El advenimiento de la Era del Ecozoico, vaticinado por Leonardo Boff - Theologian
One Hope: the Ecozoic Era by Leonardo Boff.
El nacimiento de una nueva Era, El Ecozoico, lo anuncia la actual Era, la Era Antropozoica, mecanicista, utilitarista, antropocéntrica y sin respeto por la Madre Tierra y por los límites de sus ecosistemas, que sólo puede llevar a un impasse peligroso: destruir las condiciones ecológicas que nos permiten mantener nuestra civilización y la vida humana.
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Una esperanza: la Era del Ecozoico
Quien haya leído mi artículo anterior El antropoceno: una nueva era geológica debe haberse quedado desolado. Y con razón, pues intencionadamente quise provocar tal sentimiento. En efecto, la visión del mundo imperante, mecanicista, utilitarista, antropocéntrica y sin respeto por la Madre Tierra y por los límites de sus ecosistemas sólo puede llevar a un impasse peligroso: destruir las condiciones ecológicas que nos permiten mantener nuestra civilización y la vida humana en este esplendoroso Planeta.
Pero como toda realidad tiene dos caras, veamos el lado prometedor de la crisis actual: el nacimiento de una nueva era, el ecozoico. Esta expresión fue sugerida por uno de los más importantes astrofísicos de la actualidad, Brian Swimme, director del Centro para la Historia del Universo del Instituto de Estudios Integrales de California.
¿Qué significa la Era del Ecozoico? Significa colocar lo ecológico como la realidad central a partir de la cual se organizan las demás actividades humanas, principalmente la económica, de tal manera que se preserve el capital natural y se atiendan las necesidades de toda la comunidad de vida, presente y futura. De esto resulta un equilibrio en nuestras relaciones con la naturaleza y la sociedad en el sentido de la sinergia y de la mutua pertenencia dejando abierto el camino hacia adelante.
Vivíamos bajo el mito del progreso. Pero éste se entendía de forma distorsionada, como control humano sobre el mundo no-humano para tener un PIB cada vez mayor. La forma correcta es entender el progreso en sintonía con la naturaleza y medirlo por el funcionamiento integral de la comunidad terrestre. El Producto Interior Bruto no puede ser hecho a costa del Producto Terrestre Bruto. Aqui está nuestro pecado original.
Olvidamos que estamos dentro de un proceso único y universal –la cosmogénesis– diverso, complejo y ascendente. De las energías primordiales llegamos a la materia, de la materia a la vida, de la vida a la conciencia y de la conciencia a la mundialización. El ser humano es la parte consciente e inteligente de este proceso. Es un evento ocurrido en el universo, en nuestra galaxia, en nuestro sistema solar, en nuestro Planeta y en nuestros días.
La premisa central del ecozoico es entender el universo como conjunto de las redes de relaciones de todos con todos: nosotros los humanos somos esencialmente seres de intrincadísimas relaciones. Y entender la Tierra como un superorganismo vivo que se autorregula y continuamente se renueva. Dada la embestida productivista y consumista de los humanos, este organismo ha quedado enfermo e incapaz de «digerir» todos los elementos tóxicos que hemos producido en los últimos siglos. Por ser un organismo, no puede sobrevivir de forma fragmentada sino integral. Nuestro desafío actual es mantener la integridad y la vitalidad de la Tierra. El bienestar de la Tierra es nuestro bienestar.
El objetivo inmediato del ecozoico no es simplemente disminuir la devastación en curso, sino alterar el estado de conciencia responsable de esta devastación. Cuando surgió el cenozoico (nuestra era, hace 66 millones de años) el ser humano no tuvo ninguna influencia en él. Ahora, en el ecozoico, muchas cosas pasan por causa de nuestras decisiones: si preservamos una especie o un ecosistema o los condenamos a la desaparición. Nosotros copilotamos el proceso evolutivo.
En términos positivos, lo que la era del ecozoico pretende a fin de cuentas es alinear las actividades humanas con las otras fuerzas operantes en todo el Planeta y en el Universo, para que se alcance un equilibrio creativo y podamos así garantizar un futuro común. Esto implica otro modo de imaginar, de producir, de consumir y de dar significado a nuestro paso por este mundo. Ese significado no nos viene de la economía sino del sentimiento de lo sagrado ante el misterio del universo y de nuestra propia existencia. Esto es la espiritualidad.
Cada vez más personas se están incorporando a la era del ecozoico. Ella, como se deduce, está llena de promesas. Nos abre una ventana hacia un futuro de vida y de alegría. Necesitamos hacer una convocatoria general para que se generalice en todos los ámbitos y se plasme la nueva conciencia.
