JamesBranagan

There are 3 different types of frontier human populations can exploit to continue surviving and thriving on this fine earth. One is a geographic frontier, such as the continent of North America when the Bergingians first crossed the Bering straiot onto that land mass. There were no other human populations on that continent, and it was abundant with potential prey items. Jackpot! The second is a transfer-of-resource frontier, such as when European colonists forcibly took land off the ancestors of those Beringians in North America, the indigenous Americans. And the third is a technological frontier, where some technological innovation allows what was a previously unproductive patch of land to become productive. Terraces fall into this third category of frontier. Terraces allow humans to grow crops on land where those same crops would otherwise find it difficult to establish themselves. The terraces also make for easier work for the human(s) tending that piece of land, since they don't have to work on an incline all day! There are old ways of working the land that will once again become relevant in our lives. Ww are alive in an unprecedented period of human history where our access to readily available, cheap, concentrated energy makes tasks that were once laborious and time-consuming much easier. Instead of working the fields with a hand hoe, we can hook up a tool to our tractor and work the field that way. However, as that currently abundant supply of energy begins to dwindle, and gets doled out in unequitable ways across the globe, these old (pre-oil era) technologies could prove very useful! ----- Chapters: 00:00 Toad 00:32 Mulch benefit 01:30 Terrace technology 03:07 Relearning the old ways -----

Planting by the moon can be considered a bit “out there.” Fair enough. Western moderns are so disconnected from the likes of astronomical ralities that it's understandable we think anything having to do with them is sheer craziness! But many cultures that pre-date ours have found some sort of value in it. Including the Galician culture I happen to be embedded within at the minute. I'm planting some tomato seeds in this video. In a potting mix of 1 part horse manure, 1 part multi-purpose potting mix, and one part autochthonous soil. I want to try and get a massive yield using regenerative agriculture techniques. Why? Because the modern industrial agricultural model, and its addiction to synthesised chemical inputs, is a big part of the story for why our global ecologies are so degraded. And remain on a downward trajectory! ----- ----- Chapters: 00:00 Lunacy 00:29 Potting mix 00:57 Houdini chickens 01:36 Making the mix 02:02 Seed pot details 02:46 Tomato varieties 03:30 Sowing! 05:58 Unexpected visit 06:53 Regen. Ag. 08:33 Is it possible? 09:22 Unexpected visitors -----

Hyper-novelty is a term used to describe the rate of change in our modern environments outstripping our biological ability to adapt to those changes. Can we, as individuals, do anything about this discombobulating rapid rate of change? The answer is, of course (!): yes! We can opt to consciously regulate our nervous system responses to modern environments by steering clear of those activities that hyper-stimulate us, and choosing to do activities that require much less nervous system stimulation. Like writing, reading, practicing a musical instrument. Those sorts of things. Low stiumulus activities. An example of a low-stimulus activity that I would implore you to get going on is creating your own videos, in whatever format you like, to flesh out some of yuor complex thoughts. This is crucial for our age! The internet is such a powerful tool that's being wasted on silly things and unproductive things. We can create an attractive basin that will eventually pick up its own speed, and pull at least a small bit of the internet into a more sensible, exciting place! ----- ----- Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:58 Dangerous writing...? 04:52 Low-stimulus activities 08:14 Spiritual warfare! 09:40 Create!

Many people intuit that there's something rotten in the state of Denmark. But it's hard to pinpoint exactly where that rot lies. The superorganism concept helps clarify this. It is an emergent property that arises when humans self-organise around profit maximisation. When we optimise for this single metric, we do so at the expense of everything else, such as human wellbeing and ecological integrity. As individuals, we don't have to subject ourselves to the misery the superorganism would compel us to. We can take far better care of ourselves, by reducing our baseline demands to something more sensible and sophisticated. Instead of getting our kicks by doom-scrolling online, we can pick up a book. The energy it takes to create a book is far less than the energy required to create and sustain the technologies we need to doom-scroll. And we can make our felt sense of wellbeing while reading a book equal to (if not, better than!) what it is while doom-scrolling. Lowering your baseline is well within your grasp. You can empower yourself by doing so. And find yourself living a far more tranquil, content life amidst the modern madness we've been born into. ----- ----- Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:43 Nobody's coming to save you 01:07 Superorganism 02:25 Energy requirements for a good life 03:20 Baselines changing 04:40 Self-care 05:48 Stoicism ----- ----- Socials: Instagram - @jamesbranagan Substack - https://jamesbranagan.substack.com/ LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/james-branagan-749205208 Rumble - @JamesBranagan Locals - https://newnaturalist.locals.com/ -----

