Monday, February 27, 2023
Time for a Dignified Retreat in the Face of Climate Disruption
But I have always returned to my dark roots, and that has happened again. Led by the indefatigable Michael Dowd, I have encountered the work of Dahr Jamail, whose book, The End of Ice, is the latest in a series of books that have profoundly influenced me with respect to climate disruption. Each time I read accounts of the latest science, I face anew the starkness of our future as a species, and of whole pieces of the biosphere. In the case of Jamail, meticulous journalism is combined with personal history and a willingness to record his feelings about our dilemma– and crucially, those of the scientific experts he interviews. Jamail models for me personal practices (he might agree with the broad term “spiritual”) of going to the woods when he reaches overwhelm, and going through grief, fear, and anger, rather than walling them out. For these reasons, I find his truth-telling unparalleled in my extensive study of climate science during the last twenty-odd years.
In addition to Ice, there are two fine Jamail interviews, one with Dowd, another with Carolyn Baker and Andrew Harvey. Other extremely helpful interviews in Dowd’s “Post-Doom” series are those with Jem Bendell (“Deep Adaptation”) and the droll and thoughtful Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us.
This is an unglamorous position, and very hard work, especially in an era of continuing Republican denial and the generally inconsistent response to climate and other ongoing large dilemmas that populist politics has mired us in. But it is an admirable response, both practically and morally, which one can contrast with both doomer “quitting” and activist eleventh-hour behavior when midnight is baked into the pudding. (The key data here is that every 100-ppm CO2 increase in the atmosphere produces 100 feet of sea-level rise. At 410 ppm, 130 feet of sea-level rise is insured, no matter what happens with future emissions Ice, 130-31. I'll leave it to my readers to check the elevations of the world's major coastal cities.) This is responsible behavior in terms of humanity, but also in the interest of the beings involved in the holy mystery of ongoing evolution. The overarching vision is described in E. O. Wilson’s sublimely optimistic Half-Earth (now whittled down to "30-30"), highlighted by such efforts as planting trees poleward to insure the best possibility of their surviving the current Sixth Extinction.
Labels: 30-30, Dahr Jamail, End of Ice, EO Wilson, Everglades, Half-Earth, Miami, Michael Dowd, sea level rise, sixth extinction, South Florida
Friday, December 30, 2016
SHEARED NUMBERS
At this mornings
meditation, a solitary warbler flew into my visual field. I was
filled with gratitude, made more acute by the following emotion,
regret that it was only one bird. I thought back to William
Bartram's eighteenth-century description of great flocks of birds
flying overhead in North Carolina, so thick that he could hardly see
the blue sky behind them. Today, if you were a film director
shooting that scene, you'd be hard pressed to corral that many song
birds from the whole western part of the state.
Not only are we well
into the Sixth Extinction, with rates 1000x greater than the rate
when we emerged in Africa, but the numbers of wild animals are dropping precipitously. By 2020, scientists predict that we will
have lost 2/3 of their total number. We are already past 60%.
This data reinforces personal anecdotal experience: numbers of
butterflies and moths have dramatically decreased in rural WNC since
I was a boy. And I know that the decline in insect numbers radically
affects bird populations. In The Moth Snowstorm, Michael McCarthy speaks of the loss of
the “moth snowstorms” many of us remember from the 50's, when our
car headlights revealed thick clouds of them every evening. Have you
noticed how many fewer bloodied insect carcasses there are on your
car hood? Soon, even the Jains will be able to drive our monster
fossil-devouring vehicles without collateral damage to the web of
life, because the web will have ceased to exist, replaced by a motley
grid with large, sagging holes.
EO Wilson, father of
sociobiology, who has worked tirelessly for wildlife habitat
preservation and teaching ecological values (he
calls it biophilia),
used to advocate saving pockets of high biodiversity here and
there over the planet. After a talk he gave at nearby Warren Wilson
College several years back, I asked him whether he had thought about
what might happen to these small biodiversity jewels in the era of
climate change. Would not some of these third world pockets move
into urban areas as climatic zones shifted? He waved off my
question, saying that introduced too many variables. “One problem
at a time,” he said.
