Enlightening Climate Change Reading Pt. 2

The previous posts line of thinking is inspired by Naomi Klein’s interview with Leanne Simpson. She doesn’t speak scientific facts. She speaks from the heart and from a natural perspective undisturbed by mass media or scientific jargon. Indigenous people often approach climate change in the same light because they are far more in tune with the earth than we, who are more concerned with man-made instruments such as smartphones and laptops. The Samsung Note 7 faulty battery debacle has instigated deep emotional responses from those that previously owned the phone. However, when attempting to initiate a conversation on climate change, some of you may be guilty of yawning. Science does not stir feelings. Poignant writing, on the other hand, has the power to do so. 

Pala Molisa is specifically blunt as he states “… right now, we’re about 1.5 degrees above baseline. Most scientists would agree that if we go to 2 degrees above baseline, most complex life on the planet will die. We’re gone. Humanity – as a species – we’re gone.”

Leanne Simpson speaks compellingly of alternative modes of combatting climate change and refers to colonialism as a cause of the environmental issue, “Colonial thought brought us climate change. We need a new approach because the environmental movement has been fighting climate change for more than two decades and we’re not seeing the change we need. I think groups like Defenders of the Land and the Indigenous Environmental Network hold a lot of answers for the mainstream environmental movement because they are talking about large-scale transformation. If we are not, as peoples of the earth, willing to counter colonialism, we have no hope of surviving climate change. Individual choices aren’t going to get us out of this mess. We need a systemic change. Manulani Aluli Meyer was just in Peterborough—she’s a Hawaiian scholar and activist—and she was talking about punctuated transformation. A punctuated transformation [means] we don’t have time to do the whole steps and time shift, it’s got to be much quicker than that.”

A very real understanding of climate change is developed not from scientific facts but from genuine human expression. Drawing attention to these kinds of writings and opinions will hopefully incite change, whether changes in behaviour or change in perspective , it inspires change within a person. This is what the earth needs of us, to alter our physical ways by altering our mindsets. In doing so, the denialist cause will lessen as global acceptance takes its place. 

Image:

http://www.6seconds.org/2013/04/22/climate-change-emotional-intelligence/