[Music]
we are now responsible for the state of
the whole planet our farming practices
our expansion our industrial revolution
have led us into this and we have the
technology to control what happens next
but we’re just not up to the job
a successful hunter-gatherers we evolved
to be clever enough but not
disinterested enough not insightful
enough nor cooperative enough it’s very
frightening to find that one has created
a situation that one can’t control so
our species can’t control what it is
unleashed and whether we admit it or not
we are terrified we feel helpless
terrified helpless people take refuge in
denial and denial makes us ever more
greedy and reckless and the planet
groans under the burden of our suicidal
pursuits it’s like there’s a continuous
bass note sounding like the drone of a
bagpipe and however frenetically we’re
playing our current theme tunes we can’t
drown out that note and that bass note
is the sound of melting IceCaps mass
species extinctions seas filled with
plastic felled rainforests lost habitats
an unbreathable air of course we know
all that but we can’t look at it you
can’t go around all the time
remembering that every cup of coffee you
drink every journey you make every fire
you sit by every meal you eat is
contributing to the end of our world
you have to stay staying after all but
what is sane
is it sane to think we are the center of
our world if everything out there is
just a reflection of our own needs and
our own fantasies then it could feel as
if we’re in control of it the faster we
hurtle towards environmental and
economic collapse the more the
narcissists hold sway that base note of
warning doesn’t trouble anybody who’s
chanting their own slogan loudly enough
standing up for our future means
transforming our notions of where we
stand it means taking less for ourselves
instead of more it means listening to
the people who are already suffering the
effects of pollution and climate change
and who mostly live in societies that
didn’t cause it and honoring their
rights instead of colluding with their
dispossession it actually means going
against the whole tenor of the society
we live in which we live so how on earth
do we do that
a worthy Victorian had endowed my school
with in an annual lecture it was called
the moral progress of the world during
the preceding 12 months the lecture of
1965 forever changed my awareness of the
planet I lived on the clergyman lecturer
began I can’t talk about the moral
progress of the world during the
preceding 12 months because there has
been none there never has been instead
I’m going to tell you about what’s
happening to the world you live in
he was the first person to tell me the
story of destruction loss of habitat and
ensuing in Justices he told us how our
society was bringing everything to the
brink of extinction he told us the end
of the story was up to us the next
generation well that seemed pretty
unfair after all it wasn’t our fault
what happened before we were born
so I and the others had to change things
I took the injunction quite seriously
recently I heard Marge Piercy talk about
the 1970s and 80s through which I also
lived we thought we were gonna change
the world she said and then her voice
broke a little it was so great she added
well she was right
I too was young and we knew we had to
change the world the women’s movement
Greenpeace Friends of the Earth CND
Green uncommon direct action in direct
action our story was all about the
possibility of change and one phrase has
stayed with me revolution by change of
consciousness but however revolutionary
our theme to that mournful bass note
never went away was our story of crisis
all a crazy hippie delusion
it was quite correct about the urgent
need for change the symptoms of decline
are now all around us so why did the
story we told then not speak loudly
enough to power maybe we need to be more
truthful about what’s happening the true
story of our times goes more like this
we aren’t capable of reparation any more
than can you could stop the tide coming
in the true story of our times goes
there is a huge wave already breaking
over us and nothing in our technology or
collective wisdom can stop it we cannot
now change what is happening and we
can’t drown out that bass note the sound
of our planet’s pain we could tune into
it instead perhaps
it’s telling us the very story we’ve
been looking for all along
no wonder was so frightened of listening
to it we’re going to have to let go of
all those other Tunes to hear it
properly but aren’t you curious as well
what’s gonna happen next if this is
where the real story is don’t you want
to hear what it says it’s worth
attending to people who’ve been
listening to other stories all the time
take the hunter-gatherers who once lived
here in Scotland they hardly change
their environment in seven thousand
years their society was no Eden but it
was almost certainly Galit Aryan and its
people were attuned to the world around
them in a way that we can only dream of
hunter-gatherer societies produce
