ENVIRONMENTAL SELF-DEFENSE
PLACERVILLE, CALIFORNIA-
PHOTOGRAPH l ZDENEK MLIKA
Published july / august 2008 O R I O N Magazine Issue No. 15
The Martial Arts, Environmentalism, and Sustainable Living
What do the Martial Arts Have to Do with Living –Lighter -on Planet Earth?
By Tom Callos
I am a black belt; well, no, actually I’m more than a black belt, I am a Master Teacher of the martial arts. I took my first lesson in 1969, received my 1st degree black belt at the age of 19 in 1979, and today I teach martial arts teachers, all over the world, how to do what they do, better.
Self-defense training is a big part of the martial arts. It is my experience that just about everyone, martial artist or not, wants the ability to protect themselves and/or their loved ones from harm. This is why, today, authentic self-defense training must include lessons in subjects such as environmental self-defense, in conscious consumption, and in attitudinal defense. We, human beings in general, are much more likely to be hurt –and even killed –by things we do to the environment, by how and what we consume, and by our attitudes about things such as race, gender, and consumerism, than by any kick, punch, or throw. In today’s world the likelihood of being attacked by a masked assailant in a dark alley or on the way to the market is slim, but every day we are attacked by advertising, by the desire to consume without thinking about the consequences, and by rampant environmental degradation.
From my perspective, as an expert in self-defense, learning how to reduce one’s footprint on the planet is a thousand times more relevant to personal protection than are lessons in how to block punches and kicks. While this isn’t an opinion that is yet common in the martial arts world, the idea is starting to catch on.
Martial arts school owners, Mike and Karen Valentine of San Rafael, CA, own the first dojo in the nation (and most likely in the world) that has made an ocean-based environmental clean up project a part of their black belt test requirements. Environmental engineer turned karate teacher Tim Rosanelli asks each of his students to perform 10 acts of “environmental self-defense,” to earn their green belts in his school in Pennsylvania. My program, The Ultimate Black Belt Test, requires high ranking martial arts teachers to organize environmental clean up projects as a part of their training. This requirement has already been responsible for more than 50 clean up projects worldwide.
In the near future, millions of “karate kids” and other martial arts enthusiasts will learn, along with their various stances and grappling moves, the ABC’s of conscious consumption and the basics of living a sustainable lifestyle. To teach authentic, culturally relevant, here-and-now self-defense, we cannot leave out the very subjects that have the potential to do us the most harm.
For a small but growing number of martial art teachers environmental consciousness is self-defense. After 39 years of involvement in the martial arts world, I recognize, as clear as a punch on the nose, that self-defense is not a matter of fists and feet; self-defense for today’s world is global and green.
