Thomas Berry (1914-2009) was an American cultural historian, religious scholar, cosmologist, leading thinker in the Teilhardian philosophical tradition, and one of the most inspiring ecological thinkers of the 20th century. He extensively analyzed the nature of the alienation of Western culture and spirituality from the Earth. In order for us to succeed as individuals and as a species, Berry argued, we must understand the “story of the universe.” Together with cosmologist Brian Swimme, he developed a “new story” evolutionary cosmology, unifying science and spirituality that sees humanity, the Earth, and the universe as a single, multifaceted evolutionary event. Thomas Berry is the author of a number of publications: The New Story (1978), The Dream of the Earth (1988), The Universe Story (with Brian Simm, 1992), The Great Work - Our Way into the Future (1999), The Sacred Universe (2009) etc. Berry's key essay "The Meadow Beyond the Stream" was published in Czech in the magazine Seventh generation (1/2009). This text is the first part of the author's lecture "Ekozoic Era", delivered at Schumacher College, which was published in Eleventh Annual EFSchumacher Lectures October 1991, Great Barrington, Massachusetts (edit. Hildegarde Hannum), see www.schumachersociety.org. Translated by Jiří Zemánek. Published in the magazine Sedmá generace 6 / 2016. More about the work of Thomas Berry: www.thomasberry.org.
“It’s all about the story. The reason we’re in this predicament today is because we don’t have a good story. We’re in a ‘between-stories’ stage. The old story—the story of how this world came to be and our role in it—has stopped working for us, and we haven’t learned the new story yet.”
Thomas Berry, The New Story
The changes that are taking place today in human and earthly affairs transcend all parallels with known historical or cultural changes. It is not like the transition from the classical period to the Middle Ages or from the Middle Ages to the modern era. These changes go far beyond the framework of civilization and even human processes and affect the biosystems and the very geological structures of the Earth (…).
I do not want to dwell on the devastation we have caused on Earth, but only to make sure that we understand the nature and scope of what is happening today. Even though we seem to be achieving remarkable results at the micro-level of our actions, we are simultaneously devastating a whole range of living beings at the macro-level. The natural world is more sensitive than we have previously thought. Without being aware of the degree of its organization and the nature of our activities, we thought that all our achievements and achievements would be immensely beneficial to us; but now we discover that our interventions have disrupted the biological systems of the planet at the most fundamental level of their functioning and, as a result, are threatening everything that makes planet Earth a suitable place for the integral development of human life itself.
Our problems are primarily problems of macrophase biology. Macrophase biology, the integral functioning of the entire complex of biosystems of the planet, has received almost no attention from biologists. It was only James Lovelock and some other scientists who began to think about this larger range of life processes. This delay is not surprising, because at every stage of our human activities we are literally trapped in microphase dimensions. This can be observed in the fields of law, medicine, and other fields, as well as in biology.
Macro-process biology deals with five basic domains: land, water, air, and life—and how these domains interact with each other to make planet Earth what it is—and another very powerful domain: the human mind. (…) It is clear that the human mode of consciousness is uniquely capable of intruding and interfering with the larger functioning of living planetary systems. This interference (and disruption) has become so powerful that it has led us to build another new domain, which we might call the technosphere. The technosphere is a way of controlling the functioning of the planet for the exclusive benefit of humans and at the expense of other life forms. It is even conceivable that the technosphere, in its subordination to industrial-commercial goals, has become incompatible with the other domains that form the basic functional context of our planet.
The most important and yet simplest question we must confront is: to what extent can the technological-industrial-commercial context of human activity be consistent with the integral functioning of the other living systems of the planet? We are reluctant to admit that our activities might be inherently incompatible with the integral functioning of the other diverse components of planetary systems. This is not just a matter of changing our behavior on a smaller scale through recycling, pollution abatement, energy reduction, car use reduction, or fewer development projects. This is the current industrial system itself. Our efforts will be in vain if we intend to accept it as it is. The above steps must occur, but in accordance with my definition of the Eozoic era, something more must be done: a new era of human-Earth relations must also be reached.
