ALIGNING AND COOPERATING 1

 

ALIGNING OURSELVES WITH AND WORKING TOGETHER WITH NATURE

We all know it by now:
Our planet is in danger. It is a creeping danger, a slowly advancing decline. It is not like Covid-19: something that no one expected and that no one could ignore. No one could remain passive. All kinds of painful measures were accepted and implemented. We realized: Our lives are in danger.

Climate change, global warming, droughts, storms, pollution of water, soil, and air, acidification of the oceans, rising sea levels and flooding, the extinction of many species of plants and animals...  all of this is happening continuously, but gradually, not suddenly from one day to the next. The situation is worsening, slowly but steadily.

What should we do? Fight? Fight against nature?

* Many people think they can adapt to these gradual changes. It won't be that bad.
* Others have great confidence in the possibilities of (new) technologies. They can leave the responsibility to the scientists and technicians—and continue to live as they are accustomed to.
* Still others think: If we are smart enough, we can combat the disasters, we can correct nature, we can win the war against all these disturbing issues. They think in terms of war, fighting, trying to be or become the leader.

This belligerent attitude permeates all areas of our society. Even though we know that war causes more war, violence causes more violence, we still believe, or at least pretend to believe, that war, power, intellect, exerting pressure, etc. are the only (or at least the fastest and most “effective”) ways to solve problems.

What we can see, but often do not want to see, is that this belligerent approach is the end of healthy growth, that it narrows our minds and kills our creativity. In short, it makes things worse instead of better. We lose sight of the bigger picture, we forget that everything is deeply interconnected, we isolate a particular problem and ‘forget’ what the deeper causes might be. Instead of paying attention to the real cause or causes, we fight the symptoms and think we have done something meaningful.

All of this also applies to some measures, laws, and regulations relating to our environment and climate. We do not take enough time or make enough effort to think about the deeper causes of a problem, but simply do some “practical” things without keeping the big and complex reality in mind. And we do not realize enough that we are in fact being counterproductive...

Don't fight, but align and collaborate!

However, a completely different approach is possible: don't fight against, but align with and cooperate with. Don't fight against nature, but use the wisdom of nature and work respectfully with nature's own ability to heal the situation; treat nature with care, patience, awareness, and focus, and adapt to the character and possibilities of nature itself. Nature has an enormous self-healing capacity, as described in a previous contribution. You could say that nature really wants to be balanced and healthy. Nature does not pollute, wastes nothing, is constantly recycling, and continues to develop into more varied and beautiful forms, both in the world of plants and animals.

Work with the intelligence of nature.

It is this great, beautiful, and wonderful “wisdom” and “intelligence” of all of nature that the Creator of everything has entrusted to us humans. Let us not forget that we humans are also part of that same nature. We are not ‘above’ nature but are part of it, albeit with a special task and responsibility, but not as its “boss.”

If there are problems in our ecosystems, the best way to remedy them is to consciously work together with the self-healing power that is present everywhere.
I would like to share some of this wisdom with you, dear reader, and I hope it will give you extra joy, hope, and confidence in your commitment to a healthier earth, OUR earth, our HOME, as Pope Francis calls it in his famous encyclical Laudato Si'.

To be continued.

Johan Muijtjens