Community Oriented Medicine

   Last week we talked about how modern medicine is coming to an abrupt end. We showed how medicine is completely dependent on fossil fuels and unlimited energy sources in order to maintain the current levels of care. This week we are going to talk about how to design a New Medical Model for providing sustainable healthcare in the coming change.

The Coming Collapse of Modern Medicine

   Modern medicine cannot continue to operate with the current standards in which it is operating. There are three major reasons for this: First, medicine is extremely energy dependent. What happens when cheap energy is no longer available? Second, basing medicine exclusively on scientific research provides a large margin of error, plus the ethics of who is funding the research. And finally, petroleum based plastics are used for a large portion of medical care. What happens when petroleum based plastics are no longer available?

What is a Ranger Scout?

ranger |ˈreɪn(d)ʒə|

noun

1 a keeper of a park, forest, or area of countryside.

2 a member of a body of armed men, in particular

• a mounted soldier.

• a commando or highly trained infantryman.

3 a person or thing that wanders or ranges over a particular area or domain : rangers of the mountains.

   This is a question that gets asked quite a lot. There are many characterizations of Rangers in history and the media. Here in Ireland there is confusion with the Irish Army Rangers.

   Coming from North America, I see another use of the name Ranger. The U.S. Army Rangers are another elite fighting force of infantrymen. When I went to the Ranger School in the US, I got to see first hand what the Ranger was all about. There is definitely a time and a place to have a Ranger Battalion sweeping in from the sky to seize an airfield or port.

   But these are not what I have in mind when I teach the Ranger Scout classes.

   In literature there are references to Rangers in the world of Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings, and other fantasy novels. Yes, I do believe that there is a lot to learn about Rangering from this source.

End of the Teaching Season

It is with great relief that we end the season of bushcraft and wilderness medicine courses. For the next couple of months, Anna and I will be recuperating and enjoying some quiet down time.