Our current system, based on the plundering of the earth's resources, is certainly coming to an end. It cannot continue. The industrial world as it operates on a global scale today can be considered definitively bankrupt. There is no way out of the current recession within the framework of existing commercial-industrial processes. This crisis is not just a financial or human crisis, it is a crisis of the planet itself. The Earth can no longer tolerate such an industrial system or the devastating effects of its technologies. In the future, the industrial system will go through periods of apparent renewal, but these will be smaller and short-lived. The greater movement is taking place in the direction of its disintegration. The impact of our current technologies exceeds what the Earth can withstand. (…)
Conditions for the emergence of the Ecozoic era
In assessing our current situation, I have come to the conclusion that we have already closed the Cenozoic era of the planet's geobiological systems; 65 million years of life's development have ended. Species extinctions are occurring today at a rate unprecedented in all life systems since the end of the Mesozoic.
The renewal of life in some creative context requires the emergence of a new biological era in which humanity lives on Earth in a way that is enriching for both itself and the Earth. I characterize this new mode of planetary existence as the Ecozoic Era, the fourth in a sequence of the previous epochs of life identified as the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic. However, in proposing an Ecozoic Era, we must define what the unique character of this emerging epoch lies in.
I suggest the name “ecozoic” as a more appropriate term than “ecological.” Eco-logos refers to understanding the interactions of things. Eco-zoic is more of a biological term that can be used to refer to the integrated functioning of living systems in their mutually enriching relationships.
The Ecozoic Era can only be realized by the integral community of life itself. If other epochs have been designated by names such as "reptilian" or "mammalian," the Ecozoic Era must be identified as the era of integral community of life. In order for it to arise, a person must meet certain special conditions. Although this era cannot be an “anthropocentric” period, it can only arise under certain circumstances that concern our human understanding, or rather our decisions and activities that we develop on its basis.
When we consider the conditions for the emergence of the Eozoic era, we can arrive at this list:
First condition is connected with the understanding that the universe is a community of subjects and not a collection of objects. Each being has its own inner form, its spontaneity, its voice, its ability to express itself and present itself to other parts of the universe in a subject-subject relationship. Since this is true everywhere in the universe, it is especially true for each individual being of the Earth community. Each individual part of the Earth is integrally connected to every other part; and of course this is also true for all living beings of the Earth in their mutual relationships.
The end of the Cenozoic era was brought about by the inability of humans in industrial cultures to relate intimately to the Earth and its diverse manifestations. Sometime since the time of Descartes in the first half of the 17th century, Westerners had begun to relate to the non-human parts of the planet in an autistic way. Although humans had abused the natural world before, until then it had been recognized in its own biological functioning as a living world, as a world that had an “anima,” or soul. Every living being was inherently a souled being, a being with a voice that spoke into the depths of human wonder and divine mystery, a voice that was heard quite clearly by poets, musicians, scientists, philosophers, and mystics, as well as by the peculiar sensitivity of children. Descartes, it could be said, killed the Earth and all its living beings; the natural world was a machine to him. This offered no possibility for humans to enter into a relationship of connection, and therefore humans The West in its They turned their relationship with the world around them into autistic; they were unable to establish any connection with birds or other animals or plants, because for them they were just mechanical devices. The real value of things was reduced to their economic value - and thus a destructive anthropocentrism emerged.
This state of affairs can only be remedied by developing a new way of interacting with the natural world, with its terrestrial and marine plants and animals. Unless we take this seriously, we cannot expect any significant remedy for the current difficulties experienced across the Earth. The ability to establish a trusting relationship needs to be extended to atmospheric phenomena and geological structures.
Because of this autism, my generation never heard the voices of the vast majority of the planet's inhabitants, had no connection with the non-human world. They went to the seaside or to the mountains for recreation and experienced moments of aesthetic joy. But these experiences were too superficial to be transformed into real respect or intimacy. My generation showed no sensitivity to the forces inherent in the various phenomena of the natural world, no depth of respect that could curb our aggressive assault on nature, from which we tried to extract any profit for ourselves - even if it meant tearing the entire structure of the planet to pieces.
Second condition for our entry into the ecozoic era is related to the realization that the Earth lives and can survive only in its integral functioning. It cannot survive in fragments, just as no organism can. But the Earth is not globally uniform. It is a differentiated unity that must be maintained in the integrity and interrelationships of its many bioregional contexts. This internal coherence of natural systems requires that human settlement be directly aligned with the dynamics of life in the region. Within this region, the human right to a home must respect the right to one's own home for other members of the community of life. Only a fully comprehensive manifestation of life can preserve the vitality of each bioregion.
