SuperForest

Good Evening Superforest!

Here on Superforest we’ve brought you some epic tales of our dear old pal, plastic. We’ve talked about replacing single use plastics with greener alternatives, given you the staggering facts on bottled water and suggested trying to see plastic through a different lens, as it is all around us already. I think the general consensus that we’ve reached thus far is that some plastic can be useful, some innovative, and some extremely harmful to our environment. The good and evil of plastic, if you will. To add to our ongoing analysis of all that is plastic, I give you The Plastiki: a boat made from 12,500 plastic bottles!

This boat was the brainchild of David de Rothschild and his team at Adventure Ecology. David is a British eco-adventurer who seems to be a bit of a green celebrity and a man of science and innovation with the audacity to follow his passions. The Bear Grylls of environmental activism, perhaps? With his devilishly handsome looks and passion for environmental issues, David has conducted many adventures, expeditions and projects to spread the message of working together for a healthier planet.  His latest adventure is The Plastiki: a boat made almost entirely out of plastic that is meant to sail from San Francisco to Sydney in an attempt to prove that we can start to rethink waste and start seeing it as a resource. The mission is also to spread awareness about the number of plastic bottles that do get discarded, and how they affect our health, our water and our environment.

Some facts about the Plastiki:

• it is made almost entirely of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles
• it is bonded partially with an all natural glue made from cashew nuts and sugar cane
• it will function entirely off the grid
• it has a hydroponic vertical garden on board

The Plastiki adventure hasn’t begun yet, but you will be able to track the voyage online. I encourage you to explore Adventure Ecology’s website, it is very inspiring, artistic and very Superforesty, I might add!

Learning about this adventure got me thinking: what can we as Superforesters do in our own environment to help reduce waste from plastic water bottles, or other types of plastic? Some of this is probably not new to you, but I thought I’d create a quick list:

• Get your own reusable, stainless steel water bottle or thermos. I use a thermos so I can use it for hot or cold beverages, but having one for hot, one for cold is always great too!
• Bring a mug from home to work to refill your water throughout the day. This also gives you a chance to express yourself in your workplace through your choice of mug.
• Hold a screening of a relevant film that discusses plastic, plastic water bottles, bottled water, the eastern garbage patch, or any other relevant issue regarding plastic waste in our world.
• Create art installations or functional projects of your own to make a statement about single use plastics, while also reusing them!
• Clean up your environment. Perfect example: Superforester April’s contribution to cleaning up Australia!

In a related story, this morning while I was out walking, I saw a guy toting a case of apple juices, perhaps for a work meeting or event, and I thought to myself: “Wow! Look at all that useless packaging!” Each juice individually contained in its own bottle, then set in cardboard and wrapped in more plastic to hold the case together. So much waste, when really all he needed to do was buy one large bottle of juice, and ask each person to bring a mug from home.

There is so much to say on this topic, so let’s keep the discussion going! One thing that is clear to me is that we all have the power to vote with our dollars every time we make a purchase. We can reduce how many single use plastics or items with excessive packaging are consumed. Think before you buy! The Plastiki is just another amazing use of plastic that will bring more light on the importance of healing our environment. Bravo to Mr. de Rothschild and his crew — I hope they have a successful voyage!

I know this is a repost, but Earth Hour is totally worth repeating. March 27th, we hang in the dark for an hour. Cozy and cool. Visit myearthhour.org for more info.

Thank to SuperForester Matty Corker for sending this in!

Washing your hands is a good way to avoid colds and flu.
Have a great day.

-SFJ

Morning Dear SuperForest

Have you ever wondered what equations you would need to plot SuperForest on a graph? (what? no? really?!;). Well: wonder no more!

Xamuel.com’s inverse graphing calculator  “is like a backwards graphing calculator. Normally, you enter an equation into your calculator and then get a graph of the curve. The way the IGC works is, you type something you’d like as your curve, like ‘Hello World’ or ‘I love you’. The IGC produces an *equation* which has this phrase as its graph!”

And for “SuperForest Yes” this is what you need:

Sweet!

P

I was born in the front room of this house Feb. 28, 1978. My brother Will followed in the same front downstairs room (just peeking over the fence) two years later, followed by my sister Nile two years after that. We were all born in the front room of this little house just off of Sunset Blvd.

It’s funny to find it on Street View.

