Saving The Earth - Our Urgent Priority

Our planet and its ability to sustain life is under threat. We need to make unprecedented changes in our way of living in order to avoid an ecological catastrophe. But with the co-operation of all of us, it can be done. Here is an invitation from Insight Timer Teacher Tony Brady for us to work together as never before in the interests of our children and grandchildren. This is a battle for the future of the world as we know it. Let us pull together as one.

Transcript

Dear friends,

A quote attributed to Chief Seattle Teach your children what we have taught our children,

That the earth is our mother.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth.

If men spit upon the ground they spit upon themselves.

This we know.

The earth does not belong to us,

We belong to the earth.

This we know.

All things are connected like the blood that unites one family.

All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth.

We did not weave the web of life,

We are merely a strand in it.

Whatever we do to the web we do to ourselves.

Words of Chief Seattle.

In this talk I would like us to reflect on the good earth,

To reflect on the interconnectedness of all existence,

And to give thanks for the web of life that sustains us all.

I'd like each of us to resolve to play our part in protecting our planet as a habitable place for humanity,

And for the creatures and plants with whom we share this fascinating place.

But first a few moments to allow ourselves to come into the present,

To bring body and mind together into that rare alignment that we so often lose in the rush of the day.

Maybe closing our eyes,

Breathing in the good air from the only place in our solar system that has good air.

Maybe letting it out with a sigh and letting go of all stress and worry as we breathe out.

Donating our exhaled air to the plants who will recycle it and send it back as oxygen in this amazing circle of life.

I invite each of us to set an intention for the duration of this talk.

Feel free to select an intention of your own.

I dedicate this time to the many people who are working to raise awareness of how precious is this planet that we call home.

On the 14th of February 1990,

After nearly 13 years in space,

The Voyager 1 spacecraft was 6 billion kilometers from the Earth.

The pale blue dot is a well-known photograph of our planet taken on that day by that amazing spacecraft still continuing its steady journey through the outer solar system and headed for interstellar space.

The photo was taken when the spacecraft was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and take one last photograph of Earth at the request of astronomer and author Carl Sagan.

In the photograph,

Earth's apparent size is less than one pixel.

The planet we call home appears as a tiny dot against the vastness of space among bands of sunlight reflected by the camera.

Describing what he called the pale blue dot,

Carl Sagan had this to say.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.

In our obscurity,

In all this vastness,

There is no hint that help will come to us from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

It is up to us.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and a character-building experience.

He goes on,

To my mind there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.

To me,

It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and to cherish that pale blue dot,

The only home we've ever known.

Words of Carl Sagan.

And here we are today on that pale blue dot.

It has been said we have not inherited the Earth from our parents.

We have borrowed it from our children.

This quote reminds us that our actions today and our failure to act today have consequences that reach far into the future.

Our children will be the people who will have to live with the effects of what we do or what we fail to do.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported in the autumn of 2018.

It tells us that rapid and unprecedented action is required if the planet is to stay within a 1.

5 degree Celsius increase in temperatures when compared with the pre-industrial levels.

So we have to look at our emissions in 2010 and in the next 11 years,

By 2030,

We have to reduce those emissions by 45%.

The report tells us that limiting global warming to an increase of 1.

5 degrees will require rapid,

Far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society,

Including the way we manage our energy,

Our industry,

Our buildings,

Our transport and our cities.

Even now we can see the devastating effects of the current state of global warming,

Even at our existing 1 degree increase.

So what are we to do?

Forced with this challenge,

There is a danger that we might be tempted to despair and to feel that nothing can be done.

It is true that the UN report shows that never before in the history of the world have we been called upon to make such rapid changes in the way we manage our lives.

But working together,

And provided all of us work together,

Each and every one of us,

It can be done and it must be done.

This is a moral and a spiritual obligation.

Our meditation,

Our entry into a period of quiet,

Helps us to see things as they are and prompts us to act where we can act.

Hardly anyone would set out to deliberately kill or injure or starve people or to force them out of their own homes.

But our failure to act to protect the environment will have that effect.

It will kill and injure people.

It will starve people and it will force millions of climate refugees to flee their homes.

The crisis we have seen in the Mediterranean will be nothing by comparison with what lies ahead of us if we fail to act.

Our problem is that each person thinks that his or her contribution will make no difference.

Of course it is true that one person's contribution to either the problem or the solution makes very little difference.

But just consider our numbers.

If we could mobilize a good proportion of our 7.

7 billion people to action,

We could make a huge difference.

We have the numbers.

And all of us,

People of goodwill,

Must dedicate ourselves to a way of life that has less impact on the planet.

Each of us must then pass on this message to as many people as we can,

With instructions to pass it on and on and on urgently.

How can we do this?

We live in a world where an idea can arise today and go global and be taken up by millions of people in a matter of days.

We have opportunities as never before to mobilize the whole world in a common endeavor.

And there are good news stories to encourage us.

Here are a couple of examples.

