Don’t worry, this isn’t about Brexit. Rather, a TED talk by Eileen Crist on ‘confronting anthropocentrism’ which considers the need to change our engagement with the world if we are to make it to the ever elusive sustainability.Â
However, unlike much of the discourse on sustainability, which can feel shrill and hammering, this was a quiet invitation to recalibrate – even reinvent – civilization in ways which would incidentally elevate our own experience of it.Â
The tone of the talk was striking in that it encouraged us to step as much towards a positive existence as away from the negative and dire consequences of human profligacy piling up around and ahead of us.Â
Crist refers to this potential evolution as one of ‘uncharted coexistence’, and one slide stood out as a concise and compelling preamble to an Uncharted Coexistence Manifesto:
- Earth is a community of unique and exquisite beings, places, and cultures
- The planet inhabited with respect is abundant and ravishing
- The natural world abounds in diverse forms of intelligence and awareness
When was the last time you read something on sustainability that used words such as ‘exquisite’, ‘abundant’ and ‘ravishing’?Â
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Source: Eileen Crist, TED Talk on ‘Confronting Anthropocentrism’
Photo credits: Talaverabeads and pascalwiemers at pixabay.com
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