An Open Letter to My Spiritual Colleagues: On “Spirit” and the Climate Emergency
When I was a little girl, growing up in Eugene, Oregon in the 1970’s, I had two dreams that were so impactful, I remember them clearly to this day.
In one, the mass of people on Earth were starving, and clamoring for basic resources: water, food, supplies, medicine. They were represented by a gray, dusty, teeming mass of desperate people gathered around a rocket ship. The rocket ship was taking all the very wealthy people to another planet where they could somehow live with some resources. The whole scene was, as you can imagine, terribly sad and scary.
In the other dream, details of form were less clear, but everything resolved on a set of boulders placed in a circle that still exists at the elementary school I attended in Eugene as a child. In the dream, a light fog enveloped the boulders. I and a larger group of people had been engaged in some sort of epic, global, even universal battle.
This battle was “fought” on many planes — it was not just physical. It may not have been physical at all. It was spiritual and mental for sure. At the end of this dream, I found myself on these rocks of my childhood embraced by a feeling of tremendous love, and a “victory” that included all involved in the battle, on all sides. The feeling of that dream was one of the best feelings of my life.
I am writing this open letter to you, my spiritual friends and colleagues — in the “Three Principles” community, the Science of Mind/Centers for Spiritual Living community — and all spiritually deep religious communities everywhere not yet engaged with the climate crisis, because the time for either of these dreams to come true is now.
We are in the midst of a crisis of global proportions that may end most life on Earth as we know it — and will do so at current trajectory.
I understand that most of us are aware of what has traditionally been called “climate change.” If you think like I used to, “climate change” is a problem that is troubling and worrisome, but we still have time to fix.
By applying our spiritual understanding and reaching out to teach and share with populations across the globe, human consciousness will shift; then the creative, loving, insightful thinking that can solve all this will be released and Boom! Problem solved — or at least, eventually.
I still agree that the work of “lifting consciousness” toward compassion and understanding of our interconnectedness is essential. But the time of rapid planetary demise we vaguely understood would come somewhere in the distant future, maybe at the end of this century, is already here.
The damage done by a heating atmosphere and heating oceans is so far gone, we no longer have the luxury of “time” to lift human consciousness indirectly to resolve problems in the world of form. I suggest human consciousness is perhaps “high enough,” and, while our job is still to support human spiritual development, it is also time to tend to matters of form and saving life on Earth.
Our children and living grandchildren face life on a planet in which water will run dry or become salt in major cities, cities will be flooded and force mass evacuations, creating losses in housing and property values that will not be recovered, as well as millions of internal — not to mention international refugees and migrants.
Most of us have the privilege and luxury of delayed impact. In Alaska, Louisiana, Virginia, the Micronesian Islands, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and parts of India and Africa, social collapse is already underway. Sea life is also collapsing; thirty percent of coral reefs are now dead. The climate change-induced, increasingly erratic patterns of the global jet stream threaten the Earth’s “bread basket” in the U.S. Midwest as well as the global grain belt across the planet.
If this is something you have contemplated already and feel a deep inner peace and acceptance about, perhaps you can stop reading here. I do feel it is a valid response to accept all this and remain in peaceful non-action. But that acceptance, to be true, to be real, must include the current time frame for wide scale social collapse — now predicted at anywhere from two to thirty years from today.
In my experience, most people, including spiritually-minded and “evolved” people, go through strong emotions (grief, depression, anger, guilt, anxiety, overwhelm) when they truly face the facts of our situation. I am asking, if you feel strong enough, to look carefully at these facts now.* Our ship is sinking, beloved comrades, and if we continue to deny or minimize this basic fact, we will fail to respond appropriately at all levels.
Spirituality does not mean bad things do not happen, nor that we cannot use up the life-supporting resources of this finite planet. Spirituality only means we can respond from our deepest wisdom and promptings of spirit, no matter what the circumstances. Certainly, it does not mean burying our heads in the sand.
And Yet, I Still Believe …
Against the odds presented by scientists and well respected authors, journalists and academics, I still believe that by some miracle — assisted by spiritual and faith-based communities, including indigenous populations and those affected most by this crisis — we might aggregate the best ideas of humankind and Mother Earth’s own deep, deep wisdom, call upon our deepest reserves of courage, faith and vision, release old forms of thought like never before, and create new structures and forms of society that reflect our true and deepest values.
But this will not happen if we are not well informed, or deny the current crisis even exists, or turn away.
Beyond the climate and ecological crisis — encompassing what is now rightly called the “Sixth Mass Extinction of Species” — in countries around the world, a regression toward patriarchy, sexism, homophobia, violence against women and women’s equality (Turkey, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Russia) racism and condoned violence against people of color, suppression of actual democracy and free journalism is on the rise.
