Shifting Collective Indifference Towards Climate Change

Effects of Climate Change are Unpredictable & Potentially Devastating

It’s well-accepted amongst scientists that humans are pumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than would be there if we hadn’t entered the industrial age around 1750 AD. These gases are trapping heat in the atmosphere and creating a rise in the average global temperature. No one knows for sure what the effects this rise will have on the climate and the resources we depend on. However, a recent Nature article posits that the predicted worst-case consequences of climate change are actually the more likely outcomes compared to moderate, less-catastrophic scenarios.

Definitions of Success Driving the Collective Indifference

While reading the article I saw the energy behind the collective indifference towards climate change. Humanity’s vision of success is being defined and carried out in ways that are built on false premises. As a result, humanity is progressing at the expense of the very resources that its foundation is built on. This situation is symbolically described by the Tower card in tarot.The Tower, which depicts shocking, unexpected collapse, can be interpreted as “any experience that shakes the foundation of your current sense of security and/or forces you to question your strongly-held beliefs, perceptions, attitudes and behaviors.”

A Wake-Up Call to Examine the Effects of Materialism

The Tower is a wake-up call to examine the potential consequences of continuing to live as separate from the earth. Our culture predominantly seeks fulfillment through the consumption of material goods. While material things are not bad in themselves, the viewpoint that acquiring things bring happiness or fulfillment is a false premise. The way we are living, based on valuing materialism, is both preventing us from seeing what is truly fulfilling and is creating pollution and wastes that are wreaking havoc on the earth systems that we depend on for our physical survival and economic well-being.The cultural failure to see humans as part of the earth has resulted in a one-way, dead-end approach to living on the earth. Resources are extracted from the earth from point 1 and waste products that are toxic, inert, and dead are deposited forever at point 2. An alternative option is a circular model, like an Ouroboros, where renewable energy reigns and resources are extracted in ways where wastes fuel future extractions. In this model, actions do not lead to dead ends, but rather allow one apparent ending to become a new beginning.

Changing What We Value as a Collective

As is encoded in the Tower tarot card, the day will come when the false premises are revealed. This false premise must be acknowledged and dealt with or denied and ignored. With acceptance, drastic changes must be made. Though they may bring what feels like a painful loss at the time, such changes are necessary for building true success on a firm foundation. If one chooses to deny the false premise, disaster is imminent. The power of the moment is in choosing which way this change will be experienced: in willing surrender and with grace, or in resistance and with dramatic upheaval?

Dream a New Dream for Humans & Earth

It is my hope that you will be inspired to create a deeper practice of honoring yourself as part of the Earth and of asking the Earth how YOU and how WE can shift our attitudes, values and actions to create a more beautiful image of our future (and our present). I ask you to deliberately and consciously dream a new dream of harmony and care, and to use your intuition and creative manifestation techniques to tune in to different possibilities. Ask your Earth mother and all her earth creations, “How can we dream a different dream? What does it look like? How are we living? What can we do now to plant the seeds of this new vision?” And listen. And act.By coming to the collective realization that our entire way of life is based on false premises, humanity can change. For in the end, the Earth will still be here, but it is our choice what will become of the amazing creatures of consciousness known as human beings.