Reimagine My Community
We know some viewers’ concerns are that this planet is in trouble. We share your concerns and the gravity of those concerns.
Consider these additional articles if you haven’t yet seen them:
Even tortoises hope.…
Plod: What’s the chances of these bright bulbs running the planet to fix the Climate Mess we are in?
Slog: I tried to get odds from the bookies the other day. They just laughed me out of their joint and said to go get struck by lightning. Or buy a lottery ticket.
Plod: It figures. I bet we could beat ‘em in a race to the ocean!
Slog: Probably could. But all we need to do is sit on the beach and wait as the oceans rise. The waves will be along shortly.
Plod: True enough. I suppose that’ll save me from lumbering down to the ocean for my daily stroll. They sure like chasing money instead of living here.
Slog: They sure do. But, say Plod, I thought you weren’t much of a swimmer!
Plod: Almost forgot—I just go for a stroll … that’s all. My cousins in the seas have flippers. Me—I just lumber around. Slog, life on the Galápagos Islands isn’t what it used to be. I do like looking at the waves though.…
Slog: Do you think they get it or will they just keep on with their destructive ways?
Plod: The pull of money and power is strong. If they had any idea what the remaining length of the lit fuse looks like to the animals….
Slog: The words “suddenly” and “imminent” come to mind … Say when is your 100th birthday?
Plod: I hope to make it. That’s 20 years yet though. How about you?
Slog: I am still young. Only 60 years old.
Plod: Well, let’s see what the next 20 years brings. Hopefully, we can find a raft.…
We gotta’ talk.
When Mr. Whoot gets upset like that, it’s not a good sign.
He knows when the earth is angry. He’s just an echo of what goes on behind the scenes.
Trust me—you don’t want the earth upset.
Stuff can come at you so fast, and with so much intensity, it will make your head spin.
Don’t even think about getting the earth really ticked.
Just don’t go there.
If you think you are running the earth, you just don’t get it.
You want the earth as your friend.
Not your foe.
Denial does not help this situation.
We support ostriches who like to check up on their eggs buried in the sand.
We do not support this Climate Denier-Dude, who appears to be insulting ostriches. Maybe he is working on a new way of meditation and connecting with the Earth-Down-Under. Maybe he thinks the earth is flat or hollow. Maybe he is working on his graduate degree in Worm-O-Logy. Who knows?
We know he has … ummm … how do we put this politely?
Issues….
Young people, not yet corrupted by a rise to Power and Wealth, often understand several Root Issues.
They are correct in seeking to identify systemic problems with their demonstration placards.
Hear them.
On one hand, we have valid, energized, and gallant desires to see our shared place of living, Our Shared Home, not slip further towards a cataclysmic ending.
The land, air, bodies of water and seas benefit all of us. We share our dwelling with the various living things and support systems in Nature existing well before our first cries as a baby.
Ancient and Indigenous cultures often understood this in ways we do not. They wove these truths into the story of their lives as they passed stories, know-how, and ways down from one generation to the next. Even our forefathers, on family farms, pursued these truths.
Hoping the problem will go away, or that we can “adapt” while ignoring root causes, is not something that is easy to do.
How many seawalls will you build? How many houses will you put on stilts? How many CO2-scrubbing machines will you need? What will happen to food supplies and supply networks?
Then there is the ever-present question of “How much will this cost?” What will happen to the world’s economic engines when pushed to support “adaptation?”
Our position is that new and Reimagined solutions are mission critical. We cannot rely on old thinking and approaches.
Borrowing from Carl Linnaeus’s classification guide, Systema Naturae (1735), we move through elementary building blocks of Domains down through the Kingdoms all the way through to Species. The interdependencies and relationships between the various “leaves on the taxonomy tree” (species) are not trivial. They are all important in the wondrous dance and orchestra we see in Nature: Our Shared Home.
These individuals and organizations—protagonists that support a healthy climate, earth and environment—seek to maintain the well-being of Our Shared Home. They come from many persuasions, societies, and diverse backgrounds: personal, academic, philosophical, and spiritual.
BUT …
On the other hand, we have competing and conflicting interests that militate against the well-being of this planet we call Earth. These interests often pursue wealth or other self-serving interests, but at the cost of the common good of humanity and Our Shared Home. While wealth is not intrinsically evil, proper use of wealth, and motivations for wealth, have moral aspects. Proper use of wealth, with correct motivations, has tremendous capacity for good.
Not always—that would be unfair and unkind towards those with authority, and means, who seek to better Our Shared Home. Extremes do a disservice to all of us. Globally, many branches of governments and organizations, and individuals, have made positive steps towards betterment of Our Shared Home.
Protagonists observing other motivations or contrary outcomes experience considerable frustration, anger, and a sense of injustice. The Antagonists stymy massive efforts in a positive direction.
Stall tactics or toothless promises—clouds devoid of rain—march along with the progress and speed of pregnant turtles upon parched lands.
Accords and agreements rise and fall, or they thwart once best efforts. Conference attendees fly home.
The machinery continues.
But the clock ticks … towards midnight.
Protagonists and Antagonists meet in various forms and venues.
The earth, trees, grass, and plants have no vote at these gatherings.
The seas, lakes, streams and rivers, and the air, have no vote at these gatherings.
Dolphins, seals, fish, and whales have no vote at these gatherings.
Polar bears, deer, and elephants have no vote at these gatherings.
Mighty eagles, or the humble sparrows, have no vote at these gatherings.
They can only vote, in a silent suffering, through unbalanced climate, global warming, and a breakdown of the natural order of Nature: Our Shared Home then suffers.
They vote through lost species.
Unlike the spawning salmon, which gives its life to go to its spawning grounds to lay its eggs to birth life, lost species do not reproduce life in their kind. Must they become the harbinger, the proverbial canary in the coal mine, to the loss of another species?
Us.
We, as Stewards of the Earth, have responsibilities to rule well and justly for the common good.
We must hear the quiet and unspoken votes when the Climate and Earth calls out to all of us.
Yes, we are VERY concerned about Climate Change and the impacts on Community.
