It's high time to end the artificially created climate of fear in our country to face the real global climate issue confronting us. The Coming Age is Hot in more ways than one: Yes, the planet is getting hotter, so much so that it will definitely set our pants on fire, but the good news is that there is a really hot opportunity in that disaster--the opportunity to change the entire way we humans are living as part of this planet. If we seize that opportunity, we can collaborate with our beloved planet Earth to surf her waves of change creatively, not just to survive but to create a world in which all can thrive!
The most courageous explorers and pioneers in our world at present are those who explore and question everything humans have thought, believed and done to get us to where we are at this unsustainable point in our history and then set out to fiercely conserve the things that are working and radically change everything that doesn't. They are people who listen deeply to both inner and outer voices and who are not afraid to speak their truths, even if they fly in the face of established convention.
Almost everything in our world from its money system, politics and economics to education, health care and social relations has been defined by now as unsustainable. Hear the beauty in that word unsustainable because it means 'Can NOT last; MUST be changed!' We have to reinvent our human world; there is no other choice! It has been wisely said: "We are the first generation that gets to decide whether we are the last!"
Someone(s) will have to reinvent the money system, the economic system, the political systems, the education systems, and so on. Actually, lots of people are already doing this, but it will take many more to effect real sustainable change that works despite the vagaries of a Hot Age. How do we solve big problems, such as too much water in the oceans and too little on land? How do we build drought-proof ecosystems in the midst of deserts?
How do we solve the even bigger problems of governance and economics to make all those good things we've believed in for so long actually happen? Things like liberty, equality, fraternity and the pursuit of happiness; things that require a genuine sense of loving and caring for each other. To get them the first thing we need to do is to stop doing things the way we've been doing them, because that didn't get us where we wanted to go, right?
We need to say, "Hey there, Earth, we love and respect you. We are ready to listen to your amazing experience, knowledge and wisdom. We are ready to more humbly copy your awesomely complex and cooperatively sustainable living systems, recyclable materials and superb technologies. We get it now that you are smarter and wiser than we, and we want to work with you, not against you.
You, dear reader, please prepare to join the ranks of fearless pioneers of new ways to do things if you haven't already done so, even if only in your personal life, which is, whether you like it or not, a role model to at least a few others. You cannot be alive and inactive or invisible, so you might as well enjoy getting informed and acting with all the intelligence and wisdom you can muster.
This is decidedly a most exciting time to be alive. We have more information than any previous generations and it is high time to question the past and present to become more intelligent and wise about the future.
We all make choices all day long and as you have chosen to read this far, you seem to be interested in working on solutions to big problems. Congratulations and have fun, because whatever you do to change your world, you had better be having fun doing it or no one will want to do it with you, and no one expects you to do it alone!
(Adapted from a book in progress titled HOT: Cool Solutions for a Hot Age by Elisabet Sahtouris)