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<\/strong><\/h1>\nPart of me, maybe the compassionate part, has great difficulty answering your question, \u201cAre Environmental Educators good?\u201d It responds with more questions, lots more questions: You know, when I was a boy there was no such thing as an Environmental Educator or Environment reporters or a Ministry for the Environment. No one talked about \u201cThe Environment\u201d. Confusing? Confused? Two things seem clear: these two words mean a lot to us adults and we give each word very different meanings. They are constantly in the headlines – on TV, radio, the Internet, billboards, magazines, even in your classrooms. Perhaps there are also other ways physics can help us better understand the \u201cweird\u201d behaviour of us adults. \u201cNewton\u2019s Third Law of Motion\u201d does usefully predict the behaviour of things like chairs and tables and the planets and stars. The principle seems true of things in general and us adults have a very funny attitude to it. For instance, each day we see the sun and the moon rise, the clouds float by, the rain fall and people sitting on chairs. We know from the changing ocean tides and seasons etc that there are real, vast and invisible networks of interactions going on. \u201cThat\u2019s the laws of physics in operation,\u201d we say. Remember how we had a bit of a play with an Identikit of the human psyche? What do you reckon? Perhaps the belief that thoughts and words are not things like everything else is actually another ingenious trick of the ego? Phew. Cartoon No 6 sure is a crowded picture and these tricks of the ego are just a tiny sample of\u00a0 the self-deceits\u00a0 we adults are capable of.\u00a0 What do you feel? A bit crazy? Scary? Weird? Rather funny? Mind-boggling? Words fail me. However what if everything in the universe really does involve paradox? Then this \u201cweird\u201d behaviour of us adults involves physics that we can sense and experience but cannot think about. Maybe you are asking \u201cWhat is the Big Idea?\u201d Well, I don\u2019t know. Who can be sure what the \u201cBig Idea\u201d is if every thing in the universe involves unthinkable paradox. As we have seen in the cartoons, a huge shift occurred in our English culture this past three centuries. They show our use of the English language completely changed as some of us began burning just about anything on Earth we could set fire to. Some people objected to the associated pollution and misery. Soon various schools of thought sprang up as people argued about the meaning of life and this led to a whole lot of pushing and shoving of \u201cBig Ideas\u201d…<\/p>\n The above cartoon of life in England two centuries ago illustrates how the ego can so easily have us adults trap ourselves in some pretty hopeless situation. So back to your question: \u201cAre Environmental Educators good?\u201d
\nCan nice, kind and well-intentioned people make mistakes?
\nWhat if their lifestyle is unsustainable – how will this be reflected in their use of language?
\nWhat if their use of language is unsustainable – how will this alter people\u2019s behaviour, including their own lifestyle?
\nWhat is an \u201cEnvironmental Educator\u201d?
\nIndeed, what is \u201cthe environment\u201d?
\nHow might the ego and compassion be expressed in the word?
\nWhat is the physics (paradox) of the word?
\nMaybe we should check back through our letters for insights that might help us answer your question…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/truehope.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Dear-GUD-7-The-Environment-Trap1.jpg\")
\u21d3<\/strong> Two<\/h1>\n
\nAlso there were no plastic bags or plastic bottles. We wrapped food like loaves of bread with paper. We used a glass bottle hundreds of times till it broke.
\nWe did not imagine ourselves traveling in planes and instead traveled overseas by ships.
\nThings like electric jugs, toasters, vacuum cleaners, washing machines etc and clothes were repaired, not trashed, if a part failed.
\n8 out of 10 children in our towns and cities walked or biked to school whereas now 8 out of 10 children travel by car or bus.
\nThe word \u201cenvironment\u201d meant much, much more then – it could even mean the stars, the universe…![\"\"](\"http:\/\/truehope.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Dear-GUD-7-Environment-Trap2-1000.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u21d3<\/strong> Three<\/h1>\n
\n\u201cYou must Save the Environment!\u201d
\n\u201cThe Economy is Booming!\u201d
\n\u201cThe Environment is Collapsing!\u201d
\n\u201cVote XYZ for a Strong Economy!\u201d
\n\u201cThe Economy is Choking!\u201d
\n\u201cJoin The Great Debate: The Economy v The Environment!\u201d
\nMaybe you just hear all the adult chatter about \u201cThe Economy\u201d and \u201dThe Environment\u201d as background noise – it simply sort of washes over you?
\nMaybe you dismiss it as the \u201cusual, old, weird adult stuff\u201d?
\nWeird? Well, recall our letter Fun with Paradox<\/a> that discussed the idea that everything involves paradox? Maybe the physics of paradox can help us understand this behaviour\u00a0 better… ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/truehope.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Dear-GUD-7-Environment-Trap1001.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u21d3<\/strong> Four<\/h1>\n
\nGrab a chair and we will try to make sense of \u201cNewton\u2019s Third Law of Motion\u201d.
