"I used to think the top environmental problems
were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change.
I thought that with 30 years of good science
we could address those problems.
But I was wrong.
The top environmental problems are
Selfishness, greed and apathy….
…….and to deal with those, we need a spiritual
And cultural transformation.
And we scientists don’t know how to do that."
~ Gus Speth
The current Corona Pandemic seems to have gotten to us suddenly, at a time when we are called to deeply consider our choices and attitudes, as we are facing the challenges of mass extinction, climate change, fires and other weather extremes, political incongruencies and extreme social and economic differences.
Finding ourselves confined to our homes, being obliged to suspend our travel agendas for an uncertain amount of time and facing considerable financial losses, we may feel frightened and disoriented. An overwhelming overload of often contradictory information seems to be constantly invading our inner space, if we let it happen.
How do we best face the challenge at hand? How do we best face uncertainty? How can we stay balanced in an unstable world?
Are there other options than looking for safety?
Rather than calling this time a “lock down” we can rename it as our personal retreat, our personal commitment to transformation and service.
Perhaps we are called to grow beyond our daily and unquestioned greed, beyond the numbness and apathy we find in our mechanical day to day activities. We may be called to come back to what is most natural in us, our capacity to open our hearts, our capacity to connect with our brothers and sisters, both humans and non-humans in a meaningful and essential way. Perhaps we can start working together.
Perhaps our beautiful Mother Earth can take a deep breath, now that we are out of the way to some extent. Skies can be blue again, where they weren’t any more.
We can experience crisis as a necessary disruption in our habits and commodities. Rather than invest in fear, we can offer our personal transformation as gift to our beautiful mother Earth while we are becoming more ready and able to serve the larger good for all.
Irene Tobler