What I say to you today is that the ice is melting in the North as we speak,
trees are tipping, the roads are buckling, buildings are falling in. From
what? From the permafrost melting. Perma. Permanent frost. No, not so
permanent. It's melting right now.

Whatever happens to us will not have any impact on the world. In time, the
world will regenerate. It will come back green, and the waters will be clean
again. It¹s just that there won¹t be any people here. That¹s all. We¹re not
needed. We¹re parasites. We don¹t help the Earth, we take. So if all the
people disappear, then the Earth is going to regenerate because there¹ll be
peace here again.

The second message I bring you is that global warming is real. It is
imminent. It is upon us. It¹s a lot closer than you think, and I don¹t think
we¹re ready for what¹s coming. We¹re not instructing our people, we¹re not
instructing our children, we¹re not preparing for what is coming. And it
surely is coming. We¹ve pulled the trigger, and there is nothing we can do
now to stop it. The event is underway.

Animals live in a state of grace; they do no wrong. They do only what
they¹re supposed to do. They try, they persevere. In New York City I saw
geese going overhead, flying the same path they flew a thousand years ago.
They have to fly higher, but they¹re still going over. Hawks go right by,
the same way. Fish travel in the same place. They¹re still doing what they
can, the best they can, despite the bad air and the bad water around them.
That¹s what we did to them Now we have to do better. We¹ll be lonesome
without them. Being survivors and who we are, we¹ll be the last to go.

The founding fathers of this country, Jefferson and Madison and Franklin,
all talked about natural law. It was common-day usage for them. It was part
of their vernacular to talk about natural law, and they knew what they were
talking about‹because they learned from us! Natural law prevails. Either
abide by it or suffer the consequences. I haven¹t heard any reference to
natural law coming from an administration in a long time. That¹s how far
we¹re drifting from reality. We¹re drifting, and it¹s costly. We have to get
back on course. The chiefs, and I personally, feel that we have not passed
the point of no return. Not yet, but we¹re approaching it. And the day when
we do pass that point, there will be no boom, no sonic sound. It will be
just like any other day.

We don¹t lead by telling people what to do. If you want people to pick
something up off the ground, you start picking it up yourself, and pretty
soon somebody¹s going to help you. You lead by example. That¹s the best way
to inspire, by example. There¹s no short cut.

You have to meet challenges, and as you move along, it¹s like crossing a
stream on stones. We¹ve all done that. You can see some stones and you can¹t
see others, but at some point you have to make the run. And as you jump from
one stone to the other, you¹re always looking for the next jump. Most of the
time you make it. Not all of the time. Sometimes you come to the kind of
situation where there¹s not going to be a safe move at all. You¹re not going
to get an answer. People want answers, but there aren¹t really many answers
except to keep looking and to become active. If you stick to the principles
that you have to guide you, that¹s about the best you can do.
 
 

"E. F. Schumacher Society" <efssociety@smallisbeautiful.org> wrote:Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 11:57:04 -0500
Subject: Instructing Our People
From: "E. F. Schumacher Society" <efssociety@smallisbeautiful.org>

Chief Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, tireless advocate for
indigenous rights and sovereignty issues, professor, author, publisher,
painter, father, and grandfather, stood before us and shared the insights he
had gained as representative of the traditions of his people. The occasion
was the Twenty-Fourth Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures, October 2004 in
Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Chosen by Clan Mothers as Chief of the Onondaga Nation, his voice sounded a
clear note of authentic leadership for our time.

We are honored that Chief Lyons' remarks on that day, edited by Hildegarde
Hannum, are now available as an E. F. Schumacher lecture pamphlet. The
entire address may be read for free, on-line at www.smallisbeautiful.org, by
clicking on "Publications" and selecting "Oren Lyons" from the full list of
Schumacher speakers. Or it may be ordered in pamphlet form by sending $5 to
the E. F. Schumacher Society, 140 Jug End Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230.

Alexandra chose the following quotes from "The Ice Is Melting" for you to
read and consider.

Warmly,

Susan Witt and Alexandra Penny
E. F. Schumacher Society

Board of Directors: Starling Childs, Hildegarde Hannum, Eric Harris-Braun,
Constance Packard, Katie Smith, Benjamin Strauss, Ganson Taggart, and Nancy
Jack Todd.
Board of Founders: Ian Baldwin, David Ehrenfeld, Satish Kumar, John
McClaughry, and Kirkpatrick Sale.
Advisory Board: Tanya Berry, Thomas Berry, Wendell Berry, Olivia Dreier,
Jane Jacobs, Hazel Henderson, Wes Jackson, Amory Lovins, John McKnight,
David Orr, Michael Shuman, Cathrine Sneed, Lewis Solomon, John Todd, Greg
Watson, and Arthur Zajonc.

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