Radical Noesis - Thinking outside the box

Then we have the strange series of hurricanes ... Katrina, Rita, and now Wilma. Each of them bizarre in their own way, but of the six most intense storms ever recorded in the Atlantic three of them are this year. It is not a fluke and if folks are holding their breath for the rest of this hurricane season, you can bet a whole lot more are praying about next year.

We live on one world, and we are not being good guests. The ecology of life is not constrained to bounded areas, but interacts in complex ways with all life. Certainly the basis of that life is the ocean. That is why the die off of the krill should make everyone sit up and take notice.

The krill is a keystone species of invertebrate that forms part of the base of the ocean food chain. Species of whales, sharks, seals, and others depend on it for life. If the krill goes, so go the other species and the fragile web of life in the ocean starts to unravel. If the oceans dies (and the loss of the krill is not the only threat), then the rest of the planet will soon follow. What is killing the krill is the warming ocean temperatures in the Antarctic.

At the other end of the planet - the Arctic - both species and " ways of life" are threatened. The Native peoples of the Arctic are watching their ability to survive die with the melting ice. Mammals starve, fish dwindle, birds disappear. The permafrost melts and hunters are trapped on breaking ice. The very land is disappearing from under their feet. Some would think that it is well past time these peoples "join the modern world," but cultures are not so hardy. Nor is a peoples' identity likely to survive the test of time when forced to leave the land of their ancestors.

While the rest of the life of the planet cannot fight in court, the people's of the Arctic can, and have. The Inuit have charged the United States for climate change and environmental destruction. What damages might they be awarded (should they win) that could compensate for the destruction of their land and way of life? Could they possibly for a change in the policies of the United States? Unlikely, but I honor their fight to bring the issue to the world.

The earth is screaming for us to take a different path than the one we are on. In killing or mortally wounding it, we ultimately kill ourselves. Nature cannot be ultimately "subdued" to the hand of man, and ongoing attempts to do so, or to disregard the balance of life, is a road we tread at our peril.