Page 10 - Zen of an Earth Mythology

Preface

History never comes to an end, but it can abruptly
change course. When this happens, we are forced to

evaluate our past from an entirely new perspective,

and then we realize that what we thought we were
doing is not what we have been doing.

We have now come to one of these moments,

which we are calling the Anthropocene. The discovery
that our exuberance is destabilizing the biophysical

operating systems of our planet is a shocking
realization of existential significance, a collective

revelation that compels a review of all our thinking,
aspirations and behaviour both as a civilization and as

a species.

Of course, the Anthropocene has been in progress
for centuries or even millennia, but we never seriously

considered that our persistent manipulation of nature
and our diligent quest for knowledge would threaten

Earth's ecological integrity, jeopardize the foundations
of civilization itself, and set us adrift in a mythological

void. The Anthropocene is our awakening to this
reality, and it poses many difficult questions. How

exactly did we get into this predicament? What could
we have done to avert it? Why did we not heed the

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