A Burning Issue

The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it... Psalm 24:1

God created a world which he pronounced was very good and delegated to humankind the responsibility for its care. But human sinfulness has marred God's creation and our profligate abuse of the environment is causing global climate change. If left unchecked global warming will cause global economic loss, widespread suffering and death, particularly among the marginalised who are least able to cope with rapid change. Our response is a test both of our obedience to our creator and of our commitment to care for our neighbour.

If the earth will one day, maybe quite soon, be burnt to a frazzle, is it appropriate to put resources into long-term environmental policies? Environmental issues have become prominent in public discourse. Tony Blair announced that climate change is 'the world's greatest environmental challenge', that it is 'so far-reaching in its impact and irreversible in its destructive power, that it alters radically human existence.' [1] Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, captured headlines by suggesting that 'making selfish choices such as flying on holiday or buying a large car are a symptom of sin'. [2] James Lovelock believes that we are fast approaching a 'tipping point' on climate change from which there is no return. [3] Sir David King, the government's chief scientist, has described climate change as a bigger threat than terrorism, and Sir John Houghton, formerly head of the Meteorological Office, says it is a 'weapon of mass destruction'. [4] When church and secular leaders, scientists and politicians all speak similarly, Christians ought to take note and consider how their faith affects their response to such issues.

Over the last century, Christians have been lukewarm about addressing environmental matters. This was not always the case: there is a long history of Christian engagement with the environment, starting with the early church Fathers such as Benedict, the sixth-century founder of monasticism who propounded a gentle attitude to nature and to animals. [5] Calvin in 1563 wrote 'let every one regard himself as the steward of God in all things which he possesses '. [6] Opposition from churches to the prevalent cruelty to animals in early modern England was effective in changing attitudes in society. [7] In the twentieth century the founders of the London Missionary Society were committed to using science to improve the lot of humankind. [8] So why is contemporary Christian environmental concern more muted? Maybe some have considered that it is secondary to more important matters of evangelism. Some Christians have felt a need to distance themselves from the Green agenda, because they considered it had overtones of pagan nature-worship or of New Age spirituality. As a result, throughout the late twentieth century the environmental flag was flown by the largely secular Green movement.

Yet from a scriptural perspective, Christians should have been leading the environmental agenda. he very existence of this universe is the result of God's creative activity - a world that he said was 'very good' and which he commanded humankind to subdue and tend.  God shows his commitment to the material world not only by upholding it moment by moment, [11] but by becoming incarnate in it, taking a human body with all its limitations in the person of Jesus. [12] The ultimate destination of this world, redeemed by Christ's sacrifice on the cross, is to be renewed along with all believers to the eternal glory of God. [13]

God's initial creation and his eventual re-creation of the new heavens and new earth provide a framework for how we should live as temporary residents in a world that still displays the creator's glory and purposes, though marred by the effects of sin; a world with the certain hope of a renewed and perfected future; a world in which we are called to work to God's praise and glory.

The creation ethic

The biblical narrative proclaims that God existed before the universe did, and is separate from it. He was not beholden to anyone or anything, and the entire natural order is, and remains, his possession. The first verse of the Bible makes this clear: 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' John's gospel echoes the same truth: 'Through him [Jesus] all things were made' - and in case we didn't get the message, John continues: 'without him nothing was made that has been made'. [14]

The picture in the early chapters of Genesis is of a workman labouring hard: of honest days' work and rest at the end of the week: of satisfaction at a job well done, with the repeated affirmation that 'God saw that it was good'. God gloried in his creation, and his creation in turn reflected something of his character. 'The heavens declare the glory of God', says the psalmist, [15] and Paul comments that 'since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities...his eternal power and divine nature...have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made...' [16] This stands in stark contrast, for example, to those Eastern religions that downplay the importance of the material world in favour of the spiritual.

God created a world that is good and beautiful independently of our presence in it. The sun, moon, stars, waters, mountains, hills, weather, vegetation, animals, birds and sea creatures all praise the Lord, says Psalm 148. The Lord asks Job rhetorically 'Who...waters a land where no man lives, a desert with no-one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass.' [17] In Job 38-39 God lists a large range of ways in which God cares for his creation independently of any human agency or presence. This material world is one which God sustains all the time. Without him it would fall apart into chaos. 'He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.' [18] As God makes clear in his covenant with Noah, he has a commitment to the earth and all life on it. [19] If the physical world matters this much to God, it should matter to Christians.

Although humans are part of the created order, the Bible asserts that there is something special about us: we are made 'in God's image'. [20] We are more than animals, even though we share our material make-up with animals. Being made in God's image includes the ability to relate to God in a personal way, and to exhibit and experience, albeit in a greatly attenuated way, some of his characteristics such as love, justice, creativity and care. At the beginning of human history, God gave humans the command to rule over and to take care of both the living and non-living creation. [21] We are not to be passive spectators, but are to work at ruling and ordering creation without abusing the earth for our own selfish ends. Our care for creation should be consistent with God's care for it, enabling it to be fruitful in providing food and resources and allowing it to play its intended part in giving glory to God.

Living in a fallen world

If the relationship between humans and God had remained as it was in the Garden of Eden, life would have been a lot more straightforward. Yet it didn't. Humans rebelled against their creator. The consequences of this sinfulness were made clear by God: living in the land became more dangerous, both from wild animals and from other people; [22] the joy of procreation was scarred by an increase of pain in childbirth; [23] even producing food became difficult toil. [24] The current travails of this world, so much of its pain and its suffering, are a direct result of human sinfulness.

Yet the earth is still innately fruitful, even though it labours under the dissonance of human sinfulness. The orderliness of the created order and our God-given ability to understand it and to make use of it through science and technology ought to allow us to work for the good of all. And God mandates us to do so. There is sufficient food in the world to feed everyone, yet we allow food mountains to grow in one part of the world while people starve in another. People in one country die for lack of common medicines while medical resources are poured into needless cosmetic surgery in another.

Abuse of the natural environment is a consequence of human sinfulness. It is a symptom of disobedience of God's command to humankind to care for his world, and marring the created order prevents it from giving glory to God. That is why the 'whole of creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth' but will be liberated, along with all believers, to fulfil its God-given function of reflecting God's glory in the new creation. [25] In caring for the non-human created order we are worshipping God by allowing it to give glory to God as he intended.

