Cultivating a Shared Language

Who Speaks for Earth?

There are more ideas today than ever before. In terms of creation—this is one of the most creative moments in history. By leaving no-stone left untouched, we understand more today than ever about Earth and our place in the Universe. In tune, as active participants in the modern age, many of us are concerned—we understand the challenges now present in the 21 Century when it comes to preserving the quality of life on Earth—How can we work together?

In the Race to Zero, there will be no silver-bullet. As we are now well into February 2022, the stakes are high—we have just eight-more-years to meet the first of many ambitious goals: halving global emissions by 2030.

Is this even possible? 

. . .

One of the greatest challenges we face today in accelerating our decarbonization goals is in crafting a new narrative, one that invites local citizens far-and-wide to become more actively engaged in redirecting our prolonged human adventure and discovery on Planet Earth towards recovery and regeneration. Focusing through the lens of a just transition, we are all in this transition together—and there are currently 7.8 billion of us alive today. The goal moving forward must  ignite and inspire a co-creative chain-reaction that is both robust and open to change. How exciting!

All around the world people are becoming more aware of the challenges confronting the current status quo: climate change, projected sea-level rise, pollution, depleted resources, species extinction, social unrest, rising inequalities—the list goes on-and-on. The circular economy is emerging as a viable framework for a more vibrant future-economy.

There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come!

As zero-waste circular economists, we have it in our power to redesign every-thing our modern economy has to offer. If we can find a way to work together we could accelerate the transformation of our current global industrial ecology into the next great industrial revolution—a global circular economy.

How Exciting!

Of course, this is easier said than done, finding that sweet-spot, that shared language is of the utmost importance. We must find a way to work together.

. . .

Personal Note: I’ve worked many jobs in my life. Mostly, I’ve been self-employed. As of today, I am six months into selling fasteners and hardware to builders, artists, and engineers. It’s not my dream job, but we are all working towards that. I will say this, these last six-months have really opened my mind to the complexities of the human experience. Builders build and maintain our local built environments, and there are many ways in which we as a society and culture perceive the world—including our place in the universe. The long haul of a full-time job offers little time for the pursuit of “other” activities. When it comes to broadening our global perspective, many are hinged to the up-to-date news in mass, others avoid it like the plague. It is unfortunate that politics and religion divide us while the real world unites us:

Within the working class, there is a shared and undivided language beyond all other ideals: we all crave more time with family and friends. We look forward to vacation, and time to unwind away from the daily grind. Our free-time is very sacred and hard to come by. We are all in awe of a beautiful day—clean air to breathe, healthy rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans, healthy forests, deserts, mountains, and abundant wildlife, and our love for our pets—this is our universal bond. Crafting a new narrative is more than just a buzzword—it is the gateway leading us all into the next great human adventure.

Let’s take a moment to reflect:

Who Speaks for Earth                                           ~Carl Sagan (1980)

”…the civilization now in jeopardy is all humanity. As the ancient mythmakers knew, we’re children equally of the Earth and the sky. In our tenure on this planet we’ve accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage: propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders. All of which puts our survival in some doubt. But we’ve also acquired compassion for others, love for our children, a desire to learn from history and experience, and a great, soaring, passionate intelligence—the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity. 

Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain, particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small part of the small planet Earth. But up there, in the cosmos, an inescapable perspective awaits. National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatic ethnic or religious or national identifications are a little difficult to support when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent, fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.

“There are not yet obvious signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, and this makes us wonder whether civilizations like ours rush inevitably, headlong, to self-destruction. I dream about it. And sometimes they’re bad dreams.”

To be continued…