Reflecting On Refraction

A couple of days ago I was sitting at my favourite café early in the morning with a freshly brewed hot coffee in front of me. A light shower of rain began to fall. Within a minute or so a rainbow formed its arch across the sky. When I looked downwards at the creek that flows beside the café, I could see the rainbow reflected in the waters. (see photo)

The rainbow and its reflection in the water was a beautiful sight.

I was moved to reflect.

I recalled from my school days learning about the physics of how a rainbow is formed. Light is refracted, reflected, and dispersed into its constituent colours by the drops of rain. Most people know the colours of the rainbow from the initials: ROYGBIV. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. These are the classic seven colours of the rainbow. Most of us know that the section of the electro-magnetic spectrum that we see as light is made up of many more colours than these seven. It is though, these seven that we classically associate with a rainbow.

I reflected further.

The rainbow is a pleasing metaphor for life and its myriad forms. Individual lives do not exist in isolation. No matter what animal or plant you can think of in nature, it does not exist without interacting with other animals and plants around it. Together, all the various plants and animals combine in almost unimaginable complexity to co-create whole eco-systems.

Each eco-system supports and sustains all the plants and animals within it. Each plant and animal supports and sustains the eco-system.

We humans are part of these complex eco-systems. We are not isolated beings. Without the eco-systems we are part of we could not exist. We are like one of the colours of the rainbow.

Try to imagine a rainbow without one of its colours. Suppose the colour blue was missing. It would no longer be a rainbow, would it?

Sadly, much of humanity is acting (metaphorically) as if one or more of the colours of the rainbow do not matter. Species (and even genera) of plants and animals are being made extinct as an insane rate.

My reflection continued on.

If light is passed through a prism the entire visible spectrum of colours appears on the other side of the prism. The unity of light (what we call white light) is refracted and dispersed by the prism, and we see the diversity of colour contained in that unity. Unity creates diversity.

Now place another prism after the first prism. But invert it. Now pass the white light through the first prism and then the colour spectrum through the second. What happens?

The colour spectrum is returned to white light. Diversity creates unity.

It is a metaphor worth reflecting upon often, because it can be very easy to forget that everything in the world is co-created by everything else. Nothing arises or exists completely on its own. Nothing is independent of other things, although it may be unique (i.e. it may be the unique colour red in our metaphor).

Next time you see a rainbow think and reflect upon the diversity of life and how that creates the wondrous unity that life is.

We Are All One, Except When We're Not

I hear the phrase ‘We are all one” often. And, it is true – on one level. We are all Homo sapiens, we are all human beings. We are all of the genus Homo, albeit we are the only species of that genus still existing.¹

Our DNA attests to our oneness – any two human beings have at least 99.6% of their DNA in common. However, that other 0.4% difference represents around 12 million molecular base pairs.

Our culture can play a big part in shaping our genetic variation. Even something as apparently simple as dialectical difference can shape our genetic differences. A recent (published June 2023) study out of Vanderbilt University explored these differences. The researchers examined high-density linguistic and genetic data from England, and found that the subtle linguistic markers affected the movement and mating preferences of individuals, ultimately leading to genetic differentiation.²

Yes, we are all one.

Except when we are not.

This is one of the paradoxes of life. We are the same and we are different, at the same time. The paper referred to above suggests that there are cultural differences, and that we are not all (culturally) the same or one.

We are rather like the paradox of light – it is both a wave, and a particle.

With light it is possible to measure its wave-like structure or its particle-like structure, but not both at the same time. So, it is with us humans. We can measure, describe, notice, and acknowledge our similarities. And, we can measure, describe, notice, and acknowledge our differences. Most of us though, have difficulty doing both at the same time.

Sadly, there are many who steadfastly hold to just one of these views.

Holding to the ‘we are all one’ view can lead to a dismissal, even to a condemnation of difference. Usually, such extreme views are held by those who, even if subconsciously, think that oneness is congruent with a same-as-me ideology. When a person, consciously or unconsciously, believes that oneness (read sameness) means that everyone is like them and is subject to the same cultural, historical, political, and judicial imperatives this can lead to racism, misogyny, homophobic and other judgemental formulations.³

On the other hand, too much emphasis on difference can lead to similar unhealthy beliefs. Such an emphasis can get displayed as ethnocentrism, cultural superiority, and ultimately a harmful display of toxic individuality.

Both conceptions need to be held; furthermore, both need to be held lightly.

Comparing Apples with Apples

An analogy may be helpful when trying to understand the sameness and difference paradox.

