Geopolitical Subsidiarity

# Gaia Past to Future: *Reflections upon reading The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth, Joe Brewer.*

The planet was formed ... 🔴 The planet came alive ... 🟢 Tectonic shifts formed continents and mountains. Together with weather and water river systems and watersheds formed. Human cultures formed. 🔵 Nations States formed and set about progressively simplifying and degrading ecosystems.

🔵 🟢 🔴

See full graph below.

Now, before it is really too late for humans, we must regenerate balance--bioregion by bioregion, ecosystem by ecosystem, landscape by landscape, neighbor with neighbor, side-by-side.

We humans must organize ourselves to regenerate a massive network of landscapes, ecosystems, and bioregions.

----------

The sequence depicted here is likely not quite right.

The point of the illustration is to see that human organizing has created powerful structures that ultimately overwhelmed ecosystems to the point that they may no longer be able to support human lives and cultures.

The best case scenario is that after massive disruptions the human population will stabilize at two billion or less, down from more than eight billion. That is if we are able to regenerate the already devastated life systems of this planet Earth. Our planetary life system took billions of years to form. We have decimated it near the point of no return (for human life) in 200 years.

.

We have 20 to 200 years to put it back into balance.

Who is up for it?

Who cares about our children and grandchildren?

Their world is on the brink of collapse into unrecognizable chaos and misery.

There may be one way back from the brink.

.

# A Global Cave Drawing:

**We need cook fire conversations at every level.**

**We need to work side-by-side to regenerate our homesteads, landscapes, ecosystems, watersheds, and bioregions: **

digraph { #size="4,8"; label="\nThis diagram can be localized by\nchanging the labels in the boxes to fit your situation. " node [fontsize=14, shape = plaintext]; "Planet"->"GAIA\nFormation of\nall Life and\nHuman Culture"->"World" -> "Continents" -> "Subcontinents" -> "Mountains\nRivers\nand Seas" ->"Nation States" -> Bioregions -> States -> Watersheds -> Counties -> Ecosystems -> "Municipalities" -> "Neighborhoods" -> "Landscapes" -> "Homsteads" -> "Households" -> "GAIA\n Future\nGenerations"; node [fontsize=14, shape = box]; { rank=same; "Planet" 0} { rank=same; "GAIA\nFormation of\nall Life and\nHuman Culture" 14} { rank=same; "World" 1} { rank=same; "Continents" 2} { rank=same; "Subcontinents" 3} { rank=same; "Mountains\nRivers\nand Seas" 13} { rank=same; "Nation States" 4} { rank=same; "Bioregions" 5} { rank=same; "States" 6} { rank=same; "Watersheds" 7} { rank=same; "Counties" 8} { rank=same; "Ecosystems" 9} { rank=same; "Municipalities" 10} { rank=same; "Landscapes" 11} { rank=same; "Neighborhoods" 12} { rank=same; "Homsteads" 15} { rank=same; "Households" 16} 0 [label="Planet"][color=red penwidth=3] 14 [label="Life"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 1 [label="World"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 2 [label="Continents"][color=red penwidth=3] 3 [label="Subcontinents"][color=red penwidth=3] 13 [label="Mountains\nRivers\nand Seas"][color=red penwidth=3] 4 [label="Nation States"][color=blue penwidth=3] 5 [label="Bioregions"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 6 [label="States"][color=blue penwidth=3] 7 [label="Watersheds"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 8 [label="Counties"][color=blue penwidth=3] 9 [label="Ecosystems"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 10 [label="Municipalities"][color=blue penwidth=3] 11 [label="Landscapes"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 12 [label="Neighborhoods"][color=lightblue penwidth=7] 15 [label="Homsteads"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 16 [label="Households"][color=lightblue penwidth=7] 0->2 0->14 14->1 1->14[color=green penwidth=3] 2->3 3->13 13->5 13->4 4->13 [color=blue penwidth=3] 1->5 5->1 [color=green penwidth=3] 5->7 7->5 [color=green penwidth=3] 7->9 9->7 [color=green penwidth=3] 9->11 11->9 [color=green penwidth=3] 4->6 6->4 [color=blue penwidth=3] 6->8 8->6 [color=blue penwidth=3] 8->10 10->8 [color=blue penwidth=3] 10->12 12->10 [color=blue penwidth=3] 11->15 15->11 [color=green penwidth=3] 12->16 16->12 [color=blue penwidth=3] edge [style=invis]; }

.

The **blue boxes** represent our campfires.

The **blue arrows** represent essential ongoing conversations for cooperation to support local regenerative actions.

The **green boxes** represent the nested ecological systems that must be built up together, each larger system being the interactions of the smaller systems that make it up.

The **green arrows** represent the contributions of local regenerated system to the larger systems that it depends upon.

The conversations must include the **voices **and wisdom of the entire tribe--the diversity of human cultures.

Obviously there are needed **regenerative links** between the blue and the green boxes!

.

We must each work on our part, our particular landscapes. We MUST steward these landscapes as the living systems they are--the systems of our living

As we do this work we can use the FedWiki platform for learning, writing, making plans, organizing action to begin restoring our landscapes toward health and human wellbeing.

