A Sustainable Psyche and Planet:
Why I Have Hope After Thirty Years of Frustration
One million species are at risk, but hope for a sustainable world is worth your every effort
Before it was seized by profiteers, the discussion of saving our environment was never controversial. Conservatives wanted clean air, water, food and soil. Liberals wanted clean air, water, food, and soil.
People of Earth agreed that clean everything was better than polluted everything.
We also all agreed that wild places, beauty, biodiversity and wonder were necessary for life to be worth living. On a personal note, I was raised by nature lovers and a teacher. Respect for science and the wisdom of the natural world was never in dispute. But slowly, over time it became more and more obvious that the environment has been politicized.
Ignore the special interests that create the illusion of our separation
Only in the last forty years have seeds of doubt been sown on well documented science. When the facts no longer created debate, profiteers created the illusion of two sides. They covered up their own science about climate change before it became climate crisis. Even now, they influence and demand more drilling rather than working with governments to, for example, help pay for the displacement of entire cities like Jakarta, or nations, like the Maldives, or Kiribati.
But, we the people of Earth, have more power than the most powerful, and profitable industries (ever known) and their bought politicians. That is, take it, and we are the real energy providers.
As is forever the way of conquest and exploitation, profiteers create division among victims. If you wanted to preserve forests, you were a clueless tree hugger that did not grasp the need for lumber, and oil field, jobs. You drove a car, but were not grateful for the pollution as a necessary evil. You chose canvas over plastic bags, but the death of our oceans still surged in the sometimes oil-spilled tide.
If you were a Christian evangelical you were taught not that the creation was at risk, but that ‘others’ were out to replace you, wanted to disrupt our surging fossil fuel-based capitalism…
