Global Ecology and the Human Bubble
I sent the following to my daughter for comment in January I think ,when much of the worlds attention was focused on Australian fires .Perhaps now is a good time for us to consider whether we can change our behaviour before being thrust back into the “Rat Race”
Humanity needs to realise that it is a part of Nature/the Earth, a very small part, yet still ,a part of and not ,apart from ‘it.’
It is clear ,our human bubble cannot last !
When you look at Windy.com for example and see the active fires, carbon monoxide and other environmental indicators all over the world (more layers ), you start the see a bigger picture , there seemed to be an area of fires burning across the middle of Africa much larger than those in Australia (possibly savanna?). Later they appeared to be in republic of Congo and the eastern part of DRCongo much of which should be tropical rainforest I think though many of these seem to have gone out over the last few weeks ? Rain ? Update—
These heat signatures are changing constantly since I have been fussing around about posting this .
I can’t vouch for the accuracy of windy.com data and have never even been to Africa let alone the Congo so it is more a feeling ,a strong feeling ,very unscientific I know .
If the Amazon is the lungs of the world then to me the Centre of Africa is the heart of the world ,especially where humanity is concerned ,not just our origins but because when the last wilderness is gone, humanity draws its last natural breath. (I wrote this around 2001- 2002 as part of a poem /song called styx designed to help save ancient forests from clearfell in Tasmania)
Our human bubble ,an illusion of ,separation from ,superiority to, or no of need of this nature ,our earth ,sustained for now by belief in technological fixes ,at the very best can lead to a human maintained world where once there were self-sustaining ecosystems.
Thinking that we are superior to the rest of the natural world or are separate from it, annihilating the last ancient forests and other self-sustaining ecosystems is like tearing off our skin to get away from our bodies.
As is the idea of casting off this earth for some other planet or permanent heaven ,heaven or hell are here on earth ,we choose .
Imagine that ! ,so numb we don’t realise it, self flailed humanity suddenly becoming aware of what it has done. Too late for nature to provide our needs, to heal us.
So let the fear of climate change or the corona virus make us;
realise how small we really are;
to put our arms around each other and our earth ;
to slow down ;
to look at the daily annihilation of wilderness and species to feed our greedy desires;
to put our arms around and nurture self-sustaining ecosystems that remain, as if they were our own human babies, but realising that life and death are as natural as each other and viruses and one life needing to kill another to survive are just as natural and that there are many levels to right and wrong .
Pick a forest ,lake ,ocean or grassland near you and realise that you are a part of it ,nurture it ,nurture yourself ,slow down. , It is a part of you ,you are a part of it ,polluting it is polluting yourself!
Our needs are much less than our wants.
BE Jensen
Windy.com is also very good to show the concentration of CO from incomplete combustion probably from industrial production this is concentrated over CHINA in a very telling way .
