NOTE from Jean: One of the most radical ideas I've seen lately: quickly doing away with our suicidal dependence on oil - through whatever means! - and pulling the plug on industrial capitalism, decried by Derrick Jensen (http://www.derrickjensen.org), amongst others, as the prime force that is killing the planet right now. It might seem rather extreme to most but when you cut through the chase to get to the bottom of this global self-destruction of our sole life support system - our living planet - and when you consider how preciously little has been accomplished so far to turn the tide of destruction, one understands why some would go as far as advocating what is suggested below... Industrial capitalism is definitely like a huge cancer eating out what's left of vital planetary resources to feed the bottomless greed of a relatively small group of people seemingly oblivious to the sheer consequences of their plush lifestyle and reckless pursuit of ever more wealth. As for cancer, we have two main options: you remove it forcefully and take whatever bitter pills are necessary to prevent its return, or you shift entirely away from fear and tap the infinitely healing power of LOVE to remedy at the source - at soul level - what's wrong in us and gradually nurture global Life and our global innate immune system back to complete health and harmonious balance. One option is akin to going to war against much of what our fear-based (fear of scarcity, fear of the other, fear of fear) civilization stands for – and it can definitely get nasty. The other one is more like making peace with oneself, Letting Love Flow through every thought, word and action so as to be utterly harmless and benevolent to all, and standing in our Highest Truth with the inner resilience of the willow bending wisely with the storm knowing it is much more likely to survive it unharmed than the mighty stiff oak priding itself of being the strongest tree around...
We can join Bill McKibben on Oct. 24 in nationwide protests over rising carbon emissions. We can cut our consumption of fossil fuels. We can use less water. We can banish plastic bags. We can install compact fluorescent light bulbs. We can compost in our backyard. But unless we dismantle the corporate state, all those actions will be just as ineffective as the Ghost Dance shirts donned by native American warriors to protect themselves from the bullets of white soldiers at Wounded Knee.
“If we all wait for the great, glorious revolution there won’t be anything left,” author and environmental activist Derrick Jensen told me when I interviewed him in a phone call to his home in California. “If all we do is reform work, this culture will grind away. This work is necessary, but not sufficient. We need to use whatever means are necessary to stop this culture from killing the planet. We need to target and take down the industrial infrastructure that is systematically dismembering the planet. Industrial civilization is functionally incompatible with life on the planet, and is murdering the planet. We need to do whatever is necessary to stop this.”
The oil and natural gas industry, the coal industry, arms and weapons manufacturers, industrial farms, deforestation industries, the automotive industry and chemical plants will not willingly accept their own extinction. They are indifferent to the looming human catastrophe. We will not significantly reduce carbon emissions by drying our laundry in the backyard and naively trusting the power elite. The corporations will continue to cannibalize the planet for the sake of money. They must be halted by organized and militant forms of resistance. The crisis of global heating is a social problem. It requires a social response.
The United States, after rejecting the Kyoto Protocol, went on to increase its carbon emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels. The European Union countries during the same period reduced their emissions by 2 percent. But the recent climate negotiations in Bangkok, designed to lead to a deal in Copenhagen in December, have scuttled even the tepid response of Kyoto. Kyoto is dead. The EU, like the United States, will no longer abide by binding targets for emission reductions. Countries will unilaterally decide how much to cut. They will submit their plans to international monitoring. And while Kyoto put the burden of responsibility on the industrialized nations that created the climate crisis, the new plan treats all countries the same. It is a huge step backward.
“All of the so-called solutions to global warming take industrial capitalism as a given,” said Jensen, who wrote “Endgame” and “The Culture of Make Believe.” “The natural world is supposed to conform to industrial capitalism. This is insane. It is out of touch with physical reality. What’s real is real. Any social system—it does not matter if we are talking about industrial capitalism or an indigenous Tolowa people—their way of life, is dependent upon a real, physical world. Without a real, physical world you don’t have anything. When you separate yourself from the real world you start to hallucinate. You believe the machines are more real than real life. How many machines are within 10 feet of you and how many wild animals are within a hundred yards? How many machines do you have a daily relationship with? We have forgotten what is real.”
The latest studies show polar ice caps are melting at a record rate and that within a decade the Arctic will be an open sea during summers. This does not give us much time. White ice and snow reflect 80 percent of sunlight back to space, while dark water reflects only 20 percent, absorbing a much larger heat load. Scientists warn that the loss of the ice will dramatically change winds and sea currents around the world. And the rapidly melting permafrost is unleashing methane chimneys from the ocean floor along the Russian coastline. Methane is a greenhouse gas 25 times more toxic than carbon dioxide, and some scientists have speculated that the release of huge quantities of methane into the atmosphere could asphyxiate the human species. The rising sea levels, which will swallow countries such as Bangladesh and the Marshall Islands and turn cities like New Orleans into a new Atlantis, will combine with severe droughts, horrific storms and flooding to eventually dislocate over a billion people. The effects will be suffering, disease and death on a scale unseen in human history.
We can save groves of trees, protect endangered species and clean up rivers, all of which is good, but to leave the corporations unchallenged would mean our efforts would be wasted. These personal adjustments and environmental crusades can too easily become a badge of moral purity, an excuse for inaction. They can absolve us from the harder task of confronting the power of corporations.
The damage to the environment by human households is minuscule next to the damage done by corporations. Municipalities and individuals use 10 percent of the nation’s water while the other 90 percent is consumed by agriculture and industry. Individual consumption of energy accounts for about a quarter of all energy consumption; the other 75 percent is consumed by corporations. Municipal waste accounts for only 3 percent of total waste production in the United States. We can, and should, live more simply, but it will not be enough if we do not radically transform the economic structure of the industrial world.
“If your food comes from the grocery store and your water from a tap you will defend to the death the system that brings these to you because your life depends on it,” said Jensen, who is holding workshops around the country called Deep Green Resistance [click here and here] to build a militant resistance movement. “If your food comes from a land base and if your water comes from a river you will defend to the death these systems. In any abusive system, whether we are talking about an abusive man against his partner or the larger abusive system, you force your victims to become dependent upon you. We believe that industrial capitalism is more important than life.”
Those who run our corporate state have fought environmental regulation as tenaciously as they have fought financial regulation. They are responsible for our personal impoverishment as well as the impoverishment of our ecosystem. We remain addicted, courtesy of the oil, gas and automobile industries and a corporate-controlled government, to fossil fuels. Species are vanishing. Fish stocks are depleted. The great human migration from coastlines and deserts has begun. And as temperatures continue to rise, huge parts of the globe will become uninhabitable. NASA climate scientist James Hansen has demonstrated that any concentration of carbon dioxide greater than 350 parts per million in the atmosphere is not compatible with maintenance of the biosphere on the “planet on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.” He has determined that the world must stop burning coal by 2030—and the industrialized world well before that—if we are to have any hope of ever getting the planet back down below that 350 number. Coal supplies half of our electricity in the United States.