New heavens and new earth

But in his mercy, God has not left us stuck for ever in a world that is out of kilter. God himself became incarnate as the man Jesus, and by his crucifixion at the hands of humans he took upon himself the punishment that justice demanded as a result of our rebellion against the creator God. The consequences of this are cosmic: the death of Jesus Christ made possible redemption from the effects of human sinfulness, not only of humanity but of all the created order. [26]

We are currently living in that in-between state between the first coming and the final return of Jesus at the end of time. The kingdom of heaven is near, said Jesus, [27] but the full consummation of God's redeeming act will not occur until the new heavens and new earth are created. That will bring the fullness of life that he always intended and purposed for his creation: [28] a place where his redeemed people will worship him and the whole of creation will give him glory. In symmetry with the initial creation when God walked with Adam, it will be a place restored to order where God himself will dwell with his people. [29]

As well as the discontinuity implicit in re-creation, there is also a sense in Scripture of continuity between this world and the next. It is as if the new creation will be the full realisation of the present order. [30] Although the Bible writers struggle to describe it in our earth-bound, limited terms, they paint a picture of a place where we will be completely at home, where we will have recognisable physical bodies, where we will know one another, will love and be loved, and will praise and worship God unreservedly. We may already experience aspects of this in a transient sense; in the new creation it will be the steady, settled reality.

The populist view of heaven as a place where disembodied spirits float around in a nebulous, spiritual realm is unbiblical. The decisions we make in this world, the things we do and say, our personalities, will all in some sense carry forward to the world to come. They will be purified 'as if by fire', [31] and transformed: how we behave in this world has a bearing on the next. So how we treat the environment now ought to be a preview, a practice run, of what we will do in the new creation when we shall rule with righteousness. [32] Furthermore, the new heavens and earth are represented in the Bible not only by a recreated 'natural order', but also by a city. The city is a place of human community, of relational intensity, of creativity and technology - and the 'glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it'. [33]

The biblical authors are clear that although this world is flawed by human sinfulness, we need to work at using it for good. The certain hope of a renewed future creation is not a licence to abandon care for this one. Rather, the opposite is the case: because there is some continuity between this world and the next, because it will be the fulfilment of God the creator's plans for this universe, there is every incentive to foster and to use the innate underlying goodness and fruitfulness of this material world to do what is pleasing to God in our time and place.

So how might Christians use this understanding of the place of humanity in God's created order, and of the certainty of coming judgement and re-creation of the world? Christians are called to be salt and light in a needy world. [34] They should show by example what God requires. God has created a world where following his precepts and commandments is the best and safest way for us to live. Although those who ignore God may prosper in the short term, and we may even envy them, in the long run they are on the path to destruction, to be swept away with no more substance than fantasy dreams. [35]

I will consider one topical environmental issue, global climate change, and outline principles for responding to it. This is of course just one of many pressing environmental problems including, for example, the extinction of species at a rate about 100 times higher than the normal background level.

Global climate change

The average global temperature is increasing at a rate and by an amount unprecedented in the history of humankind. Nine of the ten warmest years on record were in the last decade. There is now little doubt that it is caused by injecting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels - oil, gas and coal. [36] A consequence is the likely increase in extreme weather events - hurricanes and floods at one extreme, droughts and heat waves at the other. The effects fall disproportionately on the very young and very old, on the poor and the marginalised in places such as sub-Saharan Africa. One quarter of the world's population live in poverty, with a marginal lifestyle that is vulnerable to changes caused by drought or flooding, by the failure of agricultural crops, or by rising sea levels. Already the number of environmental refugees is estimated as 20 million, exceeding those from war and political repression combined. [37] Yet the main cause of global warming is greenhouse gases produced by high-income countries in North America and Europe. More than half the global emissions of greenhouse gases are produced by less than one-sixth of the world population.

Human activity over the past two centuries has already committed the earth to future climate change about which we can do nothing at this stage. Yet all is not gloom. We could put in place measures to mitigate its worst effects, and to prevent future excesses. This could be achieved by a mixture of changing lifestyles, of using energy resources more carefully, of developing alternative sustainable energy sources, and of moving towards a more equitable distribution of carbon pollution, both by individuals and nations. For the Christian, there are strong reasons for such behaviour out of obedience to our creation mandate. But even without this motivation, there are sound economic and even self-interest reasons to amend our ways.

International perspective

We live on a planet of finite size and resources: what I do in my own backyard (especially if it involves a patio heater and propane-fuelled barbecue!) has a global impact. Yet those who suffer most from the consequences of climate change had no say in my contributing activities.

If the nations of the world could work together on equitable ways of reducing global warming - as indeed they have already come to scientific agreement, through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on its reality and causes [38] - that would be an enormous step forward for the good of humankind, not only in the practical consequences but also in fostering co-operative behaviour in our global village. There are already successful models of international co-operation on environmental issues, such as the Montreal Protocol of 1987 which drastically reduced the emission of ozone-destroying substances. [39] But even if not everyone joins in, that does not absolve us from the responsibility of playing our part in adopting sustainable lifestyles.

More to the point, Christians in high-income countries can hardly claim to be loving their (global) neighbour when the consequences of their actions may lead to suffering and an increased probability of an early death elsewhere. To refuse to do so when the consequences of our actions are already clear is not only reckless but sinful. The high-income countries of the industrialised West have largely attained their standard of living through the profligate use of natural resources, and particularly of fossil fuels. Those countries can hardly deny the right of less industrialised nations such as China and India to pull themselves up to similar standards of living. Yet if the low-income countries simply emulate the industrialised nations in their use of fossil fuels, [40] the problem of global warming will quickly escalate. One equitable solution which Christians could well endorse is to press for all nations to move towards a position where each is allowed to produce the same amount of polluting gases per capita. Such 'contraction and convergence' could in principle be achieved if there is the political will and international unity required to do so. [41]

National perspective

National policies, especially ones that require sacrifice by the populace, can only be implemented if there is broad acceptance of them by the electorate. This is where Christians can play their part in lobbying for change. That radical change is possible is illustrated by history: slavery was abolished largely due to a campaign by committed Christians. [42]

Government could lead by adjusting the distribution of taxation to change behaviour and improve our living environment, for example by penalising the most polluting cars and encouraging less damaging energy sources. Legislation to improve building codes could save 60 per cent of domestic energy use, while providing more services. [43] The sequestration of carbon dioxide produced as a by-product of electricity generation from coal or hydrocarbons is technologically within reach. [44] The Stern review of the economics of climate change concluded that the risk of disruption makes the reduction of emissions now a prudent investment for the future. [45] If the nation were on a war footing such changes could be achieved in short order. The challenge is to see our actions that cause global pollution as equivalent to global genocide, requiring a response analogous to that of a nation at war.

