The foundation for the United States was laid in revolt against a king and an empire that saw this land as a resource to be exploited, nothing more. The first colony, Jamestown was established May 14, 1607. This was a corporate venture with the London Company granted territory from Cape Fear to Long Island Sound in the interest of its shareholders, who sought to increase their wealth. By exploiting the seemingly endless natural resources of the New World, colonizing North America to enrich the British Empire was the plan.
Jamestown settlers arrived in three boats, Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed. They carried just 214 people. Note: there seems to be confusion about the exact number. Here, it’s indicated there were 144 arrivals with just 104 remaining when Captain Christopher Newport returned to England. Britannica indicates only 105 embarked on the voyage at all which is almost certainly wrong.
I call these ships “boats” because of their size. The largest was Godspeed with a hull just 68-feet long. Discovery was the smallest, a “fly-boat,” and measured just 38-feet. The voyage took four months.
Having seen the Mayflower replica in Plymouth Massachusetts at 110-feet long, I can’t describe the sensation of the chilling vulnerability of these vessels adequately. The motivation of colonists to take such risks must be discussed.
Becoming wealthy (or wealthier) was the primary motivation. Some were shareholders in the London Company. Many of the voyagers lists (here and here) were “gentlemen,” the lowest rank of landed gentry of England. Willingness to take such risks speaks to the depths of their desire to become rich and advance in social rank. There was also motivation to find sea passage through the New World to Asia and the Indies, and establish new colonies demonstrating English power.
Another motivation was to flee religious persecution. The Church of England dictated religion, and dissenters faced persecution. However, the Virginia Company’s charter required settlers to follow Church of England practices and spread Christianity to Indigenous people, ironically inflicting the persecution some were fleeing.
The company’s instructions stipulated that “the true word and service of God and Christian faith be preached, planted and used according to the doctrine, rights, and religion now professed and established within our realm of England.”
We know what happened to “heathens” if they resisted, but that’s not today’s subject.
An aside, if you’re curious to find out if you have any connections to the Jamestown colonists, the Jamestowne Society is the place to find out.
Since its independence, America has prided itself on the these words from the Declaration of Independence, full text here:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Little doubt, these words were well-intended, but they fall short in these times. As we watch our physical security deteriorate and fatalities rise world over with climate change-driven heat, fire and ocean rise, where are the words about responsibility? Who defines happiness? Can there be happiness without meaning? And what is meaningful? What can we agree on universally, not just as a nation among many?
I wish to argue the universal value that has the best chance of uniting us is the health of our planet. In that pursuit, we are in desperate need of an Earth First Constitution.
This would be a completely non-political pledge, blind to race, religion or creed that recognizes there is power far beyond our petty machinations.
An Earth First Constitution would recognize that her health and our well-being, our very survival is inextricably interlinked, and that we, the most powerful species on this blue and green miracle planet have responsibilities. Life is NOT just about liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Happiness is the result of living with purpose and purpose involves satisfying work and responsibility. We can’t experience satisfaction or joy without also sacrificing.
It’s yin and yang.
There is a malaise enveloping every nation now as the end game of capitalism plays out, a doubling down on a system birthed by greed, now dying from both resource depletion and the toxic effects of extraction and endless burning.
Humans have only been on this planet for 300,000 years, originating in Africa, while the Earth is 4.54 billion years old. Evidence of her age has been established beyond a doubt by study of fossils and techniques such as radioactive dating. So Creationists, STFU. “Civilization” if we can call it that as we continue to inflict terrible violence on each other sprang up just 12,000 years ago, defined by settled agriculture. Dinosaurs by comparison ruled for 180 million years, far surpassing our short tenure. They didn’t mess with the environment, rather dying out (for the most part, if you see a bird, you’re seeing a dinosaur) from environmental collapse beyond their control, an asteroid strike that destroyed the climate conditions which they depended on.
We Homo sapiens, the supposed pinnacle of evolution are functioning as our own meteor. Just. Fucking. Brilliant.
Civilization is overrated, just a word that has misled us to believe we are above all other creatures and the limits of the Earth. We are not. This is why we need an Earth First Constitution.
