Hope Beneath Our Feet_ Restoring Our Place in the Natural World - Martin Keogh [90]
This memory has come back to me over the last year as I’ve poured over the new United Nations reports that now say unequivocally that a two degree warming of the planet is now unavoidable due to human activity and that this will lead to “catastrophic climate change”—floods, droughts, food shortages, and species extinctions. Whether it comes from the loss of a loved one or from the knowledge of the threat of global warming, despair is a powerful place to step forward from. There are times when it feels too big, too overwhelming and I feel too small and insignificant. But everyday I look at my children and know that I need to find ways to contribute to raising awareness and finding solutions. I need to continue to find my voice and allow myself to feel the pain of despair to motivate a new strong commitment and voice for change.
I think the answer to how we live our life when we are looking down the barrel of environmental catastrophe lies in recognizing and spending some time in despair, so that we don’t end up denying or avoiding reality. Global warming will not be solved by changing a light bulb. Species extinction will not be slowed down by creating a park. The magnitude of the global environmental collapse we find ourselves in is unprecedented. Last year the Millennium Ecosystem Reports prepared by over a thousand scientists globally concluded, “Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of the earth that its ability to maintain human well-being is now in question.” We are living in a time of crisis. A time that requires us to step up to our fullest potential. To live our lives intentionally and to use every moment, every purchase, every conversation as a vehicle for change. As in wartime, we are being called upon to make sacrifices, to change our lives for the greater good.
My family has discovered that these lifestyle changes actually lead to a fuller and more engaged life. We take walks and ride our bikes together instead of driving. Last winter we hand rolled beeswax candles and canned our own jam for holiday presents instead of consuming goods that traveled long distances and were made from finite resources. That said I know that lifestyle changes alone are not enough. If we are going to mitigate global warming it requires significant shifts in how our society functions, how goods are made and transported, how major industries operate. These large-scale changes require government legislation to protect the very air we breathe, the water we drink, and the climate that sustains all of us. We need to live our lives looking for the places that we can engage. Protesting decisions that don’t reflect the urgency of the changes that we need and organizing within our communities and beyond to explore the tough transition to a carbon neutral society. At the organization I founded, ForestEthics, we are expanding our work to address oil and gas issues, we have stepped up our efforts to expose corporations and governments who are claiming to be “green” without changing their practices. We have increased our outreach and list-building to build a powerbase that can engage with governments through letter writing and calling campaigns. And most importantly we have been creating ‘untraditional alliances’ by working with some of the major corporations who are willing to make change. I offer you these examples not because they may be right for you but to offer a window into how exciting it is to let go of old ideas and alliances and work with a group of like minded people to make change.
In the climate era, “the personal is political.” The decisions that we make in our own lives, what car to drive