Deep Economy

From Deep Economy, by Bill McKibben:

"When Thomas Newcomen [who invented the steam engine] fired up his pump that day in 1712, the atmosphere was 275 parts per million carbon dioxide. All our burning since has increased that number to 380 parts per million, igher than it's been for many millions of years. And we're starting to see the results - in fact, we're starting to see that the results are much more dire than scientists predicted even a few years ago. The year 2005 was the warmest on record, and nine of the ten hottest years were in the decade that preceded it; as a result of that heat, about an extra degree Fahrenheit globally averaged, all kinds of odd things have begun to happen. For instance, everything frozen on earth is melting, and melting fast. In the fall of 2005, polar researchers reported that Arctice ice had apparently passed a "tipping point": so much sun-reflecting white ice had been turned to heat-absorbing blue water that the process was now irreversible. Meanwhile, other scientists showed that because of longer growing seasons, temperate soils and forests like the ones across America were now seeing more decay, and hence giving off more of their stored carbon, accelerating the warming trend. So far, this young millennium has already seen a killer heat wave that killed fifty-two thousand people across Europe in the course of a couple of weeks, and an Atlantic hurricane season so bizarrely intense that we ran out of letters in the alphabet for naming storms. The point is, climate change is not some future specter; it's already emerging as the biggest problem the world faces.\
And it's only just begun. The median predictions of the world's climatologists - by no means the worst-case scenarios - show that unless we take truly enormous steps to rein in our use of fossil fuels we can expect that the globally averaged temperature will rise another four or five degrees before the century is out. If that happens, the world will be warmer than it's been for millions of years, long before primates appeared on the planet. We don't know exactly what that world would feel like, but almost every guess is hideous. Since warm air holds more water vapor than cold air, for instance, we can expect more drought in the middles of our continents where grain growing is concentrated, and more floods on the coasts where many people live. The World Health Organization expects vast increases in mosquito-borne disease. Researchers warned in 2006 that climate change could kill 184 million people in Africa alone before this century is out [I wonder if Americans will even care that much], destruction on a scale so staggering it has no precedent. We might as well have a contest to pick a new name for Earth, because it will be a differnet planet. Humans have never done anything bigger, not even the invention of nuclear weapons." (pages 20-21, last italics mine).

Here's me, Jonathan, again: This isn't meant as a doomsday scare or a sort of end times prophecy. And it's not meant solely to guilt you (or me). It is meant to illuminate, and to sit with you. I will write more soon on what I think in response to this, and I have many thoughts. But there's a choice we have in light of this as to how we will live. We might not be able to end global warming, or mitigate it's consequences, but we can stop contributing to it. And we can help others learn how to do so as well. This can begin in very very very small ways. Hang dry your clothes. Drive less - significantly less. Switch your light bulbs to energy efficient bulbs, and turn them off whenever you're not using them. Turning everything off when you're not using it. Not fearfully or legalistically, but mindfully. Turn your computers off, not on sleep or standby, wherein they still use small amounts of power. When 200 million computers are left in sleep, small amounts of power turn into huge amounts of power. This is not about whether or not others will join you. It is about making your life into a prayer. A prayer for change, transformation, awareness.

Look into options your city or town might have in terms of alternative sources of energy. In pasadena you can purchase energy from 100% wind powered source for 2.5 cents extra per Kw. For us this amounts to just over 5 dollars extra every two months. It is also a way to make us more aware of unnecessary usage of power. It might, because of this mindfulness raising, end up that we pay less because we are more conscientious.

Know that Global Warming is not the only environmental issue facing us today. It is not even the only critical issue facing us. And, in some communities, it is not even the most critical, on an immediate level. But herein is a problem. Dividing up ecological issues into individual "problems" to be solved one by one in the same technocratic ways that got us into the predicaments to begin with. It is a huge problem, and it is symptomatic that something has gone wrong. Massively, massively wrong!

Begin to be mindful - of the air you breathe, that we breathe together. Be mindful of the way in which our actions affect that air - our leaving lights on, our driving, our flying to see family or friends, our food buying choices... A gallon of gasoline emits about 5 pounds of carbon into the atmosphere. This is part of mindfulness. Knowing the numbers. Knowing the facts. It is part of prayer - real, embodied prayer.

It doesn't have to be all or nothing. "I can't live like that (whatever your idea of what the ideal lifestyle might be) so I will just have to keep on doing what I've been doing." It's not all or nothing. There are small ways in which you can perform life differently now. There are spaces in life where you can shift, ever so slightly, fro one way of being to another. Don't get caught up in what you think you can't do, focus on what you can do - now, in this moment. Don't worry about whether it is "enough." It doesn't have to be "enough," only a beginning. The rest of the path can worry about itself, worry about the step in front of you. Where are you now? Stay with that for a few days. Don't make it about guilt/shame or about whether you can stop global warming. It's not about being depressed, hopeful, discouraged or encouraged. It's simply a fact before us, confronting us with the way we have envisioned ourselves as humans and Americans in the world. Mindfulness and prayer mean that change is necessary. One step at a time. Not about preventing it, about living differently, and helping others live differently as well.

Blessings.