“We need to separate ourselves from the corporate government that is killing the planet,” Jensen said. “We need to get really serious. We are talking about life on the planet. We need to shut down the oil infrastructure. I don’t care, and the trees don’t care, if we do this through lawsuits, mass boycotts or sabotage. I asked Dahr Jamail how long a bridge would last in Iraq that was not defended. He said probably six to 12 hours. We need to make the economic system, which is the engine for so much destruction, unmanageable. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has been able to reduce Nigerian oil output by 20 percent. We need to stop the oil economy.”
The reason the ecosystem is dying is not because we still have a dryer in our basement. It is because corporations look at everything, from human beings to the natural environment, as exploitable commodities. It is because consumption is the engine of corporate profits. We have allowed the corporate state to sell the environmental crisis as a matter of personal choice when actually there is a need for profound social and economic reform. We are left powerless.
Alexander Herzen, speaking a century ago to a group of Russian anarchists working to topple the czar, reminded his followers that they were not there to rescue the system.
“We think we are the doctors,” Herzen said. “We are the disease.”
---
Related initiatives, websites and articles:
UN CLIMATE SUMMIT: Countdown to Copenhagen http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/Projects/Climate_Summit/default.asp
It’s the most important wake up call of this century. And it’s just weeks away. Join the David Suzuki Foundation and millions of people around the world calling on world leaders to sign an ambitious, fair and binding agreement at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen this December. Global action on climate change is vital for the health of our economy, our communities and our future. Recommended by Marie Bélec Steurer-Henry (maadestp@globetrotter.net) who suggests to use Suzuki's letter model to wrote to your own national leaders to call them to task - urgently - on this issue. Politicians do respond to public pressure when they get lots of it. Everyone's future is on the line here. It's time to get involved!!
24 OCTOBER 2009 - INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CLIMATE ACTION - This is going to be hyper HUGE!! http://www.350.org/
On October 24, join people all over the world to take a stand for a safe climate future. Read the Invitation...
Make sure to read Understanding 350 at http://www.350.org/understanding-350 such as...
If we're already past 350, are we all doomed?
No. We're like the patient that goes to the doctor and learns he's overweight, or his cholesterol is too high. He doesn't die immediately—but until he changes his lifestyle and gets back down to the safe zone, he's at more risk for heart attack or stroke. The planet is in its danger zone because we've poured too much carbon into the atmosphere, and we're starting to see signs of real trouble: melting ice caps, rapidly spreading drought. We need to scramble back as quickly as we can to safety.
How do we create the political change to steer towards 350?
We need an international agreement to reduce carbon emissions fast, and 2009 might be our best shot.The United Nations is working on a global climate treaty, which is supposed to be completed in December of 2009 at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. But the current plans for the treaty are much too weak to get us back to safety. This treaty needs to put a high enough price on carbon that we stop using so much. It also needs to ensure poor countries a fair chance to develop.This year, we can create a grassroots movement connected by the web and active all over the world.We can hold our decision-makers accountable to producing a treaty that is strong, equitable, and grounded in the latest science. On 24 October, we're holding a Global Day of Climate Action to do just this. If this global movement succeeds, we can get the world on track to get back to 350 and back to climate safety. It won't be easy, that's why we need all the help we can get. CLip
Why 350 is the most important number on the planet (26 September 2009) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/26/350-carbon-atmosphere-copenhagen-mckibben
Carbon target is key to winning hearts and minds (...) We've been running a huge campaign – it's blown up into the first real grassroots global political protest about global warming – called 350.org. The number comes from new science that followed the shocking melt of Arctic ice in the summer of 2007. Researchers became convinced that climate change was happening faster than they had previously expected, and that they had enough data to put a real number on it. That number was 350, as in parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere. Above that level, in the powerful (and peer-reviewed) words of Nasa scientist James Hansen, we can't have a planet "similar to the one on which civilisation developed or to which life on earth is adapted". So we took that number and ran with it – not with a slogan, not with a motto, but with a number. We're building toward a giant day of global action on 24 October, that will see thousands of events from every corner of the Earth, as far-flung a political protest as the planet has ever seen. And as far as I know, there's never been a big political campaign built around a scientific data point. But it's worked, and for a few reasons – a few reasons that help us think about how science might become integrated a bit more easily into the work of artists of various kinds. First, it sets a clear target, which is useful in a world of confusing and shifting political messages. When the world's leaders come to Copehagen in December, too many journalists will be watching to see if they produce "an agreement". Of course they'll produce an agreement – but an agreement is not what we need. We need a solution which in this case is defined not by political fiat but by science. The negotiation isn't really China versus the EU versus the US, it's all of us versus physics and chemistry. And since physics and chemistry really refuse to negotiate, we better meet their bottom line, which appears to be 350 parts per million. It's a way to make sure our leaders are dealing with the actual situation, not their particular political fortunes. (...) They're arguably the most important numbers on earth, the boundary condition for our continued existence here. They are tough and radical, those digits – we're already past them, at 390 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere, and rising by 2% annually: that's why the Arctic is melting, why Australia is burning, why the world is changing in front of our eyes. To meet their challenge we'd need a very quick end to fossil fuel burning on this planet, and then we'd need real cooperation from the planet's oceans and forests, which can slowly suck up the excess carbon. The challenges are immense – the call for 350 goes far beyond what most of our leaders want to hear, because the economic and political change will be impossible to disguise as business as usual. CLIP
From: Ben Wikler - Avaaz.org (avaaz@avaaz.org): "Last month, from events in hundreds of cities, we flooded world leaders' phone lines with the Global Climate Wake-Up Call. This Saturday is the next global day of action on climate change--a worldwide wave of extraordinary events that will show leaders the accelerating breadth, power, and clarity of the global climate movement. On Saturday, thanks to more than a year of organizing by our friends at 350.org and others, citizens have assembled more than 4000 extraordinary climate actions across nearly every country, from the bottom of the Great Barrier Reef to the summit of Mount Everest. Now, by joining actions in our own communities, we can supercharge the day and make the climate movement impossible to ignore. Click below to see the events map and find an event nearby: http://www.avaaz.org/en/350_map - The 350 day of action is named for 350 parts per million, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere that scientists say would be the safe for the climate. (At the moment, we're at 387 parts per million and climbing fast.) Already, thanks to organizing around the world, 89 countries have now committed in principle to setting 350ppm as a worldwide goal -- and the number has become a kind of shorthand for the fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty that we are all working for. On October 24th, at each event -- at rallies and parties and deep-sea dives -- we'll take a photo centered around the number 350. The photos from around the world will be handed over to waiting reporters, broadcast to the world’s media on giant screens in New York’s Times Square, and delivered directly to hundreds of world leaders and politicians in the coming weeks. Gathering to pose for a 350 photograph might seem like a small action --- but when it's being done thousands of times in thousands of cities, it grows in force, showing global leaders a snapshot of the massive, vibrant groundswell of worldwide citizens demanding solutions on climate change. Let's make this huge. Find a local event and sign up to attend: http://www.avaaz.org/en/350_map - In less than 50 days, our governments will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, to negotiate a new global treaty to prevent a climate catastrophe. At the moment, the negotiations are stalling, and a fair ambitious and binding treaty looks a long way off. But it is precisely at times like these when people power, with hundreds of thousands of us working together, can make the difference."