Substack - https://open.substack.com/pub/jamesbranagan/p/maximise-your-impact?r=phje8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true ----- ----- Many environmentalists speak to the need to "reduce your impact." As is so often the case, the popular understanding of the problems we face is backwards. For those of us who are ecologically-oriented, reducing our impact only hinders the progress we could otherwise make towards establishing an ecologically compatible global society. And Jevons' paradox ensures that any of the resources you would save by limiting your exploitation would simply be used up by another person. Aggressively ramp up your impact in an intelligent and strategic way, taking advantage of the brief window in history we have to significantly alter humanity's course. ----- ----- Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:27 Environmentalist's are wrong 02:58 Jevons' paradox 04:08 more harm than good 04:43 "the" solution -----

Nice little Irish tune there for you.

The carbon pulse we're experiencing has misled us into believing certain things about the world that are simply false. The only reason we can hold such erroneous beliefs (without being punished by biophysical reality!) is because of the abundant supply of, and easy accessibility to, fossil fuel energy. One such erroneous implicit belief is the idea that we can do without other human beings. Hyper-individualism has taken over our culture. People genuinely believe they can do without others. Why wouldn't they!? They get their food from the supermarket, they drive their cars to and fro, and they have no deep, meaningful relationships upon which they depend. But the supermarkets require massive teams of anonymous human labourers to continue functioning. And cars have to be built and maintained by someone somewhere. Even though we can't see our dependence on others, we are still completely dependent. Going forward in time, our direct dependency on others to meet basic needs will begin to feature a lot more in life. We can begin developing the inter-personal skills we'll need to navigate that future NOW. ----- Chapters: 00:00 coffee intro 01:37 we the living 02:25 become self-determined! 04:14 build social capital

The planetary boundaries framework is useful for understanding where we’re at in terms of our relationship to the natural world. There are biophysical thresholds (defined not by humans, but by the biophysical reality we inhabit) that we’d do well not to surpass. We’ve passed 6 of the 9 planetary boundaries as they’re defined by the Stockholm Resilience Centre. We may have already initiated ecological catastrophe cascades that will prove unstoppable at some point in the future (think positive feedback of methane release from Arctic ice sheets, for example.) That being said, we may not (yet!) have locked in an unstoppable ecological catastrophe cascade. I see no better stimulus for realising as much of each individual human’s potential than our current dire ecological situation. The world is now calling forth the absolute best of human creative potential. Will we step up to the plate?

The web of life is not guaranteed. It has changed many times over across geological time. One of the main predictors of those changes has been concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. So, of course, we humans appear to be pumping as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as is humanely possible. Without any intention to stop. If an alien were to come to earth, and be presented with a graph plotting concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere against the number of COP meetings held, he would rationally propose the hypothesis that COP meetings cause concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere to go up. He would be wrong, but not so far off the mark! The COP meetings function to ease eco-anxiety, by giving us an excuse to assume people (somewhere!) are going about solving Our Human Predicament. However, this is not so. Nor is Mother Earth going to keep us nice and safe, and ensure human existence will continue for an indefinitely long period of time into the future. Our oceans are acting like buffers, preventing the worst consequences of our insisting to emit as much CO2 as possible. But that buffering capacity will soon run out, as has been the case in the past. We humans will then be hit with the full force of our stupidity. But it doesn't have to be that way. We can predict these unpredictable changes, and reorient ourselves now to prevent some of the worst scenarios from making themselves manifest in the future.

