The Copenhagen Band-aid

Last updated on: December 22, 2009 at 2:48 pm by Desh Kapoor

The Copenhagen Band-aid 2009-12-22T14:48:20-06:00 Desh Kapoor

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The Copenhagen summit on the Climate Change was dominated by the BASIC (Brazil, America, South Africa and China) countries.

Some say, as the opposition in India, that the developing countries and India have given up a lot in the name of environment. Others, however, claim that Copenhagen agreement was so diluted that it will not be much useful.

Lets be clear as to why are we even discussing all this? The pollution and the subsequent climate change is a symptom of the way we have chosen to look at our relationship with Nature and the Universe, and therefore our paradigm of Science itself.

Not using distilled water bottles or becoming vegetarian will slow down the march towards mutual destruction, but it would not eliminate the eventuality. To have a sustainable lifestyle and a planet that is available even to 100 generations down the line, we have to make sure that our footprint on the planet is almost zero. This entails a completely different way of thinking and living.

The current Western Science foundation was laid in the 17th and the 18th centuries, often called "Age of Reason" as opposed to the "Age of Faith" of the Middle Ages. Science or Reason was taken to be antithetical to Religion. So, Science tried to "outdo God" from the get-go. The premise was – if man can create something out of plain widgets, then the question of God does not arise. If one, for example, could explain how electrical ions lead to lightening and thunder, then it is not a doing of a "3rd party" called God. That is why, in Modern Scientific era we ended up re-creating what nature gave for free, just so that we could control the level of our comfort, even if it meant living indoors and having a synthetic body. From ACs to plastics to toothpastes to even flu shots – we have been fighting a "God" which served as an unfortunate alibi for Nature itself. We did not learn to harness the nature… to borrow from the nature. We instead wanted to dominate nature.

Whether one uses more fuel efficient cars or not is not material when it comes to sustainable living on the planet. Even what the BEST Environmental experts are doing is merely straightening the deck of the Titanic! The part of the iceberg that hit it is not what appears and is visible in our daily lives.. but in our minds! Our Scientific Paradigm…. and our Religious Paradigm as well.

A personalized God based on faith is one that will ALWAYS run into odds with the Reasoning mind. A God that is at the foundational level of existence – Consciousness or the Universal Energy – which can be scientifically reasoned is what needs to be explored more.

Such that when someone looks at the Thunder and Lightening again, his reasoning should not be "If I can find out the logic behind it, I will disprove God" but that "if I can find out the logic behind it, I will know more about the "God" that IS everything."

Whether one is an atheist or a person of faith, it does not matter in the end, because if our paradigm remains entrenched in "Age of Faith" or "Age of Reason", we will end up recreating nature and polluting the planet and the Universe. Unless we change our paradigm to a more holistic one, we would not have any chance of long term survival. Our efforts at Environmental activism, given our current God and Science will at best save another generation or two. Is that what we are negotiating for?

The Copenhagen summit on the Climate Change was dominated by the BASIC (Brazil, America, South Africa and China) countries.Some say, as the opposition in India, that the developing countries and India have given up a lot in the name of environment. Others, however, claim that Copenhagen agreement w …

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