ranging from unsavory to factually incorrect, you have a teachable moment on your hands.

The most important part of becoming a parent – especially a conscious parent – is deciding in which ways you don’t want to parent as you were parented. Otherwise, every choice you make either thoughtlessly mimics your parents or rebelliously insists on being different. 

But because this is not a post-racial society, these conversations must be had. We are the village raising the children who will become the adults of the next generation. 

So let’s delineate talking about race by age…

Infant to Six Years Old

If your children are in this age range, your job is simple: Get out in front of the conversation.

Whether or not you’re a person of color, you should have literature featuring nonwhite central characters. Maybe that seems like your children won’t be able to relate.

Consider that for most of the world’s history, nonwhite children have only had popular literature available with a cast of white characters. 

Children will relate to other children unless they’re taught they can’t.

This is your chance to teach them to invest in the lives, dreams, feelings, and failings of others, regardless of what they look like. Read them books about civil rights and black achievements, but also just about people of color living their lives. Check out this list! 

Watch movies centered around people of color, as well as other cultures. Studies have shown it helps prevent confusion later on. 

This is also the age at which children notice there is a physical difference in skin tone.

Perfect chance for science! Children are sponges – and they’re curious to boot. Explain to them what melanin is.

Melanin is a pigment that makes skin have different colors. We all have it – when you get tan in the sun, that’s melanin. Black people have more melanin than white people. Just like flower petals can be different colors! It’s wonderful that the world has so many varieties of people, and all we have to do to appreciate what nature has given us is love each other.

Ages Six to Eight

This age is particularly tender… kids between six and eight typically have garnered an understanding of right and wrong, fair and unfair.

In fact, you’ve probably already seen plenty of examples of it. A sibling playing with a toy they want, a kid in class getting picked for a privilege that your child didn’t get picked for, etc.

When there are injustices, it’s critical to explain what is happening that is unfair and why. 

Start by asking what they’ve heard – if it’s already on the right track, build layers. If it seems like they’ve gotten something muddled, gently dismantle it. 

Don’t get too far into the weeds on the history of the civil rights movement just yet (unless you think your kid can safely comprehend that reality). But if asked directly about anything,  don’t lie. 

Above all, remind them that nothing separates you fundamentally from the people of color who are upset at the state of racism in the world – except unfair prejudice.

Ages Eight to Twelve

At these ages, kids are starting to form opinions based not on yours, but on what they hear at school, at family gatherings, on the internet, etc.

This is a great time to practice equanimity and show your children how to respectfully disagree, explain why you don’t agree, and teach them how to be advocates and allies to other children and people.

Classmates getting teased in school about their race or religion? Help your kid learn how to uplift that one and de-escalate bullies. 

Hear a racist remark from an adult? Equip them with the knowledge to deflect it personally, and maybe even encourage them to speak up.

Ages Twelve and Up

Here’s where it can get dicey.

Myriad reports have come out showing that in many places in the states, public schools don’t spend a lot of time on black history. February, sure. But during that month, children usually get sugar-coated and white-washed versions of things that were actually dreadful. 

That’s where you can come in.

You can explain that slavery wasn’t normal for the times – that there were plenty of vocal abolitionists opposing it all the way back to 1688. You can explain what the Tulsa race riots were. You can explain what happened to MLK. You can tell the truth about the Black Panthers. You can talk to them about the police brutality rate discrepancy between white people and people of color. 

You can show them hard, immutable facts. 

And be there for them when they have a response, a reaction, or questions. Children are more capable of understanding than they’re often given credit for. 

And by all means, if you hear your children espousing racist ideals or parroting harmful, insidious remarks, congratulations – it’s another teachable moment!

Conscious parenting is brimming with teachable moments – for you and your children. You don’t have all of the answers either, but you might have more than your kids do!

Parents dedicated to utilizing natural consequences and addressing existential crises head-on are grasping for resources. It’s hard out here. 

What do you do when your kid asks about climate change? White supremacy? Systemic poverty? (They probably won’t ask like that… but you get it.)

This crossroads ended up becoming an entire episode in the nine-part docu-series my friend and fellow filmmaker Nick Polizzi and I just produced and premiered. 

