Page 205 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue #3 - December 2015

Dark Matter: Women Witnessing - December, 2015 Issue #3 - EXTINCTION / DEVOTION

After-Word Kenny Ausubel’s
Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of
Nature, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012

Courtney Cable

In truth, although it’s one minute to midnight on the ecological clock and too late to avoid large-scale

destruction and disruption...around the world, the transition from fossil fuels is irreversibly under way,
along with countless other basic changes in how we organize human civilization to operate in concert

with natural systems and in a reasonably peaceful coexistence with each other. We’re entering the Age
of Nature, and there’s no turning back.

-Kenny Ausubel, Dreaming the Future

I read that opening paragraph over and over again, hoping that through the sheer force of repetition its

truth will write itself deep into my being and manifest in my every action. We are indeed entering a new
age and I hold great hope that it will be one of Nature. While the current political climate may strike a

blow to such optimism, a lack of federal or even state leadership has opened the way for decentralized

change. The task before us is to preserve as much diversity of life as possible to bring through the
bottleneck with us into the new, unknown, and radically changed world on the other side. But how?

When it comes to innovative ideas for how to continue on this planet, Bioneers, the annual conference

founded by Ausubel and his partner Nina Simons, has been charting the way for the past twenty-two

years. Bioneers is a forum that brings together top thinkers from the humanities and the sciences who
share a humbleness before nature and espouse the view that our salvation can only be found by

working with, rather than against, natural systems. In Dreaming the Future, Ausubel has gathered
twenty-four essays that, like the thinkers featured at Bioneers, highlight an effort to shift our mindset

from taming Mother Nature to mimicking and working in concert with her to achieve mutually beneficial

goals.

After spending the entirety of my 20’s within the safe confines of academia, I entered my 30’s having
not yet truly engaged with my larger community. I felt this lack and found myself, as many others have,

deeply yearning for a more authentic way of being; a way that was rooted in place, intertwined with

neighbors, and connected to the very earth. For the first time I was open to learning about
environmental toxins, the tidal wave of plastic pollution, and the vast inequalities in the world. I became

desperate to find an elusive “right” way to live, but every choice seemed imperfect, leaving me
overwhelmed and full of despair.

I found my personal antidote to such pessimism after having a baby. Witnessing first-hand how a tiny
human, new to the world, could connect with the earth taught me a sense of reverence for Mother

Nature as teacher. A simple drop of water could capture his focus completely, leading him to fully
immersive, joyful exploration with the entirety of his body. His interactions with simple things – water,

leaves, grass – were completely present in the moment and I realized that the natural world had my

son’s full attention and he was listening. Why couldn’t we?

Children remind us that we humans are not separate from our environment. In Dreaming the Future,
Ausubel argues that this is a crucial point for us to remember as we forge ahead. His book explores the

ways in which we have butted heads with the natural world, discusses in-depth the problem of

corporate power, and shares inspiring examples of how individuals have wrought real and tangible
shifts in their communities by restoring ecosystems, enacting social justice, and bringing people

together. Here we have municipalities choosing to employ the precautionary principle and banning
pesticides in public places, small Pennsylvania townships successfully standing up to agribusiness to

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