The New Ecozoic Reader No. 4

Talks on the environment often tell the story of decline in the health of the biosphere and of more trouble to come. I have given such talks, and in the Q&A period following the talks, almost always someone asks, “Do you have hope?”  Until recently, I dismissed this question because it seemed beside the point—whether I had hope or not wouldn’t change the situation one way or another. If I did respond I would do so by asking, “Does that really matter? Do you have hope?”

We use the term ecozoan to describe those who are lovers of life, feel-think with Earth community, and seek the wisdom of the lifeworld. We also use it to identify those who are committed to the realization of the Ecozoic era, in other words to Thomas Berry’s Great Work.  It seems though that some ecozoans…

I met Thomas Berry for the first time in the 1980s at a conference at the Chinook Learning Community on Whidbey Island in Washington State (now the Whidbey Institute). It was my first trip outside of New England and I had just started publishing my newsletter, Catalyst, which focused on community-based economics. My passion ultimately took me deeper into what I called Gaian Economics, and meeting Thomas played a key role in the evolution of my work.

The biggest threat Gaia faces today is the seemingly unlimited power of corporations. Literally every challenge we face—from addressing and mitigating climate change to the degradation of ecosystems, and overdevelopment resulting in losses of open space, agricultural land, and forests—is connected to corporations that have more money and legal power than citizens.

The other day I went for a walk with a friend in my town of fifty in Montana. “I’ve got to be back in an hour,” she said. “I’ve got bread rising.” That simple comment struck me. Time. How different it is when measured by the rising of bread. Organic time. When the soil is ready for planting or when it is time to harvest. Calving time. Sheep shearing time.

This portion of this Reader is on Ecozoic Wisdom Circles. There is a hymn by Harry Emerson Fosdick written in 1930 called “God of Grace and God of Glory.” The hymn is a prayer in which people pray for wisdom and courage. Here are words from the hymn that I often recall:

Supporting One Another as We Learn to Foster New Relationships with Our Living Earth and Humankind

Dialogue can open us to a deeper collective inquiry into our own thinking processes and the nature of thought itself. It can also open us to our own inner wisdom as we inquire together into the heart of what matters to us.

Conversation techniques via the “ACQUITS” acronym.

Di Shearer lives in South Australia. She holds four graduate degrees— PhD, DMin, MEd, and MA (theology). She is a spiritual director and a guide to wisdom practices. What follows would be introduced by a short cover letter or email inviting people to join Eco-Zoic Wisdom Circles.

In a small group (min 3, max 6), we will share insights into where we have come from, how we are applying a deep time and eco-zoic perspective to our everyday lives, and what intentions we are setting for a future within our fragile economic, ecological, and ethical contexts.

Based on a combination of Thomas’s vision for the reinvention of the human presence on the Earth for a mutually enhancing relationship with other life forms and life systems and my Uncle Jim Berry’s circulars from the Center for Reflection on the Second Law (of Thermodynamics), I for the past decade have led a study group called “Seedbearers: Living between the No Longer and the Not Yet.”

The key question for CES for the five-year period that began in 2021 is “How are we—especially we of the Global North—to live well with Earth and all her beings so as to bring about a principled transition to an ecological age?” To respond to this question, we (especially we of the Global North) need to learn to live artfully and skillfully within Earth Community.

The terms “Global North” (or simply “North”) and “Global South” (or simply “South”) are not strictly geographic terms. Some of the Global North countries— such as Australia and New Zealand—are in the Southern Hemisphere, and many of the Global South countries are located in the Northern Hemisphere.

Gustavo Esteva and his co-authors in The Future of Development: A Radical Manifesto call for change in the Global North from the perspective of those in the Global South. They only spoke on behalf of the people of the Global South but we of CES include oppressed species and ecosystems as part of the Global South.