Consider the apple. Apples are the fruit of the genus Malus, and are the most widely distributed tree fruit in the world. Apples are one genus. We could say, Apples are all one.

But we wouldn’t want to apply that notion to the way in which we eat or bake with apples.

Apples vary widely. There is the Cox’s Orange variety, with its golden-yellow skin and semi-tart taste. The Ambrosia variety is mostly red, sweet and crisp. Gala apples have a distinctive red/yellow striped look to them and are sweet and aromatic. For a very tart variety then Granny Smith suits the bill, and has a bright green skin. A favourite amongst many for eating is the Pink Lady variety with its red/pinkish skin and a sweet, crisp taste.

Apples vary in taste, skin colour, and crispness of flesh. Apples come into season at different times of the year. Expert chefs amongst us know which varieties are best for different dishes – apple pie, apple crumble, stewed apple, or apple sauce.

Yet, apples are apples. Apples are one, except when they are not.

Another Analogy

Think of a forest. It is one forest. Yet, the variety within that forest is almost limitless. What makes up that one forest? Trees, ferns, mushrooms, lichen, insects, birds, mammals, reptiles, ground-dwelling animals, tree-hugging animals, butterflies. That is just the species we think of as alive. Within the forest, and making up what is called forest, there are streams, rocks, sticks, stones, dead leaves, waterfalls, knolls, dales, mountains. Well, you get the picture.

A forest can only be a forest because of the variety of life forms and other forms that make it up. It is one, only because it is many.

So, beware the phrase ‘we are all one.’ It may hide an ideological belief of cultural superiority, or at least, a belief that my way of thinking and behaving is the norm.

As the old saying goes: No one size fits all.

We are all one, and we are not. We must acknowledge the former and respect the latter.

Notes:

1. Other species of the genus Homo include: H. erectus, H. habilis, H. neanderthalensis, H. ergaster, H. naledi, H. denisova and up to perhaps 7 or 8 others.

2. Evolutionary biologists determine that culture shapes genetics within, not just between populations, Vanderbilt University Research News, 29 June 2023, https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2023/06/29/evolutionary-biologists-determine-that-culture-shapes-genetics-within-not-just-between-populations/ accessed 31 October 2023.

3. Some politicians and political parties use such claims of ‘we are all one’ to spread ideologies of xenophobia and racism.

Indigenous Languages: Vessels Of Well-Being

This blog is being written in the middle of the inaugural NSW Aboriginal Languages Week (22 – 29 October 2023.)

In writing this blog I pay my respects to the Elders past and present and the emerging leaders of the future. I recognise and acknowledge the Gumbaynggirr people upon whose land I reside, who have cared for and been the guardians of the lands, rivers, mountains, and ocean for thousands of generations.

The importance of ancestral language is crucial to the wellbeing of whole cultures, to individuals, and to all aspects of human endeavour. Yet, to European colonisers this was not recognised, with many indigenous languages throughout the world having been outlawed, decimated, and often exterminated. The dominant culture of the country I now live in (Australia,) and that of the land of my birth (Aotearoa/New Zealand,) introduced the English language and made that the official language of each country. As a boy growing up in Aotearoa I recall being told by teachers, family members, and officials, that Māori (the indigenous people, and language, of Aotearoa) was dying out, and that it was pointless learning the language because it would have no relevance in the coming years.

Coincidentally, wherever in the world the colonising powers dismantled the indigenous language the health of the First Nations peoples inevitably suffered. Still, today the health of indigenous peoples, whether in North America, Australia, Aotearoa, or the Pacific Islands, lags well behind that of non-indigenous residents of those same countries.

Language Revitalisation

Beginning in the second half of the 20^th century many indigenous languages began to be revitalised. The Welsh example is commonly referenced.

As far back as 1563, the Act of Union under Henry VIII saw Wales governed solely by English law and the use of the Welsh language in courts and other government offices banned. By 1961 only one-in-four Welsh people could converse in the Welsh language, although some pockets of high numbers of speakers did remain.

From 1925 onwards though, a number of events took place that led to todays’ significant revival of the language. The Welsh political party (Plaid Cymru) was founded in 1925 with the promotion of the Welsh language being its primary focus. In 1936 the British government attempted to set up a RAF training camp at Penyberth. The locals were incensed, and the resulting protest became known as Tân yn Llŷn (Fire in Llŷn) after the peninsular on which the camp was to be cited. One of the protesters wrote that the British government intended turning ‘essential homes of Welsh culture, idiom, and literature" into a place for promoting a barbaric method of warfare.’

