The news regarding climate change is disheartening. A large majority of people in the United States don't think, or choose not to believe, that global warming is real. This, in contrast to the vast majority of scientists who say that a new global warming and climate change episode for earth is underway.
The July issue of Scientific American features and article by Lee Kump, titled The Last Great Global Warming. Kump not only offers technical evidence regarding global warming cycles of the past, but makes the case that the current global warming is heating up much more quickly than those of past ages. The cause of the rapid pace is human activity related to the use of fossil fuels. What the rapid pace means is that there will be much less time for species to adapt. That in turn means more species will die off.
The current issue of Rolling Stone features an article by Al Gore titled "A Climate of Denial" that addresses some of the reasons why people are skeptical or choose to ignore the 97% of the world's scientists who speak of global warming with some degree of urgency. In particular, Gore addresses the misinformation and outright lies that are used to "balance" the truth of global warming on the public airways. TV news in particular is very misleading. All of this is of course to allow those who benefit from the world as it is to keep on benefiting even though many people and species will suffer.
Of the people who accept that Climate Change is reality, there are a few people who have been able to decrease their private use of fossil fuels in ways that are innovative and successful. However, as long as they live in the USA and use the public roads with street lights and traffic signals or tap into the internet or listen to the radio, or access energy from solar panels or use goods that were produced using fossil fuels these same people continue to benefit from the energy provided by fossil fuel. It is painful to be aware of how much of these carbon producing energy sources are part of our collective way of life.
Recently I have noticed that among those who are actively pursuing life beyond fossil fuels it is very easy to become judgmental towards people who continue to use -- much like a recently-in-recovery addict can become pretty seriously condemning of those who are still addicted. It is as if the one in recovery is trying to put as much distance as possible between him or herself and those others and that lifestyle that is still seductive. Yet judging others is no more helpful within the transitioning community than it is with addicts. Kindness, love and compassion are needed if our communities as a whole are going to make the changes necessary for energy descent.
In the midst of our work we need kindness, for the situation is tough enough without the added pressure of difficult relationships. Our society, our cities, schools, and workplaces are all dependent on cheap energy. Our life in family and community and even our religious or spiritual centers are dependent as well. Traveling to the next state, or city, or neighborhood for day to day activity is often mandatory if you want to keep a job, see or support the people you love, visit the doctor, or go to school. Walkable neighborhoods that include all that a person needs are not yet available for everyone. Many extended families rely on quick access by car in order to help one another. Public transportation is generally scheduled around day jobs not off-hours-emergencies or middle-of-the-night service sector jobs.
It seems like the people who can most easily practice energy descent no longer need to work, have already raised their children with as many energy saving devices as were available, taken that exotic vacation, accumulated savings or retirement benefits and have a comfortable home. These people cannot be compared for energy efficiency against young families or working people of today since they already went through those heavy use stages of life. A better comparison would be to look at others of the same life circumstances.
Our culture has not changed. The systems that need to change have not yet changed yet even so, what was good once is no longer good - and we all need help in transitioning.
"One of the best illustrations of this new reversal of what is "good" and "bad" is aviation travel. A single return flight between New York and London produces 1.2 tons of greenhouse gases per passenger, the equivalent of a year's allowable emissions if emissions were rationed fairly among all of the planet's human beings...The distance we must travel to visit friends and partners and relatives on the other side of the planet..may be our undoing: The world could be destroyed by love." (Quote from A New Climate for Theology by Sallie McFague, Minneapolis; Fortress Press, 2008.) And yet, good people find themselves trapped by love, and culture, and systems that they have no control over. If the only job one can find or daycare facility that has an opening is too far to walk to with the baby and all that the baby needs and public transportation or the schedule is not available when needed then driving may be all that a person can do.
It seems to me that those of us who less often find ourselves in such situations need to practice love and compassion and at the same time work for the systemic changes that will make life beyond fossil fuel possible for everyone, not just the comfortably situated.
Joanna Macy in her book World as Lover World as Self suggests that while the human species may not make it this time, it matters a lot how we go. Love, kindness and compassion; gentle encouragement, acceptance and trust that our friends and those other people will make the best choices they can given as much real information as they have access to and the freedom to decide. We can only change ourselves and even then, only according to the wisdom and access we have at any given moment. We cannot change others, but with grace, we might be able to influence one another with love.
