Dear People,
In recent weeks, a preponderance of scientific, anecdotal, and attitudinal evidence has led me to conclude that the human race has about 40 years left on planet Earth. I am convinced that the entity whose love and support has provided the matrix of support necessary to host, nurture, and sustain biological life is sick. Our true Mother is sick.
I believe that the greedy, expedient decisions made over the past 250 years by some of the leaders of our ‘civilization’—our so-called “Captains of Industry”—have caused dis-harmony and dis-ease for the planet. And, like any natural being with an illness, I believe Mother Earth’s—Gaia’s—self-protective immune system is in the process of fighting back against her body’s dis-harmony and dis-ease, fighting to restore harmony and health. I believe that her body's natural healing response will kill off much of the biological life on the planet's surface--including the human race.
I believe our Mother has a fever.
In humans, a fever is one of the body’s first defensive lines of immune response. The fever creates a heightened temperature that may prove inhospitable to any invading ‘parasites.’ Fever is an automatic response—as I believe ‘global warming’ and ‘climate change’ are for Mother Earth. I’m guessing that our host’s temperature presently is the equivalent of a 100*F temperature in a human. This is not enough warm enough to totally eradicate any dangerous invaders, but it is warm enough to begin causing changes in the biological environments in which we live and our food and nutrient sources grow and thrive. I believe that Mother Earth’s temperature will continue to rise—that it will rise to what is the equivalent of a 106* or 107*F fever—and that this rise will occur within the next forty years, and that it may sustain itself at that level for more than a hundred years.
At 106*F very few invaders can survive. At 107* and 108*F even the survival of the host entity is in question. I think Gaia will survive her illness. But her recovery might be slow: hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years. But, in the life span of planet Earth, a thousand years would be the equivalent of less than a day in the life of a human. We humans have only been living on Mother Earth for the equivalent of about a week of her life span—we’ve been wreaking havoc with her health for less than an hour. But she has noticed: Her immune system is now fully aware of the invasion. Like the ebola virus, our rise to toxic levels has been fast and powerful. The effect of the proliferation and explosion of our human population is actually more like a skin disease: it is, luckily for Gaia, limited to the surface of the planet. However, as in humans—on which the integument or dermis is the largest organ of the body—the skin is key to the protection, nourishment, and cleanliness to the internal environment. Can a human survive a systemic attack on the skin? A sunburn? Exema? Poison Ivy? Multiple bee stings? Skin cancer? Of course it can. I guess it all depends on what kind of attack this is deemed to be.
40 years. With 40 years left—and who knows what kind of quality of life the planet will support during the last 30 or 20 years—and with little or no hope for future generations to live, much less survive, what kind of pursuits, both short- and long-term, would be valid or even advisable? I mean, I have children about to enter adulthood. What recommendations and/or advice should I offer them given the knowledge and beliefs that I have? For example, of what use is college? Of what use is planning any kind of ‘career’? Of what use is trying to create anything for posterity? Of what use is living for tomorrow—of living in humble mindfulness of the seventh generation ahead—if there is such little chance of survival about 40 years down the road?
The choices we humans are faced with, as I see it, are fourfold: 1) We can go into ‘Survivor Mode,’ preparing for the harsh times ahead. 2) We can stay in ‘Denial Mode’ (as most of us do now), acting or pretending as if there’s nothing wrong—as if life is going to go on just as it “always” has. 3) We can choose to live in ‘Party Mode,’ living hedonistically, with reckless abandon—looking for the next best ‘high,’ laugh, or ‘rush’—with disregard to potential consequences for, “Who knows: Tomorrow we may die!” 4) We can go into ‘Buddha Mode,’ focusing all our energies into getting to know the spiritual side of all of this while learning to detach from the horrors and sorrows occurring all around us while we still occupy bodies on planet Earth.
Most of us will, both consciously and unconsciously, find ourselves tapping into all four modalities—even on a daily—perhaps even scheduled—basis.
A fifth ‘occupation’ I see many of us placing a little time and energy into is that of planning for our own deaths on our terms. By this I mean that we will all spend no little time trying to decide how (and when) you would want to end your stay on the planet. Rather than stay, wait, and watch for the pain, suffering, and physical demise of life and healthy, comfortable living conditions, you plan for your own ‘suicide.’ Out of this preoccupation I foresee support groups forming out of which will come ‘suicide pacts,’ ‘suicide groups,’ and mass suicide events. I imagine these groups and events will almost naturally arise out of the Party and Buddha modes, while, eventually drawing in members from the Denial and even Survivor modes as they come to accept the harsh realities of ebbing life support on the planet.
So, which will it be? How will you choose to deal with the end of Earth’s hospitality? How will you choose to deal with the impending discomforts, diseases, and demise of life-supporting conditions facing all of us within this next generation? How will you find meaning and purpose in your life, in your day, in your relationships, in your choices from this day forward?
