Dear Friends,

It's been awhile since you've heard anything from me but I remain engaged.  One of the reasons for my prolonged silence. has been work on a yurt I'm building from scratch keeping me busy and in Fairbanks through most of the winter.  I also joined a group of Quakers (Friends) who are in the process of discerning what steps to take next to address this issue more actively as a community.

The following is what came to me as a result of questions raised in early meetings of our group.  Please circulate it as you may feel called to do so.

The Moral Imperative of Climate Change

The sea level is slowly rising.  Some island peoples have already being displaced from their homes.   We are locked into some unavoidable changes from climate disruption  It is imperative to act now if we are to avoid the worst consequences of a warming atmosphere driven by the accumulation of greenhouse gases.  Those among us who did not cause the problem are or will by among the first to be severely affected.  We share a common humanity regardless of ethnicity or any other consideration.  We are our brothers and sisters keepers in ways we do not yet fully appreciate. 

Climate change or disruption, if you prefer, is being driven by the accumulation of greenhouses gases from the burning of fossil fuels.   Some remain in denial over the science.  There is, however, a higher moral imperative that cannot be denied.  We are all in this "lifeboat" together.  What we do or do not do about it now and not decades hence will have consequences that will determine the future outcome and viability for all of life on planet Earth. This is no trifling matter.  We ignore it at our peril.   Some of us will not live into all the consequences of climate change.  We come to this moment with more years behind us than ahead..   But it is we of an older generation, especially Americans, who bear a disproportionate responsibility for creating the problem in the first place.  It is also this "we" who must now rise to correct the mistakes of the past.  Many already are.  It is the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced and the defining issue of our time.

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it,” according to Albert Einstein.   To understand the level of consciousness driving not only climate change but the human tragedies of wars, injustice and deprivation is to look at cause.   Human consciousness has evolved and is in the process of evolving.   Yet one aspect of this consciousness nearly as old as our time on the planet has not changed much.   It is the misunderstanding that we are fundamentally (from an energetic standpoint) separated except in a physical sense from one another, from any other living thing, or from the Creative Energy of the universe, known by many names, worshiped by many faith traditions.

We know from the quantum physics law known as Bell’s Theorem that objects once connected affect one another forever no matter where they are.  Put another way an invisible stream of energy will always connect any two objects that have been connected in any way in the past.  Far enough back in time everything was connected.  We are all part of the same eternal stream of energy and always have been.  Our inherent interconnectedness was intuitively understood by some before this,  until more recently affirmed by quantum mechanics.   The grand illusion which will kill us if we persist in it is that we are somehow separate from it except by choice. The good news is that many people now understand that all things are connected energetically and are working to bring change from a higher level of consciousness.  

From our limited perspective the nearest we can come to describing this energy is Love as demonstrated in the lives and teachings of spiritual masters through the ages.  It is our true essence and basic goodness.  And it is that which comes to the fore in times of natural calamities and other occasions when we give selflessly to help others in need without thought of risk or reward.   It is only this energy that has the power to transform and drive out negative energies of fear, anger, hatred and the like.  We are fundamentally all One (of the same energy)  From this reality it is understood that what we give to another we give to ourselves individually and collectively.    Our true role in the grand scheme of things is tenders of the “Garden” part of the web of life that enriches and makes ours possible.   All of life from this perspective is appreciated as sacred none more or less important than another, all with a vital function to perform beyond what profit can be accrued to human kind from their domination and exploitation. 

It would be a mistake to conclude that in our hour of great need that we are adrift on a storm tossed sea without a "pilot" to guide us to a safe harbor.  Our inherent interconnectedness fully appreciated and understood means that thought forms such as prayer especially when magnified by many work because energy flows where attention goes.  This we know from our individual and collective experience of it.   It is no less so now.  To overlook or ignore our inherent connectedness to the Creative Energy of the universe and to not ask for help would be to continue more of the human hubris and lack of humility that has brought us to this imperiled moment in the first place. We are called to embrace a new paradigm. 

We are at the moment of a great “turning” in human history.   We will overcome but not alone and not without a transformation of consciousness that ends the separation of humanity from not only itself but from God, the Creative Energy of the universe.  Love embraced will see us through.  And in that there is hope for the dawn of a New Day and the creation of a New Earth.  

Peace Rider     

 

May love, joy and peace be yours this Christmas       

 

"Matter is spirit moving slowly enough to be seen."

Peirre Teilhard de Chardin