Lynda Schneekloth - Feeling that life is so much bigger than we originally imagined it to be from Erie Niagara, Buffalo, New York

Awakening Lands

In this episode, we speak with Lynda Schneekloth, one of the founding members of Friends of the Buffalo River (now Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper), founder of the Western New York Environmental Alliance, and Professor Emerita at the University at Buffalo. She came to Buffalo to teach landscape architecture at UB in the 80s, and fell in love with the city. Lynda is a placemaker, providing valuable insight into the history and culture of Buffalo, what makes this place so special, and how the land has shaped the culture of this post-industrial city. She has been weaving environmental and social activism in this region for decades and has a particular interest in supporting pathways for younger generations to get involved. Like so many of the regenerative leaders we interview, she also sees the importance of fostering the spiritual side of this work, and, in addition to being part of the Interfaith Climate Justice Community, has been holding a space monthly for others in the community to come together to support each other in active hope.

Here are some words from Lynda herself:

Buffalo Niagara Bioregion is blessed with many organizations and individuals working to protect and restore the natural and cultural heritage of this unique place on the Great Lakes. These groups most often work within the practice outlined in the seminal book, Active Hope (2022) - Stop Bad Things; Do Good Things; and Shift Culture. The groups below are just a few that have significantly impacted our community through their efforts in environmental and social justice.

Western New York Environmental Alliance www.wnyea.org
Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper www.bnwaterkeeper.org
Sierra Club Niagara Group www.niagarasierraclub.org
Native Plant Collaborative www.wnynativeplants.org
Pollinator Conservation Association www.polinatorconservationassociation.org
PUSH Buffalo www.pushbuffalo.org
Our Outer Harbor Coalition www.ourouterharbor.org
Clean Air Coalition of WNY www.cacwny.org
Interfaith Climate Justice Community (if interested, contact me at [e-mail])

These and many more are active in the public and environmental life of our region through their projects and campaigns. And, in many diverse ways, they are also seeking to ‘shift culture’ through these actions. We know that without a radical cultural shift that the work that we do will not be effective in stopping climate change and species extinction. That is, frankly, a terrifying thought, but not as terrifying as the harm we do to the earth and each other in the name of our culture now. We seek a new understanding of life and our species and individual position in; we seek an end to the myth of separation and human superiority.

Every child knows that the earth is alive. Every child knows that they are a part of everything. Even children born into western, industrial cultures know this for the first years of their lives. You have to be carefully taught that this is not true. At least, not true if you want to be accepted and successful in this modern world. It doesn’t take long for the awe and mystery of a living earth to be overshadowed by the
belief that most things on the earth are ‘not-alive’, that we are ‘separate’ and the most important because we are conscious, intelligent. . . you can list the reasons.

Believing our uniqueness carries privilege, we act as if we have the right to use whatever ‘resource’ we need. This belief of separation is literally killing us and the earth through our exploitation and extraction of other life and other places. “The trouble with the eagerness to make a world is that, because the world is already made, what is there must first be destroyed” (Shepard 1995*). And we have and
continue the destruction. We may believe we are so smart, but science now tells us that intelligence does not belong to humans, but is distributed and exists in all life, from the cells to plants to all animals. We have been living in a bubble of ‘fake news’ beliefs and like all fake news, there are serious consequences.

Our crisis is not really about climate, or extinction, or governance. Our crisis is deeply cultural. We have to unlearn, or relearn what we knew, that we live in a mystery, that life is divine and our consciousness is a miracle. We experience ourselves as separate because we are moving aware beings, but we are totally dependent on the rest of the planet and solar system and universe for the blessing of our individual lives. Each life is unique, and each is just a small fragment in the spiral of evolution.

How do we ‘see through’ this story of separation to understand the interdependence of all beings, of all elements, of the gifts of the earth and the sun? If we understood interdependence as a culture, we would not be in the process, as a species, of committing terracide and leaving such a mess for our children. In theological language, we have sinned against the earth and future generations. There is great need for forgiveness and redemption.

We have responsibilities to act in the world, to work with others to stabilize the climate, to halt species extinction, and to ensure that justice and democracy continue. But this will only happen if we shift our culture from the story of separation to the story of interdependence. What voices can help us see through the density of culture? What imaginal tools do we have to help - tools like the concept and existence of bioregionalism and non-violence and yes, love.

Below I share a few voices that have helped me see dimly through the density of culture to guide me and so many others in the enormous task before us. These writings are from my lifetime and span over 40 years, and are in no way comprehensive. But they do reveal that there have been teachers in our culture who have tried to alert us for a long time of the danger of living in the myth of separation and offer us paths to see ourselves differently.

James Bridle (2022), Ways of Being, Animal, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence
Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected
Resilience and Creative Power (2012, 2022)
Charles Eisenstein (2013), The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible.
Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013), Braiding Sweet Grass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the
Teachings of Plants
David Abram (2010), Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology.
T. Roszak, M. Gomes and A. Kanner, editors (1995). Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the
Mind. See esp. James Hillman, “A Psyche the Size of the Earth: A Psychological Forward” and founder of
archetypal psychology; and Shepard,* “Nature and Madness”
Paul Shepard (1998), Coming Home to the Pleistocene
Robert Pogue Harrison (1992). Forests: The Shadow of Civilization.
Brian Swimme (1984), The Universe is a Green Dragon.
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