Australian Fires -- Seminal Moment of Awakening?

Jeanne Mayell · 2020-01-11T16:51:48Z

These bushfires have loomed in my psyche as the seminal climate event that the world might begin to view with a wider lens than the usual empathy for those effected. Yes, I watch these fires sobbing for that great land and the suffering befalling the Australian people and all those precious animals. But I also watch this news knowing that it signifies the future for the whole world. Then I wonder whether this catastrophe is waking people up. Well this article that Rob from New Zealand sent me this morning shows that, yes, people are starting to wake up, albeit only in New South Wales. Based on the news in the U.S, I don't notice that previously denying people in the U.S. have changed their awareness about climate change and what these fires mean globally. I have wondered for thirty years when people would start waking up about climate change. Bill McKibben wrote his first book (The End of Nature) predicting these times back in the 1970's. A few more books predicting climate catastrophes began to emerge after that. In the late 1980's while working as a writer for EastWest Journal I decided to write a review of two environmental books that were predicting a world on fire in the future. Of all the books I received at the time for review, these two jumped out at me so I wrote about them.Over the next thirty years I wondered what it would take for people to awaken to where we were headed. I never thought people would be so slow to wake up. I never thought people would need their own backyards to burn before they'd see the light. But apparently that is the way it works for many people. According to this article in the Sydney Morning Herald people in Eastern Australia are now waking up. Does this mean that awakening will happen only when climate catastrophes are in people's back yards? My thought is that it will take a critical mass of awakening to drown out the voices of denial. Once that happens work will begin in earnest to speed up sustainability. When I go to environmental meetings in my progressive town and hear plans for zero emissions by 2050, I shudder at how delayed that is. I look around the good people working hard to make change and wonder why people aren't in more of an emergency mode about this. I realize they have to deal with a lot of people, including our Republican governor, who live in denial.I'm thinking that 2030 will be the time of shift. The Great Turning, which is already happening in many circles and among progressives, will begin fully then. It's hard to be patient once you yourself wake up to this issue. But patience is one of the virtues I know I came here to learn.

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herondreams

(@herondreams)

Noble Member

Joined: 7 years ago

Posts: 183

01/20/2020 8:45 am

Another inspiring video that lays out the essence of this "Great Turning" we've been discussing on various threads. (Here with a fire metaphor.): https://nowthisnews.com/videos/news/naomi-klein-on-how-strongmen-leaders-perpetuate-the-climate-crisis

Jeanne Mayell, Tiger-n-Owl, Anonymous and 1 people reacted

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Jeanne Mayell

(@jeanne-mayell)

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Joined: 10 years ago

Posts: 7308

Topic starter 01/20/2020 7:35 pm

@herondreams Wonderful video, thank you! Naomi Klein is a powerful writer whose message is true. Hoping more people will watch this video and take it into your soul!

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Australian Fires -- Seminal Moment of Awakening?

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