The urgent quest for wide-scale adoption of solutions to the existential threat posed by climate change continues to be elusive. In spite of climate summits, dramatic appeals by world leaders and scientific reports citing our perilous and fragile condition, inaction and stalemate continue to hamper the kind of progress that must be made to reverse the runaway impacts of carbon emissions on our biosphere. Could there be another approach to this crisis facing humankind?
The 14th century in Europe was a period in history with a striking resemblance to what we are experiencing in the world today. It was a turbulent, challenging time with the pandemic of Black Death ravaging the continent, tribalism and religious orthodoxy leading to political polarization, conflict and violence. Civilization itself was being put to the test. The Renaissance, a miraculous "rebirth" of humanity that emerged in that era, inspired Europeans to rediscover and embrace the essence and beauty of life. Civilization had a "reboot" that set us on a course that redefined everything, laying the groundwork for humanism and the age of Enlightenment. With climate change threatening to render our planet uninhabitable for our species in a matter of mere decades, it seems clear that nothing short of a "New Renaissance" - a complete reset of how we are thinking, feeling and reacting to this threat - will be enough to ensure our survival.
Gus Speth, Co-Founder of NRDC, said it quite well. "The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy. To deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation, and we scientists don't know how to do that." The impediments to such a transformation are daunting. The fossil fuel industry has leveraged their formidable resources to obfuscate the issue, ensure political support with unlimited donations deemed "free speech", while deploying endless efforts to dull, distract and deflect the senses of the general public away from any possible acceptance of the hard science of climate change and the threat it poses to us all.
History has shown us, repeatedly, that it is only through the collective will of the public, inspired by visionary leadership, that genuine, fundamental change takes place in society. It is not for lack of effort, or will, or the explanation of indisputable facts to overcome the falsehoods that has failed us so far. It is the articulation of a unifying principle that resonates within the heart and soul of every human on Earth that is missing. Empirical data, reports, charts, graphs, lectures with deeply emotional appeals have just not worked. What will?
The remarkable explosion of culture, art, and humanistic philosophies during the European Renaissance did not emerge as a spontaneous event. It was a meticulously designed initiative, cultivated and inspired in large part by numerous visionaries such as Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and many others. Ficino, appointed by Cosimo de Medici as the head of the Florentine Academy, was the first translator of Plato's complete works and the Corpus Hermeticum into Latin. This legendary philosopher brilliantly articulated a reinterpretation of humanity, guided by Neoplatonic Metaphysics and an entirely bold, new vision of what it meant to be alive. Individuals were now seen as free to shape their own destinies, liberated from the theological and political constraints of the age. This revolutionary concept of human autonomy had far-reaching effects on civilization from the birth of the age of enlightenment to the scientific revolution. Plato's Demiurge, a marriage of esoteric wisdom, creative divinity grounded in a transcendent intellect, the heart of his metaphysics, unique to each and every person on earth, was the model for the Renaissance understanding of man. It was a transformative moment for humanity. What could possibly be done to redefine our place, our role, our purpose here on Earth today?
Children decades ago spent an average of six to eight hours a day outside, watching tadpoles magically transform into frogs, climbing trees, chasing butterflies, stargazing, being awed by rainbows in the sky, captivated by the magic of nature. Today, it averages less than half of that as our entire society has been hijacked by the black mirror of technology. Billions of dollars are invested today in the "Holy Grail" of entertainment vehicles the "Metaverse" all part of the breathless anticipation of an impending "Singularity" whose prime directive is bypassing the transitory physical world for the excitement and joyful engagement of augmented and virtual reality. Imaginary worlds and dazzling entertainment vehicles are being crafted drawing in the public, marching towards oblivion, increasingly isolated from the real world, which is in great peril.
What if there was a seismic shift, a repurposing of this financial juggernaut into a life raft for humanity? Imagine what could happen if the skills and resources dedicated to the scope, scale and reach of the "Metaverse" in entertainment and media presented a very different world view? Naà ¯ve, delusional? Look at the facts; something dramatic must be done, now. It is time to call upon the entertainment and social media giants to redirect their business models to engage and embrace the real world, the complex, brilliant, fascinating web of life that surrounds us. There is a mycelium network that allows trees to communicate as a community, nurturing and protecting one another; a human-level intelligence and communication was recently discovered in fungi whose biological weathering is the foundation of all life, the majesty of Earth as a self-regulating, vastly complex organism, the many creatures and threads of life within it that are in peril. To simply open our eyes and experience the dynamic wonder of the living Earth will propel humanity forward at a time where such an evolution is essential. We have our Ficinos, our Mirandelos and Brunos in James Lovelock, Lynn Margulis, Arne Naess, William Irwin Thompson, Robert Thurman, Indigenous elders and Shaman with ancient knowledge and so many others who will graciously lend their limitless wisdom in guiding such an enterprise, inspiring the public, reestablishing that link we had as a species for millennia with our world around us. Once we reconnect, the damage we are inflicting on our home will be seen and experienced as intolerable. Political action can and will follow when citizens begin demanding real change to take the necessary corrective actions.
Artificial Intelligence is reductionist, in spite of the breathless anticipation of a singularity unifying all consciousness in a programmable reality. This is, in fact, the ultimate dystopia, tearing the soul and its limitless capacity for creation and unity away from the physical body, seen as a temporal vessel for what technology envisions is an optimal life. If myth is the repository of compressed knowledge and wisdom of the ages, singularity is a fossilized artificial abstraction that will never comprehend or be even close to replicating the totality of being. We need to abandon this misguided trend for the sake of our future.
We need a "Manhattan Project" level of urgency and commitment to this concept to solve the problem, this time not for the creation of atomic weapons, the most destructive force ever seen by humankind, but rather an explosion of passionate love for our planet, a "Great Awakening" calling upon all healers of the Earth, drawing upon the divine frenzy that inspires poets, artists and dreamers, a "New Renaissance" for humanity. There is hope; we can do this.
