The climate crisis and community

The hidden gift of un-sustainability is how it’s forcing community. These days, it’s becoming sexy and cool to be green. Our challenge is to make sure it’s not just a passing trend. There’s nothing like a good crisis to get people to wake up and start caring. But does that mean we need a constant state of crisis to keep people alert and conscious? This time, with the global climate crisis, there’s a movement building; there’s a movement that’s growing from and leveraging the crisis of our time. All the things that are causing climate change – like the petroleum complex that has us shipping our food 3,000 miles from where its produced – all of those systems are beginning to break down.  And they’ll have to break down. This is why one of the gifts of un-sustainability is that it’s unsustainable! At some point, it can’t work anymore! It can’t last. The hard part is: what breaks down, what falls apart, who suffers, and who has to die? Today, we’re seeing localized food systems where farmers are returning to the old school ways, shifting away from chemicals and back to traditional methods of farming the earth, going organic and local. My prayer is that this crisis will force people to connect – with the earth, with their communities, with one another – and re-create community. When we’re connected, we protect. When we’re disconnected, we destroy.

From Omega Institute, October 2009