go-betweens or shaman’s if you like who
are the people who listen best certain
individuals were and are born with a
sensitivity which is recognized by
others and it is their job to speak to
the animals about the hunt in the other
side of Eden Hugh Brody speaks about the
terrible bargain that every one of us
makes when we come into the world in
order that we may live something else
must die this is the bargain the
go-betweens make with the animals about
the hunt the animals agree because the
bargain allows the natural balance which
always maintains the rightness of things
we have come so far from our distant
past that most of us would probably
survive in a hunter-gatherer society for
less than a week without wiser people to
look after us
all the more reason to look humbly at
human societies in which people interact
with the earth the seasons the animals
and plants we can never return to that
seamless sense of belonging which our
distant ancestors possessed and just a
few people in marginal places marginal
to agriculture and industry that is on
this earth still possess we know too
much and there are far too many of us we
can’t go back the world that lies ahead
is going to be very different but it
seems to me that everything begins to go
wrong when we stop listening and we stop
speaking with the animals about the hunt
that terrible bargain that we survive by
the death of other beings has never gone
away I’ve heard people talk about the
post agricultural age that we are now
even post-industrial and firmly in the
digital age and I think what did you
have for dinner in Greenland
I came across a phrase used by the Inuit
the people say to a newborn child or a
stranger living among them you will
always find food here that promise of
survival is a vital part of the story
and it can only be honored by people who
remember the terrible bargain and how it
can only be kept by maintaining the
balance between our needs and the
equally important needs of the animals
and of the land so who do we have in our
global community who is listening to
that story
they’re the go-betweens we need whose
voices we need to hear poets for a start
it was two poets who
started the dark mountain project which
exists as an internet-based community of
those who try to find voices for our
times we are facing unimaginable changes
therefore the first thing we need is
people who can imagine them nothing is
worse than the unimaginable we can’t
even begin to look at it I couldn’t
imagine what went on in a chemotherapy
ward until I spent time there
accompanying a friend the unimaginable
turned into something known which
encompass death and despair as well as
life and hope but once I’ve been there
myself the nightmare of the unimaginable
dissolved now I’m a bit more empowered
and a bit more useful
nothing is wholly unimaginable and if
the human mind can imagine something it
will inevitably find a way to represent
it imagining the unimaginable takes
courage not all endings are happy some
characters will be dead at the end of
Act one imagine being one of them it’s
worth the effort every time you do your
story will be freer from the dead weight
of denial there are people among us who
can’t handle their own awareness of
other beings because it’s too much to
bear that endless base note of something
going horribly wrong with our world
sounds loudest to those most sensitively
attuned to what it says if we really
want to know what that base note means
we should maybe ask the people who can
feel what’s happening and who just
cannot by their nature participate in
the dance to destruction
my grandson can’t cope with crowds
bright lights loud shouts quick changes
competition in any form school education
is impossible for him he’s distressed by
a wasp drowning in a cup of coffee he
asks all the time but why do they have
Wars why do they kill children why are
they cutting down the trees why do they
kill the animals he keeps asking the
same questions not because he is in the
least stupid but because no one has yet
answered them properly he has met
Bushmen in Namibia where his father
worked and stayed in a traditional
village now he often asks what would the
Bushmen do if a boy was being bullied
what would the Bushmen do if bombs were
dropped there I think he will be asking
the same questions all his life some
people care so much they’ll put their
lives on the line to save what they love
we need them as much as ever
and sometimes activism succeeds if a
rainforest is saved or one oak tree in a
British field if an ocean is reprieved
or one species of stickleback in a
suburban pond there is cause for
celebration
but until the human species chooses to
dance to a different piping altogether
that bass note will still sound will
still be heading the wrong way so how do
we turn ourselves around standing up for
mere survival is not enough that always
means our survival made possible by
having eliminated most of the other guys
maybe it’s time to think harder about
our side of the bargain
speaking with the animals about the hunt