Three decades later the flooding of the Tryweryn valley to create a reservoir to supply Liverpool created tensions around forced removal of locals and the destruction of the valley. Graffiti proclaiming Cofiwch Dryweryn ('Remember Tryweryn') could be seen in many surrounding locations – always written in the Welsh language. These events, and others, kept alive local aspirations to retain language and culture. In 2011 the Welsh language was granted official status for the first time in four and a half centuries. Notwithstanding this, concerns around its health remain, with possibly less than 20% of the population speaking Welsh.

In the land of my birth, the Māori language was banned and those speaking it at school punished for doing so. However, since the 1970s a revitalisation has taken place, kindled primarily by the establishment of pre-school language nests (Kohanga Reo) in the early 1980s. In 1987 an Act of Parliament established Māori as an official language of the country.

Although the number of people stating that they are able to hold a conversation in Māori remains low, there are many young people who are now growing up bilingual. In 2017 Rotorua (the city in which I was born) became the first city in Aotearoa to declare itself bilingual, so that both Māori and English would be promoted.

In the city in which I now live (Coffs Harbour) the Gumbaynggirr Giingana Freedom School opened its doors (although in reality, a lot of the learning takes place on country rather than indoors) in early 2022. The school is the first (and presently the only) bilingual Aboriginal language school in New South Wales. The vision of the school is to be ‘Strong in: language, culture, purpose, identity, motivation, and education.’

This vision fits neatly into the theme of Aboriginal Language Week – ‘Languages Alive, Culture Thrives.’

When cultures thrive, the well-being of the cultures members also flourish.

Culture and Health Thrives

A recent review of research attests to this statement.¹ Although many of the revitalisation efforts world-wide are aimed at language promotion and use, a number of other benefits also accrue, including health benefits. The authors of this study summarised their conclusions by stating that, ‘The published literature supports the hypothesis that active use or learning of an Indigenous language has positive health benefits.’

Two aspects of health that showed exceptional health benefit were those of mental health and suicide prevention. In these two areas, around 80% of research programs showed a positive effect of language revitalisation.

What is worthy of further note in this review is that use of Indigenous language has positive benefit, regardless of proficiency level.

Nature Thrives Too

When Indigenous language comes alive, cultures thrive – and so too does the natural world in which we live.

Indigenous cultures have co-evolved with the animals, plants, rocks, rivers, insects, mountains, and oceans of their place. In that time such cultures have come to intimately connect with those places and to learn their ways. Indigenous languages have spoken of these connections for hundreds of generations. Within the languages there is a wealth of knowledge, recognition, and wisdom about place.

When Indigenous languages get lost or destroyed then the knowledge of the natural relationships also get lost or destroyed.

Additionally, Indigenous languages not only provide knowledge about nature, but also offer us a different way of thinking about nature.

For example, Galina Angarova, a Buryat woman living beside Lake Baikal in south-east Siberia, explains that her language (Bargu-Buryat, a variety of the Mongolian languages) has no word for environment.² In the Bargu-Buryat language one word has the meaning of state of being (or self) and the environment. Galina describes how this single word ‘signifies a unity and non-separation between a human and their environment.’

Far from being of no value, Indigenous languages are vitally important for individual and community well-being, as well as being essential in the preservation of the planet’s natural biodiversity.

Notes:

1. Whalen et al., Health effects of Indigenous language use and revitalisation; a realist review, in International Journal for Equity in Health, (2022) 21:169

2. Galina Angarova is the Executive Director of Cultural Survival, an NGO that has been advocating for Indigenous people’s self-determination, culture, and political resilience world-wide since 1972. Listen here to a podcast with Galina speaking of being raised in an intact Indigenous culture and the values she inherited from within that culture.

Where Have All The Environmentalists Gone? (10 Principles/Practices)

The first two parts of this blog series lamented the loss of the environmental movement that began with such promise in the 1960s and 70s. This Part 3 asks whether it is possible to resurrect and/or resuscitate the movement from within the climate change movement? Failing that, is there any chance of rekindling a truly environmental movement?

For any or all of this to happen, any emergent environmental movement will surely come to recognise and accept the following ten principles and practices:

1.     Think in systems and take a wide-angled view. See the big picture. Rather than looking through carbon-tinted glasses, the movement will not privilege or prefer one part of the world, or one species, over any other parts. Specifically, it cannot descend into anthropocentrism.

