Why Sustainability is not a specialized sport

Everyone tells me to specialize. All that I read about blogging tells me to specialize. And to all of that I say, sorry. Some rules are just made to try and break.

Here's my reasoning. As our planet itself is teaching us, things we never thought to be so are interdependent. We're finding connections and causality and relationships across the board. We're learning that when we do things that result in pollution, climate change, resource depletion, species extinction, and more, we trigger a cascade of events. Because it's all connected. We are all connected.

So along comes a sustainability movement encompassing all sorts of actions--some personal, some business related, some governmental, some spiritually driven. And guess what? They are all interdependent!

There you go. I write here to help us find our eConsciousness. To see how we can put it to good use. To see how and why others chose to do the same. And how can we accomplish this if we aren't willing to learn from each other? I want to create a place where the business-minded, the scientific, the spiritualist, the artist, the public servant and all come to travel together. I'm just here to connect the dots.

That's why I won't--or can't--specialize.

Enough of that. I want to leave you with a piece that I discovered a while back that puts a little more substance into the interdependence notion. It's beautifully written. And I thank David Suzuki, Canada's renowned environmentalist/scientist for it. Happy reading...

Declaration of Interdependence...

This We Know

We are the earth, through the plants and animals that nourish us.

We are the rains and the oceans that flow through our veins.

We are the breath of the forests of the land, and the plants of the sea.

We are human animals, related to all other life as descendants of the firstborn cell.

We share with these kin a common history, written in our genes.

We share a common present, filled with uncertainty.

And we share a common future, as yet untold.

We humans are but one of thirty million species weaving the thin layer of life enveloping the world.

The stability of communities of living things depends upon this diversity.

Linked in that web, we are interconnected -- using, cleansing, sharing and replenishing the fundamental elements of life.

Our home, planet Earth, is finite; all life shares its resources and the energy from the sun, and therefore has limits to growth.

For the first time, we have touched those limits.

When we compromise the air, the water, the soil and the variety of life, we steal from the endless future to serve the fleeting present.

This We Believe

Humans have become so numerous and our tools so powerful that we have driven fellow creatures to extinction, dammed the great rivers, torn down ancient forests, poisoned the earth, rain and wind, and ripped holes in the sky.

Our science has brought pain as well as joy; our comfort is paid for by the suffering of millions.

We are learning from our mistakes, we are mourning our vanished kin, and we now build a new politics of hope.

We respect and uphold the absolute need for clean air, water and soil.

We see that economic activities that benefit the few while shrinking the inheritance of many are wrong.

And since environmental degradation erodes biological capital forever, full ecological and social cost must enter all equations of development.

We are one brief generation in the long march of time; the future is not ours to erase.

So where knowledge is limited, we will remember all those who will walk after us, and err on the side of caution.

This We Resolve

All this that we know and believe must now become the foundation of the way we live.

At this turning point in our relationship with Earth, we work for an evolution: from dominance to partnership; from fragmentation to connection; from insecurity, to interdependence.

Comments

[Emma Rogers]

Hi Larry,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I've had some free time recently and have finally had the chance to thoroughly check out your blog. Carlie often tells me about it, but now I've seen it for myself. This piece is beautifully humbling. I love what you're doing and find it truly educational and inspirational. I'm hooked!

Here's a link to the Dept. of Energy Global Change Education Program page I've been frequenting: http://www.atmos.anl.gov/GCEP/ Under "Mentors" are listed scientists and blurbs about their research. Since I'm into climate change science on the ecosystem level (talk about interconnectedness!) the "terrestrial carbon cycling and ecosystems research" people really get me excited. Most of the atmosphere type work is too technical for me to understand.

Anyhow, keep up the great work--I feel my eConsciousness rising!

Emma

[LG]

Emma:

Nice to hear from you, and encouraging to know that parts of this effort are reaching the 'science minded'. What you're doing sounds very inspiring, and the DOE site is fascinating--though a bit over my head. Even so, I've always found that the breadth of sustainability work being done across disciplines--from architecture to art, science to sustainable business, statistics to spirituality--is what's going to pull us through the challenges we face. Keep up the good work, and keep us all posted on the insights and understandings you and your colleagues are bringing to light.

LG