The biggest challenge of our times
Having trained as an engineer, I turned my attention to some of the world’s biggest challenges, in particular global poverty and the climate and ecological crises. I thought that with the right technologies and designs I could and would make the world a better place. As I acted in this way, experience soon taught that technology was not the answer. These challenges had deep causes, and all that technology could do was apply sticking plaster.
I found that, regardless of technological solutions, actions and decisions are creating the crises we are in. I concluded that getting to the root of how we decide to act would be the only thing that could illuminate how we can halt our journey to disaster. This blog explores what I found as I explored this, and what it means for addressing our current crises.
As humans, we are in relation to everything that comes into contact with our lives, both directly and indirectly. The nature of our relationships (or lack of) has a strong impact on how we act towards others. For example, there will always be intense situations between parents and children as children grow. In a healthy relationship parents will see through an immediate crisis to the love they hold for the child. The parent has the wisdom to see how the child may grow and learn as a result of different interventions they can make. Longer-term impacts are (at least partially) understood on a deep level, and used to guide wise action more often than not.
We can also be in relationship to whole cycles or systems. As a child, we may build a relationship with a river by playing beside and in it. Through this interaction, we can learn to relate with it, especially if this is supported by others. Once we begin to relate with the river, we may well seek to protect and nourish it and its catchment area throughout our lives. This is not reliant on any technology, though technologies may be used to help the situation. The driver for healthy action is again the relationship.
We also all have some form of relationship with the Earth: we are born here, made of its elements, and live and die here. How much we are aware of this relationship depends on how separate or connected we feel to the web of life. Our relationship to the Earth is about how we view our place in the world. Do we feel we are part of our ecosystems, or is the Earth just a context for our daily lives? This relationship is the largest relationship we have, and is the strongest driver of our actions throughout our lives.
Looking at the world it is clear that we are causing sustained and worsening harm to the Earth and the ecosystems that support us. This includes everything from destruction of habitat and species to pollution of the oceans with plastic and our emissions of greenhouse gases. The fact we continue to create such immense damage indicates that our relationship with the Earth is very unhealthy at present, if not entirely disconnected. Even when we are trying to improve a situation, we often end up creating major unintended consequences. This does not come from ill intent, but from a disconnect within our relationship such that we do not understand on a deeper level the consequences of our actions.
“Our relationship with the Earth determines our everyday decisions and actions and will determine whether we as a species can really live as part of this world, and thrive.”
We as a culture need to address this dysfunctional relationship.
So, what would a healthy relationship with the Earth look like, both personally and as a society? For me personally I have learnt that it is about both understanding the Earth, and my true place within the web of life. This is both scientific and spiritual, and requires significant humility about myself as an individual and ourselves as a species. Like any human relationship, it develops as we learn more about each other and recognise the mutual dynamics and dependencies. Given that we owe our very existence to the Earth, there are plentiful opportunities to see this.
This is intensely difficult as we have been brought up and continue to bring up our children with a very different relationship to the Earth. Our current attitude to the Earth is rooted in human exceptionalism, with a view of the Earth solely as the background to human lives. This perspective is so deeply rooted that we don’t even realise that we have it. Digging into and challenging something that we are not even aware of takes significant insight and bravery. It is frightening to explore and change the foundations of our lives. Indeed, I would argue that this is one of the most challenging things we can do.
We can have help in this, however, as there are many peoples in this world who hold very different relationships with the Earth and are willing to share their wisdom. Science, which is discovering new dynamics in our world every day, can also help to challenge how we currently relate to the Earth. For example, take the interaction and interdependence of mycelium (fungus) and trees in woodland, which challenges our notion of separate survival.
This for me is the most important work of our time: to draw on the wisdom shared by peoples who live in nourishing relationships with the Earth, and couple it with the insights of modern science to begin to re-weave our own relationship with the Earth. This is more important than any technology or policy, any international agreement or local plan. Our relationship with the Earth determines our everyday decisions and actions and will determine whether we as a species can really live as part of this world, and thrive. It is at the root of our survival, which is the biggest challenge of our times.