Where to from now? Anthropocene Epoch review from the lens of our pandemic

G’day & Chao (hello in Vietnamese),

I am re-reading and reviewing my reflections of my writing almost exactly 4 years ago...

The air is becoming more mild and warmer. The smell of flowers and grass. Spring has finally arrived in Melbourne! (funny that I am reading this in the exact season I am currently here in #lockdown 6.0).

Backstory of my journal below:

1. I was coming fresh out of the boat at university in 2017. I finally had my first whiff of freedom out of tertiary education. I felt a surge of energy, drive and self-motivation to soak in any experience that could help me sane to start my career #failedarchitect.

2. During that time, I graduated majoring in Sustainable/Environmental Design and was hungry to listen and be part of the conversation about climate change and environmental issues.

3.This period of life was the beginnings of exploring social and spiritual beliefs and philosophies. I was connecting and conversing with many Christian youth groups, churches and practices (can share for another story at another time....) In this case below, I wanted to learn and understand how a Christian/biblical view of creation, care and the environment can touch upon our role as citizens, leaders in the community and our own personal actions and views of our natural environment #environmentalethics

Here we go...

I rocked up to the talk in the evening of one Monday.

The church was camouflaged behind the cityscape buildings. The meeting room felt nice and cosy and next to the chapel. The main speaker was David Horrell, a Professor in ‘New Testament’ studies in England. He has written a book called:

The Bible & The Environment: Towards a Critical Ecological Biblical Theology.

The event was a discussion based from the book Defiant Earth by Clive Hamilton. Have you read this? And have you heard of the Anthropocene?

He critiqued that:

Hamilton (author) did not address or highlight the ethics involved in society and did not paint a vision of our role on how humans can grapple with climate change and our personal actions that are affecting Earth's atmosphere, surface and oceans #AnthropoceneEpoch.

He proposed:

1. VALUES

- Howell emphasised moving beyond our ‘morals' to calling for a holistic response. i.e animals, the local ecosystems across the world and its totality.

2. ACTION (radical)

- Decarbonise our systems (economic & consumption) eg. reduce animal agriculture(methane levels) and oil in industries.

Let's have an insight to the other speaker - Jonathan Keren Black.

Jonathan is part of ARRCC (Australian Religious Response to Climate Change). ARRCC is a multifaith network committed to action on climate change.

I was delighted when Jonathan gave a Rabbinical interpretation(from his Jewish faith) on this issue:

“Humans are responsible to take care of the Earth.”

He proposed a more collective approach:

1. Change our MEDIA:

Jonathan argues that we shouldn’t use advertisements built for ‘coveting’ purposes i.e luring people for consumption...

He said: "If we apply advertisements in trying to influence people to do or buy something, it should be now used to help the issue of climate change."

His suggestions:

1. Eating less meat

(He noted that it is hard in some countries like China & India where middle class is adopting a more Western diet including meat in their daily lives).

2. Shift from ‘interfaith’ to ‘interbelief’

People may be turned off by the word ‘faith’ - ‘interbelief’ gives a more ‘universal’ and ‘open’ community of people who want to learn about values we can all work towards -

'Collective Consciousness’ - the interconnectedness of everything.

3. The need for more personal stories and experiences

I think we all know that preaching, doctrines and putting each other into categories does not help build movements together to help fight with the existing systems and polices of the government.

How can we engage and create/drive change to talk more about the interconnections between faith & the natural environment? What if someone like me is not from the Christian faith who would like to participate in the conversation?

How do we connect with people from fields of work related to the studies of the ‘Anthropocene?’ Eg. community leaders, researchers, sociologists and farmers?

Let's transport back in time for a second.

In 2017, four years ago, pre-COVID19 life in society... we worked towards the question:

“WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HUMAN AND RESPONSIBLE TOWARD A DEEP FUTURE?”

Now, as we are IN THE FUTURE... can we re-frame this question to something like this:

What can we reflect, learn, understand on a personal psyche level of our relationship between Earth before taking collective action?

What words, language, tone or images best help reach people to think about ourself, our relationships with our neighbour/friends and with the Earth? #storytelling

I am constantly reminded about the power of ‘art’ to move and connect people! We need more stories.

~~

Reflections during lockdown amidst this pandemic:

-There was a lack of an Indigenous speaker or Elder to shed light in the talk The Earth's systems is connected to the land, water, ground and systems and there is no better knowledgeable influencer than our Aboriginal people. Our First Peoples of Australia need a platform to enlighten our European population, migrants, immigrants and second generation young citizens like me on this matter.

-Can we still repair our relationship with nature? Of course. I am learning to nurture and take care of my parents' plants in our front yard. I am learning about the process, patience and power of trusting in the season of time and action before judging, acting and reacting.

-What is the meaning behind the pandemic? Juju personally would like to share this insight from our Mother Earth's perspective: Mother Earth is calling each human individual to go back to the roots and re-learn about our origins and what life is really about.

I will leave you all to ponder on our past wants and intentions before this pandemic... I am still cleaning out my life as I am learning to re-build my relationships with my parents, re-connect with my body #selfcare and as I sign off here, outside my window is the rain pouring on our dragonfruit tree.

Grey skies and rain can look gloomy but the deep cleaning process can help reveal and cleanse ourselves to move forward.

Our natural seasons and Earth is a great teacher indeed.

~~

The next post will be Part 2 of the Anthropocene and I will break down this term philosophically, spirituality, socially...

Until then, Chao! (also goodbye in Vietnamese)