2.     In doing so, the movement will understand and work with local diversity, ecosystems, and bioregions. It will understand that harming any part of the whole damages the whole.

3.     Make connections between “issues.” This includes recognising the desire for comfort in one part may be of immense discomfort to another. For example, slavery and child labour is an “issue” that must be considered in all environmental campaigns.

4.     Gain a long-term understanding of history. This includes understanding the mechanisms of colonisation (still evident today), especially how that process contributes significantly to environmental degradation. Furthermore, such an understanding will recognise that the basic reason we are in an environmental mess is because of overshoot.

5.     Question the imperatives of modernity, especially what Vanessa Machado de Oliveira calls ‘…our ego-logical desires for the 6 “Cs” of comfort, convenience, consumption, certainty, control, and coherence.’ ¹

6.     Overcome our fixation on fixing. This includes overcoming our techno-addiction. Technology never has been, and never will be, the solution to any of our environmental problems, let alone the predicament we are now in. Eco-psychologist Chellis Glendinning argues that modern humans suffer a trauma of disconnection from nature and that we attempt to “heal” this trauma by an addiction to technology.² 

7.     Remember some of the slogans of 30, 40, or 50 years ago: “Think global, act local.’” “The personal is planetary, the planetary personal.”

8.     Work through the grief process. Being stuck in some parts of the grief cycle is not a good place from which to undertake environmental action.

9.     Tell the truth. This is the first of the three ‘demands’ of Extinction UK. The movement must tell the truth about the inter-connected, and self-reinforcing, dangers facing the whole world. Furthermore, it must tell the truth about the inadequacy of the solutions being offered (see 6 above.)

10.  Find a spiritual/soulful home/place. Our place is an integral part of the whole of nature, not separated from nature. Our socio-environmental predicament is less about what we do, or will do; it is more about who we are – and that is a question of spirituality, soulfulness, and inner being.³

It will also be useful for any reclaimed environmental movement to re-read some of the seminal books of the environmental movement from before the focus on carbon emissions. Some possibilities include:

·       Limits to Growth, Meadows et al

·       Silent Spring, Carson

·       Small Is Beautiful, Schumacher

·       The Population Bomb, Ehrlich

·       Walden, Thoreau

·       Overshoot, Catton

Eco-psychology is the branch of psychology that recognises our human place within nature, and has emerged significantly since the awareness of global warming. This is an important area for the environmental movement to take into consideration. Contributions from Indigenous writers also need to be recognised. Some readings include:

·       My Name is Chellis and I’m in Recovery from Western Civilization, Glendinning

·       Nature and the Human Soul, Plotkin

·       Active Hope, Macy

·       Coming of Age, Jenkinson

·       Dream of the Earth, Berry

·       Sand Talk, Yunkaporta

·       Last Child in the Woods, Louv

·       Facing Extinction (essay), Ingram

Primarily, any resuscitated, resurrected, or re-kindled environmental movement must think differently. It will have to recognise Einstein’s famous dictum: ‘We cannot solve the world’s problems with the same thinking with which we created them.’ Einstein was not talking simply about thinking creatively (as de Bono would suggest,) he was talking about the very foundations of our thinking. He meant changing the very paradigms of thinking. He was talking about simplicity, cooperation, connections. He understood the importance of making mistakes, and he fostered curiosity, including a curiosity (and hence a wariness) of consequences of our thinking. I have addressed Einstein’s famous quotation and what he possibly meant in a prior blog here.

Younger Generations

Finally, a few words about the younger generations, especially those who are worried, scared, and fearful of the world we are in and what this means for their futures.

The phenomenon of School Strikes for Climate is prescient and necessary. This is a world-wide movement that must be listened to. Older generations have stolen the future from these young people. Sadly, this is not all that new. William Catton, wrote in 1982 on page 1 of his must-read book - Overshoot – that, ‘humankind is locked into stealing ravenously from the future.’

Consequently, I will continue to support young people, and challenge others to listen to them. I will not, however, condone older generations lying to them about the future, proposing non-environmental techno-solutions, nor offering young people false hope.

Post scriptum

If there is a movement that took up, and extended, the radical potential of the mid 20^th century environmental movement then it is the Deep Ecology movement.⁴ The term Deep ecology was coined by Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss. Deep ecology recognises that the existence of any organism is co-dependent upon the existence of all organisms (including humans.) It promotes the inherent worth of all living beings, not just those that have utility value to humans.