Heroes of the Environment 2009 (30 persons featured including Cameron Diaz) http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1924149_1924151,00.html
From saving wild mountain rivers in China to measuring the Arctic's icy expanse, from protecting the lush forests of Africa to conducting a feisty online debate, our green heroes are informed by this simple notion: We can all make a difference!
Shifting the world to 100 percent clean, renewable energy as early as 2030 -- here are the numbers (Oct 19) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/su-stw101909.php
Most of the technology needed to shift the world from fossil fuel to clean, renewable energy already exists. Implementing that technology requires overcoming obstacles in planning and politics, but doing so could result in a 30 percent decrease in global power demand, say Stanford civil and environmental engineering Professor Mark Z. Jacobson and University of California-Davis researcher Mark Delucchi. To make clear the extent of those hurdles – and how they could be overcome – they have written an article that is the cover story in the November issue of Scientific American. In it, they present new research mapping out and evaluating a quantitative plan for powering the entire world on wind, water and solar energy, including an assessment of the materials needed and costs. And it will ultimately be cheaper than sticking with fossil fuel or going nuclear, they say. The key is turning to wind, water and solar energy to generate electrical power – making a massive commitment to them – and eliminating combustion as a way to generate power for vehicles as well as for normal electricity use. The problem lies in the use of fossil fuels and biomass combustion, which are notoriously inefficient at producing usable energy. For example, when gasoline is used to power a vehicle, at least 80 percent of the energy produced is wasted as heat. With vehicles that run on electricity, it's the opposite. Roughly 80 percent of the energy supplied to the vehicle is converted into motion, with only 20 percent lost as heat. Other combustion devices can similarly be replaced with electricity or with hydrogen produced by electricity. CLIP
Fertile Ground http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertile_Ground
Fertile Ground (http://fertileground1.ning.com/) is an activist group based out of Bellingham, Washington. It was founded in 2008 on the principles of Deep Green Resistance, and argues that industrial civilization is destroying the Earth. Broadly classified as an anarcho-primitivist group, Fertile Ground argues that many of our social problems are inextricably linked to environmental destruction and aligns itself with people alleviating and resisting abuse and domination around the world. Its tagline is "Restoring Earth, Resisting Domination, Rewilding Humans." Fertile Ground approaches the environmental movement through its embedded position within the dominant culture. It seeks to help accelerate the collapse of industrial civilization and aid in indigenous resistance movements to reclaim the land[1].The mission statement of Fertile Ground states, "We understand that the current patterns of abuse and domination are destructive and need to be interrupted and transformed if we are to achieve our goals. Thus, we actively create a culture of resistance to those who rule by force and intimidation."Fertile Ground is currently designing a correspondence class curriculum to prepare activists and individuals to approach the environmental movement as leaders with a grounding in principles of deep ecology.
2.
A MUCH NEEDED REALITY CHECK... AND EVEN IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE WANTING TO KNOW ALL OF THIS, IT IS RECOMMENDED TO READ - AND DIG! - THESE STATS ANYWAY, FOR HOW CAN WE FIND THE RESOLVE TO CHANGE IF WE DON'T FIND OUT FIRST ABOUT THE TRUE STATE OF OUR ILL PLANET?... AND NO, DENIAL IS NOT AN OPTION...
"The problem that confronts us is that every living system in the biosphere is in decline, and the rate of decline is accelerating. There isn't one peer-reviewed scientific article in the past twenty years that's been published that contradicts that statement. Living systems are coral reefs, they're our climate stability, forest cover, the oceans themselves, aquifers, water, the conditions of the soil, biodiversity--they go on and on as they get more specific, but the fact is there isn't one living system that is stable or is improving, and those living systems provide the basis for all life."
- Paul Hawken, author and environmentalist
“It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.”
- Josiah Charles, English economist
1) Global warming
a) Climate models predict that the average temperature of the Earth could increase up to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100.
b) According to NASA, the Earth’s average surface temperature has increased by about 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit (0.7 degrees Celsius) in the last 100 years.1 For some perspective, the last ice age occurred at five degrees Fahrenheit less than the current global temperature.
c) Levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have increased to 385 ppm2, a 100-ppm increase since the pre-industrial average.3
d) Gaseous methane has recently begun entering the atmosphere after escaping from melting permafrost in many Arctic regions. For comparison, methane is 20 times as effective as carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.4
e) In a recent conference of climate experts, it was shown that carbon levels are highly unlikely to be restricted to 650 ppm. This would translate to the mentioned increase of roughly 7 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius), enough to “bring extreme food and water shortages in vulnerable countries and cause floods that would displace hundreds of millions of people.” Other experts agree that “we’re at the very top end of the worst case [emissions] scenario.” Unfortunately, carbon levels of 350 ppm or lower are required to “preserve a planet similar to that on which… life on Earth is adapted.”5
f) “It is also important to note at the outset that even reducing emissions 80 percent by 2050 will not eliminate all serious risks and damages.”6
2) Species extinction
a) Nearly fifty percent of all species are disappearing,7 as well as 1 in 3 mammal species, 1 in 8 bird species,8 and 1 in 3 amphibian species being threatened with extinction. Just two years ago, only 1 in 4 mammal species were threatened with extinction.9
b) According to the World Resources Institute, more than 100 species go extinct every day.10 For the past 300 million years, excluding this century, approximately one species went extinct every four years. Today, scientists see one species going extinct every 15 minutes.11
c) Species extinction has increased to rates of 10 to 100 times greater than that of 30 years ago.12
d) Furthermore, current species extinction rates are thought by some experts to be grossly underestimated due to mathematical misdiagnosis.13
e) If nothing is done, one-half of all species will be gone by the end of the century.14
Increases in harmful practices by humans are causing obvious amounts of species extinction. Although we often can’t see the connection, human life is completely dependent on species diversification and its role in creating stable ecosystems, one of the basic foundations of human life. Beyond the moral problem of destroying thousands of different species of life, such practices can only endanger the human species in the near future.
