A friend of mine shared Students Across Europe Excoriate World Leaders for Hiding Scientific Reality of Pending ‘Global Collapse’ along with the following urgent inquiry. Recently I’ve seen other friends post calls for change, queries for options, and cries of distress at the state of the world; ‘something in the air’. Below is their message and my reply, packaging some of my views for ‘public consumption’ in that branch my social network.
Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of peace! What will it take? Humanity is in a nose dive and loving every moment of it. Speaking truth to power is only part of the equation. We also need to be working our asses off to plan for the future of this planet.
The forces of nature, from which we grow, will not stop or change because of an idea. The thoughtful among us, who wish to see all that humanity and nature can do together, are tasked with guiding the seven odd billion of us towards a sustainable future. How can we funnel our collective forward momentum into something that actually works?
I don’t see the developed world giving up Amazon’s impeccable delivery of everything or deciding not to buy the next sleek iPhone any time soon, so how do we contain this wonderful disaster?
The wave is coming; do we ride it or get crushed by it?
I replied trying to emphasize the need to break inertia and act. I tried to do so without doomsaying or promoting long-term damaging ‘prepper’ activity (the overlap of far-left and far-right self-sufficiency movements can be a fine line to walk).
Great points. Everything you mentioned above (and much more) demonstrates that humanity (particularly those power is concentrated in now but not them alone) is woefully unwilling of responding to this current and worsening problem.
It is a crime against humanity, by humanity, for humanity. It warrants anger, but “don’t waste your hate, rather gather and create; be of service, be a sensible person; use your words and don’t be nervous; you can do this, you’ve got purpose; find your medicine and use it.”
If you try on that theory for size, what do you do? Don’t despair (too much)! ‘Be a lamp, a ladder, a lifeboat.’ And be of service for that which sincerely serves you. With that in mind, perhaps birds and bees are literally more helpful in our lives than an Exxon executive (and to the extent that Exxon is helpful in my life, I see the urgent need to change that, as Exxon is also rapidly destroying the even more foundational Sources of my and all’s wellbeing).
Where to begin? There’s no one answer. I think steps toward self-sufficiency (‘self’ not necessarily at the individual body scale) are a good start considering various signs of impending doom, and combined with reducing net emergy use, it can go a long way opening paths to better long-term futures.
It’s worth clarifying, in case not obvious, that not all of humanity is equally culpable. Many are bystanders to a tragic but normalized crime. Even those most responsible are still family members, genetically closer cousins than the log or bird. Probably better to pity than hate those ‘evil doers’.
But there’s no time for that, not yet at least, we need to find ‘higher ground’ and it is a slow journey. Don’t delay, don’t dismay, don’t hesitate to help good company, and whatever you face keep it movin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3sBWvsJpNI
For those unfamiliar with the concept of emergy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergy
And a valuable blog/site offered to us free of charge or personal information harvesting, via world class systems ecologists http://prosperouswaydown.com/