Una esperanza: la Era del Ecozoico | Vamos a Cambiar el Mundo 12 Feb 2011 ... Quien haya leÃdo mi artÃculo anterior El antropoceno: una nueva era geológica debe haberse quedado desolado. Y con raz...
vamosacambiarelmundo.org/.../una-esperanza-la-era-del-ecozoico/ - En caché
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Nuestra dificultad es que nos hemos convertido en autistas. Ya no escuchamos a La Tierra, su paisaje, sus fenómenos atmosféricos y todas sus formas de vida. Sus montañas y valles, la lluvia, el viento, y toda la flora y la fauna del planeta nos están hablando. Desde el siglo XVII no hemos oído, no hemos comprendido el mundo interior. Hemos experimentado los fenómenos externos. No hemos tenido entrada en el mundo del significado interior. No hemos oído las voces.
Mientras no hagamos caso, mientras no escuchemosr estas voces y entendamosr lo que nos dicen, nuestras vidas seguirán siendo arrugadas, nuestro juicio absurdo, tan destructivo como el que actualmente se puede observar en lo que hemos hecho a la tierra, el agua , el aire, y las formas de vida de nuestro bello planeta. Debemos apreciar y veneran el planeta si queremos formar una Comunidad Terrestre viable. Thomas Berry
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One Hope: the Ecozoic Era
Leonardo Boff - Theologian - Earthcharter Commission
Anyone who read my previous article, The Anthropocene: a new geologic era, must had been desolate. And rightly so, because I intentionally tried to provoke that feeling. In fact, the prevalent vision of the world, mechanist, utilitarian, anthropocentric and lacking respect for Mother Earth or the limits of her eco-systems can only lead to a dangerous impasse: to destroy the ecological conditions that permit us to maintain our civilization and human life on this splendorous Planet.
But as there are two sides to everything, let us see the promising side of the present crisis: the birth of a new era, the ecozoic era. This name was suggested by Brian Swimme, one of the most important astrophysicists today, director of the Center for the History of the Universe of the Institute of Integral Studies of California.
What does the Ecozoic era mean? It means putting the ecology as the central reality, around which all other human activities, especially the economy, are organized, in such a way that the natural capital is preserved and the needs of all the community of life, present and future, are cared for. This leads to an equilibrium in our relations with nature and society, in the sense of synergy and of mutual belonging that leaves open the path ahead.
We have been living under the myth of progress. But progress was understood in a distorted way, as human control over the non-human world, in order to have an ever growing GNP. The correct form would be to understand progress in harmony with nature and to measure it by the integral functioning of the Earth community. The Gross National Product cannot be increased at the expense of the Gross Earth Product. Here is our original sin.
We forget that we are part of a unique and universal process -cosmogenesis- diverse, complex and ascending. From the primordial energies matter arose, from matter to life, from life to consciousness and from consciousness to universality. The human being is the conscious and intelligent part of this process. It is an event that happens in the universe, in our galaxy, in our solar system, in our Planet and in our days.
The central premise of the ecozoic is to understand the universe as a gathering of the networks of relations among everything: we the humans are essentially beings of very intricate relations. And to understand the Earth as a super living organism that self regulates and is continuously renewing herself. Given the productive and consumerist attacks by humans, this organism is ill and incapable of «digesting» all the toxic elements we have produced in recent centuries. Being an organism, the Earth cannot survive in a fragmented but integral form. Our present challenge is to maintain the integrity and vitality of the Earth. Her well being is our well being.
The immediate objective of the ecozoic is not simply to diminish the ongoing devastation, but to alter the type of consciousness that is responsible for the devastation. When our era, the cenozoic, appeared, (66 million years ago) the human being had no influence over it. Now, in the ecozoic, many things caused by our decisions happen: whether we preserve a species or an ecosystem, or we condemn them to disappear. We are copilots of the process of evolution.
In positive terms, what the ecozoic era seeks, in the end, is to align human activities with the other forces at work in the entire Planet and in the Universe, so that a creative equilibrium may be reached and this way we may be able to guarantee a common future. This implies another way of imagining, of producing, consuming, and of giving meaning to our passing through this world. We do not sense that meaning comes from the economy, but from the feeling of the sacred when we face the mystery of the universe and of our own very existence. That is spirituality.
More and more people are incorporating themselves to the ecozoic era. She, as can be deduced, is filled with promise. She opens to us a window towards a future of life and joy. We need to make a general call that it be incorporated into all fields, and that the new consciousness take concrete form.
Leonardo Boff
02-11-2011
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Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, cybermelinaalfaro@bandalibre.com,
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.
