What can we do?

We can accept the truth and play our part in the healing of our planet.

If you haven’t already, start by watching David Attenborough’s documentary, Climate Change, The Facts.

“Collectively the vast majority of humans on the planet are suffering from an extreme case of separation anxiety. We’re separated from our connection to each other, to life, to a purpose where we can be in service to the greater good for life, versus the guilt of feeling like we are just a pariah on the planet.”

Brock Dolman

Separation

We must heal our separation, our disconnected, partitioned existence. As a creature of planet earth we must reawaken and revive our true nature. We must reconnect with the original environment from which we evolved and to which we still belong.

Concrete and tarmac were never our natural habitat. They have become the ground upon which we walk, the structures which confine us and separate us from the natural world. We have become alienated from our true home.

Modern civilisation

Over time this estrangement has intensified to the point that few of us go outside at all.  Our so called modern civilisation has so disconnected us that, for some, the only relationship with nature is through a screen. This 21st Century, so called developed, idea for living, was based on what are now outdated religious and scientific ideas. They told us we had dominion over the earth, that by understanding the separate elements of nature we could manipulate her for our own ends.These centuries old dogmas coupled with massive post war consumerism have now created conditions which threaten all of life on earth, including ours. We are living within the 6th mass extinction on earth.

Beyond absurd

We are destroying the system we live inside and depend upon, this is beyond absurd. No wonder many of us now identify with being a “pariah on the planet”, we have sprawled across every continent extracting whatever we can. From virgin forests to the fish stocks of the oceans, from vast open cast mines to the precious metals in our phones, we strip the Earth bare. Like a plague of giant locusts we have ravaged the planet.

“We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.”

William Inge

Our actions matter

Many live as if what we do doesn’t matter, as if each separate human action makes little difference. But it does. Our individual actions matter because together they make a whole. Collectively, en masse, they add up to the consequences we are experiencing today. Like every element of planet earth we have a role to play. We are within this interconnected sphere of life which works together in a synergy of interdependence to create the whole we know as our eco-system, planet earth. 

Power and money

Ah, I hear you cry, “but it’s big business and the oligarchy which are to blame, those with the power and money. If they do not change all our individual changes are worth nothing.”

This is indeed true. Without intervention at Governmental level our household actions cannot hope to make the changes required. It is a collaborative action that we need. We must change and they must change, we all have to change

“If we’re destroying our trees and destroying our environment and hurting animals and hurting one another and all that stuff, there’s got to be a very powerful energy to fight that. I think we need more love in the world. We need more kindness, more compassion, more joy, more laughter. I definitely want to contribute to that.”

Ellen DeGeneres

Extinction Rebellion

I imagine that by now most of us are aware of the actions taking place across the globe under the Extinction Rebellion banner. I believe that this non-violent movement is the more powerful energy, fuelled by kindness, compassion, joy and laughter. They are doing the only thing I believe we had left to do, they are starting a world wide revolution. This uprising is calling in all of us who have already been acting but feeling like we are getting nowhere. Those of us who know, who accept and who get it that we require systemic change to the way human beings live on the planet. This is our chance to stand up and stand together for the sake of all of life on earth. 

The Great Turning

The Extinction Rebellion is, I believe, part of what the activist Joanna Macy calls The Great Turning. Like a magnet it is attracting in all the separate parts to create a whole movement, one with the aim of getting those with the power and with the money to tell the truth and then to let us, the people, do something about it. 

“The Great Turning is a global awakening to the dis-ease of our planet, our love of life and the revolution that can heal our world.”

Tara Brach.

Joanna Macy and the Great Turning from Chris Landry on Vimeo. You can watch the full 26 min film here.

Support the revolution.

Earlier this week I joined the Extinction Rebellion protest in Edinburgh. I was heartened and impressed to learn about how they are organising themselves and the incredible amount of support there is within the movement. This is not some tin-pot revolution that came out of nowhere. It is one that has been planned using well-researched evidence about how social movements work and more importantly how they succeed. 

Although they definitely do want some people to get arrested, change does not depend on everyone being arrested, just as it does not depend on everyone agreeing with the rebellion. There are many ways to get involved, there are roles for all of us. Check out this page to find out more

Radical Self Care

To take care of the planet, to have any hope of healing the mess we are in we all have a part to play. However this must not be at the expense of our own wellbeing. To sustain anything we must be well, and we must be well resourced. We must also balance the desire to do out there in the world, with the need to sustain our own individual human life.

Whatever action you choose to take for the sake of life on earth please make sure you do it while also taking extra good care of yourself. By doing this we practice Radical Self Care, we act knowing that what we do is for the greater good of all.

“Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.”

Mahatma Gandhi