Ok, I hear you, but lets cut straight to the chase. I think we would agree that there is no such thing as “saving the world.” I am now of the belief that it’s not the world that needs saving, but it’s each of us that must focus on saving ourselves first. Saving ourselves happens when we take the time to become the most aware versions of ourselves, so that we are able to live a purposeful life.
It is when we make conscious decisions and create things and experiences that leave a legacy and positively impacts others. When you get clear on who you are and heed your inner calling of how to serve others, you ultimately achieve your greater goal of “saving the world.”
The human race has a problem in its relationship with the environment. That problem is an intrinsic consequence of running a technological civilisation on the surface of a planet and it's one we were destined to face since long before perceiving it. Now that we do perceive it, and everybody's talking about it, we should start being more realistic about the historical context of those discussions.
All life forms exploit their surroundings to get what they need to survive. Daisies need sunlight, squirrels need acorns, whales need krill. We humans, however, have always been rather more ambitious about what constitutes our needs and, for 100,000 years, those ambitions and their side effects have been inexorably increasing.
HUMANS are not the centre of life. Nor is any other single species. Life has existed at the planetary level for at least 3,000 million years. To me, the human move to take responsibility for the living Earth is laughable. The planet takes care of us, not the other way around.
Our self-inflated moral imperative to guide a wayward Earth, or heal our sick planet, is evidence of our immense capacity for self delusion. Rather, we need to protect ourselves from ourselves.
We are at the point of a very big crisis indeed in global biodiversity. Over 40 per cent of the land mass of the earth is now devoted to human agriculture. The cities are eating up the open spaces with their garbage and concrete. The forests are being taken over by agriculture. There is simply no way that this can be allowed to double in the next generation, which is the rate at which we are going.
Over 70% of our Earth's surface is covered by water. Although water is seemingly abundant, the real issue is the amount of fresh water available. 97.5% of all water on Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh water Nearly 70% of that fresh water is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland; most of the remainder is present as soil moisture, or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater not accessible to human use. Only ~1% of the world's fresh water is accessible for direct human uses. This is the water found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and those underground sources that are shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. California has been in a state of emergency since 2003 because of lack of water every year since then has been the worst drought than in 50 years. California has been using water from aquifers that are reserved for our children for the year 2050 and has shoved the water shortage problem onto the later generations.
The truth is Gaia will recover from humans, but will humans be around to see that happen. Can we 'change ourselves' before its too late? How do we change ourselves?
Either we change ourselves, change each other or change are lifestyles. We could live less technological dependant lives or engineer solutions to make the best out of our technological innovations. Technology should improve ones life and its our personal choices when using technology that make technology a negative impact.
Technology can have positive impacts, and we should learn how to be effective consumerists. Such as we can buy organic, fair trade hot chocolate or spend more money on quality products like shoes, clothing, and food. Because the apparel and food industry that sell cheap clothing or food usually do so buy creating sweat shops. Make your products last longer! Make do or mend! And in other circumstances like using solar power in your home or making good decisions on what you buy.
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