Collapse of Civilization/Civil Society

Michael Jackson's album Off the Wall came out 21 days after my 17th birthday, and at the time thanks to ABBA, I really did think I was a Dancing Queen. (lol) My 8-track of Off the Wall was played and danced to over and over and over again. That album and Michael Jackson have made an ever lasting impression on me. Music, art, and film always have the greatest impact on you when you are open to receiving the message.

Michael Jackson's Earth Song which came out in 1995 was his first single that overtly dealt with the environment and animal welfare. I was not completely surprised when I read this past week how Earth Song was a top five hit in most European countries, and in the UK, it remains Jackson's best-selling single. Sadly, Earth Song was not even released as a single in the United States. I wonder why? Maybe the reason was the US was not open to receiving this message at the time.

Earth Song was accompanied by a lavish music video which had an environmental theme, showing images of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution and war. Jackson and the world's people unite in a spiritual chant Earth Song which summons a force that heals the world. Using special effects, time is reversed so that life returns, war ends and the forests regrow.

The video was filmed in four geographic regions. The first location was the Amazon Rainforest, where a large part was destroyed a week after the video's completion. Natives of the region appeared in the video and were not actors. The second scene was a war zone in Croatia, with residents of the area. The third location was Tanzania, which incorporated scenes of illegal poaching and hunting into the video. No animals were harmed in the making of the Earth Song, as the footage came from documentary archives. However, a poacher killed an elephant within a mile of the shot. The final location was in Warwick, New York, where a safe forest fire was simulated in a corn field.

Michael said this about Earth Song:

"I remember writing Earth Song when I was in Austria, in a hotel. And I was feeling so much pain and so much suffering of the plight of the Planet Earth. And for me, this is Earth's Song, because I think nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the Earth. And with the ecological unbalance going on, and a lot of the problems in the environment, I think earth feels the pain, and she has wounds, and it's about some of the joys of the planet as well. But this is my chance to pretty much let people hear the voice of the planet. And this is "Earth Song." And that's what inspired it."

I was happy I came across so many eco-bloggers like Treehugger, Ecorazzie and many others blogging about this song since Michael Jackson's transition last week. I hope this music video gets shown all over the world and especially here in the United States.  Here's wishing that we are now more open to receiving this message and the wonderful gift of music and video from a true genius.

You can view Michael Jackson's Earth Song video HERE.

There is a group of people who, in my understanding, either cannot or will not accept the fact that our earth is deteriorating, and that is the inner-city culture, or as one might call it, the hip-hop culture.  Their circumstances have taught them that in order to survive, one must acquire wealth and status at all costs, including legal and criminal.  They steal, they rape, they commit murder in order to take what others have.  We have seen them with their massive amounts of jewelery hanging off their neck, often in the form of diamond-encrusted dollar signs, with their diamond-encrusted braces, their obnoxiously large, obnoxiously customized, obnoxiously expensive vehicles, most often bought with their ill-gotten gains.  These all serve as barriers to communication of our message, and so long as people are afraid to approach them and teach them, then it will take nothing short of a catastrophic event for the message to sink in.

We live in this world without being fully aware of our connection with mother Nature - Planet Earth. We keep thinking that someone else will take care of pollution while we continue living our lives as consumers. It's the little things we can do every day that count and play the important role in building our awareness of the importance of the preservation of Mother Earth for future generations, not only for us. LITTLE THINGS we can do every day CAN MAKE A BIG CHANGE. Little things like riding a bike instead of driving a car, saving our energy every step of the way, turning off our air conditioners, supporting non-smoking campaigns, using water filters in order to avoid poisonous substances in tab water, buying only those products made of materials we approve of, avoiding cosmetic products with toxic substances, avoiding cell phones and other technological traps of the modern world as much as we can, talking to everyday people about the power of LOVE, unity and action, instead of silently supporting the temples of individualism, egoism and intolerance that surround us... are the things we can do TODAY to start trully caring for and SAVING our PLANET. Things the world has produced have made us slaves. Every day a new chance is born for us to try to remember that we are the ones who contributed to this slavery and we are the only ones who can contribute to the rebirth of freedom and the harmony of life. We are not large, powerful corporations... We are the people of the world. Maybe for a moment it may seem that there's nothing we can do, because we have no power like big global players. But, remember, without our money large corporations can kiss this world goodbye. Who can make a change, then? It's us - really, not them. Do something, do anything to change the world today, tomorrow, every day and you will immediately feel the greatness of mankind.

 We have have over 1000 Environmental based Experiments, labs and lesson plans 

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The first Flash Search Engine is an Environmental Search Engine!! http://www.greenplanetsearch.com is now live!

 When Mike Haney first presented the idea behind the technology behind

www.greenplanetsearch.com, he was laughed down. Virtually, of course. “Everyone can

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A few people were intrigued. The combination of Haney’s vision of a Flash-driven search

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only people involved in the creation of the search engine, is that the only people involved

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Going where I list, my own master, total absolute, listening to others, considering well what they say, pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.  I inhale great draughts of space.  The east and west are mine……..….

Beware of the moral ripening of nature.  Beware what precedes the decay of the ruggedness of states and men.  Beware civilization.

“Walt Whitman “ Leaves of Grass”