Editor’s Note: Eco-Neurosis

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The problem is that awareness doesn’t automatically translate to action, and the rational fears of the well-meaning are morphing into a mental roadblock that robs them and those around them of life’s potential. For some, the temptation is to withdraw, which means surrounding themselves with like-minded defeatists or throwing in the towel. Others turn into martyrs, convinced that theirs is the only way, raging at those who don’t live up to impractical, unattainable standards. Finally, there are those who still cannot stop saying I told you so and label anyone who dares to dream as naïve or disingenuous or worse.

The wise path, of course, is much more difficult. It requires a measure of blind optimism, a faith in our fellows, as well as an acceptance of our own mortality and the chaos that defines the cosmos.

“We can serve the cause of life on earth better if we move through our anxiety, and if we find an underlying place within ourselves that acknowledges the reality of the tragedy we are facing and, at the same time, commits to doing whatever each of us can do to move beyond this tragedy,” Michael Lerner, president of Commonweal, a health and environmental research institute in Bolinas, tells San Francisco. “This situation is too serious to afford us the luxury of remaining stuck in anxiety. We have an obligation to move toward hope and commitment.”

In other words, as the best Bioneers will tell you, it’s about being modest, living locally, and abandoning the doom and gloom in hot pursuit of innovation.

It’s in that spirit that we put together this month’s cover section (“Mother Earth’s Big Comeback,” p. 36). While it’s far from an exhaustive, unassailable list of ideas, our hope is that it gets readers talking not about what’s breaking down, but what we can all do to break through.

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