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| Photos by Molly: A fiery sun and smoky skies at our home in Vancouver, WA, September 10, 2022 |
In the Wake of the Climate Crisis
In the wake of the climate crisis and other deep traumas, how can we support ourselves and each other in keeping our eyes and minds and hearts and souls open? That is the challenge, I believe, to not go back to sleep. And in these times, it is day in and day out that we hear the news with more horrors and heartbreaks. And now there's Hurricane Ian.
It is also Ian which follows on the heals of other catastrophic hurricanes and typhoons, wildfires and tornadoes, droughts and floods, daily species extinctions and dying coral reefs, sea levels rising and the Thwaites 'doomsday' Glacier "hanging on by its fingernails," millions displaced and the ever growing numbers of climate refugees, wars and the threats of nuclear disasters, extreme poverty and wealth disparities, corporate funded political and media systems which are rooted in greed and complicity with the fossil fuel industry, Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, the military and prison industrial complexes. And on and on.
With looking in any kind of depth, there comes this awareness of the interwoven thread connecting many toxins in our culture and beyond where the values are not grounded in truth and a higher good. Instead, the incentive and intention is to keep the masses of people uninformed and ignorant, disempowered and distracted, polarized and propagandized, apathetic and inactive, angry and addicted, despairing and depressed, and misplacing outrage and fear onto minorities and often onto those who are fighting the hardest for radical, life-saving, systemic change. I could go on.
Over and over and over again it comes to me to say — don't believe the lies, the disinformation, the doubt, the hooks that separate rather than unify us!
Ian is not a once in a 1000 year catastrophe. The heat dome which struck the Pacific Northwest last year is not a 100 or 1000 year disaster. What are repeatedly being called anomalies and unprecedented is the new normal. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Just the beginning of much worse and even more catastrophic horrors to come. Our warming oceans are not going to cool down. Another Ian could hit again this year or next or in 3 years. We don't know when. But another Ian is coming. This is the impact of the human caused climate crisis.
And we have to face this. We humans have to look at and, as best as we possibly can, absorb the truth of the precipice that we stand on. Truly everything, everything!, that we love and cherish is at stake. And we must act. We must.
I'm including a list of books, articles, speeches, documentaries below which I began to write out in a piece I wrote three years ago: https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2019/07/my-letter-to-npr-and-pbs-why-i-cannot.html. This is far from an exhaustive list and is but a glimpse into numerous other resources rich with information, truth and wisdom, integrity and inspiration.
Among the first books that I've listed is Joana Macy's updated edition of Active Hope, which just came out in June. It is a treasure. Active hope is essential in these times.
May courage and integrity, connection and fierce caring, active hope and inspiration, a passionate ongoing quest for truth, and a deep commitment to working together to birth a sustainable healing planet be contagious. We need each other. And we need to be talking, showing up, and doing our part.
The eyes of the children are watching.
These are pivotal times. We are all needed to be engaged in the universal struggle for a just and peaceful world which embodies the values critical to healing ourselves and this beautiful hurting planet that we share.
Bless us all,
Molly
For more information,
please consider these books:
please consider these books:
Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, Active Hope: How To Face the Mess We're In With Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsf5eIo-ys8
Naomi Klein, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal — https://naomiklein.org/on-fire/
Bill McKibben, Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out — http://billmckibben.com/falter.html
Bill McKibben, Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out — http://billmckibben.com/falter.html
Bill McKibben, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet — http://billmckibben.com/eaarth/eaarthbook.html
Dahr Jamail, The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption — https://www.dahrjamail.net/the-end-of-ice/
Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate — https://thischangeseverything.org/book/
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Revolutionary Love: A Political Manifesto To Heal and Transform the World — https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520304505/revolutionary-love
Riane Eisler, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future — https://rianeeisler.com/
Michael Mann, The New Climate War: The Fight To Take Back Our Planet — https://michaelmann.net/books/climate-war
Gabor Maté, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture — https://drgabormate.com/book/the-myth-of-normal/
* * * * *
Half the solution is first coming to fully see the problem. For more information on the failure to address the climate and ecological crises, and what is urgently needed now, please go here:
The Latest IPCC Report: What It Is and Why It Matters — https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/ipcc-report-climate-change/?gclsrc=ds&gclsrc=ds
David Attenborough, Climate Change: Sir David Attenborough in 'Act Now' Warning — https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59039485
Sir David Attenborough documentary, "David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet" — https://www.netflix.com/title/80216393
Duane Elgin documentary and book, Choosing Earth — https://choosingearth.org/
New Study Finds Thwaites 'Doomsday' Glacier "Is Hanging on by its Fingernails" — https://www.theinertia.com/environment/thwaites-doomsday-glacier-hanging-on-by-fingernails/
Bill Moyers, What If Reporters Covered the Climate Crisis Like Edward R. Murrow Covered the Start of World War II? — https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/bill-moyers-climate-change.php
Naomi Klein, Because "The House Is on Fire," Naomi Klein Takes Centrism-Obsessed Media to Task for Failed Climate Coverage — https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/01/because-house-fire-naomi-klein-takes-centrism-obsessed-media-task-failed-climate
Greta Thunberg, Austrian World Summit Speech, Vienna 2019 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uFO6p4lurw
Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, and others, CJR Event on Covering Climate Change — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO9DKk07SCY
"Call It a Crisis": New Report Details Failure of Cable and Network Outlets to Accurately Describe Climate Emergency — https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/29/call-it-crisis-new-report-details-failure-cable-and-network-outlets-accurately
Naomi Klein CRJ Nation Comments — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzDlqMA9iu8
“Who Is the DNC Loyal To?”: Dahr Jamail Questions DNC Veto of Primary Climate Debate, Interview by Amy Goodman of Dahr Jamail on Democracy Now! — which also illuminates the difference between what we see on NPR, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, etc. and true investigative journalism.
Noam Chomsky, "Worship of Markets" Is Threatening Human Civilization — https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-worship-of-markets-is-threatening-human-civilization/
When NPR Is More Dangerous Than Fox News — https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2019/07/when-npr-is-more-dangerous-than-fox-news.html
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