The other side of drowning

The imperative today to sustain global ecological health or risk worldwide catastrophe in the form of resource wars, global warming, drought, and massive species extinction has become an inescapable fact of modern international discourse.

" But we are made of other ingredients too, heavier elements in lesser quantities, folded into our flesh like gold or rubies hidden in the earth. We are 3.2% nitrogen; 1.5% calcium; 1% phosphorus. The total list also includes smaller amounts of sulfur, chlorine, magnesium, potassium, sodium, iron, cobalt, and more. These elements generally come to us via plants, who find them in the soil. In a very real sense, we are partly made of soil.

“Our elders have been warning us about this for generations now—they saw the unsustainability of settler society immediately. Societies based on conquest cannot be sustained, so yes, I do think we’re getting closer to that breaking point for sure. We’re running out of time. We’re losing the opportunity to turn this thing around. We don’t have time for this massive slow transformation into something that’s sustainable and alternative. I do feel like I’m getting pushed up against the wall. Maybe my ancestors felt that 200 years ago or 400 years ago. But I don’t think it matters. I think that the impetus to act and to change and to transform, for me, exists whether or not this is the end of the world. If a river is threatened, it’s the end of the world for those fish. It’s been the end of the world for somebody all along. And I think the sadness and the trauma of that is reason enough for me to act.”