“As the planet is poised at the tipping point of irreversible climate change, we struggle to conceptualise this potential catastrophe and its consequences. Too awful, perhaps, to deeply contemplate the consequences of inaction, we bury this awareness in order to re-establish the emotional comfort zone of denial. Believing, perhaps, that we are individually helpless to impact on this terrifying escalation, this helplessness is often felt as despair and moral confusion. Could an enriched sensibility to our place in nature enable us to shift from passive anguish to psychologically-healthy problem solving and greater emotional health? Can we creatively harness our awareness of our relationship with nature – rather than suppress it?”
This theme for a conference at the Eden Project in Cornwall challenges our inertia in the face of the global threats to the environment. How can we motivate ourselves to change our habits? We know that there is an economic motivation for living more energy efficiently, wasting less and recycling more. There is also satisfaction as well as good health and fun in growing some of our food, in walking more, and in getting to know our neighbours. These things require us to slow down, maybe for an hour each day, a day each week, and are part of a richer lifestyle that we should be teaching our children. We need to have more confidence that small steps taken by many people in a community can really change things, and to start them ourselves. One mitigating action we can take is to donate money to tree-planting organizations to offset some of the damage we are doing with our high-carbon lifestyles. Two such organizations are www.treesforlife.org.uk and www.woodlandtrust.org.uk. The tiny remnants of our ancient forests remind us of the countless generations of ancestors who have gone before, and forest replanting would be a tangible sign that we mean to pass on the environment in better shape to all our grandchildren.
