Accelerating Climate Change and the Living Earth

The purpose of this mini-review article is to extend the discussion of the takeover of the climate system by the living Earth, colloquially known as Mother Nature, in response to the refusal of global societies to significantly reduce the burning of the fossil fuels that are driving the extreme climate change that is destroying life on Earth. So it is not an article limited to a conventional science perspective because of course the perspective of the Earth is not documented in the literature. The author is the only climate scientist working to present the perspective on Mother Nature in the science literature, because it is part of the reality we must deal with. This article will review my past work, and reframe in familiar social terms four keys to understanding the perspective of the living Earth. Some current climate extremes will then be reviewed.

For more than fifty years I have published extensively as a climate scientist (see my website: https://alanbetts.com). However nearly fifty years ago I realized we were heading for a climate catastrophe, because humanity and our leaders did not accept responsibility for the Earth [1]. I was told to do what I was paid to do, and let those in charge make decisions despite their ignorance of the complex climate system. So in parallel with my climate research career, I restructured my life and posed the question: “How do we merge science with wisdom.” I was sent to Tiruvannamalai, India where the living Earth, the Creation itself showed me directly the interconnected web of my entire life backward and forward in time [2]. I was stunned, ecstatic, transformed and given the tools needed to meet and understand living saints and sages. More recently I later realized the Creation itself was now making decisions directly in the interests of life on Earth – but not in the interests of capitalist society. This is a key focus of this paper, which clearly goes beyond the historical scientific tradition, which lacked the perspective of the living Earth.

This third paper starts by reviewing four keys for understanding the living Earth in human terms. First let us shift to a more colloquial image and say “Mother Nature is taking over the climate system” to protect life on Earth, because our global economic system has refused to act wisely and do this. Of course Mother Nature, the Creation and concepts like Gaia [4] are just different human labels for the common reality that we need to understand and accept deeply. The indigenous concept of Mother Nature has an advantage that it is understood clearly by local communities. It has another huge advantage that it is free of the male chauvinism that has been dominant for thousands of years, and has contributed greatly to the exploitation of people and the planet and the current destruction of life on Earth. My direct experience of the Creation, discussed in [2], helped me grasp the immense sweep of her understanding and authority over all life, as well as her simple ability to read human minds and communicate. This reality means that the living Earth system has a conscious intelligence that goes beyond Lovelock’s concept of Gaia [4].

The second is that for European culture the Council of Nicea in 325AD was critical (see [3,2]). The Roman Catholic Church was created to meet the needs of the Roman Emperor Constantine for male human power rather than respect for the Creation and Mother Nature. Constantine insisted that the Aramaic gospels of the indigenous Aramaic speaking teacher Yeshua (whom we know as Jesus) be destroyed. The original Aramaic gospels have only recently been retranslated [5]. The male Catholic priests worshipped a male god safely removed to heaven, so he would not interfere with their human power. Indirectly the priests ruled societies and influenced the rise of science for more than fifteen hundred years. Christianity split into many groups, but almost none understand how Yeshua as an indigenous person chose the Truth of Mother Nature over (male) human power over nature. In the present era Pope Francis understands many of these issues, and has pushed successfully for wise strategies on global climate change.

The third is that the indigenous world view which understands Mother Nature takes precedence over amoral capitalism. Of course this is why European and North American societies tried so hard to stamp out indigenous thought, and suppress the culture. For many centuries, Catholic priests supervised the killing of millions of indigenous people; both to seize their land, and perhaps because they feared the indigenous teachers, who had a better understanding than they did of the teachings of the indigenous Jesus. Just recently in July 2022 Pope Francis visited Canada to apologize for the church’s role in running residential schools for more than a century. Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their parents, forbidden to speak their own language, and abused in an attempt to destroy their indigenous heritage. Many died and were placed in mass graves.

The fourth is the powerful concept that it is the Truth that set us Free to act on behalf of the Creation and Mother Nature. We attribute this deep understanding to the indigenous Aramaic teacher Yeshua. He had an intimate connection to the Creation, so the Jewish and Roman authorities had to kill him, since his deep understanding was a threat to their male human power. However it is important to understand that the overt takeover of the climate system by Mother Nature is not a religious issue. It is just the reality of the entire web of life and the Creation here on Earth that Yeshua understood so well. However this Truth is still today a direct threat to human power over nature. We believe we are the ‘only’ intelligent species and that we are ‘in charge’, when in reality we are the only species on Earth that does not listen to or communicate directly with Mother Nature, even though we could. Our society tries to hide the fact that ‘business as usual capitalism’ is destroying the climate system and life on Earth for profit. So Mother Nature, which is far more powerful than we are, appears to be taking over on behalf of all of life on Earth.

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