What We Can Learn from Indigenous People about Living with Earth (Living with Earth PT 1)
Channel: Institute for Policy Studies
Date: 2014-11-19

This will be a very short introduction. My next book Change the Story, Change the Future sets the frame for this session. It will also be the frame for the spring 2014 issue of Yes magazine. The book was inspired by a gathering of indigenous environmental leaders prior to Rio + 20. They were preparing to counter the argument of the Wall Street interests. It’s the idea that we should put a price on nature to save it. The position of the Indigenous leaders was clear: Earth has no price. She is the source of our birth and our nurture. We belong to her, she does not belong to us. Maintaining her health and integrity is our responsibility beyond all others. I came to realize the deep significance of what they were saying. The challenge of our time is to learn to live as a species with living Earth. Must recognize we are part of a Living Earth, which is a living community of life. It’s a self-organizing system that maintains the conditions essential to life.  We are in the midst of a global cultural awakening, understanding the science of how Earth came alive, and it leads to a different frame on our understanding of our place on Earth. Living organisms created the conditions for life. Microorganisms modulated the temperature, created oxygen rich air. This extraordinary living system is now struggling to maintain the conditions for Life against our abuse. It raises the question if we truly are an intelligent species. We must now learn to live as contributing members of Earth’s community of life. This discussion is a bold visioning exercise of what the future might look like.