welcome to earthmoss

We have the privilege of living at a remarkable time, a time of great change and global awareness. We have the task of steering the collective actions of humanity onto a sustainable, peaceful, fertile course that nourishes us all and sets a rich foundation for the generations that are to come.

Never before have we had access to so much information, so many thoughts, ideas, experiences of how to and how not to live. All this gives us power to affect change in our world, on many scales.

This is a great and profound responsibility.

Looking for sage guidance from the visionaries, thinkers, philosophers who have come before us we are aware of a common point: That humanity cannot survive in a collective state of gain for self over others, or without being careful custodians of the natural world of which we are so utterly a part. A new way is needed these writings state, a new framework which the whole human family can exist within to the benefit, happiness and well being of all.

What this would be is left mostly unanswered. It does have, we are told, the qualities of compassion, equality, tolerance, community, but what it actually looks like as a working model we are left to discern for ourselves.

This remarkable work is an attempt to do that; a response to the urgent call for a more just and habitable world for everyone and everything living in it. It draws on the inspirational insights and knowledge of many authors and acts as a great loom, weaving the perspectives, understandings and wisdoms from all the ages into a model of living as a global family that might just work.

And it invites us, the readers to be active participants in the forming of this new way, in fact we are birthers, each one of us, and it requires nothing more than a passion for truth, for the creation of a new paradigm, and the will to embody it in our lives. Anyone of any means and place can begin to create, to weave, this beautiful and grounded vision from where we are right now.

The whole work is divided into three parts. The first is a thorough exploration of who the human being is, where we have come from on our long journey from the caves and how we came to be here now.

The second part looks deeply at our modern nature and introduces the structure of Earthmoss and explores how the two work so healthfully together.

The third part is the actual structure, a template for beginning to grow Earthmoss, for us all to hammer out, develop and create and through which we will transform the way we live. It requires the life experiences, gifts, talents and passion of us all. To quote from the introduction:

‘As one person, and hence of limited knowledge, I do not believe that the minutiae of my idea when it comes to Real-Politik, will be completely correct, especially at my first attempt. As you will in fact see, as part of the process, it is not displayed or formed into such a monolith, but in fact it requires the contribution, knowledge, wisdom and participation of others, throughout time. I only hold that the basic idea has the ability to change things, peaceably, for the better, for all, by all who care to, and that you are integral to it.

No matter what you choose to do in the world, in the end, by existing, you have always changed it. What comes next depends only on what state you left it in. Starving babies, multi-billionaires, consumption until global meltdown in the name of peace and nuclear fallout in the name of protection are obviously not the answer, but equally obviously are ‘at present’ our thrownness, and our future.

      Let us see why, and let us change it.’

Why ‘Earthmoss’?

The name Earthmoss is an indication of the nature of the vision being put forward. The following passage from an online science encyclopaedia is a clear description and a perfect analogy for how Earthmoss will work to restore life and health to our damaged world:

Mosses are extremely important during the early stages of ecological succession. Succession begins with the generation of a new environment. This can occur, for example, by the formation of sand dunes, the exposure of land by de-glaciation, or by the radical disturbance of a previously vegetated landscape as when an area is logged or burned by wildfire. In such cases, the ground becomes vegetated by the process of succession, during which various different plant communities dominate the site in turn. Because of their ability to reproduce asexually by fragmentation and gemmae combined with sexual reproduction, which produces enormous numbers of tiny, easily-dispersed spores, mosses play a vital role in being among the first colonizers of disturbed sites. They stabilize the soil surface, thereby reducing erosion, while at the same time reducing the evaporation of water, making more available for succeeding plants. Mosses are not an important source of food for vertebrate herbivores. Peat mosses are the dominant plants of extensive northern wetland areas, and are largely responsible for the development of bogs. 

Thriving, fertile communities and ecosystems will emerge from this new vision and structure for our human lives.​