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by Gavin Atkinson
poems from the heart
by Gavin Atkinson
poems from the heart
by Gavin Atkinson
poems from the heart
If no chlorofluorocarbons are to be used in refrigerators, then what ? If no fossil fuels to power automobiles and factories, then what? Environmental problems are not independent. They have resulted from a complex set of activities and institutions that make up our life and society. Environmentalists and Greens must go beyond problems in order to clarify the causes and suggest solutions. As a person whose profession and passion is concerned with the planet Earth, I can envision seven megatrends - seven broad frontiers of action - which are necessary for greening the future and protecting the environment.
1. Population megatrend. Dr. Nafis Sadik, the head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says, "Our environmental crisis is also a population crisis." To picture the population explosion think of these numerical facts: It took half a million years for the population of homo sapiens to reach 1.6 billion in 1900, another 60 to double, and it is taking only another 37 years to redouble, i.e., 6 billion in 1997. This growth of population cannot continue indefinitely because the earth is limited both in terms of space and resources. To stop and stabilize the population, we should decrease the birth rate because otherwise the increase in the death rate due to famine or war will do it in a drastic way. Strategies for reducing the birth rate such as family planning, female education, and improving the status of women, and fighting against infant mortality must be carried out especially in developing countries because 90 percent of the 95 million that are annually added to the world population are concentrated in these countries.
2. Energy megatrend. Energy is a key that, to paraphrase a Buddhist proverb, opens the gates of heaven as well as hell. At present, coal, petroleum, and natural gas provide 88 percent of the world's energy. These fossil fuels are, however, exhaustible and polluting. Many of our environmental problems, notably urban air pollution, acid rain, and global warming result from the combustion of fossil fuels. Ultimately, we have to depend on non-pollutant renewable energy sources which are numerous - wind, water, tidal, biomass, geothermal, solar power, and hydrogen fuel. The sooner we move towards them, the better, and in the course of developing technologies to fully utilize the renewable energies, we should also increase the energy efficiency of existing automobiles, factories, power plants, and buildings.
3. Economic megatrend. In 1968 biologist Garret Hardin in a paper published in Science showed how sheep owners, in pursuit of individual gain, overgraze the common ground, and as everyone exploits the commons, the pasture is destroyed. The tragedy of the commons is also with us. Throughout the world, economic systems and policies of every type are based on short-term profits at the expense of depleting natural assets. Ironically, this unsustainable path is hailed as economic development and progress. In the past decade, some theoreticians, especially Lester Brown of the Worldwatch Institute and Gro Harlem Brundtland, the head of the United Nations Our Common Future project, have put forward the idea of sustainable development, which means "satisfying our demands without jeopardizing the prospects of future generations." Sustainable economic policies are yet to be planned and implemented.
4. Political megatrend. Our one and only Earth has been divided politically into at least three worlds and about 166 big and small countries. World political leaders are mostly engaged in handling conflicts to remain in power at home and to gain profit and prestige for their respective countries abroad. From a planetary point of view, however, such divisions are illusory and such activities are suicidal for humanity. The time has come for political leaders to "think globally and act locally as well as globally." We should move towards worldwide cooperation and a common endeavor to understand and preserve the planet. An international treaty on reducing the emission of atmospheric greenhouse gases is a case in point.
Perhaps nothing better than armaments illustrate the illness of the world's political machinery. Currently world governments spend about $900 billion on the military each year. The reason? Security. From whom? From one another. Only if we are human enough to live peacefully, will we be able to utilize our financial and human resources to green our future. Besides, as recent earthquakes in Armenia and Iran, flooding in Bangladesh, famine in Ethiopia, and cholera in Latin America have shown, environmental disasters often carry a heavier toll and cause more damage than war, which means that governments have to redefine security.
5. Social megatrend. Today human society is unbalanced: on the one hand, 30 percent of humanity in the so-called developed countries lead a wasteful lifestyle and consume 70 percent of world energy; on the other hand, the majority of humans living in the so-called developing countries lack basic necessities and eke out a living under the burden of a $1.2 trillion debt to industrialized countries' banks and governments. We have to move away from a throwaway lifestyle towards a society that recycles materials as Nature does and from an unfair world toward a world whose majority is not trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty and environmental degradation.
6. Scientific megatrend. Nature is not divided into separated departments and numerous disciplines, and people need to know what is happening to the Earth and how it works. As a scientist I can understand that to give a minute description of nature, science has to be specialized into minute fields. But science should also move toward a unified field to understand the planet as a whole. Moreover, there should be a flow of accurate information to the public who consume, work, and vote, and need to be enlightened. Ironically, there is a lack of science in most of the developing nations. Since these nations possess a greater part of the Earth's resources and life-supporting systems such as rainforests and continental shelves, they thus need know-how to conserve and manage them. Recent discussion on the Gaia hypothesis advocated by British scientist James Lovelock and the ongoing International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme organized by the United Nations are good signs of this megatrend.
7. Spiritual megatrend. None of the above-mentioned megatrends in population, energy, economy, politics, society, and science can be made without a transformation in our thoughts and views. The environmental crisis is basically an outward manifestation of our inner, mental crisis. If we, as individuals and a society, develop our inner voice and ethics, and live simply and lightly on this planet, in harmony with nature (rather than subduing her) or without greed and destructive desires, many of the existing problems will disappear and a green future will be in sight.
The ideas presented above may exist in the back of our minds or on the margin of our social lives, but they need to be transformed into major trends in the current decade so that in the coming century the planet Earth may steer a healthy course.
