global oneness project Disposability Consciousness I believe that one of the biggest examples of separation syndrome in our lives Julia Butterfly Hill - Oakland, California - Environmentalist and Social Activist is how we have such a profound disposability consciousness in this culture. And I use the example of when you say you're going to throw something away, where is away? There's no such thing. And where away actually is is social justice issues and environmental justice issues. Every plastic bag, plastic cup, plastic to-go container, that is the petroleum complex in Africa, Ecuador, Colombia, Alaska, you name it. Every paper bag, paper plate, paper napkin, that is a forest. Everything that is called waste or disposable is the ways in which we are saying that it is acceptable to throw our planet and its people away. When I started thinking about disposability consciousness, I went and asked a lot of native people that I know if, in their original language they had any words for waste, disposable, or trash, and I have yet to find in any traditional language words for waste, disposable, or trash because all traditional knowledge knows that there's no such thing. I saw a great sign once that said, "It's only called waste if you're not using it properly." [laughs] And we have a wasteful consciousness, we have a disposability consciousness. We've lost our connection to the sacred. And for me disposables are one of the huge magnifiers of how we've lost our connection to the sacred because you don't walk up to a tree and go, "Wow, I wonder how many paper plates I could get out of that puppy." [laughs] We don't think that way, but our actions are doing that. I invite people to look at everything in their lives and look at how has waste mentality and disposability consciousness infiltrated my life? And I see it as one of the ways in which we all have internalized oppression because those forms of oppression are disconnect. Those forms of disconnect work best when they just subtly weave themselves into the fabric of our lives where we just take it for granted that we're going to go to the coffee shop and get coffee that came from an exploited community somewhere where a forest was destroyed for a monoculture, put it in a paper cup that used to be a forest, put a plastic lid on top of it that used to be an indigenous community somewhere in a beautiful area, drink it, and then throw it away where it goes back and pollutes a nature community or a human community at the end. I am so fiercely passionate about it because I know in my heart that as long as we are trashing the planet and trashing each other, a healthy and holistic and healed world is not possible. We cannot have peace on the earth unless we also have peace with the earth. Our disposability consciousness is a weapon of mass destruction. I have walked in the clear-cuts. I have been in the oil pits. I have seen the weapons of mass destruction called disposability consciousness. And if we want to heal the world, we have to begin to choose tools of mass compassion where we are reusing everything, where we are reconnecting to riding our bike, getting out and walking, using less energy, not leaving lights on here and there and not thinking about it. When I first came to the city after coming down from the tree, I was walking around in the neighborhood one day, and I noticed all these lights on in homes where people weren't even there, and I know that it's because of that mentality that we were taught that the big, scary criminals will think somebody's home if there's a light on. I'm like, if I lived in a tree for two years and I know nobody's home, I bet those big, scary criminals know nobody's home. [laughs] I say that and I laugh because it's that fear mentality that makes us to be these wasteful consumers. I saw that that is this disposability consciousness, that we are just throwing everything away and that we are afraid of everything and that that's manifest everywhere in our lives. I invite people to recognize the joy in simplicity, the power in simplicity because when people hear that I'm a joyous vegan, car-free, walk, ride bike as often as I can, touring in a bus powered by vegetable oil, a lot of times people think, "Well, that must be boring." "The food must be bland." "You must be really sad and upset." I'm like, "Do I look it?" [laughs] It is the most joyful life-affirming choice to let go of disposability consciousness and to reclaim every moment, every day, every choice as a step towards healing. www.globalonenessproject.org - Footage courtesy of the Pachamama Alliance