GEOCENTRISM
Whether you are:
a devout believer in religion (any religion),
an open-minded agnostic,
or a confirmed atheist,
there is one thing every human can and must agree upon …
We must not destroy our world.
To bring together the diverse people of the world in this common goal, a unifying philosophy is needed …
GEOCENTRISM: a view in which the earth is considered center, also called sustainable geocentrism.
This view is a metaphor, not to be confused with historic geocentrism, the pre-16th century view of the solar system/universe in which everything was thought to literally revolve around the earth at the center, or modern geocentrism, the religion-based continuation of that belief into modern times. Sustainable geocentrism is a perspective in which the health of the earth and all of its inhabitants is viewed as central in our lives, and all decisions and actions in life are made in a manner that ensures the earth’s healthy persistence. It is the exact opposite of egocentrism, in which the wants of the individual are considered central in life, at the expense of all else. Myopic greed is the central tenet of the egocentric view of life, with the common result of long-term damage to the planet for short-term pleasures. Sustainable geocentrism is the philosophy (spiritual or secular, depending on the individual) celebrating life to ensure the persistence of mankind and all life on earth. By placing the integrity of the planet over that of the individual, geocentrism ensures the lives of all species and the world that sustains them.
Rationale: It is not demonstrably clear how this world came to be. Perhaps it is the result of relatively recent intelligent design, whereby God created the planet and all forms of life as we see them today. Or perhaps it is the result of an extended series of unlikely natural events occurring over the last 4.5 billion years, culminating in the present diversity of life. Perhaps elements of both explanations are correct, e.g., the development of the planet and all life on it was initiated or even guided divinely, but life did in fact evolve over time. Currently, we cannot know for certain. Regardless of its origin, there are 4 aspects of the current state of our world that we all must appreciate and act upon using the 3 guiding principles to responsible stewardship.
THE 4 TENETS OF GEOCENTRISM
1. Our world is precious.
2. Our world has become sick and we are the cause.
3. We need a healthy world to survive.
4. We must become responsible stewards of our world.
THE 3 GUIDING PRINCIPLES TO RESPONSIBLE STEWARDSHIP
1. Live simply.
2. Value all life.
3. Educate others.
THE 4 TENETS EXPOUNDED
1. Our world is precious.
We only have one world. Whether an accident of astrophysics or a divine masterpiece, our world is precious. We know of none other remotely like it. Its value cannot be measured, it cannot be replaced, and therefore we must cherish it.
2. Our world has become sick; we are the cause.
While amazingly resilient, our world is also alarmingly fragile. As we have radically altered the surface of the land to meet our need for resources, we have destroyed habitats, which in turn has led to alteration of the climate and extinction of many species. Pollution from industry, agriculture, and even pharmaceuticals is poisoning our water, the animals, and us. It is also damaging our protective atmosphere, exposing the earth to increasing levels of damaging UV light.
If today is a typical day on planet Earth, we will lose 116 square miles of rainforest, or about an acre a second. We will lose another 72 square miles to encroaching deserts, as a result of human mismanagement and overpopulation. We will lose 40 to 100 species, and no one knows whether the number is 40 or 100. Today the human population will increase by 250,000. And today we will add 2,700 tons of chlorofluorocarbons to the atmosphere and 15 million tons of carbon. Tonight the Earth will be a little hotter, its waters more acidic, and the fabric of life more threadbare. - ecologist David Orr
3. We need a healthy planet to survive.
The conditions on this planet that permit life are maintained by life. Chemist James Lovelock penned the Gaia Hypothesis, a metaphor in which the Earth as a whole is compared to a giant, single, living organism. Lovelock posited that the living elements of the planet (the animals, plants, etc.) interact closely with the nonliving environment (rocks, water, atmosphere, elements, etc.) as though they were a single organism, each part profoundly influencing the other. Self-regulation is an emergent property of this relationship, that is, the living elements affect the nonliving elements in such a way that conditions conducive to life are maintained. For example, the oxygen gas required by most life forms was exceedingly rare before certain organisms (certain bacteria, later plants) began to produce it. If these oxygen-producing organisms were lost today, oxygen gas would disappear from the atmosphere. Water, too, is maintained here by the activities of living organisms, or it would have been lost long ago as it was on our neighbors Venus and Mars. Another example: although the heat emitted from the sun has increased 25% since life evolved on earth (3.5 billion years ago), the average temperature has remained nearly constant (discounting balancing periods of warming and cooling, and current global warming). It is believed that a rise in temperature promotes the activity of certain soil bacteria that facilitate the conversion of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) into rock, thereby bringing the temperature back down. What will happen to the planet and us if these bacteria are negatively impacted by our activities? Since atmospheric carbon dioxide and average global temperature appear to have been rising since the industrial revolution, has this imbalance already begun?