3) Deforestation
a) “In the U.S., 95% of our old growth forests are gone.”
b) “70 countries in the world no longer have any intact or original forests.”15
c) More than 72 acres of rainforest are destroyed every minute (that’s 38 million acres per year).16
d) Every year, enough rainforest is cut down to cover the entire state of Florida.
e) Every hour, more than 1500 acres of land become desert.
f) More than 75% of the topsoil that existed worldwide when Europeans first colonized North America is now gone.
g) Over three hundred tons of topsoil are lost worldwide every minute (it takes an average of 400 years for a forest to create enough topsoil able to sustain crops).17
h) Forests are critical parts of many healthy ecosystems, as they prevent soil erosion and support healthy topsoil. Trees also act as huge carbon sinks, sequestering as much as 10% of the annual carbon dioxide emissions in the United States.18
Forests, who provide us with the majority of our breathable oxygen, are being decimated at unfathomable rates, causing further desertification, global warming, and weaker monocultures as “sustainable replacements”. Like all aerobic creatures, humans cannot survive without forests and the invaluable ‘oxygen’-‘carbon-dioxide’ exchange between us.
a) Studies show that nearly every mother has dioxin, a known carcinogen, in her breast milk.19 Samples from mothers also show contaminants of over 350 chemicals from substances such as perfumes, suntan lotion, and pesticides.20
b) The percentage of girls under eight years old with swollen breasts or pubic hair has gone from 1 percent to over 6 percent in just the last eight years.21
c) Male sperm counts have dropped more than 30% in the past 60 years.22
d) To be specific, below are twelve of the most toxic chemicals that are present in large quantities due to the existence of industrial technology:23
i) PCBs (Poly-chlorinated biphenyls), which are carcinogens
ii) Dioxins, which are carcinogens
iii) Furans, which are carcinogens
iv) Aldrin, which is both a carcinogen and mutagen
v) Dieldrin, which is a carcinogen and linked to Parkinson’s disease
vi) DDT, which is a carcinogen and xenoestrogen (artificial estrogen)
vii) Endrin, which is toxic and adversely affects the nervous system
viii) Chlordane, which damages the nervous system, digestive system, and liver, as well as being highly toxic
ix) Hexachlorobenzene (HCB), which is a carcinogen
x) Mirex, which is a carcinogen
xi) Toxaphene, which harms the lungs, kidneys, and nervous system
xii) Heptachlor, which harms the liver and decreases fertility
Industrial processes are contaminating the bodies of nearly every individual in this culture, as well as many others. Although the levels of toxins found in the body are often deemed as acceptable, their presence is a clear sign of the unhealthy nature of this culture’s practices. We should not be surprised by the enormous increase in cancer rates in the United Sates when nearly every baby is receiving carcinogens from their mother’s breast milk. Ultimately, toxins produced from industrial processes could very well cause male and/or female infertility, preventing humans’ natural ability to create life.
5) Harm to oceanic life
a) Zooplankton (organisms forming the base of oceanic food chains) populations have plunged 70% in four decades.24
b) On a whole, coral reefs are dying.25
c) Oceanic dead zones found all over the world are increasing at alarming rates.26
d) Concerning oceanic pollution, corporations “dump on equivalent, at the smallest, 5,000,000 gallons per day of toxins…everything from benzene, acrylic nitrile, mercury, copper, you name it, they got it.”27
e) “In 1997, the US Academy of Sciences estimated the total input of marine litter into the oceans, worldwide, at approximately 6.4 million tons per year.”28
The oceans help sustain our atmosphere and provide a large portion of the world’s oxygen, caused by the functioning of the vast amount of ecosystems present in oceanic waterways. When the healthy functioning of these systems becomes threatened, as they have been, so does the very health of the biosphere.
NOTE from Jean: OK now if you have indeed read those stats and do understand the overall picture they spell out, you probably think we are toast, and that whomever believed our governments, manned by generally venal and corrupted politicians eating in the hand of their Big Corporate Bosses, would be able to fix the mess we are in are plain and simply kidding themselves. And you are probably right. The name of the Big Game is still Big Profits and Total Dominance by the meanest, sleaziest, biggest pairs of balls on the board game... to put it graphically à la John Stewart. So what workable options are we left with? What are we to do?...
One tantalizing scenario would be for our space family (the benevolent ones of course) to come to our rescue and help lift us up a few notches on the civilization/dimensional ladder, and this is precisely what a mysterious soul from Sirius, who calls himself SaluSa, has recently told Mike Quinsey, his earthly channeler as you'll see below. Do I believe such a thing is possible? Absolutely!... Because it is obvious to me that we are not alone in this whole universe - which is teeming with Life in all dimensions - and that there has been a gradual acclimation program underway since we started playing with atom bombs, so as to get us to be cool and relax about the existence of intelligent life from outer space so we may one day graduate spiritually-wise to be a space-faring species serving the highest good of all. I know... it sounds utopian and dreamy, or foolish and self-delusionary, depending on your tolerance level for such bold statements. Or you may think it would be a major infringement on our collective free will - which is exactly the conundrum we would be faced with if we were in "their" shoes trying to prevent nearly 7 billions souls from self-immolation on the altar of corporate greed.
How do you go about introducing yourself without short-circuiting 7 billion souls' plan for a lifetime of learning experiences and - hopefully! - better evolutionary choices? And how do you deal with the religious fanatics of all stripes, not to mention the obstinate resistance of the elite bigwigs, armed with their secret, little greys' assisted weapon programs, who stand to lose control over their minions and empires? How do you cushion the psychological shock whole populations will experience when they realize that their long-standing belief systems and limited word-views are pulverized in the wake of your global showoff? How do you provide for counseling and psychological support to help Earthlings adjust to the New Reality of a zillion new experiential opportunities? How do you do all of this without enabling a relationship of utter dependency upon your advanced knowledge, technology and spiritual wisdom? Seems like "Mission Impossible" to me. But as things are going right now - downhill! - and considering the growth by leaps and bounds of spiritually awaking souls on Earth, many of whom came in with highly advanced skills accrued over time mostly "abroad", in other physical and dimensional "locations", such an "impossible" feat may be more and more achievable by the day now. Who are we to distrust the Infinite Goodness of Creator Source Who has made sure to provide for every possible contingency? Who are We anyway?...
Now I don't know for sure that what is alleged in Mike Quinsey's channeling is an actual truth and a reliable certainty. The one thing I know, as I recall what was conveyed to me - something I never shared with anyone before - when I received the initial Vision for the Immortal Child in 1986 is that global First Contact will be initiated only when we are ready - spiritually and psychologically - to ask for it and actually shift from our limited sense of self as Earth-bound physical beings to turn our attention towards the higher ground of cosmic awareness and galactic expansion as expressions of Light, Life and Love. We probably have a few more collective steps to make before we get there, but the feeling I get from the energetic stirrings Light-flashing through me is that we may be getting there sooner - MUCH SOONER! - than what we may still prefer to believe...
We shall see... (More on this below from Matthew...)
