Where does it hurt?
May we be people who can look unflinchingly at the problems in our world. Not to panic, dwell on them, be overwhelmed by them, or fight and blame each other about them, but to see them as our teachers. They show us what we don’t want. (Our deepest desires show us what we do want.)
So what are we dealing with right now? What is it telling us? There are really beautiful things happening, no doubt, but we also have some major crisis going on. Imagine a patient being rushed into the ER, blood everywhere, and the doctor says, “Ok, tell me five good things that happened to you today?” No… In that moment, a good doctor is going to assess the trauma and say, “Tell me where it hurts.”
A lot of people don’t keep up with the news because of the way it’s presented—all the fighting and fear mongering—but also because it’s hard to face. If that’s you, it’s ok. It’s understandable. We won’t dwell on it. But we need to look at it. So we’re all on the same page, here are some important issues that help us see the current state of things and why the time is ripe for serious action.
Here’s a biggie: If we continue life and carbon emissions as usual, 13 million people will be displaced by sea level rise in the US in the next 60 years.
Blue indicates counties where flooding will displace residents if sea levels rise by six feet by 2100. Counties in shades of pink and red will see higher-than-average migration, with the darker shades representing larger population increases. source
And these are just the numbers for the US. About a fifth of the world’s population lives along the coast. Those places will all be underwater. And for the people living around the equatorial band, even if their homes aren’t underwater, it’s likely their land will be too hot and unstable (droughts, floods, etc) to be able to live there.
Experts predict there will be 200 million to one billion climate refugees by 2050 and two billion by 2100.
Another surprise: Buildings generate nearly 40% of annual global GHG emissions.
Cars get a lot of press for their carbon emissions but our buildings are the bigger culprit. And the cars have to drive so much because of the way we have built our buildings all spread out.
Ok, so let’s look a little closer at the US…
Maybe a little less surprising to many of us but nonetheless shocking to see. Wealth inequality is an easy to measure (and hugely impactful) tip of the iceberg of injustice.
And it’s not like people just need to get a job and work harder...
There definitely seem to be some serious odds in some people’s favor over others. This little Giving Tree kind of infographic is helpful…
It’s true that every little bit helps, but having a campaign for composting over here, one over there to defund police, and one over there to promote equal pay for women just isn’t going to make a big enough impact at this point.
We have to completely redesign the systems we live in.
That’s no small task.
The good news is that there is plenty for everyone if we just design the system well.
The hard part is getting from this system to the next.
