Item Link: Access the Resource
Date of Publication: May 6
Year of Publication: 2023
Publisher: The Great Simplification
Author(s): Nate Hagens
Since 2006 I’ve created annual presentations for Earth Day (they are all online somewhere – the last 5 on my Youtube page). As the years have progressed, the situation with the natural world has worsened – substantially -but the cultural conversations about it -other than perhaps climate change, have seemingly moved in opposite direction – certainly since the first Earth Day 53 years ago, when 20 million people in the USA came out to celebrate/advocate for recognition of Earth – our mother and provider. This year, I was inspired by conversation with Marcus Briggs-Cloud of the Muskogee Tribe, who was explaining to me how English words fail to represent the values and terms in his native language. That got me to thinking about the semantic power that resides in the everyday words we use – the words themselves imbue an understanding and perspective that shape our behaviors – and almost give them tacit approval. As such, for this year’s Earth Day presentation, I present 30+ common (English) terms that we use to describe our surroundings, and pair them with their ‘systems reality’ equivalents.
There is power in language. Words matter. Happy Earth Day 2023 C.E.
Watch the video here or below:
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