After a degree of damaging change that we do not yet understand, our planet might lose the ability to support life as we know it. Stanford ecologists Paul and Anne Ehrlich compare losing biodiversity to removing rivets from an airplane: one can remove a single rivet at random before each flight, assuming that there are far more rivets than are required for structural integrity. And for some time they might well be right. Until one day, they are proven tragically wrong. In this light, preservationism includes self-preservation. Even if one does not possess a sense of inherent value in the world and its living components, one should follow the principles of preservationism in the interest of maintaining a hospitable planet for themselves and their descendents.
4. We must become responsible stewards of our world.
Regardless of whether our large brain is the evolutionary byproduct of tool use and verbal communication or of having been created in His likeness, we are unique in our understanding of our impact on the world. As the only species to possess an intellect capable of realizing tenets 1-3, it is our responsibility to serve as global stewards and protect the welfare of the world for ourselves and all living things. Our world is precious, and similarly every species on it is unique and irreplaceable. Whether the result of original creation or evolution by natural selection, we cannot allow anything unique and irreplaceable to be irreparably damaged or lost: we must preserve biodiversity. Imagine standing before your grandchildren and explaining why we caused the planet to be forever changed for the worse. And who among us wants to stand before God and explain why we destroyed His gifts? Dominion means control or authority; if God gave us dominion over the earth and all its creatures, do you think he wanted us to destroy everything for our short-term pleasures or mere conveniences, or would he want us to respect and cherish them, and by extension, his efforts and him. Dominion must be responsible and respectful.
We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. - Native American proverb
The loss of species is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us. - Biologist E.O. Wilson
If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would disregard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering. - great American naturalist Aldo Leopald
We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the stewards of life’s continuity on Earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited for it, but here we are. - biologist Stephen Jay Gould
CONCLUSION: We are destroying something unique that is our responsibility to preserve, perhaps for our very survival: this must change.
THE 3 GUIDING PRINCIPLES TO RESPONSIBLE STEWARDSHIP EXPOUNDED
1. Live simply.
If we are damaging the natural world through our actions, then we must change those actions. We must limit our population size and/or change our excessive lifestyles to minimize our impact. If everyone lived a simpler, adequate lifestyle, there would be enough wealth for all people to live similarly, happily.
Live simply, so that others might simply live. - ?
2. Value and celebrate all life.
Like our world, all lives are precious. If everyone on the planet is not happy and healthy, then there will not be global cooperation in maintaining the health of our planet.
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. - Pacifist Mahatma Gandhi
It is man’s sympathy with all creatures that first makes him truly a man. - Albert Schweitzer
I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of the whole human being. - Abraham Lincoln
This emergence of ecological restoration … allows people to participate in healing the wounds left on the earth, acknowledging the human power to create as well as to destroy. - Gary Paul Nabhan
3. Educate others.
As a geocentrist, each one of us must take responsibility for our own actions to change the world for the better. But if only a minority of us changes, the end result will not differ: we will lose biodiversity and our ability to survive on this planet. Preservation is a global problem and requires a global solution. Not only must we lead by example, we must help all others to understand what we have come to know through education or experience. The world is precious, it is endangered, we are now the problem, we must become the solution.
We must be the change we wish to see in the world. - Pacifist Mahatma Gandhi
In the end we will conserve only what we love and respect. We will love and respect only that which we understand. We will understand only what we are taught or allowed to experience. - Senegalese conservationist Baba Dioum