[Scpg] Big Green Lies: Interview & Transition Career Options with Santa Barbara Eco-therapist Linda Buzzell by Willi Paul

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network]

Big Green Lies: Interview & Transition Career Options with Santa Barbara 
Eco-therapist Linda Buzzell by Willi Paul. Presented by Permaculture 
Exchange
Submitted by Willi Paul on Tue, 01/31/2012 - 11:07
in conservation natural Writer


http://planetshifter.com/node/1987

Big Green Lies: Interview & Transition Career Options with Santa Barbara 
Eco-therapist Linda Buzzell by Willi Paul. Presented by Permaculture 
Exchange.

When you've got a dream like mine
Nobody can take you down
When you've got a dream like mine
Nobody can push you around

Today I dream of how it used to be
Things were different before
The picture shifts to how it's going to be
Balance restored

Beautiful rocks -- beautiful grass
Beautiful soil where they both combine
Beautiful river -- covering sky
Never thought of possession, but all this was mine

When you know even for a moment
That it's your time
Then you can walk with the power
Of a thousand generations

Bruce Cockburn - A Dream Like Mine (edited), from: Nothing But A Burning 
Light

* * * * * * * *

Interview with Linda by Willi

“But as the old economy starts to fade all around us, the green shoots 
of a new sustainable economy are pushing up through the soil -- and 
that's where you want to position yourself.” Can you give us concrete 
examples of what you call ‘green shoots of a new sustainable economy’?

A well-established example is integrative/alternative medicine. 
Practitioners are doing very well and many patients prefer them. Another 
example is organic food, although the USDA is confusing that process 
somewhat. Still, the numbers of farmers going organic and selling at 
Farmers Markets is encouraging. Exercise is another area: machine-like 
gyms still exist, but yoga studios have taken off big time, even in 
quite conservative areas of the US. Some of the slowest sectors of 
society to change would include clothing (we still make textiles abroad 
and support Third World slave labor), energy (although the military is 
going solar now), politics...

What values are you teaching to your career counseling clients these 
days? What conflicts arise between the old ones and the news ones?

I am teaching the importance of resilience, flexibility and a new 
understanding of the human-nature relationship. I am also asking people 
to awaken from The Big Lie that underlies modern society: that humans 
are separate from and superior to the rest of nature, so it doesn't 
matter if we trash nature.

The only resistance I see among young people (who are totally aware of 
the mess we're in) are worries about whether they can make a living in 
the new sustainable society. I point out that most people aren't doing 
very well in the crumbling old industrial society and that many people 
are already ahead of the curve and finding abundance in the transition. 
A rich life is not necessarily a "big bucks" life, however.

What are the key goals in the transition movement there?

To help smooth the transition from crumbling industrial society to a 
life-sustaining society. Probably the same goal as transition 
everywhere. If possible, of course. And to help everyone in our 
community if the transition is far from smooth (i.e. collapse).

I love your “Big Lie” metaphor (i.e. “corporate-based, high-tech health 
care would create wellness”). Tell us more lies about jobs and the old 
economy!

Well, a great lie in the economic sphere has been that the health of the 
money economy isn't dependent on the health of the nature economy, even 
though human economic activity is totally embedded in nature. Another 
lie from the political sphere is "trickle-down economics" - if the rich 
get super-rich, the middle class and poor people will somehow do better. 
Occupy is helping us see through that one...

There are really lies underlying every sector, as I pointed out in my 
handout. For example, in the food world, the lie is that local food is 
stupid and that the best thing to do is to import our (less nutritious) 
food from highly destructive and inhumane industrialized farms and 
factories around the world using fossil fuels. Truly a stupid system, 
like peeing and pooping in our drinking water while we waste the rich 
humanure (the Big Water Lie). Part of the Big Food Lie is the belief 
that traditional Third World sustainable food systems that have worked 
for thousands of years should be immediately trashed in favor of export 
crops. NOT!!

I love a recent film called "The Age of Stupid." It seems that in every 
sector we are doing things the stupid way, oblivious to the consequences.

As you prescribe, how I do an analysis of my field? Nuts and bolts please!

Look at the principles underlying your field. For instance, how does it 
view the health of nature and people? Is it based on the Big Lie that it 
doesn't matter how much you trash people and planet? Or the Big Lie that 
we should keep on growing forever and there are no limits?

And then ask yourself: what would this field look like if nature and 
people actually mattered and were factored into the equation from the 
get go? I'm not sure what field you're referring to, so can't give 
specifics.

Do you see any critical differences between the transition ahead for 
South Chicago vs. Berkeley, CA?