Global humanity is in an unprecedented time in history. We have access to the highest concentration fuel known. Easy access! For some, easier than others. We have built a societal megastructure that has become dependent on these fuels. And their supply is finite. Can we move into a future with reduced access to this type of energy and continue to thrive? I think "Yes!" Of course we can. We just have to want to. Biological systems are adept at adapting to certain kinds of stressors, and GROWING STRONGER THEREAFTER. We are built for this stuff. No doubt, it will be a rough road from here to wherever we're going, but we can use the brains we have to ease the pain as much as possible. We are antifragile creatures, who tend to do exceedingly well in adverse circumstances WHEN WE PUT OUR MINDS TO IT.

----- Socials: Rumble - https://rumble.com/user/JamesBranagan Locals - https://locals.com/member/JamesBranagan Substack - https://jamesbranagan.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web&r=phje8 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/james_branagan/ ----- With Workaway, you can travel out to remote places on a budget. It's cheap travel, And REAL travel. Not the sort of "travelling" that amounts to drinking copious amounts of alcohol on the trot for a good few weeks straight, hitting up as many different nightclubs in as many different cities as possible. To me, that's boring and expensive. Tiring too! For nature-lovers and people keen to learn more about the likes of permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and the farmstead/homestead lifestyle, I would recommend doing a few Workaways to gain some seriously valuable, EMBODIED knowledge in these areas. Lots more videos on these topics and more to come! -----

Substack - https://open.substack.com/pub/jamesbranagan/p/the-human-spirit?r=phje8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Twitter - https://twitter.com/BranaganJames Locals - https://locals.com/feed/62986/newnaturalist ----- ----- Video Description: Within each of us there lies a dormant power waiting to be activated. Everybody has their own personal ways of activating this power. For me, the ecological crisis we face is sufficient to activate mine. Another means by which to find this power within would be to read Robert Greene's "Mastery." In this book, he speaks about "finding one's Life Task." This is the same idea as finding what activates ones innate latent power. We are living in that period of history described as "weak men crete hard times." Our world is in chaos. Some might say we're living in liminality. The space betwixt and between two worlds. This is a time of chaos, and massive potentiality. Should we find the energy to do so, we can make of this opportunity something amazing and beautiful . On top of this, we no longer have the luxury of being able to play out the historical cyclical pattern referenced in this video. Given our technological "power of gods," and the absence of the wisdom and prudence that would inform appropriate use of such tech, we can't allow ourselves to default to the historically reliable pattern. Find what motivates and activates your inner power. And let the unique historical times we live in spark something in you. -----

Substack link - https://open.substack.com/pub/jamesbranagan/p/human-animals?r=phje8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web ----- ----- VIDEO DESCRIPTION: Humans are animals. With this, there are some ingrained, genetically-inherited behaviour patterns that rear their ugly heads (and their heads are truly ugly!) under certain circumstances. When humans undergo resource contraction, we begin to look at other populations as sources of wealth and resources. This ushers in zero-sum-game type dynamics, and types of behaviour our modern sensibilities would consider gruesome, diabolical, abominable, and generally undesirable. We would do well to avoid such a response in modern times. As the technologies we have at our disposal are incompatible with these genetically-encoded behaviour patterns. Should we choose to abide by these deeply ingrained modes of behaviour, we run the risk of wiping ourselves out. Given the technological powers we have developed, without having developed what should have been concomitant wisdom and prudence. We humans have yet to come to terms with Darwin’s deep insights. We still refuse to consider ourselves as one among many other animal species. This is warranted to some extent. There are some glaringly obvious differences between the human species and every other species. That we are so ecologically dominant is one. That we are the only species to “consume” energy in the form of extra-corporeal energy (fire, cooking, fossil fuels) is another major difference. But we remain essentially animal in nature. We are of this earth, and it is to this earthy earth we will inevitably return. Sometimes, through breathwork (or other means of altering my consciousness) I find myself in what seems to be a dark, indifferent, mysterious place where my humanness is significantly reduced, and I get a peek in at my own very animal self. It’s a strange experience, but one that has recurred a number of times. Enough for me to be able to identify and speak to it! ----- ----- CHAPTERS: 00:00 Summary 00:55 Animal darkness 03:38 Writing process 04:49 Deep-dive 06:11 Relevancy of this message -----

