Planet Aqua: a new understanding of humanity and the future of life on Earth

Part 2

In part 1 I talked about the polycrises facing humanity. I described Jeremy Rifkin’s new book, Planet Aqua: Rethinking Our Home in the Universe and how it increases understanding of our world by recognizing that our planet exists in the first place water instead of Earth. I also discussed the work of James DeMeo, who traced the origins of many of our current problems to a specific time and place in human history – 6,000 years ago in the Middle East – and what this can teach us about our current predicament and how we can solve them. It.

For most of human history, despite life’s many challenges, people lived in relative peace and prosperity. In their book, Nurturing our humanity: How domination and partnership shape our brains, lives, and futures Riane Eisler and Douglas P. Fry say:

“During the vast majority of the period the sex Homo existed, nomadic foraging shaped the ubiquitous human lifestyle.”

They go on to quote anthropologist MG Bicchieri who said:

“For more than 99 percent of the approximately two million years since the emergence of recognizable human animals, man has been a hunter and gatherer.”

Eisler and Fry say that our ancestors were “The Original Partnership Societies” with the following characteristics of partnership systems including:

• Equality, respect and partnership between women and men.

• A non-acceptance of violence, war, abuse, cruelty and exploitation.

• Ethics that support human care, prosocial collaboration, and flourishing.

As James DeMeo’s research showed, this way of life changed 6,000 years ago.

“With few exceptions, there is no clear and unequivocal evidence for warfare or social violence on our planet before about 4000 B.C. in any corner of the globe.”

DeMeo further says:

“A massive climate change shocked the ancient world when, about 6,000 years ago, large areas of lush grassland and forest in the Old World began to rapidly dry out and turn into harsh desert. The vast Sahara Desert, the Arabian Desert, and the gigantic deserts of the Middle East and Central Asia existed before about 4000 B.C. simply not.”

There is modern evidence that the area in question is what the Bible calls ‘the Garden of Eden’. In their book, Exiles From Eden: psychotherapy from an evolutionary perspective, Kalman Glantz and John K. Pearce cite the work of archaeologist Juris Zarins. He believes that this idyllic part of the world now lies beneath the Persian Gulf, downstream from the ancient civilizations that flowed along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. According to Glantz and Pearce

‘Eden was not paradise. It was just a place – a place where people lived as all people lived before the rise of civilization.”

“The ‘Garden of Eden’ myths, which appear in the historical literature of many Old World cultures, actually appear to be rooted in this early period of socially cooperative and peaceful social conditions, when Saharasia was green and fertile, ”

says DeMeo.

“Then came the devastating climate change towards aridity that formed the vast desert belt of the Sahara, and people were literally driven ‘out of the garden’. The rest is history.”

DeMeo’s research shows that the 6,000-year drought lasted for generations and impacted the lives of everyone living at the time. Recent research on the impact of ‘adverse childhood experiences’ shows that the effects of childhood trauma are long-lasting and cause physical, emotional and relational health problems throughout our lives.

“Famine and starvation are a serious trauma from which survivors rarely escape unscathed,”

says DeMeo.

“Many people die, families are separated, babies and children are often abandoned and suffer enormously. Hunger affects surviving children in emotionally severe ways. These attitudes and behaviors are deeply protoplasmic in nature and are passed on to subsequent generations, regardless of climate, through social institutions that reflect the character structure of the average individual in a given period.

Although this type of trauma affects both men and women, men and women often cope with the trauma in different ways. Comedian Elayne Boosler offers a humorous yet insightful reflection on this inherent difference. She says,

“When women get depressed, they eat or go shopping. Men invade another country. It’s a completely different way of thinking.”

In my recent book, Long live men! The Moonshot mission to heal people, close the lifespan gap and bring hope to humanity, my second chapter is titled, “Male violence is on the rise—from school shootings to domestic violence and insurrections at the U.S. Capitol. From irritability and anger to depression and suicide.”

I go on to say,

“Men are the ‘canaries in the coal mine’, warning us of the need for change. Canaries were used in target mines as an early warning system for miners. Toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and methane in the mine would kill the bird before affecting the miners. Mental illness and breakdowns in men are the world’s first warning signs of an impending catastrophe. Things like Irritable Male Syndrome, male depression and aggression, and high suicide rates alert us to the toxic nature of our current environment and lifestyle.”

Our Moonshot for humanity and humanity

We believe that human mental, emotional and relational health is the key to enabling men to live long and well. Our mission is to help men live healthier, happier and more cooperative lives – a life full of purpose and productivity, where men are supported and valued as they make positive contributions to their families, friends and communities. When that happens, families grow stronger, communities thrive, and humanity takes another leap forward.

In 2004, I read a powerful study, “Sexual Selection and the Male:Female Mortality Ratio,” by Daniel J. Kruger, PhD and Randolph M. Nesse, MD. They examined premature deaths among men in twenty countries. They found that men in every country died earlier and lived sicker than women, and that their shorter health and lifespans were detrimental to the men and their families. They concluded with some powerful statements:

• “Being male is now the biggest demographic factor for premature death.”

• “In the US alone, more than 375,000 lives would be saved in one year if the mortality risk for men were as low as that for women.”

• “If mortality rates among men could be reduced to those among women, this would eliminate more than a third of all male deaths under the age of 50 and help men of all ages.”

• “If you could equalize male mortality rates with female mortality rates, you would do more good than curing cancer.”

For me, this was a call to action. I invited a number of colleagues who led organizations that had proven successful in helping improve men’s health. We launched the non-profit organization MoonshotForMankind.Org. We invite you to join us.

We also have an additional way to share information that may be helpful. Check out our Substack, https://substack.com/@moonshotformankind and hear what our founders have to say.

There are clearly a number of biologically based reasons why women live longer than men. But we know that even our genes can be changed by changes in our lifestyle and beliefs about ourselves and the world.

The lessons I have learned over the years are the following:

• We may not be responsible for the traumatic climate change that occurred 6,000 years ago, but we must take responsibility for our current situation. As they say, “Nature’s bats persist.” If people are unwilling to change, nature will force change on us.

• We would do well to listen to our animal elders. Most species have been here longer than us and are better adapted to life on planet Earth. As historian Thomas Berry reminds us.

“We never knew enough. Nor were we sufficiently intimate with all our cousins ​​in the great family of the earth. We also could not listen to the different beings on earth, each telling their own story. But the time has now come that we will listen, otherwise we will die.”

• If we take the wrong path, it is never too late to turn back.

• We may not be able to go back to the past, but we can move forward into the future. As Jeremy Rifkin says:

“We need to reset our perception of water as a ‘resource’ to one that sees water as a ‘source of life.’ We must adapt to the hydrosphere instead of trying to adapt the hydrosphere to us. The next phase in the human saga is to name our home ‘Planet Aqua’ and learn to live and thrive in new ways on a unique water planet in the universe.”

You can learn more about Jeremy Rifkin’s work and his book: Planet Aqua: Rethinking Our Home in the Universe here. If you enjoyed this series of articles and would like to read more about how we can create a healthy future for ourselves, our children, and future generations, I invite you to sign up for my free weekly newsletter. You can do that here: https://menalive.com/email-newsletter/