Team Earth

This column tries to avoid partisan political comment, after all, there isn’t much on any side of politics to inspire. Yet recently an Australian political leader has used the term (much to his subsequent chagrin) “Team Australia”. By its nature this is an exclusive and dividing term but if you extend the idea of a “team” to the entire planet then it becomes inclusive and “Team Earth” could achieve amazing things both for the health of individuals and the ecosystem as a whole, as has been highlighted in a new report.

The report comes from Professor Mark Wahlqvist of Monash University who makes the point that seeing ourselves, humanity, as distinct and separate from the rest of the planet’s inhabitants has led to poor decision making. The report emphasises that thinking only of ourselves, the human species, has led to a kind of pillage and plunder mentality toward the world in which we live. This has damaged the world and now it is damaging us.

According to Wahlqvist the world-view we have indulged has led us not see events as the result of a complex and interrelated set of circumstances, but to search for simple causative factors that we can blame. This is the kind of thinking that has led to the overuse of antibiotics such that now we have microorganisms in ourselves and in farm animals that no antibiotic can eradicate.

The report makes the point that simple but holistic measures like eating a varied home-cooked diet consisting of mainly plants, walking 30-40 minutes a day, maintaining a Garden, and experiencing nature help maintain health and promote a long life.

The really crucial leap in awareness according to the report, is that we need to see ourselves as part of the planet and connected to all of it, as opposed to separate from it. If we see ourselves as part of Organism Earth then we just couldn’t harm it in the way we have done previously. The wonderful prospect is that acting to heal the planet we will be acting to heal ourselves as well.