Two cosmologies in conflict

24/05/2010

Opinión

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Economics Nobel laureate, Joseph Stiglitz, recently said: «the legacy of the economic-financial crisis will be a great clash of ideas about the future of the Earth.» I agree completely. As I see it, that great debate will center on the two cosmologies which appear, and conflict, over the historical landscape.

By cosmology we mean the world vision —cosmovision— that underlies the ideas, practices, habits and the dreams of a society. Each culture has its own cosmology. Through cosmology a culture seeks to explain the origin, evolution and purpose of the universe, and to define the place of the human being in the world.

Our present cosmology is the one of conquest, of domination and exploitation of the world, always focused on progress and unlimited growth. It is characterized by its mechanical, determinist, atomistic and reductionist nature. Due to this cosmovision, undeniable benefits for human life have been created, but also perverse contradictions, such as the fact that 20% of the world population controls and consumes 80% of all natural resources, creating a gap between rich and poor such as has never before occurred in history. One half of the large jungles have been destroyed, 65% of cultivable land, lost, around 5,000 species of living beings disappear each year, and more than one thousand synthetic chemical agents, mostly toxic, spread over the ground, air and waters. Weapons of mass destruction, capable of eliminating all human life, have been built. The final effect is the dis-equilibrium of the Earth-system, as is expressed in global warming. With the gasses already accumulated, by 2035, temperatures will rise by 2 degrees centigrade, and if nothing is done, according to certain forecasts, by the end of the century, they will rise another 4 or 5 degrees centigrade, which would make life as we know it now, practically impossible.

The predominance of economic interests, especially speculative, which are capable of reducing entire countries to a most brutal misery, and consumerism, have trivialized our perception of the dangers we face and conspire against any change of direction.

In contraposition, appearing ever more strongly, is an alternative and potentially saving cosmology. It has already been in development for more than a century, and reached its major expression in The Earth Chart. It derives from the sciences of the universe, the Earth and of life. It places our reality within the cosmic genesis, that immense process of evolution that began with the big bang, some 13,700 million years ago. The universe is continuously expanding, self-organizing and self-creating. Its natural state is not one of stability but of evolution, and of transformation and adaptability, rather than immutability and permanency. In the universe everything is related through networks and nothing exists outside of these relationships. That is why all beings are inter-dependant and must cooperate among themselves to co-evolve and to guarantee the equilibrium among all factors. Behind all beings, the background Energy that originated and animates the universe is in action, and causes new emergences to appear. The most spectacular of them is the living Earth and ourselves, human beings, her conscious and intelligent part, whose mission is to care for her.

We live in urgent times. The sum of the present crises is creating a spiral of need for changes which, if not implemented, will take us to collective chaos, but which, if they are assumed, can elevate us to a higher level of civilization. And it is in this moment that the new cosmology reveals itself as inspiring. Instead of dominating nature, it places us in her womb in profound harmony and synergy. Instead of a globalization that levels out differences, it suggests a bioregionalism, that values differences. This model seeks to build self-sustaining societies within the potentialities and limits of the bioregions, based in the ecology, the local culture and in the participation of the peoples, respectful of nature and seeking to «live well» which is to be in harmony with all and with Mother Earth.

What characterizes this new cosmology is its caring, instead of domination, the acknowledgement of the intrinsic value of each being and not its mere usefulness to humans, the respect for all life and the rights and dignity of nature, and not her exploitation. .

The strength of this cosmology lies in the fact that it is more in tune with the true human needs and with the logic of the universe itself. If we opt for this cosmology, the opportunity will be created of a planetary civilization in which caring, cooperation, love, respect, happiness and spirituality will be central. It will be the great saving change that we urgently need now.

- Leonardo Boff, Theologian

Earthcharter Commission

https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/141662?language=es