Ancient Pathways to a Sustainable Future

What can our ancestors teach us?

The Earth is Our Home

 

“All things are connected.” Whatever happens to the Earth, happens to us (as Chief Seattle said), whether it be climate change, extermination of predators, or the eradication of the last hunter-gatherer cultures. The community of life will continue to suffer from our disconnection from the natural world unless we change our views. Studying biological and cultural evolution can show us ways to surmount these threats and attain more gratifying lives.

This web site is devoted to an understanding of how we got ourselves into this pickle, and how we can find our way out of it by examining the lives of Earth-centered peoples.  Although we cannot return to the woods, we can learn lessons from hunter-gatherers, that will contribute to the survival of the Earth.

You are welcome to enter this web site, learn from it, and contribute to it, as long as your comments are civil and respectful. You are welcome to use any material from this website.  In fact, we invite you to do so, as long as you put it to use for the Earth. We would appreciate your attributing it to us, thus bringing further attention to this web site.

Sleeping With Wolves

Sleeping With Wolves

by Ken Fischman Ph.D.

Sleeping With Wolves

It was a dream job. I and my wife, Lanie, had been chosen by Idaho Fish & Game
to be summer caretakers and guides at their Stonebraker Wilderness Ranch. Stonebraker was situated at Chamberlain Basin, in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, a 3.5 million acre tract straddling the Salmon River in the middle of the state. We had many wonderful adventures there. It just shows how great a job you can get, if you do not care how little you are paid.

Are the Beliefs of Earth-Based Peoples a Valid Guide to Their Behavior?

I find it hard to believe that people who regarded the rivers as their sisters, would have raped them by pouring toxic waste into them, or thought of their forests as brothers, would have clear-cut them. Explain to me how people who looked at wolves as older brothers and whose scouts emulated them, like the Cheyenne did, would have turned around and shot them from helicopters if only they had they possessed such equipment.

Uncertain Future for the Gray Wolf

The recovery of the gray wolf in the Rocky Mountain West is one of the Endangered Species Act’s great success stories. Hunted nearly to extinction, wolves were reintroduced to the region in the 1990s and have since staged a remarkable comeback, thanks to federal protections. But whether this story has a happy ending will depend on the federal government’s willingness to monitor, and revise if necessary, wolf management plans it has agreed to in Idaho and Montana and is about to strike with Wyoming

How Our Cultural Beliefs Effect The Way We Treat The earth

      How Our Cultural Beliefs Affect the Way We Treat the Earth Lanie Johnson, M.A. and Ken Fischman, Ph.D. March 25, 2007(rev. 10/3/11) Our cultural values, customs and beliefs affect the way we treat the Earth, and they have led to the twin crises of Peak Oil and...

Trophic Downgrading or Where Have All the Predators Gone?

It deals with the recent and rapid disappearance of top predators, such as wolves, lions, & sharks, mostly brought about by the actions of that top predator of all – mankind, and the surprisingly profound effects their loss is having on ecosystems worldwide.