May 24, 2009
Hi
What great global changes have occurred since the beginning of 2009. And I suspect that's just the beginning. Is the economic “Berlin Wall” crumbling? Will adoption of alternative energy sources and technologies come in time to avoid the coming Peak Oil crisis? And most importantly of all, are we on the brink of a new world where people and the natural environment can flourish? Or collapse? And what can any one person do?
Yes, it's easier to ask these questions than to answer them. But I'll try, using my gut feeling as much as any intellectual grasp I may have.
The crumbling economic Berlin Wall
You remember the Berlin Wall coming down? It seemed impossible right up to weeks before it happened. A divided nation was re-united.
My gut tells me we are in the foothills of mountains of global change. Of all social, environmental and economic domains.
Already we know that we cannot go on living as if the Earth were no more than an oversize super market. But economic stimulus packages ask us to spend ourselves out of crisis. That tells us that the other parts of stimulus, investment in alternative energy technnology and solar energy incentives, are founded on quicksand. Founded on the same values that caused our mess in the first place.
Yes, perhaps the US will get 20% of its energy from wind power by 2030. Texas is booming on energy again – wind this time! But is that power merely going to be used to produce and consume as if nothing happened? Well, human nature is in part to get rich quick and easy so the temptation is certainly there.
Peak Oil is very close. Oil output cannot increase beyond currentlevels, and is in fact declining. But population growth and demand in India and China want more of it. The result? Just use your imagination, starting with arriving at the local gas bowser and reading the price. It will hurt.
Yes, we're at a threshold of choice. But the only “choice” many of us have in our heads is how to get more money to survive. But you cannot eat the stuff. And it cannot buy 'community.'
Community? What's that got to do with it? Aha! Glad you asked.
The alternative to collapse is to transform our thinking and pracctices. Enlarge ourselves so to speak, to take in the interests of those around us and the environments we live in. And to act as if that is our true reality: we live and survive by virtue of being in relationship.
After the Berlin Wall
You don't have to wait with transforming yourself and your life until our global crises get worse. It's free and you can do it now. But were are the guides to teach this stuff? No-one has lived through such worldwide strife before to show how it's done. Wrong!
People that have faced massive Berlin Wall crashes are among us everywhere. And these people changed themselves to live well with their new reality. Who are they? You might not believe this but you will find them among poor people, people who have successfully lived with severe disabilities. People who are happily aging and even those who know they have only a limited time left to live. These people carry passports into a new flourishing world and you can get a ride with them.
How? Engage with the poor, disabled, old or dying people inn your neighbourhood. Offer help and see what works for them and what does not.
You will find ways to live creatively within limits. You will learn how to reach out to make supportive relationships happen. You will feel yourself grow and transform your thinking, allowing you to step right into that world after the Wall crashed. A world rich with opportunities. A sustainable world.
Utopia?
“Is that it?” you say. That can never happen. Airy fairy stuff. We need infrastructure, creative loans, new technologies. That's what will pull us out of it. Out of what, into what? More of the same? Has this been such a great example of a happy world?
Relational living, in consciously interdependent relationships is just living in the flow of reality. Appropriate energies and technologies will flow from that consciousness. Forcing change upon that reality with all the technological might at our disposal has devastated our beautiful planet. Species extinction is happening at the greatest rate since the dinosaur crunch. Glaciers and the great rivers they feed are disappearing. Industrial pollution... Is that not the result of striving for Utopia? An unachievable dream of individual riches and comforts?
Of course we must live in this world and converting your car to alternative fuel will help. So will installation of wind and solar power on your home. Reduccing commuying and working locally or from home. Just be aware that these will not, by themselves, deliver a sustainable world. In combination with your simple daily acts of kindnesss they pack a great fist though!
I would love to hear your comments on this post. Contact me here
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Kind regards
Erik Leipoldt
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