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I learned the fact that our planet is doomed in 2006. (It’s alright if you don’t trust Al Gore, a politician after all. But think about James Lovelock, who has devoted his whole life to Mother Earth, only to discover that we have taken it to an irreversible coma. Or Stephen Hawkins, who, when he received the Príncipe de Asturias award, was asked about the future of humanity, and he declared that it was in space, because the planet will be uninhabitable in 100 year’s time at the most.)
At first, it was a terrifying shock for an idealistic person like me. It seemed that the bad guys had already won after all; the new evidence was not one more event to add to the play, but the astonishing fact that the stage itself was crumbling. I spent a long time knocked out, even though one of my personal principles (maybe you’ll share it, maybe not) is that truth is always better.
How I manage now? Well, it is one of those terrible paradoxes of life; if things were not that awful, I had never risen my level of consciousness so much. And a higher level of consciousness,even if pain gets also amplified, means a more plentiful life. Rough situations are motivating and help you grow (well, not always).211212213214
Ever since then, I feel sorry now and then for the situation. I don’t know what hurts me the most; the disgusting state we’ve left our environment in, or the cynicism and indifference towards that fact that I see in my fellow humans. But the way in which I deal with the climatic decay has also evolved and changed along time.
I noticed the other day, while having a walk. I had heard the previsions: the impermeable shit layer we’ve put (and keep fattening up) in the sky is melting the pole. The planet’s average temperature keeps rising. So I thought each summer would be hotter than the previous one, like being sat waiting on a frying pan, and that’s it. A horrible perspective. Just sit there, and get fried. But things are not that simple.
My way of thinking (”up the thermostat, up the thermostat, up the thermostat, and that’s it) was precisely typically human, precisely the kind of linear thinking, with an appearance of intelligence, that has taken us all to the cliff. But things are not that simple when it comes down to alive beings; and planet Earth IS an alive being.
So summers as interesting as the one we’re having make you realize that kind of things; my house has windows oriented in two directions. Sometimes you can see a winter-like weather from the northern side, and, simultaneously, a monsoon-like weather from the southern one. And yes, it is hot, but you suddenly get batches of cold wind, or a few minutes of furious tropical rain. Our planet is a miracle, an exception, full of variety and colors, and it is creative in every manifestation; even in its own coma. I find this fascinating.
It is strange, when you think it, what it means writing a blog about the brain. Once upon a time there was a primal nervous system, a sort of cable made to distribute impulses. Then one day one of its extremes started to grow, to fatten, to fold against itself in order to acquire more capabilities. The conditions for such an incredible thing to happen were suitable only here, in this corner of the universe. Earth has been a miracle, and miracles are fascinating to see. But the end of a miracle is fascinating, too. So let’s keep watching.
How’s your relationship with the planet right now?
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