It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Apocalypse, Crisis, Endgame, the Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, the Long Emergency, the Party’s Over…

It’s pretty certain that you’ll know some of these recent book titles or phrases du jour, even if you haven’t read the books or use the turn of words yourself. It’s hard to ignore the fact that some pretty big chickens are coming home to roost. And it’s easy to look to the horizon, catch the dark clouds amassing and see only bad times ahead.


But there’s another way of looking at this, and in many of the books using these phrases you can find it. To call on another title - Is this the “Great Turning”?

Al Gore reminds us in “An Inconvenient Truth” that in Chinese the word for crisis (wēijī) is formed of two characters – those for danger (wēi) and opportunity (jī).

An Apocalypse is an “unveiling” – in an Emergency – something is emerging…

I could focus here on the problems we face, as a species, as a planet, as Gaia – the very particular shits that are hitting our particular fan: global warming; fossil fuel depletion and energy peak; poisoning of the biosphere; destruction of the soil; deforestation; a great extinction of flora and fauna; extirpation of indigenous peoples and their ways of life; war after war inna Babylon; soul death of millions… - if you don’t see these things already, then it’s time to open your eyes.

But perhaps it’s better to focus here on the opportunity not the crisis. The mantle has fallen on us. May you live in interesting times goes the fabled curse – well so be it, what is life without purpose? You want to make a difference? You want to do good? You want to be part of the movement to save the world? Well, you are in luck – you were born at exactly the right time.

Recently Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania has pointed out that in the Chinese character for Crisis the jī of wēijī should not be considered to mean “opportunity” exactly but, in fact, means “something like "incipient moment; crucial point (when something begins or changes)." Thus, a wēijī is indeed a genuine crisis, a dangerous moment, a time when things start to go awry”.
Your Planet needs YOU!

Change is Now; Things that seem to be solid are Not. “Be the change you want to see in the world”, Gandhi told us. Buckminster Fuller said we should ask ourselves: "If success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do...How would I be? What would I do?"

So get informed and get active. There was never a better time for you to act than NOW.


Get Informed:

Ask around – what’s going on?

Find out where your food comes from.

Find out where your water comes from.

Find out where your energy comes from.

Name 5 plants indigenous to where you live, now name 5 more.

BOOKS

Hartman, Thom – The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight

Heinberg, Richard – The Party’s Over, Powerdown

Jensen, Derrick - Endgame

Kunstler, James Howard – The Long Emergency

Lovelock, James – The Revenge of Gaia

FILMS

The End of Suburbia

An Inconvenient Truth

WEBSITES:

Global Public Media

Energy Bulletin

Post Carbon Institute

Get Active:

Speak to your neighbours


BOOKS

Berry, Thomas – The Great Work: Our Way into the Future

Hillman, Mayer - How We Can Save the Planet

Korten, David - The Great Turning

Macy, Joanna - World as Lover, World as Self

FILMS

How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

WEBSITES:

Permaculture

Bioneers

The Community Solution

Transition Culture


James Piers Taylor, 26th September 2006, Essex/London


IMAGE: Gaia's Garden (2006) by Saiaii (Jennifer Reagles).