The future of the Planet: a lesson in indolence, impotence and action
It has gone largely unnoticed that a major conference on climate change has been taking place in China, and that it has ended in acrimony between the Chinese and American representatives and with little progress being made. The next conference in Mexico in November does not look hopeful for achieving major change either.
As we witness serious intransigence over a most significant aspect of the future for humanity and the planet, there are signs, despite this, that progress is being made. In the UK some towns are recycling human and animal waste to produce enough energy to power hundreds of homes, and schools and hospitals are making large quantities of compost from their kitchen waste to be used on local farms. This is “localism” at its best, and it is not complicated or costly to achieve.
I believe that, even while world leaders procrastinate on introducing environmental changes that might change the balance of economic power, people at a lower level will ensure it happens nonetheless. Those pundits who argue that there is no point in revolution if the whole world does not do it simultaneously are being proved wrong. Companies in the US are unilaterally reducing carbon emissions and demonstrating a commendable sense of corporate responsibility, just as many families in many countries are doing what they can, too, to honour the needs of Gaia.
The winds of environmental change are blowing. Sometimes they will be harsh, sometimes they will be gentle, and they are there to encourage and teach us. The more we are willing to listen and to participate in the planetary lesson plan, the sooner we will all reap the benefits and emerge with the prize.
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Prekate Victoria
said:
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... Dear Claire Please allow me to share a recent incident, if you find it relevant and appropriate: We were watching a science documentary with my sister and her children and continued with a discussion of how scientists estimate that the Sun will explode in about 4 billion years from now and engulf the solar system, including the earth, destroying it all. At that point, my 6 year old nephew left quietly for his room, we thought that he obviously got tired of the scientific discussion. Not so. We rushed a few seconds later to find him flat on his bed, crying uncontrollably….Oh dear, this was unexpected. I tried to console him that the Sun and the earth will not disappear completely, just change form, become something else, that we humans may have moved to other planets until then, that it is not the end, that we, humans, may just as well have come from other planets in the first place...(at which stage my sister gave me those ‘stop, this is getting spooky’ dagger looks!). It was a startling incident and made me think much. About this age of 6-7 when children grieve for what seems to be a fainting, disappearing memory of Spirit and eternal life and the tough conviction that all there exists is the visible, perishable matter seems to gain ground. I thought, do we adults FEEL anything, when we hear about the earth disappearing in 4 billion years? Or is it just another piece of information? Do we feel anything when we hear about the polar ice or species disappearing now? Have many of us gone into an apathy trance, where these words no longer mean very much? What would it be like if we managed to keep our adult maturity together with the innocent sensitivity and feeling capacity of a child? With much love Victoria |
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