Unveiling : The ties between ecological degradation and global conflict (interview with jeremy courtney of preemptive love)
Jeremy Courtney (@thejcourt) the author of Love Anyway, a global speaker on the integration of activism, spirituality, leadership, and service, and the founder and CEO of Preemptive Love (@preemptivelove), which is a relief and job-creation community working to end war.
In this podcast episode, Jeremy sheds light on the relationship between ecological degradation and global conflicts; how we can actually use love to come together as one world rather than allow our differences to keep dividing us and potentially perpetuate more wars; and more.
To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Jeremy and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne.
Musical feature: Trust The Sun by This is Us by Girl Pow-R
“Climate change and the fallout from emissions are all factors that are almost inextricable from the human movements and the human toll and the price that people pay as they run for their lives.”
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This is a conversation on Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne, a podcast and multimedia journal illuminating our paths towards ecological balance, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all. This preview has been edited for clarity. Subscribe to Green Dreamer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or any podcast app to stay informed and updated on our latest episodes.
On how digital interconnectedness may increase empathy in the long-term:
"I'm hopeful. I'm bullish on our capacity to increase our care and inclusion for each other, but I do think in the short term, [the internet] is going to continue to create disruptions and great pain, and it's going to help people see what they want to see and entrench themselves further in their kind of ideological ghettos.
The internet helps climate change deniers find pseudoscience that can help them feel more justified in denying climate change. The internet helps people who are deeply, passionately traditionalist about old views of gender and sexuality maintain that with a kind of rigor that would have not been possible in the same way before we were interconnected.
But I think if we play it out over the long haul, we are getting exposed to ideas. We are getting exposed to people, we are getting exposed to experiences across the world. That's going to cause us to have more empathy for each other. And if you can use this word, more empathy for the environment as well."
On how climate change has impacted global human migration patterns:
"There is some research that strongly suggests that the Syrian Civil War was partly set off by a drought where three out of four farms failed, driving people from the countrysides into the cities, putting stressors on the cities, and then starting to set off some of the political chaos that we saw in the Arab Spring of 2011.
Climate is a factor now. Climate change and the fallout from emissions are all factors that are almost inextricable from the human movements and the human toll and the price that people pay as they run for their lives."
On what it will take to make the change we seek:
"One of the things that we must do our part really has to do with electing leaders who are committed to institutional, systemic robustness. Anything short of UN-level multilateral deals is not going to be enough to get the job done."
Final words of wisdom:
"Some of this stuff is hard, but it's worth it and it only happens as we take one small step at a time. Don't get discouraged when you're not seeing all the change that you want to see in the world. Keep pressing forward and keep going, one step at a time.”
