Earth thoughts 104-110

Earth thought 104 of 365: "From predicting inevitabilities to shouldering responsibilities." That should be the title of a chapter on the next decade. Well, we should make it so. It's not enough to “dict” around anymore with what will and will not happen to the environment. Time to change who we are.

Earth thought 105 of 365: "Let cards drop in responsibility!" So says a vivacious five year old I know. We've left it up to chance long enough, haven't we? Roller-coasting it along as if something *up ahead* would save us. But joyride existence doesn't make it into the adult camp. Don't count on some discovery, some engineering pulling us out of overshooting the Earth's ability to sustain us. It's not responsible.

Earth thought 106 of 365: It's not uncommon to hear young people blame technology for things such as climate change and the sixth mass extinction. But blaming technology mislocates our flaw as a species. Our flaw is our shortsightedness and potential to defect from cooperative action -in a way, how we become a here and now self, rather than a "we" that becomes a "humanity" across generations. And this is a more traditional flaw -selfishness, although not malicious selfishness. I call it "futz and impatience selfishness, with a dash of genuine 'me, me, me'"! We will need even technology to get out of it -to plan ahead and obtain long-range and wide information.

Earth thought 107 of 365: What many people seem to want, even need, is clear, practical advice concerning the environment. Not something preachy, but consultative. And based less on "shoulds" than on "goods". More than anything -advice that is mostly informative, with an edge of "if you want this, then do that".

Earth thought 108 of 365: The jump from issues of recognition to issues of environmental health can be jarring. We've become used to worrying about our identities, about whether people see us, or respect us, or understand each other. And then environmental concerns are like brute facts, like fixing the plumbing -they summon pragmatic attitudes and seem to pull us out of the dreamy and hurt state of focusing on human slights.

Earth thought 109 of 365: (I drove back to New York State today.) A State starts to fit you like broken in jeans. How can lands do that?

Earth thought 110 of 365: Powering down. When we've been taught to "power up" by our educational systems, media, and career expectations, it is hard to power down. But that is what our ecological task is for this century -to power down. Perhaps I should do a series of these thoughts on what it feels like, and is, to "power down".