Part II: Earth Emergency - Let's Get Moving
In Part I of "Earth Emergency - Let's Get Moving", we highlighted the many facts indicating an Earth Emergency. We also emphasized a very moving speech by His Holiness, Pope Francis, in the opening of his encyclical "LAUDATO SI'". He said that Earth, our common home, "is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us…. …. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her." Of course, he was speaking about global climate change and other environmental issues.
In an interview with Dr Peter Carter MD, I became even more aware that we are in an Earth Emergency. I had no idea things were THAT bad. However, I became happily aware that each of us can indeed "get moving" and help solve our earth crisis - to save our planet for children of all species (human and animal) and all future generations.
Dr. Carter and his wife, Julie Johnston (www.greenhearted.org), are tireless workers seeking to keep us all informed on the complexity of the crisis AND, more importantly to kick our butts to "get moving" on solutions. Indeed, they both see a great profound spiritual renaissance and revolution in process. It has been happening for decades and is gaining momentum in responding to the climate emergency.
Here are Dr. Carter's and Ms. Johnston's easiest solutions to the Earth Emergency.
Compassion: For Mother Earth to heal, we humans must first feel the pain being inflicted on the planet. In Part I, we listed just a few elements of Mother Earth's pain. For example, when we see children dying every day because they have NO food and water as a result severe global drought, we could open our hearts to feel what it must be like to live without food and water. When we truly feel that pain, we will get off of our duffs and do something about the Earth Emergency. Those children could be our children someday if we don't act quickly.
Courage: Mother Earth needs every single human to fully understand what it takes to heal the planet and then courageously move forward and act on it. In the face of fear or opposition, we must "do the right thing" for our children and their children. Otherwise, they won't have a planet to live on.
Co-operation and Collaboration: For Mother Earth to heal, let's gather together and collaborate for fast action. Perhaps one of the things we can ALL commit to is starting on the "Conversions" we will discuss in Part III of this article series. Here is a taste of what we will cover.
Conversion: There are ten conversions! The science says we have to get our greenhouse gas emissions down to near zero. That means that less fossil fuels is not enough for CO2. We need to STOP using fossil fuels. Eating less meat is not enough for methane. We need to absolutely STOP eating meat and dairy. We have to totally convert these processes we are so used to, to non-polluting and much better ways of achieving the same results.
In summary, thus far we can "get moving" on putting ourselves in the shoes of the children who have no food and water, right? This is Compassion. We can also "get moving" by putting ourselves in the shoes of the large fish mammals who are dying everywhere because they have very little to eat and the ocean water is too warm. We can "get moving" by demonstrating Courage, by standing up and saying that our children deserve a better future. We can "get moving" by Cooperating and Collaborating at the grass roots level.
Stay tuned for the last in this three part series on The Earth Emergency as we seriously discuss what Conversions we need to make. Exciting stuff, eh? Thank you Dr. Carter and Julie Johnston for your own Courage to speak the Truth.