Third condition The emergence of the Ecozoic era is related to the realization that the Earth is a one-time gift. We do not know what quantum of energy the Earth contains, we do not know its possibilities, nor its limits. We must reasonably assume that the Earth is today in danger of irreversible damage to the basic patterns of its functioning, including the disruption of the possibilities of its further development. Even though after the great extinction at the end of the Paleozoic and in the Mesozoic, life was maintained and its further development took place, it was not as highly complex as it is today. Even in these times, the conditions of life themselves were not negated by such changes as we later caused by polluting the planet with toxic substances.
Life on Earth will certainly overcome the current decline of the Cenozoic era, but we do not know at what level of development. Simple cell forms, insects, rodents, plants, and a host of other forms that occur throughout the planet will certainly survive. However, the cruel destruction of rainforests and soil fertility, the damage to species biodiversity and the conditions for the survival of advanced animal species, the consequences for all animal life of the weakening of the ozone layer, the expansion of deserts, the pollution of the great lakes, the chemical imbalance of the atmosphere - all these are signs of a widespread disturbance that may make it impossible to restore them to their former greatness; certainly in any time frame conceivable to our human ways of thinking or planning. So in these last centuries we have almost certainly witnessed a magnificent culmination of the Earth's flowering.
Fourth condition The dawn of the Ecozoic Era is associated with the realization that the Earth is primary and humans are derivative. Today’s distorted view is based on the idea that humans are of primary importance and the Earth and its integral functioning are secondary—a pathology that manifests itself in many of our institutions. The only acceptable way for us as humans to function usefully on Earth is to consider the entire Earth community first and act as integral members of it. The Earth must become the primary concern of every human institution, profession, program, and activity, including the economy. Our economy cannot be given primary consideration in economics, because the human economy does not exist before the Earth economy. Only if the Earth economy is functioning integrally can the human economy be effective in any way. The Earth economy can survive the loss of its human component, but in the case of the human economy, there is no way that it can survive or prosper apart from the Earth economy. It is absurd to strive for growth in gross national product in the face of a decline in the "gross product of the Earth."
The primacy of the Earth community also applies to medicine, law, and all our other human activities. Especially in medicine, it should be clear to us that we cannot have healthy people on a sick planet.
Medicine must first focus its attention on protecting the health and well-being of the Earth before it can be of any benefit to human health. The same is true of the judiciary. To base legal administration on the rights of people and their unrestricted freedom to use the natural world is to open it up to the worst predatory human instincts. The primary rights of the entire earthly community must first be secured, and only within these can the rights and freedoms of people be articulated.
Fifth condition The emergence of the Ecozoic era lies in the realization that there is only one single community of Earth. There is no such thing as a human community that is in any way separate from the community of Earth. The human community and the natural world will go into the future as one single integral community, or they will experience misfortune along the way. There is only one community of Earth, however differentiated in its modes of expression – one economic order, one health system, one moral order, one world of the sacred.
The Ecozoic Era and the Great Story of the Universe
As I present this outline of the nascent Ecozoic era, I am fully aware that the concept of a future in which humans will relate to the Earth in a way that is mutually enriching for it and for them is mythical in form. Just as concepts such as the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic represent mythical modes of understanding a continuous, evolving process (even if that process is characterized by an indefinite number of discontinuities within its continuity).
I am trying to articulate here the outlines of a new mythic form that would evoke a creative rapture, following the fascination with destruction that has dominated the Western soul in recent centuries. We can only counter one form of fascination with another counter-fascination. Only in this way can we evoke the vision, as well as awaken within ourselves the psychic energies, which are necessary for the earthly community to successfully enter its next major creative phase. The magnitude of the possibilities that open before us must be experienced in some way, anticipatory, or we will not have enough mental energy to endure the pain that transformation requires. (…)
I hope that we will be able to guide and inspire our next generation in its attempt to shape the future. Otherwise, it will simply survive with all its resentments amidst the destroyed infrastructure of the industrial world and amidst the ruins of nature itself. The great challenge itself is already predetermined, and there is no way for the new generation to avoid this confrontation. However, the task to which this generation is called and the destiny that lies before it does not belong to it alone. Man is connected to every earthly being and to the entire planet; the entire universe is involved. We can therefore consider the successful emergence of the Ecozoic era as a great creative task of the universe itself. This destiny, however, can only be understood in the context of the great story of the universe.