Community perspective

In a secular context, there are already projects that take seriously the sharing of resources to create a low energy footprint. For example, the Beddington Zero Energy Development saves approximately 90 per cent on heating compared to conventional housing. [46] Faith communities ought to provide a ready-made platform for such co-operative behaviour. Of all people Christians ought to understand that the resources entrusted to them are only on loan from God, that they are to be used for the good of all, and thus for the worship of God. It is a challenge for fellowships to model this in practice, both in congregational sharing of resources and in ensuring that heating, lighting and use of buildings and other activities use resources in a way that takes account of impact on others. [47]

Individual perspective

It is at the individual level that decisions about our energy usage hit home most sharply. Some of the decisions are costly. Should we jet off several times a year for ski-ing holidays, to top up our tan on the beach, for a break in a foreign country? Does the unseen cost to the marginalised elsewhere come into our considerations? Christians are called to live counterculturally, and here is an opportunity to do so. Paul writes that Christians should 'not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.' [48] It is a profoundly Christian perspective to be prepared to give up some of our privileges for the sake of others, modelling Christ's ultimate sacrifice for us. [49]

Many of the practical things we can do are not difficult, and indeed are often personally beneficial. [50] Walking or cycling is usually healthier than driving. Changing to low-energy light bulbs, switching off the stand-by on the TV and stereo and insulating our roofs and walls will all save us money. So why are they often so difficult for us? Partly it is because we live in an intensely individualistic and materialistic society; partly it is because we are prone to put to the back of our minds the impact of our actions on those we can't see; and perhaps mainly it is because we are by nature sinful -self-centred in our thoughts and our actions. But once we are aware that our decision to drive a big car, to fly to Paris for the weekend, to turn up the heating rather than to put on a sweater, will all have a direct impact on someone already living on the edge, then how can we ignore it?

Conclusion

Christians as individuals, as members of a fellowship of believers, as citizens of a nation, and living as part of a global community should model the creation-kingdom ethic for unbelievers. And they should steward the earth as part of their worship of God. Christians should care for the stranger and the foreigner even, or perhaps especially, if they happen to live on the other side of the world but are affected by our actions. Those of us who live in the high-income industrialised nations with standards of living purchased through profligate use of natural resources have a particular responsibility in our stewardship, an imperative to care for those elsewhere in the world marginalised by global climate change. 'From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.' [51]

Robert (Bob) White, FRS is Professor of Geophysics at Cambridge University and Associate Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. He is co-author with Nick Spencer of a book on Christianity, climate change and sustainable living (SPCK, Summer 2007), and co-author of Beyond Belief: science, faith and ethical challenges (Lion, 2004).

[1] www.number-10.gov.uk/output/page6333.asp

[2] The Sunday Times, 23 July 2006. He said that 'Sin is not just a restricted list of moral mistakes. It is living a life turned in on itself where people ignore the consequences of their actions.'

[3] J. Lovelock, The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth Is Fighting Back - and How We Can Still Save Humanity, Allen Lane, 2006.

[4] J. Houghton, 'Global warming is now a weapon of mass destruction', The Guardian, 28 July, 2003.

[5] R. Attfield, 1994, Environmental Philosophy: Principles and Prospects, Avebury contains a good historical summary of Judeo-Christian attitudes to the environment.

[6] Writing on Gen. 2:15 in J. Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, Christian Classics Ethereal Library at www.ccel.org/c/calvin.

[7] K. Thomas, Man and the Natural World: changing attitudes in England 1500-1800, Penguin Books, 1983.

[8] S. Sivasundaram, Nature and the Godly Empire: Science and Evangelican Mission in the Pacific, 1795-1850, Cambridge University Press, 1995.

[9] The prominent secular humanist E.O. Wilson published The Creation: An appeal to save life on earth (W. W. Norton, 2006, 160pp.) in which he appeals for the evangelical Christian community to make care of the environment a higher priority.

[10] Gen. 1:28-31.                                           [11] Heb. 1:3.                          [12] J. Jones, Jesus and the Earth (SPCK, 2003, 102pp.) discusses Jesus as the saviour not only of humanity but also of the planet and the whole cosmos.                                 [13] Isa. 65:17; Rev. 21:1.                               [14] John 1:3.                          [15] Ps. 19:1.

[16] Rom. 1:20.                                               [17] Job 38:25-27.                                          [18] Col. 1:16-17.                                           19] Gen. 9:12-17.

[20] Gen. 1:27.                                                [21] Gen. 1:28; 2:15.                                       22] Gen. 3:15; Gen. 4:14.                               [23] Gen. 3:16.

[24] Gen. 3:17-19.                                           [25] Rom. 8:19-22.                                         [26] Col. 1:20.                                                 [27] Matt. 10:7.

[28] Rom. 8:21.                                               [29] Re v. 21:1-4.

[30] N. T. Wright, New Heavens, New Earth: The Biblical Picture of the Christian Hope, Grove Books Ltd, Ridley Hall, Cambridge, 1999, B11. Also 1 Pet. 1:4-5; 1 Cor. 13:12.

[31] 1 Cor. 3:12-15.                                        [32] Ps. 8.                                [33] Rev. 21:26.                       34] Matt. 5:13-14.                  [35] Jer. 12:1-3; Ps. 73.

[36] J. Houghton, Global Warming: the Complete Briefing, Cambridge University Press, 2004, and Climate Change and the Greenhouse Effect, 2005, at www.ukcip.org.uk/resources/publications

[37] Estimates of environmental refugees are 150-200 million by 2050.

[38] IPCC 2001: Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis, Houghton, J.T. et al. (eds). Cambridge University Press, 2001, free at www.ipcc.ch

[39] Kofi Annan comments that the Montreal Protocol is 'perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date'.

[40] China is building a new coal-fired power station every five days.

[41] Global Commons Institute: www.gci.org.uk/contconv/cc.html

[42] John Coffey, The abolition of the slave trade: Christian conscience and political action, Cambridge Paper vol. 15, no. 2, 2006.

[43] See www.40percent.org.uk for proposals to reduce domestic energy use by 60% by 2050, while supplying all householders with more space, heat, hot water, lighting and appliances.

[44] Report on carbon dioxide capture and storage at www.ipcc.ch

[45] Stern Review at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk concludes investment of up to 1% of GDP p.a. now could save at least 5% and up to 20% loss of global GDP in the future.

