“Malama Ka ‘AinA”
(Respect and learn to care for the land)
The KānakaMaoli‘s from Hawaii have a traditional cultural attachment to the land they live in and on. They have a term called ““Kuleana” that refers to developing a sense of personal responsibility, privilege, concern, and right to care for one another and the land. In fact we have taken the meaning and used it as our Moto. This website regardless of whether it’s about understaning ecology and revitalising nature, sustainability, protecting and adapting our heriatge crafts or our projects that aim to inspire people to become more knowledgable about acting to solving our climate problems, at it’s core there is a fundamental belief in making people understanding much more profoundly the vital responsibility we have in protect Nature
– However actually achieving this is actually rather difficult as you will see.
“In the Wilderness is the Preservation of the World”.
“I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil, — to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society. I wish to make an extreme statement, if so I may make an emphatic one, for there are enough champions of civilization: the minister and the school committee and every one of you will take care of that”.
Ref. Henry David Thoreau “Walking”
Understanding Nature in todays world is actually rather difficult. This is down to the scary fact that all of us are not really willing to take those vital steps that create understanding that will create a real difference in how we deal with the issues we face.
Here is a quick 101 guide to how nature works and how we have treated it as form we can start to place nature at the core of solving our climate issues and how we live with it.
So……. how does Nature basically work
Sounds like a really silly question to ask, granted, but actually not as silly a question to ask. Nature is always trying to create balance in many different ways that create harmony across the world. Humans are affecting this vital balance whether its ‘overconsumption’ where we mine the worlds resources to extinction or ‘monoculture’ where we mine the world for one resource. Natures systems are not designed to create balance like this. The Harz Mountain fiasco is a great example in this respect. Nature creates balance through creating polyculture environments where a wide range of flora, forma the soil, and those associated parts work together to create the balance needed, to name a few.
Since the at least the industrial revolution we have turned our backs on what it means to be part of the natural cycle. In todays world this disconnect is causing us and whole serious fundamental climate and biodiversity catastrophic problems. We say that God works in mysterious ways, well so does Nature. One of the best ways to start to grip on seeing how nature operates is look around nature’s complex interactions outside. Its happening in many ways all around you its difficult to know where to start to look.
Defining Complex Systems
A complex system is different from say a complicated system. An engine is complicated because it does one thing, which is to move something in a given direction. A complex system is one that has a myrid of engines or functions that create the world we see. This is where the concept interconnectedness you read about on the home page. It involves the interacting components within a myriad of different eco-systems, organisms, elements in the soil, water of air create behaviours that arise from the interactions of natures parts.
You can see these different functions every where, in the sky, on the ground in the soil and in the water. The shear volume of these different functions within nature is mind boggling and they all work together to create balance. If one function changes it effects many other functions at the same time. Even the combination of flora & fauna has an inter connectiveness in nature. An example of this can be seen in the re-introduction of buffalo in to wild areas (right) with there grazing, foraging, wallowing and trampling, the hefty bison boosts habitat diversification. Ref – European Bison in Blean.
Join the movement! Reimagine communities, integrate nature back into our societies, and build a sustainable future.
A Basic outline of How Humans encroach and affect Nature, plus some ideas Commonground reckons you can solve these problems.
The three sections below show how nature declines rapidily the more humans get involved. So lets start with the idea of “Wilderness”. A pure wilderness with zero human impact is where nature thrives. In these environments you can see a multitude of life thrive and prosper. More of this type of land needs to be set aside form Nature to do its thing. Currently Wildlands are declining at a rapid rate, where humans are encroaching at an never ending pace. There is a brilliant quote from Jonas Salk that expresses human affects on the environment brilliantly.
“If all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years all life on earth would end.
If all human beings disappeared from the earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flourish. “
Jonas Salk – Inventer of the Polio Vaccine
Nature in the Wilderness (Re-Wilding)
Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural) are Earth’s natural environments that have not been significantly modified by human activity, or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. Nature’s wilderness areas are spaces where nature can thrive and where humans to a big extent have withdrawn or at least where human interaction is extremely minimal.
Wilderness is vitally important to our planet and therefor to all of us. However the amount of wilderness not affected by human interference is small. So how do we define the idea of wilderness not affected by human machinations. We reckon the best way to define it is by the idea that while you many find humans a wilderness they are not actively involved like in farming in the environment. Basically natures systems rule. As humans we mere elements of the eco structure, allowing nature to do what it does
Commonground Rewilding and its Cafe wants to see rewilding flourish around Britain and the world, so that we can reconnect us with nature, create authentic sustaining communities, and tackling the climate emergency and extinction biodiversity crisis.