Notes

1. Vanessa Machado de Oliveira, Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, 2021.

2. Chellis Glendinning, My Name is Chellis and I’m in Recovery from Western Civilization, Shambhala Publications, Boston & London, 1994

3. Please note, I am not advocating religion here. Spirituality is not synonymous with religion, although your particular religion may be how you approach your spirituality.

4. Seed, Macy, Fleming, Næss, Thinking Like A Mountain, New Society Publishers, Philladelphia, 1988

Where Have All The Environmentalists Gone? (Part 2)

Wrong answers

Last week I lamented the demise (or loss) of the environmental movement. This week I wish to outline some of the reasons for that lamentation. First, let me suggest some principles of environmentalism (as I understand them, at least.)

Environmentalism is, first and foremost, the conscious desire to protect and preserve nature from the ravages and plundering by humans. Those with an environmental understanding recognise some important ecological principles: the integrity of the whole is nourished and sustained by the diversity of species living and existing within niche ecosystems and bioregions. This diversity is mediated through a rich, vast, and complex array of inter-connections. (Note that none of this privileges or prioritises humanity, let alone humanity’s industrial-consumer society of perpetual growth.)

However, when ‘environmentalism’ is simplified and comprehended as single-focussed, and single-issued, then ‘environmentalism’ is misunderstood. This is what has happened as ‘environmental activism’ became increasingly fixated on carbon emissions as the one-and-only environmental issue. In a rush to propose - and promote - solutions, this movement concentrated on ‘renewable’ sources of electricity production.

And, with that concentration, the movement cut itself off from environmentalism.

Let me suggest just a few ways in which the ‘solutions’ offered are not environmental solutions.

Mining.

Mining has been described as “…the most important activity destroying the ecological environment and causing pollution and disasters.” Yet, ‘renewable’ sources of electricity (primarily solar and wind) require immense amounts of digging into the Earth for the minerals and elements that go into the building and infrastructure of such sources.

Solar and wind electricity generating plants require fifteen to twenty times as much base-material input per TW¹ as does coal, gas, and nuclear electricity generating plants.² For instance, for wind turbines to produce 1 TW of electricity requires more than 7,500 tons of cement/concrete. A coal fired electricity plant requires about 1,000 tons for the same amount of electricity.

A further example is the amount of digging required to make the battery in an electric vehicle (EV.) An EV battery weighs approximately 450 kg. To mine and process the ores and materials needed for that battery necessitates the removal of approximately 250 tons of earth – let alone the plants and animals that lived on that earth. The largest EV manufacturer in the world (Tesla) produced more than 2,500 EVs per day in 2021 – that’s lot of earth! Tell me that is an environmental solution!!?

Mining leaves behind highly toxic residues and tailings. Ask the local indigenous people in the infamous “lithium triangle” (encompassing areas of Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia) and they will speak of this. A protest sign by one indigenous resident reads: “We don’t eat batteries. They take the water. Life is gone.”³

This is the very opposite of the environmental principle of the diversity of local ecosystems. Sadly too, it is an example of “out-of-sight-out of-mind.” So long as we in the rich nations of the world can drive our EVs, proclaiming that in doing so we are ‘saving the world,’ what does it matter that communities living in poorer areas of the world must shift, having seen their environment polluted and destroyed?

Bird deaths.

Wind farms are known to kill birds, especially larger raptors and other birds of prey. A common rejoinder to this is to claim that the fossil fuel industry kills more birds. This argument is akin to me claiming that the road toll in my country is acceptable because it is less than that of other nations. I would prefer that we set the bar against a higher standard, not that we measure ourselves against the worst case possible.

Furthermore, assenting to the killing of raptors and birds of prey is a dismissal of another important environmental principle: that of the complex interconnections between species in a bioregion. The lessons of the removal, and later reintroduction, of wolves in Yellowstone Park should have been well learned by now – especially by environmentalists.⁴

Neodymium and Friends.

Neodymium is a Rare Earth Element (REE.) It is a crucial element in wind turbines (as well as mobile phones, EVs, hard drives, and audio devices.) Along with the other 16 REEs it is mined mostly in China which accounts for more than half of the world’s supply.

These REEs come at a significant environmental cost. Included in that cost is CO₂ equivalent emissions. Estimates vary between 12 kg up to 66 kg CO₂ equivalent per single kg of neodymium over the full life-cycle.⁵ A standard 2 MW wind turbine contains about 360 kg of neodymium. Simple arithmetic results in carbon-equivalent emissions of between 4,320 kg and 23,760 kg – and that is just for the neodymium component. For a technology that is supposedly carbon-free this is not good news.

