The missing link to sustainability is in our heads. And it’s a serious problem.

Science vs Quality of Life

I basically agree with most good scientists in sustainability, climate, and other social and environmental disciplines. We cannot reasonably continue overusing nature’s bounties and neglecting human well-being the way we do without further serious adverse consequences. But as Blaise Pascal put it, “no matter how much reason cries, it cannot put a price on things.” By “price”, Pascal meant “value” more as an emotional attachment. We need science and reason, but what we really long for is a certain quality of life.

If we were able to collectively imagine a sufficiently clear movie of the life on earth we aspire to for the human species, in tangible, concrete terms, and describe it in a masterful script; and if the United Nations and all world leaders were then able to correctly communicate and serve this vision as the one to be achieved (while certainly opening up to all possible and necessary local variations depending on culture and circumstances), then we would be making quantum leaps toward its achievement.

Empty Words

But it is completely impossible to implement an abstract idea, precisely because it is abstract. And yet this is what we are trying to do COP (Conference of the Parties) after COP.

“There is no planet B. There is no planet blah. Blah-blah-blah, blah-blah-blah (…) Net-zero by 2050, blah-blah-blah, net-zero, blah-blah-blah, climate neutral, blah-blah-blah, green economy, blah-blah-blah. This is all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words. Words that sound great but so far, have led to no action. Our hopes and dreams drown in their empty words and promises.”

– Greta Thunberg, 2021

Greta is right. But what makes the words “empty”? Well, words are empty when abstract, that is, disconnected from tangible reality. When we cannot picture in our mind something concrete that these words are supposed to designate. If I say “freedom,” what do you see? A hundred different people will see a hundred different things or nothing at all. The same with “net-zero” and “green economy.” Even the proponents of these words cannot see much when they speak them (it may help to also read Season II, Episode 1 of this blog, Sustainability is an Abstraction).

Words that Make Sense

Words we use for action must be able to paint exactly what is to be changed, and into what, in sufficient detail. Those words must create a vivid image in our minds, with sound, smell, touch, and taste. And as we do that, we must also be feeling the positive emotional state we’d be in if we were living that better, improved experience. We must pre-experience it in dream.

For this to occur, we therefore need the part of the brain that experiences reality, and the part of the brain that interprets reality (with words, numbers, and reason) to work consciously together. And if we have our brain together, we also have a whole body, capable of correct action. For a better, more fully meant and understood communication, both “sides” must be “whole-brained.” [For those who read this on social media and can see the article’s featured image of two brain hemispheres: the image voluntarily oversimplifies the reality of a human brain, which is much more complex, according to the latest neuroscience research. The image’s purpose is strictly symbolic, showing the need for conscious connection. Conscious connection is my main point. In reality, brain functions are not as localized as we’ve been told in the past, and they can “move”, thanks to neuroplasticity.]

But in the industrialization era, when we have been developing technology more than human beings, pretty much everything other than the interpreting function of the brain has been underestimated, neglected, even abused, by the majority of those who are running our world. (To be fair, I must specify: mostly involuntarily). And the rest of us have let them. We have been collectively loosing conscious connection to several crucial human abilities.

Because we do not care to make sure that we all see the same thing when we have conversations, we all have different images and sounds of the “better world” we want, if any. These images are mostly subconscious. And it is the subconscious, random images (if any) in the heads of those with political and financial power, that are currently operating by default, running everybody’s lives. Guess what those images could possibly be!

No More Blah-blah Leaders

Blah-blah leaders have a limited visual, perceptual, emotional, and spiritual intelligence. I know that because I am a recovering blah-blah leader myself, who can relapse if I don’t catch myself! Again, let me be clear: I am not saying that blah-blah leaders have no emotions or senses. They do have them! We all do. I am talking about the need to becoming more conscious about these abilities, so that we may integrate them more intentionally in decision-making and action.

Blah-blah leaders have defined sustainable development with words and figures without also ensuring that the latter correspond to a sufficiently conscious, tangible, possible, and common vision of a desired earth reality. One that includes human beings. I am sorry to say: human development is never going to happen unless our leaders consciously decide to address, as a central health issue, the widespread, deadly inner fragmentation of the human consciousness. That is, unless we become conscious of what images, what emotions, what sensations, our words and figures are connected to, in our brains and bodies, and set as a goal to have everything reconnected in the “correct” way. That is, a way that serves life and the expansion of life on Earth.

My friends, this is extremely serious. Let me repeat this: we are talking about life or death here.

Dear reader, what are you doing to reconnect and integrate all the parts of your brain and body in consciousness? To connect figures with art, beauty with mathematics, melody with rhythm, science with spirituality, and your income amount with a body sensation? And to make sure these connections are working for you and for the common good?

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