We need a sense of history
We can change
For all our talk and action about going green, for the most part we're still on the fossil fuel path to extinction, basically the same path the dinosaurs took. But that doesn't mean the situation's hopeless. Wonderful new inventions are coming online and can be used to help us get to the new age of power generation via respect for Nature and new understanding of our role in Creation. Yes, it's not going to be the same in a lot ways, but we'll actually feel even more at home with the changes to come because we've already strayed far from the home we come from. What am I talking about? No less than the ideal Earth we each secretly desire. No, we don't know its details, but it does exist in the future IF we are willing to work for it. A world without all those things that plague us now - war, competition, fear, pain, confusion, disease, trouble. A better life awaits close by, only needing all to agree to love.
I know that sounds whacky. I've been called daft before, but I've been right before. Do you know there have been people worried about the ozone layer since the Sixties? They were ridiculed for being, "out in the ozone," as if there was no such thing as the ozone layer and anybody who talked about it had a string loose in the cabeza if you know what I mean. But it turned out there really was an ozone layer, and it's really important for life on Earth, and we humans are still doing things that damage it.
I think life has meaning and we can learn. Things are always slowly getting better, though it sure doesn't show sometimes. Sometimes the improvement is just "spiritual" - an attitude adjustment that doesn't immediately show up in behavior. That's where I think we are today. We're developing a whole new ethic towards the Earth, each other, and all life. As the ecosystem collapses, we see we need life forms we either didn't even know existed or thought of as problems.
Actually, I'm trying to convince that we NEED to change, not just that we can. Some of the best scientists are struggling with what I guess you could call a controlled state of panic. Trained to look at not only the effects but also the causes of things, they increasingly concur that the planet is going in a direction of loss of what we define as life, both human and all the other species. The patterns and relationships between living things are in flux. No matter where you look you can see historic change. If you're young or have failing memory you won't notice, but life just isn't the same any more. Now I'm not trying to wallow in regrets and nostalgia for the past. I just want to point out a few things some of us have either forgotten or are too young to remember because we weren't alive when these things were.
It used to be that winter came slowly in this part of the world, and gradually. Living in West Virginia about thirty years ago, I remember an older man telling me the snow would just gradually start building up and stay throughout the winter and then gradually melt in the spring. I remember viewing a lecture on C-Span twenty some years ago a fellow in frustration trying to explain to his audience that global warming didn't just involve a seemingly minute average temperature increase on the surface of the Earth, but also involved more rapid temperature changes. "If you have your head in the oven and your feet in the freezer, your mean [average] temp doesn't mean a damn thing", he said. We are not living in the same world any more.
Author/activist Bill McKibben has coined a new word - Eaarth - to bring us to understand that things will never be the same. He purposely misspells the word Earth to emphasize things are not the same. His book is called Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. His website is http://billmckibben.com. I don't recommend reading him unless you have, as I do, a really positive attitude. I believe in miracles, both scientific and spiritual, and think we can pull this one (the fix all life is currently in) out of a hat so to speak. But I agree with him that it doesn't look good, at all. To the extent we are able to unite in transitioning to new technology which regenerates the ecosystem and rebalances Nature - and using our amazing and mushrooming capacity for communication - we will be able to salvage the good and preserve it for a new age and even better Earth. But it's going to take going outside of ourselves, with the inevitable risk and vulnerability of falling in love with all life rather than just our own.
We'll either open our doors to strangers or the changes will blow them open - our choice. The doors will open regardless.
The first step to learning is to be unafraid to admit you don't know something. The problems we're facing today force us to go back to the drawing board and figure out where we went wrong. If you're afraid of all bugs, for instance, maybe you need to check yourself. What drove you to designate this wonderful category of life as evil? Stop killing the bugs. Their part in Nature is just as important as yours. Stop buying into the fear hypotheses that have us going to war with others and even ourselves in vain attempt to destroy evil that isn't really there. Yes, terrible suffering has existed - caused by our acting in fear. We play a role in the creation of our enemies by our expecting them to BE enemies and acting on those expectations. Peace is only possible through love, and I love the BUGS SO LEAVE THEM THE HELL ALONE!
