EARTHKEEPING NEWS A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY Volume Thirteen, Number One Winter 2004 Earth Is My Home by Gene Marshall, Bonham TX The term "bioregional" points to human beings living in committed relationships to local regions of the natural planet. A person or a group enters into the bioregional family of society builders when that person or group subscribes wholeheartedly to these simple statements: Earth is my home. I am an Earthling. A continent of Earth is my home. A region of Earth is my home. This fresh sense of home is simple, but it has implications: The United States, Canada, Mexico, or some other nation is not my home; it is just my nation. New York State is not my home; it is just my state. My zip-code district is not my home; it is just my zip-code district. Western civilization is not my home. No civilization is my home; it is just my civilization. If you are a tribal person, your tribe is not your home; it is just your tribe. Tribal people have been bioregionalists. Tribalism does not make them bioregionalists. They are bioregionalists because they have honored all the living and inanimate beings in a specific region of the planet. When we apply the bioregional sense of home to envision the future of human society, we do not see tribes or civilizations. We see a planetary confederation of semiautonomous Earth-regions. When we apply the bioregional sense of home to envisioning the future of political and economic systems, we do not see a global economy ruled by wealth but their extending into an Earth-sensitive governance of the entire economic playing field for all players across the whole planet. When we apply the bioregional sense of home to envisioning the future of humans we do not see planet-wide uniformities conceived by product advertisers. We see local families of plants, animals, and humans forming unique expressions of aliens in each region of the planet. Such a vision is basically simple, but it has far-reaching implications. It means shutting down in our own minds the dream of building a better civilization or the dream of returning to a new sort of tribal life. It means dreaming a new dream. Bioregionalism is a name for that dream. Home     Table of Contents