PeaceVoice
Climate change
and consciousness shift
Robert C. Koehler
(10/1) Climate
change: It feels like the approaching End Times.
But it’s the secular version
thereof, which means that humanity is responsible for both
its cause and — if possible — its transcendence. All we
need to do is change everything about the way the
high-tech, global society functions in the next dozen
years, in the process countermanding a political structure
completely committed to (and profiting from) the status
quo that’s creating the problem in the first place.
And modestly complicating the
scenario is the fact that there’s no universal agreement
on the changes that are necessary to maintain Planet Earth
in a livable state, for humans and most other life forms.
Are the necessary changes technical? Are they political?
Are they corporate? Are the billionaires the ones
responsible or are ordinary people, as they heat their
houses, drive to work and stare into their cellphones,
also participants in the looming crisis?
There is a climate change movement
growing, led by the upcoming generation — the ones whose
future may be stolen. Do I have a right to feel hope in
this movement, or is hope of any sort merely a cruel
illusion and the punchline of dystopian humor?
I fear these questions are the
unspoken preamble contextualizing every attempt to address
climate change. Certainly they are for me, in all my
helpless ordinariness and non-expertise. The life I lead
is woven into the problem, even if I also shake my fist at
it and demand real change. But all this said, I still feel
the need to set my life aside for the moment and look at
the melting polar ice, the rising temperatures across the
planet, the horrific fires and ongoing deforestation, the
increasing intensity of tropical storms, the displacement
of the planet’s poorest people, the insanity of ongoing
wars and the cowardly refusal of most political leaders to
address or even acknowledge any of this.
Is there some way to embrace a
hope for change — for survival — that doesn’t dismiss (or
worse, simplify) the difficulty we face? How can I be a
participant in both the matter at hand and its
transcendence? This may be a place to start:
"Our world is in crisis. Life
itself is under threat. Yet every crisis contains the
possibility of transformation."
This is part of the vision of the
Extinction Rebellion, which is calling for an
international rebellion against climate change on Oct. 7.
I repeat these words: "the possibility of transformation .
. ." This is bigger than protest. This is bigger than wind
farms and solar panels. This involves every last one of
us, and not simply as donors making financial
contributions to the cause. Transformation means a
collective shift in consciousness, or what I call
participatory evolution.
The vision continues:
"We hear history calling to us
from the future. We catch glimpses of a new world of love,
respect and regeneration, where we have restored the
intricate web of all life. It’s a future that’s inside us
all — located in the fierce love we carry for our
children, in our urge to help a stranger in distress, in
our wish to forgive, even when that seems too much to ask.
"And so we rebel for this, calling
in joy, creativity and beauty. We rise in the name of
truth and withdraw our consent for ecocide, oppression and
patriarchy. We rise up for a world where power is shared
for regeneration, repair, respect and reconciliation. We
rise for love in its ultimate wisdom. Our vision stretches
beyond our own lifespan, to a horizon dedicated to future
generations and the restoration of our planet’s integrity.
". . . It is a rebellion against
the heartless, loveless and lifeless delusion of seeing
Earth as dead matter. . . ."
These are words that make me want
to kneel. They also make me want to dance, cry — and
stumble, as best I can, for a way to find holistic
participation in this possibility of transformation. How
does consciousness shift occur? I think it occurs
millions, or perhaps billions, of places at once: in
large, media-saturated movements all over the planet and
in quiet, personal epiphanies.
The planet is alive. Hope begins
here.
Some years ago, I quoted these
words of awareness of the Arhuaco people of northern
Columbia: "When you go to dig your fields, or make a pot
from clay, you are disturbing the balance of things. When
you walk, you are moving the air, breathing it in and out.
Therefore you must make payments."
As you walk, you disturb the
balance of things, so walk softly — live your life softly
— with awareness and gratitude. What if this is what we
were taught as we grew up? Perhaps as humanity grows up,
this is what it must teach itself.
I think maybe this is what Don
Fitz was getting at when he challenged "the myth of clean
energy" as the path beyond climate change, making the
point that it is by no means carbon neutral. All
alternative energy sources, he writes, "require machinery
that is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Steel, cement
and plastics are central to "renewable" energy and have
heavy carbon footprints. One small example: The mass of an
industrial wind turbine is 90% steel."
He concludes: "There can be good
lives for all people if we abandon the goal of infinite
energy growth. Our guiding principle needs to be that the
only form of truly clean energy is less energy."
Another way of saying this is
there are things that matter more than infinite growth and
control over the planet. One of these is awareness —not
merely of the complexity of nature and the complexity of
being human, but of our connection to the planet and to
one another. Perhaps it takes a climate crisis to get us
to understand that our home is the whole planet and we’re
all in this as one.
This is the possibility of
transformation. We’ll either live together or we’ll die
together.
Robert Koehler, syndicated by PeaceVoice,
is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor.
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