Look Outside The Boxes July 23, 2008
Posted by Clarissa Hughes in : Community, Spirituality, Sustainability , trackback
Someone asked me recently to describe what the world would be like if we didn’t heed the warnings to do something about climate change and the unsustainable exploitation of the earth’s resources. So this is my vision:
Populations of the poor and uneducated will be pushed to the high ground as the sea levels rise. There the already denuded and desertified lands will face increased pressure. In the less prepared countries where governments are not equipped to deal with the influx, law and order will soon collapse and marauding gangs will soon rise and become the law of the land. Just as the Difaqane wars displaced the peoples of southern Africa, so will we have waves of displaced people escaping the gangs. Murder and starvation will prevail. I have a vision of a small nomadic family fighting its way through a sandstorm, dragging their prize possession, a goat. Out of the miasma comes a group on horseback (or in a vehicle, if there’s any fuel to be obtained). They are strong and consist of men. They take the goat and kill the father and son for good measure. They rape the women and move on. Sound familiar? Could be Zimbabwe or it could be Darfur right now. Most people in Africa know what desperation feels like. It is a visceral rather than cerebral knowledge, born out of immediate and personal experience.
The strong countries will put up barricades and run police states to combat the rising tide of environmental refugees. Civil liberties will fall away and the average person in these so-called civilized countries will soon be living as people in Johannesburg already do, with security systems that diminish the enjoyment of every day life.
It doesn’t require much of an imagination. All this is already happening and the likelihood that the situation will deteriorate further, before it improves, is substantive.
Ignoring the problem is a cop-out. Believing that you’re so mighty you’ll be one of the winners is fantasy. There will be no winners. There will only be losers. (The significance of 9/11!)
Personally I can’t think of anything more dull and unhealthy than a world that is centered purely around human beings - just as cultural diversity is stimulating, so too is biological and spiritual diversity. Be that as it may, even for those people who don’t think there’s any merit in preserving biodiversity, there is the incontrovertible truth that the resources available cannot match the demand.
But what keeps me awake at night, and it truly does, is that it seems that everyone pussyfoots around the root cause of all this: if all humans are to enjoy a comfortable, Western lifestyle ( and it seems that everyone aspires to this) then there are way too many people on this planet to support that luxury. Never mind the projections of population growth.
So what can be done? Try and convince all the developing nations that material comfort and good health are not really what they want? Or try and reduce the breeding numbers? It’s strange, but even educated people have a mental block about the latter. When you mention that the numbers need to be reduced they immediately jump to the conclusion that some kind of die off is what you’re suggesting. On the contrary, the educated world has had the means to prevent pregnancies for some decades. Yes, there are concerns about aging populations having to be supported by a declining working population, but there is no problem-free solution to the pickle we’re in.
A two pronged approach would probably do the trick, with a leg up from education. Reducing our consumption and reducing the number of children we have is an individual’s choice. We see in international politics the theme of the South not prepared to toe the line because the North isn’t prepared to lead by example. So it will take ordinary people, people like you and me, the grass roots if you like, to figure this out on an individual level and do what we think is right to avoid having future generations cursing us for our selfishness and short-sightedness.
Having been born and raised in Africa I often think about the reverence that Africans hold for the ancestors. What if we get to a point that future generations curse us, the ancestors, for what we’ve left as a legacy? It is time for us all to take responsibility for what we leave behind.
What the world really needs is a new ethos, a new culture, a new spirituality. One that celebrates diversity and takes responsibility for the power, we as a species, possess. I believe we should be looking for it in the arts, the space where creative energies flourish. But as there is a definite correlation between power and ostentation, we should be looking for it on the fringes. Did you know that the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa is second only to Edinburgh for its programme diversity?
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