Earth Principle
14/02/2008
- Opinión
Never has there been so much talk about the Earth as in recent years. It is as if the Earth had just been discovered. Human beings have made innumerable discoveries: indigenous peoples hidden in remote jungles, new natural beings, distant lands and whole continents. But the Earth, herself, was never an object of discovery. We had to go beyond the Earth, and see her from afar, before we were able to discover her as Earth, and our Common Home.
That began in the '60s with the space flights. The astronauts revealed to us images never before seen. They used moving expressions, such as "the Earth looks like a Christmas tree hung on the blue canvass of the universe", "she is very beautiful, shining, blue and white", "she fits in the palm of my hand and I can cover her with my thumb." Others had feelings of veneration and gratitude; and prayed. All returned with a renewed love for the good old Earth, Our Mother.
These images of the terrestrial globe seen from space, broadcast daily by television stations from all over the world, elicit in us a feeling of sacredness and are creating a new state of consciousness. From the astronauts' perspective, from the cosmos, Earth and Humanity form a single entity. We not only live on Earth, we are the Earth herself, which feels, thinks, loves, dreams, venerates and cares.
But a grave threat has been proclaimed lately, befalling the totality of our Earth. Data published from February 2nd to November 17, 2007, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organ of the UN, together with the recent impasses in Bali, show us that we have already entered the phase of global warming that brings abrupt and irreversible changes. The warming can vary from 1.4 to 6 degrees centigrade, depending on the region of the Earth. The climate changes are anthropic in their origins, this is to say, their main cause is the human being that has given life to a savage industrial process.
If nothing is done, we will confront the worst possibilities, and millions of human beings will vanish from the planet.
Since we have irresponsibly destroyed, now we must urgently regenerate. The salvation of the Earth will not come from heaven. It will be the fruit of a new co-responsibility and of renewed care by the whole human family.
Given this new situation, the Earth has in fact become the obscure and principal object of human love and care. It is not the physical center of the universe as ancient people thought, but it has become of late the affective center of humanity. We only have this planet. From here we gaze out at the whole universe. Here we work, we love, we cry, we hope, we dream, and we venerate. Starting from the Earth, we make the great voyage to the great beyond.
We are slowly discovering the supreme importance of securing the survival of planet Earth and guaranteeing the ecological and spiritual conditions for the fulfillment of the human species and perpetuation of the community of life.
It is because of this new consciousness that we speak of the Earth-principle. It is the cornerstone of a new radicalism. All knowledge, every institution, all religions and every person must think about this question: What can I do to preserve the common motherland and guarantee her future, given that she has been under construction for 4,300 million years and deserves to continue in existence?
Because we are Earth, for us there will be no heaven, without Earth.
(Free translation from the Spanish provided by Melina Alfaro. Done a Refugio del Rio Grande, Texas).
That began in the '60s with the space flights. The astronauts revealed to us images never before seen. They used moving expressions, such as "the Earth looks like a Christmas tree hung on the blue canvass of the universe", "she is very beautiful, shining, blue and white", "she fits in the palm of my hand and I can cover her with my thumb." Others had feelings of veneration and gratitude; and prayed. All returned with a renewed love for the good old Earth, Our Mother.
These images of the terrestrial globe seen from space, broadcast daily by television stations from all over the world, elicit in us a feeling of sacredness and are creating a new state of consciousness. From the astronauts' perspective, from the cosmos, Earth and Humanity form a single entity. We not only live on Earth, we are the Earth herself, which feels, thinks, loves, dreams, venerates and cares.
But a grave threat has been proclaimed lately, befalling the totality of our Earth. Data published from February 2nd to November 17, 2007, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organ of the UN, together with the recent impasses in Bali, show us that we have already entered the phase of global warming that brings abrupt and irreversible changes. The warming can vary from 1.4 to 6 degrees centigrade, depending on the region of the Earth. The climate changes are anthropic in their origins, this is to say, their main cause is the human being that has given life to a savage industrial process.
If nothing is done, we will confront the worst possibilities, and millions of human beings will vanish from the planet.
Since we have irresponsibly destroyed, now we must urgently regenerate. The salvation of the Earth will not come from heaven. It will be the fruit of a new co-responsibility and of renewed care by the whole human family.
Given this new situation, the Earth has in fact become the obscure and principal object of human love and care. It is not the physical center of the universe as ancient people thought, but it has become of late the affective center of humanity. We only have this planet. From here we gaze out at the whole universe. Here we work, we love, we cry, we hope, we dream, and we venerate. Starting from the Earth, we make the great voyage to the great beyond.
We are slowly discovering the supreme importance of securing the survival of planet Earth and guaranteeing the ecological and spiritual conditions for the fulfillment of the human species and perpetuation of the community of life.
It is because of this new consciousness that we speak of the Earth-principle. It is the cornerstone of a new radicalism. All knowledge, every institution, all religions and every person must think about this question: What can I do to preserve the common motherland and guarantee her future, given that she has been under construction for 4,300 million years and deserves to continue in existence?
Because we are Earth, for us there will be no heaven, without Earth.
(Free translation from the Spanish provided by Melina Alfaro. Done a Refugio del Rio Grande, Texas).
https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/127748
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