Locals - https://newnaturalist.locals.com Substack - https://jamesbranagan.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web&r=phje8 Twitter - https://twitter.com/BranaganJames —-- —-- Video Description What passes for “environmental activism” nowadays is repulsive to most ordinary people. The activists themselves come across as sanctimonious and somewhat condescending. And what they might refer to as pleas to wake the public up to our perilous ecological situation are interpreted by normal people as admonishments for how we currently live. Although, in principle, I agree with much of what these activists say, I don’t agree with the methods they employ to try and distribute what they know more widely and convince people to begin behaving differently. I see the issues with burning fossil fuels as a main source of energy. Beyond the overly simplistic “carbon dioxide in the atmosphere” narrative. I also see why biodiversity loss is an existential threat to humanity. I want more people to see these things. And I don’t think the likes of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion are helping towards that end. That’s why I’ve started my own Locals community. I hope for this community to act like an attractor for nature-lovers. I have a vision for it to become a place where vibrant, energising conversations occur, and a place from which action can spill over into the real world. Locals Community link - https://newnaturalist.locals.com —--

Support me on the Locals Page - https://newnaturalist.locals.com Substack piece - https://open.substack.com/pub/jamesbranagan/p/evolved-delusionality?r=phje8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web My Twitter - https://twitter.com/BranaganJames ----- ----- Video Description: We are not evolved to be as rational and sane as possible. Tot he contrary! We have evolved to conjure up in our minds a virtual reality that should correspond to underlyong physical reality to the degree that it is beneficial FOR OUR GENES to do so. Our models of reality do not necessarily conform to underlying reality to the extent that we'd have ourselves believe. Us Vs. Them thinking, and the pains of cold water are two examples of where our models of reality are more beneficial for our genes when they don't necessarily align completely with said underlying reality. Check out the video for more. P.S The one effective way we humans have managed to develop for understanding underlying reality to the degree that we can is the scientific method. Observe, hypothesise, see predictions, test predictions, confirm or falsify hypothesis. Simple as. This is the best method to reduce our biases and see underlying reality AS BEST WE CAN, with all our all-too-human flaws and shortcomings. What a beautiful world. The tunes! Blackbird by the Beatles. And Saudade by Maro. -----

Why is history so dark? Why is there so much bloodshed and killing? Studying the way the world works can take the psyche to some dark places. Understanding why things are the way they are can present some grisly pictures of reality to the mind. But I say! I’d rather know the ugly truth than live in a comforting LIE!! We Moderns think of ourselves as moral and righteous. We think that we would unconditionally respect one another’s rights, and dignity. And we think all of this because external conditions have facilitated it. In other words, if external conditions changed from predominantly growth-based to contraction-based, our morality would go out the window. We would regress back to the modes of being our ancestors had to inhabit to survive and pass their genes on into the future. When it’s zero-sum dynamics, and it’s my tribe versus yours, the game becomes grisly, ghastly, and diabolical very quickly. Our best bet of staving off such a G3n0CyDal impulse is to understand what we humans are, as a uniquely unique species among many other species, who have developed technological capacities that confer to us the power of gods. We’d do well to develop the necessary wisdom to wield that power appropriately.