[46] www.sd-commission.org.uk/communitiessummit/show_case_study.php/00035.html

[47] Ecocongregation provides resources to encourage churches to consider environmental issues within a Christian context and to enable local churches to make positive contributions in their life and mission: www.ecocongregation.org

[48] Rom. 12:2.                                               [49] Phil. 2:1-11.                                             [50] See For Tomorrow Too: www.tearfund.org                                    [51] Luke 12:48.

By Robert White         ©Copyright The Jubilee Centre, 2010            christiantheology.wordpress.com

... IF WE PERCEIVED IT TO BE MALE?

- have male dominated philosphical world views and denigration of females laid the foundation for the disrespect that is intrinsic to our current destruction of the Earth?

Outlawing seasonal rituals, distancing humans from natural cycles, burning 'witches' at the stake - were these the historical foundations that permitted us to commit this self-defeating disaster?

         ! The Ultimate Show On Earth !       

Let us commemorate this once-in-a-lifetime event

with some profound thoughts about what was, what will be, what is to come,

how we got here & where we are going...

Many believe our peculiar invention called money can somehow buy back the vital elements and natural resources we deliberately squander. Astonishingly, we believe in our ingenuity so fiercely that we are apparently prepared to sacrifice species without number in the vain pursuit of these twin beguiling illusions -- wealth and worldly happiness.

Money Buys Heaven on Earth

Why wait to die when movie stars, politicians and CEO's provide the beguiling impression that heaven can be bought right here on Earth? After all, instant gratification is the watchword of these times. And the very fastest way to get the enormous wealth that is apparently the key to paradise right now is to commandeer a few natural resources and services and then ensure people forget how to get by without them. Hey -  they may be finite and irreplaceable but they’re free! Burn ancient plants - just like cavemen did. There's no stopping progress! Mining and burning fossilized fuels creates wealth beyond imagining for a few - whilst unfortunately having one teeny, insignificant defect hardly worth mentioning. The pollution it causes will soon obliterate every living thing on Earth. No worries! Manufacture and buy more cars, trucks, planes, heaters, coolers. This is the era of universal democracy - every individual deserves freedom and comfort at all costs.

Survival of the Fittest?

But wait!

               Is the dire state of the planet entirely up to us? Dare we mention that unfortunate genetic predisposition that seems built into humans? After all, we're apex predators, built to kill. We aren't peaceful herbivores ruminating on leaves and grass. We're programmed to be competitive, aggressive and to save part of our prey for another day when we might not be so lucky as to kill that unsuspecting antelope munching away on the other side of the thorn tree. Our very genes constantly tell us - kill or be killed. Buy insurance policies in case you can't hunt any more! Open a bank account and save more than you need because you never know what tomorrow may bring! Be anxious - stressed - afraid of today - let alone a tomorrow that never comes. We're designed so that our every cell is a tyrant that left to its own devices is continually driving us to irredeemable deeds; to pander to every need; to indulge our endless greed. We are housed in bodies demanding heat, cold, food, water, comfort, sex. They afford us no option. What can limit our voracious appetites other than the still, small voice of reason - or the even more subtle voice of the spirit. All too subtle compared to our all-consuming, instinctive needs.

Certainly we are capable of lofty ideas, love, worship of the Divine and a longing to create beauty... but all too often only once our bellies and bank accounts are full and our loins empty. Our urges towards higher notions such as a spiritual, blameless existence are generally a lot more acceptable if someone else has paid the bill for our shameful, secret sense of not belonging on Earth. Everything seems just fine without us. A lot finer, in fact. We habitually mess up everything we touch. We pollute, destroy - we're lethal to this hapless, ultimately defenseless planet. Basically we just don't seem to fit. It seems undeniable that the Bible tells it like it is - we are sinful, miserable renegades, cast out from the Garden of Eden where we wandered innocently for the merest sliver of time, only for a conniving snake and scheming female to delude that poor innocent male into sinning - thereby condemning all of mankind to be cast out of Paradise forever. But let us not forget that poor ole Adam was given the booby prize ... Dominion!

Dominion over the Earth itself, no less  And while he was busy dominating fowl, fish, mammals, insects and whatever else he could lay his hands on, why not include dominion over women in the exquisitely pleasurable dominance mix?

Listen, we’re entitled to our Middle Class Dream aren't we?

Earthly species of all kinds are governed by one implacable law. Something must die so something else may live. Even if its as minuscule as protozoa, plankton or amoeba. Eat and be eaten - that’s the way of this world!  Knowing this, but realising the extremes to which we have gone, contemporary humanity faces its future with dread, tempered with relief and the profound believe that not one of us is without sin. We love to believe in justice, though sadly we seldom practice it. Do we harbour a subconscious sense of relief that some kind of Judgment Day is finally looming? After all, this was prophesied by many a forefather. Perhaps we secretly take pleasure in the knowledge that Nature (and its Creator) will no longer be dictated to by human immorality, but by the laws of mortality? Like naughty children we deserve to be punished, and feel insecure when we get away with abominable behavior for too long. And 15,000 years or so is waaaaay too long, even by our own abysmal standards.  

Immutable, implacable, unshakable, unmistakable - these are the laws of nature. Yet it seems a crying shame that our stupidity is pervasive enough to bring down the whole theatre along with the curtain ... a catastrophic outcome that now seems certain. We've polluted the air beyond the point of no return, according to most contemporary scientists  But hellooooo! You think that's bad? Well that's not all...

Sacrificing the Planet Itself for Profit

And that's what the SMARTEST species does? Well perish the thought of what some dumb species might do. With our legendary superior intelligence, our celebrated cerebral cortex, our fantastic futuristic fantasies, our self-proclaimed wealth and power - could we not master even this simply logical conclusion? We failed to fathom the alchemy of creating even one molecule of oxygen or transform the smallest atom into a simple little drop of water. Yet we squandered buckets, streams, rivers, lakes without number! We pumped obnoxious putrid smoking stinking mess into the pure healing air and water of life itself - without taking heed, with psychotic greed. But dominion is our birthright! Just flick the switch - kahhpling! And you can see for miles around...

Where does it come from? Who knows? Burning filthy coal? Well that’s just how it goes... "Watcha want me to do about it? I’m not the energy provider around here. I'm the money provider! Heh heh! I just switch on the lights when I can't see at night! I munch my pooped corn and watch corny poop on the telly. So what? I deserve a break ... and a beer. Listen here - I deserve it. I put up with the wife - the constant strife - and I pay for it don't I?"

