When we look at environmental pollution and degradation- or any other systemic consequence -, it is necessary to look at the big picture as well as the details, because if we are only looking at the details, we might “get lost in the details” – yet only looking at the bigger picture, we might miss important details and for example get the impression that “everything is overall fine/stable” while in the nitty-gritty details, things are changing, accumulating and far from a balance.
Roughly looking at a eco-system for example, only considering its “production of biomass” we may get the idea that the system is working and stable, yet looking at the details one could find that the number of species is diminished and key-species fall-out, whereby such a loss of biodiversity leads to a reduced “system-stability”. The same is true for the agricultural systems, the purpose of which should be to produce food for all of humanity with a high nutritional value and low toxic potential.
The realisation that a highly complex and diverse system is a stable and sustainable system, is common knowledge and no guess-work or magic, but simply a characteristic and function of “reality” as a “system that is made up of system” (Systems within systems). Moreover, a diverse, stable, yet dynamic system is the breeding ground for new emergent properties or “creation”.
Our planet is a system that is made up of many sub-systems, such as the geological system, the atmospheric systems, such as wind and air, the hydrological systems which includes the water circulation, in the atmosphere, lakes, rivers, the oceans as well as the water bodies IN all living organisms – and all those systems are connected and interconnected in ways that are not readily visible to the human eye and/or thinking. These systems (structural relationships of several parts) make up and create the conditions for more complex, biological systems such as animals or humans and influence those in a dynamic interactive process.
One can imagine the organisms - smaller self-organising units of a system -, such as animals or the human body, as the inner structure of that system, a complex interacting network of smaller individual parts that all have their particular ways of existing and purpose in the greater system – in fact each component is an integral part of the whole and without it, the whole can not have and reach its full potential expression.
As we need to look at the small/details when we want to see the bigger picture of pollution, we also need to not only look WITHOUT(outside of ourselves), but LOOK WITHIN and into ourselves. This is one particular point and aspect of environmental topics that I want to open up and investigate specifically because I think that is a dimension and point that is most often missed when we talk or hear about environmental pollution/destruction/degradation as well as environmental protection and sustainability.
The focus mostly is on the “external world/reality”, nature and particular ecosystems where we SEE – which means that we become AWARE of – the consequences of our systematic actions, or behaviour patterns, that we call our “way of life”. I may in further writings also go into how societal, economic, religious and other believe-systems/ideologies form and shape the “way of life” of a particular human sub-group and how these ways of life are . Which is another example of how the “Inner” creates the “Outer” world and reality.
It is fascinating, why and how is the point/dimension of our own MIND and Consciousness almost always missed and not discussed/taken into consideration, when we look at things like environmental pollution, destruction and the like?
The mind, our thoughts, feelings and emotions is some-thing that does NOT REALy exist…fascinating…it is something that is not of physical matter, that can not be seen with our “physical” eyes, though we can “see” our mind, we are aware of what goes on within us…we can not measure/quantify a thought or a emotion (yet), though those things can set us in-motion and lead to actions that have measurable outflows/results.
In this blog, i want to open up and investigate this relationship in more detail.