is not a concept familiar to our
culture but unless we empathize with
those lives so utterly unlike our own
and use that awareness wisely there’ll
be nothing left to eat or breathe and
the story will end our story may end in
any case it’s possible that we’ll turn
the page and see the words the end
everything has to be imagined in this
story including that especially that in
fact because denial begins with not
facing one’s own death and as
individuals we will quite certainly get
to the page that says the end if we want
a new beginning we have to change our
awareness guilt and regret are old
stories they only lead us backwards what
we need now is what Pandora found at the
bottom of the box hope we need to read
the signs of hope and encourage these
new shoots in any way we can in his new
film An Inconvenient sequel Al Gore
quotes Martin Luther King when the
struggle for civil rights seemed to go
on and on and on and nothing seemed to
change people began to ask how long must
we struggle against these impossible
entrenched odds Martin Luther King said
not long he was right the tipping point
was closed but he didn’t live to see it
this is what the animals say to the
go-betweens about the hunt they say that
some of them agree to give themselves
because in order for there to be life
there must be death the tipping point
that we dread may also be a
transformation if the dinosaurs still
walk the earth probably none of us
would be here with our warm blood and
our hearts and minds and our capacity to
adapt to what is happening there is hope
in seeing where consciousness has
already changed whether its manifested
in alternative energy sources saved
species or poetry worrying about whether
we personally will survive into an
uncertain future
won’t give us hope hope is in the
present it’s the way we see things right
here right now
it’s tuning into that bass note of the
planets pain and instead of blocking our
ears out of sheer terror for our own
survival listening as carefully as we
possibly can we can respond with
whatever form of healing we’re capable
of our efforts may seem like a drop in
the ocean but as part of a great current
they’re much more we can’t now prevent
what we’ve unleashed but we can face the
consequences with more truth better
courage and more grace if we listen to
the animals and to the earth itself
we’ll start to hear what we need to do
most certainly the planet will survive
and out of whatever mayhem we have
created undreamed-of life may come
[Applause]
[Music]
we are now responsible for the state of
the whole planet our farming practices
our expansion our industrial revolution
have led us into this and we have the
technology to control what happens next
but we’re just not up to the job
a successful hunter-gatherers we evolved
to be clever enough but not
disinterested enough not insightful
enough nor cooperative enough it’s very
frightening to find that one has created
a situation that one can’t control so
our species can’t control what it is
unleashed and whether we admit it or not
we are terrified we feel helpless
terrified helpless people take refuge in
denial and denial makes us ever more
greedy and reckless and the planet
groans under the burden of our suicidal
pursuits it’s like there’s a continuous
bass note sounding like the drone of a
bagpipe and however frenetically we’re
playing our current theme tunes we can’t
drown out that note and that bass note
is the sound of melting IceCaps mass
species extinctions seas filled with
plastic felled rainforests lost habitats
an unbreathable air of course we know
all that but we can’t look at it you
can’t go around all the time
remembering that every cup of coffee you
drink every journey you make every fire
you sit by every meal you eat is
contributing to the end of our world
you have to stay staying after all but
what is sane
is it sane to think we are the center of
our world if everything out there is
just a reflection of our own needs and
our own fantasies then it could feel as
if we’re in control of it the faster we
hurtle towards environmental and
economic collapse the more the
narcissists hold sway that base note of
warning doesn’t trouble anybody who’s
chanting their own slogan loudly enough
standing up for our future means
transforming our notions of where we
stand it means taking less for ourselves
instead of more it means listening to
the people who are already suffering the
effects of pollution and climate change
and who mostly live in societies that
didn’t cause it and honoring their
rights instead of colluding with their
dispossession it actually means going
against the whole tenor of the society
we live in which we live so how on earth
do we do that
a worthy Victorian had endowed my school
with in an annual lecture it was called
the moral progress of the world during
the preceding 12 months the lecture of
1965 forever changed my awareness of the
planet I lived on the clergyman lecturer
began I can’t talk about the moral
progress of the world during the
preceding 12 months because there has
