“Raise The Stakes, the Planet Drum Review, a bi-annual publication, presented thought-provoking essays on issues ranging from restoration ecology to the greening of cities from 1979 – 2000. In addition [it had] a “Circles of Correspondence” section describing the activities of bioregional groups throughout the U.S. and internationally, Raise the Stakes included original poetry, articles on a variety of ecological subjects, unique graphics, new publications […]
Report #1 “Outreach to students about Composting” Report #2 “Tours and Planting with Students” Report #3 “Vermicomposting” Report #4 “Escuela Rotaria Story” (“Rotary School Story”) Report #5 (Supplemental Report) Report #1 October 5, 2002 Kristen Ford and Chris HaasPlanet Drum Volunteers It has been one week since Peter and Judy’s departure to Guayaquil. I figured that today would be a great time to send my […]
Looking at the Okamura-Breedlove map, and speculating about the area that it represents, I am aware that I am looking at a picture of home. I’ve been over and around and across and through most of it at one time or another. It’s really a map of coyotes and billy owls, hawks circling in the sky, oak trees, chamise, sun-scorched grass and dripping wet forests. […]
(From Raise the Stakes: The Planet Drum Review #13, Winter 1988) In discussing the greening of cities, one is reminded of the slogan that the French students used in 1968. On their posters they said “all that we want to change is everything,” which comes from that famous ecological dictum, “everything is connected to everything else.” When we pull a thread, we may in fact unwind a […]
Nanao Sakaki, internationally renowned as a contemporary Taoist sage/poet, departed to become another part of the wide Universe on the Winter Solstice December 23, 2008. His work will gain in both fame and usefulness as it ages. It has the combination of innocence and lightning-like insight of other masters in his tradition. Here are two pieces that exhibit the power of Sakaki’s language and presence. […]
Meeting Thomas Berry, Biospherean was written in 2008 to go into a “book of appreciations” celebrating Berry’s 93rd birthday. Thomas Berry watches the same eclipse of the sun that we all see. Many observors are shocked by the gradual loss of light and point at the darkness, shouting alarms. Thomas concentrates on the bright nimbus continuing around the shadow. He believes the full sun will gradually […]
In his numerous peregrinations, Peter sent us dispatches from distant bioregions, our eyes and ears, a sort-of latter-day combination of Darwin (as chronicler of minute botanical/zoological detail) and Bakunin (as pollinator of the Reinhabitory Movement). Bioregionalism Meets Local Autonomy in Mexico reports on the November 1996 Turtle Island Bioregional Gathering (TIBG) in Tepoztlán, Mexico. 1999-1010 index of Ecuador Dispatches August 2001: Reports from the Planet Drum Bioregional […]
Murray Bookchin was one of the most influential thinkers in the formation of the anarcho-bioregional movement. Peter Berg’s homage to this most inscrutable luminary is from August 2006. Before offering any recollections about Murray it is necessary to make the disclaimer that if he was here he would quite possibly refute them. And that he might even dispute that statement! That said I can relax […]
In the summer of 2005, Peter Berg returned to Japan. Here we published his reports as we received them. Dispatch #1, Colors Are The Deeds Of Light, July 5, 2005. An exposition of Peter Berg’s bioregional sustainability presentation for eco-philosopher Yuichi Inouye’s Seika University classes with in depth responses to Q & A’s. Dispatch #2, Finding the Future in the Mud, July 10, 2005. Ecological prophecies and excitement in […]