World on Fire

I wish I knew how to write this and not sound like an alarmist. I wish I knew how to convey to you all, my fellow pagani, how deeply concerned I am about one issue above all others.

Global warming.

For the past few years I have been slowly researching this issue, weighing the facts, listening to those who are convinced that it is happening, and those who are convinced it is not. I keep my eye on Scientific American, the media, blogs, documentaries, and read some books on the subject. I personally am convinced that global climate change is very real and that the collective actions of humanity are the cause. The knowledge of this is truly starting to keep me up at night.

Humanity continues to think that we can continuously pump more and more pollutants into the atmosphere as if it was an open sewer. Does anyone seriously think that the kilotons of pollutions put into the air everyday is not having some effect on the environment? If so I think you should seriously consider the fact that you are telling yourself a very convenient story.

The reality of global warming has had a tremendous impact on my personal spiritual journey on a Druid inspired path. I think the changes that we are all about to experience in the coming century are so massive that it will be a story remembered for over a thousand years.

I know. You are thinking that all men and women throughout history have felt that they lived in the most important era ever. I think. however, we are about to prove many of them wrong. Most of history has effected small sections of the globe in different places and at different times. This will no longer be the case, we are entering a time of change that will effect every living soul on the plant at the same time. I truly beleive that humanities fate for the next 1000 years will be set by the actions that we take in the next 100. Maybe even less than the next 100.

I want to ask this to everyone. What would it have to take for you to stop driving your car as much as you do? I wonder if sometime in the future if we will not all wake up to the news that the northern polar ice is gone, and that Polar bears, and Beluga and Narwhal whales are all but extinct. Would *that* make people change their habits? How would the pagan world react to that kind of news? Is it important enough for you, as a pagan who loves the land that nurtures you, to change your habits now, even at the possibility of this kind of event? I sure hope so. I must say, however, that given histories past track record of people only changing after something dreadful has occurred, I remain VERY concerned about this issue.

I feel a nasty sense of fate. I *want* to live in a different era, where we have clean water, clean skies, and a real sense of respect for the land we depend on. That, however, is not the world in which we live. I can feel the eyes of the unborn, and hear their voices, asking . . . no pleading, for us to leave a better Earth behind before we go. I believe that this issue will be *the* defining struggle for all of us for at least the next 200 years.

Beyond this struggle I see a better world, if we start to take the problem seriously now. My only regret is that I will not live to see that world personally. I can only hope that if I speak and fight loudly enough against our current suicidal culture, that I can win the honor of being reincarnated in that better world. I know, go ahead and say it, I sound like a kook. I wish I were. But I am reminded of the last words of a great Korean Zen master on his deathbed:

Don’t worry, don’t worry
Peace reigns a thousand years
Mountains are green
Rivers flow

These words give me hope. I thank Brighid for that.