It is a joy for us to see how many of you have made a positive response to the coming announcement about our existence. We do not really need much in the way of publicity to reach people. The presence of our craft and the many contacts made over the last 50 years, have ensured that we have a place in your minds. What it will achieve is official recognition, that will sweep away the cover-ups and false stories about us. Those of you that accept us have no difficulty in finding all of the proof that you need. However, many people have blindly followed the rejection of us by those who have no desire to move on, or welcome a new Age. Humans do get into fixed modes that make them feel comfortable, and they become very insular. Events can no longer wait for them to raise their consciousness levels, as certain changes must commence very shortly. Moving you into a new paradigm requires many changes, and it is essential that they start in accordance with the Divine Plan.
When the truth of our reasons for contacting you is known, it will offer a lifeline to those who see no future for Humanity. Suddenly your souls will be uplifted by the promise of a way out of the chaos deliberately put upon you. We are allowed to help you as your spiritually appointed mentors, and because the cycle of duality is coming to an end. You are not meant to see out this period by yourselves, and the plan has always allowed for guidance and direction so that you arrive at your true destination. Ascension is simply upliftment into the higher vibrations of the Universe, and it means that you will be part of it unless through choice you decide not to participate. However, as simple as it sounds it has far reaching effects, and nothing will be quite the same again. It is a wonderful event that allows you to move into the beauty and peace of the higher dimensions. It comes as your right, and is an opportunity that will not come around again for thousands of years.
Start preparing in your minds for the changes that are inevitable once we can arrive openly amongst you. You will be kept informed of what is taking place, and with our assistance you can be sure that there will no area on Earth that is without contact. We can if necessary superimpose messages onto your television sets, without using your conventional means of doing so. Once our plans are widely known, there will be few if any that will object to the upliftment that will be taking place. To gain the return of your freedom will in its self be a major achievement. Big Brother may be breathing down your neck, but we will curtail their covert operations and plans for greater control over you. Knowing this we hope you will take a broader view of what is happening, and not allow concern or worry to enter your minds. Certainly do not react to the news that speaks of the need to introduce martial law, as fear is like a cancer and spreads quickly. Rise to the challenge and cover it with your Light, and you will be helping restrict its power to entrap people.
We expect you to come sailing through these coming months, and your faith in us will be justly rewarded by knowledge of the latest contacts that have been made. They will answer much that will arise in your minds as to why it has taken so long to happen. It has not been for the want of trying on our part, as we have contacted many leaders over many years without success. Our aim was to offer our technologies providing a finish was put to war, and instead peace was established. However, instead your government turned to the Space Beings you know as the Greys, and brokered a secret agreement to allow them bases on Earth in exchange for advanced technology. Many of your recent advances have come from this source, and for example you would not otherwise have had your chip or laser technology. Therefore what should have been directly for your immediate benefit through a peace agreement with us, was secretly used to gain world dominance over other countries.
In the Galactic Federation no civilization tries to set itself above another, indeed there is a policy of sharing so that all may benefit from each other for the good of all. This is a measure of how far any civilization may have progressed, and sadly yours is largely caught up in service to self. However, we find the influence of those who do care for others is gaining ground. There is an expanding consciousness that accepts that you are All One. It will not take much to bring the love out of other people, and when it is seen that all of your troubles come from policies that have set you apart, things will change.
You are not all equal viewed from a purely material point of view. That is not the individuals fault, but centuries of subjugating tribal countries to slavery. It is not without coincidence that they have been way behind the Western world for so long. The Illuminati have worked their plan for total world control for far longer than you might imagine. They have not had it all their own way, and Lightworkers also laid down plans to combat their ultimate attempt to enslave you all. The quiet resistance has concentrated on raising your consciousness, so that you could find the truth for yourselves and act accordingly. There have also been provisions made to bring abundance and change your lack of material wealth. It will mean that the schemes for fair sharing can be instigated, and no more shall any be too poor to provide for themselves and others.
It is not just the Galactic Federation that will appear on Earth, and as we have often mentioned, the Masters will also return to put right the false teachings that have passed as the word of God. At a much later stage your Inner Earth family will surface to also help you through Ascension. As you can see, the operation to lift up Mother Earth and all life forms will be attended by multitudes of Light Beings, who act out of love for you. They have always been near to you, but now is the right time for them to appear and renew their friendship with you.
I am SaLuSa from Sirius, and share your anticipation in respect of what is to come very soon, that shall move you more into the Light of understanding. You are One Family in the eyes of the Creator, and none are given favor above others. It is you who do the choosing as to where your future lies, and as time passes by we expect many more to seek the path to ascend. Be of Love and Light, and live life as one who seeks to spread it wherever you go.
Thank you SaLuSa
Mike Quinsey
Check also the October 16, 2009 message from SaLuSa : "Dear Ones, be prepared to think anew and leave your selves open to new ideas. Those who refuse to move on will be allowed their freedom of choice, but they will remain in the lower vibrations, which they cling to. There will be every opportunity for any soul that is seeking to find a way of satisfying their needs, and at the same time create a pathway to Ascension. There is nothing to be frightened of, as you will lose little and gain much more than you could imagine. Consider how you would like to jump ahead a thousand years by your present standards, and enjoy all of the benefits it would bring. That is realistically what you stand to gain, and not least of all upliftment to a state of full consciousness. The adventure is about to begin in earnest and you may pinch yourself to see if it is real. You are gradually leaving the illusion of gross physicality for a refined state of being. You are gravitating towards a more realistic dimension that will be more consistent with your higher vibration. It was never the plan that you should remain in the 3rd dimension forever, but take your place as Galactic Beings in the next stage in your evolution."
...and his October 14 message: "Perhaps somewhat sooner than you might have anticipated, the first meaningful contact is soon to be announced. The news is already spreading like wildfire, and it is going to be a moment when history will be made. You have reached a new stage in this cycle that will see you move even further ahead, and all the promise of a new age will begin to unfold before your eyes. Does it not seem appropriate that at a time when you will be preparing to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, you will have another reason that will bring joy to so many of you. Between now and the end of the year the first official announcement of our existence will go ahead, and none other than President Obama will sit at that table. Over a period of time we had been anticipating a more open contact, but in keeping up with your likely re-action it has been decided to take a formal approach. The message that you are to receive, whether direct or through President Obama will set the stage for a series of announcements. These will reveal the facts about us and our long relationship with you, and put aside the false and distorted stories. You should have reached this point many years ago, but a deliberate plan to conceal the truth has caused much confusion. In the last cycle during the Atlantean and Lemurian times we regularly visited their civilizations. It is quite normal to do so when a civilization reaches a certain level of understanding, and is ready to receive us. In your case it is imperative that we start working together as soon as possible, as there is much to do to ensure the plan for Ascension is carried forward. You must know by now the nature of the preparations for it, and we shall be able to help you speed up the process. The year 2012 will remain a crucial point in your evolution, and from thereon it will continue in the higher dimensions."
