Feeling hot within the collar?
Glaciers and polar ice are melting, ocean levels are rising, hot, dry weather, huge forest fires, water restrictions, crop failures…
You name it, if these don’t feature in your life yet, they soon will. Climate change and global warming are facts of life now, according to the International Panel on Climate Change, and many scientists.
Huge problems beyond our control!
But are you hot underneath the collar?
In case you are not, you probably are in a town where half of earth’s citizens live now and take much as a given. Because in city living we’re also far removed from natural processes that deliver our food, clothing and energy.
Does your child even know that milk comes from a cow – or a soya bean if you’re that way inclined – but not from a milk carton?
Even just in the city you cannot stick your face in the sand (or under the asphalt?) and you really are not immune from climate change. Witnesses are the 15,000 mostly seniors that died in Paris alone in the sizzling hot European summer of 2003. Or even the many killed in New Orleans at the ‘hands’ of cyclone Katrina.
And if you’re hot within the collar, do you think perhaps that there will be some miraculous scientific break-through so they ever-responsible ‘They’ will fix our planet? The ultimate stem cell technology maybe that can clone a new home for all of us!
Seriously, for most of people it is only too hard.
All we wish is to live a life where we might raise our children to have a future.
A future of some predictability: of schooling, a job, loved ones, community, of achievements and an enjoyable life – on a healthy planet Earth.
Is this a fading dream, once a reasonable expectation?
Maybe, maybe not.
The world is changing. You will find great challenges ahead and it is far too late to prevent climate change. The Earth has changed as well as processes it uses to regulate itself are adjusting themselves. That changes will not suit human life as it is.
But you are not powerless.
Each person alone may change the world, one by one. Let me explain.
Should i say these problems are under our control then?
Well, it depends.
We are discussing a severely disabled world really.
And from the experience of disability we could figure out how to survive and thrive!
“Come on, get real”, you say? Do I hear: “Just show me the correct alternate powers and we’ll get rid of this mess.”
Yes, we desperately do need to change to alternative energy that won’t create a greenhouse away from our home, the Earth. But all the technology on the globe should never be enough to outlive and flourish.
Alternative energy alone will not teach us to accept limits, unpredictability and what it’s to lead a rewarding life.
The way we have lived collectively, in our billions, the past few hundred years, has got us to this point. And changing what we do we can survive global warming as well as we might.
Even now.
It’s simple and it’s work. No chance out of that.
Lots of people with severe disabilities know this. And they report exactly the same or better life satisfaction as anyone else–under highly challenging, vulnerable circumstances.
So, we can learn how to live well in a disabled world.
is to come we both will be well served from the beliefs and strategies that individuals with disabilities use to – not just to survive – but to live a life well.
These are true alternate powers.
Those who guide us how to use what we have sustainably.
These ‘disabled people’ believe this:
* Accept that all of us are fragile and vulnerable
* The modern world is full of limits. We need some of these to live well
* Vulnerability and dependence are an unavoidable element of a whole life
* No-one is independent, but interdependent
* Relationship with others is our lifeline and our wellbeing
And they do that:
* Build relationships others to develop positive relationship, where you reside, work and play
* Focus on other’s needs and that of the environment
* Take responsibility for the situation you have
* Care for others and the environment competently
* Be assertive and use your humour and creativity
Its not all those with disabilities act in this manner of course. And I’d be the last to portray people with disabilities as heroes. We’re just people – looking to get on.
You try that!
Speak to that elderly woman in your street. Offer a hand when someone needs it.
Doing such small things will connect you with others as well as your environment.
And do utilize the ‘regular’ renewable alternate powers, and recycle too.
You can change your local world by acting in these ways.
And if all fails – regardless?
Well, it is the only way to go!
Perhaps your world might be equally hot but it’ll be cooler beneath your collar!
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