My perception of myself currently, in regards to Nature is rather disassociated. Most of my experience with nature at this point in my life, in the midst of a global pandemic, are vicarious. I don’t take as many walks as I should. The outdoor temperatures I find unbearably warm most of the time. The air is full of allergens to which I’ve lost all tolerance. I feel I’ve lost something substantial in not living and working in the outdoors like I did formerly. Then, very little bothered me, not even high temperatures unless they were so extreme that they warranted a public heat advisory. I stayed hydrated and got plenty of exercise simply in the course of living my life. Now, my experience of Her is primarily through the slats of the blinds that cover my window or in pictures and videos shared by others. Nonetheless, I still retain the awareness and knowledge that everything originates in nature; everything we have, make or consume.
A Dire Future Awaits
Earth is our home and the name of home in Latin is ‘eco’, which forms the root of the word ‘ecology’. However, the current state of the environment, the biosphere in which we all live and in which we strive to thrive, is unstable and tipping towards a level of damage that will soon be irreversible in terms of sustaining most animal life, including human life. Many have heard the axium, “Don’t shit where you eat”, but few have taken it heart where Earth is concerned. According to statements made at a meeting of the United Nations in March of 2019, we only have “11yrs left to prevent irreversible damage from climate change”. We as a species have brought this on ourselves through our self-centered anthrocentric chauvism. The outlook is grim, especially in light of the recently lifted environmental restrictions that previously limited corporations from pollution and putting endangered species at risk.
And for what? Just to enable wealth hoarders to generate more wealth to hoard? These types of environmentally unsound decisions, for the sake of our species, require intervention. Given this understanding, it’s no surprise that many people now are experiencing what is being called eco-anxiety. The fear for our own mortality and grief for what we’re doing to the planet is how Kristina Lynn describes eco-anxiety. In their March 2017 report, the American Psychiatric Association says the following:
“The health, economic, political, and environmental implications of climate change affect all of us. The tolls on our mental health are far reaching. They induce stress, depression, and anxiety; strain social and community relationships; and have been linked to increases in aggression, violence, and crime. Children and communities with few resources to deal with the impacts of climate change are those most impacted.
To compound the issue, the psychological responses to climate change, such as conflict avoidance, fatalism, fear, helplessness, and resignation are growing. These responses are keeping us, and our nation, from properly addressing the core causes of and solutions for our changing climate, and from building and supporting psychological resiliency.”
The avoidance coping strategy is the one that I and others most often embrace. When I was a child my father told me that by 2000 there would be no more trees or grass and that I’d probably need to go to a museum to see a tree. There’s even a song that talks about it, called “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell. Since I grew up with that particular type of anxiety, it become like a background noise that had been there so long that it had become barely noticeable in my day to day life. This course brought all of that forward once more and I’m no longer content to pretend this widespread destruction of our environment isn’t happening.
Critical Mass
One of the requirements of this course was to keep a journal of reflections. In that journal I recorded my thoughts and questions. The questions I wanted to share here are “How can we be fair to the environment when we can’t even be fair to each other?” and “How can we fight against corporate powers that [appear to] basically own the government and dictate the laws?” The solution may be in attaining some kind of critical mass, where a large number of people are able to realize and recognize how very interconnected we are, not only with each other but also with the world around us. Even sand is composed of it’s individual parts, but those grains loose their identity as sand when separated from one another.
Even the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr recognized this interconnectedness when he wrote “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
It is only in unity that we are capable of great change. Perhaps that is why those who are invested in preserving social hierarchies so often employ media to sow dissent and division amongst peoples, accentuating difference and competition as they do. If enough people can overcome these divisive forces and band together, we can catalyze the changes needed to save our species and others.
Individual Action
On an individual basis there are many things we can do as well. Changing our patterns of consumption are one of those things. Eating less meat is one way to improve how we interact with the world. Commercial meat production, as in the raising and keeping of livestock, is an inefficient use of land and water as well in addition to often being abusive to the land and to the animals.
Another action individuals can take is growing their own food when possible. Although land space is an issue for gardens in many situations, such as for city dwellers, indoor growing arrangements are a viable alternative. Tomatoes and potatoes are staple foods that make up a large part of the American diet and can be grown with relative ease. By producing our own food we reduce our consumption of commercially produced foods from industrialized farm operations that exercise extensive use of environmentally damaging chemicals.
Pesticides are killing the bees and without the bees to pollinate, nothing brings forth fruit. They also pollute the air, water, and soil. The soil becomes degraded and retains less water, acerbating the need to apply yet more chemicals and perpetuating an accelerating cycle of increased pesticide and chemical use. Pesticides get into the food chain and cause Eagle hatchings to be unable to thrive and die before reaching maturity. In some cases the chemical poisoning causes them to never even hatch.
Conclusion
There are no easy answers or quick solutions. Only a worldwide cataclysm like a global pandemic could possibly make any impact on our forward tragectory to self-destruction. Perhaps then, enough of us will be pulled out of the rat race long enough to actually consider our plite and the future we’re creating for our descendents. But then again, maybe not. Maybe those who hold social power would simply find other ways to distract us from environmental concerns like leading our attention to other impactful social issues such as racial equality and crimes against women and children. This approach would allow them to continue their environmentally destructive methods of production without being bothered by masses.
But perhaps, just perhaps, if we each do what we can and come together in Unity, we can see through the distractions and redirections to reach that critical mass and save ourselves from mass extinction.
Resources
SEVENTY-THIRD SESSION, HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, United Nations, General Assembly 28, March 2019 https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ga12131.doc.htm
Lynn, Kristina. Stressed about the climate? The Rise of Eco-Anxiety, June 4, 2020. https://youtu.be/MCuxlcClMe4
American Psychiatric Association. Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impact, Implications, and Guidance March 2017 https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/mental-health-climate.pdf
Field rates of Sivanto™ (flupyradifurone) and Transform®(sulfoxaflor) increase oxidative stress and induce apoptosis in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) Priyadarshini , Emily A. Carlson, Hannah M. Lucas, Andony P. Melathopoulos, Ramesh R. Sagili. May 21, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233033
The Environmental Impact of Pesticides Amber Pariona, April 25, 2017 https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-the-environmental-impact-of-pesticides.html
Dellinger, Drew Martin Luther King; Ecological Thinker April 2014 https://drewdellinger.org/martin-luther-king-jr-ecological-thinker/
