2016: Ravaged Earth, Changing World, The Need for an Ecological Revolution

2016:  Ravaged Earth,  Changing World, The Need for an Ecological Revolution
By Michael A. Bengwayan, Ph.D

The year 2016 was a picture of Earth dying faster than before.

The desecration of the world's forests is accelerating and deserts continue to expand. Soil erosion is not just sapping agricultural production but also the livelihood of millions, while the extinction of plant and animal species is rapidly diminishing our biological heritage.

For a worsening part in history, we are altering the atmosphere itself, destroying the ozone layer that protects us from ultraviolet radiation and raising the level of greenhouse gasses that are warming the Earth.

The deterioration of the Earth's physical condition is now accelerating. And there is nothing in prospect that will reverse it in the foreseeable future. We are now in a race to stop or stymy environmental deterioration, before it becomes unmanageable, before it leads to social disruption and economic decline.

On the encouraging side, there is a global agreement to reduce carbon dioxide emission. But there is little concrete action by corporations and countries guzzling fossil fuel. But all over the world, there are scattered social action of people taking the matter into their own hands--by planting trees.

Social change occurs when people alter the way they perceive some of the elements constituting their world. People cross a perceptual threshold that forces them to see and judge some aspect of their world in a new light.

Tree planters, in a microcosm, take it upon themselves to plant trees voluntarily because of perceptual shifts that ingrain ethical components. Their effective response to environmental threats require a perception of the Earth's natural system crossing a paradigm shift. They give rise to optimism in dealing with the larger threats because they believe that major climate change problems will happen to a dangerous point before societies respond.

Perceptual shifts of profound proportions are needed to respond adequately to global warming. Indeed, crossing the perceptual threshold launches humanity toward a new moral frontier. A growing sense of interdependence and connectedness takes shape--the beginning  of a second ecological revolution.

Without a strong sense that people favor the fundamental changes needed to respond to ecological threats. governments do not take necessary actions. Instead,  individuals everywhere must raise their understanding, concern and voices to a point where political leaders are forced to respond.

So on 2017, will you cross these perceptual thresholds to avoid major ecological backlash? Through a major transformation of attitudes and priorities, will you ride the bull on the horn and offer a glimpse of hope in the horizon?

Will you help forge a better ecological destiny?