What Will Become of Our Children’s Future?
“The Peacemaker taught us about the Seven Generations. He said, when you sit in council for the welfare of the people, you must not think of yourself or of your family, not even your generation. He said, make your decisions on behalf of the seven generations coming, so that they may enjoy what you have today.”
Oren Lyons (Seneca)
Faithkeeper, Onondaga Nation
This principle of the 7th Generation dates back to the 12th Century to the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois Confederacy. A generation is generally considered to be 25 years, so that’s 175 years. The 7th generation principle was so important to Native American cultures that it was codified in the Iroquois Great Law of Peace. It is believed, this teaching is embraced by all Native American tribes, First Nations Tribes and indigenous tribes throughout the world. Unfortunately it is clearly not embraced by most governments, corporations or people in the world and this especially applies to Americans. Few Americans look at the impact they have on the future of their children or the children of the world. This has been clearly shown in our very slow to no response to act on Global Warming.
Ted Kennedy said to Congress in 2008: “I cannot look into the eyes of my grandchildren and tell them: Sorry, I…can’t do anything about it.”
Barbara Boxer, at the National Press Club: Will our grandchildren know the thrill of holding their child’s hand watching with excitement a towering snow-capped mountain or awesome, calving glaciers?”
Arnold Schwarzenegger, signing new energy legislation: “I want to make California No. 1 in the fight against global warming. This is something we owe our children and grandchildren.”
Joe Lieberman: “Shame on us if 100 or 200 years from now our grandchildren and great-grandchildren are living on a planet that has been irreparably damaged by global warming, and they ask, ‘How could those who came before us…have let this happen?’”
David Attenborough: “If we do care about our grandchildren then we have to do something.”
Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, addressing his Climate Change Advisory Group: “By committing ourselves to action in Illinois, we can help minimize the effects of climate change and ensure our children and grandchildren inherit a healthy world full of opportunity.”
Sir Richard Branson, chair of Virgin Airways: “I think businesses can indluence leaders thwo are not worrying enough about our grandchildren.”
Bill Clinton, stumping for his wife in Colorado: We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions ‘cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren.”
This idea that humans could fundamentally alter the planet is new. This notion was asked by the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius a century ago regarding evaporating our coal mines into the air. Bill McKibben in his book, “eaarth, Making a life on a Tough New Planet,” “This idea about global warming is a huge experiment. We’ve never watched it happen before, so we didn’t know how to proceed.”
This notion that we could not alter the planet or it being a huge experiment, not watching it happen before, is nonsense. Although what is currently happening is new to us, the rapid melting of the Arctic and Antarctic; the lost of many glaciers; the extreme weather that is occurring with increased number and strength of tornados; hurricanes; the increased amount of wildfires, floods and drought that are hitting many parts of the world; increased oceans levels and the increased levels of acidity in our oceans from carbon dioxide. And this is only just the top of the iceberg. What about the impact is will have on the social fabric of human life; the economic impact; the impact on our ecosystems and all life on this planet? Many scientist believe we are moving towards a mass extinct of many life forms on this planet. And it is due to our irresponsibility, our lack of connection to the planet and to all life, our blinded appetite and obsession for consumerism, for stuff. The choices we make to live in a synthetic world vs. living as one with the natural world, to see the natural world as part of our community to protect and preserve. We have seen what man can do in a very destructive way to our environment many times, but we seem to forget and continue with this destruction. Seeing what we are doing to our planet, to the natural world is a simple process of just being aware, being connected to our natural world and probably the most difficult for modern day man is seeing all life as sacred. It is a cop-out to say we didn’t know. The Native Americans knew, the First Nations knew, the Native Hawaiians knew, and all the indigenous cultures who still lived in their traditional ways knew. And now with the effects of climate change on top of us, we are still in denial of it and its impact on the world and to all life. We are at a point of no-return on many of the changes that have occurred recently by climate change due to our ignorance and selfishness.
Here are some ancient Indian proverbs you may want to read, think about and act upon:
“Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
It was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.”
“Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.”
Chief Seattle, 1854
“When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breath,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.”
Cree Prophecy
“You must teach our children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.”
Unknown
In ending, if we choose to do nothing, we will leave our children and grandchildren with a very uncertain world.
And now in 2022 we seem to be doing very little. Climate change is here and is impacting the whole world.
Rick Theile
Blogs In Nature 