How Social Change Will Fix Climate Change
What we really need to change is our motivation for doing things.
The Problem
For years the debate about climate change has been raging on, is it caused by humans or not? And if it is caused by humans, then we can repair it. We think that by changing human behavior toward the environment, by using up less energy and resources, we will solve this issue.
But the problem is not just that we treat the world we live in like one big garbage can these days. The real problem is that we also treat each other like garbage. And what we see around us is a natural extension of that.
What’s Missing From The Discussion?
Our disregard and lack of respect for the splendor of nature that we really take for granted as a whole, is simply a reflection of a much deeper problem, how we treat each other. Once we return to values of respecting our surroundings, we will also extend this positive behavior to include the people around us.
The solution to global warming and other negative environmental impacts on humans is neither in reducing greenhouse gases nor in the investment of greener energy sources. Instead, the solution is in repairing human relations.
One thing we can do right now to remember what an integral system we are living in and how dependent all its elements are on one another, is to watch National Geographic’s incredible One Strange Rock series starring Will Smith. This 10-part cinematic event series explores the fragility and wonder of planet Earth — one of the most peculiar, unique places in the universe.
Watching the documentary give us more appreciation for the world we live in, and how dependent we are on our little home. And we really need to think about it as our home, because there is no where to escape to.
What is fascinating about One Strange Rock is that it demonstrates what an integral system of nature we are living in, and how it maintains its unity at all levels.
The climate change crisis is not just a matter of animals becoming extinct, it’s a matter of harming all of ecology. Unlike animals, we humans have the power to change our behavior, and in this way, change nature.
Humans Are The Weak Link
The missing element, the key to our sustainability is human connection, how we relate to one another. Once we change this, we will change the integral natural system we exist in. We have the ability to control this element right in our hands, and this would enable us to impact the entire system.
We need to learn from the One Strange Rock documentary to be inspired about how much power we have to positively impact this whole system.
Why was man given this power? Only humans are designed with evil inclination built in to our nature, because we have the ability to transform it to good through doing for others.
So this is a very powerful series about nature because it gives us little people thoughts about how much we can potentially influence the whole system. How much the destiny of the world falls on our shoulders.
Shifting Our Perception of Reality
At the end of the day, we need to understand our role in this incredible system. The world is discovering more and more each day the need for change. What we really need to change is our motivation for doing things.
We think we need to change the world, but the world is simply a reflection of man. The world around us, is simply a reflection of our ego.
The way we look in the mirror at ourselves, is the way we look at the world. The world was given to us as a reflection of ourselves, so we would be able to check where we stand. And we are failing miserably.
At the root of all our problems we will find this rotten egoistic attitude of ours eating away at all our foundations — the foundations of the family unit, the community, the country and even the entire world.
From Climate Change to Self-Change
So if we really want to fix the world, we need to focus on fixing ourselves. We need to constantly work against our growing egos and provide the world with good examples of our correction. And the correction of the human ego begins with fixing the relations between us.
Of course it’s easier to do relaxing things like meditation and yoga, but the world will continue in its free fall until we get to work on the real purpose of our life.
Since the world is a replica of our nature, at some point we will need to agree to fix our nature.
Humans are actually a mini world. Everything that happens inside us is also happening in the world. The connection between ourselves and the world, is only activated through our connections with other humans. So if you want the world to look better, you need to start working on being better to other humans.
There is only one force at work here and that is the human ego, reflecting back to us the world we exist in. Evolution is really only about the natural development of the ego. We must change man, and through this we will feel the world changing.
Humans will resist this change with all their might, but we have no problem bending the world to fulfill our egoistic desires. So how can we change ourselves? Only by changing the intention behind everything we do. This is the only way to change the world, through a big shift in our attitude.
What’s Really Changing?
If we minimized our use of electricity like Al Gore urged us all to do in 2006, but did nothing to change our attitude toward other humans, then nothing really changed in our world.
Then the incredible HOME documentary came along in 2009 to demonstrate how all of Earth’s problems are interlinked through footage from 60 countries.
These documentaries are stunning in every way but still do not get to the core issue, of the need to change human relations at all levels of nature. And actually the worst element in nature causing the most harm is the human part. It’s not necessarily in the bad things we do every day, but the bad thoughts we have for our fellow man are what will be our downfall.
Until we learn the truth about the human nature we were designed with, we will continue to be ignorant about how to go about fixing our problems.
A Time for Renewal
The time has come for us to understand how much influence we have over our lives and all of reality. But this can only happen if we rise above the earthly nature we were born with, and transition to having a spiritual nature, where we fully understand why we are living.
In the spiritual realm we do not live by standards of good and bad, but rather measure everything we do in relation to our progress in self-correction.
We need to grasp that our intentions define the nature of our acts, and it is our acts that define the entire balance of nature. Make no mistake, our thoughts and desires truly impact the universe in a very profound way.
Let us hope that we will eventually understand and accept that by arranging the correct relations between, we can bring the entire world back into balance.
Then instead of wanting to escape this planet that we have messed up so badly, we can put all our energy into escaping our life as slaves to the human ego!
“By not fixing our problems at their root — our growing egoistic attitude to each other — the destructive process would continue on any other planet we populate.” Michael Laitman
