One world
26.1 February 2021
“Earth. Home”
“This is my world. This is where I come from.Everyone I know, everyone I ever heard of grew up down there – under that relentless and exquisite blue.”
“It wasn’t hard to imagine a time when the predominant loyalty would be to this blue world. A vivid planetary perspective.”
“Numinous.”
“You get to thinking of the Earth as an organism – a living thing. You get to worry about it – care for it.”
“The Earth as One world”1
One world
26.2 February 2021
Healing the world
26.3 March 2021
“[The] planet is in need of healing.”
“Each of us has an opportunity to contribute to a better world through the…personal choices we make.”
“All change begins with awareness – awareness of the current situation…and awareness of the…creativity that exists within each of us to catalyze the transformation.”
“As more people shift their inner attitude…we will see an expanding sense of both individual and collective responsibility…to contribute to the healing of the world.”1
All life is One
26.4 March 2021
“We are destroying life on the planet.”2
The Industrial Revolution witnessed rapid developments of science and technology. But only now are we beginning to recognize that the unintended consequence of our reckless misuse of this power has been the slow and inevitable destruction of life on Earth.3 Humanity now needs to make a “great transition”4 to a new and radically different way of living – because if we don’t, we face the prospect of a future where the few of us that survive will live among the wreckage of a dead planet.5
“Ecology changes our values by changing our concepts of the world and ourselves in relation to the world.”6
We need abandon our self-appointed superiority and realize that Homo sapiens is not a species created independently from nature – quite the opposite – we are fundamentally in and of the Earth. Life began to emerge on the Earth about 4,000 to 3,500 million years ago7 and it is only in the context of this deep time that we can begin to understand that we are, and always have been, Earth-centered animals with an ancestry that stretches back through apes, mammals, reptiles, and fish to a “universal common ancestor” in the form of primitive bacteria.8
“DNA is the blueprint of life…
it connects us to every plant and animal alive today.”8
Most of us are aware that we share about 99.4% of our DNA with chimpanzees.7 But few realize that all plants and animals, no matter how seemingly unrelated to us, have sequences of genetic code that are identical to those in our human cells.8
“All life is fundamentally One.”1
This simple, but profound statement, is the foundation of the philosophy of Deep Ecology developed by Arne Naess. From this perspective things flow together and merge into a new reality – one in which we begin to understand that we are not separate but part of an interconnected and interdependent web of life.9
“We need…
love and empathy for Nature.”3
As we broaden our horizons, we begin to think not only of ourselves, but of life of the Earth as a whole. We perceive the intrinsic value all plants and animals have in and of themselves. That all have the right to life10 and should be respected simply because they exist.1 That in the context of an interconnected living Earth7 their vital needs are also ours. It is only from this concern for the well-being of the Earth that we will transition to simpler, more sustainable lifestyles.
“All life and all material parts of the Earth’s surface…
could be regarded as…a single living entity – Gaia.”3
The revolutionary idea that the Earth itself is a “form of life.” was proposed by James Lovelock.7 The Gaia Theory sees the Earth as living organism that encompasses all rocks, water, atmosphere and all living creatures – a complex integrated system that controls its environment to always be comfortable for life.4 Gaia forces us to abandon our homocentric world view – the concept of our uniqueness and separateness – and embrace the fact that everything exists within a vast and intricate web of life9 upon a living Earth. To begin to see the Earth not as a multitude of separate animals and plants on a lump of rock drifting in space but rather as a living community of interconnected beings, linked by complex patterns of interdependency.
“Environmental questions are based largely on how one sees reality.”10
“Begin to see all things, including ourselves, as part of the community of living things.”3
We now face a range of massive ecological, possibly existential, crisis. The Earth is dying, and we are killing it. The goal must be to stop the destruction and work instead towards “planetary well-being.”11
All humanity – you and I as individuals – need to urgently make essential changes, in thought, action and lifestyle. But first and foremost, what’s required is fundamental change in the way we perceive the Earth and our place in its community. We need to begin to see the Earth as Gaia – as a living and beautiful entity composed of billions of different creatures. We urgently need to shift to a new reality based on the concept that all life is one – because only when we begin to live from this fundamental all-inclusive vision of life we also begin to love and care for her.
We are the world
26.5 March 2021
“Alarming change…now faces us.
We have become a global force with such power that we are threatening the entire planet.”2
“There comes a time when we heed a certain call.”1
“We who are alive today have the formidable task. We can make amends, manage our impact, change the direction of our development, and once again become a species in harmony with nature.”2
“When the world must come together as one.”1
“The next few decades represent the final opportunity to…restore the rich healthy and wonderful world that we inherited.”2
“It’s time to lend a hand to life – the greatest gift of all.”1
“We have to support it in every way we can.”2
“We are the world!”1
