A fascinating theme amongst the many efforts focusing on responding to Global Warming is that of wellbeing. Wellbeing is different than the pursuit of pleasurable experiences though we often equate the two. Actually, these can be contradictory impulses and equating the two sometimes has tragic consequences. Perhaps, the pursuit of pleasure at the expense of wellbeing has led to the current predicament of Human Sapiens.
Very few of the efforts to respond to Global Warming say we will all be miserable in the future and there is little or nothing that we can do about it, even though this is certainly one possible scenario. Another scenario ironically is we are miserable now and there is little or nothing that we are doing about it. The pursuit of pleasure may be a short-term way that we are alleviating the current misery. Wellbeing may be a preferable alternative especially on those occasions when it is connected to tangible action to respond to the challenges of Global Warming.
The Current Story of Misery
What is the current story of misery? The climate is getting hotter by the year. Seventeen of the last eighteen years were the hottest on record. The Earth's polar defenses against Global Warming are rapidly melting. Food production of some crops last year in Europe was down 15% because of the increased heat. Migrants are already creating pressure on other countries by moving with desperation from their own countries because of economic, climate or political havoc. Increasingly storms, fires and floods are having a significant impact on our lives.
It is clear that many people in power are acting out of the motivation to preserve their own power and ego rather than the wellbeing of their own people or people on the planet - Assad, Trump, Netanyahu, dictators in Brazil, Turkey, etc. etc. Intolerance and racism show signs of increasing as current residents resent the new migrant residents. Demagogues foment hate which may seem like a great outlet in the moment to some but in the end undermines a sense of wellbeing for all.
One percent of the people own most of the wealth, many people are starving around the world, and perhaps ninety-nine percent of people are not better off than were their parents. Arguably, the quality of life may even have deteriorated even though we now have the Internet. As a consequence of large-scale indifference to Global Warming around the world, conditions are getting worse. Political leaders are often the greatest offenders in ignoring the peril. Many of the rest of us continue to hold on to the pleasures of our Western lifestyles even if they do not enable the desired degree of fulfillment and even if their put at risk our wellbeing.
The Optimistic View
The good news is that wellbeing is assuming more of a pronounced place in many of the efforts to respond to Global Warming. These efforts have themes ranging from: we can continue with our current economy and way of life while reducing carbon and waste to we need to change how we live - use of energy, waste, urban settings, production processes, commercialism, the economy and how we relate to one another.
It is easy to attach the label of "flourishing" to many of these efforts, i.e. we will flourish under these new conditions. This hope may have been more viable had we started taking pronounced measures to restrain the global use of carbon thirty years ago. Flourishing may be overly optimistic at this point in time. Still our ancestors "flourished" living difficult lives without electricity, cars, airplanes, consumer goods and digital technology simply based on compassion for one another and living in close communities, so flourishing may not be out of the question. It just may represent restoring a simpler world, perhaps, with a new supporting ideology. I am all in favor of that. It could prove to be a real adventure though admittedly a big adjustment.
Wellbeing
What does wellbeing look like? Many people have written books on that topic. Entire schools of philosophy have been developed around it. A few contemporary people who recently come to mind on the topic are Thich Nat Hahn and Joanna Macy. Jem Bendell who started the Deep Adaptation movement has set out four key questions to guide movement into a world where wellbeing can exist. Bendell asserts that there is a real risk of societal collapse in the next decade resulting from Global Warming and even the possibility of the extinction of Human Sapiens. He still believes that wellbeing can play a role under these circumstances.
Jem Bendell sets out his 4 R's:
- Resilience: What do we most value that we want to keep and how?
- Relinquishment: What do we need to let go of so as not to make matters worse?
- Restoration: What could we bring back to help us with these difficult times?
- Reconciliation: With what and whom shall we make peace as we awaken to our mutual mortality?
Underlying much of this is compassion. Compassion toward ourself. Compassion toward each other, other species, the Earth, our possible descendants.
Joanna Macy says, "We all need to fall in love again with what is. An exquisite planet...to really love this beautiful planet...a living planet....How do we be with all we know and find compassion?"
Many of the current approaches to fight Global Warming have wellbeing as an active part. The One Planet approach seeks to build communities and businesses focused on wellbeing with new types of economic approaches and with reduced carbon and waste. The UN SDG's seek to put in place the structures and foundation for global wellbeing across multiple dimensions. Deep Adaptation cites Joanna Macy, Thich Nat Hahn and others in creating workshops that focus on creating wellbeing in the lives of each person as they respond to whatever happens on our planet.
I find a great appeal to this focus on wellbeing. If the predictions of the earlier-than-planned-for demise of Human Sapiens is wrong, we will still have created a new - almost evolutionary way of being on the planet - one long overdue. It will be based on the ancient wisdom of many of our ancestors and informed by the evolutionary history of many other species. It will replace carbon and toxic chemical-fueled processes with the types of approaches that nature uses with much better results. It will be aligned with a more regenerative economy. It will lead to a new paradigm of Humans in community - with each other, with other species, with nature, with whatever Power underlies all of life.
And, if the predictions of our early demise prove to be correct, then maybe we will approach the end in a way that does credit to our species. In some future life, on the other side of some wormhole through the fabric of space and time, in another realm of consciousness or even millions and millions of years hence on our own planet, a future Shakespeare will write "The Tragedy of Humankind." A species "that loved not wisely but too well."
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