The truth is we’re just another wild animal on the planet, and the further away we remove ourselves from her, the sicker we become both physically and mentally. Almost every day, there is another mass murder by someone made unreachable by predatory, manipulative corporate culture. This culture determines our day and lives to the minute as we are trapped and reduced to commodities toiling as monitored cattle in our own self-destruction.
We have felt this misery increasing over the last 50 years as neoliberal economics put capitalism on steroids. Capitalism was always destructive and unsustainable on our tiny planet, the neoliberal version merely hastened its outcome. With the relentless corporatization of life, we lost of self-determination so essential to meaning. Every invention of technology has taken us further from living as we truly are, as wild creatures intimate with the Earth.
When we discovered fire, it wasn’t a plot. It was, “Man, I sure am digging not freezing my nuts off again.”
It is a plot now, though. Vacuum the air to remove emissions with fossil fueled infrastructure? Yeah, right.
Shell Games
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September 21, 2025
This article is not a diatribe against Shell Oil per se. My revulsion with Big Oil isn’t limited to just one company. Shell just happens to be a convenient word play on an industry-wide scam being rolled out with your tax dollars — CCS (carbon capture & storage) and
In our drive to make life safe, to protect ourselves from being eaten by wild beasts, we merely deferred the inevitable, the inescapable laws of physics. By harnessing fossil fuels we learned to create living conditions the richest king never imagined, and even delay death. These achievements came from harnessing energy — millions of years of sunlight stored as organic matter — which we have released with impunity. This massive energy release has overwhelmed the slow, wise workings of a planet whose processes are imperceptible in the whisper our of short lifespans.
We invented an illusion of safety when life is inherently dangerous, and we created a culture which makes meaning barren. It’s A Whole Earth Ponzi Scheme. Watch as the insurance market implodes in the face of climate change.
Whole Earth Ponzi Scheme
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July 25, 2025
The climate emergency and industrial agricultural practices threaten us with another Dust Bowl event. Global warming currently adds seven percent more moisture to the atmosphere for every 1°C of temperature rise. That moisture content will increase as the planet heats up. I…
We need an Earth Bill of rights and I want your input. This is just a start.
In recognition that you, Mother Earth are a complex and sensitive living entity of the greatest possible beauty and irreplaceable life-sustaining nourishment provided to all creatures great and small, the source of oxygen from humble clover to towering sequoias on land, and tiny phytoplankton and vast coral reefs in the seas we and our related brethren depend on, humans belatedly recognize your power is far greater than ours and always will be.
We now understand all life which only you can provide is part of your intricately interwoven and wondrous body of which we are just a part, essential to your health and therefore our well-being. We recognize our behavior has been destructive and resolve to become nurturing to you, as you have been to us, lest we perish.
We have inexcusably failed to grant human rights to our own kind. We have failed to grant human rights to animals, land and oceans on which we depend. We have failed to grant human rights to you, dear mother. There are no human rights — we will eliminate the term — only universal rights to life will save us. All life is connected. All life is interdependent. If we lose a species, even one we fear, we increase our ultimate jeopardy by ignoring the balance you provide. We now see we are just another species here by your benevolence, completely dependent on you. The new term we will agree to, Universal Life Rights wisely won’t be extinguished.
We recognize that for something to live something must die. We will now treat that law with fundamental respect, minimize the suffering and recognize when it’s time to make room for the new.
We pledge to work tirelessly on your behalf, and now recognize that’s our purpose. We have come to understand nourishing you nourishes us. There is no other sustainable or desirable path. We must be kind to all that lives, listen to the trees, and grant you special Mother Earth Rights. Without your rights upheld there is no future and no pursuit of happiness in your gracious embrace. Even what we perceived as lifeless is alive and needs love. The rocks speak to us through the iron in our bodies.
Happiness can be achieved, but only by recognition life is not played, but earned. Life lived with recognition of mortality makes it more meaningful and vivid. Safety from the unalterable laws of the universe have been merely delayed by destroying your body. Your way of life and death, governed by unalterable physics which you obey with ancient knowledge is the truth.
We will now give way and live by your wisdom.
The corporate culture of Jamestown was brutal, destined to be genocidal, but nothing compared to what we face today. It’s fight or die time. Fuck Trump. Fuck Musk. Fuck Thiel. I’d rather die than accept their world. What are you going to do?
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