I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world—E. B. White
I long to relate to the above quote by E.B. White. I understand his desires yet they do not exist in my world. I long to enjoy the world too yet the desire to improve the world is squashed under the horrific reality that I am witnessing a human population explosion at the same time as an extinction explosion of nearly all other life forms on earth. The desire to improve the world seems beyond futile to the point of ignorant delusion.
The End of Earth Generation
We live in a time like no other: the mass extinction of plant and animal species that is caused 100 percent by human destruction, slaughter and greed.
“(Stanford Biology professor) Rodolfo Dirzo, the earth has begun its 6th mass extinction cycle – and it’s our fault…more than 3.5 billion years of biodiversity hang in the balance…we have reached a tipping point.” 1
We watch in horror, feeling, at best, helpless as forests are destroyed, oceans poisoned and emptied, and our air filled with toxins. The world governments’ concerns are blindly focused on the economy—what good is money when all that remains on the planet are hungry human beings with no more fertile land and dead oceans?
We Earthlings trod on, trying to enjoy our favourite pastimes, our hopeless heads in the sand. As long as there is no army fighting (or pandemic raging) on our home soil, we fall into complacency.
I ask myself, usually every single day, the same question: how can I find hope in a world that we are destroying? Human populations are exploding while natural resources are vanishing. Will my children live a life with enough food, water and clean air? I am terrified for what the earth has become. I read novels written in the Twentieth Century filled with usual human crisis. I read them longingly. How I wish mundane human struggles were all that is on my mind…
The earth has always had pockets of horror, war and destruction. However, these pockets were isolated to specific regions while the vast majority of earth remained healthy and at peace. Thus, there has always existed hope. Hope in believing that when the violence and/or illness passed, humans could return to peace somewhere on earth.
Today the entire earth is encapsulated in man-made destruction. Elephants and rhinos have passed the tipping point. More are killed each year than are born. This is the same statistic that haunts all of our precious creatures and plants.
“Across vertebrates, 16 to 33 percent of all species are estimated to be globally threatened or endangered. Large animals – described as megafauna and including elephants, rhinoceroses, polar bears and countless other species worldwide – face the highest rate of decline, a trend that matches previous extinction events.” 2
No generation before us has faced such complete destruction in their lifetime. The horror that the entire earth is dying and that our own children may live on an unrecognizable waste land fraught with wars over food and water.
What do we, The End of Earth Generation, do with this information?
Finding Hope When Hope Seems Delusional
Living in horror as I watch our demise is not something I am willing to do. Thus, I look towards sage persons for the answer, people like Jane Goodall, David Suzuki and the Dalai Lama. How do they keep hopeful when hope seems delusional?
I found this sage Buddhist advice, from H.H. the Seventeeth Karmapa.
I recognize that this wish to create a better society, end all the suffering of all beings everywhere, and protect the entire planet may not seem particularly feasible. But whether or not we accomplish such goals in our lifetime, it is nevertheless deeply meaningful to cultivate such a vast sense of responsibility, and the wholehearted wish to be able to benefit others. This outlook is so wholesome and noble that it is worth developing, regardless of the probability of actually accomplishing such a vast vision.
From: The Heart Is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out by H.H. the Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, pages 163–164.
Cultivating a sense of responsibility keeps me sane and focused in an insane world. The sages I admire struggle on, doing what ever small amount of good on this earth that they are able to. I must also continue to have hope and do good on this earth until my last dying breath, however small my attempts may seem. It is the only path to follow. Thus, I stand firmly on my earth and practice one of my personal mantras: I am never without hope.
1, 2 hemindunleashed.org/2014/09/stanford-biologist-warns-early-signs-earths-6th-mass-extinction-progress.html
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