One World

A new video featuring the ideas of Barack Obama: I love it because it takes us back to earth. The current global environmental crisis will only be ameliorated when we recognize that the politics of one nation against another will only continue to hurt all civilizations. The diversity of our languages symbolizes the creative diversity of our souls. Yet we are all one people living life with the same goals: food, safety and love of self, family, community, culture, landscape and life itself with all of its roaring colors rushing from the universe. How long will it take for people to break down the barriers of defensiveness that isolate us from one another? How long will it take before people recognize in the face of the other a shared destiny? How long will it take before we understand that the fate of our planet and the sanctity of life depends on a shared international focus on collectively taking care of our world? As a psychologist I know how greed, envy, anger, revenge, and all the other darknesses of humanity can infiltrate our psyches. I also know that the triumph of humanity is to be found in our abilitry to wrestle with this darkness, make it a part of us and evolve as integrated creatures who know how to use aggression on behalf of our common humanity, and the true human potential of life's majesty. We start, at home, on the ground by living in harmony with our ecosystems.

psychological sustainability?

I've been talking to some young people about their relationships to nature and to climate change. So far I've identified two groups of people. The first roup is very preoccupied with "fitting in" and being "mainstream" (as defined by popular media). The other group realizes that they aren't mainstream and never will be, and are trying to define who they are independently of media representations. Interesting. The mainstream group has spent much less time actively engaged with the environment. They also haven't been encumbered by the limitations that a sustainable planet would require. The non-mainstream group seems to have spent more time negotiating very rustic environments, and they have had some experience of selfhood separate from society. They have spent some time working with the limitations imposed by long stays in the wilderness.
Both groups long for more intimate contact with nature.
My point is that that psychological sustainability and ecological sustainability are linked: what is good for the person's mental health is good for the earth. We will have to address climate change in both spheres, changing how we live and changing our society. We are talking about the psychology of climate change. See Nikke Harre from New Zealand.
On Peoples' Minds: "There is no way I have any idea what to do about global warming, so I choose to ignore it. What difference can I make, anyway?" JS, a young man sitting in a bar.
"It doesn't concern me. I have everything I want, so why bother" BG, his friend.
In The News: Floursecent bulbs. Don't get me wrong - I use them but they are a complicated solution. Hard to use, harder to dispose of, but they do use less energy. Exactly my point. Changing technologies without changing the process of how we live often recycles the problems that lead to climate change.
My endorsement: I am going for Barack Obama because he gets it. In order to change the problems faced by our nation and this world, we can't simply substitute products. We have to change our process. Psychological sustainability is ecological sustainability, and yes we can do this. My experience is that most people secretly want this, but they afraid, hardened, cyncical and disappointed. I'm not, and neither is Obama.

Nature and Self

I have been doing research to investigate how a changed relationship to nature changes us, and what the ongoing impact of climate change will be on the human psyche. The journalist Richard Louv suggests that obesity, ADD and even bipolar illness can be traced to children's disengagement from nature. The more alienated we are from nature, the less sensitive are our relations with the planet. We abuse and hurt our ecosystem everyday because we no longer think about it as a living organism with which we are in a partnership. Although I love the "back to nature" concept, sometimes people are so unfamiliar with the wilderness and behave so harmfully, that one might think the earth fares far better when left alone than when inhabited by human guests. My family has discovered trash on the mountaintop, or laptop camping trip movies, complete with advertisements, obscuring the view of falling stars in the rural night ski.
What I am seeing is that young adults long for permission to live less materialistically, and seek opportunities to connect to long lost parts of themselves from which they have disconnected. As someone said in a recent interview, "You realize right away to stop caring about animals and to stop thinking about the outdoors. If you watch what our society does to animals, forests, open spaces, it is very clear that nature is like some kind of scapegoat for humanity. Staying open to that is just too painful." This responsive wistfulness comes up quite a bit. But I find that many people no longer know how to access or utilize those parts of themselves. Last night Barack Obama stated that people needed to turn off the TV and unplug the video games. I couldn't agree more, and am studying what I call the vicious cycle - or the triangle of concern - between the unbalanced use and acquistion of resources, people and the earth.

On Peoples' Minds: "How do you go hiking without a car?" overheard outside a Manhattan bar.
"I've never been on a hike, a walk, camping --- nothing. But I like nature videos." A Manhattan high school student.

In the News: People can't heal an earth they barely know, or understand a nature they barely experience. In fact, the more people are alienated, the easier it is to behave in a manner that causes more harm.