Nature’s Web

At this point in history  we need to make preserving the good health of the biosphere the very centering point of our culture. Of our educational programs. Our communities. Our politics. Our economics. And our personal lives. We need to move from human-centered anthropocentric consciousness to nature-centered biocentricconsciousness. This includes recognizing that we ourselves are part of nature’s web, and always in it, not something apart from it. And it includes acting to help preserve and restore the good health of the biosphere and our local ecosystems.

You might think, “Why shoot! I oughta be able to use as much of the planet and its resources as I can get my hands on!” Some folks do. That reduces Earth’s biocapacity — its abiity to support life of all kinds, including human life. That’s happening year in and year out. It’s a slow-moving apocalypse for humans and other living beings. We have a hard time seeing that because it’s slow. But it’s becoming all too obvious now.

We don’t have to “save the Earth.” Nature is perfectly capable of saving itself. it has started to do that now, through all kinds of natural disasters, from superstorms to plagues, that wipe out humans. And it will win out. Nature—or Gaia, if you will— is more powerful than we are. Ultimately it’s no contest. In the course of history, civilization after civilization has arisen, become powerful, abused nature, and then collapsed and vanish. That has started to happen again.

At this point our concern is not just “saving our grandchildren,” true and poignant though that is. It’s saving ourselves. Us now. You and me.  At this point humankind is abusing nature more and more each year, despite all the good words about “sustainability.” And nature is becoming able to protect itself less and less, and offer us less and less. We are burning the candle at both ends. So look around with clear eyes and listen with clear ears to what nature tells you that you need to do. We all need to do that.