People enduring the heat are beginning to believe
The climate crisis has been real, and killing people, for quite some time.
However, until we smell the smoke, feel the burn, miss the food, or watch the rising waters, it is difficult to wrap one’s head around.
Our human default is deny and persist. We keep on keeping on. Many of us are so busy with the very factors that created this mess, that we feel helpless or hopeless, and just keep working and consuming.
This summer is another record-breaking scorcher.
This year, we are fighting not only heat, but the growing clamor of would-be tyrants to take control of nations and nature. It’s happening in Europe. In Sri Lanka, the revolt is taking over. In the U.K. Boris Johnson is done.
This week alone, we heard more details about the January 6th capital attack i the good ole’ USA.
Feel the heat
The fires and droughts are a hard reality for many. Is there any hope at all for any of us in fifty years?
It is useful, in psychology and sociology, when people face truth. Our addiction to oil is like any drug addiction, first, one must snap out of denial.
Truth that is hard to face is indeed painful. But it is also the most effective truth when it comes to learning lessons.
Some lessons from history we continue to learn
We learned from religious wars in Europe over the last centuries that bloodshed and intolerance is not confined to borders, nor to any one creed, or color, of humanity.
We learned that burning heretics and witches is insane and teaches us that group think and mob rule are horrendously cruel.
We learned that a great civil war in America kills Americans and barely begins to solve white supremacy.
We learned the world doesn’t collapse when women have some say — a vote, a choice — in their own lives.
We learned in the destruction of World War I and World War II that new technology, combined with authoritarians, can wreak utter havoc and misery.
We also learned that our relationship to nature, and things like COVID zoonotic virus, is vulnerable. When we exploit nature carelessly, we spread disease.
Did we learn that burning fossil fuels, feeding an insatiable maw of greed and power is counterproductive to humanity, and to all life on Earth?
I think we are learning these lessons daily.
In every choice you make, therefore, consider what you are teaching, and what you have learned from what sensations you experience. Use all your senses, beyond sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste.
Opening our minds, and our senses, to the truth is truly heartbreaking, and yet, that seems to be what it takes.
—
This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
***
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
—
Photo credit: Shutterstock