I used to think that all we needed, as humanity, to see ourselves through the myriad of problems we face, is the right words, or the right speech, or the perfect moment in time, and all will be good. The naivete! Related to this is the idea that someone will eventually come save you. This is something I’ll have to expand upon in another video. But the conclusion is: Nobody’s coming to your rescue. Only YOU can come to YOUR rescue. Anyway, in their book “A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century” Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying run through some very important concepts we’ll have to become much more familiar with should we stand a chance of surviving the next century. In the last chapter of the book called “The Fourth Frontier,” there’s a little paragraph that is packed full of explanatory power (as are many of the paragraphs in this wonderful book!) When our ancestors reached the point of “ecological dominance,” when the major threat to their existence was no longer some sort of natural disaster, like a tsunami, or earthquake, but was OTHER HUMANS, we began exercising a genetic program that we moderns should instantly recognise as immoral and unjust. As soon as we became globalised, and no longer feared Darwin’s abiotic hostile forces as much as we had before, other humans became both our main threat and opportunity. They can steal from us, but we can steal from them too. And if we steal from them first, then we win. So there was an evolutionary arms’ race to become the people who win in inter-tribal warfare. This is why history reads as it does. And unfortunately (or has it been fortunate?) we moderns have lived through the most peaceful times yet. Where the major superpowers have left each other in relative peace. This was because of the unprecedented period of economic growth we experienced post WW2. Itself thanks to our tapping fossil fuels as a source of energy. We no longer had to fight each other to win. But instead, we could turn our plunderous impulse to nature. And exploit nature. This meant STEALING FROM OUR DESCENDENTS. Because when you extract resources at a rate beyond which they can replenish, and create waste at a rate beyond which the earth system can assimilate, we destroy the viability of the planet for the sake of economic growth. We are behaving in the same way as our ancestors, except instead of stealing from others in the present, we’re stealing from our descendants who have yet to be born.

Naturalists of the past include the great Charles Darwin, who published “The Origin of Species” back in 1859, and ushered in an evolutionary way of seeing the world. We also have Linnaeus, who gave us the binomial classification system for species, and Alexander von Humboldt who contributed immensely to our understanding of the natural world. It was von Humboldt who first wrote about the link between weather, and human emotion, for example. He was also the first to render a scientific idea into something visually appealing, with his famous Naturgemalde picture that depicted the changes in species composition as one rose in elevation up a mountain. American naturalists include John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, and Aldo Leopold, to name but a few. These people conceived of nature in a particular way, where nature was separate from human culture. And that remaining pristine wilderness areas had to be protected against the relentless march of industrial human progress. This idea of nature was needed at the time. And it’s with thanks to this idea, and the work done by people of that time, that we still have intact nature areas across the globe in the form of National Parks and other protected nature areas. We need to go beyond mere conservation and begin expanding BOTH our concept of nature, AND areas of the globe where nature is given more free reign. Why can we no longer think of ourselves as separate from nature? Because we have ourselves become akin to a GEOLOGICAL FORCE. We are like the wind, waves, volcanoes, and tectonic plates. All of which we would instantly recognise as “nature.” There’s no denying our global effects on this earth. We have come to call this time in earth’s history “the Anthropocene” after the most active geological force: Homo sapiens. If we can correctly reimagine what nature is and our place in nature, then I think our action in the ecological sphere will be far more effective. We can become SO effective, that our actions simply obsolete the ways of the old system. This is the vision of The New Naturalist. To get our model of reality SO RIGHT, that we can’t help but usher in a more beautiful world ALL of our hearts know is possible. A message for creatives: Carve out the space and time to get your work done. Otherwise, that impulse within will eat you up form the inside out. You will become a hollow shell of a human being. It is NECESSARY for you to express creatively. It’s not an option. Nor is it just “a nice thing to do.” It is NECESSARY. Don’t let the world churn you up and spit you out onto the floor. FIGHT for your creativity and creative expression.

https://open.substack.com/pub/jamesbranagan/p/why-monogamy-works?r=phje8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web - Full written article -----

Some rain fell heavy on the window during this recording. Adds to the feel of it!

Buy the books: 1493 by Charles C. Mann https://amzn.to/44b4SqT Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond https://amzn.to/3NZlWuo ----- Chapters: 00:00 Fallacy of blissful ignorance 01:29 Pristine wilderness does not exist 03:09 Historical roots of "wilderness" 05:56 Earthworms 07:10 Guns, Germs, and Steel 10:29 Implications for conservationism -----