The Save the Seas from Plastics campaign is gaining momentum everywhere.

There's now a global feeling that we cannot allow plastic pollution to continue.

In Africa,

Work is in progress on the Great Green Wall.

This will be a wall of trees 15 kilometers wide and nearly 8 000 kilometers long,

Stretching from the Atlantic right through to the Indian Ocean.

The Great Green Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet,

Three times the size of the Great Barrier Reef.

To save the planet as a habitable place,

We need everyone,

Every single person,

To be as motivated to work together in the same way as you would see people working together in a time of war.

Because this is nothing less than a war to save this planet as a habitable place for our children.

So what can we do as individuals?

Our problem has to do with our insatiable demand for more and more energy.

We have to remind ourselves that every single thing we do or buy costs energy.

What we need to do,

Every one of us,

Is to reduce the amount of energy that is required to support our lifestyle.

Our daily individual decisions all add up,

All 7.

7 billion of us.

But I'll mention just one area which is our buying decisions.

Everything we buy requires energy all along the way.

Energy in gathering or mining the materials,

Energy and water in the production of the goods,

Energy in producing the packaging,

Energy in getting the goods to the shops,

Then to us,

Energy in our use of the goods and finally energy in the disposal and recycling of them.

This is not a recommendation that we go back to the Stone Age,

But our purchasing requires more careful consideration than we usually give it.

This is a moral rather than just an economic problem.

We are bombarded with advertising all the time and it can lead us to losing the distinction between what we really need and what we are being encouraged to want.

Just because something is available doesn't mean that we have to have it.

And just because something is a bargain or on special offer doesn't mean that we have to buy it.

And when we do buy something that we really need we should try to make use of it to the end of its useful life.

We are not just spending our own money.

Every time we put our hands in our wallets we are making a withdrawal from a sustainability bank that is the property of our children.

So we need to think before we buy.

This applies to food as well.

We should buy only the food that we will use.

It's horrifying to read that roughly one third of all the food produced in the world gets lost or wasted.

We should support local industry and local food producers where possible.

It takes a lot of energy to get products flown and shipped across the world if they can be produced locally.

And just think of our single-use plastics.

According to the USA branch of Greenpeace,

Drinks companies produce over 500 billion single-use plastic bottles annually.

That's 500,

000 million.

There's no way we can recycle our way out of a problem of that scale.

So we need to get to the source of the problem and slow down the production of all this plastic waste.

If your home was flooding because you'd left the tap on your first step wouldn't be to start mopping up.

Your first step would be to cut off the flooding at its source by turning off the tap.

Could each of us listening to this talk resolve never again from this minute onwards to buy drinks in a plastic bottle?

Could we do it?

Could you do it?

Isn't it worth a try?

Yes it is difficult,

Hard to get around.

Think of all the soft drinks,

Even water itself.

Our parents would turn in their graves if they saw us use bottled water,

When we could install a filter on the cold water supply,

If that was necessary.

And we could easily buy a refillable bottle and use it again and again.

If we all refused to buy drinks in plastic bottles,

The manufacturers wouldn't sell their drinks in plastic bottles.

That's just a case of the simple law of supply and demand.

You drink the contents in five minutes and the bottle lasts 450 years.

That can't go on.

Two-thirds of the earth is covered by water,

But vast as the oceans are,

They are polluted with plastic even in places where people have never been.

Microplastics are getting into the food chain,

They're being eaten by fish and by ourselves.

And what about our love of disposable cups?

We could all easily refuse these.

Every year,

100 billion disposable cups are used just once and then discarded.

And of course for reasons of health and safety,

The one-use cups have compulsory plastic lids that will last for centuries.

All for the convenience of having a coffee on the go,

When we could easily make use of reusable cups of our own.

When people come to pass judgment on our throwaway age,

I think they'll find no better symbol than the image of a man and a woman running with plastic bottle and coffee cup in hand.

This is the image of a society mindlessly rushing to its own self-destruction.

So the message is clear.

Each of us can and each of us must now play our part and respond to this urgent call from the UN.

And if each of us could even get 10 people to do the same,

And if each of the 10 did likewise,

Just think of the difference it would make.

It has been said that no force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.

And this is an idea whose time has surely come.

We already see the effects of climate change.

Nature is giving us a warning.

Mega storms,

Devastating floods,

Wildfires caused by extreme summer heat and spontaneous combustion.

Every fire causing the dial to move up another fraction on the planet's thermometer.

We are in real danger of passing a tipping point that will make recovery impossible.

According to the World Wildlife Fund Living Planet Report 2018,

On average we've seen a 60% decline in the size of populations of mammals,

Birds,

Fish,

Reptiles and amphibians in just over 40 years.

40 years and a 60% decline.

And at the important bottom of the food chain,

Insects are disappearing.

In just three decades insect populations in German nature reserves have plummeted by more than 75%.

30 years and a 75% decline.

These figures have given rise to warnings of a pending ecological Armageddon.