With loving greetings, this is Matthew speaking on behalf of all souls at this station. You have been waiting a very, very long time—far longer than you are consciously aware—for the momentous occasion on your near horizon. For several years various messengers of the light have been telling you about the spiritually, intellectually and technologically advanced civilizations surrounding you—soon you will hear this truth from persons in your world whom you trust and respect.
Members of the highest council that designed the master plan of Earth's Golden Age have been observing the pace of flux in the collective consciousness, and they have agreed that the day is nearing when the presence of your celestial brotherhood must become widely known. There are "open windows," universally speaking, that offer the leaps in consciousness and spiritual clarity that enable a civilization to ascend into a higher density. These windows have opened for Earth's peoples before, but they closed because the darkness that permeated the planet prevented the peoples from looking up at the stars instead of down at „feet of clay.‰ This is the time of another open window, and as ordained by the Supreme Being of this universe, Earth will fly through on her way into the higher densities where love, peace and harmony is the basis of life. In her love for all her resident souls, she wants them to go with her.
Measured progress is necessary to meet the energetic timeline of any open window, and much must be accomplished before this one closes around the end of your year 2012. Again, Earth's soaring through and onward to her destination in fifth density is assured˜it is up to individual souls to chart their own journey. The tenacious resistance of the dark minds among you has managed to keep a lid on the massive deception that has kept the peoples in bondage for millennia. The dark forces knows it has lost the war for global domination, but its battle continues for individuals who have not heeded their souls‚ intuitive messages to "see the light." The current strategy of the puppets of darkness is to stir up anger, confusion and divisiveness˜the antithesis of the spirit that can see and seize opportunities for benevolent change˜and even as tiny bits of pervasive corruption and depravity seep into headlines, a great deal still is operating to keep the masses deceived, suppressed and consciously asleep.
Because that is not in keeping with Earth's desire for her beloved souls, the master planning council in conjunction with spiritually evolved beings among you decided to reverse the order of two major parts of the plan. Originally it was thought that exposure of the dark ones‚ controlling hand in myriad worldly matters would arouse the sleepers and then there would be the revelation that newcomers from distant lands have come to help you clean up the mess your world is in. But awakening of the masses isn't happening as quickly as need be and time is of the essence, so it has been agreed to jolt the many sound sleepers with something that cannot miss getting everyone's attention—your governments acknowledging that other intelligent beings are in the universe.
According to information reaching us about the "unveiling," it will be understated rather than dramatic, such as a simultaneous fleet of spacecraft decloaking or a host of visitors landing. And there will not be an immediate outpouring of interaction with your brothers and sisters from faraway homelands˜their introduction will be unfolded, not suddenly thrust upon a world where skeptics and nonbelievers will not greet this news with the same enthusiasm as you. Wisdom dictates caution so that suspense and doubt will not turn into chaos and fear.
The dark ones know that once this long-denied truth no longer is deniable, it opens a virtual Pandora's box of their heinous activities throughout the ages. Thus, even as lightworkers are rejoicing that at long last the presence of other civilizations is publicly confirmed, the dark minds will be furiously churning out fear. As puppets of the off-planet dark forces, they know that the energy of fear puts a barrier between light and consciousness, and always the goal of that powerful force field of negativity has been to conquer souls by capturing their light. Their puppets will make every effort to convince the populace that the ETs are to be feared, they have come to conquer and enslave.
Your interconnectedness with all souls in this universe will help dispel the fear that non-illumined individuals succumb to. The light in your elation not only will touch all around you, but will radiate out into the universe and through the law of attraction, bring back "like" energy that can reach those who bought into the fear-filled falsehoods. The light can open their hearts and let them also welcome the visitors who have come to assist you rise out of third density, where darkness thrives. It is true that God told these others of His children to help you, but they are doing this eagerly and lovingly so all of you can awaken to your rightful place in our universal family.
CLIP - To read the rest, please go at http://www.matthewbooks.com/mm/anmviewer.asp?a=113&z=2 - Topics included: Public acknowledgement soon of other civilizations; other truths will emerge later; “open window” for ascension; changes to come; physical death of those who refuse light; Golden Age government; moderate temperatures; emotions, bodies in higher densities; relationship of soul, fetus
5.
Note from Jean: OK, now if all of this is too much for you and you'd prefer to consider a more down to earth approach to this whole issue of saving ourselves from ourselves, here is something that should be quite appealing to you...
There is no doubt that we are now in a state of global emergency. This unprecedented worldwide crisis is a symptom of a much deeper problem - the current state of our consciousness: how we think about ourselves and our world. We have the urgent need, and now the opportunity, for a complete rethink: to reconsider our values and priorities, to understand our interconnectedness and to begin a new direction - living in harmony with nature and each other.
The Crisis And The Opportunity
Every person, community, and society in the world is already, or will soon be, affected by the crisis, through climate change, economic breakdown, ecosystem collapse, population pressure, food and water shortages, resource depletion, nuclear and other threats. If we continue on our present unsustainable path, by mid-century the Earth could become largely uninhabitable for human and countless other forms of life. However, total system-collapse could occur much sooner caused by eco-catastrophes or escalating wars triggered by religious, geopolitical or resource conflicts.
These threats are real. The underlying causes of the present global crisis have been building momentum for decades and could soon become irreversible. Estimates of when the point of no return will be reached have been reduced from the end of the century, to mid-century, to the next twenty years, and recently to the next five to ten years.
The window of opportunity for pulling out of the current crisis and breaking through to a peaceful and sustainable world may be no more than a few years from now. This timeline coincides with the many forecasts and prophecies that speak of the ending of the current cycle of human life on this planet, and the possible dawning of a new consciousness by the end of the year 2012.
Today, forward-thinking groups and individuals all over the world are addressing the many opportunities presented at this critical time. Designs for sustainable systems, structures and technologies are being developed and implemented in all sectors, at all levels and in every society. This global awakening is a hopeful sign of the vitality of the human spirit and our ability to respond to the dangers we now face with insight and creativity.
The totality of our current efforts does not yet match the scope, scale and urgency of the necessary transformation. But if we collaborate and act with vision, foresight and commitment we can lay the foundations of a global community that is both peaceful and sustainable. We may then ensure our survival and wellbeing, as well as that of future generations. While the window of time is still open, our top priority, as global citizens, is to accelerate our evolutionary shift to a planetary consciousness and, together, lay the foundations for a peaceful, just and sustainable world.
An Urgent Call
We accordingly issue this urgent call to all the peoples of the world to deepen our awareness of both the dangers and the opportunities of the global crisis. We declare our firm commitment to work together to bring about a timely and positive WorldShift, for the survival and wellbeing of all the peoples of the human community and the flourishing of all life on Earth.
It has been said that our generation is the first in history that can decide whether it's the last in history. We need to add that our generation is also the first in history that can decide whether it will be the first generation of a new phase in history. We have reached a watershed in our social and cultural evolution. The sciences of systems tell us that when complex open systems, such as living organisms, and also ecologies and societies of organisms, approach a condition of critical instability, they face a moment of truth: they either transform, or break down. Humankind is approaching a critical instability - a moment of truth. We can continue without decisive change and face disaster, or we can wake up and begin to transform. The following two scenarios illustrate the nature of the choice before us.
