Setting Our Priorities

The 20th century philosopher and author, Albert Camus, once wrote something like, "The greatest saving that can be made in the world of thinking is to accept the incomprehensibility of the world and to take care of people."

Which sounds like a tempting philosophy on one level. In that I agree it is better to spend our time taking care of the people in our world, rather than navel-gazing in a fruitless attempt to understand the incomprehensible.

Yet on another level, don't we have a duty of care to the wider world too? Shouldn't we be doing what we can to try to understand how we might save the planet from climate change, save the innumerable species of animals, insects, plants and other living beings from imminent extinction? It is not just people who matter. And, don't we also have a duty to try to understand how the world works (or perhaps, more accurately fails to work, at least on a human level), in the context of the great interdependence of all life? It's a trickier question than it first sounds.

Because if we don't bother trying to understand how our actions as part of the world impact that same world, how can we minimise our negative impacts and maximise our positive ones? Then, once we do begin to understand that, to put it into practice.

Which is why I recently bought The Climate Book*, a 400+ page large format hardback, in which climate justic activist Greta Thunberg, has brought together all the latest thinking about the climate crisis into one place. In her introduction, she writes, "In 2021, I invited a great number of leading scientists and experts, and activists, authors and storytellers to contribute... This book... covers everything from melting ice shelves to economics, from fast fashion to the loss of species, from pandemics to vanishing islands, from deforestation to the loss of fertile soils, from water shortages to Indigenous sovereignty, from future food production to carbon budgets - and it lays bare the actions of those responsible and the failures of those who should have already shared this information with the citizens of the world."

It is an incredibly well-written but sobering read. I am working my way through it with increasing horror for the mess we are making of our blue-green planet. It is daunting, and tempting to wonder how the actions of any one individual could make a positive difference in the face of the complex problems facing the planet. But that is copping out. At the very end, she includes four short sections, with the following titles:

• What needs to be done
• What we can do together as a society
• What you can do as an individual
• Some of us can do more than others (including politicians, media and TV producers, journalist, and celebrities and influencers)

So yes, I agree with Camus that we need to care for people. But we also need to understand how the actions of people impact the wider world, so that we can do our best to save it, and encourage others to do the same. Because, it is nearly too late...

*The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg. Allen Lane, 2022.

The Ascent of Man

Fifty years ago today, the first episode of Jacob Bronowski's ground-breaking series, The Ascent of Man, was broadcast on BBC2. I can dimly remember watching it and wondering at how far we had come as a human race. 

(image: Wikimedia Commons)

The thirteen episodes followed the development of humankind through the lens of our understanding of science. The first five programmes dealt with our evolution from the earliest stages of human life to the height of the Middle Ages. Episodes six onwards covered the beginnings of modern science, from Galileo's discovery of Copernicus's theory of a heliocentric universe, through the laws of Newton and Einstein, the effects of science and technology as seen in the Industrial Revolution, and Darwin and Wallace's theories on the origin of species, to developments in modern chemistry, biology and physics.

In episodes 11 and 12 in particular, Bronowski shared his misgivings about what people do with their imperfect knowledge of science, which can lead to dreadful, or at best, ambiguous, outcomes - the Holocaust, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and modern developments in genetics, such as cloning. It was a fascinating series, and the book which came from it is well worth reading.

I wonder what Bronowski would have made of the developments in our world in the fifty years since the programme was broadcast - the many ways in which we have raped and pillaged the natural world in the name of human progress, let alone the many examples of "man's inhumanity to man" to quote Robert Burns. Sadly, we will never know, as he died the year after the programmes were broadcast.

Interestingly, the series was commissioned by David Attenborough, then Controller of BBC2, who has been a staunch speaker on the high costs of human progress in terms of the rest of the world with whom we share this planet.

Working Together

Last week's quotation, by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, could not be more apposite: "Wenn einer allein traümt, ist es nur ein Traum. Wenn viele gemeinsam traümen, ist das der Anfang einer neuer Wirklichkeit."

Which being translated, means: "When one dreams alone, it is only a dream. When many dream together, it is the beginning of a new reality."

And this week, millions of protesters are gathering to support the Extinction Rebellion movement. So many people have been galvanised into action by the grim realisation that our planet is under threat. That our lives, and the lives of all living creatures and plants, are under threat. That it is almost too late to do anything about it. But that nevertheless, the effort has to be made.

Many Unitarians will be spending at least part of this week down in London to join the protests. I am so glad that we are a part of this, because we only have one planet. They are seeking to help people to understand that there are better ways to live, based on a lifestyle which Unitarian author John Naish calls "enoughness". 

Because at the moment we are a society of consumers, with our heads buried firmly in the sand. Natural resources such as gas and oil are running out and the biodiversity on which our planet depends for its health is at risk from the activities of humankind.

Extinction Rebellion has published a book called This is Not A Drill. In it, the authors write: "This is a crisis that requires radical system change on a scale never seen before."  They write: "The challenge we now face is extremely daunting. Because the problem, unfortunately, is not just the climate. The problem is ecology. The problem is the environment. The problem is biodiversity. The problem is capitalism. The problem is colonialsim. The problem is power. The problem is inequality. The problem is greed, and corruption, and money, and this tired, broken system. The problem is our complete and utter failure to imagine any meaningful alternative."

The book has some wonderful suggestions for ways in which every person can join the rebellion, by choosing sustainability over consumerism, by campaigning to *make* governments and industry understand what is at stake. 

This could be our last chance... let's work together to make it happen.