A Worthy Path to Human Redemption
A Worthy Path to Human Redemption
By Geoffrey Holland
The ‘Big Picture’ for humanity comes down to ten massive threats to our planet’s biosphere; the same biosphere that all of our lives depend on. In concert, these global-scale threats pack more than enough punch to devastate our Earth’s capacity to support life.
Consider what we – all of humanity – are up against.
Julian Cribb is a powerful voice sounding an alarm for the health of our Earth’s biosphere. As a best-selling author, his books, like his most recent, How to Fix a Broken Planet, present the evidence of our human overreach in undeniable terms. Julian Cribb identifies ten global-scale, existential threats to life on Earth.
The Ten Global-Scale, Existential Threats to Life of Earth
- The decline of key natural resources, and the emerging global resource crisis, especially with fresh water.
- Collapse of eco-systems, causing mass extinction and biodiversity loss.
- Human population growth exceeding the Earth’s carrying capacity.
- Global warming, sea level rise, and changes in the Earth’s climate affecting all human activity.
- Widespread pollution of the Earth’s living systems, and all life, by industrial chemicals.
- Rising food insecurity and failing nutritional quality.
- Nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction.
- Pandemics of new and untreatable disease.
- Advent of powerful, uncontrolled new technologies
- National and global failure to understand and act preventively on these existential risks.
These global-scale mega-threats are all very real. Any one of them could set off a chain of horrors that could trigger the vast destruction of life on Earth.
The evidence of our world coming apart at the seams is accumulating in real time. We’ve got escalating political polarization and deadly conflict over much of the world. Add to that, climate change, and all the weather extremes that come with it. The Earth’s oceans are being plundered and exploited to their limits. We’ve got a billion humans on the edge of starvation. The world’s plant and animal biodiversity are under ever increasing duress, and at risk of collapse. Humans are entirely responsible. We are taking every scrap, every last resource our Earth has to offer, for ourselves.
Life on Earth cannot and will not survive if humans continue to behave with this bloated sense of entitlement.
For sure, there are some good things happening culturally at this moment, but the human urgency for remaking ourselves does not yet match the determined r esistance of those committed to their self-serving economic agenda.
Meanwhile, the relentless erosion of the biosphere we all depend on is accelerating.
‘We are all, as citizens of the Earth, duty bound to contribute to our upmost ability to the continuing progress of the spirit of humanity.’
Vigdis Finnbogadottr, Council of Women World Leaders
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Humanity Needs an Earth-Scale Wake-Up
WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER: all eight billion of us. Fighting tribally over the planet’s remaining natural assets is pure insanity. It is also entirely unworthy of the most consequential species on Earth.
At the moment, humanity has no assertive beacon for shared common purpose. There is no sense of urgency for change on a planetary scale.
In too many parts of the world, the forces in control are aggressively resisting anything that threatens their cultural dominance. If you’re paying attention to the news, you know this; you know who the world’s bad actors are.
In America, our democracy is in a potentially transformative moment. Racists, misogynists, and mindless exploiters of nature are on the run. They are desperate to maintain their power in a world that is demanding they be marginalized.
People the world over are looking for something to believe in. They are eager to respond to worthy messages that resonate; messages that stand above the drone of media lies and misdirection encouraged by those determined to resist change.
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‘What we need is a new way of thinking that goes beyond secular vs. religious, left vs. right, Eastern vs. Western, socialist vs. capitalist, and so on. Old social categories ignore the impact of childhood and gender relations on how our brains – and hence our beliefs and behaviors – develop. Nor do any of them provide the new economics, narratives, and language to meet the challenges facing our world. The real struggle for our future is between the domination configuration and the partnership configuration worldwide. Once we understand this, we can build a solid foundation for a more sustainable, equitable, and caring partnership-oriented world.’ – Riane Eisler, Author, Social Scientist
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Elements of a Worthy Common Vision
In the US, and in other parts of the world, more and more people are standing up for gender equality, against racism and discrimination, and for embracing our responsibility to be worthy caretakers of our planet.
Tribalism and self-interest are a certain dead end for humanity. We cannot be fighting each other when the future of life on Earth is at stake.
The Council for the Human Future, in association with author Julian Cribb, has come up with something called the Earth System Treaty. It is built on a set of foundational cultural principles all people can stand behind.
Here is a link to author Julian Cribb talking about the powerful role he sees for the Earth System Treaty.
The Earth System Treaty: Made for the Moment
This Treaty intends to translate into a global-scale, grass roots swell of humanity coming together cooperatively behind worthy common purpose. The treaty’s message is accessible to all people, in all places, through the social media.
The Earth System Treaty will inspire a tidal wave of creative energy focused on shaping an all-inclusive future; the best kind of human future, based on equal rights for all, and a global commitment to protecting and nurturing our Earth’s living biosphere.
When we speak with one voice, as planetary-minded people; when, all together, we choose to champion the Earth System Treaty, we become the great beacon of common purpose our world so very much needs.
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