How do we attach a price to natural resources? We thought they were endless, so we made them cheap. But added value! Now that's where we humans come in - and we cost plenty. We (and trade unions) measure and attach a price to our time and skills. So we trade natural commodities and justified this added value component by outlawing simple barter. The agricultural revolution became the industrial revolution, and this is where things became more complicated. Once machines came into the picture humans had to compete. We had already invented money so now all we had to do was provide services instead of actually producing anything tangible. And the good thing about money is that whilst it is intrinsically entirely worthless, we can make as much of it as we like. So we wasted precious water, polluted the air, poisoned the soil, burned natural gas and oil to go from here to there and back again, spending our lives pursuing more and more of our very own invention till we amassed monstrous, massive mountains of money...

Are humans simply the most destructive force that could ever have been unleashed onto a hapless planet? But that can’t be - we’re nice people! Do you know anyone who is capable of destroying all life on Earth? C’mon! Get real... most of us don’t even like to kill a fly!  Well okay if its a real pest and keeps buzzing about - well maybe if it just won’t go away. But I mean really - so there are a few perverts who kill for pleasure. Mostly on TV. But not usually. Not in a normal day’s work.

Why does Mass Anything Mean Make a Mess of Everything?

The media assume that success lies in pandering to the lowest common denominator of imagined masses who know from nothing. Well of course they do now they’ve been given so much nothing for so numbingly long that they forgot anything they might once have known. See how common this lowest of denominators can be? See how it can only spiral downward into nowhere no-mans non-sense-land?

Meantime the messy masses just took hot showers every day, drove the kids to school, toiled away at mundane jobs to shop till we dropped from fatigue whilst simply trying to provide nice meals and a good home for our families. Yet only doing that, in sufficient numbers, is enough to tip the scales to a dreadful conclusion, causing the ultimately unimaginable cataclysmic end - for Planet Earth at any rate. There is only, after all, a fragile layer of atmosphere between all its life forms and inter-galactic oblivion.

Do wut? Izzat fair? ‘Snot our fault! We didn’t make all these zwillions of people! We just had 2,4 kids, worked hard, paid our taxes and drove around the ‘burbs - at the speed limit, mind you. Well now no-one said being fair was part of the equation. Just because we think something doesn’t mean its true. Doesn't mean its gonna happen, no matter what those positive thinking incentive scheming sales gurus told us... Sorry folks, but here comes a reality check. Courtesy of our Sponsors! Dadah!

Take a Ticket and Stand in Line Folks! HEAVEN right after the break ...

 Okeydoke. That was a very good break. In fact its all broken now! Yihaa!

Righty-ho, you can all join the queue. No pushing now! There’s plenty of punishment to go round. Fire and brimstone galore! What a crying shame that the most beguiling of man-made illusions - money - could not avert this cataclysmic inevitability. Yet we continued - business as usual! - and thus ensured the untimely demise of every other miraculous life form on this quietly spinning, ineffably exquisite Mother Earth - our gracious hostess for millions of years. After all she gave us it seems unfair that she could soon be a lump of barren rock floating aimlessly through cold, dark, space.

Think of all the joyful multitudes of twittering, clamoring, robust, life-filled oddities in all their splendid adaptations to even the most incongruous of circumstances. The remnants will be extinguished in one fell swoop - silenced, stilled, consigned to the void. Only the metaphysical remains of Divine Grace so grossly misused. Hear those drums roll; those cymbals crash even as our symbols smash to the ground of dashed desires. Just as long as we CLAIM to be green it'll all be alright. We don't have to stop polluting the atmosphere. We can just plant a few trees in the nearest slum and call it "Offsetting our Carbon". No need to actually invest in clean technologies. Just do the corporate soft-shoe-shuffle and get the accountants to balance those carbon credit whatevers.

Come aboard! Plenty of room on the Lean Mean Fighting Machine / The all-new gravy train in shades of lurid green / Jump on the bandwagon - its all the scene - just remember to paint it green / Long live the eco-dream  / (Oh just ignore that chilling primal scream !) / There’s more money to be made from appearing to be squeaky-green! 

Now, because we are the most intelligent species on Earth, we have the privilege of choice. As you might have gathered, choice means more than one thing. So listen up - here are the options:

1- Ever Blasting Hell that is rather too terrible to contemplate - not for the squeamish! Only politicians, oily moguls, industry leaders, insurance salesmen and accountants may apply for admission.

2- Ever Lasting Complacency - not for the radical!  So roll up you veritable pillars of the community, religious stalwarts, men in uniform, uninformed men, conventional chaps, traditionalists who like to keep things just as they always were.

3- Ever Nasty Superiority - not for everyday nincompoops! Kindly make way for those noble whiners; those Nobel highly surprized winners; those purveyors of knowledge; those intellectual giants who know exactly where to find the dratted blueprints for hydro-cars, the lost greenprints for fuel cell technologies. Could global warming be caused partly from their ever-so-clever hot air?

4- Ever Fasting Few - not for sissies! Reserved for those who tried against all odds that became constantly odder! Those who dinkum, manifestly relinquished the pursuit of dollars, rands, rubles, riales, pesos, shekles, yen and euros - get to go straight to Eternity no 4.  There's plenty of space, lots of fresh air, no overpopulation here ... reserved for those who protected the mountains, streams, oceans and meadows against goth factories belching toxic gunk; ever growing nightmarish mountains of putrid human waste. This is for those trouble-making outraged messengers who told the unpopular truth.

Back to the Future

Back on Earth, however, most of humanity hears of their destinies with groans, sighs, gnashing and moans. Why have we not heeded the warnings apparent in the remains of other civilizations on Earth that committed similar mistakes, on a smaller scale? Certainly there are the impressive remains of the great cities of Mayans, Egyptians, Hebrews, Africans, Chinese, Asians, Indians. We are not by any means the first to destroy everything we so painstakingly built  - stone by weary stone, over many generations. Yet it can be seen that many who have gone before were forced to scatter to the four corners of their terrain in an urgent quest for food and water, when starvation through environmental degradation brought with it the realisation of what sustainability actually means in the face of enduring adversity. Those great empires certainly possessed wealth and breeding, sports and entertainment, ornate temples, adornment and fine fabrics, soft leather and exotic flavours, finely wrought gold, lovingly crafted palaces and lavish refinements such as servants for the  great tombs where everyone could die together in a big happy family of mummified bliss, replete with jewels, eunuchs and armies of strong soldiers to protect them for all of eternity.

