Coping with Global Climate Destabilization, personally

Three things are needed for a person to act:
1. The action has to be effective
2. The actor has to be capable of performing the action
3. The actor has to feel worthy of the consequences of acting

Let’s examine how human beings will have to differ, in order to adjust to be Planetary Managers.

The first step to taking charge of our own evolution is admitting that our current evolutionary design is not optimized to manage our entire planet. Accepting emotionally that, as we are, we’ve failed and will continue to fail to cope with the challenges of keeping Earth livable, leads to depression and inability to act. To admit design failure seems to be admitting failure as human beings. It seems to mean that we don’t deserve a habitable planet because we can’t take care of one (as we are now). In the language of Eric Berne’s Games People Play it seems to be taking the stance “I’m not OK, You’re not OK” which is self-destructive and can’t be maintained.

To understand why this isn’t so, let’s begin with Riane Eisler’s Cultural Transformation Theory. A competitive basis for self-esteem, as in “I’m OK, You’re not OK” or “You’re OK, I’m not OK” or “I’m not OK, You’re not OK” arises from Dominator Culture. Dominator Culture evolved out of our primitive brain hierarchical social instincts. The reptile brain conducts dominance and submission behaviors. Partnership Culture, on the other hand, seems to be based in maternal behavior of the lymbic system, seat of cooperation and nurturance. Only by realizing we’ve been living entirely subsumed by Dominator Culture and grasping the “I’m OK, You’re OK” of Partnership Culture can we build a global society that transcends the limitations of reptile brain socialization.

Once we embrace “I’m OK, You’re OK” emotionally, we’re in a position to ask, with our higher brain, whether the criteria against which we’ve declared ourselves unworthy aren’t impossible. Are we not facing a dilemma that all sentient species that conquer their planets must face? Let’s not compare ourselves presupposing Darwinian competition amidst unlimited natural resources, but compare ourselves in the challenge to transcend our native evolved limits. We have outgrown that Darwinian-instinct-based environment, where predators and temporary localized resource shortages are the main challenges. Now that we’ve conquered our planet, we ourselves are our own worst enemy. Our instincts to overproduce and consume are the real threats.

So let’s feel ourselves on the threshold of every sentient species first great challenge, not as unworthy but as ready to step up to our first self-controlled transformation. It’s time for Humanity 2.0. We need now to work together to find work arounds for each of the evolved limitations that hold us back. We do have tools. We are inventive. Let’s reinvent ourselves.