Transforming for the Earth and humanity

 By Zdenka Myslikova

 Last week, millions of Catholics around the world partook in a pre-Easter vigil. Upon entering church, each person was given an unlit candle. The lights of the church were extinguished, and darkness was all that remained – until a priest, holding one lit candle, approached the altar. The priest held his flame up to the candle of the first person in each row and ignited their candle. That person then repeated the gesture, and passed the light to their neighbor, until every candle in the space glowed with a soft light. By the end, the church was transformed, illuminated with the warmth and light of hundreds of flames. It is a communal experience of having created the light in the church, an act of love, of not doing it alone, of standing in a disposition to spread further.

 This blog, usually reserved for pieces on climate and energy policies, may seem ill-suited for discussions of faith and spirituality. I can’t help but notice, however, the parallels between the transformation that occurred last week in churches everywhere, and the transformation that is required of us to address climate change. We need a transformation that is rooted in love, and without it, no technical work will be sufficient to tackle climate change.

 The theologians and scholars, Tomáš Halík, and Carmody Grey, recently spoke to the topics of climate, saying that when we are connected to a sense of worth in us and the humanity, we take decisions to save the Earth. That it is not the lack of love for the Earth and nature, but for ourselves that is the root of lack of action on climate.

 At the moment, there is a vocal opinion in the climate community, that individual change is meaningless, because our personal carbon footprint is negligible compared to the sectoral and industrial emissions, and, moreover, because the focus on individual change distracts systemic work that needs to be done. But systems are made of people. Transformation on a systemic level therefore requires transformation of individuals within the system. And in this blogpost, I want to honor the individual transformations that are rooted in love and transform communities.

 Take a local police officer, for example, who recently switched his jeep for a small, electric car. His colleagues ridiculed him constantly, with many of the jokes aimed at his masculinity. One day, the officer found himself in conversation with a colleague who had thus far stayed silent. He shared his motivation for making the switch to an electric car: namely, his children’s future, a concern that resonated with his peer. The colleague felt shame for his silence – and yet, the officer felt compassion towards his silent colleague. The officer understood the difficulty of speaking out against the group, and had even failed to do so himself in the past. Afterwards, the colleague resolved to stand up for the officer the next time jokes were made at his expense.

This moment represents a transformation: by withstanding criticism, the police officer created space for others around him to reevaluate their own priorities, and ultimately to conclude that love – love for planet, love for children, and love for each other – was more valuable than conformity. The police officer helped light the flame inside his colleague.

 Similarly, imagine the developer of a renewable energy project who plans to construct a new solar or wind farm – only, the community in which it is to be located vehemently opposes its construction. Many such cases exist -- a concrete one, for example, in a small coastal village in Chile. This project might easily collapse into protests, antipathy, and a protracted legal battle. If the developer can find love towards the community, however – if she can become curious about what the community is fighting for, rather than against, and if she can empathize with the losses she’s asking them to incur – then perhaps an agreement might be reached.

 Again: no amount of technical work will suffice to address our climate challenge. Without love, scientists, businesspeople, and regulators will run into obstacles and opposition at every turn. Transforming systems means transforming people within them.

 This is not to say we don’t need scientists, regulators, and businesspeople -- experts who think in systems when tackling climate change. We need technological rigor to create the technologies of a cleaner future; we need bureaucratic competence to legislate policies that drive lower emissions; and we need business acumen to create the ventures that will help scale quickly and widely through all sectors of an economy. But without an appreciation for our shared humanity – and, indeed, the shared nature of our challenges – experts will be powerless to make progress.

 Ultimately, love is not only for Easter, and it is not only for Catholics. Love is shared among all the world’s major religions as a core value. Thus, transforming ourselves – like lighting one candle at a time in a dark cathedral – will not only help preserve our delicate ecosystem and our fragile species, but also help billions of people move closer to the divine. ∎

Zdenka Myslikova is a Postdoctoral scholar at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.