> I will begin writing pages in this FedWiki for each of the boxes in the diagram. :>)

digraph { #size="4,8"; label="\nThis diagram can be localized by\nchanging the labels in the boxes to fit your situation. " node [fontsize=14, shape = plaintext]; #Left Black and White Column: "Planet"->"GAIA\nFormation of\nall Life and\nHuman Culture"->"World" -> "Continents" -> "Subcontinents" -> "Mountains\nRivers\nand Seas" ->"Nation States" -> Bioregions -> States -> Watersheds -> Counties -> Ecosystems -> "Municipalities" -> "Neighborhoods" -> "Landscapes" -> "Homsteads" -> "Households" -> "GAIA\n Future\nGenerations"; # Middle Green Column: node [fontsize=14, shape = box]; { rank=same; "Planet" 0} { rank=same; "GAIA\nFormation of\nall Life and\nHuman Culture" 14} { rank=same; "World" 1} { rank=same; "Continents" 2} { rank=same; "Subcontinents" 3} { rank=same; "Mountains\nRivers\nand Seas" 13} { rank=same; "Nation States" 4} { rank=same; "Bioregions" 5} { rank=same; "States" 6} { rank=same; "Watersheds" 7} { rank=same; "Counties" 8} { rank=same; "Ecosystems" 9} { rank=same; "Municipalities" 10} { rank=same; "Landscapes" 11} { rank=same; "Neighborhoods" 12} { rank=same; "Homsteads" 15} { rank=same; "Households" 16} # Right Red and Blue Column 0 [label="Planet"][color=red penwidth=3] 14 [label="Life"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 1 [label="World"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 2 [label="Continents"][color=red penwidth=3] 3 [label="Subcontinents"][color=red penwidth=3] 13 [label="Mountains\nRivers\nand Seas"][color=red penwidth=3] 4 [label="Nation States"][color=blue penwidth=3] 5 [label="Bioregions"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 6 [label="States"][color=blue penwidth=3] 7 [label="Watersheds"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 8 [label="Counties"][color=blue penwidth=3] 9 [label="Ecosystems"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 10 [label="Municipalities"][color=blue penwidth=3] 11 [label="Landscapes"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 12 [label="Neighborhoods"][color=lightblue penwidth=7] 15 [label="Homsteads"][color=green1 penwidth=3] 16 [label="Households"][color=lightblue penwidth=7] 0->2 0->14 14->1 1->14[color=green penwidth=3] 2->3 3->13 13->5 13->4 4->13 [color=blue penwidth=3] 1->5 5->1 [color=green penwidth=3] 5->7 7->5 [color=green penwidth=3] 7->9 9->7 [color=green penwidth=3] 9->11 11->9 [color=green penwidth=3] 4->6 6->4 [color=blue penwidth=3] 6->8 8->6 [color=blue penwidth=3] 8->10 10->8 [color=blue penwidth=3] 10->12 12->10 [color=blue penwidth=3] 11->15 15->11 [color=green penwidth=3] 12->16 16->12 [color=blue penwidth=3] #Human Organizations node [shape=circle] Org1-> {12 15 16} Org2-> {6 5 } Org3-> {6 7 8} edge [style=invis]; }

digraph G { #edge [color=invis] rankdir=BT subgraph cluster_0 { color=invis edge [color=invis] node [color=blue penwidth=3] label = "GEOPOLITICAL\nRECURSIONS" Individuals-> Households-> Neighborhoods-> Municipalities-> Counties-> States -> "Nation States" -> "Multinational\nAlliances" -> "United Nations" ; } subgraph cluster_1 { color=invis edge [color=invis] node [color=green penwidth=3] label = "BIOPHYSICAL\nNESTING" Homesteads-> Landscapes -> Ecosystems -> Watersheds -> Bioregion -> World -> Life } subgraph cluster_2 { color=invis label = "ORGANIZATIONAL\nINTERDEPENDENCIES" edge [color=invis] node [color=red penwidth=3] "Home Business"-> "Local Coop"-> "Local\nEmployer"-> "Regional\nEmployer" -> "National\nEmployer" -> "Multinational\nEmployer" #"Home Business" -> {Individuals } ; } "National\nEmployer"->{States} [color=blue penwidth=3] "National\nEmployer"->{Bioregion Watersheds } [color=green penwidth=3] "Regional\nEmployer"->{States Counties Municipalities }[color=blue penwidth=3] "Regional\nEmployer"->{Bioregion Watersheds Ecosystems}[color=green penwidth=3] "Multinational\nEmployer" -> {"Nation States" "Multinational\nAlliances" "United Nations"}[color=blue penwidth=3] "Multinational\nEmployer" -> {"Bioregion" World Life}[color=green penwidth=3] "Local\nEmployer"->{ Individuals Neighborhoods Municipalities Counties} [color=blue penwidth=3] "Local\nEmployer"->{Landscapes Ecosystems } [color=green penwidth=3] "Local Coop" -> "Home Business" "Home Business" -> "Local Coop" "Local Coop"->{Homesteads Landscapes Ecosystems}[color=green penwidth=3] "Local Coop" -> {Neighborhoods Individuals}[color=blue penwidth=3] "Home Business" -> {Households Individuals Neighborhoods}[color=blue penwidth=3] "Home Business" -> {Homesteads}[color=green penwidth=3] #start->{"Home Business" "United Nations" Life } }

Try your hand at it? Use this Google Sheet .