Wilson has now had
time to think this one through, and his response is a bold proposal
for saving half the earth for wildlife habitat, laid out in his
forthcoming book, Half-Earth.
These preserves would feature both north-south and east-west
corridors to allow migration in response to climate shifts. His idea
builds on the longstanding proposal for a “buffalo commons” in
the upper Midwest, possibly extending southward into the vast
interior of North America. With 15% of the world's land already set
aside as natural parks and preserves guaranteed by governmental
action, we have a start. I have not read the book yet, but in the
reviews I have seen, the proposed areas for these protected lands are
in North America, where the work has already begun by private
conservationists (Ted Turner's Flying D in Greater Yellowstone and MC Davis's Nokuse in the Florida Panhandle), and Europe, where the European Green Zone has
worked for a dozen years to promote setting aside a corridor along
the old Iron Curtain, including 20 countries. The idea is stunning in
its boldness, and a salutary antedote to the bad news about both
species loss and rapidly dwindling wildlife populations, with the
loss of 10% of remaining wilderness in the last two decades
amplifying the pressure on habitat.
I must say that, as
soon as I read about Wilson's proposal, I wanted to see the plan for
Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and China. I expect it would not
be hard at all in Australia, and am aware of progress in Central and
South America that could form a sound foundation for such a plan. Is
there the political will for such a project in heavily populated
China and India? Indonesia, where palm plantations sprig up, despite
legal restrictions? What will happen to the rural poor? Does Wilson
and others who share his vision envision any human sharing of this
set-aside space, or does he see it as the pure and pristine preserve
of other species? Does the proposal integrate the pioneering
conservation work that includes indigenous people in monitoring the
territories, while also making a living? Their participation in
planning the set-asides and monitoring a half-earth zone seems
absolutely critical to having a chance for such plan to work. These
are all important questions in the context of anthropocene realities,
and I plan to return in this blog with an analysis of his discussion
on these issues. I do find it troubling that one reviewer (Guardian,
April 11 2016) faults Wilson for the lack of specifics on how
to implement his plan.
I started this blog
during the George W. Bush years, and it matured during the Obama
administration. I was highly critical of him during his first term,
but ended admiring him for his work against the grain towards
stabilizing the climate during the second. Now the unthinkable has
happened, and everything we work for as earthkeepers is at risk under
the upcoming Boy-King's administration. Resistance is in order, but I also plan
to engage the few Republican senators (Lindsey Graham SC, Lamar Alexander TN, and Susan Collins ME) who are on record accepting
anthropogenic climate change. NC's own “moderate” Republican,
Richard Burr, has made carefully moderated comments on climate in
the past, and his office worked quietly with Democrat Kay Hagan while
she was in office on renewable installations in the state. He will be
hearing from me very soon, as will Lindsey Graham.
But even if we have
four years of serious backsliding on carbon emissions in Washington,
there is a campaign sponsored by Avaaz for counteracting the Trump attack: big states and big cities ramping up their shift away
from fossils. California alone is the sixth biggest economy in the
world, and continues to lead the way on renewable energy, vehicle
emissions, and other initiatives to stabilize climate. Other
countries – Japan, Canada (finally, under Justin Trudeau), several
South and Central American nations, and the politically vulnerable
European Union – will continue to do their part. But if China and
India become shirkers along with the US, then we are in jeoparday of
losing any possibility of turning the tide of warming, for some of
the positive feedback loops have already begun, and time is almost
out.
