Climate change or climate disaster?
Thursday 19th March, 2009
“The world has very little time”
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chief Rajendra Pachauri at last weeks climate conference in Copenhagen after new findings were presented. (1)
The notion of global climate change has taken on a new meaning for many people in the state of Victoria after our recent extreme temperatures (day and night) and devastating wildfires where losses far outweigh other catastrophic fires in our history, Ash Wednesday and Black Friday.
I have yet to talk to someone in Victoria who was not touched by these fires last month.
The recent climate meeting in Copenhagen has revealed that key people involved in decision making regarding climate have not been armed with the full picture. They have not taken into account critical facts such as the impact of the melting of the Greenland Glacier, the rapid heating of the poles and the subsequent release of massive amounts of carbon into our atmosphere.
This year during traditional ceremonies on the west coast of Greenland near the ice cap, the elders will hold council on how to bring the message to the world about the spiritual implications of the melting of the big ice. ( Angaangaq, Eskimo-Kalaallit Elder, Icewisdom )
We are facing critical environmental impacts that will change our world far more profoundly than the politicians have thus far let on. Impacts that we have constantly been warned about by environmental scientists and activists such as Vandana Shiva.
The public has constantly been fed misinformation that has lulled many into a false, and very strange sense of security. How many people have been content to continue on as normal with the thought that climate change in all its implications could be 10 or 20 years away. Advocators for the environment have been crying out that this change is much closer.
In Monbiot’s report on the recent IPCC meeting in Copenhagen, he points out that only now are leaders beginning to acknowledge some very grim facts as everything is undeniably accelerating.
Leaders have underplayed the impacts of global warming in three important respects:
The panel took NO account of the impact of meltwater from Greenland glaciers, so the rise in sea levels this century could be 3 times more than forecast.
Two degrees of warming in the Arctic ( which is heating up much more rapidly than the rest of the planet ) could trigger a massive bacterial response in the soils producing billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and methane which could catalyse one of the worlds most powerful positive feedback loops ( warming causing more warming ).
Four degrees of warming could almost eliminate the Amazon rainforest with appalling implications for biodiversity and regional weather patterns, and with the result that a massive new pulse of carbon will be released into the atmosphere.
The understating of the environmental situation was underlined for me last year when I attended a lecture by activist and physicist Vandana Shiva where she explained how we are being fooled into thinking that we have more time with the greenhouse effects as the information is being manipulated. “We have been told the damage of a 2 degree rise in global temperature but,” she said, “we are gearing toward 6 degrees because nothing is being done and so we are advancing more rapidly.” Vandana Shiva.
We are in crisis. It’s not coming. It is here. Even with the relief that many felt at the release of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth it was obvious that he was being very conservative. Understandably, as it was so important to get the information out to the public that he couldn’t risk being too forthright or he and the information would have been buried. A sad but true indication of the toxicity of our modern world.
When I read Scott London’s blog posted 15th March and realised that at last leaders were prepared to say we are in crisis - not change, but crisis, and that time is running out, I began to feel a new optimism as the truth is becoming manifest in the world. The sooner we can accept what is happening the sooner we will find solutions.
More and more people I work with and interact with are experiencing different symptoms as a result of the stress caused by what is happening in our world. Feeling scared, overwhelming grief, depressed, powerless, low energy levels, exhaustion, run down immune systems. As more and more respected environmentalists, scientists and writers are shouting out to pay attention there is little recourse but to ask “ what can we do?”
When ever I feel overwhelmed by the facts I do several things:
Try to have the most up to date facts that reveal the real situations we face. I learnt about the power of knowing where I stand at the age of 32 as I faced the death of my first husband when he was diagnosed with cancer and was prescribed a treatment of chemo therapy to ‘help’ him feel better as there was nothing else doctors could do.
Watch a TED talk and feel inspired by some of the great creative thinkers we have in our world and restore my faith that there are people out there with the intelligence and insights to help get us through this time with inspiring and creative solutions. Then, bouncing off this, continue to write for my website and my forthcoming book.
Gather more stories to me - precious jewels of experience and wisdom, and immerse myself in the wisdom of my ancestors. In keeping the stories alive, and in rejuvenating their wisdom, begin the process of co creating new myths for our new world.
I believe that we have the capacity to get through the current crisis that we face globally and as a race. It is our great intelligence, our capacity for spiritual insight, growth and compassion and our creative force, that can see us though - and can create a new and harmonious world.
It is imperative that we seek ecologically harmonious, sustainable and creative solutions. That we share indigenous wisdom to bring about inner peace and greater understanding of each other. It is essential that we create new myths that will light the way.
