CHAPTER 01: Earth is on Fire! But Not Hot Enough to Act!
In chapter one, I discuss that the earth is on fire and that climate change is inevitable. But, it appears as if it is not hot enough for the establishment to get away from 'business as usual'. It is not that all on earth are blind to the truth and that we are living in an age of the stupid. It is more that we live in times of greed and grief. The enormous greed of a small group of rich and powerful continue to drag the rest of us through great grief and their action will have devastating long term consequences on all of us.
(from pg 30) ..... " In 1995 I had to travel to New Delhi in India to speak at a conference called ‘Large Dams and Sustainable Development’. The conference was organized in protest against the construction of the Tehri Dam and in support of the peoples’ movement campaigning against it. When I arrived at the Arabindo Ashram guest house around midnight, the weather was unusually hot. The room did not have any air-conditioning and the fan did not help cool the room at all. When I opened the tap and down came a shower of hot water which could not in any way cool my body. Then when I got into bed, it felt as if I was lying on a hot plate. I felt I had walked into an oven, and it was a terrible feeling. The only place that could provide some comfort was out on the balcony, and that was where I finally spent the night. I soon came to realize that I was experiencing a heat wave, and the temperature was well over 40°C, having come down from around 50°C. I was advised to take lot of liquids to keep my body cool and avoid dehydration. I was experiencing a heat wave that had killed over five hundred people in Delhi. It was also an experience to see how the poor people survived the heat wave without any or much assistance from the government. They were already accustomed to the extreme weather conditions in Delhi and adapted to the high temperatures themselves as usual. Life for them has very little choices; in any case, the heat wave was only another suffering to live with. The Indian experience was not an isolated incident. During the same time a heat wave struck Chicago which led to approximately 600 deaths over a period of five days. That was the time when climate change had begun to announce its emergence, or at least when the world started accepting it as a phenomenon. ....."
(from pg 33) ..... "Mind power is sadly used today by many across the society for the wrong reasons or for non-worthy causes. The corporate trainers or the so called human potential development guru’s now provide attractive step by step recipes for business executives and companies to conquer both natural and human resources. These recipes are a way to achieve what they call success, winning or achievement. Sadly the idea of these exercises is to enhance the human potential for exploitation required to increase the bottom-line performance or profit."
In chapter one, I discuss that the earth is on fire and that climate change is inevitable. But, it appears as if it is not hot enough for the establishment to get away from 'business as usual'. It is not that all on earth are blind to the truth and that we are living in an age of the stupid. It is more that we live in times of greed and grief. The enormous greed of a small group of rich and powerful continue to drag the rest of us through great grief and their action will have devastating long term consequences on all of us.
(from pg 30) ..... " In 1995 I had to travel to New Delhi in India to speak at a conference called ‘Large Dams and Sustainable Development’. The conference was organized in protest against the construction of the Tehri Dam and in support of the peoples’ movement campaigning against it. When I arrived at the Arabindo Ashram guest house around midnight, the weather was unusually hot. The room did not have any air-conditioning and the fan did not help cool the room at all. When I opened the tap and down came a shower of hot water which could not in any way cool my body. Then when I got into bed, it felt as if I was lying on a hot plate. I felt I had walked into an oven, and it was a terrible feeling. The only place that could provide some comfort was out on the balcony, and that was where I finally spent the night. I soon came to realize that I was experiencing a heat wave, and the temperature was well over 40°C, having come down from around 50°C. I was advised to take lot of liquids to keep my body cool and avoid dehydration. I was experiencing a heat wave that had killed over five hundred people in Delhi. It was also an experience to see how the poor people survived the heat wave without any or much assistance from the government. They were already accustomed to the extreme weather conditions in Delhi and adapted to the high temperatures themselves as usual. Life for them has very little choices; in any case, the heat wave was only another suffering to live with. The Indian experience was not an isolated incident. During the same time a heat wave struck Chicago which led to approximately 600 deaths over a period of five days. That was the time when climate change had begun to announce its emergence, or at least when the world started accepting it as a phenomenon. ....."
(from pg 33) ..... "Mind power is sadly used today by many across the society for the wrong reasons or for non-worthy causes. The corporate trainers or the so called human potential development guru’s now provide attractive step by step recipes for business executives and companies to conquer both natural and human resources. These recipes are a way to achieve what they call success, winning or achievement. Sadly the idea of these exercises is to enhance the human potential for exploitation required to increase the bottom-line performance or profit."
(from pg 39) .... Today media has become one of the biggest obstacles to get people in the rich and developed societies to change their over consuming and environmentally destructive consumerist lifestyles. They in fact have taken over the role as catalyst for promoting consumerism in the developing countries where the emerging consumerist markets are the most profitable. Media has also helped their governments to keep away from making commitments towards saving an ailing earth and a suffering society.
(from pg 41) ..... "Even though the earth’s surface, atmosphere and the oceans have started warming, it appears that it is not hot enough for the establishment to get away from ‘business as usual’. It is not that all on earth are blind to the truth and that we are living in an ‘age of the stupid’. It is more that we live in times of the greedy wanting to be in power. A small group of rich and powerful countries, companies and people continue to drag the rest of us through great grief and a dangerous destiny that would have devastating long term consequences for all. But, the establishment is still convinced that growth, capital accumulation and development could provide answers for the survival of the people who really matter on earth. People who matter are a very few and they control the earth. They consume most of the resources, control the trade and capital, and decide what is best for all of us on earth. The rest of us, especially the half of the world that lives in poverty, is insignificant in the global decision making."
(from pg 41) .... "Yes, it is a scary thought! And that is why poverty is maintained on earth. The rich wants to keep the poor, as poor; then they can continue their lives of mindless and limitless consumption. But the consumer power shift realities on earth are warming-up, as much as global warming. Will the warming of the globe make us to act with more responsibility? If the crashing of the global economic structures, increasing heat waves across the world, high frequency of flash floods and other natural disasters, and the violent wars across the regions cannot instil an adequate urgency for us to act, then obviously we are waiting for a real hot enough disaster to hit earth and mankind. Are we waiting for such a global natural disaster to wake us up to create a world of truly united nations? ..."
