The Crisis of Humanity We’re Calling Global Warming

We are so incredibly lucky.

Not only did we have the science and know-how to invent the combustion engine, but our science has evolved to the point where we understand how its screwing up our world. It didn’t have to go that way. We very well could have invented the backbone of our civilization, but not had the science to tell us why the climate has been changing so dramatically. We could all still be puttering happily along using leaded fuel in gas powered behemoths that get 10 miles to the gallon.

But no, after the combustion engine came into being in the latter part of the 1800’s our sciences continued to develop. And not just in isolated places or isolated ways. Millions of people the world over have devoted their lives to furthering scientific knowledge in a myriad of ways.

In fact we are so lucky that not only do our sciences know what causes Global Warming, but they also know how to solve it. This is a relatively new area of study, new approaches are still being developed. But that’s one of the great things about science, it continues to evolve. It’s like we hit the lottery twice, then won every horse race ever run. Ever. So incredibly lucky.

We know the problem, what's causing it, and how to solve it. Thanks science!

So whats the damned problem now?

Yet there is no change. We are still, on the whole, wandering aimlessly towards ever increasing destruction and instability. Sadly we are suffering from a much more difficult crisis, one we lack the tools to address. The crisis rests within each of us, in our deepest feelings of what it means to be a human being, what it means to be alive here on the earth.

The global crisis that is unfolding around us with such obvious drama is at this point clearly a crisis of our humanity. And not the humanity of all of humankind, but of those of us who are most privileged, most educated, most cared for by the many technologies we have developed. Ironically the culture that has produced some of the greatest scientific minds, the people most able to discern the crisis that encompases us more and more each day, has also produced the most callosed, the most willfully ignorant people with regards to the devastation of the natural world.

While we pour vast resources into big tech, entertainment, science and all the connected industries of our modern world, we have allowed the humanities to die a withering death in our schools. We have allowed the voices of religious extremism, of greed, of soulless rational materialism to silence the growth of self-exploration, community development, arts education, and interpersonal growth. We will fund math and science, but we do our best to steer clear of any topics that might lead us into a deeper understanding of the Earth, our place in it, and the work of our age.

The Earth is suffering from our catastrophic crisis of humanity.

“We can no longer hear the voice of the rivers, the mountains, or the sea. The trees and meadows are no longer intimate modes of spirit presence. The world about us has become an ‘it’ rather than a ‘thou.’” (Thomas Berry, “The Meadow Across the Creek,” in The Great Work, 17).

Let's stop blaming our crisis on our technologies and stop looking to the masters of technology to solve it. A new rocketship carrying billionaires into space is not progress. The responsibility rests squarely with each of us, in our own hearts. As a culture we have lost the ability to relate to the natural world in a way that inspires us, that leads us into a relationship of respect and care. The workings of the purely rational mind cannot provide a solution here and pure self preservation is not enough. Those solutions are already well placed in our world.

What remains is us, our ability to grieve and love, to develop meaningful relationships. Ultimately the next step rests in our ability to cultivate our humanity. Thats not an easy fix like setting a carbon tax, or inventing a better battery. Its work that requires sacrificing our defenses, that asks us to be vulnerable. Its work that is measured in generations, not kilowatts. It's the work of making human beings.

Let's stop calling it a Global Warming crisis and start calling it what it really is: the Western Crisis of Humanity.