Newsletter Fall 2021

In 1972 John Cobb’s book Is It Too Late was published. In the ensuing years we have seen enormous technical advances. We now carry our phones in our back pocket, which are also handheld computers providing us with internet access as well as face to face communication if we so choose. In 1971 Intel created the first microprocessor. A hard drive used to be the size of a small refrigerator, if not larger, and the hard drive on the computer I’m now writing on is thinner than a check book and about a third of the size. We eradicated smallpox in 1980, the last known case appearing in Somalia. Many cancers that once had a high fatality rate are mostly curable. Insulin pumps are now small enough to affix to a small spot on your body. In 1973 the life expectancy in the United States was 71.42 years. In 2020 it was 78.99 years, down slightly because of COVID-19. We have solar panels that are manufactured by companies that have projects all over the world. There are countries that are on the verge of being completely free of fossil fuels as a source for power generation as they utilize a combination of solar and wind power generation. Iceland is down to a 9% fossil fuel utilization. We have cars and trucks that are all electric, and at least one company that brags their truck will power your house.

While these advances have been nothing short of amazing, they have also had unintended consequences. There are 13.8 million households in the United States that are food insecure, experiencing hunger daily. Globally there are 720-811 million people that are in this same situation. The obesity rate in the United States in 1971 was 32.7%, and in 2020 it was 42.4%. Obesity can be related to hypertension, some cancers, early death, decreased mobility and shortened life span. There is a cost to our success, and we are on the verge of putting our planet at risk through unchecked climate change.

Climate change has become the existential threat of our time. As our lifestyles create more greenhouse gases, we are melting our ice caps and our glaciers. The Larsen C ice shelf spawned a very large iceberg in 2017 that finally melted in 2021. This was in addition to the breaking off a portion of the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002 that was about the size of Rhode Island. The Larsen ice shelf melting and breaking up is the result of a combination of warmer water and warmer air temperatures. As the surface ice heats up it creates streams of water that cut into the ice shelf and weaken its structures. As the water around it warms up this further erodes the glacier or ice cap’s strength. These are not the only examples; we know one of the characteristics of climate change is extremes in the weather patterns, from draughts in Africa to heat waves in Europe.

We have accepted an economic paradigm that assumes the mind and the body are separate (despite the neurological data), and economic satisfaction is determined by the perceived utility of the products we purchase and utilize. Humans are seen as separate from each other, and only loosely connected by neighborhoods and cities within which they live. The housing developments that are created push the front door back from the street, and with garage door openers you can arrive home and never see a neighbor. We are isolated in many ways, while the economy is treated like a huge machine where transactions are repeated without regard for the future of the planet, except the level of profits that can be attained. If we are to shift this paradigm of mechanization and isolation, it will have to be done within the context of communities. Or, as John Cobb often states, “communities of communities.” More precisely “compassionate communities.”

Compassionate Communities as a Response

Compassionate communities can be developed. In his book The Empathic Civilization, Jeremy Rifkin shows that as human beings evolved from tribal structures to more modern individualized structures, we began to develop empathy for the individuals around us. As we differentiated from the tribe, and as individual differentiation intensified, empathy became the way to develop and retain connection with others. It was no longer the tribal connection, but the emotional connection of empathy. As we could see and feel that others were alone, hurt, tired, etc., we then could have a sense of being in another’s shoes.

Yet we don’t lose the sense of connection as we differentiate as humans. As Daniel J. Siegel suggests in The Developing Mind, “embedded” in the experience of empathy is the sense of a broader system, as he calls it. I agree that the sense of connection is “embedded” within our experience of empathy, but the term system is unfortunate and takes us back to a rather mechanical approach to human behavior and interaction. When you look at a system you look at a broader context for sure. However, if you change the term to organism, you now have something living that has internal relations with the world and the social exchanges that are based upon an exchange of energy, and not one billiard ball bouncing off another.

Making this shift to internal relations, the term organism, in my opinion, makes it easier to begin discussing compassion as arising out of a “shift” between our feeling as an individual and being “interconnected” at the same time. I prefer to use the term interrelated instead of interconnected. Interrelated provides a fuller description of our experience as human beings living within an organism. By making these shifts from a mechanical structure it becomes easier to emphasize our interrelatedness to each other and a living planet. We are part of a living organism, and our actions and activities within it have a real impact upon the inhabitants of the planet. The context in which they now exist is because we are in fact interrelated.

Within compassion as an experience is the realization that something can be done to change the conditions within which others experience pain, or a condition that attenuates who they are as a human being. Compassion is a call to reduce and eliminate the suffering of others. As such, a compassionate mindset looks to move toward action to make changes in a world where climate change, racial tension, and income inequality threaten humanity’s future. Recognizing our individual interrelatedness, empathy and compassion for others can lead us toward seeking solutions to our most pressing social, environmental, and economic issues.

One of the projects the Cobb Institute is supporting in the Pomona area is related to the low-income housing needs of the city. With a large child population at or below the poverty level the Cobb Institute can, with others, make a significant impact upon the lives of the children and their families. Research by the Urban Institute points out that poor housing conditions increase the likelihood that a child will currently and, in the future, suffer from higher instances of anxiety, depression and asthma. The instance of obesity is higher than the general population amongst low-income families as fast food and high sugar content foods are affordable and convenient. Children in poor housing conditions also experience sexual and physical violence at a higher level, and are exposed to high levels of alcohol and drug abuse by their care givers. Poverty and poor housing go hand in hand with physical abuse emotional trauma. These experiences not only carry an emotional toll, but can also have an epigenetic impact. That is, a child’s DNA will be imprinted in a way that the probability for generational repetition, say, for obesity or traumatic behavior will have a higher probability.

The cycle of high rents and poor-quality housing makes it difficult to alter the cycle, but housing stability can, while not solve all the problems mentioned, can interrupt the cycle that keeps parents unemployed or under employed which will increase the probability that children will experience less disruption and higher income levels later in life. The solutions will not be accomplished by just the private sector or the public sector, rather they will be accomplished through partnerships, as the one that exists between the Cobb Institute and the city of Pomona. This is important work, and as the impact of climate change intensifies even more important work in that our most vulnerable communities will feel these effects to the greatest degree.

—Ken Edwins