On Awe and Responsibility (in an Age of Climate Change)
I was a guest at A Day of Unreasonable Conversation this week. It’s an event hosted by impact agency Propper Daley (alongside production partners Simpson Street (Kerry Washington) and invisibleHand) that brings together luminaries in social, economic, climate, art and technology fields to discuss the topics that are shaping the world, thus topics that need to be more front and center in entertainment — our global culture impacting juggernaut. There were a lot of conversations (I wouldn’t call them ‘unreasonable’ so much as ‘ah ha’ inducing) that left their mark on me. But one sound bite, something I’ve heard many many times before, wiggled its way into my soul | brain this week. Jane Fonda was the messenger:
“We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation to be able to do anything about it.”
When I think about this simple statement, underlying an epic call to action, there is a vastness that engulfs me. Above me, time, becomes visible, the hazy deep past that has lead us to this present moment. And the future, uncertain, chaotic, unravels just beyond the horizon. It’s overwhelming. And I struggle to fathom how we, all of us reading this post, could inhabit a pivotal moment of time that is so fundamental to our current species’ survival on this planet. How does one put words to this feeling, this awareness? Especially, so it can be shared.
And then, last night, I read this passage in DEATH’S END, the 3rd book of The Three-Body Problem (now a Netflix series that many of you are watching). It’s deep into the story, perhaps it will be filmed one day (perhaps I’ll even direct the episode). I apologize for the slight spoilers but it’s necessary. The passage describes a decision that the new ‘Swordholder’ of ‘Deterrarance’ must make when the alien enemy decides to attack, mere minutes away from Earth. Her decision would not only destroy the enemy but also our planet in the near future (Mutually Assured Destruction which has been the ‘deterrence’). But she is unable to make the decision to push the button. Instead her thoughts are consumed by the miraculous journey of existence, tracing the vast timeline that got us from a young molten hot Earth to her present moment:
—
“In this game of building blocks, the probability of producing such a self-replicating chain of organic molecules was so minuscule that it was as if a tornado had picked up a pile of metallic trash and deposited it as a fully-assembled Mercedes-Benz. But it happened, and so, a breathtaking history of 3.5 billion years had begun.
The Archean Eon was followed by the Proterozoic Eon, each billions of years; then the Paleozoic: the Cambrian’s seventy million years, the Ordovician’s sixty million years, the Silurian’s forty million years, the Devonian’s fifty million years, the Carboniferous’s sixty-five million years, and the Permian’s fifty-five million years; then the Mesozoic: the Triassic’s thirty-five million years, the Jurassic’s fifty-eight million years, and the Cretaceous’s seventy million years; then the Cenozoic: the Tertiary’s 64.5 million years and the Quaternary’s 2.5 million years. Then humanity appeared. Compared to the eons before, mankind’s history was but the blink of an eye. Dynasties and eras exploded like fireworks; the bone club tossed into the air by an ape turned into a spaceship. Finally, this 3.5-billion-year-long road full of trials and tribulations stopped in front of a tiny human individual, a single person out of the one hundred billion people who had ever lived on the Earth, holding a red switch.” **
—
Upon finishing, I realized I had been holding my breath. Manifesting in my mind’s eye was the full planetary history from which we evolved, these EONS of life that unfolded before we… these small, nascent, vulnerable, inconsequential yet profoundly impactful beings arrived. Somehow this passage made me feel the epochs of time in my blood and my bones. In my brain’s electrical signals. I felt DEEP EFFING COSMIC TIME. I had found a new experience of AWE. But with it came a resounding feeling of RESPONSIBILITY. I recognized what the life-force of this planet had had to endure for BILLIONS of years in order to evolve into our paradise planet. And how quickly we humans were able to dismantle it in the search for comfort and convenience.
Needless to say this late night read had me sitting up in bed, my sleep prevented by some pretty existential thoughts.
Do we need a greater societal awareness of time, on this larger scale (and our place within it), to better inspire climate action? If we can feel the legacy of our planet, of our species (created through immersive art? VR?) will this anchor us to the changes we need to make, and even anchor us to each other? Is this the missing link? I’ve written about deep time before, but its significance seems even more pressing. Time is, after all, the ultimate equalizer.
Many Indigenous communities honor the 7th Generation Philosophy: deeply valuing their heritage, prioritizing their bond with the natural world and making choices with the foresight of their impact on seven generations in the future. This reverence for being ‘better ancestors’ is echoed in the thought-provoking work of Ella Saltmarshe and her Long Time Academy podcast. The Long Now Foundation has been fostering ‘long term thinking’ since 1996. We can also look to books like ‘The Overstory’ (2019 Pulitzer Prize Winner) — by Richard Powers, a sweeping narrative across multiple families and generations, all connected by trees, our greatest teachers and ancestors.
Perhaps it’s this, we need to look more to nature, the time scales that it exists on, so different from our own, and re-grasp our connection to it. Perhaps this could be the spark we need to comprehend the rare and significant place in space and time we now stand at.
Because everyone is the ‘Swordholder’. The protector of the planet. We stand, alive, because of thousands of generations of your family before us. Their DNA is in our blood, just like the elements of stars. Our sword is a collective one, and it’s a tool, not a weapon. It’s legacy.
So do yourself a favor: go out and hug a tree. (It’s one of my favorite things to do.) Listen for it’s heart beat … it is slow… and imbued with deep wisdom. The tree can suck carbon out of the air, give shade, food and a habitat to numerous species. It has breathed the air of a different century. It understands DEEP EFFIN’ COSMIC TIME.
And feel the awe and the responsibility when you pull back from it.
*(Courtesy of Liu, Cixin. Death’s End: 3 (The Three-Body Problem Series) Tor Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Taryn O’Neill is a writer, filmmaker and futurist. She co-founded the creative group Scirens focusing on science and climate activism through entertainment and champions storytelling for ‘better futures’. Her social media handle across the internet is @tarynoneill.
