Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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<strong>the</strong> spirit <strong>of</strong> connection S 145<br />
promise <strong>to</strong> improve? Is <strong>the</strong>re any evidence that we are doing better<br />
or that we will do better? Is <strong>the</strong>re a kind <strong>of</strong> middle sentence<br />
between life and death? Under what terms could humankind<br />
receive a contingent life sentence or probation?<br />
The trial, like philosopher John Rawls’ “veil <strong>of</strong> ignorance,” is<br />
a heuristic device <strong>to</strong> help us see what we might o<strong>the</strong>rwise miss.<br />
But it is more than that. It is an invitation <strong>to</strong> ask those age-old<br />
questions, now more important than ever, about what we are and<br />
where we are going.<br />
There will, <strong>of</strong> course, be no trial, no parole, and no contingent<br />
sentence, only an eerie and deepening silence as species disappear—unless<br />
and until we shift course. As my students know as<br />
well, <strong>the</strong>re are pr<strong>of</strong>oundly important efforts under way <strong>to</strong> change<br />
our course along with formidable sources <strong>of</strong> resistance and <strong>the</strong><br />
brute inertial momentum <strong>of</strong> industrial civilization. The difference<br />
between <strong>the</strong>se outcomes depends <strong>to</strong> a great extent on whe<strong>the</strong>r<br />
humanity is capable <strong>of</strong> quickly learning new behaviors appropriate<br />
<strong>to</strong> a planet with a biosphere and a higher vision <strong>of</strong> what we could<br />
become. Is <strong>the</strong>re in us a promise <strong>of</strong> something more? Perhaps we<br />
have, as Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams suggest, a “sacred opportunity<br />
. . . a chance <strong>to</strong> be heroes . . . <strong>to</strong> become <strong>the</strong> kind <strong>of</strong> people<br />
capable <strong>of</strong> using science <strong>to</strong> uphold a globally inclusive, long-lived<br />
civilization” (2006, pp. 295–297). But science on its own won’t<br />
save us in <strong>the</strong> absence <strong>of</strong> a renewed sense <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sacred suffi ciently<br />
powerful <strong>to</strong> overcome our indifference <strong>to</strong> Earth, which is <strong>to</strong> say<br />
absent a change <strong>of</strong> heart.<br />
Perhaps we are not alone in this effort. Philosopher and <strong>the</strong>ologian<br />
Thomas Berry, for one, believes that “We are not left simply<br />
<strong>to</strong> our own rational contrivances [but] are supported by <strong>the</strong><br />
ultimate powers <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> universe” (1988, p. 211). In contrast <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
s<strong>to</strong>ry <strong>of</strong> human conquest and progress, Berry and cosmologist<br />
Brian Swimme propose that we better fi t a different and larger<br />
narrative in which humankind is a part <strong>of</strong> a still-evolving universe<br />
(Swimme and Berry, 1992). Against <strong>the</strong> vastness <strong>of</strong> cosmic