Published in JAPAN ENVIRONMENT MONITOR, 10/31/1991
"Greening the Future" Essay Contest Winners Announced Japan Environment Monitor and Namaenonai Shimbun are pleased to announce the results of its recent essay contest in the theme, "Greening the Future". Two first prizes ... were awarded to the best essays submitted in English and Japanese which offered penetrating insights into the contemporary ecological situation and novel ideas on how to begin moving forward to a greener future...
In the English language category first prize went to Dr. Rasoul B. Sorkhabi, whose essay is published in this issue of Japan Environment Monitor...
The GMT, a very average guy, is doing the rounds of one of these gardens, as he does nearly every morning in a semi-successful bid to stave off the inevitable middle-age spread. He's not over the hill yet, but the view from his location is grand ! He deliberately chooses to walk deosil around the park (clockwise, like the planets in their orbits around the Sun, and like white witches in their rituals) rather than widdershins (anticlockwise, which is the habit of most people, all racing horses, trained athletes and supposedly the Devil, in no particular order), so that he can meet more of the people face-to-face as they do their rounds. And as the GMT passes, he politely but cheerfully says "Good Morning" to each one.
The reaction is mixed. If this was Hollywood, the response would probably be : "Get away from me, you pervert! Help! Rape! Police!" But this is not Hollywood, and the response behaviours constitute the complete real spectrum, ranging from those who think the GMT is just plain mad; those who refuse to talk to simply anybody (Mother always said "Don't you dare say 'Good Morning' to anyone, and don't talk to any strangers, especially ones you don't know !"); those who are too absorbed in a discussion with their walking mates to notice the greeting; those who are simply concentrating too intensively on their supreme sporting efforts (and there are some really good athletes who train here - Olympic material, including a retired Olympic marathon runner); those who are totally lost in Hyperspace : the 21st Century world of portable audio - the new Mickey Mouse Club, complete with ears; those who actually manage a grunt in reply; those who produce a feeble but nice smile (still free of charge and even GST, as far as the GMT knows, and the bonus feature is that it does not slow down your running), sometimes smiling just to themselves, but nonetheless noted and appreciated by the GMT; those who actually reply "Good Morning"; and those who add a personal touch, such as a really big beaming smile, or "Nice Day" or "How Are You ?". It is heartening that, even though some people are trapped in their little shells, most indulge in this harmless Game of Friendship. Yes, the success rate is high - after all, the friendliness of Australians, and of Melbournians in particular, is the stuff of legends around the world. The GMT has heard some of these legend himself while travelling.
Old Satchmo had an intriguing song called "What A Wonderful World", which contains the lyrics : "I see Friends shaking hands / Saying 'How Do You Do' / What They're really saying / Is 'I love You' ". True to the hype of American songwriters, this is a little exaggerated, but not altogether irrelevant. Smiling and greeting are ways of displaying that we are innocuous, and are intended as a precursor to a peaceful encounter, rather than an aggressive one. Desmond Morris, in his classic work "Manwatching", devotes an entire chapter to hellos and farewells, underscoring their importance in our civilisation. He categorises smiling as an "appeasement gesture". A bit of smiling or the odd "Good Morning" or two might go a long way in some places around the world, such as the Middle East, for instance.
Don Miguel Ruiz, in "The Four Agreements", his outstanding treatise on Toltec knowledge, talks about humans being "domesticated" - trained from childhood like Pavlovian dogs to salivate or growl on command. One of the things programmed into us is fear. And it is this fear which gives rise to the "ten thousand evils", as the Chinese would probably term this ("ten thousand", to the Chinese, is like "infinity" to the Western world) : the many antisocial and negative aspects of our humanity. It is fear which is used as the basic key to programming all of the other behaviours into us. Banishing the fear is the biggest step to realising one's full potential as a human being. Being a GMT is one practical path towards this goal. There are six billion people on this planet. There are six billion paths to self-realisation.
G.I. Gurdjieff, in his remarkable work "Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson", tells of his grandmother admonishing him as follows : "Either do nothing - just go to school - or do something nobody else does". (Which he then takes to heart and proceeds to sing a funny ditty at her funeral, horrifying the other mourners, but honouring her memory in the sincerest possible way). An interesting modus vivendi, and certainly also one of the many paths to self-realisation.
The GMT's activity is beginning to meet with a degree of success : he finds that if he delays his morning greeting by just a bit, there are now people who will take the initiative and greet him first. And some of the recalcitrants are starting to warm up to the idea that it might not be the end of the world to say "Good Morning" to someone they do not know. After all, no one is watching and taking notes, no "Conditions Apply" (unlike most ads these days), and it might even feel good.
An idea rises to the surface again from the dark recesses of the GMT's mind, its author long forgotten : "Think of your best friend. See your friend before you in your mind's eye, and enjoy your friend's most wonderful attributes. Now realise that there was a time when this person was a complete stranger to you !"
The film "Six Degrees of Separation" posits that just six successive like-minded groups of people (you, your friends, your friend's friends, your friend's friend's friends, etc) would span the globe. This is no doubt true, and seems to be supported by many actual examples which link, for example, any two Hollywood actors (for what that is worth). Naturally, there are even web sites devoted to this phenomenon.
What the Six Degrees of Separation idea does highlight is that, as individuals, we can change the world. We simply need to rattle our little corner of the spider web, by showing by example how life can be lived in a more productive way, and the effects will be felt around the world. There is that old saw about the flutter of butterfly wings in the Amazon causing a tornado in Kansas, or something of the sort. This is not so far from reality as it might seem. Perhaps one day, across the time and distance of the Six Degrees of Separation, the GMT will make you smile. Then it will be YOUR turn to pass it on ...
M. Krochmal
Monday, 8 December 2003
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