“What’s done to the children is done to society.” The Buddha

This awful photograph slapped me in the face. In that instant, I realized how deeply flawed the entire Climate Catastrophe actually is. The truth is, I have thought about what I am about to share for quite some time. This is one of those instances, where I wish I was well known, with thousands of loyal followers.

If I were someone else, what I am about to say would be considered huge, really huge. I’m gonna give it you straight as a laser. Until our global priority is to take care of all humans, there is simply no hope for the planet.

The bedrock foundation of the whole climate/environmental debate needs to be about humanity and not science. Every week, nearly every day, there is more news about CO2 in the air, methane’s impact and an endless array of quality of life issues. Science is terribly concerned with all-things nature, the integrity of all living species, while measuring and judging the negative impact of our presence here. 

I think about terms like carbon foot print and carbon offsets and then I look at that Somali child. We always talk about the White Man’s solution to our earth challenges, simultaneously oblivious to the degree of human suffering all around us. 

The survival of our extraordinary species is based on our souls and not our minds. The climate debacle will not be solved by science, because it ignores who we are and who we have always been. We need to exude a kind of heart embrace that actually brings us together, or we are lost.

Without a change in how we relate to each other, there is no hope, the ugly, dark truth lurking behind all the statistics. Of course, I feel like a puts sharing all this, while I comfortably sit on my ass in my favorite studio corner, smack dab in the middle of paradise. Ideas can catch fire, especially if some moron keeps rubbing two sticks together. 

Now, give me a little creative latitude here. Pretend there’s this old Jewish guy (me) on Kauai and he writes this blog about the complete misdirection of the climate movement, saying the science behind it is not the way out of it, not even close. There is something about what he had to say that caught people’s attention all over the world. All of a sudden, everyone wants to know what he (still me) has to say.

The attention catches him (me) completely off guard. He had been so consumed with the issues and the politics, he forgot about the children, because it is so easy to forget about the children. Very often, they can’t speak and blankly breathe into their last breath. Nobody talked about the children being our treasures for tomorrow, but Larry did.

I know, in my incredibly, inadequate Zen practice, I breathe into a world that is beyond my ability to imagine. I have been doing my Naked News audio podcast for at least a year now. The suffering, depravity and poverty in so many countries, many of which you’ve never heard of, is mind blowing. How can we talk about saving old growth forests, when we let children all over the world, whither and die from starvation?

I gotta tell you, if you click away from this story, because it is too dark and upsetting, I am very sorry, because that is not my intention at all. Our problem, since the beginning of civilizations, has always been about how we treat each other first and the natural world second. We are the reflection in the mirror and how we have been is who we are. 

Trust me, I am no goddamn genius, not by a long shot. We talk about the metrics of climate change, but we don’t talk about the millions and millions of people, who are suffering and suffering, beyond our ability to possibly understand. You know, when you look at that child’s face and think about how many twin looks there are all over the world, who could possibly give a shit about living in mortal fear of the 1.5 degrees celsius, dreaded target. 

I guess my point is that the priorities are fucked up and I am positive. We will live or die based on how we treat each other. Frankly, if I needed a picture of the life threatening challenges ahead, it would absolutely be that almost gone, little child, versus the Redwoods of northern CA.

OK, if I wrote a screenplay about the Buddha returning to the world as it is, conjecturing the possibilities, I know he’d agree with me. I’m not kidding. He would say that as long as there are children suffering, the future will always be behind us. We would get a Youtube channel and within weeks, we’d be offered multi-million dollars deals, which we would turn down. 

I talked at length about this with Mr. B. He told me to share stories like this and maybe get some people to shift their views about what matters most. He always made a big deal about life being a plate load of suffering. At the exact same time, trying to alleviate the suffering of others serves up a kind of wordless reward for those who try.

We just won’t look at each other and see ourselves in the mirror. As far as I am concerned, you can shove, sleight-of-hand carbon capture schemes up your bottom. They are a sham. Until we take care of each other, we have nothing. Assuming history calculates the odds, that little angel of a child is praying for us, because he is lost without us.