Has a Failsafe-- and We May Be It
When a species cannot live in balance, nature restores balance.
We like to believe we are in control of our future.
But what if the planet has its own plan-- and we are forcing its hand?
Life is full of choices-- some personal, some shaped by others or by the society in which we live, and some thrust upon us by the realities of the world itself. Many of those realities are themselves the consequences of choices-- our own or those made by others-- war being one example, and, in a broader sense, the collective decisions that now shape the future of life on this planet.
Just as personal acts of harm send ripples outward-- affecting families, relationships, and communities-- our collective decisions about how we use or abuse the planet's resources are now creating profound ripple effects on the very livability of the Earth itself.
Within this context, several possible realities emerge for human life on this planet:
1. We continue on our current path-- ignoring warning signs and assuming that continued exploitation of resources, especially fossil fuels, will not create consequences beyond our ability to manage. In effect, we place our faith in technological solutions, believing we will be able to find technical solutions to any environmental contingencies. This belief carries with it a darker implication-- that technology, by replacing what we perceive as human limitations, may ultimately render much of our humanness irrelevant, echoing the world imagined in Brave New World.
2. We make modest adjustments-- just enough to ease the pressure-- while preserving our existing economic systems, hoping incremental change will be sufficient.
3. Global leadership recognizes the destructiveness of its present approaches, sets aside competition, acknowledges the scale of the threat, and works cooperatively to enact meaningful change-- shifting to available alternatives and beginning the long process of planetary healing through sustainable practices.
4. We continue to drift, carried by the momentum of present systems and led by those more focused on competition and dominance-- on being "king of the hill-- "while the planet approaches its tipping point.
5. Ordinary people, realizing the power they hold in their numbers and becoming aware of their role as expendable resources within current models of governance and leadership, rise up and replace existing leadership with one that reflects the values of our shared humanity.
Although the fifth outcome is clearly preferable, it would require an almost miraculous paradigm shift-- one likely dependent on a full recognition of the power of the human heart when it begins to channel that deeper universal energy that sustains life itself.
However, if we arrive at the fourth outcome, which seems most consistent with the present momentum of events, the planet may respond in its own way. It has, in effect, a failsafe alternative.
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