Neglecting to take into account the environmental devastation of REE mining and manufacture (including CO₂ emissions) is an example of not recognising the environmental principle of inter-connectivity, and thus the need to take a long term, whole of life-cycle, perspective.

It hasn’t even worked.

Solar and wind electricity generation began to be noticed within the global energy mix around 1990. Since then, solar and wind generating capacity has increased by a combined 7,560 TWh (from just 12 TWh in 1990.) Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? It does, until you realise that in the same period, coal and oil capacity increased by 32,130 TWh. Fossil fuels outstripped ‘renewables’ by more than a factor of four.⁶

In the same timeframe carbon emissions have increased from 22.75 billion tons per year to 34.81 billion tons.

The introduction of ‘renewables’ has made no difference. None, zilch! Even though ‘renewables’ have increased capacity in the last thirty years by a whopping 630% there has been absolutely no reduction in energy use, and no reduction in annual carbon emissions.

We might ask why?

We might answer: Because ‘renewables’ are not a solution to the basic problem.

Significantly, the only two times in the past thirty years when there has been a reduction in annual carbon emissions have been in 2008/09 during the ‘financial crisis’ and in 2019/20 during the coronavirus crisis. Carbon emissions dropped by 1.4% and 5.2% respectively.

‘Renewables’ were not responsible for these reductions. A reduction in consumption and production was. I will not spell out the obvious conclusions that can be drawn from this. (Maybe another blogpiece.) I might give a taste however; and suggest reading what Greta Thunberg has to say. She was on track recently when she noted that, “We cannot live sustainably within today’s economic system.”⁷ Too right Greta. That is the problem. ‘Renewables’ are not the answer. Furthermore, Greta made no mention whatsoever of ‘renewables’ in this article.

What then?

Can we reclaim or resurrect the environment movement? Can we restructure the climate change movement so that it becomes an environmental movement again? A movement that will seek to protect and preserve the Earth and all those creatures that live on or under the earth? In short – can we re-discover a movement that will seek to give voice to the creatures that have no voice?

I’ll attempt to answer this. Nah – I might leave that to Part 3, this piece is already far longer than I normally write.

Notes

1. TW (Terawatt) is one million million Watts. That is equivalent to 10,000,000,000 average 100 W lightbulbs.

2. Schernikau, Smith, & Falcon, Full Cost of Electricity “FCOE” and Energy Returns “eROI,” in Journal of Management and Sustainability, Vol 12, No. 1; 2022, published 23 May 2022. Please note, I am not arguing for coal fired electricity plants; simply noting that ‘renewables’ are not the environmental solution they are made out to be.

3. Indigenous people are left poor as tech world takes lithium from under their feet, in Washington Post, first published 19 December 2016, updated 2 February 2017.

4. The removal and reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park is a well-documented example of how an ecosystem needs all its diverse species. Watch this YouTube video for a short account of what happened. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_BqQEZQOJw

5. Julio Navarro & Fu Zhao, Life cycle assessment of the production of rare-earth elements for energy applications: a review, in Frontiers in Energy Research, November 2014.

6. The data in this section are from www.ourworldindata.org accessed 11 October 2022.

7. The Guardian, 8 October 2022.

The Insect Crisis (Book Review)

In 1962 Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, the book that kick-started the modern environmental movement. In that book she outlined the environmental issues caused by the widespread use of pesticides and insecticides.

She also asked the following question: “How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought threat of disease and death even to their own kind?”

Now, Oliver Milman, in The Insect Crisis,¹ is showing us that the question is still relevant sixty years later. Not only does Milman continue this line of questioning, but he has also produced a book clearly describing the consequences of not heeding or listening to Carson’s pleas.

These two books coming exactly sixty years apart (Silent Spring and The Insect Crisis) could easily be the two books that flank the modern environmental movement. One warns us, the other shows us what happens when we don’t listen.

Milman provides so much research and surveys showing the drastic decline (in lots of places, extinction) of insects since the release of Silent Spring that it is almost overwhelming and difficult to read.

Yet, we all intuitively know that Milman is correct. For those of us who were alive at the time of the release of Carson’s book, we can clearly recognise today: the lack of bugs on car windshields; the severe reduction in the number and variety of butterflies in our gardens and parks; the fewer bee stings; the lessened likelihood of seeing a praying mantis or cricket on our lawns. These and many other once commonly seen insects have all but disappeared.

