China and human compassion; south central US and human compassion; Florida and human compassion; Myanmar and human compassion
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Posted on May 13, 2008
Filed Under Deep ecology, Ecological hope, Earth spirituality
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
Had planned to post again sooner than this, but have felt overwhelmed, as I’m sure most of us have been feeling. So much human tragedy all at once. Did you watch the news this evening — not cable, the other guys? I could hardly move afterwards under the weight of the events.
Myanmar. How is it possible for human beings — even military dictators — to care so little for the unimaginable suffering of so many? Now aid workers fear the death toll from neglect could be worse than the 60,000-100,000 estimated dead from the cyclone itself?
And now China — a 7.9 earthquake in one of the most densely populated 
countries in the world. The scenes of the school children trapped under the rubble of their school. The death toll as we write this said to be more than 10,000, certain to rise in the days ahead as reports come in from more remote towns and villages.
South central US, ravaged by hundreds of tornadoes this spring. Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Georgia, and on and on. Hundreds of homes turned into rubble, 98 people dead, one of the highest death tolls in nearly 6 decades. By all accounts it is a freakish year for tornadoes. Even before the twisters of the last couple of days, meteorologists were saying we could be headed for a record year.
More than 800 so far. A number that will have a special place in the record books. The U.S. averages about 800 tornadoes per year, and we have a long way to go yet. Spring is a very active time for the mid-south states. But then comes July-September in the notorious tornado alley of the Midwest. Did you see the film of the funnel cloud that was A MILE WIDE? Very impressive.
I can’t tell you this is because of global warming. Some say this odd weather relates to the La Nina phenomenon. Undoutedly true. But I can tell you that a warmer atmosphere means more energy for these storms to feed off — not an encouraging trend for our future. NASA, in fact, predicts that global warming will indeed mean more and bigger tornadoes.
Meanwhile, today come reports of floods in the mid-Atlantic right where I used to live. More than 4 inches of rain.
Florida — arson. Arson in a dry land. Arson in an area ripe for wildfires because of prolonged drought.
Florida gone dry and then some folks getting their thrill ride.
Florida burns because Florida is tinder. Maybe I shouldn’t keep embedding these MSNBC videos, 
but they give us a visceral view of what is taking place in people’s lives.
It is one thing to contemplate tragedy on this overcrowded planet, so prone now, as is obvious, to extreme events, natural and unnatural. It is something else to ponder what a permanent part of our reality these tragedies are going to be.
Why? Because, as we posted a few days ago, we live on a live, vibrant, volatile planet. And we have super-crowded that planet. It is inevitable that death tolls will rise from natural disasters simply because of population density. But then one must add to the picture the abusive and hubristic way we have lived within the planet, living along fault lines, destroying protective natural habitats (like the mangrove forests of the Burmese Delta that might have helped weaken the cyclone as it struck land), building on deltas, flood plains, and coastal areas most vulnerable to big storms, building on fault lines where it is inevitable that the Earth will move.
While population continues to grow (at least until mid-century when 2-3 billion more of us will live on the planet), and while we experience with more intensity the unnatural natural disasters because of climate change, we must, must dig deeply into the faith traditions that call on us to love our neighbor as ourselves, to take no more than we need so that all can have what is necessary for dignified life, to love our enemies, to feed the hungry, to go sell our possessions and give our money to the poor, to right the wrongs we have done before we bring our gifts to the altar, to declare the Year of Jubilee.
Our well of human compassion must run very deep. If not, we have some digging to do to make it so. It is obvious that we are entering very turbulent times on this planet. And we need to figure out, as I write in my new book, what kind of human beings we are going to be as we go through the crises. We can be selfish and pull in, or we can live what is real —
that we are, we are, we are, all part of one planet, one biosphere, going through wrenching change. We must find those common connections among us to see that alleviating the suffering, scaling down our lifestyles, working to heal the Earth, to cooperate in its necessary regeneration and renewal of ecosystems is the project of the human species now in this time.
All these people suffering as I write this from the terrible tragedies of these days are a part of me, part of my flesh and bone, my energy and matter, part of the Earth stuff of which we all are made. What happens across the oceans or in the U.S. south is also my story.
There is only one story on this planet. We need to participate in that story to give it a life-giving, life-renewing, compassionate narrative for future generations.
Technorati Tags: China earthquake, Myanmar cyclone, tornadoes, human compassion, Florida wildfires, overcrowded planet
Photo credit:
Florida wildfire, Tampa Bay Online staff, TBO.com
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