Enough!

[GliderGuider]

This is part of a longer note about the root causes of our predicament that I put up on Facebook.

Whenever I contemplate the spectacular mischief that we humans have wreaked on our world, I am compelled to ask how this could have possibly happened. The despoilment of our planet seems to be the exact opposite of how I would expect a thinking, feeling, caring creature to treat their home. What could have driven us to this, and what perverse qualities could have allowed us to ignore the consequences of our actions for so very long?

At first blush, our problems seem decidedly physical. Dangerous gases drift in the air; acidity rises slowly in the ocean as the fish disappear from its depths; garbage and detritus of all kinds fouls the land where lush forests and grasslands once ruled. All these disturbances point back to human actions.

The proximate causes of this planet-wide distress include economics, politics, and personal and corporate greed – all facilitated by a technological cleverness that rests on a bed of dispassionate science.

I spent almost 50 years of my life trying in vain to understand our environmental problems they manifested – as material problems. When I viewed them in those terms, the fact that such problems even existed in a rational, scientific culture seemed nonsensical. However, when I recently began to understand them as consequences of a rupture in the human spirit they finally began to make sense to me. Yes, they are compounded by political and economic forces, but in my view even politics and economics are simply consequences of the same qualities of the human psyche.

Since the dawn of consciousness, human societies have been driven by a complex web of factors with their roots embedded deep in our evolved human nature. Power relationships and hierarchies, kinship and xenophobia, selfishness and altruism, competition and cooperation, curiosity and apathy, and countless other polarities mingle together to form the infinite variety of human dynamics.

Underneath it all, though, lurks our self-awareness. Human self-awareness is the root of our sense of separation from the natural world, and from each other for that matter. It's the crowning paradox of the human condition – at once both our greatest glory and our fatal flaw. It is behind the dualism – the perceptual split into subject and object – that gave us science. It's the source of our ability to see others as "different yet the same", giving us the power to act altruistically. It's also behind the sense of self and other that has allowed us to assume dominion over all we survey, whether animal, vegetable, mineral or human. Our sense of separation is the rupture of the human spirit that has allowed our current predicament to develop.

If this is the case, then no physical, political or economic remediation will heal the wound. The solution to our predicament is not – cannot be – material, political, economic, or simply philosophical. If a "solution" exists at all, it's orthogonal to all those domains. Only by healing our belief in our separateness will we be able to finally and fully restore our balance with Nature.

When I began to view the situation like this, I was finally able to see that there are in fact solutions, where none had previously been visible. These new solutions don't attack the predicament directly as a series of material, political, economic or technological problems. Instead, they seek to effect change from the center, by encouraging people to mature into an inter-connected adulthood and assume personal responsibility for their actions.

This approach follows Gandhi's dictum, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

The world changes only when enough people have made a choice to change themselves. At what point will we each say, "Enough!" and choose a different path? Is anything keeping you from making that choice right now?

As you finish reading this article I invite you to say it quietly to yourself:

"Enough!"

If you listen closely with your heart, you may be able to hear the life that shares our planet say,

"Thank you."

[guardian]

1. "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

I guess that means you got your carbon footprint down to 1.0 gha. Congrats! The planet thanks you.

[GliderGuider]

2. If that was the change I wished to see in the world, I'd have done that.

There are lots of changes that will help. And BTW - sustainability is achieved at 1.8 gha, there's no need to go all the way to 1.0.

For those interested, the full article is now up on my web site: http://www.paulchefurka.ca/Enough.html

[guardian]

3. sustainability is achieved at 1.8 gha

True enough that The Footprint Network takes the position that the world has about 1.8 Global hectares (Gha) of biocapacity per person. However, some thinkers take opposition to that position and project that 1.8 gha is still to high to prevent utter planetary doom.

According to one source (q.v., http://www.paulchefurka.ca/Footprints_of_consumption.html), the Footprint Network figure is overly generous as the carbon footprint needs to be split between food needs and non-food needs. According to the author's calculations to support the current global population of approximately 6.7B people we actually need an average carbon footprint of 0.8 gha. This is roughly an equivalent life style to that in Liberia, Armenia, and Colombia.

Though, unless we can limit human population growth through means as proposed by revered AGW leaders such as James Jae Lee, then will will soon be passing through the 7 billion and 8 billion mark in global population. Thus, sustainability levels is quickly going to be a mere 0.6 gha to 0.8 gha.

Anyone who cares about the planet needs to get their personal carbon footprint down to a minimum of 0.8 gha. Otherwise, it is obvious that they don't actually care about the planet.

"No pressure"

[GliderGuider]

4. Sorry, you misread my article

What I actually said was that 0.8 gha was the non-food footprint. It's what is left over once you subtract the constant 0.9 gha required for food production from the sustainable per capita total of 1.8 gha (there are rounding errors and imprecisions related to population growth in there too). So the figure of 0.8 gha should be thought of as "discretionary spending" that can be used as one wishes once they have eaten. Perhaps one could use it to build an Earthship house, or to type blog posts on a computer...

Thanks for referencing that old article of mine. I had no idea you were a fan!

[guardian]

5. Thanks for setting me straight.

I did indeed misread the article. That's what I get for hurrying. Alas, so much to do working down here in the basement of the Heritage Foundation and polishing the boots of my Nazi uniform.

[GliderGuider]

6. No sweat.

Make sure you get a good shine on :-)

[guardian]

7. like black glass

Got my Kiwi parade gloss shoe polish, zippo lighter, and pantyhose ready to go.

[tinrobot]

8. I've come to that same conclusion as well. n/t