The Earth: An unconcerned observer

“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.”

Elwyn Brooks White

I feel a deep resonance with James Lovelock’s notion of Gaia, whilst on one level it is metaphorical in that it suggests the Earth’s biota is a sentient being, I believe it is helpful conceptually for us to consider it as such since it offers us the opportunity to identify with it and develop a better way of relating to it. However, I believe we also need to recognise the hard truth of the matter, the Earth does not care about us, we have evolved out of the complex history of life on Earth but we are not essential to it, in fact nothing much is, certainly nothing that is alive. Species have come and gone throughout the ages based on their ability to adapt to or survive in the every changing environment on Earth. We seem to believe that we are somehow special, more important than other creatures, perhaps we are but only in so much as we have developed the ability to cause so much harm. The point we must remember is that life on Earth will continue well after our extinction, yes it may look very different and there may be time needed to recover from the impact of humankind but it will indeed happen.

The real concern therefore is not for the good of the Earth, it is for the good of ourselves because we are the only ones who really have a vested interest. I believe we need to start to see this as an issue for Mankind’s survival and not about saving the planet, an irritant we may be but a long term threat we are not. If people truly believed that their children and grand children were going to suffer terribly they may actually be willing to re-examine what really matters to them and forgo their desire for more and settle for being more. I truly believe that we are living at a pivotal point in human history, they say that the night is darkest just before the dawn and looking at our world today with all it’s crisis’s including global terrorism, social unrest, corporate exploitation, political nepotism, environmental devastation and climate change to name but a few, things certainly look extremely dark to me. So what might the dawn bring? Perhaps a time where we meet in our sameness and not in our difference, a realisation that we all need to collaborate to avert the impending disaster and in so doing, we might actually learn that there is a different, more meaningful, morally richer way of relating to each other and the world around us. If, like Martin Luther King, I had a dream, this would be it.