It’s time to demand protection for Earth
If you are what I call a “nature sensitive person,” Earth Day is no time for celebration.
This seminal event is not achieving its intended purpose, and the hope it once engendered is rapidly ebbing.
As conceived by Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, it raised our awareness of the destructive impact of careless human actions on the well-being of the planet and enjoined us to safeguard the ecosystems that sustain our existence. More than 20 million Americans marched on the first Earth Day in 1970, and it had broad bipartisan support. No more.
While many individuals, groups, some businesses and a few nations still act to fulfill its purpose, we continue to slide toward a global environmental catastrophe. Solid scientific evidence, and lots of it, shows we are close to a point of no return. The planet can no longer replenish what we consume and destructive climate change is escalating.
Meanwhile, many leaders in government and business, intoxicated by greed and willful ignorance, have stuck their feckless heads in the sand, making it very difficult for concerned citizens to have a positive impact. Single-handedly, we can reduce, recycle and reuse, but our efforts will amount to little if those in power are working to undermine them.
As individuals, we are like fleas on top of an elephant. We can all walk in an Earth-friendly direction, but the elephant’s vector is what determines the eventual destination. And, in this case, the powers that be largely favor the path toward destruction.
Recently, I have seen an increasing number of clients with existential angst stemming directly from environmental degradation. They fear for their children, grandchildren and the planet that sustains them both physically and spiritually.
These nature-sensitive people are the human canaries in our ecological coal mine. Along with all the other warning signs in the natural world (increasing atmospheric CO2, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, extinctions and the rest), they are perceiving, in an intuitive way, that our planetary home is gravely ill. Both by temperament and through developmental experiences, these folks have acquired an acute sensitivity to the well-being of the natural world. While not always able to articulate their distress, they feel it in their bones, as we say.
“I have this persistent sense of dread,” they have told me in various ways.
This is not your garden variety anxiety, obsessive worry or fight-or-flight fear response. Our Earth mother is sick, and nature sensitive people feel her deteriorating condition through what is a poorly understood but highly empathic connection.
How is this possible? Well, as philosopher Alan Watts said, “We don’t come into the world . . . we come out of it.” Deep in the sinew of one’s being there is a spiritual and existential bond with the Earth, that which birthed us all.
Recently, I have seen an increasing number of clients with existential angst stemming directly from environmental degradation. They fear for their children, grandchildren and the planet that sustains them both physically and spiritually.
If you are a person of faith and values, someone who loves our children and who can see beyond shortsighted selfinterest, then demand that our leaders protect our precious home.
To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every person’s needs, but not every person’s greed.”
Philip Chard is a psychotherapist, author and trainer. Email Chard at outofmymind@philipchard.com or visit philipchard.com.