All nine episodes are completely free to watch! We started the series on Tuesday, September 7th. Jump in now – whether you’re a parent, grandparent, or aspiring parent, everyone needs this village.

The post Your Kid is the Perfect Age to Learn About Racism appeared first on The Urban Monk.

Whether you were disturbed by tactical misuse of rubber bullets, by the documented murder of an unarmed man in broad daylight, by the weaponization of tear gas on civilians, by the rogue fires spread across the States burning down businesses and buildings, by the painful chants of protestors, by the loss of income for business owners and employees who were collateral damage in many cities, or by the unsafe conditions of huge crowds of people during an active pandemic…

All of our hearts are heavy.

Average Americans are not to blame for our current state of emergency – but they are certainly affected. 

And as we turn toward history to find a solution, we’re reminded that only great leadership can lead us out of great turmoil.

What’s clear right now is that these problems aren’t going away without intervention.

Just like apartheid (which means “apartness” in Afrikaans) didn’t go away in South Africa…

Until Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk successfully negotiated its closure, and transitioned to a democratic system of government over a tumultuous four years, from 1990 to 1994. 

Which, for the rest of the world watching, was nothing short of a miracle. The real magic was in how they did it… 

A Quick History Lesson

From 1948 until 1994, South Africa’s National Government ran a violently enforced segregated country.

In many ways, it looked like the United States before the Civil Rights Act in 1968 – separate public facilities, decentralized zoning laws in neighborhoods, illegal interracial marriages, restriction of non-whites from participating in government, etc. During a period of 30 years, more than 3.5 million black South African citizens had their land sold at low prices to white farmers and were relocated to impoverished areas.

For many years, black South Africans tried everything. They peacefully protested, they organized labor strikes, they demonstrated in the streets. Oftentimes, participants were arrested for high treason. 

When police opened fire on a crowd of peaceful protestors in Sharpesville, people began rising up in armed resistance, convinced that peace wouldn’t end their suffering.

Nelson Mandela was actually a leader of one of the militant wings that developed from the loss of faith in peaceful demonstrations: Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”).

He was arrested in 1961, and remained in prison until 1990. 

But the war raged on. 

The world took notice of South Africa’s policies, and started to make its stance clear. 

The UN General Assembly denounced Apartheid in 1973. In ‘76, the UN Security Council voted to stop all arms sales to South Africa. In ‘85, the UK and the US imposed commercial and financial restrictions on South Africa.

Change started slowly… and then…

A Nobel-Prize Winning Collaboration

When de Klerk came to power in 1990, he freed Nelson Mandela.

Mandela had been in secret talks for nearly a decade with the leader and deputy director general of the National Intelligence Committee in order to build a foundation of common ground from which a new government could be built. By 1990, they were ready. 

Working steadily for four years, they dismantled Apartheid. Mandela was voted President of the nation, and his party – the African National Congress – took power, keeping de Klerk on as a deputy.

And still, the work was not over. Too many had been hurt for too long by apartheid’s punitive policies. 

In 1995, the Truth and Reconciliation Committee was formed. Headed by Mandela, the committee operated through three branches with three distinct objectives in mind:

1. Human Rights Violation Committee: designed to hear witness accounts of human rights violations between 1960 and 1994.
2. Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee: designed to create proposals that restored dignity and rehabilitated displaced communities and individuals.
3. Amnesty Committee: designed to understand that not every participant in the Apartheid regime was equally guilty, this committee took applications from people who wanted to receive amnesty for what would have been considered human rights violations.

Hearings began in 1996 – two years after apartheid officially ended. 

Nearly 20,000 people were granted reparations. By contrast, only 849 of the 7,111 applications for amnesty were granted. 

The TRC approach stands out because it was transparent, compassionate, and transitional. Its closest recent relative (in terms of major government intervention) were the Nuremberg Trials after the end of World War II. These trials banished and punished Nazis, but didn’t do much in the way of repairing the damage done to the victims of the Holocaust: restoration vs. retribution.

Now, we’re making some comparisons that may seem alarmist.

But know that people of color have been marginalized and discriminated against in America for a very long time. 

