Earth: generous mother or hostile planet?

The latest geological disasters particularly involving Haiti and Chile lead us to the thought of the North American writer, Bill Bryson, in his book A Short history of nearly everything, writing that we live in a world that seems not to want us here.

Bryson’s affirmation is the result of long reflection upon impressive historic and scientific data. More than eight times the Earth has had almost all  forms of lives dramatically destroyed.

When one talks about catastrophic episodes one soon thinks about the dinosaurs and remembers that their disappearance around 60/70 millions ago is connected with the impact of a great asteroid.  This gives a false impression that disasters with external causes would be the main risk to our biosphere.

The case of the dinosaurs, however, is the exception amid a great number of episodes in which the processes carried out by living beings themselves cause dramatic reductions in the biomass (the total volume of living beings).

Around 250 millions years ago, 90% of marine species and 70% of the whole of life on Earth disappeared due to the exaggerated growth of bacterial producers of hydrogen sulphide gas, a gas highly lethal to plants and animals.

This bacterial growth took place because of warming up of the planet, itself due a greenhouse effect produced by gigantic volumes of magma released by volcanoes into the sea and over the earth during thousands of years.

At least two dozen potential guilty parties were identified as causes of the en-mass destructions. Global warming, global cooling, a change in ocean levels, exhaustion of oxygen in the seas, epidemics, gigantic leakages of methane gas from the ocean bed, impacts of meteors and comets, hurricanes, volcanoes, solar flares, etc. The aforementioned author recalls that in the major part of recent history, the Earth has been far from being the stable and peaceful place that we dream of. It is not, according to him, a mild place for an organism to live. 

A known theory, the famous Gaia hypothesis, proposes that Mother Nature will take care of us forever if we return to her bosom 

The parts of Earth where we have the preparation or capacity to live are very modest: only 12% of the total earthly area and only 4% of the total surface if we include here the oceans. The rest is too cold or too hot, too high, too dry or too humid.

To this can be added the irresponsible action of the most recent predator on the planet, who, according to journalist André Trigueiro, in the book Spiritism and Ecology, participates directly in climate change, in the scarcity of hydrological resources, in the monumental production of rubbish, in the systematic and rapid destruction of bio-diversity, in the chaotic and disorganised growth of cities, amongst others.

But what we should think of this hopeful idea that our planet is a “warm and generous mother”, with her hands always open to her children; us, incarnated Spirits?

A beautiful philosophic discussion can be undertaken.

One of the most widespread theories of the last forty years, the famous Gaia hypothesis, proposes that Mother Nature will take care of us forever if we return to her bosom. Gaia is a reference to the Earth Goddess of Greek mythology, whose name can also be translated into “Good Mother”. According to this hypothesis, suggested by the English scientist James Lovelock, nature would be committed to the maintenance of life on Earth, leaning towards harmony. According to the aforementioned theory, living beings collaborate with each other in order to maintain environmental conditions within parameters compatible with the maintenance of life, being even able to improve the chemistry of the atmosphere and the seas.

According to the American Palaeontologist Petyer Ward, of NASA and of the University of Washington, this theory is totally wrong, as living beings interact with the environment in such a way that, in the long run, life tends to disappear. Nature behaves like Medea, the ruthless other, who, in the Greek mythology, kills her own children. 

Our negligence regarding care with sustainability of the planet has been responsible for the growing problems 

The Spiritist Doctrine presents the planet Earth to us as a nest of the immortal Spirit in need of opportunities for the development of its talents. If the planet were to be offered to us in perfect and absolute harmony, where would we find the necessary elements for our improvement? As the Spirit develops intelligence and feeling, the planet which welcomes it starts to naturally become perfected, having its conditions for inhabitancy improved.

The remarkable progress reached by us in the last centuries, testifies that man has done a lot for the benefit of better conditions of life on Earth. Life expectancy of Cro-Magnon Man (around 100 thousand years ago) was 30 years, and had only increased to 35 years in the 19^th century. Today, in developed countries, it is around 80 years.

The commodities that technology offers to each individual, such as home appliances, cars and similar, correspond, according to studies by specialists, to the work of 33 slaves of the Greco-Romano world.

still much to be done, and wrong attitudes to be revised.

An amount of 18 Billion dollars a year are spent on perfume and cosmetics in the world. This would be enough to provide good quality water to more than 1 Billion people who do not have it.

In chapter 6 of The Spirits Book, which talks about the Law of Destruction, there is the recognition that many sufferings are a result of man’s lack of foresight.

Our carelessness regarding care with the sustainability of the planet has been responsible for serious and growing problems.

In the book Eco- Economy, Lester Brown comments that there have been three times more natural catastrophes during the 1990’s than during the 1960’s. Economic losses increased eight times. A great part of this increase seems to be due to catastrophes, including storms, droughts and forests fires. 

Item 132 of The Spirits’ Book says that it is the incarnated Spirit’s responsibility to perform his share of the
work of creation 

Recent reports of technicians and researchers in this area inform us that external events such as hurricanes, floods and storms already occur with more intensely and at shorter intervals. The melting of ice caps and of ice upon high summits, the rising of sea levels, the change in the configuration of important ecosystems such as the Amazon Basin or the immense network of undersea coral reefs are some of the effects of the monumental discharge of greenhouse gases of human origin, specifically the progressive burning of oil, coal and gas, deforestations and the inadequate management of soil and waste.

The journalist André Trigueiro reminds us that more important than to look after the planet for our children and grandchildren is to take better care of our children and grandchildren for the planet. Briefly: the question of the environment is also a role for education.

Domenico de Masi, an Italian sociologist, author of the book The Creative Leisure, presents eight great obstacles to the well-being of the human creature, which it is our responsibility to overcome: death, pain, poverty, tiredness, ugliness, ignorance, authoritarianism and tradition.

When Kardec establishes the purposes of incarnation in The Spirits’ Book, item 132, he writes that it is the incarnated Spirit’s responsibility to perform his share in the work of creation. That is, to act in a positive and dynamic form in support of the planet and of all living beings.

Joanna de Ângelis, in the work Renewed Attitudes, writes that the earthly commitments, those which foment the progress of society, are also part of the high moral responsibilities of the immortal Spirit. And she adds: Yours is the mission to build the Earth better and happier, initiating the work in your inner world and broadening it beyond the frontiers that limit yourself.

The Earth (be it Gaia or Medea) is what it needs to be for us to do what needs to be done to the advantage of our spiritual development

The benefactor Humberto de Campos, through Chico Xavier’s automatic writing, said: Do not aspire to a world which you do not deserve yet; work hard to improve the world which is yours.