A new year, a new decade, and the start of an Anthropocene epoch.  Humans, for better or worse, are now a major influencer of global events.  We can’t control earthquakes, volcanoes, and other natural disasters, but we do drive the new global weather pattern and change in base gases in the atmosphere.  What does 2020 have in store for life on Earth?  Is there some way to realign the way we live and act to help deter the detrimental effect of life in the 20th century?  2020 is the future and it’s demanding that we become part of the global ecology, not exploiters of it.

The new big idea - grow it!  Life in today’s corporate agriculture food web has done immense damage to the balance of life on Earth.  There was a time that it was necessary to grow food and raw materials needed for running a homestead.  This basic part of life gave individuals a connection to the environmental health of the local community.  Now in the corporate food state, price is the main driver of production.  There are occasions where the quality of food stuffs are extremely high and benefit society as a whole, but it doesn’t happen enough. 

At every cannabis event I attend in the NYC area, individuals can’t stop talking about growing their own pot.  This push to agriculture is a good thing and should be expanded to include other plants that grow with synergy with cannabis and hemp.  Individuals need to understand that mono-crops are bad for farming and using multiple types of crops helps promote growth and helps repel harmful insects.  All these motivated individuals could be the start of a new wave of environmentally friendly farms.  Both cannabis and hemp are good cash crops and can help farms be more profitable and more self-sufficient.  These are not new ideas, but ideas lost in corporate’s blitz for money. 

America produces almost limitless amounts of waste and garbage.  Every day I read about how the recycling culture is in crisis and that materials that can be recycled are now being buried in dumps. How did we get here? We just expected others to deal with our mess and be charged for it, that’s capitalism.  Unfortunately, the capitalist model for profits means that if it’s cheaper to bury it, that’s what they will do.  Just stunningly moronic sheer stupidity!  The Netherlands recycles 100% of it’s waste, and makes money from other countries’ garbage.  That’s smart business and is sustainable for the future.  Waste isn’t garbage, it’s a resource that can be used to create beneficial things for humanity, not poison fish!  2020 demands that we rethink our waste and learn to deal with it locally and cost effectively.

Reusing and recycling needs to be the motto of the electronics industry.  Every item produced will have a history, and that path needs to be reusing and recycling the valuable materials in phones, computers, and game systems.  Teaching students how to reuse old technology will be a important in the future, the vastness of this cheap resource can jump start a new after-market of all electronics.  Schools need to return to hands on learning: things like shop class, apprenticeships, and lab-based science.  I believe that knowing how to use a computer is a valuable skill, but knowing how to repair them is a more valuable skill.  Society needs men and women that can work creatively with their hands and have technical knowledge of how things work. 

2020 must be the year we transform living spaces into net-positive energy providers.  The 20th century idea of big energy is over.  We have the ability to transform our electrical grid by decentralizing it and allowing people to generate their own power with solar, wind, and other green sources, like flowing water.  The Earthship concept of your having your dwelling provide most of your living needs is an idea that has come back and will transform how humans live on Earth.  Humans will change into providers, not just consumers.  The idea of living within the resources of the local environment will encourage humans to live in a more sustainable manner.  The “Amazon next day delivery” culture needs to change. We must learn to be a beneficial part of this beautiful planet, not just takers!