It's A Monumental Human Climate Crisis Not A Planetary Climate Crisis

By Jerome Irwin

25 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org

This is the real question that lies at the heart of the many crises in the world and why the upcoming Paris Climate Conference - and all the lofty goals, hopes and expectations yet to be drafted by well-meaning humans will remain, at day’s end, fraught with still so many more frustrations, acrimonies and failures in the future.

Fundamentally, the crisis is always one of humans not living within their means in harmony with the natural world around them because the nature of humans is hopelessly corrupted by the seven deadly sins of: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth; these sins perpetually at war with their antagonists to be found among the seven heavenly virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, faith, hope and charity (or love).

Obviously, on the massive scale the world now faces - with an out-of-control population explosion and an out-of-control neoliberal, fascist war of economic-political-military terror - unless the human nature of Homo sapiens is capable of radical, quick change, which it hasn’t ever shown any demonstrable signs of doing since its inception, nothing fundamentally will reduce either the human climate crisis or planetary climate crisis. So, unless and until some remarkable balance or homeostasis somehow is achieved between these seven sins and virtues, the Hell on Earth we’ve made for ourselves will simply continue to escalate.
As the 2015 Climate Conference prepares to convene in Paris, the French government’s decision to ban civil society protests, marches and other open-air public meetings and gatherings around the conference is a reflection of what constantly lies behind the catastrophe of the human climate crisis and its parallels in the natural world of Planet Earth. As some of the world’s best and greatest thinkers will be prevented from convening to discuss the source and solution to so many perplexing human dilemmas and impasses, the real core question that should be addressed is exactly whose values will be given the greatest precedence in the increasingly anarchic and elitist worlds in which our human race simultaneously finds itself enmeshed.

Whether the ever-mounting human climate crises continues to manifest through horrific events like: the Paris Tragedy of November 13th; the Syrian Civil War; mass exodus of displaced Middle Eastern peoples, or; the world’s endless War of Terror; Life Will Go On As It Must. The question, though, is how life will go on in the future? Will it simply reflect the same corrupt elitist set of fascist values, morals and political priorities that have virtually brought the world to its knees?

The physical outer world is always simply a mirrored reflection of the inner spiritual world of things. Mounting planetary climate change is simply an extension of escalating human climatic conditions that only ever seem to change in the degree of intensity and amount of violence that is perpetrated against the earth or humanity, whether this means the form taken: by a monstrous civil war; a political harangue that argues against raising the minimum wage of workers, irrespective of how much obscenely more their CEO counterparts may make or; corporate monsters like Monsanto, Pfizer, Lockheed Martin or Raytheon, to name but a few; or rogue countries like Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United States and hosts of unnamed others who constantly destroy the welfare and well-being of the planet and humans alike.

A new all-encapsulating word must be found for the human tongue that can adequately communicate the real dimensions of this violent climatic crisis that, once spoken, as if by magic, will finally cause the penny to drop and bring about the much-needed 180 degree sea change turn in the affairs of the human species and its tiny planetary home hurtling through endless unchartered space.

Jerome Irwin, North Vancouver, B.C. Canada
[email protected]