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Maybe climate change isn’t what they say it is. Hear me out.
The perspective on climate change by many right now goes something along the lines of this:
“Oh no, we humans are causing so much destruction that the earth is dying. We are doomed! The earth is going to shit. Oh bad humans, we are so bad, we caused all of this to happen and now everything is going to die”
You get the point.
It holds the human at the center of the whole world and her processes.
It sees the earth as an inanimate rock that is the victim of our behaviours. That is lifeless and devoid of any say in the matter.
So I’m here to propose a different perspective.
Maybe the phenomena that we are noticing unfolding upon the earth, the greater ecological shifts that are taking place, what we call climate change, is a natural progression of the earth. A shifting and melting into a new epoch, as has been done many many times before, far more than we could ever know. It is kind of a constant state for the earth, an evolution that is sometimes faster and more dramatic, other times slower, steadier. It is the process of the earth's continued transformation from one era to another. It is the cause and effect of creatures dwelling upon her grounds that act as the impetus for her change. It is LIFE, that is in a constant state of metamorphosis. Never still. Never the exact same thing for too long. What we are witnessing is this process. It is not the earth dying, but moulting. It is not doomsday, but a new expression of life. This idea of the earth as a living being that transforms is not really included in the discussion.
And so I feel this story of climate change we tell ourselves is missing one very crucial piece. The living intelligence of the earth.
The earth is not some passive death thing. She is a soulful organism that is always readjusting beneath our feet. Breathing through the porous lungs of her soil. Listening through the roots of the trees. Watching through the eyes of her creatures. You know what though? This really is not even a “new age” way of thinking. It is the older way. The ancient way. The traditional worldview. The way our ancestors knew the world before this illusion of separation. THIS way of thinking and knowing life was the tradition of all people in every part of the world. The earth as alive. Infused with spirit.
In Native American tradition, there is a creation story of the world as we know it being built upon the shell of a turtle. When you believe that the world is held atop the sturdy form of a creature you know and hold sacred, it serves as a visually rich metaphor for how the people are dwelling upon the body of a living creature. It invites people to remember that truth. To stay centred in it, as story is such a potent way to keep wisdom alive through each generation. A being that moves through their own shifts, that asks for care and respect. It changes the way one views the land from inanimate to an ancient ancestor that is the lifeblood of your own survival. Who without, your world could not exist.
Things upon the terrain of this magnanimous creature are always in flux, and perhaps, this is her once again shifting into a new era. Those changes happen slowly through our eyes. Because we are only here for what to her is a blink of an eye. It is changes that happen throughout time that is far beyond our comprehension. She is in fact, much older than we are within our human forms. She is the creator of all that exists here. She holds the perspectives of hundreds of millions of earths upon these grounds. She has been so many different things that it’s hard to count them all. She has moved through such drastic ecological shifts that as we look at them we are left in awe and wonder at how life could have ever possibly continued. Yet it has.
I propose that this transformation that climate change is a part of is divinely orchestrated. It is within the intelligence of the earth that is choosing how and when those shifts may come to pass. Perhaps humans are merely a cog in the wheels that turn to have this come to be. A catalyst for another reshaping.
There are others that say climate change isn’t real. Well, it depends on what they mean. Is our climate within each micro system as well as the greater global climate looking drastically different from how it did even just 50 years ago, yes. The last remnants of the ice age are still leaving us, as we shift slowly into something new that we cannot fully grasp yet. For it is not known to us. These epochs are not like a line drawn in the sand where one stops and another begins. As though life can really be compartmentalized in the ways humans desire. In actuality, they bleed in and out of each out, one lingering deep into the next. One arriving within the presence of another. It is entirely fluid and ALIVE.
Yet, is this a bad thing? Is the world being destroyed by us humans? Is life as we know it over?
In my humble opinion, yes and no. Again, I call upon the almighty intelligence of the earth. The profoundly ancient and eternally wise spirit that is this land. This reasoning that moves far beyond us. When we remove humans from the center of these greater working that we don’t even completely understand and instead place *gasp* the earth, we see a very different story.
One that weaves intentionality. Purpose. Of the first law of life that is change. Nothing stays the same forever, not even this seemingly still ground we walk upon. The earth is moving at her own pace. Her own drum beats and it is us that follow, not the other way around. We are her children, not her leaders.
Humans have a weird thing they do these days of doomsday-ing everything as though because it is taking place, life is over. They stock their shelves with extra toilet paper and line their cabinets with dozens of canned foods. They build underground bunkers just to survive, no matter the cost, no matter the condition of life. It is rooted in fear of death. And all that is brought through those dark ghostly hands. I wrote about our relationship with death in this post, it is an interesting thing to witness.
Now yes, perhaps life as we know it is being destroyed. As I have explored before in this publication, destruction is not innately evil. It serves the processes of transformation that are life’s footsteps. It serves to clear what doesn’t serve anymore to make space for what is to come. Humans’ role in that is initiating changes at a faster rate. Accelerating the process. Life as we know it being over also isn’t a bad thing. It may actually be necessary. Maybe to humans, it invokes fear, for we are faced with the potential of our own demise and extinction and tremble at the thought. OUR life as we know it may be over, but the earth endures. The land continues. Whether we are here or not, the spiral unfolds *Just a humbling reminder*. Yet humans do still have their place in it all. This is our home. We are children of the earth. It is simply the natural progression of things to die for the space of others. And maybe if we stopped looking at the earth like this helpless empty thing we need to save, to instead ~ our lifeblood, our mother, most respected ELDER, our actions would change to mimic that energy.