And that is a serious problem says Milman. Most of us recognise insects (especially bees) as pollinators. They are also responsible for breaking down dead vegetation, for removing waste material, for aerating soils, for shifting nutrients around, and providing food for other creatures.

The reason for this demise? Milman is unequivocal. He points the finger squarely at us. We might think that climate change is the reason for the decrease. Climate change is only but the latest human-invoked threat that insects are facing. Insects have faced the same threats since Carson first pointed them out sixty years ago. Insects are threatened by insecticides, pesticides, deforestation, monocultural agriculture, urbanisation, light pollution, and the extinction of other species.

These pressures upon insect populations predate our current recognition of climate change. Insects and many other flora and fauna are now facing extinction. We have come to recognise this as the Sixth Mass Extinction. Yet, insects predated dinosaurs. In a chilling passage just one page from the end of his book, Milman quotes from a December 2020 research paper:

“This is not insects’ sixth mass extinction – in fact, it may become their first.”

If we understand the importance of insects to the life of the rest of the planet, including humans, then it could be that this may not become just the first mass extinction for insects – but also the first mass extinction for humans!!

Milman’s book is a must read for those who want to gain a greater understanding of another of Rachel Carson’s statements in Silent Spring:

“In nature, nothing exists alone.”

Note:

1. Oliver Milman, The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires that Run the World, Atlantic Books, London, 2022.

Solstice For The Soul

Today (21 June 2022) is the Winter Solstice here in the Southern Hemisphere (Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.) It is the day on which the sun (sol) appears to stand still (stice.) The sun appears to stop on its journey on the horizon towards the north. It is almost as if the sun is standing still for a day or so, contemplating the future: shall I journey further, or shall I return the way I have come over the past six months?

Viewed this way – as a time to stop and ponder and consider – perhaps we too could take a day or so to do the same. To consider our own soul, and especially how and where our unique soul fits within the world-soul.

To say that we rarely take such opportunity in this crazy, fast-paced, busy-busy world is perhaps stating the obvious. But, it needs to be stated. We need to stop and consider, and ponder.

How do we fit within the world-soul?

What is the world-soul?

Around 360 BC., Plato wrote one of his dialogues, Timaeus, and in it described the anima mundi (world-soul) and declared that,

“…we must declare that this Cosmos has verily come into existence as a Living Creature endowed with soul and reason [...] a Living Creature, one and visible, containing within itself all the living creatures which are by nature akin to itself.”¹

The anima mundi (world-soul) then; is the life force, the animating principle, the very essence and soul, of a fully interconnected entity. A connected entity in which we all are a necessary and integral part, one in which the complexity and diversity is such that we conscious human beings cannot grasp the magnitude of this complexity. We can only gaze with awe and wonder at the mystery of it all.

Each of us has our own unique soul, even if we deny this, or do not actively seek or recognise it.

Centuries after Plato the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung further explored the anima mundi, and lamented our disconnection from the soul of the world. He wrote that,

“The development of Western philosophy during the last two centuries has succeeded in isolating the mind in its own sphere and in severing it from its primordial oneness with the universe. (Humanity has) ceased to be the microcosm and eidolon (image or representation of an idea – ed.) of the cosmos, and “anima” is no longer the consubstantial scintilla, spark of the Anima Mundi, World Soul”²

Perhaps today, as the sun stops to linger and ponder on its back-and-forth journey, we too, could pause and consider our soul’s place in the world-soul.

Notes:

1. Plato, Timaeus 30b–d, translated by W.R.M. Lamb

2. Carl Jung, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Collected Works Vol.9 Part 1. 

How Many Times Have You Been Reincarnated?

How many times have you been reincarnated?

Only once some would say: we are born, we die – that’s it.

Others suggest that we experience past lives and so we have been reincarnated a number of times.

Still others propose that we live in a never-ending cycle of birth-rebirth-birth-rebirth…

All these answers have one thing in common. They assume a life that can be thought of, and conceived as – me, I, myself. A single human being; entire, complete, and - apart from the aging process - unchanging.

Yet, when we consider the make-up of our body, we are not unchanging, nor are we complete.

Our body is comprised of somewhere between 50 – 75 trillion cells.

These cells do not have a lifetime consistent with the lifetime of the being we think of as me. Skin cells, for example, are replaced every two to three weeks. Red blood cells last about four months. The cells lining our stomach are lucky to reach two days. They all get replaced however.

Not so brain cells. They do last our lifetime. At least those that last that long do so. Brain cells do die, but are not replaced.

