We have not passed the point of no return in relation to climate change because we have never been in a state where we could “return” to begin with. Why? It’s because our ego, our desire to enjoy at the expense of others, won’t let us. It tries to exploit nature to the very last drop. If it sees a profit motive, then it runs to make that profit, stepping on everyone and everything—including nature—in order to do so.
Ecologically dystopian scenarios such as earthquakes burying us in rubble, or volcanic lava toppling us, or a tsunami flushing us away come closer to being people’s visions of what could very well take place if we don’t do something about it. The thought that we won’t face such scenarios in our lifetime somewhat calms us down. However, it’s a pity that our grandchildren have increased chances of facing such scenarios, so we generally don’t think about them either.
Therefore, in relation to the ecology, out of a lack of options, we continue business as usual. We still do not know how to work with nature. If we knew exactly how nature works and what ecological balance truly depends on, then we would be able to take the necessary steps to reach ecological stability.
Nature has four levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate and human. Every subsequent level is greater than and controls the level before it. For instance, the inanimate level preserves form, and the vegetative level, using the inanimate level as its foundation, grows from it. Likewise, the animate level consumes from the vegetative level in order to survive.
The human level is the greatest and most influential of all levels, bringing about the greatest changes in nature. For the time being, those changes are negative, but they can be positive. However, it doesn’t work as is commonly thought, by acting to save the ecology, whether it be saving trees, or saving a certain species of animal, or stopping the pollution of oceans or the air, or a myriad amount of other actions we do in order to try and be more ecologically friendly. No such actions will help the ecology, because they do not touch on the ecology’s causal problem.
Where, then, is the root problem with the ecology? The problem is with human beings, or more succinctly, how we relate to each other.
Changing nature to a positive course can be done only at the human level. This does not mean that we should act toward the lower levels of nature: inanimate, vegetative and animate. On the contrary, all we need to work on in order to bring about a new level of ecological balance is to repair connections at the human level itself. It is a grave mistake to think that we would cause some kind of positive environmental effect by stopping to burn fuel, or stopping to dump garbage into the ocean, or stopping to use pesticides, or many other actions we do toward nature’s lower levels.
Even if tomorrow the whole of humanity would stop polluting the environment, we would nevertheless continue seeing ecological disasters hitting us left, right and center. It is because, above the ecological level, human relations—the most influential aspect of nature—would remain broken. Our exploitative, manipulative and abusive relations to each other would continue causing negative ripples throughout nature, feeding back to us with nature’s negative response.
Therefore, only the correction of human relations can bring about balance between us and with the ecology.
Then the question arises: If we would aim for a positive emotional connection to one another, would this mean that, in parallel, we should nevertheless do such actions as using less fuel and the many actions ecologists recommend?
The answer is no.
There would be no need. Why? It’s because nature, at a higher level, would take care of all these phenomena. The principle here is that nature’s higher level corrects all corruptions of its lower levels. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, this principle is called “love covers all transgressions.”
Each level in nature is considered as higher or lower in terms of whether it is a more or less influential part of the system. The human level, thus, is the most influential level in the entire system of nature. It covers the lower levels and receives everything they have, both positive and negative. Therefore, as human beings, we absorb everything we have done on this planet on the inanimate, vegetative and animate levels, and in order to bring about balance, we need to rise to a higher level and stimulate balance from there. Balance at the higher level is positive human connections, i.e. that we reach nothing less than love for one another. Implementing positive human connections is all we need to in order to bring about a better world in every respect.
Since we currently have corrupt attitudes to each other, where we relate to each other through a constant egoistic lens—self-benefit at the expense of others—then we cannot fix anything at the inanimate, vegetative nor animate levels, because we simply input our egoistic attitude into the system, and it feeds back negatively toward us. By investing in the human level alone, i.e. in positive human connections, we also activate the quickest and most dynamic change possible: the moment we cause a positive change in human relations, the lower levels of nature will experience immediate positive effects.
Here, we reach one more question that I’d like to address: Do we need to all reach harmonious human relations right away, or is it enough for us to have a tendency toward positive connections? For instance, let’s say that 100km away from where I am now, there is a point that has “love your friend as yourself” written on it. If I start moving toward that target, which is 100km away, then even by making the first tiniest step toward it, still with 100km to go, I already impact a change in the entire natural system. Why? It is because I changed my attitude.
By changing my attitude to nature, i.e. by wanting to relate to nature globally and integrally, as a unified system, and with a loving and caring attitude, then even though I only slightly set off a trigger in that direction, I nevertheless activated the entire system toward a direction of positive unification. Nothing else is demanded of us.
We need only deal with human relations. We don’t need to be concerned with the inanimate, vegetative and animate levels of nature. They will all work out and respond harmoniously to us when we reach harmonious connections among each other. Therefore, all we need is the kind of education and influences to set us on the course to achieve positive human connection, and we’ll then be able to enjoy a harmonious life, balanced with nature on all of its levels.