COP26, uniting the world to conquer climate change, is underway in Glasgow. The talk continues around limiting global warming to 1.5 °C. There are signs of progress and signs of failure, and signs of good intentions. I won't write about details because they are unfolding and anything I might think would be soon out of date. I will write instead about "uniting the world".
It may be possible to unite the world, to turn the problem of climate change into an opportunity for unprecedented cooperation. On the other hand, individual and local immediate interests may prevail over collective future interests. As a result we may be participating in a global decline leading to mass extinction. The worst possible end to this story is that we let it happen without doing our best to stop it.
Stopping the unravelling of the biosphere will take more than talk. Yet it will begin in talk, since language has enabled humanity to become the dominant species on the planet. Language has allowed us to specialize and cooperate and associate like a super-organism enveloping the globe, invading and altering every biome. If we want a sustainable future rather than an ongoing explosion of extravagant growth and consumption until it's all gone, we need to change the words we use to structure our thoughts.
Let's begin with the word "our" as in our environment, our planet, our oceans, our air, our land. This land is not our land, at least not in the sense that we possess it, or that it is intended for our use, which is the paradigm we assume when we use the word. This land was not made for you and me. Quite the reverse. Like any other species, we have evolved by replication with variation and selection. We were made by a mindless process filling a niche in a dynamic competitive system. We belong to the earth, not the other way around. If we alter that system more quickly than we can adapt to the changes, we are done.
Next we should dispose of the word environment, which clothes a subtly toxic way of thinking in a cloak of virtue. There is no environment. The word separates the human from the biosphere, creating a false dichotomy which corrupts thinking and behaviour. Humanity belongs to the system. We are not separate. Anything we do to alter the system, we do to all its densely connected components, including ourselves. To paraphrase Pogo, "We have met the environment and it is us."
I could go on and on, but you have other things to do and so do I. While we carry on with business, let's stop for a moment and consider how we might do things differently knowing that We Belong to the Earth.
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photo credit © Can Stock Photo / smn
Oh my goodness-- I think you've lit the spark of a new thought! You've hit upon the great need to harness "language" in the struggle over the climate emergency.
ReplyDeleteI realize we've begun to do this. Even calling it an emergency as opposed to a crisis, or even just climate change, had an enormous impact in many circles. But to call out the "word folk" (and there are millions of us) to engage in the effort to load up OUR artillery, WORDS, in a way to truly get directly involved in the big challenge.
Even Greta's "blah, blah, blah" is part of it. She's constantly working to find the words that will work. Call out the poets!
Thanks Marion. Elsewhere you pointed out Mia Mottley's moving address to the COP26 assembly. I include it here. Words like these should be taken like daily multivitamins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN6THYZ4ngM
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