21/06/2022

Summer Solstice 2022

Just by way of observing it, welcome to beginning of summer in earth's northern hemisphere and the official beginning of winter in the southern. I do think we have to start thinking of the big picture, of life on planet earth, not just whether or not, it's a good/bad day individually. A lot of places seem pretty fucked right now, and generally getting worse in others, and the outlook globally is grim and grimmer. 

Individually, we're pretty helpless about it. Changing enough to make a difference must be a collective action and that seems pretty impossible, given governments continued support of polluting industries but one can hope. 

Yes. This is a grim perspective, but hey! The solstice and equinox are a traditional time to pause and reflect on the unity and interdependence of life and that isn't all bad.

2 comments:

Roy said...

It's hard to be too optimistic. Since nothing humans do seems to happen without "political will," maybe we can wonder if the planet will self-correct in a much shorter time window than a million or so years.
We spend lots of time wondering how we are so lucky to win the cosmic lottery and are here at all, we shouldn't be surprised to find that it's all much more precarious than we thought.
But you're right, it's nice to know the Earth is still rotating and revolving according to the program.

asha said...

I love your take, Roy. I always feel a bit guilty when I write or talk about Climate Change as it freaks most people out, or they call it fake news etc. I want to talk about it as science but even that is a contested word in this atmosphere. "Simple facts"? No. "Facts" is another obsolete word. "Reality"? Nope, both "real and reality" generally refer to "when it happens to me". So what's left? I'm feeling more and more like an observer merely watching a planet enter its "flushing phase", i.e. when living conditions are so out of balance that the planet flushes the age and starts a new one. Sadly, the Anthropocene (i.e. Time of Humans) triggered this particular "flushing phase". At least with that perspective, I can sometimes simply watch in awe as the "flushing" becomes more and more our shared reality.