My dear,
A child has to learn to walk. It trips up many times before it can run. How can the human race be ready to run a Marathon when it is still growing up ?
The human race has not had to manage global climate change before, so it will take us some time to learn what works and what does not.
And if we put our faith in one person, or an elite group, or engineers, or statesmen, they will inevitably fail us. There are no individual heroes – although some people can inspire us – like the man you discovered. We all need to excel. We can only overcome our limitations with the encouragement and praise of the people around us.
Yes, the human world collectively is stupid. But within this mass of billions of minds, there are teams working together to move forward, in any way that they can. Yes, the Mars mission was useless, but the teamwork was amazing !
Let’s look at what we’ve got. We have the IPCC – a global body working together. We have the network of research institutions. We have business forums. We have Civil Society movements. We have Renewable Energy. We have writers, speakers, thinkers. We have film makers. We have media. We have government administrations, standards, engineering. No one of these things is enough, but there are so many people working on climate change and energy that I can see that a transformation is possible.
Because we cannot move fast enough, yes, some forests will die, some rivers will dry up, some countries become uninhabitable. People will suffer and die. We cannot prevent that now. But you know, the rest of us will still be able to live in Siberia, Greenland and Canada, or possibly Antarctica. We still have time to prevent the human race completely destroying itself and the planet.
We have to mourn the oak trees, but my view is that it is better to act in hope, rather than be passive in despair.
I don’t mean a naive, unknowing hope. I mean a hope that is realistic, pragmatic. What can we reasonably expect of people ? What can we rationally do ourselves ? We each need to find a slot, a role, a function, and occupy it. We need to do what we can, even though we cannot do a lot.
A sense of peace in our souls is essential. I don’t know how peace can come to you, but I pray that you receive the spirit of peace in your mind, so that your worrying heart can become still. When you have a gentle centre, an empty soul, you can think clearly about what you can do to bring change, and you can find the energy do to it. It is good to learn to meditate, maybe, to practice being still in the presence of peace itself. I practice a religion that has a name, but I don’t sell this particular faith or its practice to people. I think the Great Spirit wants to relate to each of us as individuals, so it’s probably best if he/she/it talks to you directly. Look out of the window at the clouds – in the Christian Holy Scriptures it says this :-
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+19&version=NIV
“The heavens [atmosphere, sun and clouds] declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
When we come to understand climate change, everyone starts on a journey of faith or a journey of despair. I think for the sake of the ones that come after us, the little ones, that we learn how to walk in some kind of sustaining faith. Sometimes that faith has a name. Sometimes we do rituals for this faith. Sometimes we wear special clothes. Sometimes we say special words and read special books. Sometimes we build shrines. Sometimes we just sit and chat and eat and drink with friends, fellows, people who understand.
You fear death, but look around you. There’s life.
May you be held in the arms of peace,