Urban permaculture is happening in lots of places, for lots of 
communities. No need for it to only be for rich, white folks. In fact, 
truly rich, white folks who belong to the 1% may be some of the last 
people to be interested in alternatives that would benefit everyone. 
They've bought into the religion of "greed is good" and "being selfish 
is smart because who needs community," no matter who it hurts.

Isn’t the transition movement just for the middle class?

See above. Urban permaculture in particular is critical for inner city 
areas. Some cool stuff is happening in Detroit right now. We also need 
to address rural and suburban poverty, where according to a popular TV 
show, the only way to survive is to manufacture meth and sell drugs.

* * * * * * *

Career Opportunities in the Emerging Sustainable Society (L. Buzzell)

1) LAND AND NATURE STEWARDSHIP

a. Environment. Human, animal and plant habitat.
• Unsustainable:Shrinking, unsafe habitat for people, animals, plants, 
fish. Increasing climate disruption and pollution.
• Sustainable:Safe, poison-free ecosystems and living space throughout 
our planet with healthy soils and strong animal, plant and fish populations.
• Emerging Jobs: habitat restoration expert, climate scientist, 
laboratory testing technician, animal rehabilitation specialist, 
population scientist.

b. Water
• Unsustainable:wasting water, polluting water sources.
• Sustainable:frugal use, water collection and non-toxic recycling of 
scarce water.
• Emerging Jobs: creek clean-up and protection, greywater systems 
installer, wise-water-use educator, water filter salesperson, “green” 
municipal water treatment expert, lawyer rewriting local building codes 
to allow greywater systems, composting toilet installer, politician on 
local water board fighting against unsustainable practices, compost 
toilet installer.

c. Air
• Unsustainable:continued air pollution from vehicles, factories, paint, 
other sources.
• Sustainable:high air quality standards
• Emerging Jobs: air quality measurement technician, alternative 
transportation engineer, climate change meteorologist, filter mask 
manufacturer, healthy home cleaning supplies distributor, natural fiber 
rug company owner, green building supplies store.

d. Climate
• Unsustainable:climate instability
• Sustainable:mitigation and adaptation
• Emerging Jobs: Climate Adaptation specialist, climate scientist 
studying remediation.

2) HUMAN SURVIVAL BASICS: FOOD, SHELTER, CLOTHING

a. Food
• Unsustainable:Factory farming, products trucked or flown in from afar. 
Animals treated cruelly. Agricultural land being developed for sprawl 
and suburbs. Loss of healthy soils.
• Sustainable:Healthy organic food from nearby local farms, backyards or 
community gardens.
• Emerging Jobs: Ecological/sustainable farmer, Farmers Market executive 
director, local food distributor, permaculture designer, community 
gardens director, agricultural land trust executive, city employee in 
charge of food security, creative nutritionist, local foods chef, expert 
in using oxen- and horse-powered plows, environmental horticulture 
instructor, land rehabilitation specialist.

b. Shelter and Built Environment
• Unsustainable:McMansions made of toxic materials trucked or flown into 
your area. Widely dispersed suburban sprawl. Unaffordable housing for 
local workers. Big houses on small lots.
• Sustainable:Green housing and furnishings from local sources. The New 
Urbanism and infill. Smaller-square-footage houses with individual or 
communal arable or natural land around or near them. Co-housing 
arrangements and eco-villages.
• Emerging Jobs: local politician working on affordable housing, green 
building contractor, lawyer working on changing city codes to mandate 
green building practices, builder focused on repurposing and restoration 
of existing structures, straw-bale expert, editor of “Natural Home” 
magazine, co-housing facilitator, eco-hotel owner, small house 
architect, fossil-free landscape designer, “green” interior designer, 
local mill owner, wood furniture artisan.

c. Clothing, Textiles
• Unsustainable:fabric made from petrochemicals or toxically grown 
natural fibers sewn into clothing, bedding or upholstery in Third World 
countries under slave labor conditions, flown and trucked into big box 
stores in your town by international megacorporations.
• Sustainable:local, non-toxic fabric, clothing and textiles sewn under 
“fair trade” conditions. Jobs for local people.
• Emerging Jobs: Local clothing manufacturer, seamstress or tailor, 
artisan weaver, clothing designer, curtain co-op executive, 
reupholsterer, hemp or bamboo fiber grower.

3) FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

Commerce and trade
• Unsustainable:a financial system built on debt and arcane, unregulated 
financial shenanigans, rewarding the wealthy and ruining the middle and 
working classes. An economy that ignores the fact that “the economy is a 
wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment” (Gaylord Nelson). Chain 
stores using increasingly expensive and scarce fossil fuels to import 
goods from around the globe. Corporations not accountable to local 
requirements. Dependence on distant sources of essential goods. A 
“throw-away” mentality. Big box stores driving locally-owned shops and 
firms out of business. Malls on the outskirts of town.
• Sustainable:redesigning the economic system for fairness and long-term 
sustainability. More locally owned and operated businesses providing 
needed goods and services. And “fair trading” for a small number of 
goods that can’t be produced more cheaply at home. Jobs for local 
people. A “reduce, reuse, recycle” mentality. Revitalized downtowns. A 
shift in accounting towards True Cost accounting, which factors in the 
real, long-term costs of destructive practices into the price of the 
item. A “national happiness index” rather than the current GDP. New laws 
that require corporations to meet “triple bottom line” standards (their 
products or services are good for Profits (to shareholders), People 
(their workers and customers) and Planet) in order to be chartered to 
operate.
• Emerging Jobs: ecological economist advocating inclusion of 
environmental costs in realistic pricing, business owner able to meet 
“triple bottom line” standards, True Value and True Cost accountant, 
local entrepreneur, local currency expert, executive director of an 
organization representing local businesses with a “buy local” campaign, 
“fair trade” importer, executive of permaculture credit union, local 
banker, recycling expert, new urbanism architect/planner, neighborhood 
exchange organizer.

4) TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

a. Travel and transport
• Unsustainable:fossil fueled cars, SUVs, trucks, planes
• Sustainable:Energy-efficient alternative transport. Commuter and 
freight trains, bikes, electric vehicles, innovative sailing ships, 
blimps, biofueled buses and planes, etc. plus old fashioned walking and 
horse travel.
• Emerging Jobs: Innovative railway executive, municipal biodiesel plant 
engineer, bus driver, bike lane designer, alternative vehicle inventor, 
horse-drawn vehicle manufacturer.

b. Science/technology
• Unsustainable:Look to “high-tech” solutions first, whatever their 
eventual environmental, financial and social costs. Develop and use 
technologies before they are proven to be safe. E.g. GMOs, nuclear, 
chemical, even wireless and cellular in some cases.
• Sustainable:Adopting the Precautionary Principle for all new 
technology: it must be proven “innocent” before use in your area. 
Searching out the least expensive, low-tech solutions before adopting 
high-tech technologies. Using “biomimicry” to imitate natural systems 
and create safe technical solutions.
• Emerging Jobs: Science consultant for communities considering new 
technologies, biomimicry expert, mycologist (example: Paul Stamets), 
teleconferencing guru, computer repairperson, “old technology” expert 
who can keep things running in difficult situations.

c. Energy
• Unsustainable:Fossil fuels, including natural gas
• Sustainable:a sustainable mix of alternative energy sources: wind, 
solar, certain biofuels, wave action, geothermal, etc.
• Emerging Jobs: owner of local biodiesel plant to grow fuel for 
municipal emergency vehicles on waste land, jatropha forester, wind 
power technician, owner of roofing company that paints solar cells onto 
existing roofs, solar installation expert.

d. Waste Management (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)
• Unsustainable:not recycling or just shipping our waste to the landfill 
or to other countries for dumping or recycling
• Sustainable:Creating less waste in the first place. And for inevitable 
waste, two waste streams: organic and manufactured (see the book Cradle 
to Cradle by William McDonough for details).
• Emerging Jobs: Repair and reuse shops. Waste management engineer. 
Compost toilet expert.

5) COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE

a. Law, Politics
• Unsustainable:An adversarial legal system which focuses on punishment 
in cruel prison conditions (unprotected from rape) rather than 
rehabilitation (if possible) and truth and restoration by perpetrators 
to their victims. Putting addicts in jail rather than into treatment 
programs. A society where elections are corrupted by corporate 
contributions. A legal system wherein corporations are treated as “legal 
persons” with minimal obligations to the common good. Outdated laws 
against green building and greywater systems. Disproportionate 
advantages to the wealthy in the political process, health care etc. One 
law for the rich, another for the poor. A loss of democracy.
• Sustainable:Restorative and Rehabilitative Law. Communities adopting 
the United Nations-inspired Earth Charter as a set of guiding ethical 
principles for global and community life. International human rights 
laws which apply even to heads of state. Truth and reconciliation 
commissions to enforce accountability.
• Emerging Jobs: Local, state or national politician or leader who 
understands the transition towards sustainability. Publicly funded 
elections expert. Ethicist (who helps people and communities determine 
the most ethical decisions). Mediator. Town Hall facilitator. 
Environmental lawyer. International legal expert, war crimes prosecutor, 
Sharing Lawyer.