Andy Warhol got it wrong. In the future, everyone will get to be anonymous for 15 minutes, and then only if they win the lottery. Because we’ll record everything, and get to experience what others are experiencing (i.e. recording) in real-time. Like a whole body video-phone, but way more information and resolution. The first prize winner will get to go to the “Privacy Box” and use the toilet unrecorded and alone for the first time ever, just for the thrill of it. Very soon, children won’t understand the meaning of the word privacy, because it will have lost hold as a meme. We’ll gladly share our lives with the billions of netizens who scour the internet for something, anything, to amuse them or move them, and this will erode privacy until it disappears like a sugarlump in your mint tea. And me sharing this is a part of that process, the voluntary erosion of privacy.

Frankly, I’m not sad to see it go. Perhaps we’re too private as a culture? Out of fear or ego, or feeling less than? What is to be gained from being private? What is to be lost?

I ask you: What are the pros and cons of privacy?

I feel like the only thing we fear people seeing is our naked need and humanity. Our frailty. I’ll speak for myself, I fear being seen naked and alone and afraid. But I’ve been naked and alone and afraid, and it wasn’t that bad. I lived through the nakedness and aloneness, and the fear. Plus it made for a great story. This story involved a solo swim to a deserted island off the coast of Cuba, a swim I told no one I was going on. But that’s a story for another time.

But tell that story I will, and I’ll lose nothing by telling it. (I’ll say this, when my brother and a few friends pulled up on that boat and rescued my tired and sunburned self from the ocean, I was GLAD to be seen naked and fearful and alone. Better seen than unseen when it comes to ocean rescue. :)

My point is that when I share myself, I lose nothing. A degree of my anonymity perhaps, but in this day and age, when everyone is just a google search away, anonymity is dwindling away. What I gain is the feeling you get when you share a piece of yourself freely, not knowing where it’s going or whose life it will touch. I gain knowing that a tiny slice of who I am and what I think in this moment as I type these very words is going out into the circuits, archived for as long as we have archives, and available for anyone to encounter. What I gain is connection with my fellow humans and connection with the eternity of human consciousness. That is a big gain!

As translation software improves language barriers will fall. Communication will be made easier, faster, and more reliable. All texts will be available in any language, instantly.

The time of sharing is at hand. Now is the time to share oneself with the rest of your fellow human beings. To be private now is to risk hoarding an idea that could potentially improve human life immeasurably. Now is a bad time for idea hoarding. Human existence stands at a crux, that is plain and true. The many billions desperately need the ideas and crowd-sourcing power of many billions.

If privacy stands in the way of increased communication and equality, let it fall away. Let all barriers between humans fall away. We are all of us fighting a great war inside. Let us come together and fear together and love together.

If privacy and fear keep us sad and alone, let us give up privacy and fear.

Be who you are. Your fabulous self. Out loud and for the world to see. If you haven’t got a blog, start one now. Your species needs your help.

Love,

Jackson

S-s-s-snazzy. Three cheers for clever marketing. I’m thinking bigger, though. Like, opposite side of the moon big. Get it? Dark side? Thanks, I’ll be here all week.

Yours,

Chris

Yay! And double yay!

(Where did this image come from? Anyone know who I should credit?)

This just in from SuperForester Jenni:

Hello out there!

designer’s own words:

“Using banana leaves as a new material to create new ecological packages for take away. Banana leaves are a by product which exists in many regions around the world This material has a wax-like surface which is ideal for wet and greasy foods. It is flexible and therefore can be adapted to many types of packaging. The leaves last long after they are cut off the trees. The packages are cut to form using die cutting technology. No glue is used. The unique qualities of this material allow packages to be opened simply by tearing the banana leaf along its natural perforation.”

-Tal Marco

(image via flickr user edwindejongh)

Appetite

I will swallow all the pain
all the joy of this world
the whole strange mix.
I will bite
chew
swallow
and digest it all
sending Love into the bloodstream
of the One Body.

Look at the plants that chew the rocks
and release the same minerals into my body
when they break against my teeth.
I too am food for life.
I desire to be broken
to be chewed
to be swallowed and transformed
into the bones
and flesh
and blood of the Truth.

Look at me.
Smell me.
Gaze until your mouth waters.
Let your appetite build
and savor the empty space in your belly.
Move from your hunger.
Come and take a bite.
You are not stealing.
You have been invited to this table.
Fill your plate.
Let me feed your heart with my heart.

-Meg Irsay

Thank you, SuperForester Meg!

Being grateful for all the good things that the nature and Earth brings to us  I want to say:

( image via)

I love the idea of Luvmud . The heart “ingredients” are worm castings, cow manure, clay, coconut coir (fiber), embedded with seeds for germination and the soil, of course:) You can put it on your window sill and allow herbs, vegetables or flowers to grow out of it:)

I love it:)

GROW your LOVE  freely:)

Love, E.