I often get asked if I wrote this book about the current political situation. I started it three years before Trump ran for president. It only seems current because all tyrants, all authoritarians are the same throughout history. Greed, cruelty, and the need for insatiable wealth does not change. I did not write about something new. I wrote about something that's always existed and has now grown so large, so corrupt, and so evil it threatens to destroy everything. The bottom feeders who profit from nature at the expense of future generations are not new, but they sharpened their tactics.

    They learned how to use nature as a weapon against us. They learned if they portrayed nature as the enemy, as something scary that wantonly slaughtered with its storms, its floods, its savage winds, it would lose its value to those who might protect it from their greed. And they perfected blaming both gods and nature for the damage they caused to the earth.

  The perception of nature as something beyond the control of humanity, also allowed them to demonize the science of Climate Change and Global Warming. It allowed them to pollute the air, water, and food supply for profit at the expense of future generations.

    But there was also a reason within the reason to demonize nature, to demonize those who cherished its beauty and solitude. They knew those who sat alone in the quiet majesty of a forest, or along the banks of a soothing river were beyond their control. Those who understood they were not separate from nature also understood what it meant to be completely free. And more than anything they understood they didn't need religion to experience the exhilaration of spiritual growth.