b. Security – military, police, fire, disaster preparedness
• Unsustainable:global economic and military domination of other 
countries to obtain scarce resources from distant lands. Overflowing 
prisons with disproportionate minority populations. Huge gaps between 
rich and poor. Increasing climate disruption, resource shortages and 
disputes over resources leading to wars, chaos and the rise of warlords 
and gangs in some areas. Military build-ups at home and abroad. Putting 
the majority of tax money into weaponry and wars.
• Sustainable:Maintaining peace and order through positive external 
alliances for mutual benefit. Force as a last resort, not first choice. 
Finding and creating local sources of basic, needed resources before 
they run out. Fair taxation of rich as well as poor. Good local 
preparedness for possible emergencies due to fire, drought, earthquakes, 
climate change, food and fuel shortages. Community-based policing. 
Defense and disaster oriented military.
• Emerging Jobs: emergency medical technician, disaster preparedness 
instructor, Red Cross executive, food bank manager, fire fighter, 
community policing expert, military negotiation expert, member of 
defensive and protective services.

6) SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS: FAMIILY, HEALTH AND DEPENDENT CARE

a. Family/community
• Unsustainable:isolated nuclear families and singles disconnected from 
extended family and community at large. Poor community connections of 
all kinds. Life so complex and time-stressed there is little time for 
loved ones and community. Separation between various ethnic and 
religious groups. Overpopulation. Poor child care.
• Sustainable:building and maintaining strong economic and social 
connections in every community. Tolerance and diversity. Child-rearing 
with the support of extended family and community, not isolated nuclear 
families or single parents.
• Emerging Jobs: Professional Town Hall facilitator. Time stress expert. 
Community ecotherapist. Co-housing facilitator. Voluntary Simplicity 
educator. Consumerism and addiction recovery psychologist. Caregiver 
support services coordinator. Anti-racism group facilitator. Planned 
parenthood educator.

b. Health care
• Unsustainable:high-tech medicine but no universal health care to cover 
its costs. Dependence on ever-more-expensive petroleum-based energy, 
equipment and medicines. Inadequate medical education that focuses 
exclusively on Western allopathic remedies like pharmaceuticals and 
surgery while ignoring wellness promotion, prevention, nutrition and the 
wisdom of other global medical traditions.
• Sustainable:integrative and wellness medicine using the best of 
traditional and modern practices, provided to all in the community who 
need it. Emphasis on preventive care and health maintenance not just 
“repair.” The end of “extraordinary measures” forced on terminally ill 
and elderly patients who do not want them.
• Emerging Jobs: integrative physician, global medicine expert, 
herbalist, indigenous shaman, national health care executive, nurse 
practitioner, assistant physician, politician advocating for health care 
issues, energy worker, acupuncturist, deep tissue massage therapist, 
alternative nutritionist, hospice worker, end of life physician, 
visiting nurses and health care practitioners.

c. Dependent care - children, the elderly, the disabled, companion animals
• Unsustainable:segregating the community artificially.
• Sustainable:integrating children, the aged, the ill and the animals 
back into daily community life.
• Emerging Jobs: social worker who facilitates cooperative living 
arrangements, pet care worker, organizer of child care center run by 
elders, innovative care-integration specialist, community facility 
manager, recreation organizer, horticultural therapist, animal-assisted 
therapist, school garden educator, senior-care innovator.

7) EDUCATION

a. Education at all levels, including about local history and practical 
survival skills
• Unsustainable:Factory-model “industrial” schools where learners in 
lock-step formation must meet arbitrary national standards. One teacher 
for 40 children or one professor for 500 students. Focus on college 
prep, abstract thought and high tech over practical skills.
• Sustainable:Customized learning environments where the best gifts in 
each individual are nurtured for the benefit of the whole community. Low 
teacher to pupil ratio. Revisioning and reappreciating “vocational” and 
skills-based education.
• Emerging Jobs: home schooling coordinator, inspiring teacher, 
vocational/practical skills instructor, sustainability professor at 
local college, financial literacy educator, expert on decentralizing 
huge school districts, specialist in place-based education in 
smaller-sized local schools, alternative jobs career counselor, 
environmental educator who knows how to facilitate children’s connection 
with the land where they live, horticultural and animal-care educator, 
“green” shop teacher and home economics instructor.