This trend includes the US, where a man whose very short reading list purportedly includes Hitler’s speeches and books is now President and in power, along with fossil fuel industry executives and fundamentalist Christians attempting to overturn legislation to reflect their own narrow, fearful interpretations of the Bible.
Let’s be clear: In the country once considered the “leader of the free world,” we have installed an infantile narcissist of the most dangerous dimensions. His climate denialism, and deep allegiance to “mammon” and the global fossil fuel industry can accurately and without hyperbole now be called genocidal.
I will try to keep this brief. I understand it’s no fun! And yet, as my spiritual colleagues, I trust and hope you, of all people, will be most able to truly look at the facts. Essentially, I — we, this Earth — need your help.
- The level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is the most ever in three million or more years. Despite our half-hearted efforts, last year, in 2018, we released more CO2 than ever before into Earth’s atmosphere. We are very close to the 1.5 degrees Celsius rise over pre-industrial levels that the UN has warned us not to exceed, or face widespread global catastrophe.
- The CO2 and Green House Gases (GHG’s) we have released into the atmosphere, and extra atmospheric heat have been absorbed to a great extent by the world’s oceans — estimates are 30 and up to 90 percent. There is a limit to how much the oceans can absorb before they begin to expel CO2 and other gases. This CO2 absorption has also caused the oceans to “acidify” and this creates a troubling chain of events in the oceanic web of life. Ocean warming, also, has hastened marine die off. The California coastline, for example, has lost an entire species of sea star (starfish) with a resulting cascade of impacts — explosion of sea urchins, loss of kelp beds (90 perecnt gone), abalone, etc.
- We are now losing 200 or more species per day, according to the World Wildlife Fund. This includes insects (in some parts of the world, 70 percent declines) and mammals (wild mammal “biomass” down nearly 80 percent). This has to do not just with the climate crisis, but with development, extraction, manufacturing and consumption, use of pesticides and etc. related to a growing population, and entrenched, old-fashioned-thinking industries, as well as an unchecked capitalist system.
- “Accelerating feedback loops” are now being triggered in the Arctic and the oceans, where the increasingly rapid melting of sea ice and snow is releasing carbon dioxide, methane and other GHG’s stored in the permafrost and Arctic lakes and seas. According to scientists, there is more CO2 and methane waiting to be released beneath the ice than we have released into the atmosphere already. Additionally, the loss of so much reflective, white snow and ice means a significant reduction of the “albedo effect,” which heretofore had reflected much of the sun’s heat back out into space.
I Would Prefer to Be Wrong, and This Is Not My Passion!
I will pay anyone a thousand bucks, maybe more :), if they can prove to me that I am overstating the case (without referencing studies funded directly or indirectly by the fossil fuel industry and/or the Heartland — “Heartless” — Institute). I would be so relieved!
People have smiled at me and thanked me for “doing this work for all of us” and have celebrated and compartmentalized my activism as my “passion.”
This is not my passion. My passions are gardening, hiking, writing, dancing, being engaged in community, sharing the “Three Principles,” and being with friends and family. I’d rather be doing anything else than contemplating and attempting to prevent a dystopian future for humanity and my children.
Our house is on fire. It is not my “passion,” nor certainly my sole responsibility to grab a fire extinguisher and try to put it out. Indeed, since this is a global conflagration, many millions of fire extinguishers will be needed.
What Are Our Chances?
Our worst-case planetary scenario is represented by University of Arizona Professor Guy McPherson (Near Term Human Extinction); next best would be the thoughtful and grounded analysis of University of Cumbria Professor Jem Bendell, in his widely respected and viral paper “Deep Adaptation,” (inevitable social collapse).
Along these lines, we can include the thoughtful, grounded and spiritually inclined author of The End of Ice, journalist Dahr Jamail, who claims with resignation that “billions will die,” while still counseling his audiences to “get quiet,” listen to Earth, move from that quiet place, and honor indigenous wisdom and leadership now.
Our best case scenario — still incredibly alarming — is represented by recent IPCC (the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports and Al Gore’s work, for example. Please note: the IPCC did not include non-linear feedback loops and their effect on temperatures in their most recent major report. Also, scientists who worked on the IPCC report say publicly and privately that this incredibly rigorous document is heavily influenced by global politics and neo-liberal, “endless growth” economics and therefore, overly conservative. This is shocking if you have read the report.(“Conservative” in this context actually means the opposite, that is: very, very risky.)