Mayans lived in a male dominated conceptual framework - does male domination and extinction have any connection? Or is it simply an unavoidable human habit? Anyway, that wrathful Sungod was a lusty fellow, but at least he was easily appeased by the bloodthirsty sacrifice any virgins he might fancy, since there could arguably be no life on Ms. Earth Goddess without Mr. Sungod. (Or is it Sir Sungod? I forget where we were with his knighthood when he fell from favour). He was supposed to warm her cold feet on icy winter mornings, aside from ensuring her ongoing fertility. He was a useful, friendly old fella too, until we destroyed the ozone and ended up getting rather too close to him. Or if you happened to be the virgin chosen to be sacrificed - especially if the poor lass was keen to marry her childhood sweetheart. Now she’ll never follow in her granny’s footsteps and make it to a ripe old age of twenty-five before dying whilst giving birth to her seventh baby in as many years. Perhaps a fast throat slit could be preferable after all. At least she got to wear a pretty white frock for the occasion and everyone was VERY nice to her for at least a week beforehand because she kindly offered to appease that Rather Wrathful Ra Ra Hoorah Sir Sungod.

These great cultures understood all too well the precise movements of the earth - its moon, sun and stars - and accurately charted the movements of the planets and the passage of time according to their belief systems and observations. The subterranean Under World was believed to give rise to all life, whilst the Middle World consisted of the pains and pleasures of the physical realm. The 'Higher World' was where the 'Great Spirit' of the ancestors guided mortals through a peaceful afterlife with plenty of hunts, games and glorious endless summers. Provided that the ancestors were appeased on a regular basis with virgins and prize goats, their advice was invaluable as their descendants set about the daunting task of dying properly, so that they could travel through the vicissitudes of the Unknown Realm of the Great Spirit in safety and comfort. Thus the Mayans reigned supreme in a most orderly three tiered universe, building citadels of giant stepped pyramids carved with intricate, colorful pageants, lavishly carved with tales of daring, in the ancient forests of the exotic Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, 12,000 years BC. Learned men predicted some of what has come to pass with an astonishing degree of accuracy. Yet many of their calendars end abruptly in the year 2012.

According to Mayan lore, ideas are the most valuable currency we possess. If we each have a bean, and we swop, then we each still have one bean. But if I have an idea that I share with you, and you have an idea that you share with me, then we are both twice as enriched, for now we each have two ideas.

Yet when all was said and done, they too learned the bitter truth that no-one is invincible, and the only constant is change. None of their shiny bangles or great carved temples could appease the gods of drought, or buy them water and food. The lack of biodiversity in crops and livestock, and the destruction of the surrounding lush forests that had provided ample food and water for their cities is believed to have brought about the sudden collapse of this well organised civilisation of intelligence, remarkable engineering, superb skills in construction and obvious prowess. The arrogance of succeeding generations knows no bounds, as one after the other we made the same mistakes, with annoying predictability and dead certain outcomes; whilst ideas whose wisdom could inform the remembrance and sombre reasoning of those who come after are still basically ignored and forgotten. Within a few generations all knowledge of those bitter experiences was lost. We committed exactly the same environmental and social blunders through the arrogance of our self-appointed entitlement, dominion and supremacy.

Ecocentric or Egocentric?

Thus it was written on temples, tombs, scrolls - by the year 2012 the human race would have invented machines to probe the unimaginable depths of the oceans; to pierce the molten core of the Earth; to know of the vast, eternal, unfathomable, countless light years of celestial space - that terrifyingly other-worldly alien realm of star-studded gaseous swirling multicolored asteroids, those dense spaces that do not bear thinking about lest one slide into a mental vortex; the nightmarish void of eternal oblivion.

Disregard for the immutable laws of Nature can have no other outcome than to highlight our environmental and social disrespect. Should we be permitted to bring down the entire edifice, like a soaring Gothic arch that's lost it’s keystone? Or is there still hope for a miracle of such magnitude that there will be a universal, miraculous epiphany; and we will finally be galvanised into a global crisis management mode involving a level of uncompromising determination and international  co-operation such as has never before been witnessed in all our checkered history?

Well if an army of aliens from Planet Zog rocked up at the White House perhaps it could do the trick. But they’d have to put on the most dizzying, consummately virtuoso showmanship or possess some hectically scary weapons to conclusively demonstrate the urgency of our plight to this mob down here. Its gonna have to be shattering  enough to get real stalwarts of unbridled greed and materialism to take note. Can you imagine ole Madonna, Trump, Gates, Oppenheimer, Sorres, Rockefeller, Al Quieda, Onassis, the Vatican, Bush and everyone else who has amassed obscene amounts of wealth voluntarily handing over their assets for the immediate salvation of the planet?

The Enemy is Upon Us. Uh oh ... it is US!

Our normal disaster management strategies won’t work this time. One can only imagine the scenario if a realisation capable  of  stop us in our tracks does not manifest itself in time; as the scales of all that is finally tip into the realm of all that was. The terrifying finality of one shattering instant can only be imagined with primordial dread. Well it’s a great consolation that we once again get to learn our little lesson at the hands of the implacable, untouchable, ultimately logical forces of cause and effect. Damn shame about all those other cute, cuddly, pretty liddle things that so blessed our lives once upon a time. We have certainly earned the right to be wrong. It'll be some consolation that we've finally learned our lesson as all traces of unutterable, utterly miraculous Creation are obliterated from the face of the barren, dried-out rock spinning quietly on its axis that was once this living world of all worlds -  an ineffably perfect planet Earth.

 All we have to do is Change our Minds

The strangely successful mockery of birthing, nurturing, fecundity, sexuality and the whimsical spirits of nature that began in the Dark Ages and continues today is certainly surprising, since it is so fundamentally flawed as to defy all reason. It took truly diabolical force, but finally those ruthless medieval murderers won.  Shameful dancing and festivals marking the seasons were stamped out. Women were branded as "witches" and were agonisingly burned at the stake so men could take over their jobs as midwives. Gothic horrors - inquisitions, burnings, flayings and slayings - seared such profound psychic scars upon humanity’s collective subconscious that it seems inescapably the underlying cause for the calamity that now threatens future generations. How did this psychological holocaust take hold so successfully?

