imho, the missed aspect in climate debates is that it is more than anything a spiritual crisis.
A sense of disconnection from Nature - Nature as something separate from myself will always result in some degree of (unintentional) exploitation. I like the idea of using Maori perspectives in the post, as it steers the discussion into the right direction, however a focus only on future human generations, misses the point: We exploit nature because we are NOT nature, we are disconnected from it. Including unborn people forces us to think of nature in a different way, but we still will see it fundamentally as a resource to exploit - just exploit it "better", for the sake of more people.
Example: One would rarely exploit members of one's family or friend group, but also not fully refuse to participate in a global economy that exploits others, far away. Nature, in our hearts, is likely very far away.
The missed opportunity in my opinion is to learn to love nature not just by appreciating large expanses of greens on arduous hikes, but on a fundamental, spiritual level, as an expression of life, of god, of self.
Great points, Ilya. Thanks for sharing. Yes, western culture definitely revolves around nature as a separate thing and something we exploit and defend against. This has proven very ineffective. Many of our problems would be helped by increasing human connection with nature so I agree, whatever we can do to learn to love nature on a deep spiritual level is a good lever.
I'm glad to hear NZ has been a leader in moving towards mandatory reporting on climate related issues. This is positive as knowing the actual cost of these events should spur the Government and private enterprise into taking necessary action. Certainly the mandatory reporting would create more discussion around climate change and that can only be a good thing.
I was also interested to read that soil is a critical reservoir of carbon. We really only hear about trees! Soil takes such a long time to evolve and is often taken for granted.
I agree that we need to be thinking of future generations. I didn't grow up worrying about climate change as there was no discussion around it. Now I really worry about the future my grand children will face.
imho, the missed aspect in climate debates is that it is more than anything a spiritual crisis.
A sense of disconnection from Nature - Nature as something separate from myself will always result in some degree of (unintentional) exploitation. I like the idea of using Maori perspectives in the post, as it steers the discussion into the right direction, however a focus only on future human generations, misses the point: We exploit nature because we are NOT nature, we are disconnected from it. Including unborn people forces us to think of nature in a different way, but we still will see it fundamentally as a resource to exploit - just exploit it "better", for the sake of more people.
Example: One would rarely exploit members of one's family or friend group, but also not fully refuse to participate in a global economy that exploits others, far away. Nature, in our hearts, is likely very far away.
The missed opportunity in my opinion is to learn to love nature not just by appreciating large expanses of greens on arduous hikes, but on a fundamental, spiritual level, as an expression of life, of god, of self.
Great points, Ilya. Thanks for sharing. Yes, western culture definitely revolves around nature as a separate thing and something we exploit and defend against. This has proven very ineffective. Many of our problems would be helped by increasing human connection with nature so I agree, whatever we can do to learn to love nature on a deep spiritual level is a good lever.
I'm glad to hear NZ has been a leader in moving towards mandatory reporting on climate related issues. This is positive as knowing the actual cost of these events should spur the Government and private enterprise into taking necessary action. Certainly the mandatory reporting would create more discussion around climate change and that can only be a good thing.
I was also interested to read that soil is a critical reservoir of carbon. We really only hear about trees! Soil takes such a long time to evolve and is often taken for granted.
I agree that we need to be thinking of future generations. I didn't grow up worrying about climate change as there was no discussion around it. Now I really worry about the future my grand children will face.
The development of geothermal energy?