Global Warming

Bucky Warned Us

Now, however, things have changed, and we are becoming increasingly aware that we have reached or are reaching an environmental tipping point because of our effect on our planet’s environment. Bucky did not predict the global warming that we are experiencing, but he did spend much of the last 56 years of his life advocating that humans operate in ways that mirror Nature. Specifically, he was constantly asking his audiences to realize that fossil fuel was Earth’s (and humankind’s) “savings account,” and that using it up quickly was not how we were intended to live. We were designed to utilize that savings account in learning to live sustainable lives in all aspects of our existence.

He maintained that Nature (God, Higher Power, Great Spirit or whatever name you choose to use) had provided this savings account of fossil fuel resources to allow us to develop into a sustainable society, and that if we did not do that we would perish as a species. And that is precisely where we tend to be headed. We are seeing that the unbridled use of fossil fuels will bring about our extinction, and some of us are beginning to do something to meet this challenge. The real question to as is if we waited too long to take the actions that Bucky began advocating in the 1930’s. Will we see the path that he perceived before it is too late to stem the consequences of global warming?

And he did more than just talk about solutions, he took action even when his actions were perceived by most people as radical, strange and even crazy. After all, why would anyone want to build, much less own, a fully autonomous home? That was the question often asked when he designed and built the prototype Dymaxion House in the 1940’s.

Although that house was not self-sustaining, it was designed to implement future technology that Bucky predicted would occur so that no person’s home need be connected to any “grid.” That means that it would be heated and powered by electricity generated using a built-in wind turbine at its core, all water and waste would be recycled and the house itself could be lifted by helicopter and transported intact to anywhere the owner desired.

We now have the technology to do just what Bucky dreamed, and if all humankind were living in Bucky’s affordable Dymaxion Homes our use of fossil fuels would be greatly diminished, resulting in less global warming. The key to Bucky’s still futuristic strategy was and still is supporting every human to realize that they are wealthy beyond their wildest dreams and that they have the freedom to live their dreams rather than be slaves to the corporations and institutions that control us.

Bucky fought to uncover and dissolve such corporate greed for most of his life. He was an average human working on behalf of all other average humans, and he realized that something like global warming would destroy us if we did not put technology to use on behalf of everyone rather than using it to destroy us all. This is his critical idea of shifting from a focus on selfish, competitive weaponry to a focus on selfless, cooperative livingry. When we use our amazing new technology for livingry rather than weaponry, we will begin to turn the tide of global warming. We will also being providing a sustainable society for all humans, and we will see the human population of our Spaceship Earth decline.

This is not some pie-in-the-sky futuristic vision. It’s possible today. We have the capability to reverse global warming and all the catastrophies that come with it right now. All we need to do is eliminate the politics of fear, greed and scarcity that have dominated most of human evolution. Those politics were valid when there were not enough resources to supply everyone, but that scarcity reality shifted in about 1976 (just as Bucky predicted). With enough to go around, we can stop our reliance on fossil fuel and thus being to reverse the effects of global warming.

It’s up to each of us. We simply we simply have yet to realize Bucky’s vision of how important the “little, individual human” really is. Each of us has far more power than we know, and the big issues such as global warming are where we need to focus our attention. We need to do as Bucky did and constantly look at the big picture for everyone as well as how we can manifest our dreams, both collective and individual.

When we do that, we will come to realize that we all want the same things – peace, a sustainable world for our children and for generations to come, enough basic resources to sustain everyone and a future filled with hope and joy. Global warming is not part of that vision, and it’s time that we begin supporting Bucky’s dream of “a world that works for everyone” so that we can all move past fear, scarcity and war and into the bright future we so crave.