CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE NATURE OF REALITY - cont.
Reality in a pragmatic sense is the realm of science and ‘proven truths’ even though the focus on particulars in scientific experiment
can flaw this approach by separating the observed from its context.
It’s nice to have neat double blind experiments that lead to
unquestionable
theories of reality but in general the lay person has difficulty understanding
atom smashing Hadron Colliders searching for clues
surrounding multidimensional realities, or observations from the
Hubble telescope that theorise a Universe composed of
dark energy
(68%) and dark matter (27%) and the bit we can see (5%); with the dark forces causing the Universe to expand at an accelerating rate.
Prior to the
‘big bang’ science proposes that substance had an infinite density at an infinite temperature, with all the Universe's
mass and energy pushed to a point of zero volume, which in the blink of an eye expanded 100 trillion, trillion times in size to create
our Universe. About nine billion years after the ‘big bang’ our solar system coalesced from the big bang’s molecular cloud and Earth
formed shortly after (4,600 mya).
It is thought that the Earth collected water by way of
multiple collisions from water carrying meteorites
soon after its formation; one such collision being so large that it formed the Moon.
By 4,200 mya the Earth’s seas were in place and
by 3,800 mya the earliest forms of life (anaerobic bacteria) are recorded, although
it is conjectured that this momentous event may
have happened shortly after meteorite bombardment stopped.
How the life force ‘kick started’ is as perplexing as the sudden existence
of the Universe, but light seems inextricably related to the reality of life since nothing can exist without it. The history of the
Universe has been deduced from light waves emanating from the corners of the Cosmos.
The timing of the ‘big bang’ - 13.72 billion
years ago - was
calculated from the reduction in wavelength of light (red shift) from galaxies as they move away from us.
Human health
also requires an adequate exposure to the Sun’s rays, even outside the visible spectrum the human brain is stimulated by long wave
infrared light as well
as short wave ultraviolet light. Radical
physicist James Carter makes the assertion that:
‘Physics begins and ends with the reality of
the photon. Everything we know of in the universe that can be observed and measured,
can be explained in terms of the interaction of the appropriate photons’
The importance of light as being fundamental to the nature of life and hence reality, is further impressed by findings in
quantum
biology which have it that DNA exists in the form of liquid-crystal, lattice-type structures that emit
biophotons which have the potential
to connect all functions of the human body - as well as connecting to all other life forms.
Another ‘fringe’ scientist that may be
lorded in the future is
Bruce Lipton who has expanded the
concept of epigenetics to include our thought processes.
The technological advances of the western world since the industrial revolution would not have risen without the energy key of fossil
fuels.
The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide which captures heat escaping from the Earth’s atmosphere
resulting in global
warming as a logical by-product, with
the greater ‘carbon footprint’ emanating from the developed world, and with most other countries
aspiring to do the same.
The issue of survival is again on the table but this time it’s our collective civilisation that bears the
dilemma - while woven into the inevitable climatic effects of a reliance on fossil fuels is the emergence of sophisticated technologies
for monitoring and manipulating consumer markets without regard for a person’s happiness and personal growth - or for the health of
the planet.
'Encumbered forever by desire and ambition
There's a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
Though down this road we've been so many times’
Primates diverged from mammals around 85 mya and about 2 mya the genus Homo appeared and differentiated into ‘wise man’-
Homo sapiens -
around 200,000 years ago, and by 50,000 years ago we had migrated
from mid-west Africa to all corners of the globe.
Nomadic people
are civilised to the degree that their lifestyles allow, but the growth and complexity of civilisation speeds up with the
development
of permanent settlements which require complex legal systems for property rights and the development of
physical and social infrastructures such
as sanitation, food supply chains, housing and social arenas.
Many famous civilisations have risen only to be overcome by internal
frailties, external threats and changing climatic factors. Even the Sahara Desert went through a period of supporting a large population
of people (8,500 to 3,500 BC) in a l
ush, fertile environment of lakes and rivers that covered 3.8 million square miles and then returned
to desert in a couple of centuries as monsoonal rain moved elsewhere. (The rise of the great Egyptian civilisation is thought to have
benefited from Saharan people exiting to the Nile River valley.)
It is only in recent times that the idea of a global village has
sprung from the creation of a United Nations, followed by images of our Blue Planet as seen from outer space, and finally from the
knowledge delivered via global media and the internet.
Employment is, and will always be essential for a purposeful life – even if
it’s unpaid self employment. Agriculture has traditionally filled the niche of essential labour and still does in many undeveloped
countries, but in the developed world agriculture has become so mechanised that its produce no longer carries the nutrients for a
vibrant life while its processes rely on fossil fuels. It’s time to return to labour intensive and health promoting organic techniques
of cultivation which are healthy for the soil and for the soul.
'A wide scale conversion to low energy, ecologically sustainable agriculture
must be implemented to avoid food system collapse and future food supply shortages.'
Kant believed that reality was an entities ability to sense their surroundings and the changes made in it; or as Bruce Lipton put
it: ‘The observer creates reality.’ Hence every living thing on the planet has a reality and the only imperative of reality is life
itself.
Kant proposed a ‘
universal moral law’ as did
C.S. Lewis and since reality requires the magical presence of life then any action
whose sum total is negative to life, is wrong action and any action whose sum total encourages life is right action.
The essence of
life rolls on – bacteria strive to better their situation while symbiotically we humans strive for the same - this is the indomitable
essence of all the life forms that saturate our planet. Aeons of evolution have projected the human form as having the greatest potential
for understanding the global village - it is our duty to reflect and make the hard decisions that will impact on the future reality
of life on Earth.
“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.” Frank Herbert, Dune