I find myself, lately, in a mood of despair about the future of our species. We humans, as a whole, have still not grasped the seriousness of the situation we have created for ourselves.

Since the early 19th century, we have used our highly evolved brains to invent and construct industrial tools with which we have polluted our environment to the extent that increasingly large areas of the earth are now becoming extremely dangerous for, or uninhabitable by, humans, either because of extreme heat, flood, drought, or sea level rise, which threatens coastal habitats around the world.

The extreme weather events of the past few years — heat waves, floods, wildfires, and drought — have been cruel wake-ups, for at least some of us, to what we have done to our environment, and to ourselves.

But as I think about that fact — the fact that the vast majority of us are unable or unwilling to take in the seriousness of our situation — it begins to make sense to me. The one thing that I think most of us have taken for granted is the stability of our home — planet Earth — and thus the continuation of human life on Earth.

Everything else in our experience changes: All living things are born and die; we experience all sorts of changes in life; the weather changes, seasons change, but the basic context of our lives, the physical world we live in, is perceived as constant and unchangeable. In a way, it’s the only absolute security and certainty we’ve had. But we don’t have that security anymore, and how hard it is for us humans to take that in!

Just as a sense of security develops in an infant that the primary caretaker — usually the mother — will always be there, I think we humans believe that “Mother Earth” will always be there; we don’t call her that for no reason. And it’s reasonable to assume that considering the possible loss of that security would give rise to feelings of anxiety, fear, and helplessness. Better not think about it.

But my mood of despair about the human “race,” as we call ourselves, has another source. For reasons I don’t quite understand, I have recently become much more aware of the depths to which we humans can sink, in our capacity for boundless cruelty to each other, our indifference to the suffering of others, our desperate pursuit of personal gain at the expense of the safety and well-being of others; in other words, of the power of greed as a motivator of human behavior.

A very relevant current example of the latter is the actions of the captains of the fossil fuel industry. These people have known for decades what their industry is doing to our planet, and its effect on humans and other living creatures, but they have not only continued on their polluting and despoiling course, but have made serious efforts to mislead the public about the dangerous effects of their actions.

But then, I remind myself, on the other hand, there are now millions of people around the world, and several government bodies, who have woken up to the reality of what we are doing to our Mother Earth and are committing time and energy to addressing the challenge of climate change and attempting to wake others up to the emergency situation that we are in.

I’m thinking, for example, of both regional, national and international organizations, including The Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion, Indivisible, 350.org, the Sierra Club, The Climate Mobilization, Elders Climate Action, and many others. Many of these groups were established and are run by young people who fear, understandably, for their own futures and that of their current or future children.

They organize protests, civil disobedience actions, occupations at fossil fuel sites, and many other types of action, to call attention to the crimes against humanity that are being committed by the industry. They also lobby state and federal legislators to enact legislation to control the damage being done to our earth. There are local chapters of these climate activist organizations all over the country.

So where does all that leave me, at this moment? It sounds like I could take heart, and hope, from the knowledge that there are many people out there, both young and old, across this country and abroad, who are working to raise awareness of the crisis we are in and to effect change in our response to it. And I am one of them, having worked for several years now with a local organization here in western Massachusetts, called Climate Action Now, which has, among other things, helped to persuade the Massachusetts Legislature to pass bills addressing the need for preventing further damage to the environment and preparing for addressing the damage already in process.

There is a passage in one of the ancient Hebrew scriptures that presents the concept of “tikkun olam,” which means “healing the world.” This passage instructs us that it is not incumbent upon us to heal the world by ourself, but only to do “our own small part.” I’d like to learn to be at peace with that, with doing my “own small part,” and with looking ahead to more and more people doing their own small part in healing the world.

Sylvia Staub lives in South Hadley.]]>