For all our talk and action about going green, for the most part we're still on the fossil fuel path to extinction, basically the same path the dinosaurs took. But that doesn't mean the situation's hopeless. Wonderful new inventions are coming online and can be used to help us get to the new age of power generation via respect for Nature and new understanding of our role in Creation. Yes, it's not going to be the same in a lot ways, but we'll actually feel even more at home with the changes to come because we've already strayed far from the home we come from. What am I talking about? No less than the ideal Earth we each secretly desire. No, we don't know its details, but it does exist in the future IF we are willing to work for it. A world without all those things that plague us now - war, competition, fear, pain, confusion, disease, trouble. A better life awaits close by, only needing all to agree to love.
I know that sounds whacky. I've been called daft before, but I've been right before. Do you know there have been people worried about the ozone layer since the Sixties? They were ridiculed for being, "out in the ozone," as if there was no such thing as the ozone layer and anybody who talked about it had a string loose in the cabeza if you know what I mean. But it turned out there really was an ozone layer, and it's really important for life on Earth, and we humans are still doing things that damage it.
I think life has meaning and we can learn. Things are always slowly getting better, though it sure doesn't show sometimes. Sometimes the improvement is just "spiritual" - an attitude adjustment that doesn't immediately show up in behavior. That's where I think we are today. We're developing a whole new ethic towards the Earth, each other, and all life. As the ecosystem collapses, we see we need life forms we either didn't even know existed or thought of as problems.
Actually, I'm trying to convince that we NEED to change, not just that we can. Some of the best scientists are struggling with what I guess you could call a controlled state of panic. Trained to look at not only the effects but also the causes of things, they increasingly concur that the planet is going in a direction of loss of what we define as life, both human and all the other species. The patterns and relationships between living things are in flux. No matter where you look you can see historic change. If you're young or have failing memory you won't notice, but life just isn't the same any more. Now I'm not trying to wallow in regrets and nostalgia for the past. I just want to point out a few things some of us have either forgotten or are too young to remember because we weren't alive when these things were.
It used to be that winter came slowly in this part of the world, and gradually. Living in West Virginia about thirty years ago, I remember an older man telling me the snow would just gradually start building up and stay throughout the winter and then gradually melt in the spring. I remember viewing a lecture on C-Span twenty some years ago a fellow in frustration trying to explain to his audience that global warming didn't just involve a seemingly minute average temperature increase on the surface of the Earth, but also involved more rapid temperature changes. "If you have your head in the oven and your feet in the freezer, your mean [average] temp doesn't mean a damn thing", he said. We are not living in the same world any more.
Author/activist Bill McKibben has coined a new word - Eaarth - to bring us to understand that things will never be the same. He purposely misspells the word Earth to emphasize things are not the same. His book is called Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. His website is http://billmckibben.com. I don't recommend reading him unless you have, as I do, a really positive attitude. I believe in miracles, both scientific and spiritual, and think we can pull this one (the fix all life is currently in) out of a hat so to speak. But I agree with him that it doesn't look good, at all. To the extent we are able to unite in transitioning to new technology which regenerates the ecosystem and rebalances Nature - and using our amazing and mushrooming capacity for communication - we will be able to salvage the good and preserve it for a new age and even better Earth. But it's going to take going outside of ourselves, with the inevitable risk and vulnerability of falling in love with all life rather than just our own.
We'll either open our doors to strangers or the changes will blow them open - our choice. The doors will open regardless.
The first step to learning is to be unafraid to admit you don't know something. The problems we're facing today force us to go back to the drawing board and figure out where we went wrong. If you're afraid of all bugs, for instance, maybe you need to check yourself. What drove you to designate this wonderful category of life as evil? Stop killing the bugs. Their part in Nature is just as important as yours. Stop buying into the fear hypotheses that have us going to war with others and even ourselves in vain attempt to destroy evil that isn't really there. Yes, terrible suffering has existed - caused by our acting in fear. We play a role in the creation of our enemies by our expecting them to BE enemies and acting on those expectations. Peace is only possible through love, and I love the BUGS SO LEAVE THEM THE HELL ALONE!
posted by St. Jim the Composter at 6:50 AM
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