In short, we face a crisis of proportions humans have not yet faced in our history. This is simply the truth now. The only other comparisons might be the major World Wars, “little ice ages,” plagues or epidemics. Our response should be as swift, mobilized and dramatic as it would be to a World War.
What Does “Spirituality” Mean When We Face Global Collapse?
When the Germans were invading nearly all of Europe (or the Japanese, China) with profound ill will, would it have been “spiritual” to say: “Oh, this is not really happening?”
One might have said: “All will turn out for the best.” And perhaps, from one angle this was true. But was this true for the Jews and Gypsies and gays? Perhaps if more good and spiritually inclined people were willing to face the truth during Hitler’s rise to power, we might have avoided some of the horrors that followed.
Some colleagues have said to me that by speaking the facts with some alarm, I am “in resistance,” or “negative” or “dual.” Some 3P students say they’ve been hushed in 3P forums when they have asked about healing our relationship to the natural world. They have been told their concerns are “personal,” and therefore, possibly, unreal. … Others have proposed holding retreats on commercial cruise liners, for example, and accused me of having a “personal agenda” when I have protested such. (I do understand not everyone is clear about the facts around the crisis, but it behooves us now to become very clear.)
Flying to conferences is encouraged overall — without reference to alternative forms of transportation or even simple carbon offsets. Workshops and retreats on growing business, expanding one’s coaching practice, and/or personal prosperity offered by innocent, wonderful and well-meaning practitioners, seem increasingly irrelevant and strange to me.
While these offerings may still be necessary, perhaps it is time to contemplate global scarcity and abundance thinking instead.
In general, I have not seen my deeply beloved spiritual communities respond with any level of appropriate action or public statements at all.
All of this is a terrible blow and insult to the children and young people of this world who face a planet in accelerating decline and who, like Greta Thunberg, are rising up for their very lives. When Thunberg asks us to “panic,” she does not mean for us to run around like crazy people. She means we must look carefully at the facts and science and act like people who truly understand what is happening now. People who can help.
“I want you to panic. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.” — 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, Nobel Prize nominee and inspiration behind “Fridays for Future” global youth school strikes, ongoing
We all care so very much about young people. Can we look past our own generally comfortable lives and fears in order to protect the very boat upon which they attempt to sail into their lives?
I am in touch with so many youth and young adults who feel incredibly frightened and anxious at this time. For them, calm references to spiritual truths in an attempt to placate what some may see as “unfounded” anxiety ring hollow.
Unless the spiritual practitioner herself has faced the abyss of possible extinction we and our children and grandchildren now face, those who understand what is happening to our world cannot trust a pat “spiritual” response.
But if you have indeed come to peace with “the end of the world” as we know it, then you truly can help others to do the same. In fact, you are a very, very valuable and precious resource at this time. I am asking for more of us to step into this role.
Spiritual Positions on Climate and What You Can Do
The Buddhists have been mostly, and especially recently, very clear about the crisis we find ourselves in. Many Buddhist organizations have issued strong declarations of climate emergency, and vowed to be of assistance. Even Evangelical Christian groups have joined with climate campaigns like Citizens Climate Lobby. Just recently, the Dalai Lama issued a statement of support for Swedish youth activist and Nobel Prize nominee Greta Thunberg. The Pope has issued unequivocal statements and called meetings on climate with fossil fuel industry executives. The Co-counseling, or Re-evaluation Counseling movement has issued a strong and beautiful statement of service toward personal healing and helping radically and wholeheartedly with the climate crisis.
The world and its population of human beings will need our help and support as psychological and spiritual coaches, teachers and practitioners now, more than ever. Indeed, if we thought we faced a mental health crisis before today, be assured this will pale in comparison to what we will see as we continue at current trajectory without en masse action to try to reverse or mitigate this crisis.
Young people I know are deciding not to have children now, wondering if they should even go to college, feel afraid and anxious about the future, cannot sleep at night, and so forth.
Based on my research, solutions exist, though they now — at this late stage — entail global-scale changes, great sacrifices and restrictions on wanton consumerism and travel. They mean complete transformations of industry and the current, global capitalist system.
What we are missing is the social and political will needed to enact such broad scale reforms. As people who understand that happiness does not lie in wealth, power, consumer products nor even world travel, we can help.
It is time for all of us to wake up and speak out — if we are moved to — on some level, in big and even in small ways.
Here are some ways a spiritual practitioner could offer support now.
- Offer a certain amount of pro bono time to support ecological activists and change makers (Please contact me if you are willing).
- Talk with corporate clients, government officials and individual clients in leadership positions about the scope and nature of the crisis and encourage them to learn more; at the same time, of course, supporting their efforts toward discovering their innate wisdom around what to do, or stop doing.
