Punching Back

It has been a sobering summer weatherwise.  Fires in Canada and Washington State  have produced smoke that’s covered much of the country.   Some fires are still not extinguished.   Tornadoes are also coming at an alarming rate and hitting states outside what had been called “tornado alley.”

While some areas of the earth are ravaged by floods, others are in drought.  Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have become regular worries, making us wonder where they will strike next.  Then there are the heat waves that are making some parts of our country nearly impossible to inhabit.   And the oceans keep rising.     

If it feels like Nature is attacking us, I’d say, “That’s exactly right.”  Nature or, if you prefer, climate, is sending a clear message that it’s no longer willing to be ignored. 

The Trump Administration tapped into the feelings of many Americans in ignoring  climate change as a topic that no longer demands our attention.  It’s convenient to ask, “What climate change?” when politicians are, in the main, ignoring the problem. 

But guess what?  The climate we’re ignoring isn’t taking our abuse of it lying down.  Nature is punching back and is hitting humanity hard. 

The underlying fallacy that we and other developed countries have bought into is that human beings, or at least citizens of our privileged developed countries, are somehow separated from nature; in a way, we pretend that we are above it.  This fosters the illusion that we can control nature or overcome nature’s . . . well, natural state. 

What else explains the massive cities that continue to sprout up over our western desert states?  No water available?   No problem.  We’ll just dam river systems.  Again, guess what?  Those cities are running out of available water.  Reservoirs are at record low depths. 

Here is a truth not often discussed but is a truth becoming now impossible to ignore.  That truth is that there is a finite amount of fresh water in the world.  Scientists can’t make more.  I repeat: we can’t make more.  Desalination efforts, the plan to convert salt water to fresh water, are proving too costly. 

Consequently, as global population increases and the demand for fresh water increases with it, the supply stays the same but will feel more and more like it is shrinking.  Some forecasters warn that the scarcity of fresh water will likely trigger future wars.

At the other end of the spectrum from water, fires are becoming increasingly deadly.  As winters become warmer and drier, forest fires from one season lie sleeping, not extinguished, ready to flare up again the next season.  Fire is also changing, getting hotter and more difficult to deal with.   

The fact is that we humans aren’t above nature.  We are in it.  And here is the good news.  Nature has produced cultures over human history that have always understood that survival depends on living in harmony with nature. 

I’m referring to Indigenous cultures, cultures that more developed countries have  routinely conquered and even, at times, tried to wipe out.  Most of us see these cultures, such as Native North and South American Indigenous societies, as backward, with their wisdom not worth our attention. 

If we would listen to Nature instead of trying to control it for our comfort, we might see that the survival of our planet will depend on recovering the wisdom of Indigenous societies.  I am reminded of an ancient saying found in the Bible:  “The stone that the builders rejected will become the chief cornerstone.”