The Mess of Mass-Made Massive Man Made Messes

How then did humanity swallow this story en masse  - and messily swallow it in mass?  Or behind the sacristy, if you happened to be an alter boy -  soon to be an altered boy? Naturally evident 28 day cycles of the moon, seasons, tides, menstruation, pregnancy and birth govern nature. The elegance of a thirteen month calendar with cycles that follow natural laws must surely be preferable to the clumsy Gregorian invention of a 12 month year, with arbitrary days, leap years, perfunctory minutes and random hours all over the show to make up for the fact that this system just doesn’t work.  It ties us to a numerical system at odds with the rhythms of our bodies, divorced from those of the earth, negating the simple realities that govern planting and harvesting, equinox and solstice, solar and lunar cycles.

These important seasons of life itself were traditionally celebrated with feasting and dancing; thanks and joyful abandon; worship; wholesome sexuality; pregnancy, celebration of births and the suckling of infants - even as the Earth nurtures all life with benign grace.

No Sex Please

Misguided religious zealots of Medieval times took horrifying, draconian measures in their determination to systematically outlaw “pagan” festivals. Male and female species procreate by having babies, for a start. Secondly they happen to be borne by females.

Though perhaps it does involve more than two, if one considers one’s inner child, alter ego, altered ego, super-consciousness, psycho converter, saint, sinner,  parent, sub-conscious, split obsessive compulsive disordered disorganised personality. It’s more like asking God to tango with an entire corp de ballet, or pirouette with piranhas  - as we implore, gnash, beg, plead and bargain with Him to just drop one teeny little hint... what are we doing here? We’ll be good for all of eternity, if you just give us a teensy weeensy hint....I mean what’s life all about? To say nothing of death...

Anyway, to complete the picture of a completely dysfunctional lot of rotten-rolled humans, let’s not forget about our infinitely fertile, fecund Planet Earth- at least in nature there’s biodiversity and accountability.

No wonder we're all nutty as fruitcakes

Anyway procreation was cool at that stage. One needed a decent labour force to haul rocks for miles so Egyptians could die in style and Mayans could make a mess of their forests. Only now we need to rethink this fruitful and multiplying thing. In the light of unsustainable hordes of humans swarming in unchecked droves it seems rational to urgently revise our interpretation of this particular injunction. Howzabout we take it to mean we can now organically grow as much fruit as we want? The fruit option could be more tasteful and a lot less messy too.

Maybe nature overdid that fecundity thing. Well you have to realise that being fruitful and multiplying was a splendid idea when there weren’t enough players to make up a decent football team.

The resulting inbred types were not an optimum survival option. They really needed to aim for some diversity and expand the gene pool if they don’t want murderous halfwits in a few thousand years time as a civilization. Hey - maybe that’s why we’re like this? There were always mud-slime protozoa, has-bean wanna-bee pond-scum amoeba that could have been thrown into the gene pool at a push. Looking around maybe they were...But this hardly seems like a splendid way to get the ball rolling! Not if you want a team with a halfway decent goalie. And of course you need at least one opposition team, otherwise its not much of a challenge and everyone keeps leaving the pitch to get drunk ‘cos they’re bored. Just meditate on what Adam and Eve got up to, right at the very Genesis of Creation. Dysfunctional families have sure been around right from the start!

Nuff’s Nuff with that Fruitful & Multiplying Stuff

As there are countless BILLIONS of us I’d say its time to press the STOP button. Personally I’m sick and tired of hearing about Human Rights. Its more like Human Wrong’s vs. Nature’s Rights. What about sparrow rights, ant rights, lions, leaves, toads, twigs, barnacles, sub-atomic particles, farts, boils and ‘flu bugs? I mean haven’t they got rights too? Or does it work out that since we got to make the rules, we have the only rights left? And the right to be wrong? Time’s running out, so we’d better march about importantly, throw our weight around, slap large fines on anyone who breaks our right left wrong rules, all the while inventing random new rules to suit ourselves.

Most destructive of all was the arrogant belief in our superiority, that Nature must be subdued - wounded, poisoned, slowly dying before our very eyes - bleeding, crying, seeking fruitlessly the myriads of living beings that once abounded in every part of the planet - consigned by humanity to extinction.

The failing health of the planet is clear for all to see. What are we waiting for, as we implacably continue to add to our numbers exponentially, all the while burning the Earth alive even as we burned those witches of yore at the stake? Still the Earth rallies healing forces against the triumphant march of 'progress'; the great cry of ravenous hordes as they celebrating their triumph over the vanquished, wild, wanton wicked woman. She fought valiantly to grow, yield, produce, create, nourish and heal - only to fail against our manic onslaught. This is indeed all she knows; all she was created for. Waging war was never her game - she was programmed to unquestioningly feed and sustain anything that lives on Earth, even the misguided, misbegotten human race of double-crossing, unrepentant, ruthless renegades.

The question then is this - are we really in danger? Are we waiting too long for essential changes to clean up our act, or are we moving slowly but surely to the sustainable, renewable, emissions-free technologies that spell our salvation, and that of our earthly hostess? Can we awaken in time to avert an epic disaster - a sixth and very possibly final extinguishing of all life forms on our Great Mother Earth?

Just as long as we feel better in the morning. We are of course the pinnacle of creation, the most intelligent species for miles around - never mind outer space - which so far seems to harbour barely a single-celled amoeba in all the vastness we have probed. No challenge anywhere out there to our brilliance or self-evident supremacy. We may rest complacent in our apex species-ship. We who have cleverly probed sea, sky and mastered all manner of theoretical quantum leaps are the divinely ordained, absolutely main thing to worry about after all.

‘Vengeance is Mine’ Sayeth the Lord

God certainly is patient, kind, merciful and loving. Considering the magnitude of our stupidity, it has been remarkably quiet of late, give or take the odd tsunami here or there. Plagues and pestilence are mostly a thing of the past - other than the seething, stinking mass of 7 billion sweating, farting, guilt ridden, drunken, insecure, thieving, breeding, morally reprehensible, potentially murderous, pathologically xenophobic, clinically insane humans of course. Antibiotics, inoculations and the plentiful chemical compounds that were mostly stolen from hapless tribesman but nevertheless successfully mimic the healing properties of many plants - these have won the war on disease for the time being.

Maybe its all just a little dream, and we aren’t really ripping up the fancy lace petticoat oceans, the billowing  clouds, shoals and shallows, flitting swallows, flickering fires of ancient wisdom revealing effervescent wonder of nascent iridescent innocence.  Maybe we aren’t riding slipshod with our market shares, our blue chip portfolios, our worthless bank notes, our everyday monstrosities of greed and avarice that spill the blood of the earth and sear the delicate sky with black plumes of rancid desires and lust for baubles we invented only yesterday, yet will kill and maim to possess for tomorrow, whilst losing today forever.