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THE ECOZOIC ERA The first principle of the Ecozoic era is recognizing that the Universe is primarily a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects. ...
www.lightparty.com/Visionary/EcozoicEra.html - En caché - Similares
The Ecozoic Times | The new era of mutually enhancing Human-Earth ... The term "Ecozoic era" was coined by Thomas Berry in conversation with Brian Swimme for their book The Universe Story in order to describe the geologic era ...
ecozoictimes.com/ - En caché
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Ecozoic Era - THE ECOZOIC ERA by Thomas Berry As we think about ... Formato de archivo: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Vista rápida
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The first principle of the Ecozoic era is recognizing that the Universe is primarily a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects. ...
www.earth-community.org/images/The%20Ecozoic%20Era.pdf - Similares
Thomas Berry. "Ecozoic Era" October 1991 : E. F. Schumacher ... We presently face a radical transition in Earth's history. [W]e have already terminated the Cenozoic period of the geo-biological systems of the planet.
www.archive.org › ... › Community Audio - En caché - Similares
Thomas Berry, cultural historian and mystic, a writer whose perceptiveness and eloquence concerning the human relationship with the Earth and the Universe is unique. His seminal works include The Dream of the Earth, The Great Work & The Sacred Universe.
http://www.ecobuddhism.org/files/9612/6883/2166/TB_Desk2_Aug03.jpg
Our difficulty is that we have become autistic. We no longer listen to what the earth, its landscape, its atmospheric phenomena and all its living forms, its mountains and valleys, the rain, the wind, and all the flora and fauna of the planet are telling us. Since the Seventeenth Century we have not heard, we have not understood the inner world about us. We have experienced the external phenomena. We have had no entry into the world of interior meaning. We have not heard the voices.
Until we do listen, until we do hear these voices and understand what they are telling us, our lives will continue to be shrivelled, our judgment as absurd, as destructive as we can presently observe in what we have done to the soil, the water, the air, and the living forms of this loveliest of planets. We will appreciate or revere the planet if we are to form a viable Earth Community. Thomas Berry.
The Universe Story : From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era--A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos [Paperback]
Brian Swimme / Thomas Berry.
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ESSAYS, ARTICLES, REVIEWS AND DISCUSSION GROUPSA Rosetta Stone for the Ecozoic EraBy K. Lauren de Boer
EarthLight Magazine #53, Spring 2005 -- Vol. 14, No. 4
URL: www.earthlight.org/2005/essay53_deboer.html
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For some years now, I’ve had an odd kind of Rosetta stone on my desk. It consists of a crude line drawing of a short-legged horse on a slip of paper tucked inside a small plastic packet. Instead of Egyptian hieroglyphics on basalt, the fibers of the paper hold an entirely different lexicon–the DNA of an actual horse. Written on the paper are the words: "Save the Przewalski’s horse." It was given to me by biologist and geneticist Oliver Ryder [1] after a talk he gave on the status of the horse, an endangered species native to the steppes of Mongolia. As he passed the packets out to everyone in attendance, he ended his presentation by raising the question: "What does it mean that you hold this in your hand?"I sat contemplating the picture of the Przewalski’s horse, sensing at the time that the question held great richness, but having no immediate verbal response. But over time, the presence of the slip of paper on my desk has fostered questions in me, some which go to the heart of human identity on planet Earth today. If the original Rosetta stone gives clues to understanding the human condition, perhaps this "stone" in my hand would yield clues to the paradoxes of species extinction at human hands.
The Mongolian name for the Przewalski’s horse is takhi, which meaning "spirit" or "spiritual." While horses in general are an integral part of the largely semi-nomadic Mongolian culture, the takhi is special and a symbol of their national heritage. Pushed away from scarce watering holes by human activity, the last takhi seen in the Gobi region was in the 1960s. The 1,200 some horses alive today are descendents of 12 individuals captured and bred in zoos. Some have gradually been released back to the wild.[2]
A number of things come to mind now as I contemplate the drawing of the horse in my hand. The fact that it contains DNA attests to the enterprise and creativity of my own species. Our science and technology has allowed us to map the genome of a species, to capture genetic material, to handle it, study it, freeze it, clone it, and now, even market it. We hold the fate of other species in our collective hand. Furthermore, we can reflect on the fact that one species (the human) contemplates another species–wondering, grieving, decrying their demise, aware that we are aware of it all. It’s an amazing thing for a planet to bring forth a species that through choice, can shape its own trajectory. And it’s an awesome responsibility that our choices so deeply shape the fate of other species.
Since I first received the gift of the Przewalski horse from Oliver Ryder, the Human Genome Project achieved its goal of mapping the entire human genome. A discovery resulted from this remarkable accomplishment that will give us all something to ponder for years to come: Our genome is 98.5% identical to that of the chimpanzee; about 60% to that of the fruitfly; and more than 85% of the protein-coding regions of the human and the mouse are identical. The field of "comparative genomics" is now mapping other species for comparison as well. It seems that we truly are kin to other species on Earth and we may have to look beyond the genome to find what makes humans truly unique.
