I am planning to get back to Revelation soon… but we have had our own very mini-apocalypse here. And so small in comparison to Gaza or the Ukraine. Dana ‘Adam’ (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos, or isolated high-altitude depression). With rising sea temperatures it is an increasing issue.
Every downstairs apartment has been trashed… today a truck is slowly coming down the street to take away the furniture that has been thrown on the street. Gayle has just brought back a woman from a downfloor apartment – everything trashed including her clothes, furniture and car. She is one among many.
The situation would have been much worse – probably with a few hundred dying – but the early warning and also the evacuation of a local camp site by the sea was ever so timely.
There are numerous situations that are natural (should not be normal, but ‘natural’ in the sense of the result of the mess we are making with the climate) but there seems to be a connection as signs…let me backtrack.
A year ago last April – and I posted on this – we ‘rolled up’ the old ‘Queen’ map of Europe as sign that abusive, dominant power was being rolled up. 24 hours later we sat in the power outage that covered all the Iberian peninsula and just beyond those boundaries. This year – Gayle had a training session with 25 people here from 7 different countries – and a big part of the theme (beyond the training) was the integration of land and sea. The person who opened that up and then with Gayle and team represented the Sama Dilaut (Wrongly termed ‘sea people’) was here. Gayle works with a mat as the basis for personal and team transformation and together they had developed a mat with sea symbols and imagery for that particular work. Now, not knowing that a storm was coming in and walking to be the beach in the sun and 25ºC, we took the mat to the sea and ‘baptised’ it proclaiming that the water will cover the land. Maybe now an ‘ouch’. Symbolism is powerful. And all reports are saying ‘Oliva was the centre’ for this flood.
The sea then the land in the creation story; so as we move toward something shifting I guess we need to see something like that to get a fresh beginning?
Desperately not trying to make too much of it… and yet.
Acts leading to signs are important. But far more important are signs that lead to reality. For Europe as things polarise we have to see a new levelling out – there is a triumvirate of those in power beyond Europe that we would love to see shift – and a coming back to a place where slowly we can see new beginnings. It is always painful to write about such stuff and connections but have also been looking for an event that will change the outcome of the forthcoming election. (It happened before in 2004.)
This is ‘our’ planet so there has to be a concern / responsibility to see it come through to a better (relational) place. And sadly the process is not always a pleasant one. And it also means getting our hands dirty with (not for) neighbours.
We are OK. Third day of no running water – oooofffff think of Gaza 2 million people displaced or the Ukraine. We emptied 8 gallons (36 litres) of water from our floors as we are top floor.
Good to know you all are okay. Though all that damage gets pretty expensive to fix for folks.
In terms of what is happening with the climate – the sea has been protecting us by absorbing about 30% of excess CO2 in the atmosphere. In the process it has become more acidic and warmer, in fact taking on about 90% of the excess heat. This has slowed down global warming and more extreme weather. In the meantime, the increasingly acidic and warmer oceans are a threat to marine life and ultimately all life.
How to repair all of that? The UN today says we need to reduce emissions by 18% over the next 4 years to prevent a really painful overshoot of 1.5C rise in global average temps. I’m not sure how that is supposed to happen either. We humans seem intent on continuing this experiment no matter what the costs.
I read today that so many Americans have now experienced weather disasters that they are beginning to band together politically to demand better government response. Interesting. Yet, blaming climate change due to GHG emissions seems something that cannot be discussed even in this group of people. Instead, they simply blame extreme weather. How do we address something if we refuse to name the cause? Especially when the cause is us?
My students wrestle with the issue weekly in class. How to make change? How to lead? What to focus on? What holds up progress? Who or what are the obstacles to essential change? I tell them we have all the tools we need to make change. We simply, as a political community together lack imagination. Lack of imagination will kill us. Can we imagine a better world even with weather extremes? We have to.
We simply have to… I appreciate all you are doing to help give some sight on what might be possible. Long may the imagination win the day.
Without being too head in the clouds. Creation (story) the land comes after the seas / waters. All part of something coming out of chaos. Could we do our bit for the ‘new’ creation to come again as we engage with the sea and the waters?