LET'S PAY MORE THAN LIP SERVICE TO PLANET SUSTAINABILITY

Fires last month burned thousands of houses in California and British Columbia to the ground. Record hurricanes have devastated Houston and Florida. And global warming predicts more such “extreme weather events” in the years ahead.

What can you and I do, in our small corner of the world, to take responsibility for the ecological and cultural crises in which we find ourselves?  Good question.  In the end, would any individual contribution make a difference in the real picture?...An even better question.

The Three Pillars of Sustainability says that

for the complete sustainability problem to be

solved all three pillars of sustainability must

be sustainable. The three pillars are social

sustainability, environmental sustainability

and economic sustainability. Of the three 

pillars, the most important is environmental

sustainability. If this is not solved, then no

matter how hard we try the other pillars

cannot be made strong because they are

dependent on the greater system they live

within, the environment.

The non dual perspective says that everything is connected to everything else. There are no independent relationships and thus nowhere in particular to “point the finger.”  But in another sense, as people awakening to whatever degree of choice we have, we realize responsibility is distributed throughout the human system, so we each do have some real responsibility to the future. It’s important to feel and act connected to the moral implications of everything happening in our time, knowing that what happens in our lifetimes matters profoundly.

A third way to view our predicament is as an inevitable crossroads and an evolutionary opportunity. Natural selection, superior intelligence, opposable thumbs, and the acquisition of language would perhaps cause any species on any planet to overpopulate, choke on their own wastes and begin to destroy our life support system. Humans are not unique in this regard.

God help us, the writing is on the wall...We are going to suffer tremendous losses in the days ahead...This is no dress rehearsal. An ethic of sustainability is essential, not simply because it preserves the environment, but because it allows the discovery of a lifestyle that can continue for generations. It is far preferable to recognize the most egregious violations, and correct them as quickly as possible, so that people might ease into their new roles voluntarily instead of being thrust into by necessity.

By all accounts, this isn’t some abstract timescale of centuries, affecting a world we can’t yet imagine. Our actions are already affecting us. They will continue affecting us. The people who will have to make these radical decisions are our grandchildren, our children, and even ourselves in whatever time we have left on this planet. 

The question is, why aren’t we doing these things already? These problems aren’t new. They have been identified, we know they exist, and we know that they’re accelerating. We are uniquely equipped economically in Canada; we have enough wherewithal to make the economic transition to sustainability. We simply lack the willingness.

While we work to slow climate change, we must also invest in efforts to protect and preserve our air, water, lands, and native animals. Figuring out how to persuade people to make necessary changes in their lifestyles to ensure the sustainable use of this planet will end up being the great question of our generation. It is up to our federal and provincial governments to lead the way and to make hard decisions in dealing with corporate polluters.   

I suggest that whether we succeed or not at turning the corner to a sustainable future, the sacred invitation of this lifetime is both spiritual and social — we can awaken into a different way of being human, individually and together — and a new relationship to the earth, our fellow creatures, and one another.

Let us all give this serious thought -- please!