BAE is a loosely tied affinity movement of guerrilla gardeners reclaiming and salvaging derelict land for the growth of bamboo. We intend to not only beautify lost space by means of direct action, but to inject the spirit of climate consciousness into the landscape of everyday life. As a symbol bamboo represents the hope, possibility and fecund freedom of a society stripped of competition, grow or die economics and exploitation. It's multitude of culms serves as a reminder of the importance of "community", the lost and disastrously transformed idea of complementarity, mutualism and creativity. It's unmatched strength to the power of people as one and it's rapid growth to the force of consciousness. This movement is part of a worldwide drive for peace and responsible stewardship of the earth.
GLOBAL WARMING AND BAMBOO
Global warming is the most urgent issue of our time. Fossil fuel burning, industrial agriculture and forest destruction cause the climate to change by releasing billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Scientists predict that unless humans significantly reduce carbon emissions, sea levels will rise, and weather patterns will shift violently. Human-caused pollution has left our planet on the verge of a tipping point at which ecosystems will die and release massive amounts of CO2. If that happens, the changes to the climate could be irreversible, countless species will go extinct, and our cultural ways of life will be forever altered.
Deforestation in large areas for raw materials can now be offset with bamboo plantations that would keep regenerating for the production of our needs without the felling of precious native forests so important to local subsistence and climate stability. Not only would native habitats be saver, but also the climate by sequestering more carbon and greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. As bamboo shoots and grows it takes in 28% more carbon dioxide per acre than any other plant on earth and as a resource can truly make a difference to our everyday lives. It's culms can be harvested for a multitude of beneficial applications; housing construction, food, fuel, clothing, paper production, to name a few. These benefits carry on seeing precedence in other more costly practices such as coal production, mono-agriculture, the deforestation of native forests to name a few, which are not only damaging but unnecessary. It is entirely possible to fulfil a lot of our needs with the application of bamboo with few disadvantages.
Obviously this application is not all that needed to stop the effects of climate change nor is it the solution, but a step in the right direction.
Only a keen sense of mutuality, consciousness, action and the destruction of all hierarchy will see the collapse of grow or die economics, egotism and competition which continues to fuel our economic and climate problems.
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