I am acutely aware that aside from being human I am part of the universe and, like everything else, I consist of matter that was created in the universe after the Big Bang. I am sure that when my life is finished the compounds of my body will disperse and become part of something else.
As humans we are not so special. Aside from being 99.9 percent similar to each other, we also are similar to other non-humans genetically — 94 percent similar to dogs, 60 percent to fruit flies, and we share only slightly less than 60 percent of our genes with bananas.
We are not so important in the big scheme of things, yet we are capable of making enough changes to the environment to threaten the existence of our offspring.
Many in the animal kingdom, whom we consider more ignorant than us — including insects like ants, termites and bees — display amazing self-sacrifice to protect and provide the best care and future survival of their offspring. But not us. Why?
Gwynne Dyer in his Saturday Weekender column, COP28 and climate science, wrote “we will almost certainly cross some tipping points . . . . We have to stay below them at all costs . . .” But we continue emitting greenhouse gases in record quantities. And I add, we consider our species to be more intelligent than ants, bees and termites — yet in this, we show we’re not.
Back in the 12th century, Saint Francis of Assisi called all creatures, including rocks and trees, his brothers and sisters. He was aware of the connection of everything to everything, from the smallest of worms to Brother Sun and Sister Moon. Nine hundred years ago, living in a civilized community, he was on to it. (The world’s indigenous peoples, including Māori, knew as well — reflected in the Māori word “kaitiakitanga”.)
In 1219 during the height of the Crusades — the bitter religious war between Muslims and Christians — St Francis risked his life in an attempt to bring peace. By crossing enemy lines to talk peace, he was heard with respect. The fear that Islam was the impacable enemy of Christendom was conquered.
This was one of the greatest humanitarian acts in the history of warfare. Our survival depends on learning from events like this.
The world is full of populism (new right fascism) now. We’ve seen it in the USA, Brazil, India, Turkey, Argentina, Ecuador, South Africa, Mexico, Mozambique, Myanmar and the Philippines. Traces of it may exist here in New Zealand/Aotearoa as well.
I could hardly believe it when on Sunday I heard RNZ radio announce our nation hadn’t joined more than 100 countries in signing up for a tripling of renewable energy globally to combat climate change.
It fitted with last week’s Stuff article on expectations the National, ACT and NZ First coalition Government would hit the brakes on climate and environmental action. Also, I read that new Climate Change Minister Simon Watts and his predecessor James Shaw will arrive in Dubai for the closing days of COP28 — but will they be able to release those brakes I wonder?
Here is an even longer-term view of the future. Long after all life on this planet is extinct, our Sun will balloon up in size to engulf our Earth. We already consist of cosmic matter and will still exist in some other form. With everything else, it will be dispersed afar . . . eventually some of it may belong to something even more intelligent than ourselves.
Nothing lasts forever. Here’s hoping.