Labels: biophilia, Boy King, climate change, EO Wilson, Half-Earth, Lindsey Graham, MC Davis, moth snowstorm, Nokuse, sixth extinction, Ted Turner, wildlife decline, William Bartram
Monday, July 20, 2015
A Beliefless Faith
J.L. Schellenberg is an analytic philosopher and a religious skeptic. But because he takes evolution seriously, he recognizes the vast potential for future development of the process of “reflective intelligence” which began for us, and from the perspective of Thomas Berry, the universe itself, roughly 50,000 years ago. Though a skeptic with regard to specific beliefs and their truth-claims, he is an imaginative being with a wide-open sense of awe and wonder, which he correctly recognizes as the basis for faith, but not necessarily belief. In the current argument between “scientistic” atheists and creationists, Schellenberg prosecutes both sides for being immature and premature in their judgments, “rationally unsustainable.” (64) “Because we are immature, belief is premature.” (49) But if belief is unwarranted, so is the attack on the very possibility of ultimate reality by militant atheistic writers such as Richard Dawkins. And he criticizes naturalists (Barbara Forrest), who “ regularly overestimate the accomplishments of science and underestimate the potential of religion.” A “beliefless faith“ supports that potential, which he feels is huge over the billion-year future evolution of complex life on Earth. As opposed to the systematic universal doubt of science, Schellenberg argues for an “evolutionary religious skepticism,” that remains open to continuing revelation of the divine over that vast period.
Schellenberg argures that, compared to
other hominins, we are still young, and both the seemingly advanced
state of scientific progress and our religious profundity are
over-rated. He expects our (or other species with a similarly
reflective intelligence) future development to lead to “improvements
in our spiritual genetic code.” He cites evolutionary biologists
who attest that our brains are three times the size and complexity of
Lucy, the australopithecus (ca. 3.5 million years BP), who also say
that growth of the same magnitude may await us. Of course there is an
assumption here that cognitive development is a precondition for
spiritual development. Responses to my last post, both at this site
and privately, question this.
Here is my take on it. Yes, there is a
powerful intuitive strain, as well as a high capacity for emotional
intelligence, in many mammals. And, since we will shortly be
discussing social intelligence, many social species seem to be far
more advanced than we. But I am not yet convinced that the kind of
reflection which both Schellenberg and Berry see as key to deeper,
conscious spiritual development can be achieved without an extremely
high level of cognitive development. Since we cannot communicate
through language, we don't really know if this is the case for
dolphins, whales, and elephants. Nor can we assume that they do have
reflective intelligence, a reflectivity that in our species is
capable of going to the very source of the I-thought, as is richly
evidenced in Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism.
GROUP RELIGION vs PERSONAL
TRANSFORMATION
With respect to this core capacity for
reflectivity, individual humans have clearly followed it to attain a
high degree of spiritual development, as with founder-models of
world religions such as Jesus and Gautama the Buddha. But instances
of personal transformation are insufficient when social behavior
reputedly based in religious belief remains as sectarian as ever.
This continuing juvenile group behavior is clearly one of the main
reasons militant atheists attack organized religion, and current
headlines underline this doubt.
For my mentor Joanna Macy, developing
the capacity for group transformation is critical if we are going to
survive the evolutionary bottleneck we face in the immediate future.
“Self-reflexive consciousness... does not characterize
the next holonic level, the level of social systems. Though an
'esprit de corps' can be sensed in organizations with strong
allegiances, it is too diffuse to register and respond to all the
feedback necessary for it survival. The locus of decision-making
remains with the individual, susceptible to all the vagaries of what
that individual considers to be of self-interest...” She goes on to
pose the question of whether the present crisis might “engender a
collective level of self-interest in choice-making – in other
words, self-reflexivity on the next holonic level.” A genuine
evolutionary shift would move beyond the kind of group unconscious
possession which remains a recent memory in the case of fascism. As
she says, “a monolith of uniformity has no internal intelligence.
The holonic shift in consciousness would not sacrifice, but instead
require, the uniqueness of each part and its point of view. It would
begin, almost imperceptibly, with a sense of common fate, and a
shared interest to meet it together” Coming Back to Life,
43-44.
Thomas Berry goes so far as to say a
“re-invention of the human at the species level” (The Great Work) is necessary for
our survival . It would be a great blessing if this were to occur in
the few remaining years of the “last decade,” before the window
closes, but I continue to be skeptical about “conscious
evolution,” which seems to be simply a projection beyond individual
instances of transformation . For those of us who place more credence
in biological evolution along demonstrated lines, Schellenberg's
promise of a billion years of evolutionary process to achieve
reinvention is comforting...
