Natural Selection Does Not Favour Denial

I am preparing for my trip around Australia and was watching some excellent DVD’s on nature produced by the BBC. I was just inspired endlessly by the visuals and descriptions of the intricate balance of nature and the intelligence beyond our understanding. It is hard for people to conceive that this is a living planet that has its own intelligence that all is interconnected. There is an awareness when the planet is not in harmony. It is clear that human’s are not in harmony as they are not in harmony with themselves, which is nature. Nature clearly models cooperation over competition. Whilst competition is evident for food sources, typically species have boundaries to ensure all win. Nature seeks equlibrium for the whole.

From the human perspective when you come from the heart or where you feel naturally inclined, you will make choices that favour the whole rather than self interest. The image of the mother comes to mind who looks after her family as herself. As my friend said her son was part of her body, and if she loses him she loses a part of herself. I feel this is the same symbiosis with the planet, we are intricately part of this natural system yet we are living in unnatural enviroments constructed around us that reward compliance and greed. The denial in business-as-usual attitudes is clear and I see this as refusing to harmonise with what is true or short-termism that extracts the last dollar before the system collapses.

In reality if we are to survive we have to live in harmony with the natural world. My feeling is we have taken far more than the natural would can replenish as it takes time to generate the bounty. This sets off many feedback loops and species become extinct without people knowing.  Nature tries to adapt to our behaviour. Moreover, the changes we have created through pumping CO2 into the atmosphere at such a high rate, the natural world cannot adapt fast enough. This is the core problem, some in industries feeling threatened keep sending messages that climate change is not real, they are distracting from the generation of solutions and ensuring sustainable lives for the children who are the next generation.

What would be ideal is if business, the community, leaders and scientists come together to work out how we can restructure so we all win. I feel the adversarial approach is counterproductive and short sighted. When I look into the eyes of children I know we have to become responsible stewards. In truth behaviour will only change when our universal values change. Moreover, as we see ourselves as part of the natural world and not in dominion over it, we will come to an understanding that in truth it is not nature that is threatened, it is the possibility of a 6th extinction event, which some are seeing as humanities demise. If we don’t adapt to nature, it is us that will not survive as natural selection will favour species in harmony with the planet.

Something to reflect on and a challenge to our humanity. Nature has a narrow band of tolerance and it is not personal, it just is what it is. A silent spring.

Here is a poem I felt inspired to write this morning.

NATURAL SELECTION DOES NOT FAVOUR DENIAL

The power of the planet,
Is the intelligence of balance,
Returning to harmonious equilibrium,
Where the sum of the parts are the whole,
And the whole is the sum of the parts,
In a sphere of understanding,
A perfect circle of cycles,
The very symbol of cycles
Is our true nature.

The volcanic eruptions,
May appear frightening,
Yet it is a natural response,
To rebalancing carbon dioxide,
A heat pump,
Expelling heat into the atmosphere,
To regulate the temperature,
To pre-serve life,
On time.

The forests,
Branch out into variegated networks,
Protecting the earth character,
For they are in communication …
With fire,
Water,
Air,
and soils,
Energy coils forming canopies over communities,
Seasoning leaf litter as microbes are anti-matter,
Recycling nutrients into continuous flows of motion,
Purifying water through carbon filters,
Breathing in carbon dioxide,
Absorbing sunlight,
An ancient energy fix,
As the roots of life,
Are grounded
On purpose.

Forests are the centre peace,
Expelling oxygen,
Rebalancing atmospheric gases,
Conducting orchestras of cosmic rhythms
Re-cycling the sun and moon,
As forests resuscitate all life forms in tune,
Seconds from the brink of death,
For the lungs of the planet,
Breathed you.

The oceans resurface across the planet,
Carving new canyons,
Sculpturing contours,
Eroding, rock and roll,
A milkshake of sand particles and soils,
Prime movers of energy and nutrients,
In an endless thermodynamic dance,
Of wind power,
And solar maximums,
Flexing its muscle,
Photosynthesizing phytoplankton’s,
Oxygenating half of the earth.

The forests of the oceans,
Are silent springs,
Rebalancing the ocean floor,
Buttressing feedback with current,
As fish filter oxygen,
Coral reefs feed fish schools,
For we are learning that temperature changes,
Are the non negotiable narrow bandwidths
of life or death,
When living in a delicate balance with
The whole planet,
As one life form,
As Gaia means ‘living planet’.

The human species is the arrhythmia,
For self interest cannot see the whole,
The sum of the parts takes more from the whole,
As demand surpasses need,
And greed surpasses non germinating seeds,
The laws of nature transgressed,
Forests become resources uprooted and transformed,
Into furniture, building materials and more paper weights,
The oceans are toxic soups discharging responsibility,
As an international charter is a free for all,
Nuclear bombs are tested,
Out of sight out of mind,
For harmony is not the modus operandi of war,
As human refuse is a dumping ground,
Out to sea,
And the great dinosaurs of the oceans,
Are hunted in a whaling industry rather than pods,
Where innocence is singing the song,
Of great despair.

Dear friends we are poles apart,
Out of sink with symbiosis,
Ice caps the solar reflectors into space,
Regulate temperature as white nights
of the round table,
Cold water sinks the engine of the great conveyor,
A purveyor of motion,
Transporting kinetic currents in time,
Oscillating warm and cold water,
Hugging continents without drift,
A rubber band is the band stand of rhythm,
Cycling rather than stagnating,
Perpetual motion,
As water is the e-motion,
of Gaia.

The power of the earth real,
It is the real power,
It does not run turbines but temperature bands,
And we are stewards on the current watch,
Arriving 1 minute to midnight,
Unlearning wild tribal rhythms,
The intimacy of our true nature,
Is in-to-me-sea,
For the ocean of our beliefs must change,
As we see-change and be it,
Recognising harmony is a over-the-horizon radar,
That senses a new in-formation,
That operates in acceptable tolerances,
For nature cannot tolerate rapid change
out of steppe with life,
And one can argue for or against a carbon tax,
When self regulation is the true temper of the times,
For when you return to a State of nature,
You change the state of your world,
To become one world stating harmony as the real currency,
Of real wealth,
When all are working in cooperation with the whole,
For this is the centre peace of your life,
Or a crown of thorns,
For we are at choice.

The true harmony of home-o-stasis,
Is the real nature that knows the middle ground,
As the Rio grand,
For extremism is business-as-usual,
Refusing to change to harmony,
Denying the reality of life itself,
That shares and yields,
Life over profit,
As extreme events are the change agents,
Melting ice caps are voyagers into unknown territory,
Indicating the canary in the coal mine,
Is no longer chipper,
As industry is the accident waiting to happen,
Surfacing power and control as a free falling dollar,
As tsunamis roll over cities as pebbles in a pond,
Nuclear reactors melt down radioactive rods,
Droughts leave the skeletons of humanity on rocks of despair,
As dust storms cover all desert storms,
For humanity is at war with the true nature,
Where is the reform?
As dominion replaces stewardship,
Why is this the norm?
As natural selection does not favour
denial,
As de Nile dries up,

For sustainability…
Is the ability to adapt and function
to sustain the harmony
of the wisest.