The Evolution of Ecological Consciousness

2013, Environment  -   27 Comments
8.18
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Ratings: 8.18/10 from 234 users.

Part of what Andrew Faust does is teaching how to apply permaculture in the urban landscape and part of what he'll be presenting in this video is a lot of information he's accumulated over the last 20 years as an educator and 8 years of living off the grid. Permaculture is a way of thinking, it's a way of seeing, and what Andrew is going to present is the way of seeing ourselves as biological organisms who are deeply rooted in the life-matrix of the planet Earth.

According to astrophysicists the oldest stars and the age of our universe is about 14.5 billion years old. The galaxy is something that there are many of, as we know, in the universe... and we are in an outer arm of the Milky Way galaxy, which is one of many galaxies. We are spinning with the Earth, spiraling with the galaxy and expanding with the universe.

It's a very dynamic system. It is something that's been around for a long time, so this is an ancient universe and we have huge inheritance. We are the biosphere and how we behave now really determines the future. The Earth is biological entity, a self-regulating organism and we have to understand how to live in ways that synthesize with the larger dynamics of the planet.

There isn't any big brother or large creation entity that cares about humanity. It's up to us to figure out how to live in ways that are intelligent in terms of defining how does the Earth work, how did human beings come into existence, and what do we owe our existence to?

Just 500 million years ago the continents were scattered in a very different places on Earth. And the continents have been changing, the planet has been shifting and it wasn't until 1970s that plate tectonics was even something that was understood in geology. It wasn't until the 1930s that we even started to agree that there were such things as ice ages. Our understanding of this planet is something that's constantly developing and evolving.

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27 Comments / User Reviews

  1. Jay

    I listened up to the point he said one animal ate another and gained a whole load of genes. So, bears who had eaten people should be up to par with men....any way, biology is not my strong point, but he forgets something about todays physics, quantum mechanics has so many variables that are open ended and the only viable explanation is that...there must be a God, how can two microscopic parts light years away communicate using quantum entanglement, how do you explain the super states of matter, why we can not investigate these minuscules parts without disturbing their essence....life is more complicated than just evolution, you can not start a serious inquiry by dismissing what could be the best explanation !

  2. tasha

    As a geologist I can say the geology is a tad dodgy. The 65MA event wasn't really the meteorite, that was kinda the icing on the cake. but an interesting watch anyway..

  3. bernard

    Great watch the only part I did not agree with was when he put down green tech. Renewable energy is far better than fossil fuel alternatives.

  4. RealityBites

    It's Lyn Margulis, a biologist who was co-author with James Lovekock of the Gaia hypothesis. The Gaia hypothesis posits that the earth behaves as an organism in its own right, ie its geology, biology and atmosphere all interact as a complex whole to find stasis.

    1. Markup

      Lovekock, lol

    2. Jay

      By the way, Lovelock has disown enviros from using the term Gaia he coined because of their extremism.

  5. Kyle

    Who is Linmar Goulas? I can't find anything online...

  6. Kamal

    Man! The description seems to pull me in to the documentary. Great work!

  7. Benjamin C. Rice

    Ive seen my fair share of documentaries. And as far as info per second/minute ratios go, this one takes the cake! So much truth to much of what you are saying, regardless of whether one agrees with your stance on God. Its too bad many will turn away from it simply because it doesn't align with their dogma.

    1. Stacey

      I truly respect people who can listen to the views of others. I certainly try to be one. I still can't get there especially when I am to believe or accept I came from a chimpanzee. Other's find it difficult to understand that I can believe I was created by God.
      The information presented about "man" and the "earth" is limited to the tools, as per the speaker's own admission; therefore, I will continue to believe that I am here due to a God who predates the earth and thought about me at the beginning of time and I was created in his image. I find this dogma stimulates and feeds my soul and spirt and answers the question of being a human on earth.

  8. Matt

    The authors anti-corporate tirade throughout the video is somewhat annoying. I would suggest that if he wants his message to bleed outside of what is obviously a left-leaning circle, to reduce the amount of bias in his language. With that said, I did enjoy the first 3 quarters of the video.

  9. southab403

    A couple of observations; Bacteria DO have genus and species and prior to sexual reproduction shared genetic material via plasmids (and still do), so your statement that there were no separate species in early oceans may be in error.
    The drive out of Africa was probably a time of massive warming, forcing hominids up to the fertile zones while deserfication took over central Africa. Following the shores all the way to India and possibly Australia didn't necessarily mean that fire was the driving force of human intellegence. I think it was the protein rich diet from sea and shore life that drove the brain expansion. Once that was in place, fire and hunting became the way that we radiated to all other biospheres.

  10. Andrew Faust

    The data on chimps and gorillas came from a book called Thumbs Toes and Tears,I see you are correct it is not different from ours more like 9 months, i will change that material in my presentation for sure!Thank you for pointing it out to me!