been none there never has been instead
I’m going to tell you about what’s
happening to the world you live in
he was the first person to tell me the
story of destruction loss of habitat and
ensuing in Justices he told us how our
society was bringing everything to the
brink of extinction he told us the end
of the story was up to us the next
generation well that seemed pretty
unfair after all it wasn’t our fault
what happened before we were born
so I and the others had to change things
I took the injunction quite seriously
recently I heard Marge Piercy talk about
the 1970s and 80s through which I also
lived we thought we were gonna change
the world she said and then her voice
broke a little it was so great she added
well she was right
I too was young and we knew we had to
change the world the women’s movement
Greenpeace Friends of the Earth CND
Green uncommon direct action in direct
action our story was all about the
possibility of change and one phrase has
stayed with me revolution by change of
consciousness but however revolutionary
our theme to that mournful bass note
never went away was our story of crisis
all a crazy hippie delusion
it was quite correct about the urgent
need for change the symptoms of decline
are now all around us so why did the
story we told then not speak loudly
enough to power maybe we need to be more
truthful about what’s happening the true
story of our times goes more like this
we aren’t capable of reparation any more
than can you could stop the tide coming
in the true story of our times goes
there is a huge wave already breaking
over us and nothing in our technology or
collective wisdom can stop it we cannot
now change what is happening and we
can’t drown out that bass note the sound
of our planet’s pain we could tune into
it instead perhaps
it’s telling us the very story we’ve
been looking for all along
no wonder was so frightened of listening
to it we’re going to have to let go of
all those other Tunes to hear it
properly but aren’t you curious as well
what’s gonna happen next if this is
where the real story is don’t you want
to hear what it says it’s worth
attending to people who’ve been
listening to other stories all the time
take the hunter-gatherers who once lived
here in Scotland they hardly change
their environment in seven thousand
years their society was no Eden but it
was almost certainly Galit Aryan and its
people were attuned to the world around
them in a way that we can only dream of
hunter-gatherer societies produce
go-betweens or shaman’s if you like who
are the people who listen best certain
individuals were and are born with a
sensitivity which is recognized by
others and it is their job to speak to
the animals about the hunt in the other
side of Eden Hugh Brody speaks about the
terrible bargain that every one of us
makes when we come into the world in
order that we may live something else
must die this is the bargain the
go-betweens make with the animals about
the hunt the animals agree because the
bargain allows the natural balance which
always maintains the rightness of things
we have come so far from our distant
past that most of us would probably
survive in a hunter-gatherer society for
less than a week without wiser people to
look after us
all the more reason to look humbly at
human societies in which people interact
with the earth the seasons the animals
and plants we can never return to that
seamless sense of belonging which our
distant ancestors possessed and just a
few people in marginal places marginal
to agriculture and industry that is on
this earth still possess we know too
much and there are far too many of us we
can’t go back the world that lies ahead
is going to be very different but it
seems to me that everything begins to go
wrong when we stop listening and we stop
speaking with the animals about the hunt
that terrible bargain that we survive by
the death of other beings has never gone
away I’ve heard people talk about the
post agricultural age that we are now
even post-industrial and firmly in the
digital age and I think what did you
have for dinner in Greenland
I came across a phrase used by the Inuit
the people say to a newborn child or a
stranger living among them you will
always find food here that promise of
survival is a vital part of the story
and it can only be honored by people who
remember the terrible bargain and how it
can only be kept by maintaining the
balance between our needs and the
equally important needs of the animals
and of the land so who do we have in our
global community who is listening to
that story
they’re the go-betweens we need whose
voices we need to hear poets for a start
it was two poets who
started the dark mountain project which
exists as an internet-based community of
those who try to find voices for our
times we are facing unimaginable changes
therefore the first thing we need is
people who can imagine them nothing is
worse than the unimaginable we can’t
even begin to look at it I couldn’t
imagine what went on in a chemotherapy
ward until I spent time there