Never and a day - that is where our minds are set, our mindsets that are only set to lose it all in a great cataclysm of self- pitying apathy. For what can any one of us do against the monstrous stupidity that blindly leads to the acceptance of a collective psychological investment in a material world marshalled to madness - a consciousness that belies all reason, yet is deemed to be a towering monument to man-made rationalism? But maybe none of it is true! Its just a waking dream to teach us a thing a or two  - our blunderbuss bullying bumbling species could never make it work, here on an Earth so rare that even Angels fear to tread.  

A Round of Applause for Man(un)kind!

What are we gonna do with the money

when there’s no more air or water?

There is no species left that is not highly endangered except for ourselves and those choice few that we find cute, cuddly, edible and ideally all three. The obscenely, insanely powerful dynasties from time immemorial made their fortunes from the exploitation of both human and natural resources; gaining control early on of a particular market (or ideally an entire country), extracting and selling its finite natural assets with cheap and plentiful local enforced labour and destroying any form of competition one way or another. Exploiting finite resources for short term gain at the expense of life itself has lead to a lacklustre, lackadaisical interest in genuine alternatives to burning fossil fuels, since the truly mind boggling profits of this practice enables government servants, barons of oil rich nations and corporate executives to live lives of unprecedented luxury and breathtaking opulence.

What then to do with the inconvenient shame of knowing that the uncontrollably evil genius that would destroy the world is none other than the greedy grasping of you and me? We must have provided entertainment galore for fallen angels who watched our show with great amusement. Melodramas, wars, pestilential plagues, betrayals, murders, sacrifices - a bountiful supply for every possible perversity.

Do not forget, however, that God - and Creation - has all of eternity. Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things if we destroy the atmosphere, and hence take the entire complex miracle down with us, not merely our own foolishness? Does everything else have to die that we may learn some kind of cosmic lesson? How can we ask or receive forgiveness for committing an atrocity so inconceivably final that our poor forefathers would have been wise to have elected not to conceive any progeny at all had they known the outcome? 

What Unutterable, Unfathomable, Infinitely Powerful Being could create this Infinite Galactic Multi-Verse of mind boggling dimensions? Yet simultaneously contrived to paint every feather of every bird with colors of unsurpassed extravagance, scattering rainbows of metallic fish flitting weightless in their very own playgrounds of delight - undulating delicately hued corals splattered in gorgeous gardens of fabulous marine diversity, seemingly for none to see except the flittery fish and great razor sharp sharks as they slice through the depths of glittering aquamarine oceans.

At the same time - like a giant‘s game of marbles - great boulders are hurled with wild abandon across every surface of the earth, splattered with intricately lacy multi-coloured lichens adorning every rock with rainbow raiment, glorious garments for every fluttering, tweeting, twittering, buzzing, basking, evolving, adapting, vibrant species on this enormous Earth. All of this virtuoso extravagance, this fecund bounty seems to have been created for the demanding joy of simply being alive.

Moss, flowers, blossoms, trees, birds, bees, trailing masses, squawking, squeaking, mountainous mammoths, monstrous lizards, minuscule mice, massive and minute experiments one and all, set to somehow survive despite belching springs, noxious gases, bizarre infernoes, crashing glaciers and mighty erupting bowels of sudden volcanic explosions. Yet despite all of these, no form of creation seems so obviously obnoxious as us - the People of Planet Earth, who by grace are miraculously made of billions of cells that have been in existence from time immemorial. Trillions of quarks make up the electrons, protons spinning endlessly around the nuclei of atoms, mitochondria replicating in their tiny energetic worlds. Our cells were once stardust, dinosaurs, protozoa, plankton. Encrypted within the DNA of a single cell of every single living genome there somehow exists a code that would take thirty one years if read out loud at a rate of one word per second, a single string of which would wrap around the circumference of the Earth three times. Apocalypse spells doom, destruction, greed, avarice - yet it also holds the Divine promise of redemption, awakening, a cataclysmic epiphany of profound enlightenment at the absolutely eleventh hour. 

For instance, think about the miracle of water, without which even the humblest single-celled organism cannot survive. Yet we squander it mercilessly, without heed for future generations. We gaily believe that we will not be here to reap the destruction we have sown, whilst knowing so little of Creation. We synthesize the perfect chemistry of nature, creating strange compounds to suit our sick industries, based on outmoded belief systems and draconian technologies that no longer work. Yet we blithely continue this mindless pursuit of man-made wealth at all costs, formulating toxic compounds that cannot break down into those simple elements that form the very building blocks of life.

Last Chance to Redeem the Earth AND Yourself

.... unless you can think of something more worthwhile to do  ...

Every single form of life on Earth is now endangered, as humans race towards extinction - including, as the ultimate irony, ourselves! There exists the momentous probability that soon we will destroy the atmosphere itself - that fragile skin that permits all life on a globe spinning quietly on its axis with nothing but the weightless void of endless blackness all around - the only harbinger of life for an infinite number of light years, as far as we can tell.

Countless species have quietly become extinct, their futile demise unmourned, unheralded, unnoticed save for a few scientists who catalogue their passing.  We have squandered the legacy of this, and all future generations, when we could have easily changed our ways; explored better technologies. cleaned up our act; controlled our numbers; our addiction to oil, to junk, to extreme flavours and perverse pleasures; our violence. Simple pleasures abound - of rivers, beaches, forests lavishly carpeted with multi-hued wild flowers; foliage bright beneath turquoise skies, health and radiant sparkling beauty that is our gift, our treasure, a legacy that is every living being’s birthright.

Hoarding for tomorrow what others need today

What will make us refuse to squander even one more molecule of oxygen in the futile pursuit of an ever receding goal of  "security"? Let’s rise above this lowest of all common denominators, and lift up our voices to shout “Enough!” For if you think about it, this is indeed something. We all bear the name - no matter our religion - of that greatest of all betrayers. We are the collective Judas, and we share the guilt of extinguishing so much of creation that we simply have no idea how to ever replace or redeem any single smallest part of it. What complacent, puerile justification do we conjure up for this shame? Who among us will refuse to sacrifice the only life we know of - in all the far flung galaxies that exist - for a handful of entirely worthless gold? And what, after all, will we do with the gold when there’s no more air and water?

Education is not schooling

Being is not doing

Sex is not love

Information is not knowledge

Knowledge is not wisdom

Religion is not God