American systems and legislature haven’t changed much since the umbrella of segregation was repealed, and what we’re seeing now is an uprising of those who feel their voices have not been heard.

Powerful leadership will be necessary so that those whose human rights have been violated can live in dignity and peace. 

Protestors and law enforcement cannot be pitted against each other. A solution can only come through concessions and negotiations. 

If you find yourself with a yearn to make a difference, take up the mantle of leadership in your community, among your friend groups, in your family. Start dialogues with your local leadership so that your voice is heard, and hold them accountable for divisive policies, rhetoric, and behavior.

No one life is more important than any other – strive to never let yourself forget that, and never let anyone else either.

Truth and reconciliation is the way forward. It’s time to heal. Open your heart. We’re all people…let’s talk.

The post Can We Come to Truth and Reconciliation? Or Is It Too Late? appeared first on The Urban Monk.

The threat behind that infection is, by one estimate, responsible for 300 million cases and 1.6 million deaths per year.

That’s more than malaria.

And when COVID started overwhelming hospitals and shutting down the country, it was all medical hands on deck. Those who were researching the original scare had to pause and pivot. 

Even though by the end of 2019, there had been some 1,500 documented cases in the U.S. When COVID hit, the pivoted researchers got very curious very quickly about what effect the coronavirus infection and its treatment would have on their previous focus…

From the looks of it? 

We might be in big trouble.

In fact, this threat is so ubiquitous that every human on the planet inhales around 1,000 molecules of it every single day. 

What are we talking about?

Fungus – and the spores that live on our skin and enter our bodies through our breath, our food, our wounds. There are myriad reasons that fungus is much more frightening now than it ever has been. After all, we know to be afraid of viruses and bacteria, to wash hands and take antibiotics when we’re sick.

But how prepared are we for an attack from the fungal kingdom?

Fungus Sidestepped Human Hubris

We’ve always been confused about fungus. For a long time, we classified fungi as plants – until we made the very important distinction that plants require external resources to reproduce, while fungi don’t. 

Fungi are capable of decimating plant life. 20% of the world’s crop supply is destroyed by fungi every year. 

Wildlife disease caused by fungi is well-known enough that farmers and other plant-based occupations plan against fungus havoc. 

But human disease caused by fungi is simply not studied and feared the same way.

There are about six million discovered species of fungus. Of those, around 300 have been found to cause disease in humans. (That means there are likely more than 300.)

And they’re moving. 

Because of deforestation, clearing land for crops, advanced intraglobe travel and shipping, introducing fungus to fungicides that end up strengthening their resistance, and we warm the climate which means that fungus learn to adapt to a new temperature.

That’s not great for us, because our warm body temperature has long been a barrier between fungus and us. 

That’s why we tend to get fungal infections outside of our bodies, because our skin is cooler than the insides of our bodies. 

When you think about how many more people are living with lowered immune function than there used to be (a pre-condition for fungi to really wrench itself into someone’s body) and the fact that strains are becoming stronger predators…

Combined with the last year of immuno-suppressant activity (COVID-19 itself, its treatment, and its prevention)…

Here’s what we’re in for.

One Breath Starts it All

Often, when you inhale spores from a deadly fungus, they can bud inside of your organs. It’s easier for them to make it that far if your immune defenses are already down.

Meet Candida auris. This is the strain that was worrying epidemiologists before the pandemic… and has them even more worried now. C. auris doesn’t function like other fungi – balancing the gut and escaping into the bloodstream when a patient has leaky gut or an imbalanced immune system. 

It can pass from person to person, and it can live on metal, plastic, fabric, and paper surfaces.

C. auris has been identified in 40 countries and 6 continents. 

The trouble is that antifungals are often bad for us. Our molecular make-up is similar to fungus, and therefore drugs that attack fungus often attack us too. 

Up to 2/3s of people who contracted C. auris died from it. It tends to live in hospitals, on cold, steel surfaces, and it’s resistant to most antifungals. But that isn’t the only fungus doctors are getting worried about. 

Aspergillus, they say, is worse because it lives everywhere. The fungus works especially well when immune systems that are already suppressed are unable to clear spores away from the lungs. 

It ravaged patients hospitalized with the coronavirus in at least nine countries, again resulting in up to 2/3s of those patients dying.