All these cells are made of proteins, and those proteins in turn are the product of atoms.

We all know, roughly, what atoms are. The building blocks of everything is one way to conceive of them. The Periodic Table lists 118 elements, of which atoms are the basic ingredient.

Back to the Question

Back to our question: how many times have you been reincarnated?

If we consider all the elements and atoms that make up our body, then we could easily claim to have been reincarnated many many times over.

Just four elements - Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, and Nitrogen – constitute around 96% of our body weight. The atoms of these elements have been around for billions of years.

The atoms of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen that make up our present-day body have been part of the Earth’s ecosystem for millennia. Perhaps millions of years ago, the atoms on the tip of your tongue may have been in a plant that was then eaten by a passing Stegosaurus. Maybe millions of years before that, the atoms lining your stomach lined the bottom of an ancient seabed.

Consider your breath. Perhaps some of the nitrogen or oxygen that you breath in right now once passed through the nostrils of Cleopatra or Genghis Khan.

We are being recycled, rejuvenated, revivified, and reincarnated continuously. We are part of an eternal cycle that includes animal, vegetable, and mineral.

We are part of everything. Everything is part of us. I am one with all. All is one with me.

It is a humbling thought, isn’t it?

Global Is The New Local

Many years ago the slogan Think Global, Act Local was coined within the environmental movement.¹  The mass environment movement was just beginning and a number of global environment groups were coming into existence, amongst them Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and others.  Major issues of the time included fluorocarbons and the ozone layer, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, power plants and the attendant disposal of nuclear waste.  The extinction of animal species also elicited a fair amount of attention.  Plus, of course, the second part of the slogan – numerous local environmental campaigns.

Now, four or five decades later, and in the wake of the neo-liberal globalisation process, the global portion of that slogan is of greater importance.  The continued existence of humans on this planet could hang on how much we think globally.  And not just us – many animal species will suffer extinction if we do not think globally.

Thankfully, there are signs that a more global identification may be occurring.  Since 2001 GlobeScan has been conducting a world-wide study tracking how people in 18 countries (more than 20,000 people) identify themselves.  In 2016, for the first time, more than half the respondents in the survey identified themselves as global citizens.  The strongest global identification occurred in non-OECD countries, with citizens in Nigeria, China and Peru showing a higher than 70% agreement with the statement “I see myself more as a global citizen than a citizen of my country.”  What’s more is that the global perspective of citizens in non-OECD counties has been steadily rising since 2007 (when the average was 42%) to an average of 56% in 2016.  OECD countries on the other hand, have seen a reduction in global identification in the same period (from 47% down to 42%), although it has rebounded from the 2011 low of less than 40%.

However, not all OECD countries show low levels of global identification.  Spain (59%) and Canada (54%) buck the trend.

Certainly it can be argued that some aspects of globalisation have contributed towards this growing global identity.  Chief amongst these are those of communication, transport and information flows.  With the growth of the Internet and instant streaming of television images it is possible for people many thousands of kilometres away to witness the suffering of people on the other side of the world and find an empathy for them.  It is as though the suffering of people who are victimised by war, climate change effects, drought and famine are viewed as if they were living down the road from us.  Sufferers are no longer “on the other side of the world,” they are right there in our living rooms.  Because of global transportation systems we could be there within a day.

That’s no longer global – that’s local.  Global and local are merging.

The emergence of global citizenship is a good thing.  Psychological tests suggest that those with a global citizenship perspective tend to score higher on traits of openness, caring, empathy, and agreeableness.  I am not suggesting that one follows from the other four, nor that the four traits follow from a global perspective.  Rather, I suspect, they emerge in mutual formation.

The world of today is highly inter-connected, full of diversity, and amazingly complex.  The issues, concerns, problems that face us are similarly so.  So too are the opportunities, wonders, and delights.  Those four traits – openness, caring, empathy, agreeableness – are vitally needed, as is a global perspective.

Thinking globally and acting locally continues to be a healthy, responsible, and creative slogan for our times.

Notes:
1. It wasn’t the first use of this or similar phrases.  It had been used within city-planning two decades earlier.  The first to use the phrase from an environmental viewpoint is debatable, although it does appear that its first use may have been David Brower (the founder of Friends of the Earth) in 1969. 

2. The first recorded instance of someone thinking of themselves as a global citizen may be that of Diogenes in 412 BC.  When asked where he came from, Diogenes is reputed to have replied “I am a citizen of the world.”