Naomi Klein in her book This Changes Everything,

Capitalism versus the Climate,

Calls these increasing natural disasters a civilization wake-up call.

She says we are left with a stark choice.

Allow climate disruption to change everything about our world or change pretty much everything about our economy to avoid that fate.

She goes on but we need to be very clear because of our decades of collective denial no gradual incremental options are now available to us.

Climate change will not put an end to the earth.

The earth has undergone huge changes before ever human beings emerged.

But runaway climate change would mark the end of civilized human life as we have known it.

We owe it to our children and to our grandchildren to act together to see that we in this generation are not the cause of such a catastrophe.

We still have the opportunity to avert this,

Just about.

The time for talking and debating and arguing about who is right and who is wrong and who should do what is long over.

The time for action is now.

And Frank says how wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world and that is what each of us is called to do.

This call to action is not only for the benefit of distant future generations important as that is.

Our failure to act will leave our innocent children and grandchildren struggling to survive in a very inhospitable world.

The message of this talk can be summed up in three words use less energy.

Finally there's a Cree prophecy which gives us hope when the earth is sick and dying there will come a tribe of people from all races who will put their faith in deeds not words and make the planet green again.

May it be us.

May it be.

Namaste.

Reviews

That wasn't relaxing to hear, but it was what I needed to hear.

Oh Tony such a vitally important message delivered so well. We must all act in some way now

Thank you for a very important talk reminding us individual souls that Mother Earth is in need of us to help her thrive happily and in short as per your words ‘use less energy’ is vitally crucial to protect our Divine Earth for our children & future generations.🙏🏻👨‍👩‍👧🧒👧🏼👩‍👦👪👩‍👩‍👦👦👩‍👩‍👧🤰❣️

Respect, love, care and generosity are needed from all of us - Savingv OUR planet Earth should BE our PRIORITY in our daily sacred life 🙏🤍🌏🌻❤️🕊️🌐🙏🏻

Thank you 🙏🏻🌐

Thank you so much for this, I will share this talk & hope those who really need to hear it will listen & take action. 💚

A call to action right now, right this moment. Let's do it. Let's commit. Let's commit to change our behavior and continue to improve the choices that we make. Thanks for the passionate kick in the butt.

Thank you! Listened with my 8 year old daughter. Lots of fear arose for both of us. At the same time, HOPE. We declared that we would never again support/use/buy plastic bottles/cups etc. We will put together a certificate of sorts and find ten friends and family members ( each) to sign the « no more plastic « campagne. She will go to school armed with facts of the problem AND the solution. Together, we stand for TEAM PLANET aka Mother GAIA
PS Love your style of narration, incorporating quotes, facts, music. As mentioned many times before, your voice , it’s tempo, incredibly peaceful, creating a safe space every time I sit to meditate with you. With gratitude and hope , namaste

Thank you for taking the time to remind us that we all need to be working together on solving our biggest problem which is climate change… I don't use a lot of plastic but I do shop away from home way too often… And probably buy way more than I need...I will work on that thank you

Eloquent and important discussion🙌🌎👫🌲👭🌳👬🐬👫🐞👭🦅👬🦋👶☮️🌈🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟BE the change NOW for a sustainable future for all living beings‼️🌅💓

Put our faith in deeds not words and make our planet green again
Thank you 🙏

“Put your faith in deeds, not words.” Let’s focus on action, direct our energy toward making big changes- not only on a personal level at home, but by speaking out at work as well. 🙏🏻

The words I needed to hear, thank you

Thank you Tom for putting all this wisdom together in this talk, we need the words of Chief Seatle and the vision of Carl Sagan in this time when the prophecy of the Cree eventually will come to be on our deeply loved Earth. Namaste 🤍🌎🌈

Thank you so much for these words full of support. Every day I struggle to see what's going on around me, but still I have the will to plant physical and literally seeds V🌱gan 💝🐾 Namaste

Thank you for this reminder that we’re all in it together and that we cannot survive without taking good care of Mother Earth! 🙏

Really powerful talk Tony. Thank you so much. The time for action is now to protect the beautiful planet earth, our mother earth, source of all life. This talk is good because it is very honest about the crisis we are facing yet it also remains hopeful if we all work together. Namaste. Anna

I love your talks and meditations, mr. Brady. This one is stellar. Thank you.

I love this message and I will Be playing it forward. Thank you!

Thank you for spreading these wise and important words!

Always good 🙏🏻❤️ thank you Tony for the reminder we have the future in our hands.

Thank you for sharing these wise words.
I am reminded that it is through each of our own individual intentions, words and actions that we influence others and bring about change in others, whether we notice our influence or not is not important.
It is a daily challenge and also a blessing for me to learn to be mindfully present, 100% committed and uphold forgiveness, trust and non judgement.
I feel much gratitude that Insight Timer platform enables insights and connections with others spread all over the planet on similar journeys with similar intentions. Blessings to all. 🙏🏽