  11. Ilona Randall

    While I disagree with him on not using technology, I agree with his message. There might be some errors here and there but what he says still is relevant. It would be nice to be more connected to nature again.

  12. guest

    BEWARE. This documentary makes up facts. Here's a quick example that is easy to fact check. About 1/2 way thru, the narrator says repeatedly that both gorillas and chimps have gestation periods of 24 months, compared to the 9 months that humans are pregnant. This is totally WRONG. Both chimps and gorillas have a gestation period close to 9 months. I wanted to like this documentary but I don't trust anything it says.

    1. Rodney Bresch

      I wish we could hear his response for what u bring up, along with other holes. He said bacteria aren't prokaryotic. I'm not sure if he's thinking of viruses or what. It's too obvious, to be underhanded imo.

      A lot of what he says tho, not only makes sense, it should be spread. I personally am not as freaked out as everyone else, but that's a long story lol.

    2. Sigma

      The current phylogenetic tree of life based on rRNA sequences contains three domains, prokarya, eukarya and arhaea. I think he was trying to refer to arhaea but he was wrong nevertheless. BTW rRNA sequencing could not have been achieved without the help of the dreaded technology.

  13. Guest

    I like the doc and his presentation, yet disagree on a few things. He said, we should literally fake being happy. I understand his point, yet think that needs to be put more delicately.

    We get "benefits" from faking happiness(or just being "happy"), that often suspend the environmental(outside of us) cause of our unhappiness...therefore begetting the item, we're trying to alleviate.

    This artificial mindset, is what has been fueling our unhealthy societal attitudes.

    1. Guest

      I hear people say just "be happy", or laugh more often. The older i get, the less i feel like engaging in the charade. I still laugh a lot, and am happy, but it's not all about being happy. There are very specific and important reasons, from an evolutionary standpoint, that we feel stress.

      I imagine people who say u should just focus on positive things, and rid any negativity from your life; as someone in a straight jacket, just laughing uncontrollably. The thing about being crazy...is...lol ya don't know it often

  14. southab403

    I really liked this doc! I don't get some of the previous commentors views that it doesn't matter to them because they may not live long enough to see it or that 'matter doesn't matter'. ?
    The presenter explained a huge amount of subject matter in a very factual, scientific way that made total sense to me.
    I totally agree that we modern day humans need to start looking at and encompasing natures ability to detoxify and regenerate our environment.
    These kinds of docs are important to lead the way into integrating intellegent design and low / renewable energy into any new suburbs or new towns/cities designed in the future.
    SLB

    1. Sigma

      I agree the presenter explained a huge amount of subject matter but quite often it was not factual or scientific but more popular claptrap. In my experience you have to dig deep into knowledge in order to appreciate the joy of integration. Anyhow, the message was important.

  15. Jacek Walker

    A good piece of work.
    But how many will get the message? Last time I looked out of my window, crowds were rushing to the world cup in a feverish neurosis to crash their opposit teams. But they call it a game...

  16. Thinker

    I clicked accidently and gave this presentation a low rating... damn. -_-"

    I would have given it a 9/10.

  17. Grizz

    About 1/2 of this documentary is legit... Margulis has long been discredited as a kook. What if you have an artificial heart - do you instantly lose empathy? It's all in plain view that we've hammered the planet - all that matters is objective science, not woo and goo.

    1. CapnCanard

      And here you stepped in that steaming pile:
      "What if you have an artificial heart - do you instantly lose empathy? It's all in plain view that we've hammered the planet - all that matters is objective science, not woo and goo."

      Quick lesson: empathy does not come from the heart, it is from conscious awareness and recognizing that other living beings are not much different from us. And this 'objective science' looks more and more like woo and goo. The closer we look and the harder we look, the less we see. Or to put it simply: there are no particles, in other words there are no objects, no matter. It is all just a collection of energy interacting with other energy. This is a problem for material science. It is the elephant in the room.

    2. Jacek Walker

      As one gets older one recognizes that all this "matter " matters (no pun intended) less and less in the great scheme of things. Take our body: It is quite enjoyable when one is young, pretty bearable as a young adult, often a nuisance for a middle aged man until it falls apart completely at the old age. If you are lucky to live it up.
      And so is with pretty everything around - animals, plants, buildings, constructions, towns and cities - all vanishes into dust.
      Taking all of this into account how can man take seriously a sort of life that would only revolve around the matter, matter that in itself is irrevocably destined to perish?
      And empathy certainly doesn't belong to the world of matter. As anything of higher value and beauty like love, friendship, wisdom, intuition, creativness, compassion.
      And it is good that they don't. If they did belong to the world of matter, then any idiot could destroy them with countless weapons accumulated around the globe.

    3. Grizz

      That is no problem of material science - it is the extent of what we've learned. Science makes no claims to certainty, just which directions reveal something worth delving into. That there are nebulous things is no argument for anything against science.