Summary:
With research and insight, Charles Eisenstein details how the quantification of the natural world leads to a lack of integration and our “fight” mentality. With an entire chapter unpacking the climate change denier’s point of view, he advocates for expanding our exclusive focus on carbon emissions to see the broader picture beyond our short-sighted and incomplete approach. The rivers, forests, and creatures of the natural and material world are sacred and valuable in their own right—not simply for carbon credits or preventing the extinction of one species versus another. After all, when you ask someone why they first became an environmentalist, they’re likely to point to the river they played in, the ocean they visited, the wild animals they observed, or the trees they climbed when they were a kid. This refocusing away from impending catastrophe and our inevitable doom cultivates meaningful emotional and psychological connections and provides real, actionable steps to caring for the earth. Freeing ourselves from a war mentality and seeing the bigger picture of how everything from prison reform to saving the whales can contribute to our planetary ecological health, we resist reflexive postures of solution and blame and reach toward the deep place where commitment lives.
Personal Notes:
Charles Eisenstein critically reflects about what science entails in the western contemporary world and what kinds of science we are missing and leaving behind when we choose some scientific ideas over others. His all encompassing, earth-forward view allows one to step outside their own biases and perceptions and learn about behavioral psychology, physics, biology and philosophy.
Eisenstein is an excellent author to reference in my research, for his worldview reflections on life on earth and relationships between different beings. He brings forth reflections about life on earth and the future of the planet in its relationship to past, present and future human actions.
Reference: Eisenstein, C. Climate: A New Story. (2018). North Atlantic Books.
