Guiding Light
Realities of Climate Change … to be continued
By Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj ji
All of us are witnessing the realities of climate change in the form of rising temperatures, declining arctic sea ice, extreme weather events, heat waves, floods, droughts, stronger storms and hurricanes and so on. There is a lot of debate about whether the climate will change catastrophically or if other natural factors will intervene to make the phenomena a whole lot milder. The crucial challenges facing the earth at this time like the unprecedented change in its climate, are best understood when we see the earth as a living system. Living systems theory is a body of work that describes how all living systems function, how they sustain themselves, and how they develop and change. Living systems is actually a metaphor that represents an animate arrangement of parts and processes that continually affect one another over time self organising, growing, changing, and connecting. When we are able to see the intricate interconnections of the many parts of the living system, our view of the world begins to change. We must understand this that the natural world does not need humanity for its survival, but humanity cannot survive without the natural environment, the soil, water, air, sunlight, etc. Thus we should accept the fact that we are all part of the Earth and not apart and separate from it.
According to Climate Scientists, humans are increasingly influencing the climate and the earth’s temperature by burning fossil fuels,cutting down rainforests,farming livestock. All of these factors influencing climate change and environmental degradation can be directly linked to the problem of endless consumerism. The problem is that no matter how much we have, we always want more. As Mahatma Gandhi famously said that , “Earth produces enough for everyone’s needs but not enough for our greed.” So,whether it is the industrialist billionaire looking for his next billion or the hipster upgrading to the latest smart phone as soon as it gets released, all of us are guilty of taking more than we need. In fact, we are almost pressured by our society into earning as much as we can throughout our working life and collecting as many “goodies” as we can before we die. Albert Einstein had rightly said that we cannot solve problems with the same level of perception that created them. For that we have to step up to a higher and more inclusive level of seeing what is going on in order to understand and solve great challenges.