By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

U.S. Says: Just Live with Impending Disaster

Hold on, hold on to yourselves,
for this is gonna to hurt like hell.
-- Sara McLachlan

Hold on to what is good
even if it is
a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe
even if it is
a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do
even if it is
a long way from here.
Hold on to life even when
it is easier letting go.
Hold on to my hand even when
I have gone away from you.
-- Nancy Wood

The Bush administration's Environmental Protection Agency released a report last week, quietly and without any fanfare, acknowledging that global warming not only exists, but that it has us on a path to certain disaster. The EPA even offered a solution - get used to it.

Global warming has dried many small streams across the United States. (Two photos courtesy USDA)

But how is it possible for so many greed based individuals to exist without any concern for the Earth's life support systems and our very future?

Is it possible for such a profound disconnection from the natural world, the cycles of life, and the rhythms of nature to be created in an individual over the course of just one generation? Or are there deeper reasons for this disconnection that may have occurred long ago?

Once we were, as a people, more aware and more connected to nature. Morris Berman may have described it best in his book "The Reenchantment of the Earth." He said, "The cosmos, in short, was a place of belonging. A member of this cosmos was not an alienated observer of it but a direct participant in its drama."

Many scholars believe that we ceased being direct participants in the drama of nature a long time ago, as long as 7,000 to 10,000 years ago, when humans stopped their nomadic existence and began settling in large groups and, eventually, in cities.

Many mindsets were formed during this period, and a new relationship with nature became firmly entrenched in our culture. Nature became the provider of resources, the wild land to be tamed, and the prize to be owned.

Some people maintain their connection to the land today. On a Salinas Valley, California organic farm, horticulturist Eric Brennan harvests a bundle of a late summer rye.

Around 5000 BC, the invention of the metal plow literally changed the face of the Earth for all time. Crop productivity increased, irrigation assisted agriculture began, and families began producing more food than they needed. The excess food had to be stored and sold.

The population began to increase because of the larger supply of food. Women began breastfeeding less, since they had to spend more time in food production. People cleared increasingly larger areas of land and began to control and shape the surface of the Earth to suit their needs.

The domestication of animals changed forever our relationship with the other life forms on this planet.

Author Chellis Glendinning says that the relationship with the natural world changed from one of "respect for and participation in its elliptical wholeness to one of detachment, management, control, and finally domination." She feels that the domestication of animals and the transformation of our earthly neighbors into food resources created a condition where the human psyche maintains itself in a constant "state of chronic traumatic stress."

Urbanization began as people began to settle around the large farms they created. Specialized occupations and long distance trade developed. The trade in food and manufactured goods made possible by agricultural based urban societies created wealth and the need for a managerial class to regulate the distribution of goods, services and land. Separation of people by economic class was now firmly in place.

As ownership of land and water rights became a valuable economic resource, conflict increased. Armies and war leaders rose to power and took over large areas of land. A new class of powerless people, the slaves, minorities, and landless peasants, were forced to the hard, disagreeable work of producing food.

Gardeners make space for cultivated crops. (Photo credit unknown)

The massive land clearing altered many habitats and hastened many species to their extinction. Machines that could harness energy by burning fossil fuels increased the average energy resource use per person. The number of people needed to produce food was decreased, so our connection to the land through the growing of food was steadily eliminated.

Our eating habits, our living habits, the way we treat animals, the way we let technology into our lives, and the way we take in our information about the world dramatically affects our connection to the planet and to ourselves.

Even the technological choices we have made are determined by cultural forces in play at the time. The steam engine is an interesting example of this. A working steam engine was created around the time of the birth of Christ by Hero of Alexandria 18 centuries before James Watt, the recognized inventor of the steam engine, built his. No one was very interested, though, since slaves were already doing the job. It wasn't until slavery was outlawed in England in the 18th century that the need for such a device attracted investors.

Our disconnected ways are firmly entrenched in society and even our birthing and child rearing practices continue this tragedy. Unnecessary Caesarian births are at an all time high.

The most recent statistics from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicate that only 21 percent of infants are being exclusively breastfed for four months. This percentage drops to 16 percent by six months of age. More and more parents send their children to daycare, denying them the comfort, security, and connections that can only come from being with a parent.

Few children are allowed to become comfortable with nature, and parents are quick to scold them for tracking dirt (precious earth) into the house. Bugs are killed on sight, and most children grow up fearing nature.

We have many obstacles to overcome if we are to reestablish ourselves as dynamic participants in the natural world. But it can be done - it must be done.

It is unacceptable to, as the EPA recommends, just live with the environmental disasters we are creating. This lack of action means death to our planet and our souls. That path is not about living - it is about dying.

RESOURCES

1. Studying the theories on the origins of our disconnection can help find the paths toward healing. Some of them include: Chellis Glendinning, Ph.D., "My Name is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization," Kirkpatrick Sale, "Dwellers in the Land," and Fritjof Capra, "The Turning Point."

2. Explore gentle birthing options at the Birthing from Within website at: http://www.birthpower.com/

3. Read more perspectives on the source of our disconnection at: http://www.island.net/~jscull/separate.htm

4. David Satcher, MD, former Surgeon General of the U.S., released a report a couple of years ago about the importance of breastfeeding. Read about it at: http://www.4women.gov/Breastfeeding/bf.cfm?page=233

5. Learn about a set of parenting techniques that fosters connection rather than disconnection from Attachment Parenting International at: http://www.attachmentparenting.org/

6. Read more about U.S. breastfeeding statistics at: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/new/releases/breast_fed.cfm

7. Read more about the EPA's climate change report from ENS at: http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-05-06.asp

8. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Tell them President Bush's agenda must be grounded by reality. If they don't work to protect the future, there may not be one. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html

{Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle and the author of ""Healing Our World", A Journey from the Darkness Into the Light," available at: http://www.xlibris.com/HealingOurWorld.html or your local bookstore. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at: jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at: http://www.healingourworld.com}