- There is no real change in the world in the way business is conducted, resources are exploited and energy is produced. This leads on the one hand to a worsening global economic crisis, and on the other to major climate change due to the accelerated warming of the Earth's atmosphere.
- In some regions global warming produces drought, in others devastating storms, and in many areas it leads to harvest failures. In coastal areas vast tracts of productive land are flooded, together with cities, towns and villages. Hundreds of millions are homeless and face starvation.
- Massive waves of destitute migrants flow from coastal regions and areas afflicted with lack of food and water, above all in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, toward inland regions where the basic resources of life are more assured. The migrants overload the human and natural resources of the receiving countries and create conflict with the local populations. International relief efforts provide emergency supplies for thousands, but are helpless when confronted with millions.
- In futile attempts to stem the tidal wave of destitute people India builds up its wall along the border with Bangladesh, the U.S. along the Mexican border, and both Italy and Spain build walls to protect their northern regions from their overrun southern regions.
- The world's population fragments into states and populations intent on protecting themselves, and masses of desperate people facing imminent famine and disease. The conflicts create unsustainable stresses and strains in the structure of international relations. Social and economic integration groups and political alliances break apart. Relations break down between the U.S. and its southern neighbours, the European Union and the Mediterranean countries, and India and China and the hard-hit Southeast Asian states.
- Global military spending rises exponentially as governments attempt to protect their territories and re-establish a level of order. Strong-arm régimes come to power in the traditional hot-spots and local food- and water-wars erupt between states and populations pressed to the edge of physical survival.
- Terrorist groups, nuclear proliferators, narco-traffickers, and organized crime syndicates form alliances with unscrupulous entrepreneurs to sell arms, drugs, and essential goods at exorbitant prices. Governments target the terrorists and attack the countries suspected of harbouring them, but more terrorists take the place of those that are rounded up and killed or imprisoned.
- Hawks and armaments lobbies press for the use of powerful weapons to defend the territories and interests of the better-off states. Regional wars fought initially with conventional arms escalate into wars conducted with weapons of mass destruction.
- The world's interdependent and critically destabilized economic, financial and political system collapses. The environment, its productive processes and vital heat balance impaired, is no longer capable of providing food and water for more than a fraction of the surviving populations. Chaos and violence engulfs peoples and countries both rich and poor.
Here, however, is another scenario... Timely Transformation.
- The experience of terrorism and war, together with rising poverty and the threats posed by a changing climate, trigger a widespread recognition that the time to change has come. In country after country, an initially small but soon rapidly growing nucleus of people pull together to confront the dangers of the global crisis and seize the opportunity it offers for change.
- The rise of popular movements for sustainability and peace leads to the election of political leaders who support economic cooperation and social solidarity projects. Forward-looking states monitor the dangerous trends and provide financing for the urgently needed economic, ecological, and humanitarian initiatives.
- Non-governmental organizations link up to undertake projects to revitalize regions ravaged by environmental degradation. Emergency funds are provided for countries and regions affliced by drought, violent storms, coastal flooding, and failures of the harvest.
- Military budgets are reduced and in some states eliminated, and the resulting "peace-dividends" are assigned to increase the production of staple foods, safe water, basic supplies of energy, and essential sanitation and health services for the needy disadvantaged populations.
- Country after country shifts from fossil-fuel based energy-production to alternative fuels, reducing the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and slowing the process of global warming. A globally networked renewable energy system comes on line, contributing to food production, providing energy for desalinizing and filtering sea-water, and helping to lift marginalized populations from the vicious cycles of poverty.
- Leading business companies join the classical pursuit of profit and growth with the quest for social and ecological responsibility. On the initiative of enlightened managers a voluntarily self-regulating social market economy is put in place, and the newly elected forward-looking political leaders give it full support.
- As the new energy system and the self-regulating social market economy begins to function, access to economic activity and technical and financial resources becomes available to all countries and economies.
- Frustration, resentment, animosity and distrust give way to a spirit of cooperation, liberating the spirit and enhancing the creativity of a new generation of locally active and globally thinking people.
- Humanity is on the way to a peaceful and sustainable, diverse yet cooperative planet-wide civilization.
As you can see, it is a simple choice to make between Business As Usual or Timely Transformation.
The transition may be difficult for some, but it will be far more difficult for all if we don't start the process very soon. Before we can do that we first have to collectively and consciously decide that this is what we actually want. Are you ready to take The WorldShift Challenge?
The choice between these scenarios is not yet made. As of today, we are moving along the path of the BAU scenario, but more and more people are waking up and searching for ways to move to a scenario of timely transformation.
The question is: how much time is there for this shift?
The window of time is finite: when conditions in a complex open system reach a critical point the system becomes chaotic, and it either transforms, or breaks down. The longer the transformation is delayed, the more difficult it becomes to carry it out.
To define the feasible decision-window we must take into account both the time by which individual trends reach a critical phase, and cross-impacts and feedbacks among the trends.
i. The unfolding of individual trends. Time estimates of when individual life-threatening trends would reach points of criticality have been reduced from the end of the century to mid-century, and for some trends to the next ten to twenty years.
For example, the sea level has been rising one and a half times faster than predicted in the IPCC's Third Assessment Report published in 2001. Forecasts published at the end of 2008 project global sea-level rise that is more than double the 0.59 meter rise forecast even by the Fourth Assessment Report.
Carbon dioxide emissions and global warming have likewise outpaced expectations. The rate of increase of CO2 emissions rose from 1.1 percent between 1990 and 1999 to over 3 percent between 2000 and 2004. Since 2000 the growth-rate of emission has been greater than in any of the scenarios used by the IPCC in both the Third and Fourth Assessment Reports.
The warming of the atmosphere progressed faster than expected as well. In the 1990s forecasts spoke of an overall warming of maximum 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Then the time-horizon for this level of increase was reduced to the middle of the century, and presently some experts predict that it could occur within a decade.
At the same time, the prediction for the maximum level of global warming rose from 3 to 6 degrees. The difference is not negligible. A three degree warming would cause serious disruption in human life and economic activity, while a six degree warming would make most of the planet unsuitable for food production and large-scale human habitation.
ii. Feedbacks and cross-impacts. Most predictions of points of criticality take only one trend into consideration-global warming and attendant climate change; water quality and availability; food production and self-reliance; urban viability, poverty, and population pressure; air quality and minimal health standards, or others. They fail to consider the possibility that a criticality in one trend could accelerate the unfolding of other trends toward a point of criticality.
There are multiple feedbacks and cross-impacts among the relevant trends, both in regard to the biosphere and conditions in the human world.
