Moving Back From Midnight | Working Together to Save Our Planet
A great deal of environmental destruction has occurred, and more damage is inevitable as the momentum of previous human actions exacts its appalling toll. Yet, while many calamities are unavoidable, there is still a glimmer of hope that we can still mitigate the damage and start to slow and turn back the clock from arriving at that prophetic moment. If we have the will to do so, we can still build an amazing and sustainable future.
Previous civilizations have collapsed due to ecological disasters, and we now stand on the brink of a series of global environmental cataclysms that humans have never before experienced. A victim of our own brilliantly reckless ingenuity, we have made a Faustian bargain, trading the modern, yet destructive, technological present for a shattered and dying world filled the toxic remnants of that resourceful hubris. The disturbing truth is that for centuries humans have been altering the environment of the only home they have known, making it less capable of supporting terrestrial life. This de-terraforming has accelerated at a breakneck pace as technology, globalism, and populations have exploded. Greed and rabid consumerism drive a relentless global machine that churns through the planet’s limited resources at an unsustainable pace while enslaving millions to provide products to the more fortunate of the world.
In 1947 the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock, which symbolizes the likelihood of a civilization-ending human-created global catastrophe. In that year, the clock was set to seven minutes to midnight, and while that forecast has fluctuated over the years, it has never strayed far from the fateful midnight hour. We are now on a trajectory that is almost certain to end with the clock reaching that fatal apocalyptic hour collapsing human civilization and much of the life on the planet along with it. Yet, while many calamities are unavoidable, there is still a glimmer of hope that we can still mitigate the damage and start to slow and turn back the clock from arriving at that prophetic moment. If we have the will to do so, we can still build an amazing and sustainable future.
Roman Bystrianyk
Roman Bystrianyk co-authored with Suzanne Humphries, Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History. Roman has an extensive background in health and nutrition, a B.S. in engineering, and an M.S. in computer science
Kathryn Schmutter, Bsc
Kathryn Schmutter has a B.S. in Conservation Biology and Environ-mental Management. Kate owns her own natural medicine clinic where she is a Counsellor and Naturopath with an M.S. in Counselling as well as advanced diplomas in Naturopathy, Nutritional Medicine, Western Herbal Medicine, and Homeopathy.
The chapters detail the problems we all face. But with every issue, there are multiple solutions we can all implement. At the end of each chapter, there are actions listed that we can all take on an individual basis to make a difference—to change course and create a sustainable world. And what may be surprising is that many of these changes will lead you to be healthier and happier—something everyone wants.