\nThis physics involves more fun with paradox<\/a> and so words are pretty useless:
\nA force occurs when two things interact. Newton was trying to express the general principle that actually a pair of equal and opposite forces occur when two things interact, e.g. your bum and a chair.
\nSit very still on your chair for a minute.
\nFeel the downwards sensation of gravity pulling you towards the ground.
\nThen feel the upwards push of the chair on your bum. It might take a moment to feel it.
\nNow try feeling both these opposing sensations at the same time. No go? Does your mind just flit between the up and the down sensation? It is very hard to imagine two equal and opposing forces are the same force. However we experience and trust such paradox all the time…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/truehope.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Dear-GUD-7-Environment-Trap4-1000.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u21d3<\/strong>Five<\/h1>\n
\nHowever there is a part of us adults that insists, \u201cNope. Thoughts and words aren\u2019t real or physical or material things like the rest of the universe. Nope, my thoughts are spiritual. They are non-physical, mental constructions that exist way above and beyond the principles of physics.\u201d
\nMaybe you can by now guess what that part of us is called?![\"\"](\"http:\/\/truehope.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Dear-GUD-7-Environment-Trap-5-1000.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u21d3<\/strong> Six<\/h1>\n
\nThe belief that thoughts aren\u2019t physical is common in our society.
\nIt\u2019s a favourite belief of many of our cleverest poets, teachers, politicians, advertising experts, self-styled \u201cscientists\u201d and merchants. Each person offers a different and very sophisticated reason why thoughts cannot be matter like stones and stars, bones and buildings and all other things.
\nAt the same time some of these people pay squillions of money to own and use a word. Some even fight to death because of a word.
\nIts funny enough that adults can act quite the opposite to their belief. Its even more funny that the very cleverest adults can be the most blind to their own \u201cweird\u201d behaviour.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/truehope.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Dear-GUD-7-Environment-Trap7-1001.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u21d3<\/strong> Seven<\/h1>\n
\nSo perhaps let\u2019s just sit still for a minute and feel the atoms of our bum interacting with the atoms of the seat of our chair.
\nCan you sense the atoms informing each other? Can you feel the pressure? We are able to sit still because the atoms have forms a balanced arrangement with each other so we are neither pulled to the floor or pushed up to the ceiling.
\nSit long enough and the force can make our bum feel quite sore. Stand up and the invisible force stops though the dents in our legs and the seat are a reminder that\u00a0 it actually involved two simultaneous equal and opposite forces. Yes, welcome to our wonderful paradoxical universe of forces…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/truehope.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Dear-GUD-7-Environment-Trap-7-1000.jpg\")
\u21d3<\/strong>Eight<\/h1>\n
\nParadox means every little idea is also somehow a huge idea. This is mind-boggling to think about.
\nPerhaps it\u2019s more helpful for us to just be mindful that ideas and thoughts are forces like everything else is. This means they too obey the rules governing how the universe acts, even if they are also invisible like the wind that moves the clouds and the heat of the sun that warms us.
\nIt could be heaps of fun to use the principles of physics to explore our history and the \u201cweird\u201d behaviour of us adults at various times.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/truehope.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Dear-GUD-7-Environment-Trap-8-1000.jpg\")
\u21d3<\/strong>Nine<\/h1>\n
\nOne group – the Rationalists – pushed their belief we can think our way out of our problems.
\nAnother group – the Romantics – deny this. They shoved the belief that our emotions provide the solutions to our woes.
\nPush. Shove. The two groups became so tied up pushing and shoving each other that they combined to form a new force – a force that worsened the pollution and misery caused by England\u2019s Combustion Revolution.
\nIt seems little has changed in our modern English culture since then. The main difference is our use of English and our pollution is much worse. Our language may have changed a lot but the same two groups of us adults remain locked in the same hopeless tussle with each other.![\"\"](\"http:\/\/truehope.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Dear-GUD-7-Environment-Trap-9-1000.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u21d3<\/strong> Ten<\/h1>\n
\nMaybe a better question is: \u201cAre Environmental Educators basically adult human beings like the rest of us?\u201d
\nIf so, they also enjoy some compassion and they also confused by the ego like the rest of us. (We have discussed how The Trickster Ego can easily make the best of us our own worst enemy.)
\nThey too get trapped in paradox and end up communicating completely different messages to what they think they are saying. This confusion means they can easily become the cause rather than the solution of problems.
\nDoes this mean they are bad? Or careless? Or hypocrites? Or trouble-makers? Or could it be that people who call themselves \u201cEnvironmental Educators\u201d simply fail to grasp the basic principles of physics and this failure means their lifestyle and language becomes unsustainable in some way?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/truehope.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Dear-GUD-7-Environment-Trap-10-1000.jpg\")
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<\/p>\nPrevious -Dear GUD Letter 6 Compassion<\/a><\/strong>ate Education\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n