From my own perspective I see that our ancestors have left so much in place for us - that despite the breakdown of many cultures traditionally, the signs are still there for us - seeds that are contained in the stories and myths, kernels that have been protected for us to take up and grow into new stories that will guide our way forward. This will enable the magic in our lives once more and help to ensure the continuing mystery that ever unfolds and our place in it.
Al Gore was quoted in The Guardian last week, saying that he believes we’ve reached a “political tipping point” regarding global climate change and that “a very impressive consensus is now emerging around the world that the solutions to the economic crisis are also the solutions to the climate crisis.” In short, he said, more and more business leaders now recognize that addressing this global crisis will require “a change in business practices.” (2)
First though we must accept the story that we have helped to co create here and now on the planet.
Now, as we face economic crisis and are being forced to face the truth of our climate crisis, surely, not far behind will follow acknowledgement and solutions for the other impending issues - and electro magnetic pollution is at the forefront. The increase of fake electro magnetics is now blanketing Earth’s natural electro magnetic field. The consequences of this are enormous and are affecting all life on our planet. Just as with our climate, we don’t yet know the outcomes and long term effects. We do have, however, bizarre occurrences in nature that are illustrating the pending disaster caused by the destruction of a process of evolution that has taken Earth billions of years. Birds falling dead from the sky at the same time in both hemispheres (3), 100s of whales beaching themselves at a time, human auto immune systems failing, and the news that the illnesses being precipitated by fake electro magnetic radiation are altering our genes and that such conditions are becoming hereditary. (4)
While it is great to feel better by being inspired by great minds, like we see on TED talks, we must go further and be motivated by what action is then being taken. There are many such individuals and organisations - and from them I take heart and inspiration. And most importantly I take my own action.
Last year I wrote about the inspirational work of Vandana Shiva and her courage in taking on the Monsanto corporation, establishing an organic gm free seed bank in south India and tirelessly working to raise awareness about the environmental catastrophe we face. I continue to be inspired by her and the organisation she founded, navdanya.org. This organisation has a foundation that can be applied to many areas of life that are jeopardised.
Their mission is to protect nature and people’s rights to knowledge, biodiversity, water and food.
They are committed to creating living economies based on living democracy, with producers and consumers shaping their food culture through participation and partnerships, through cooperation and caring. To promote organic fair trade, based on fairness to the earth and all her species, fairness to producers and fairness to consumers. To foster respect for diversity, local production and food quality. To creating a future of food and agriculture in which small farmers prosper and biodiversity and cultural diversity thrives.
Navdanya is actively involved in the rejuvenation of indigenous knowledge and culture. It has created awareness on the hazards of genetic engineering, defended people’s knowledge from biopiracy and food rights in the face of globalisation. While avoiding environmental harm, biodiverse organic farming is also an insurance in times of climate change.
Navdanya means nine crops that represent India’s collective source of food security. The main aim of the Navdanya biodiversity conservation program is to support local farmers, rescue and conserve crops and plants that are being pushed to extinction and make them available through direct marketing. It has its 46 seed banks across the country and an organic farm spread over an area of 20 acres in Uttranchal, north India.
Navdanya promotes peace and harmony, justice and sustainability. They strive to achieve these goals through the conservation, renewal and rejuvenation of the gifts of biodiversity we have received from nature and our ancestors, and to defend these gifts as commons. The setting up of community seed banks is central to their mission of regenerating nature’s and peoples wealth. Keeping seeds, biodiversity and traditional knowledge in people’s hands to generate livelihoods and provide basic needs is their core program for removal of poverty.
Their vision of Earth Democracy is translated into a mission of creating biodiversity and seed sovereignty, food sovereignty and water democracy.
From such action we can take heart. From such action we can be inspired - to ask ourselves, how can we make a difference? It is time to follow the calling of our passionate hearts, this means having courage in the face of adversity, taking risks, working to overcome our own fears that hold us back from our creative expression and standing for what we believe in.
Now is the time on Earth to embrace our potential to be more. This is a challenging time and within every challenge there is opportunity. This is, I believe a time of great opportunity. Just as we must embrace the global crisis, we must embrace our own capacity to take up this challenge and find solutions.
If you haven’t already, check out TED. There are hundreds of inspirational talks on making a difference. Here we can share a sense of our future.
Some of my favourite ted talks are: Jill Bolte Taylor, Ken Robinson, Elizabeth Gilbert, Michael Pollan, Isabelle Allende, Barry Schwartz.
There are many, many more.
References
1. George Monbiot, 12/3/09 The Guardian: George Monbiot: Time to Change “Climate Change”
2. The Guardian:World Will Agree New Climate Deal, Says Al Gore by Leo Hickman
3. www.hesse-project.org
4. BEES, BIRDS AND MANKIND