Mirabile Futurum 16" x 20" Oil on Canvas by Patrick McGrath Muñiz
With
Climate change already upon us and becoming more real than ever with every
passing year, we ought to ask ourselves how we got to the present state to
begin with? What is the root cause of this already beyond un-debatable man made
impact on climate and the environment? It would be quite easy to conclude that
the rampant nature exploitation activities from our industrial society and over
consumption of natural resources are behind it. We could fill pages exposing
the failure of globalized capitalism which is driven by economic growth and
it's unsustainable extraction practices. It would be after all quite apparent
that oil companies reliant on fossil fuels that cause CO2 emissions, large
trans-national corporations, government lack of regulations and big state
polluters like China are responsible for much of our climate's present state
and future.
The truth
is we could trace the origins of these destructive systems a little further back in time. In 1989, Time
magazine instead of going for the usual "Man of the Year" cover, used
a photograph by artist Christo of a globe covered with
plastic and tied up with twine. The cover read:
"Planet of the Year: Endangered Earth". As significant as this
may seem at the time, the accompanying essay by Thomas Sancton was a powerful
statement in itself worth quoting as it described the roots of the problem:
"In many
pagan societies, the earth was seen as a mother, a fertile giver of life.
Nature-the soil, forest, sea- was endowed with divinity, and mortals were
subordinate to it. The Judeo-Christian tradition introduced a radically
different concept. The earth was the creation of a monotheistic God, who, after
shaping it, ordered its inhabitants in the words of Genesis: "be fruitful
and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it: and have dominion over the
fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth". The idea of dominion could be interpreted as an
invitation to use nature as a convenience. Thus the spread of Christianity,
which is generally considered to have paved the way for the development of
technology, may at the same time have carried the seeds of the wanton
exploitation of nature that has often accompanied technological progress".
Neo-Genesis 12" x 12" Ink on paper by Patrick McGrath Muñiz
This was
certainly not a new idea at the time as it formed the basis of the growing
counter culture ecological movement. But being included in such a widespread
magazine read by millions was indeed significant and revealing. This anthropocentric
anti-environmental world view and even demonization of nature is definitely not
exclusive to the Judeo-Christian tradition but it undoubtedly influenced
western thought from the theologian St. Augustine to the philosopher
Francis Bacon. Western capitalism was in
turn inspired by the belief in a fruitful and multiplying human
civilization with its economic growth, prosperity and technological
progress based on competition, a free market and its dominion, manipulation and exploitation over Mother
Nature. With the fall of the Iron Curtain, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the increasing power of
communications with the rise of the internet in the 1990's, Capitalism became a fast growing world phenomenon and to
this day it defines much of our globalized cultural and social landscapes from New York to
Beijing.
An industrial area, with a power plant, south of Yangzhou's downtown, China
Yuval Harari on his book Sapiens: a brief history of humanity argues that modern day capitalism resembles more a
religion rather than an economic theory. The collective fiction of the supremacy of money is one big cultural construct that sets us apart
from the rest of the animal kingdom. The utilitarian and extractionist approach to nature from free market
fundamentalism is propagated through the mass media in order to indoctrinate
the people to become passive consumers rather than active world citizens that
may question these created fictions.
Despite
the best efforts of well intentioned people within the Church from LeonardoBoff to Pope Francis to revise the Christian doctrines in a new ecological
light, these dogmas and inherited beliefs in a human superiority over animals,
plants, other peoples and other lands is
hard to overlook. From the idea of a
"Promised Land" to the "Manifest Destiny", these
conveniently designed myths have served
the interests of empires, monarchies, monotheistic proselytizing religions and economic
monopolies around the globe. It is
extremely important we know the root of a problem before we prepare to fix it,
especially when we are dealing with our very own existence and future on this
planet.
American Progress Oil painting by John Glast (Circa 1872)
Of course Christianity or any
other monotheist religions are not the primary cause of our current environmental crisis. We created a negative impact on the ecosystem long before any of these modern day
religions showed up, from the hunter gatherer societies to the agricultural revolution and the rise of the first big cities. But by digging deep into the historical relation between
religion, empire, money and the natural world
we can gain a much better understanding of our present day ecological
downfall. It is time we change not only
our consumption habits but our core beliefs as well. While the unquestioned
"sacrosanctity" of the ruling corpocracy and global financial
institutions is kept in place by our unyielding monotheistic faith in the power
of money over everything else we can only expect one big thing to change, that is our planet and our very existence on
it.
Novus Ordo Seclorum print by artist Carlos Barberena