In the biosphere, all the trends that affect human life and wellbeing also impact on the cycles that maintain the planet's ecology within a humanly viable range. This is the case in regard to the global water and the global carbon cycle: the alteration of these cycles by any one trend affects the way the other trends unfold.
For example, an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to global warming and that affects rainfall and the growth of forests. That, in turn, reduces the biosphere's carbon absorption capacity. Feedbacks are also conveyed by air and ocean currents. Warmer water in the oceans triggers hurricanes and other violent storms alters the course of major ocean currents, such as the Gulf and the Humbold. And that triggers further changes in the climate.
Feedbacks also obtain between ecological and societal trends. For example: The warming of the atmosphere produces prolonged drought in some areas and coastal flooding in others. Starving and homeless masses are impelled to migrate from the highly impacted areas to less hard-hit regions creating critical conditions in those regions as well.
A drop in the quality of the air in urban and industrial megacomplexes below the minimum required for health creates a breakdown in public health, with epidemics spreading to vast areas. A breakdown of the financial system would impact not only on banks and stock markets, but would interfere with industrial output and trade the world over, creating critical conditions first of all for the poorest countries and eonomies.
Cross-impacts among accelerating global trends reduces the feasible decision-window. The precise time for effecting meaningful change is not predictable with certainty, but due to feedback and cross-impacts among the trends, it's likely to be less than the forecasts of critical points for individual trends.
The decision-window may close within ten years and possibly sooner - conceivably by the end of 2012, coinciding with the famous Mayan prophesies that predict if not the end, then the transformation, of our world.
We do have a choice. We can determine our own destiny and secure not just the future of humanity, but it's conscious evolution. By rising to The WorldShift Challenge, we ask you to commit to the positive transformational change required to co-create at least the foundations of a peaceful, just and sustainable world by the end of 2012.
Deepak Chopra (physician, spiritual leader, author, and ayurvedic expert) writes of Ervin Laszlo and the WorldShift 2012 movement...
"We are already living in two worlds. One world moves ahead by inertia from the past-like a massive luxury liner drifting at sea-while the other steps into the unknown-like a child entering the woods for the first time. On the front pages of newspapers and on the evening news, the first world gains the lion's share of attention. A new crisis deepens yesterday's crisis in Africa or the Middle East. A fresh humanitarian outrage taints a faraway society. One war replaces another. Despite the sameness of these events, they constitute the news of the world as far as the mass media shows it. Yet this world of inertia and non-change is deceptive. Beyond crisis-driven news, another world is rising. In this book Ervin Laszlo maps this new world and its promise-no one I know is more acutely attuned to it.
The first world is a solid wall that looks impregnable, yet behind it people no longer feel protected. They dream of a shift in consciousness, the revolution that needs only to be asked for and it will begin. Material events are but the outward display of consciousness. Paying attention only to the world of inertia and non-change is like dwelling in illusions. In the 1980s the annual May Day marches of massive Soviet armaments through Red Square didn't reveal that the Communist system was about to collapse. Armies, wars, ecological disaster, unbridled greed and corruption, skyscraper cities springing up like weeds, a deluge of pesticides and pollutants, streams of refugees without a homeland, tyranny spreading violence without check, pandemic disease: these are the fruits of consciousness, too, but a kind of consciousness that is stuck and unable to raise itself above its self-created problems.
What is so admirable about WorldShift is that we are led directly to this diagnosis and then offered a solution that is also in consciousness. Ervin Laszlo joins a small group of deeply versed thinkers who grasp that all experience occurs in consciousness and nowhere else. This insight saves him from the trap of replacing one style of materialism with another. Those on the right who try to impose democracy on societies that have no basis for democracy in their traditions are hitting their heads against an invisible fact: what you aren't aware of, you can't change. Those on the left who promote globalism as new partnerships in trade and economics miss the point that the Americanization of the world-bringing rampant consumerism to traditional societies-can turn out to be destructive, not just to valuable folkways but to the planet. Only a shift in consciousness can save the world from impending perils that are also rooted in consciousness.
Fortunately, the second world-the world of timely change-is poised to save the first. People are beginning to confront the world-shaping trends that this book points out so succinctly:
The dispossessed of the earth are rising and won't be suppressed in their quest for prosperity. The planet's sustainable resources will be depleted unless human beings find a sustainable way of life in accord with Nature. Materialism has reached its historical apogee and will decline or self-destruct through accelerating degradation of the ecology.
As viewed from the first world, these are such overwhelming threats that the response of governments has been to look the other way or to make little more than symbolic gestures at reform. From the perspective of the second world, it's no surprise that governments are stymied, because the policies that despoiled the earth can't be expected to renew it, either by doing less or doing more.
Among his many utterly cogent points, Ervin Laszlo declares that we need a new way to be happy. For me, this is the deepest and most salient point. When an American housewife drives her car to the supermarket, purchases brightly packaged processed food, leaves a full garbage can out on the curb, and sprays a can of insecticide to kill the aphids in her rose garden, none of these actions seem destructive-she's simply doing the ordinary things we all do in our pursuit of happiness. But happiness based on waste, toxins, depletion of fossil fuels, and endless consumer goods-the paradise we have all chased since the end of World War II-can't be sustained. Still less can we sustain the massive military forces that serve to shut out 90 percent of humankind so that the privileged 10 percent can promote a worldview that over time will spell the end of their existence along with everyone else's.
When stated like that, the future seems dire. So it comes as a relief that this handbook for conscious change goes beyond superficial pessimism or optimism, offering instead a new way to be happy. Without a doubt the outmoded world of materialism is leading to greater unhappiness, through pollution, overpopulation, lack of nourishing food and water, and the loss of natural habitats: a sizable percentage of the world's population already experiences these deficits. Timely change through a shift in consciousness can bring about a new model of happiness based on the principles of higher consciousness. The Indian spiritual teacher J. Krishnamurti, not one for blithe cheerfulness, used to say, with justice, that to live beyond the simple needs of a modest house, good food, a few well-fitted clothes, and other necessities was not to become more happy. Quite the opposite. To the extent that we look outward for happiness, the final result will be boredom, stagnation, and bitter disappointment.
WorldShift is about an outer world built on inner realization. Such a world is possible, as this book shows, and indeed is already being born in the hearts of millions of people. The front pages of newspapers and the evening news on CNN aren't reporting this shift, but scientist-philosophers like Ervin Laszlo have already laid a foundation upon which magnificent edifices may soon rise. Higher consciousness, which has been evolving through human beings for centuries, is seeding a garden of hope and promise."
If you are not yet a subcriber to the Earth Rainbow Network emailing list and would like to subscribe to its automated listserver and regularly receive similar compilations covering a broad range of subjects, including each new Meditation Focus issued on a regular basis, simply send a blank email at earthrainbownetwork-subscribe@lists.riseup.net from the email account to which you want to receive the material compiled and networked by the Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator. Subscription is FREE!