Another reflection: It’s a wonder and a comfort that there are those of us who do care about the fate of the takhi and other threatened species. In fact, we can care enough to collectively enact something like, say, the Endangered Species Act. To work to "save" another being from annihilation at all is an indication of our capacity for compassion beyond our own kind.
I find a strange sense of irony in the thought that takhi means "spirit." This unique and unrepeatable member of the Earth community is almost gone and its wildness has been stripped away by relegating it to "zoo propagation" programs. Just as the horse has been usurped from the wild, pushed to the margins by human activity, we’ve usurped spirituality from the wildness of our souls. One of the strangest, most contradictory phrases of our time, I think, is "secular environmentalist," because anyone working to ameliorate Earth’s destruction today is doing spiritual work.
Reflecting on the "Rosetta stone" of DNA can elicit nothing at all. Or, if we allow ourselves the sensitivity to take in the painful reality of species death, our reflection can lead us to compassionate action.
This action is so urgently needed because our impact on Earth’s great community of life has now reached unprecedented magnitude. Just within the last month, a report commissioned by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), was issued. Involving the work of 1,360 scientists in over 90 countries, it is the most comprehensive survey ever into the state of the planet’s life-support systems. It specifically assesses the impact of ecosystem change on human well-being. The findings, summarized in a statement published by the Board of the MEA, give stark
warning: 60% of Earth’s ecosystem services have been severely degraded; wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries, and other habitats that recycle air, water, and other nutrients for all life are being irretrievably damaged. An estimated 24% of Earth’s land surface in now cultivated. Humans now use between 40%-50% of all available freshwater running off the land. Flows from rivers has been dramatically reduced–for parts of the year, the Yellow River in China,the Nile in Africa, and the Colorado in North America dry up
Earth Mandala with Question Mark
before reachingthe ocean. Species extinction is now up to 1,000 times the normal background rate. A quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested; an estimated 90% of the total weight of the ocean’s large predators–tuna, swordfish, and sharks–has disappeared in recent years. Since 1980, 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world’s coral reefs have been destroyed, and another 20% badly degraded. Nutrient pollution from agricultural runoff has created coastal dead zones; the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, into which the Mississippi flows, measures 7,000 square miles.
Among the key messages of the report is that pressure on ecosystems will increase globally in the coming decades, unless human attitudes and actions change. The report recommends ultimately that a coordinated effort be made internationally to make policy choices that will protect ecosystems.[3]
It’s unlikely, however, that simply making the right policy choices will be enough. Two more fundamental shifts are required as well: a values change that honors the spiritual, psychological, and aesthetic value of preserving the diversity of life; and a shift of control from the unhealthy alliance of multinational corporations and governments toward empowerment of local communities. Since local communities are often the guardians of spiritual values as well as natural resources, these two overlap.
Our world economy today is primarily driven by market forces and greed. It tries to sell us the lie that we find joy at the mall and our deepest needs for love, meaning, and connection can be met by purchasing the newest product.
It’s past time to embrace a vision more worthy of the human spirit. And it’s within the context of community that we will find practices that will embed a more joyful vision into our hearts and minds.
I feel that to practice spiritual ecology is to live community in the deepest sense. Through this practice, we affirm the best of our science and honor the intelligence of our spirit. The articles in this issue of EarthLight explore the meaning of community in a larger sense and in the long-term. Nina Simons (page 8) writes of the relational intelligence we’ve largely forgotten in a culture that’s tipped toward rationality as the measure of all knowledge. John Seed (page 10) reminds us that living in words is not enough–we need ritual practiced in community to truly shift our deepest biases against other life and move beyond anthropocentrism. Mary Gomes (page 14) gives us a powerful ritual that enables us to collectively grieve the passage of lost species. Elizabeth Carothers Herron’s gifts us with a beautiful essay on how Grace might emerge when we open our sensitivities to other species. Diane Pendola end the section with a reflection on how Earth liturgy can join us again to the "great communion of being." Articles by Paula Gonzalez, Cindy Spring, Diana Leafe Christian, and Aliyah Meena Shanti, all give us inspiring examples of communities taking root and taking action to defend, foster, and learn from the Earth. We end with Sharon Abercrombie’s powerful story on Dorothy Stang, someone who gave her life in defense of the poor and the rainforest. We dedicate this issue to her memory and spirit.
In kindred spirit,
K. Lauren de Boer, Editor, EarthLight Magazine
klauren@earthlight.org
Notes:
1. Oliver A. Ryder heads the Genetics Division at the Zoological Society of San Diego. He also directs the "Frozen Zoo," a unique genetic resource bank.2. Meadows, Robin, "Takhi: The Last Wild Horse," The Zoogoer, Smithsonion National Zoological Park, Sept./Oct., 1997.
3. A copy of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and a summary report from its board, "Living Beyond Our Means: Natural Assets and Human Well-being" can be downloaded at www.millenniumassessment.org.
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