The trauma of a warming, chaotic world — and a developmental kind of hope: that our infant technologies might grow up in time to redirect the old power structures toward life.
There is some trauma around the already-present, and ever-increasing, global warming — what is now called climate change. The newer name emphasizes the runaway effect, the chaos that is somewhat unpredictable.
We know about increasing natural disasters. Weather patterns like wildfires, hurricanes, floods, more dramatic temperature fluctuations. These things are global — they are happening everywhere. Icebergs melting, sea levels rising.
It’s virtually impossible to imagine human civilization reacting as a whole to these interrelated world-traumas. But it is happening! There are movements — however meager — of electric vehicles, recycling, green products.
But I think there is more hope than that. I think we are in line, globally, for some major revolutions. I think it could happen. It wouldn’t be easy; change never is. It might require a “religious” level of radical, fanatical change. From root to fruit.
For the moment, all I can do is hint at it. This special new hope for change.
We have wildly dramatic new interconnectivity. But the power structures of government and corporation mostly act the same. Social media and AI, meanwhile, are babies. I am just waiting for them to grow up — to develop from their infancy. To boldly, peacefully, lovingly redirect our power structures toward addressing the human and the natural world, which are already changing dramatically, like rebellious teenagers on the global scheme. Rebellious teen parents! To stretch a bad metaphor. Parents who need to be redirected by their offspring (AI and social media)
Lastly, it is worth more than a footnote to mention that “climate change” (as large as that series of patterns is) ain’t the only global attack on Nature. Hence the drafting of a new “naturalism.” another example, among many, is the over-extraction of resources. For example, fracking, which could poison the sacred water supply, while attaining diminishing returns of oil supplies.
On the other hand, we are dealing with an Earth that includes the Human Race. There is certainly no “return to a natural state.” We have to find a way forward for everyone: Humanity, Animals, Plants and Minerals, breathable environments and even the sort of global shade structure called the “O-zone” layer. Humans & all-of-nature. We depend on each other..