Feel into this.
Humble children within the presence of their loving elder that cares and provides for them.
The heroes who need to save the world. The adult who needs to protect their pet.
Very different energetics.
The first one nurtures an innate desire to live in reciprocity with the land. Knowing we don’t have a life without our harmonious connection with all things around us. The second one feeds the ego and a human tendency to be a martyr, it dismisses acts of violence toward the earth and paints a picture of the earth as a soulless, inert thing.
There is also the disturbing argument that humans are parasites upon the earth. Which, to be honest, I find really sad. We too are not these innately evil-doers whose sole mission is to destroy without purpose. Beings who do not belong here. Yes, evil things happen. Yet I most definitely would not place the actions of a few to the greater global family who for the most part are simply living their lives in the best ways they can. We are made with the bones of the earth, and maybe it’s not about just getting rid of the humans, but asking ourselves, how can we weave ourselves as a part of the earth once again?
Does the earth suffer? Maybe so, I am not here to deny and dismiss the very real turmoil that has befallen her grounds. The things that humans have done. Clearcutting her once lush strands of hair and poisoning the blood that flows through her veins. There is such deep grief here for all that is happening that is rooted in unimaginable disrespect and complete disregard for LIFE. Bones shiver at the thought and hearts cry out for the pain that has taken place.
AND yet, she endures. She evolves. She sees we are here and knows the greater picture for the purpose of this unfolding. The wise one. She holds unimaginable resiliency and almighty strength. She has the capacity to recover from what we see as total annihilation.
Perhaps climate change isn’t what they say it is.
Maybe it’s another story of the earth. One that speaks of transformation. Hear it within the winds that blow from the frosty north to reach your ears. Tales told by the trees from deep within the ground. Hear it in the roaring waters. All are limbs of her body. They feel the transformation taking place. They accept. It is the way of things. One must adapt. Not force a thing to stay the same. Not try and keep it to their liking. But adapt.
I am reminded of her presence every time I walk through parks with beautifully branching trees, every time I see a plant blooming through cracks in concrete. Every time I walk along wild hedge trails. Many people say our wild places are gone, that life is dying. But when I actually come back to the land, she tells me something different. She laughs through her fragrant flowers and dances through the breeze. She sings her creation songs through the bugs and the bees. She is alive. WE are alive. She rejoices for all those who come back to sit at her feet. She rejoices.
Praise the earth and her humble strength. She is our temple. She is the body of God. May we remember our true place upon her grounds.
You speak my language, Marija. I have not tried to address climate change yet and may share your writing instead for the time being.
My perspective might be slightly different in that I'm less sure that the warming climate is part of a divine plan, and I think it may indeed be a consequence of separation and domination that will cause a great deal of unnecessary suffering for our own and other species. Yet, at the same time, it will be woven into the great pattern of creation of the living Earth just as any other cataclysm or disruption, and ultimately it will bring life and stories into being that would not have otherwise been created, and then (as with the ice ages or the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs and gave rise to the age of mammals) it will be impossible to judge goodness or badness from the perspective of the far future. Like it or not, we are participants in the dance of creation, and we did not set out to warm the planet maliciously, even in our separation. A lot of the "humans are parasites" perspective seems to be an inversion of the paradigm that dominion over Earth is good, instead asserting that any change we create is evil.
I don't think it is good or evil. It just is, and we must adapt and live with the consequences, and we might well yet choose to stop putting so much carbon into the air. But we are not doomed, we are not being judged by an angry Earth or an angry God, and we do not need to confess our guilt or repent our sins before we can step away from separation into a more harmonious existence.
You might be interested in one of my first Dendroica Project essays, that speaks to similar ideas: https://dendroica.substack.com/p/a-letter-from-earth
I appreciate that you have questioned the narrative that links climate change with human behavior while also pointing toward recognition of earth as more than a source of material resources to be coveted. While many relate to her through her elements, I feel a connection with the being for whom the planet is a physical embodiment. My wife is one able to open such that the consciousness of the earth can speak through her. In 2008 these words were part of a longer message:
"I am shifting frequency. Have you not noticed that things are warming up? I am shifting, and therefore you are shifting with me as I am shifting with you, and it is collaborative. You came in to be transformers, therefore you have taken on a role of coming into the density and transforming the density while simultaneously I have been transforming and shifting frequency, as well. So, we together are doing a great deal of work. It takes a lot of energy, and it generates heat. You would not have chosen to be here had you not been able to to work with this planetary body of mine to also assist your own embodiment."
"This process of warming and effects will continue. It is not something that I can stop, and neither can you. But, it is transformational as well. The process will bring people, nations, and cultures together, and there will be a greater and greater awareness of choices that can be made and will be made that will embrace the greater whole rather than keeping only a few people’s good or wealth in mind."
For anyone interested I will add the link to a website offering legacy material from our interactions with this great being.
As for the climate change narrative I give little credence to media stories we are fed and follow numerous competent sources capable of puncturing most every inflated or fearful claim made by MSM.
I look forward to reading your future articles.
Chris
https://gaiaterra.org/