WE are the Solution
Institutional change and change in our individual views of who “We” are vital to coping with the climate change crisis.
Institutions in the 21 st
century must work with and not against nature. Institutions and their technologies must stop over-exploiting, polluting, and destroying natural systems.
We must ensure that institutions and modern technologies clean, restore, and enhance natural systems.
All of humanity is part of one global living system on earth, to which James Lovelock has given the name
Gaia." We each need to reorient our lives to this larger reality by shifting away from independent ego-centered "I" identities to globally centered "we" identities. In other words, we need to effect a global mind change so WE all identify with and champion the interdependence of humanity and all the other living systems who comprise the living system of all life on Earth.
Changing Our Minds
To change our individual minds will involve understanding that …: a) each of us (as an individual) has a unique worldview based on our own unique experience. What we experience as “reality” is our unique perception (based on our unique worldview). Our perceptions, grounded in our individual worldview, give meaning to the process of our life. b) our perceptions can be influenced by hypnosis . Examples:
1) A person can be hypnotized to believe that a pencil is red hot –
so that, when his/her arm is touched by that pencil, that touch
will leave a burn mark.
2) People can be hypnotized to believe that walking on a bed of red hot
coals will not burn them – so that, when they walk on the red hot coals,
they are not burned. c) our perceptions of the reality within which we are living can be influenced
by cultural hypnosis
.
From the moment of our birth, we are “hypnotized” by the culture into which we are born. That culture is the widely shared worldview of the people within our culture and, our immersion in it, like the hypnotic conditioning of people who can walk on hot coals without being burned, we perceive our world based on the hypnosis of our culture.
Each of us needs to be open to influence from our global mind
[ Willis Harman (in Global Mind Change ) describes the possibility that “We” (all “life”on Earth)
are One Being. (See Bibliography for others with similar views.) ]
Based on that worldview, you and I and all human beings can “change” our
individual “minds” from perceiving our “selves” as separate, independent beings

to being One Global Being (comprised of interdependent beings).
In other words, “we” (individuals) are related to the totality of Being in the same
way the cells of our bodies are related to the totality of our Bodies.
With that mind change, we can shift
… from living our lives based on “ego” (independent separate selves )
… to living Our Life based on “intuition” (interdependent Global Self)
[Note: A comparable “shift” or “mind change” about our Earth -- from perceiving it as
flat to perceiving it as round -- enabled Columbus to “discover” America (although from
the point of view of the indigenous people that were already there, it was not “discovery” ).]
Harman points out that we are each free to choose how we will live at each moment.
It is
a choice between being I-centered (based on ego) or We-centered (based on intuition).
Changing our minds from being I -centered to We -centered has the potential of enabling us to cope with our “climate change crisis” which, consistent with the
Chinese symbol for “crisis,” is both a danger and an opportunity.
The magnitude of the “crisis” can be seen as --
dangerous (when viewed from an I-centered point of view)or
opportunity (when viewed from a We-centered point of view)
As noted above, at every moment we (individually and collectively) choose how we will live our lives. Choosing from our separate I-centered points of view or from our interdependent We-centered point of view makes a fundamental difference. [Currently life in our global community seems to be guided by I-centered people
(particularly a small number of people with power in business and government). However, a gradually increasing number are becoming We-centered.]
Solving the climate change problem seems to require a comprehensive global mind change from being I-centered to We-centered.
Further thoughts
“Synchronicities” (or meaningful coincidences) may be experiences
influenced by our “Global Mind.” [Carl Jung referred to this source as the “collective
unconscious.” According to Jung’s theory “all of the knowledge contained in the
collective unconscious is available to everyone.” (per Dr. Elmer Green cited in Towards A New
World View) (see Di Carlo in the Bibliography)
.
Increased severity of weather has been identified as one of the consequences of continued climate change.
Recent experiences with flooding, tornadoes, and hurricanes may be indicators of even greater future consequences of climate change, although U.S. media seem resistant to making that connection (or lack of it) clear.
The urgency of a prompt response to the climate change crisis is indicated by the
UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which warns that

we may have only 2 to 3 years to cope with the challenge .
Since this challenge is global, it seems reasonable to conclude that the only conceivable response, given the 2-3 year time frame suggested by the IPCC is a shift by each of us and all of us to being guided by our “global mind” (and letting our intuitions take over from our egos) -- and leadership by civil society seems essential to achieving such a shift in the time we have before conditions of our environment pass a tipping point beyond which recovery is virtually impossible.
What can WE do?
What can we do? The answer to this question is a combination of individual, group, organizational, communal, national, transnational and global answers. The answers begin with “What can I do?” and expand to people in each of the more inclusive combinations asking “What can we do?” And, more importantly, our answers must lead to actions .
When each of us does what intuition guides us to do, individually and in collaboration with others, WE will be the solution
. [However, understanding what this means will require a shift in our individual minds, since that meaning cannot be understood in terms of the currently prevailing world view.]
Bibliography :
Harman, Willis, Global Mind Change: Th e Promise of the 21 st Century, 1998, Institute of
Noetic Sciences
DiCarlo, Russell E., Towards a New World View: Conversations at the Leading Edge , 1996, Epic
Publishing (interviews with 27 people, including Marilyn Ferguson, Willis Harman, Hazel Henderson,
Peter Senge, Steven Covey, Dr. Stan Grof, Dr. Joan Borysenko, Peter Russell)
Russell, Peter, The Global Brain: Speculations on the Evolutionary Leap to Planetary Consciousness,
1998, J.P. Tarcher
McTaggart, Lynn, The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe (Updated Edition), 2008,
Harper