Rural Nature Pt1 – Woods, Forests, etc Spaces, Nature Meets Human.
Nature is our best ally in the fight against climate change. Find out how rewilding can help fix the climate crisis.
A wood or forest that is managed and run by humans is we would say a low grade version of a true natural Wilderness.
We need to think differently if we are to solve the climate crisis. One of the main needs is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to near-zero at breakneck speed but as we have already discussed on the main page before this is that we as Humans are not yet ready to make that leap.
There’s much talk of techno-fixes for reaching ‘net zero’ emissions – using machines to trap carbon and inject it into rocks or old oil wells. Yet there is a safer, better way; one that’s been tried and tested for millions of years. It’s nature which is, in fact, our best ally in the fight against climate change.
To make these needs viable we need all of us to understand Nature in a much better way. Tech can help to a certain degree but change, real change will only come when we all understand how to engage with nature. The three essay below will we hope expand your knowledge of the issues around giving Nature real space but also how humans can be in these spaces at the same time.
Rural Nature Pt2
– ReGenerative Agroforestry
In this second part of rural nature is about how Nature and agriculture (man) meet. The is a problems with the historically concept Modern Industrial Agricultural systems are causing serious problems. Nature can’t function in environments like this. In fact we would go as far as say its seriousily detrimental to health of the planet and ourselves.
Agriculture and nature are today being increasingly seen as interconnected rather than opposing forces that have ruled the way we have farmed since at least WWII. This growing consensus maintains the idea that sustainable farming must work with nature to ensure long-term food security and biodiversity. Intensive agriculture has historically degraded ecosystems, causing biodiversity loss, soil depletion in our drive to create unsustainable cheap food products. Nature-friendly practices (like agroecology) are essential to restore environmental health, enhance resilience, and secure future food production.
This section is about the problem of modern agricultural practises and how they have created in a large part the issues we face today expecially in respect of our Bio-Diveristy decline. The three essays below aim to expand on these problems and also define some of the solutions that are taking root at the moment around the world. To illustrate the possibilities with these solutions Commonground wants to grow and develop its own small green, sustainable farm.
Nature in Urban Areas
It has been estimated just over 50% of Earth’s land surface can be classified as having low human influence or being untouched completely, with a range of 48-56% depending on the type of human influence and when you add the effect Humans have on Biodiversity you are getting somewhere understanding the catastrophic effect we having on the planet.
This last section is about how to let nature in to Urban areas. Here we cover how to get nature involved in cities, and towns. The essays below look at a range of subject of issues from the importance of 20 min neighbourhoods to reducing car usage, our obsession energy and addressing our energy needs, green building issues and creating real green sustainable spaces which create much more healthier spaces to live in.
Join the movement! Reimagine communities, integrate nature, and build a sustainable future with us.
To Solve Our Climate Issues We Need to Allow Nature to Take Back Control.
Using natures ways, to create real solutions to our planetary issues.
So Welcome to the idea of “Simplexity”. Simplexity is a blend of the words “simplicity” and “complexity”. It means finding simple, clear rules or answers inside giant, tangled complex problems, or seeing how simple starting actions can grow into very complicated results.
This is how our world works but we have forgotten this as a species on this world. In fact it was this concept that enabled our founders MA and PhD define how Commonground ReWilding could to be developed.
The idea of Simplexity for us is not a unique concept. many people and groups have developed the idea of Simplexity in the way they create and develop solutions to problem solving. The idea is extremely similar to the idea of “Reasoning by First Principles” which you may have come across before in this website.
There is an irony to the idea of Simplexity in the sense nature uses it to create its complex systems and it is at the core of true human learning abilities (as opposed to the way we are currently taught at school). The button below is a short essay about how this system works.
How Can “Simplexity” be Used to Engage Us to Find Real Solutions to the Problems We Face.
Actually we don’t need a massive level of knowledge around how nature works but we have enough to know we need to change how we treat nature. To do this we need to grow a better respect for what nature does and how it works.
Nature needs to become part of our cultural and ways of living because it sets what happens in our world. In the past nature was at the centre of societies belief structure, however today we have lost this important social way of living. The graph on your right literally defines what Commonground is all about in relation setting up eco-centred social structure where nature is at the core.
All of what you see within this website is a wide range of spaces that need to be integrated in to a new local social way of living. Solving our planetary issues must be a cohesive social act. At Commonground we just ask the question “How do we achieve this”.
