'Future Hope' Column
By Ted Glick
Over
the last 15 years that I’ve been an activist and organizer on the issue
of human/system-caused climate disruption, I’ve many times discussed
with others if there is any hope of avoiding the ultimate unraveling of
the world’s ecosystems, given how deep a hole we are in. Put another
way, can we overcome in enough time the power of the fossil fuel
industry and their corporate and government collaborators?
Realistically,
there isn’t enough time to prevent major human and ecological damage on
a worldwide scale. It’s already happening, via extreme weather events
taking place more often and more destructively in all parts of the
world. These are going to get worse before, many years in the future,
they happen at a scale and frequency that is more normal; that is, more
like how and when they have happened in recent centuries.
Another
example is the war in Syria, which has led to a half-million deaths,
tremendous destruction, millions of refugees, and a rise in
anti-immigrant, racist political groups, particularly in Europe. The war
was caused in part by climate change via a horrific, many-years-long
drought that exacerbated economic hardship and social and political
instability.
How
will we as individuals and humanity as a whole cope if/when rising
temperatures and a disrupted climate lead to major crop failures and
water scarcity on top of all of the other impacts from extreme weather
events and unraveling ecological systems?
In
2007 I engaged in a climate emergency fast that ended up going 107
days. 25 days were on water-only; the rest were on fruit and vegetable
liquids, with powdered protein and vitamin supplements in the last 50
days. On about the 100th day I was reached out to by a young
Indigenous leader who wanted to meet with me. We did so, and we had a
deep and substantive talk for several hours.
The
one thing that has stayed with me about that conversation was when we
discussed what could be coming down the road as the climate becomes
increasingly unstable. This very grounded and very intelligent young man
spoke about how he had considered that in some Indigenous communities
it might be necessary for people to decide, literally, who should live
and who should die, who, by continuing to live, was best able to help as
many as possible to survive until things changed for the better.
Click here for the full article.
Source: tedglick.com
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