Ecological Age

Ecological Age

Now is certainly the time for the ecological age. In fact, decades ago it was time for the ecological age. The necessity for members of the global community to embrace the ideals of the ecological age is a non-debatable point. However, while it is without question time for a transition form the technological age to the ecological age, if the ecological age is emerging, it is not nearly on the scale necessary to effect change on the scale necessary.

It is ironic that, as Barry puts it, our "enchantment" with technology in this technological age has gone unchecked so far, the technology intended to broaden our minds and bring us knowledge, has in fact "narrowed" and "confined" us. We have shut out a whole world of information. Human beings learned so much so quickly thanks to various sources of new technologies, that we have begun to disregard some important and ultimately essential ideals of the past. We became so intensely focused on forward progress and our new technologies that our pursuit of knowledge seems to have caused us to loose some old knowledge. That lost knowledge is the deeper understanding of our connection with the earth. We have become so distracted by technology that we have forgotten to look around and notice the beauty of the earth and our relationship with it. We have on blinders so to speak allowing for only one kind of advancement, and it is not the advancement of our relationship with the earth.

This disregard for the natural world is the root of our environmental and social problems. We are no longer acutely aware of the fact that we should have a symbiotic kinship with the earth. We are aware of the damage we have done to our home, but too many do not wish to recognize the basis of the problem. As a community we are treating just the symptoms of a disease. We use our technology to analyze problems with air quality. We measure the pollution of our oceans and try to come up with technological methods of solving the problem. While these are certainly positive steps, these "solutions" are just band-aids. This will cause some change and these better decisions are to be encouraged. However, these individual solutions to individual problems are not a big enough solution for such a problem as the long term mistreatment and under appreciation of the earth. In order to truly make the right kind of progress towards preserving our home so that life as we know it can continue, we as a people must do more than change some of our behaviors, we must change our way of thinking. If we change our way of thinking, we will change our approach to the problem of a terribly damaged home. Rather than changing individual behaviors to solve individual problems, a change in mindset will cause overall better decisions regarding the preservation of the place we inhabit, in all aspects of our lives.

We must change our way of thinking