Planet Project

Reports such as this one from the U.N. last week ( U.N. Emissions Gap Report 2022 ) that the progress towards meeting carbon emission pledges has been "woefully inadequate" seem to elicit one of two responses:

The first is an eye-rolling here-we-go-again skepticism on the part of those who view the world through the cynical lens of would-be statism populated by alarmist scientists with their new-age religion. Proponents of that view might cite none other than David Wallace-Wells, author of the NYT opinion piece that was the focus of our MM 7/17/17 The Uninhabitable Earth discussion some five years ago, as that article’s author now notes that events in the last few years "provide arguments for both buoyant optimism . . . . " while they overlook the ". . . and abject despair" part that completes the author's sentence. One need not look far to see the wolf frisking the door even now.

Then there's the "we're doomed" contingent opting out altogether from any meaningful engagement as they calculate the day of possible reckoning to be beyond their normal lifespan and, in an ultimate expression of egocentricity, see the whole matter as a problem for posterity even as they rhetorically ask what has posterity done for them.

Enter, then, the Planet Project as its founding member (and club affiliate) Roger Briggs helps us work through a true evolution of consciousness that would underlie a culture of environmental stewardship. Given that the mind can be a wonderful servant but a terrible master, may we be open to a relearning exercise in order to allow certain fundamentals to reemerge from an acculturation having perhaps gone somewhat sideways

Among the matters to be "relearned" is the dilemma known as the Tragedy of the Commons, so straightforward as to be almost self-evident i.e. the exploitation of any limited resource by individual parties in furtherance of maximizing their own self-interest, which collectively serve to deplete or even exhaust said resource to the ultimate detriment of all.

If all that sounds overly-intellectual, consider watching the short clip What is the tragedy of the commons? - Nicholas Amendolare - YouTube and apply it to anything that represents a finite limit, from fish in a pond (the YouTube example) to virtually any component of the climate itself. Only then can we truly appreciate the simple message captured in the twenty one-minute The Story Of Stuff Project, what all of us of a certain age might better have been exposed to in our formative years than spending all of our time reading The Adventures Of Dick and Jane.

The whole notion of a planetary consciousness -- connectedness and wholeness; relationships and cooperation; partnership and empowerment; service and community; sustainability and wellbeing; planetary identity; an all-in-this-together mentality -- may sound daunting if only because the consciousness in question is a groundedness that is dispersed from the bottom up i.e. among the masses.

Yet, that very feature might make it the ideal subject for the application of the tool we just discussed i.e. MM 10/31/22 The Network Community. So let us come together with Roger (with the support of Beau Rezendes) as our “lead participant” to discuss the lofty ambition of the Planet Project (previously linked) and to perhaps suggest ways in which a network community might further this selfless effort.