A more
mature religious stance, one which would invite this holonic shift,
would entail an openness to and tolerance of others' experiences of
the ultimate. In the realm of things unseen, paranormal, and
metaphysical, truth claims are extremely difficult to verify. The
more detailed a belief is, the harder it is to convince others with
contrary specific beliefs of common ground. Faith, on the other
hand, keeps us open to a reality beyond the realm of our limited
cognitive and emotive abilities. His argument about belief is
a rational restatement of what the Hindu Advaitists have already
argued more eloquently. Krishna Prem pointed out in his invaluable
“Initiation into Yoga” that every belief, when carefully
examined, is a floating kite tethered by a string which returns to a
corresponding doubt. More fundamentally, my master Ramana Maharshi
punctures the fundamental belief shared by almost all religions that
reality consists of god, world, and self, saying that all are
illusory, for the Self that projects this habitual trinity is the
only abiding reality.
Schellenberg does not attempt an
exhaustive review of the history of religious practices, content with
the generalization that ongoing religious squabbles and wars prove
its immaturity. When he looks out at the social scape of current
practice, he sees the same dreary picture that the atheist critics
do, without giving up on religious possibility. But there are small
religious communities that have blazed a different path. One that I
know intimately is Quakerism, the Religious Society of Friends.
Though George Fox's original vision was through Jesus as the
historical Christ, his imaginative genius led him directly to the
Light as a universal indwelling spirit in all humankind. So, though
many Quakers remain Christian or recognize their Christian origins,
we have no creed, and do not erect barriers to other sects due to
purported beliefs. “There is that of God in every man” (Fox) is
what we try to recognize, no matter what the other may call that.
Quakerism is the western
expression of the Upanisadic sage's axiom, “There is one Being, but
wise men call it by different names.”
For
me, Quaker practice at its best exemplifies the beliefless or
“imaginative” faith that Schellenberg sees as a fundamental
requirement for an evolutionary religion. Quakers practice a
corporate mysticism where truth experienced as revelatory is tested
by the group, especially the elders (“seasoned Friends”), who
bring a loving and open skepticism to specific belief claims that
emanate from personal experience. The earliest Quakers called
themselves Friends of the Truth, and one of their immediate roots was in the
Diggers, whose leader Gerrard Winstanley equated Christ and Reason.
A religion that is both experiential and experimental, it is not tied
to biblical truth, but rather to that Spirit by which [the scriptures] were written (Fox, Journal, 70 in Armistead ed). “The truth is more holy than the book to me,” Fox responded when
asked to swear on the Bible. Furthermore, Quakers have a strong
commitment to “continuing revelation,” for the divine is active
at all times, throughout history, if we will only listen. What could
be a better context for practicing evolutionary religion?
The number of
American Quakers is now half what it was in the 1970's, when I first
encountered them. They do not have significant numbers anywhere
except in Kenya, where they were evangelized by a branch of Quakerism
closer to mainstream Protestantism. But the story of social
evolution is not necessarily of continuous growth. I hope that, going
forward, Quakers do a better job of sharing what they have to offer,
especially with the significant number of youth who are “spiritual
but not religious.” We do not know what practices might survive
the coming evolutionary bottleneck for complex life on Earth. But I
pray that Quakerism, particularly that which reflects most closely
its first generation (conservative Quakers, who are in even greater
decline), is one of them. Even if we experience extinction on the
scale of the Permian catastrophe 250 million years ago, when 95% of
species perished, the possibility remains for four recoveries from
such an event over a billion-year evolutionary future. And we will
need the most effective models of religious tolerance and openness to
continuing revelation (with means of testing them) available for any
such unimaginatively long recovery. Hopefully, after the current
sixth extinction, the Earth will not witness another mass extinction
event induced by the behavior of one errant tenant species.
Labels: Advaita, beliefless faith, Evolutionary Religion, George Fox, Joanna Macy, Krishna Prem, Permian catastrophe, philosophy of religion, Quakerism, Richard Dawkins, Rmana Maharshi, sixth extinction, Thomas Berry
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