Root Cause of Climate Change in 7 Words

Root Cause of Climate Change in 7 Words

Impatient people please skip to Yes paragraph!

No

THE CAUSE OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN 7 WORDS
When we say the phrase ‘Climate Change’ we are employing a neutral combination of words without saying explicitly what many of us really mean. There is nothing surprising about the fact that the climate is changing; it always has and always will. But surely, we are concerned that life as we know it is in danger of ending, or indeed has ended already. For some people and millions of creatures this is a cold hard fact. Yet, in an attempt to be inoffensive and politically correct we are disguising the truth. Unless we identify the actual truth of our current situation then how can we expect to address the root cause? As any gardener knows, without rooting out the deepest problem a recurrence is inevitable – so even if we do manage to survive the current crisis, and stave off our existential emergency, something else, equally dire, will certainly emerge.

Hello

There are many suggestions about what might be the root cause of Climate Change. These include such things as overpopulation, excessive meat-eating, industrialisation or use of fossil fuels. Perhaps it is better to ask what underpins all of these, and all of the other possible causes of our predicament? ​

Thanks

I suggest that the root cause is that our species has lost its depth of connection to its spiritual heritage. I am not talking about religion at all; many non-religious people are highly spiritual beings, and lots of religious types are certainly not. I am discussing sacredness. Even if you are a mafia gangster, a politician or heroin addict, you have some sense of awareness that certain things are taboo, absolutely taboo. This points to the existence within each of one of us of something pure, incorruptible and good. Often ‘doing the right thing’ boils down to two essential aspects of conscience: truth and love. The trouble is that, despite knowing what is the right thing, we all tend to ignore that in favour of what is comfortable or expedient.

Goodbye

It’s true that some people are more likely to act responsibly, to bite the bullet and suffer personal inconvenience for the sake of adhering to a spiritual principle, but not many. And even those who are examples of good conscience mostly give way to expediency when push comes to shove. It’s very difficult to tell the truth in this world of lies – you make enemies rather quickly! – also it’s really hard to be kind when you are being treated badly. Yet when in difficulty, even taken to the extreme case, there is always one thing that works, and few people have it: Faith. ​

Please

Again I need to define what I mean. I don’t mean faith in God or anything unproven; I mean having the self-confidence to know that you can cope with whatever comes up and that it will be alright in the end – in fact having such profound optimism to trust that bad fortune is good fortune in disguise. Optimism is a spiritual principle, possibly even more descriptive of Spirit than either love or truth. When optimism is applied within an atmosphere of sacredness the outcome is always the best possible result. Yet can we prove that this statement is true? It is not necessary to do so, because those who have faith know it to be true and, whatever proofs are offered, those without will always doubt it.

Sorry

So what is sacredness? How can we achieve and maintain that precious state? Despite their dogmatic idealism and belief that their words are the real and only wisdom and truth, all religions include an aspect of real gold. If we could but take the good bits and discard the rest, we might come up with something that encapsulates ‘what is sacredness’ into teaching words that we can use to live by. And in fact, this is already available. This universal teaching appears in one form or another in pretty much every spiritual path. It is called the Golden Rule, which in simple terms is Consideration: do as you’d be done by. If you wouldn’t like it yourself then don’t do it to another.

Yes

​If the bottom-line defining principle accepted by everyone was Consideration, then all would be well. We would care for each other, we would listen to each other, we would not be hurtful, we would not take more than our fair share, and in every single moment we would think about the implications of what we are doing and saying. If today everyone began to practise consideration as an expression of their sense of sacredness then very quickly we would regain our balance as a species and find that joy replaced fear as the world’s underlying feeling.