8) ARTS, CULTURE, MEDIA & COMMUNICATION

a. Arts, entertainment, enjoyment and fun
• Unsustainable:Local citizens as passive spectators for distant sources 
of corporate-controlled news or consumer-oriented “entertainment” 
usually absorbed via TV or internet-connected media. Widespread media 
addiction, distraction and mass-indoctrination into consumerist behavior.
• Sustainable:Local participation in the arts, live entertainment and 
news gathering. Parades and events of local interest. Global and local 
news and entertainment from reliable mainstream and alternative 
(internet, alternative TV/radio) sources. Global networking without 
airplane travel, using the internet and teleconferencing. Rebuilding and 
expanding local libraries.
• Emerging Jobs: Owner of ultra-low-frequency local radio station, 
publisher of local online newspaper, community events planner, video 
cameraperson, local entertainer, internet expert, storyteller, writer, 
public speaker, politician working to outlaw advertising to children, 
creative librarian, local comedian, low-impact party and event planner.

b. Communications and Media
• Unsustainable:Corporate-controlled communications and media. 
Introduction of untested media technologies that may damage physical or 
mental health (e.g. the worry about electro-magnetic frequency damage 
from cell phones, wireless radiation etc.) Ignoring the potential for 
media or internet addiction in both children and adults.
• Sustainable:A polyculture of independent local and global media 
sources, including internet-based media. Media literacy classes. Good 
consumer information about safe levels of media use.
• Emerging Jobs: Web-based communications expert, teleconferencing 
maven, communications technologies wizard, media psychologist, EMF 
researcher.

c. Nonviolent Communication
• Unsustainable:Continued lack of education on how to get along with 
each other at all levels.
• Sustainable:Widely-understood methods of communication that don’t 
induce resistance and anger before the other person or group has been 
deeply listened to and understood.
• Emerging Jobs: Nonviolent communications trainer, community mediator, 
psychotherapist.

9) SPIRIT AND SOUL

Spirit, psyche, culture. Engaging heart, mind, soul and spirit as we 
meet our challenges.
• Unsustainable:uncontrolled consumerism and materialism. A 
hyper-individualistic attitude that doesn’t take into account the impact 
of our actions on other people and life forms. Disconnection from a 
sense of the sacred in nature and the universe. Ignoring the needs of 
our neighbors or future generations.
• Sustainable:Mutually respectful, diverse ways of connecting with our 
highest selves and universal spirit. The Earth Charter’s “Declaration of 
Interdependence.” Recovery from consumerism and materialism.
• Emerging Jobs: “Compassionate listening” facilitator, spiritual leader 
helping us to shift our values towards inclusive, life-affirming 
community, celebrant, ritualist/shaman, mythologist, community mediator, 
elder, trans-personal psychologist, ecotherapist, psychic, “creation 
care” leader in a local faith tradition.

Linda Buzzell Bio -

Psychotherapist Linda Buzzell, M.A., M.F.T. is the editor with Craig 
Chalquist of Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind (Sierra Club Books, 
2009), an anthology of writings on healing the human-nature 
relationship. The book includes essays by Joanna Macy, Andy Fisher, 
Richard Louv, Ralph Metzner, Bill McKibben, Richard Heinberg and a 
Foreword by David Orr. Linda is the founder of the International 
Association for Ecotherapy and Executive Editor of its publication 
Ecotherapy News (http://www.ecotherapyheals.com). She is also an 
official blogger about ecotherapy and green career issues at The 
Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-buzzell)

Linda teaches a course on "Career Opportunities in the Emerging 
Sustainable Society" at Santa Barbara City College and for the Santa 
Barbara Career Symposium. She is also Adjunct Faculty at Pacifica 
Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, where she supervises student 
community and ecological fieldwork in the Depth Psychology Ph.D. program 
that specializes in Community Psychology, Liberation Psychology and 
Ecopsychology. She is on the board of Opus Archives and Research Center, 
which holds the papers of Joseph Campbell, James Hillman, Marion Woodman 
and other depth psychology scholars.

She and her husband Larry Saltzman completed the Permaculture Design 
Course in 2006. They are active in the Permaculture Guild of Santa 
Barbara, the Santa Barbara chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers 
and a "Heart & Soul of Transition" group. They tend a backyard food 
forest at their home and at two local nonprofit organizations that grow 
food for the needy. In her private practice in Santa Barbara, Linda 
specializes in helping clients with career direction and the transition 
to a more sustainable, nature-connected life.

* * * * * * *

Connect –

Linda Buzzell
Santa Barbara, CA
Lbuzzell at aol.com
http://www.ecotherapyheals.com
(805) 563-2089