Where are we? That is the first “great question” in Simple Reality and the answer must be placed in the context of Oneness in order to be a profound response. In other words, global problems cannot be addressed one way in one part of the world and another way in another part of the world. Or, global problems cannot be answered in one way by nations with emerging economies and another by the U.S. or the European Union.
Marco Visscher writing in Ode Magazine reveals the futility of the “haves” trying to impose their environmental agenda on the “about to haves.” Emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil have made it clear that they are not interested in tempering their explosive growth by lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Those who resist admitting that humanity is in fact “One” community could not possibly deny the fact that we all breathe the same air and all experience the effects of global warming.
In the P-B narrative nationalism is an expression of both fear and collective false-self behaviors. This story infecting global consciousness sees a rational foreign policy as protecting the national self-interest even at the expense of humanity as a whole. For example, Japan’s leadership has determined that (June 2011) the Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gases, expiring in 2012, is not being accepted by other nations. The inevitable breakdown of that agreement will occur if other nations also abandon their pledges. Japan has said it aims to reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, but it will not make that pledge part of a binding agreement unless all other major economies join in an emissions-reduction treaty. The first agreement that needs to be made among the nations of the world is that Simple Reality is a realistic context for addressing all of the problems of humanity.
The people of the global village must quickly wake up, prioritize the problems facing humanity, agree on solutions, commit the resources and energy necessary and, forgetting outmoded and illusionary differences, begin to work our way down the list. The reality that the West, for example, might not be willing to face is as Indur Goklany, science and
technology policy analyst for the U.S. Department of the Interior said, “Developing countries have many immediate threats, but global warming isn’t one of them.”
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References and notes are available for this article.
For a much more in-depth discussion on Simple Reality, read Simple Reality: The Key to Serenity and Survival, by Roy Charles Henry, published in 2011.
