Daring to lift our gaze from our “smaller worlds”
It is easy to get on our daily treadmill and focus our attention on our smaller world of work, family, and friends. Surely, we can all do this and our plates will feel full. Our time and attention could be spent here easily. However, there is a bigger picture at play that is affecting all of our smaller worlds, and I urge you to continue to lift your gaze and shift your attention out to the broader space of the ecology of our planet, and the system of systems that enable our smaller worlds to be either stable or not so stable. This article by Bill McKibben from the Guardian on April 3 points the finger strongly at Exxon Mobile – labeling them consummately arrogant. I won’t judge the people of Exxon Mobile in that way, or even necessarily the entity, because I believe their behavior is a reflection (still) of their market. And who is their market? WE ARE. We buy the fuel that comes out of the ground, that transports our goods, that fuels the tractors that till the land to produce crops we eat, or that feed the animals that become protein on our dining room tables, or in the fast food lane. “They” are “us”. It is hard to imagine a world without fossil fuels. It is also hard to imagine a world where fossil fuel consumption...
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