- Consider the nature of your work, including corporate consulting work. Are you actually supporting companies to grow and develop in detriment to a livable Earth for your children, or grandchildren, humans and most species?
- Take time to reflect deeply. If you were to fully face the facts of our current economic system (endless growth on a finite planet. No true costs included in the extraction, manufacturing and disposal of products and resources), how would your work shift? How might you be able to leverage your leadership position with clients and others toward a survivable future?
- Consider locations and transportation, meals and lodging for conferences, retreats and trainings. Are there choices you can make that might better reflect our deep love for Earth and its beings?
- If we can “apply” spiritual principles to the corporate world, relationships, sports performance, addiction, corrections, schools, health and human services, we can certainly apply them to this planetary crisis. Panels and workshops on the climate crisis are fitting and very, very important now.
- Declare Climate Emergency. This is one of the best ways to move the dial on a global conversation about the state of crisis we are in. When large, well respected groups declare emergency, constituents take notice and many will eventually become active. After declaring, move forward as if we are in a state of emergency. Because we are.
For me, our last, best hope now rests in the movement of what the Three Principles community and the Centers for Spiritual Living community, as well some Buddhist and all Christian Science communities call the wisdom of Mind, or God — the Universal Intelligence — flowing through each one of us. We are called upon to “let go,” to move into the unknown, to bring compassionate and uber creative thinking to the fore as never before.
We are called upon to “let go,” to move into the unknown, to bring compassionate and uber creative thinking to the fore as never before.
People speak often of “listening to Earth” now, and we do this because Earth includes this deep intelligence, is in fact, along with the entire cosmology, an expression of that intelligence. Just as we each are.
I am open to your ideas about what spiritual grounding looks like now and how our spiritual energies and impulses may be helfpul. For me, I can see no other way forward other than to pray for deep guidance, to pray for courage and vision, compassion and love — and then to move with courage from the feeling and impulse that arises.
You can certainly throw each one of my suggestions out for the deeper calling of your own wisdom. I would encourage that. Above all, do not feel constrained by traditional roles and expectations of “being spiritual.”
Do not be constrained by any limitations on thinking at all. Now, more than any time, is the time for out-of-the-box, free form thinking that can help move us past our traditional and currently ecocidal ways of living and thinking and being.
We can offer the support for that. We know very well how to do that. We can engage in this ourselves.
I send you every blessing toward this effort.
Love,
Me
*I acknowledge that some people, from a personal mental health and well-being perspective, truly cannot look at the crisis at this time. I would not actually advise them to until and unless they feel stronger.
Please feel free to be in touch via my website at www. AmiChen.com. There, you will find my newly re-purposed coaching and consulting services, focused on helping those experiencing confusion and strong emotions around this crisis, as well as helping ordinary folks, organizations, schools, and change makers settle into wisdom and right action around this crisis. I offer some amount of pro-bono work, too, for climate and ecological activists who volunteer 20+ hours per week.
Resources:
Here are more faith community initiatives:
In the US: Interfaith Power and Light: A Religious Response to Global Warming
Buddhist Statement on the Climate Emergency
People of Faith Declare Climate Emergencies, (a website for how to do this) https://greenfaith.org/ClimateEmergency
https://www.audubon.org/news/what-faith-groups-are-doing-fight-climate-change
“Buddhists must awaken to the climate emergency,” in The Lion’s Roar. A similar analysis of “spiritual bypass,” the interplay between the world of form and the formless and the failure of some Buddhists to adequately acknowledge the climate and ecological crisis
Other, highly relevent readings:
Jem Bendell’s now viral academic paper, “Deep Adaptation,” a must read at this time for all concerned Earthlings. Bendell also maintains a very popular Facebook group called Positive Deep Adaptation, and an online forum for professionals to collaborate on best ways to move forward.
This very recent and excellent article in Vice is one of the most thorough analyses of Bendell’s premise (inevitable social collapse). Highly recommended as a sober and even somewhat hopeful reflection on where we are at. “The Collapse of Civilization May Have Already Begun.”
The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption, by Dahr Jamail
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, a book, film and program for transforming root-cause systems, Naomi Klein
“The Climate Mobilization Victory Plan,” prepared by The Climate Moblization, a blueprint for avoiding global catastrophe
Active Hope, a spiritual approach to the climate crisis as well as a book, Joanna Macy
No One is Too Small to Make a Difference, Greta Thunberg
This is Not a Drill, Roger Hallam, co-founder, Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion Regenerative Culture webpage
The Parent’s Guide to Climate Revolution, Mary DeMocker