Because it’s so difficult to develop a drug that will fight fungus and not hurt its molecularly-similar hosts, scientists believe the way forward is to develop vaccines against the most damaging fungi. 

Just like with antibiotics, it’ll be a cat-and-mouse game of researchers trying to gauge threats and get out ahead of them before they become unmanageable.

In the meantime, we have to do everything we can to ensure that our immune systems are healthy and strong.

But we also cannot contract anything that would require immune system suppression in order to treat.

Best to be on guard against the silent invasion of the forgotten kingdom. 

The post How Many Pandemics Are We Really Up Against? Check the Kingdoms… appeared first on The Urban Monk.

It had an advantage. The world had barely any idea about climate change as a concept.

By 1981, the company switched tactics, (while continuing to research climate change), claiming instead that Exxon didn’t need to change their practices and that enough was already being done to correct the issue. And the reason is pretty clear: It realized that the more the world learned, the lower the company’s bottom line would sink if the world moved away from oil. 

And it got out in front of the research, funding campaigns to deny climate change before the real science laid a foundation.

They came up with a pretty decent plan – cast doubt on the science.

In 1986, the Vice President of Public Affairs at Mobil even had this to say:

”Your objective is to wrap yourself in the good phrases while sticking your opponents with the bad ones.”

By the 2000s, when climate activists had more or less cracked the foundation Exxon’s marketing had laid, the company had a new campaign. It borrowed from traditions of grand industries that had already faced and conquered the turning tide of public opinion – think tobacco and firearm…

They placed the responsibility for climate change reversal onto the shoulders of the consumer. 

And it worked beautifully.

“Energy-saving consumers can make a real difference,” read their 2007 marketing statement. Of course, a few years earlier, BP had implemented the carbon footprint calculator, paving the way for Exxon’s about-face.

Turning Up the Heat on Investors

Climate activism has gotten too powerful to control. The internet, the global evidence of warming climates (tidal waves, hurricanes, melting ice caps, etc.), the publishing of the Harvard research associate report proving Exxon’s knowledge and culpability, the pandemic…

All have converged to create a climate that is, at last, inhospitable to Big Oil

Investors also won’t have anywhere to go if the Earth becomes uninhabitable, after all.

So much has happened in the past year…

And recently, an unlikely savior stepped forward to demand ExxonMobil stop greenwashing and put its money where its mouth is.

An investment firm, Engine No. 1, considers itself a sustainable hedge fund intent on driving long-term value without planet and people casualties.

And at ExxonMobil’s annual shareholder meeting, the hedge fund accomplished what no other activist investor had done yet.

It unseated at least two directors from ExxonMobil’s board. 

To understand how the folks at Engine No. 1 were even able to get this far, it’s important to note that after decades and decades of complete domination… ExxonMobil is weakening. Eight years ago, it was the world’s most powerful company.

Since then? It lost $200 billion in market capitalization (price of shares multiplied by number of shares.)

Last summer, after 92 years on the Dow Jones index, it was removed – a harbinger of doom for the rest of Big Oil. The company posted a loss of $22 billion in 2020, its first ever loss on record. 

Although its finances have stabilized somewhat in 2021, its practices haven’t changed enough to pacify the climate activists who are increasingly gaining clout in the investing space.

Especially when compared to its siblings – BP, Royal Dutch Shell (which recently lost a major court case in which it was ordered to cut its 2019 emissions 45% by 2030), Total, and others. 

So why did other investors get behind Engine No. 1?

Hit Them Right in the Money

The world is going to make an energy transition. The gears are turning, whether or not ExxonMobil gets on board.

And they have decidedly not gotten on board, instead doubling down oil and focusing on carbon capture – despite the International Energy Agency advising that we need to stop drilling for new oil immediately. 

Because of these policies, major advisory institutions like Glass Lewis have speculated that ExxonMobil’s value to shareholders – what’s really in the way of the company committing to a complete transition – is going to plummet. 

Engine No. 1 presented four new candidates to replace existing board members, and two have so far won approval.

The so-called Big Three in asset management – BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street – will likely have the final say. 

