Ecological Balance

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The challenges and crises the world faces today are actually signs that change is imminent. We are about to face our evolution.
Resembling the metamorphosis of a butterfly from a caterpillar, our current “caterpillar” phase of human civilization is dissolving and reforming as a more advanced, sustainable “butterfly” version of itself. Old non-sustainable structures are collapsing while new viable alternatives are evolving.

Signs of the Collapse

In typical behavior, humans usually do not make change until circumstances force them to act. We are now being forced into action, for science has now established that human behavior has precipitated the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth. Most of us have had firsthand experience with one of the primary contributing factors of that collapse, global climate change: erratic weather patterns that are destroying environments and ecosystems around the world.

Civilization-induced stresses are creating environmental catastrophes that are straining the environment and threatening human extinction. Under threat, we are being forced to take action. In the States, conventional media generally focuses its news watch on environmental upheavals close to home. Falling into the myopic focus, I was completely shocked to learn of an environmental disaster of such great magnitude that it will necessitate a revision of world maps.

Fifty years ago in my high school geography class, I learned a mnemonic to remember the big seas in Central Eurasia. Called the “A-B-C Seas,” they represented the Aral Sea, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. But thanks to human irresponsibility, geography will be easier for my grandson Jean-Gabriel. Apparently, all he will have to memorize are the “B-C Seas,” for the Aral Sea is almost “extinct.”

Over 90% of the Aral Sea is now gone ... along with the fish that fed millions and the cities that arose to service that industry as well as the seaside spa resorts. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently described the drying up of the Aral Sea as one of the planet’s most shocking disasters.

Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, the sea has shrunk by 90 percent since the rivers that feed it were largely diverted in a Soviet project to boost cotton production in the arid region. The loss of the sea has ruined the once-robust fishing economy and left fishing trawlers stranded in sandy wastelands. Layers of highly salted sand, left behind after the sea evaporated, are carried by winds as far as Scandinavia and Japan. Ki-moon’s trip included a touchdown in Muynak, Uzbekistan, a town once on the shore where a pier now eerily stretches over gray desert and camels stand near the hulks of stranded ships.

As Steve Bhaerman and I described in Spontaneous Evolution, the impending evolutionary upheaval will arise from both environmental crises and massive social disruption. While climate change is one sign of the evolution, the current economic crisis has become a global event that is also precipitating upheaval. Countries all around the world are reeling from debt and unemployment, driven by the greed and justified by the Darwinian belief that the “fittest” deserve their wealth and power over the rest of civilization as a scientific “right.”
The cosmic joke is that their life-destroying reptilian consciousness is leading to their own demise. The economy’s linkage between manufactured money and the control of oil (the “blood” of the dinosaurs) is collapsing. The reality is that a crash of the dollar, the Euro and the British pound appear to be imminent. This one event would lead to the demise of the current version of civilization, a great leveling that would serve as the catalyst for evolving a more viable form of human civilization.

To understand the world economic crisis I wholeheartedly suggest that you watch a very valuable, and free series of short and informative video lectures by Chris Martenson. He is a really good teacher and provides a simple, clear crash course on how the Economy, “money,” is created out of thin air; how this money is linked to Energy through the oil cartels; and how the combination of money and oil have altered the Environment, raping the planet of its resources and destroying the ecological balance providing for the web of life. Martenson concludes his lecture series with a summary that offers suggestions on how to survive and thrive through the crisis. My enthusiasm for the series is not only for the important knowledge he imparts, but because Margaret and I were, unknowingly, already engaging all his recommendations.

Please take some time to review Chris’s powerful and empowering presentations at: http://www.chrismartenson.com/

Signs of the Evolution

Margaret and I were recently awed and uplifted by the movie, Invictus. This movie provides an intimate look into the one of the world’s greatest evolutionary thinkers, Nelson Mandela, wonderfully portrayed by Morgan Freeman. The movie emphasizes how this brilliant humanitarian brought a country back from revolution and collapse by steadfastly refusing to continue the “blame-game” type of politics now rearing its ugly and destructive head in the States.

After serving 27 years in prison, Mandela became president of strife-torn South Africa. Eschewing punishment and violence, Mandela chose reconciliation and negotiation, a path that lead South Africa to a peaceful and harmonious transition into a multi-racial democracy.

Historically, when hard times befall a society, its leaders consolidate power by focusing “blame” for the people’s misery on a particular social or racial group. When upheavals precipitated the collapse of the German empire, Hitler acquired power by polarizing the population against a common “enemy,” he used the science of the time to define a classes of people who corrupted the pure Aryan genetic strain and threatened human evolution. He made them enemies of the State and used them to vent the anger the anger of a failed system.

Today, US politicians are playing the same polarizing game to “blame” somebody for all the wrong. Right-wingers are squaring off with left-wingers over the crises in the States, as each side is engaging in violent rhetoric to eliminate their perceived source of the scourge undermining the country. Hard-line polarity is generally the source of the problem, while holism and community are the sources of resolution.

Invictus is an important story for the world; it reveals the power of an out-of-the-box solution by an evolutionary leader of the highest ranking. If you haven’t seen this film, please take a chance. It may truly elevate your spirit and fill you with hope. It reveals that humans can be humane! While we may seek another Mandela, John or Robert Kennedy, or Martin Luther King to lead us out of the collapse of current society, the truth is our evolution will likely be focused on the efforts of millions of unnamed people, like yourselves, “cultural creatives” who will generate new technologies and strategies to transcend the current political, economic and environmental crises.

Evolutionary change will only start when we become participants and stop our fruitless wait for another hero to arise and save us ... for we are the heroes we have been looking for! Everyday, human “imaginal cells” are creating order out of the impending chaos. Evolutionary actions at the local level are increasing at a logarithmic rate, and frequently unrecognized by the media. So while it appears that nothing is happening on the surface, below there is a groundswell of change that is about to erupt.

A small, yet wonderful, example of evolution on the local level is provided in the news story below. It is an article about a New Zealand retirement home that won a sustainability award by creating over 100 gardens on their property. The food fed the members of the home as well as many others in the neighborhood. The garden work provided a meaningful existence to retirees, enhanced their health and, in fact the health of the community and the environment.

In the midst of apparent chaos, a new world is emerging like a Phoenix, a world based on love rather than fear and we are its co-creators. We are, each and all, active participants in what will amount to be the greatest of human adventures, for we are on the threshold of an incredible evolutionary event ... the emergence of a new super-organism, Humanity.
Dear evolutionaries, keep your hearts and minds focused on the beautiful future that lies before us!