accompanying a friend the unimaginable
turned into something known which
encompass death and despair as well as
life and hope but once I’ve been there
myself the nightmare of the unimaginable
dissolved now I’m a bit more empowered
and a bit more useful
nothing is wholly unimaginable and if
the human mind can imagine something it
will inevitably find a way to represent
it imagining the unimaginable takes
courage not all endings are happy some
characters will be dead at the end of
Act one imagine being one of them it’s
worth the effort every time you do your
story will be freer from the dead weight
of denial there are people among us who
can’t handle their own awareness of
other beings because it’s too much to
bear that endless base note of something
going horribly wrong with our world
sounds loudest to those most sensitively
attuned to what it says if we really
want to know what that base note means
we should maybe ask the people who can
feel what’s happening and who just
cannot by their nature participate in
the dance to destruction
my grandson can’t cope with crowds
bright lights loud shouts quick changes
competition in any form school education
is impossible for him he’s distressed by
a wasp drowning in a cup of coffee he
asks all the time but why do they have
Wars why do they kill children why are
they cutting down the trees why do they
kill the animals he keeps asking the
same questions not because he is in the
least stupid but because no one has yet
answered them properly he has met
Bushmen in Namibia where his father
worked and stayed in a traditional
village now he often asks what would the
Bushmen do if a boy was being bullied
what would the Bushmen do if bombs were
dropped there I think he will be asking
the same questions all his life some
people care so much they’ll put their
lives on the line to save what they love
we need them as much as ever
and sometimes activism succeeds if a
rainforest is saved or one oak tree in a
British field if an ocean is reprieved
or one species of stickleback in a
suburban pond there is cause for
celebration
but until the human species chooses to
dance to a different piping altogether
that bass note will still sound will
still be heading the wrong way so how do
we turn ourselves around standing up for
mere survival is not enough that always
means our survival made possible by
having eliminated most of the other guys
maybe it’s time to think harder about
our side of the bargain
speaking with the animals about the hunt
is not a concept familiar to our
culture but unless we empathize with
those lives so utterly unlike our own
and use that awareness wisely there’ll
be nothing left to eat or breathe and
the story will end our story may end in
any case it’s possible that we’ll turn
the page and see the words the end
everything has to be imagined in this
story including that especially that in
fact because denial begins with not
facing one’s own death and as
individuals we will quite certainly get
to the page that says the end if we want
a new beginning we have to change our
awareness guilt and regret are old
stories they only lead us backwards what
we need now is what Pandora found at the
bottom of the box hope we need to read
the signs of hope and encourage these
new shoots in any way we can in his new
film An Inconvenient sequel Al Gore
quotes Martin Luther King when the
struggle for civil rights seemed to go
on and on and on and nothing seemed to
change people began to ask how long must
we struggle against these impossible
entrenched odds Martin Luther King said
not long he was right the tipping point
was closed but he didn’t live to see it
this is what the animals say to the
go-betweens about the hunt they say that
some of them agree to give themselves
because in order for there to be life
there must be death the tipping point
that we dread may also be a
transformation if the dinosaurs still
walk the earth probably none of us
would be here with our warm blood and
our hearts and minds and our capacity to
adapt to what is happening there is hope
in seeing where consciousness has
already changed whether its manifested
in alternative energy sources saved
species or poetry worrying about whether
we personally will survive into an
uncertain future
won’t give us hope hope is in the
present it’s the way we see things right
here right now
it’s tuning into that bass note of the
planets pain and instead of blocking our
ears out of sheer terror for our own
survival listening as carefully as we
possibly can we can respond with
whatever form of healing we’re capable
of our efforts may seem like a drop in
the ocean but as part of a great current
they’re much more we can’t now prevent
what we’ve unleashed but we can face the
consequences with more truth better
courage and more grace if we listen to
the animals and to the earth itself
we’ll start to hear what we need to do
most certainly the planet will survive
and out of whatever mayhem we have
created undreamed-of life may come
[Applause]
[Music]
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