But even the fact that Engine No. 1, which owns only 0.02% of ExxonMobil shares, was able to flip two seats (with the support of major investors) is enormous.

ExxonMobil may not be able to maneuver its way out of accountability any longer.

And the power generated by small, organized, financially-backed investment groups proves this battle can be won.

The post Banking On Financial Powers to Reverse Climate Change? The Tides are Shifting… appeared first on The Urban Monk.

Not bad advice, certainly.

But in the wake of the great informational tsunami that’s flooded the shores of the West these last few months, and in keeping with our commitment to participate in a capitalist word as consciously and ethically as we can, we can’t help but dig a little deeper into two key facts:

1. Nearly a quarter of the world’s incarcerated population resides in the United States.

2. Private companies can lease prisoners for labor and pay them less than minimum wage (although in some places they are required to pay it), and prisoners themselves receive on average $0.33 to $1.75 per hour.

But today, we’re not talking about whether or not that’s the way the system should be used from a moral standpoint. (The case itself is multifaceted and complex, with some advocating for beneficial prison labor as a form of rehabilitation and job skills training, and others equating it with slavery as allowed by the 13th amendment.)

Today, we’re talking about how the prison industrial complex affects the wages of average workers.

You see, prison labor can range from working in the prison cafeteria, to stamping license plates, sewing seams for state employee uniforms, creating fast fashion garments, farming food for grocery stores, tending cattle, fire-fighting, telemarketing, and even building circuit boards for SIlicon Valley giants. 

You might think that this doesn’t affect you, as you’re likely not reading this from prison, and may not imagine yourself going to prison.

But what affects one of us affects all of us. Here’s how…

The Minimum Wage Argument

We all know that minimum wage was designed to supply one earner with the power to support a family – mortgage payment, food, healthcare, clothing, etc. 

The federal minimum wage at the end of 2019 was $7.25 per hour. If you work 40 hours a week and make a paycheck every two weeks, you’re looking at $580 every two weeks – before taxes. At the end of 2019, median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the U.S. was $1,078. Working one full-time minimum wage job wouldn’t have been enough to live on. 

Many people feel that this is unethical. 

But the reason it hasn’t changed is that corporate America has its workers in a stronghold… 

And since prison labor is even cheaper than voluntary labor, no amount of striking, lobbying, or hoping to see humanity reflected in policy has had an effect. 

We hear often from global monolithic corporations that increasing the minimum wage would eat into their profits and their ability to reinvest in themselves, reducing their power to employ on the grand scale that they currently do.

The great, heavy list of corporations involved in outsourcing their labor to prisons suggests a common unwillingness to provide payment commensurate with value. 

The American Legislative Council

ALEC, as it’s commonly known, is a nonprofit organization made up of representatives from private sector companies as well as state legislators. 

It’s been around since the ‘70s, and while its primary function was to draft legislation reflecting the interests of its members to be passed through governments, it has been credited with expanding the prison labor system. 

But the practices of those corporate interests are often detrimental to the environment on a disastrous scale, harmful to employees, and fund anti-regulatory political candidates who allow them to continue their operations unburdened by ethical considerations.

A side effect of having over a million prisoners working for wages impossible to compete with elsewhere is the stagnation of minimum wage on the outside.

Professor and student of prison labor history, Heather Thompson from the University of Michigan, breaks it down like this:

“It doesn’t even matter if jobs go somewhere else; the ability to send them inside prisons dampens wages [and] bring[s] a whole lot of low-wage jobs out of the mainstream economy.” She continues, “nobody on the inside or outside is making money. That’s why it’s a working-class problem.”

Folks, it’s a tough world. Most of our lives are made possible by unbelievably intricate systems we can’t begin to fully appreciate. 

But we’re all responsible citizens – or at least, we’re all trying to be.

Prison labor stymies efforts to raise the minimum wage to meet rising costs of living – after all, if labor can get done one way or another (and often at a much lower cost than someone with federal protections would require), companies have no incentive to change.

Part of the system that keeps our wages low is making sure we think we’re already getting the absolute best deal available. But we know we’re not.

Our wallets were hit hard this year from Covid-19 and global shutdowns of businesses.

