SENTIENT TIMES February/March 06
Editor's Note
Deborah Mokma
It may be that the only folks left on the planet who doubt the experts who say we are facing a global crisis of climate change and dwindling resources are the Bush administration—which recently tried to stop the top NASA climate scientist, James E. Hansen, from calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming—and ExxonMobil, whose profits for 2005 were $36.13 billion, the largest ever recorded in the history of American capitalism.
There are many exciting new technologies which can help us replace and reduce our use of hydrocarbon fuels—wind power, hybrid vehicles, solar cells, solar thermal, geothermal, small-scale hydro, biomass, and light rail to name just a few. Western Europe now has 40 million people getting residential electricity from wind farms and projects that by 2020 half of the region’s population of 195 million people will get their electricity from wind.
Also vital to solving this crisis will be the acceptance of the fact that we cannot replace our current energy use with new technologies, we must establish ways to use less energy overall. Essential to this is the concept of “re-localization.” Bill McKibben (page 17) suggests that the changes necessary for a healthy future “… involve communities learning to fend more powerfully for themselves—communities ratcheting down their dependence on the overstretched and oil-dependent lines of supply that mark a globalized economy, and ratcheting up the semiforgotten, close-to-home economies that might prove more stable in an energy-starved world. … not just a collection of unrelated individuals living in a vast planetary economy, but a real community in a real place filled with people who depend on one another in real ways.”
The phrase “Another world is possible,” which originated at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, is being used by more and more people who believe in it’s promise. You will find it in a few of the articles in this issue as well—a common thread which appeared synchronistically, as is so often the case in these pages. Historian Gar Alperovitz chose those words as the title for his article (page 6) and explains “In almost every era of American history, the ideas, experiments, programs, and organizing that ultimately fueled major society-wide reform were developed first at the state and local levels … Not surprisingly, in case after case, ordinary citizens have taken the lead in developing these new strategies, because they often represent the only way to solve real-world problems in the face of national-level failure.”
Even Chevron—whose profits for 2005 were $14.1 billion, the highest in their 126-year history—in an ad in a recent issue of The New Yorker, admits we are facing unsustainable levels of petroleum use and that “Technological improvements are needed so that wind, solar and hydrogen can be more viable parts of the energy equation … Consumers must demand, and be willing to pay for, some of these solutions, while practicing conservation efforts of their own. Inaction is not an option. But if everyone works together, we can balance this equation.”
All of this points in the direction of each of us doing everything possible to address the situation at hand—which should include demanding that companies like Exxon and Chevron invest some of their billions in profit into developing renewable energy technologies.
I believe
this message from the elders of the Hopi nation eloquently describes our
current times:
You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you
must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are
things to be considered ...
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.
See who is
in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take
nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do,
our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the
ones we’ve been waiting for.
SENTIENT TIMES
PO Box 1330 Ashland, OR 97520
PHONE (541) 512-1084 • FAX (541) 512-1085
dmokma@jeffnet.org
