“We can decide. Every day. Anew.”
The climate question is keeping governments busy. In their essay ‘Breathing with the Climate Crisis’, Lin Bautze, Ueli Hurter and Johannes Kronenberg show that it is a question that concerns everyone. On the occasion of the UN climate conference COP27 they call for an understanding of the earth as a living organism and partner.
Crises such as pandemics, wars or climate change can evoke a sense of breathlessness. But according to the authors of ‘Breathing with the Climate Crisis’, human beings endanger life on earth but they can just as well enter into joyful “cooperation between the earth and human.” Breathing becomes possible again, when people are able to see themselves as part of the earth, when they can see the earth as a living organism and move from having to act out of necessity to wanting to act of their own free will. Decisions that need to be made can then be adjusted to the needs of the earth.
Using the example of biodynamics, the authors illustrate how farming can enliven the earth. “With humus. With soil life. With roots. With earthworms. With structure. As a dialogue between the earth and the cosmos.” This allows, for example, for carbon to be sequestered in the soil. The team of authors encourage people to build up a personal relationship with the earth instead of waiting for a solution. This relationship, they suggest, is an individual decision that can be taken and shaped any time, and that can and may be joyfully embraced.
The essay is the result of conversations in the run-up to the 2021 conference ‘Breathing with the Climate Crisis’, co-organized by the Goetheanum’s Section for Agriculture and Youth Section. A preprint was presented and distributed at the UN climate change conference COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh and is due to be published in book form in February 2023.
English by Margot M. Saar
Brochure (English, coming) Lin Bautze, Ueli Hurter and Johannes Kronenberg: Breathing with the Climate Crisis, Hawthorne Press
Web PDF (English; also in Deutsch, Español, Français) ‹Breathing with the Climate Crisis›
Image The human being as co-creator rather than destroyer of the earth (Graphic: Mark Schalken)