If we want to make our voices heard and stand in support of retail workers, textile workers, call center reps – our fellow people – you know what to do.

Vote with your dollar. Pay attention to how the brands you love and use make their products.

Prison labor helps keep wages down through the use of underpaid incarcerated workers. 

How can we let them know we find that practice injurious to the success of our economy as a whole, including non-executive employees?

It’s simple – take your dollars somewhere else.

The post Prison Labor Helps Keep Wages Low on the Outside appeared first on The Urban Monk.

Confused?

Here, it’s simple: laziness isn’t real. 

But a person’s uncommunicated or unknown blocks are very real indeed, especially if they’re quietly preventing progress and promoting procrastination. 

Laziness as a concept hinges on what is actually a fake idea – constant and unrelenting production. As far as social psychology is concerned, and as with most clinical determinations in modern science, context matters.

This is because a situation’s characteristics are typically a better indication of what will happen than the personality traits of the person involved. 

Now, we live in the Western world. There’s no denying that we move less, engage less, and rejuvenate less than our global counterparts. 

If we weren’t thinking creatures, we could say that’s because Western culture encourages laziness. But since we are thinking creatures…

Let’s look a little bit closer.

The Macro Sense 

If we step back and look at the context of our culture, we notice some glaring differences between it and cultures around the world.

For example, since restful time cannot be commoditized, it isn’t prioritized. 

Think about phrases like “side hustle” and “gig economy’ and “passion project.” These all reference things you do in your spare time to make money. The “hobby” has gone the way of the white picket fence. Products of Western culture aren’t encouraged to engage in behavior that doesn’t drive the economy, personal and national, forward.

We also drive more, walk less, and sit constantly. Public transportation isn’t viable in most parts of the United States – partially because the space is just too big.

And we enjoy less time off. In the European Union, every country is required to offer 22 days of paid leave. 

In the United States, the average private sector company offers 14 days. 

Considering the context in which a culture can be called lazy or unmotivated matters.

Is Western culture lazy? 

Or has the environment it cultivated shamed its citizens into production at the cost of our emotional and mental reserves, resulting in acute fear of failure and diminished energy and making procrastination a functioning problem rather than a moral failing?

The Micro Sense 

Laziness is a mark against your permanent moral record. It’s the greatest sin you can commit in an unconsciously capitalistic society, and it bars you from further consideration.

With the aforementioned barriers, and every individual’s personal barriers, combined with the expectation to design a performative life…

The conclusion is simple. We’re too stressed to function.

When the body is stressed, due to internal or external factors, it releases the stress hormone – cortisol. 

This begins what is called a negative feedback loop – we procrastinate. We know that is “wrong” and “bad”. 

The body releases white blood cells and enough cortisol to balance their effect because your brain has sent the signal that it is upset. (Your body registers internal threats and external threats the same way – it could be fighting a disease or a predator, and white blood cells get sent along with cortisol.)

The more often this happens, the more your body gets used to the presence of cortisol. It stops registering it as a threat. If the body becomes resistant to cortisol, then the white blood cells roam unchecked, and cause inflammation in the body.

And inflammation does something funky to your brain. It rewires your neural pathways so that you feed the lower-reasoning centers of your brain and starve the prefrontal cortex – the bit that’s responsible for impulse control, empathy, and future planning.

Do that for long enough, and you train your brain how to function. “The neurons that fire together, wire together,” according to prominent neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter. 

Let’s connect the dots.

A society which does not value rest, rejuvenation, unmonetized creativity, and physical communion with the rest of the world, fosters an unsettled, stressed-out, unnurtured, self-hating population. 

Individuals functioning within this model find their motivations interfered with, their fear paralyzing, and their brains trained to react impulsively and without measured regard for future consequences.

“Laziness” as an idea is a myth. 

A person cannot be born with laziness hard-coded into their DNA. 

Procrastination and an inability to perform is a symptom, not an illness. 

And the only cure for the real illness…

Is to make sure that you are nurtured in the specific way that you need to be.

And that you never forget that every person needs these three things, no matter what:

A rich and healthy diet. Physical exercise. And sweet, deep, restorative rest.

The post Why Laziness is a Fake Personality Flaw appeared first on The Urban Monk.