Author of award-winning book, The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times, Anita Sanchez, Ph.D., offers wisdom rooted in an understanding of the interconnection of all life. Her guidance helps us reframe our thoughts on climate change to facilitate personal and collective action.
As indigenous wisdom traditions have known for millennia and scientific research now confirms, we must expand our notion of family and community beyond our several immediate human relatives to include the community of nature for life to thrive.
It’s easy to look at climate change as something that is happening “out there” — somewhere else in the world, to someone else. This new year, I invite you to make climate change, reversing global warming, personal.
See “We” as part of the Earth and intrinsically connected to her seasons, cycles, and rhythms. When we are caught in an “I am separate,” “I am only an individual” mindset, we behave toward the natural world as if we are not connected to it. We act as if it is something to own, use, and dominate, resulting in unlimited resource extraction, pollution of our environment, degradation of our food and water, climate change, the extinction of species, and more.
Thankfully, there is another way to live. We can recognize our innate connection to this one beautiful, life-giving Earth, and we can take steps to become accountable. We can make a difference, starting with ourselves and reaching out to our expanded local communities.
Four tips for reframing our thoughts on climate change and our connection to the environment:
1. Own It
Own the situation at both the micro and macro levels. The way we treat our world reflects the way we treat ourselves and our families. Perhaps you are like me. I like to be informed. I like to consider myself knowledgeable about the basic facts and realities known through and by research, science, informed community leaders, and educators. However, what truly moves me to “own it” are the relationships I have for those I care about. Relationships are important to me; I am especially motivated to act for my spouse/partner and my children’s present and future well-being.
2. Acknowledge Finger Pointing
We are quick to blame “evil” multinational corporations, greedy politicians, powerful media interests, and more. These entities could not exist, though, if we were not complicit. We become complicit by spending our money on products and services from businesses and organizations that use materials and practices that are destroying our Earth’s ecosystem. Take the time to consciously spend your money on products and services that you have researched, to discover whether they are using sustainable materials and practices, repairing and regenerating the earth and the waters through their philanthropic giving. If the answer is no, then point the finger at yourself and decide to change where you allocate your dollars.
3. Connect From the Heart
Reconnect with each other and with the cycles of the natural world, including the flow of the weather and plant and animal behavior. We have a reciprocal relationship with the earth and its plant and animal life. We hurt ourselves and life itself when we don’t honor our relationships. Most of all, though, we must reconnect with our true selves. When we honor the spirit that resides within us, this will be reflected in our external world. It starts and ends with love of life — us, other people, nature, and planet.
4. Get Into Individual and Collective Action
Wisdom keepers and scientists are sharing many ways that we can make an impact through collective action. Our families, churches, communities, and businesses can work in concert with our natural ecological systems as well as with technology and scientific solutions. By cooperating with nature and with each other, we can create a thriving way of life for us, for our children, and for the offspring of all living beings on Earth.
- Reduce food waste. Only take what you need to eat. “A third of the food raised or prepared does not make it from farm or factory to fork … Hunger is a condition of life for 800 million people worldwide … The food we waste contributes 4.4 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere each year — roughly 8 percent of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.” (Drawdown, Paul Hawkins, ed.)
- Consume a mostly plant-based diet. It is estimated that raising livestock contributes to nearly 15 percent of our global greenhouse gases each year, and overconsumption of meat protein leads to health problems including certain cancers, strokes, and heart disease.
- Engage with global initiatives such as Nature Needs Half, Half-Earth, National Geographic’s Campaign for Nature, One Earth, and the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative. Each initiative calls upon us to conserve large connected regions of the Earth’s land, water, and oceans to prevent further destruction and regenerate ecosystems.
- Allow yourself to be inspired by and support the vision and action of youth movements — exemplified by #FridaysforFuture — that provide an opportunity to join young people around the globe in seeking collective action to safeguard our present and future.
Climate change, reversing global warming, is personal. We human beings and nature share only one planet. Embracing our love of life and each other compels us to live in harmony with nature!
About the Author
Being of Aztec and Mexican-American heritage, Anita Sanchez, Ph.D., is a transformational leadership consultant, speaker, coach, and author of the international award-winning book, The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times, Simon & Schuster. She bridges indigenous teachings with the latest science to inspire and equip women and men to enjoy meaningful, empowered lives and careers. For more information, visit FourSacredGifts.com and SanchezTennis.com.