green underbelly's blog

I live in Western Montana where the debate over what energy resource the state should pursue is heating up in a place some have called 'the Saudi Arabia of coal'. Coal is a dirty fossil fuel. It's dirty to mine, it's dirty when it's transported and it's dirty to burn. It's just plain dirty.  Read More »

"Words mean nothing unless they promote action." - Patti Smith
I'm learning more and more that democracy is like the game of tag. It's infectious and intriguing. And being an activist is comparable to being a hiker in the Montana wildernesses. There's a positive correlation between the more adventurous human beings who engage in the political and environmental atmospheres AND the standard of living that results. The benefits are one to three, baby.
We better our lot in life because knowledge earned is knowledge saved. My life at 18 has been a series of peaks, mountains and river valleys in Missoula, Montana. It's winter now, but when spring roles around, I'll be training in Basic Wildland Firefighting and by summer I'll be out in the woods.

The courses provided during this training session during Spring Break are:
I-100 Introduction to the Incident Command System
S-130 Firefighter Training
S-190 Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior
L-180 Human Factors on the Fireline
I don't see this as a job, as much as work that tunes into my vision. I'll be doing my community a serious service-- it'll look swell on paper. But this adventure is also for my consciousness. I do some of my best thinking in the forest and I do not need the input of others to stay captivated by the absolute intrinsic value of greenery.

Not to mention, the work will be indeed good for my soul. And as Ayn Rand (I'm guilty of digging her, although I don't agree with all of her principles, which itself presents a problem in my mind...) puts it,

"I'm nothing to them, but my work--my work is all we have in common. I have no desire to tell them anything else."  Read More »