The Connection between Society, Politics, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
An essay published by the University of California, Davis, describes the connection between greenhouse gas emissions, social relations, and politics. The essay argues that it is not levels of air pollution that dictate gas emissions policies, but rather politics and social relations are the key factors. Since current models take the scientific data into account and ignore the human element that impacts gas emissions, they always get it wrong. In my opinion, the human element is not only crucial, it is the only element that causes environmental damages, since humans are the only element in creation that discharges hate into our world.
If we want to restore Earth’s balance, clear the air, clean the soil, and detoxicate the water, we needn’t worry about the gases we emit, but about the feelings we emit. These are the real pollutants, and these are the ones we need to clean.
Our world is built layer upon layer. At the basis of the pyramid there is the mineral, or inanimate layer. The flora, or vegetative layer, lies on top of it, and the fauna, or animate layer, lies on top of the flora. The human level sits at the top of the pyramid, like the head in a body. For this reason, humanity determines the health and strength of all the layers underneath it.
Among all the layers, there is a carefully kept balance that maintains the thriving of all of nature’s levels. The only exception is the human layer. Humans are filled with hate for one another and seek not only to dominate one another, but to humiliate one another. To achieve their goal, they are willing to use and abuse anyone and anything. In doing so, they throw the entire planetary system off balance.
Humans are worse than anything. They are worse than methane gas, than burning fossil fuels, soiling the sea, polluting the soil, and contaminating the air. Even if we did not limit the use of all the chemicals and CO2 emissions that we pour into the planetary ecosystem, we would still not cause as much damage as we cause by simply spewing hate into the system.
Here is a study that demonstrates it: In 2015, Science magazine published a report about life in the exclusion zone around the defunct nuclear reactor near Chernobyl, which exploded in 1986. After the explosion, the human residents were hurriedly evacuated and an area of 4,200 square kilometers became humans-free. Wild animals became the landlords of the area, and scientists expected that they would either not last, or that they would suffer severe deformation due to the high level of radioactive radiation that remained throughout the area, and still does to this day. Nevertheless, the scientists, who conducted the study from 2008–2010, reported “no evidence of a negative influence of radiation on mammal abundance.”
Moreover, Jim Smith, co-author of the study, said that “When humans are removed, nature flourishes, even in the aftermath of the world’s worst nuclear accident.” Smith also added, “We’re not saying radiation is good for animals, but we’re saying human habitation is worse.”
Therefore, if we want to restore Earth’s balance, clear the air, clean the soil, and detoxicate the water, we needn’t worry about the gases we emit, but about the feelings we emit. These are the real pollutants, and these are the ones we need to clean.
Cleaning up our hearts so they do not emit hate is not easy. It is a serious educational process that we must undertake collectively, understanding that it is our only option if we wish to avoid a global cataclysm.
It is not as if there is no time. The deteriorating climate and the growing pollution are gradual processes. Yet, education, including self-education, is also a gradual process. Therefore, we must be both patient and determined to begin as soon as possible, and not stop until we fundamentally transform how we relate to one another, because only if we uproot the hatred that produces every plight and crisis in our world will we have a future on this planet.