Sustainability
As climate scientists become more alarmed at the pace of climate change it might be good to take a closer look at what the goal of a “sustainable” culture might look like. Current estimates suggest that the planet can “sustain” somewhere between one and ten billion humans. As we are at about 7 billion now there is concern that we may have already passed the optimum number of people on the planet. It seems clear now that the current population exists due to energy intensive technologies and global market systems. It also requires a stable “temperate” climate and that either much warmer or much colder conditions would not sustain current population levels. Global economies depend heavily on “growth” and there are tremendous political and economic efforts to maintain high growth rates even as they inflict devastating consequences. History is littered with examples of societies that overshot their limits and collapsed (see Gerard Diamond and Thomas Homer-Dixon).
Often climate shifts foreshadowed unsustainable practices that hastened their demise. Droughts, floods or freezes made tipping points into decline. Some gracefully reorganized while others fell into chaos. The modern myth of progress has a mirror in the recurrent prophesies of doom. It has always been the “end times.” Our collective consciousness recalls the peaks and valleys of population cycles. And the four horsemen ride through each era of history. Sustainability is rare in human cultures. The future is a troubled dream that reaches into each of us. It is hard to see a month forward and even more so a decade or millennia. But we should dream our dreams and imagine what is required for the future. It should call forth our best efforts and inspire our sharpest visions. It is not utopia we seek but a world where people live in comfort, peace and wisdom. It is not too much to ask.
Bob this is a lovely and inspiring post.
thank you.
Posted by: harriet wood | Friday, January 05, 2007 at 08:23 AM
The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.
The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature.
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment.
Subject : In a fast society slow emotions become extinct.
Subject : A thinking mind cannot feel.
Subject : Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys the planet.
Subject : Environment can never be saved as long as cities exist.
Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking.
If there are no gaps there is no emotion.
Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/ language) for emotion.
When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/ industrial/ financial/ fast visuals/ fast words ) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.
There comes a time when there are almost no gaps.
People become incapable of experiencing/ tolerating gaps.
Emotion ends.
Man becomes machine.
A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A ( travelling )society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression / Anxiety.
FAST VISUALS /WORDS MAKE SLOW EMOTIONS EXTINCT.
SCIENTIFIC /INDUSTRIAL /FINANCIAL THINKING DESTROYS EMOTIONAL CIRCUITS.
A FAST (LARGE) SOCIETY CANNOT FEEL PAIN / REMORSE / EMPATHY.
A FAST (LARGE) SOCIETY WILL ALWAYS BE CRUEL TO ANIMALS/ TREES/ AIR/ WATER/ LAND AND TO ITSELF.
To read the complete article please follow either of these links :
PlanetSave
EarthNewsWire
sushil_yadav
Posted by: sushil_yadav | Monday, January 15, 2007 at 05:06 PM