"Hopefulness resides with the peoples who continue to find their identities emerge out of what I call a nature-culture nexus, a symbiotic relationship that recognizes the fundamental connectedness and relatedness of human communities and societies to the natural environment and the other-than-human relatives they interact with daily. Just as importantly, hopefulness resides with those who are willing to imaginatively reconstitute lifeways emergent from the nature-culture nexus. Over the last five centuries, some of humankind brought tremendous change to life on the planet, and the change seems essentially guided by an allegedly objective mechanical worldview that envisioned the noblest human activity as the control of nature (the machine) and the forces of nature. We now find that the complex life of Mother Earth demonstrates that such a view is naive and dangerous, for we are situated, in spite of however much we would like to think otherwise, inside, as but one part, of the life system of planet Earth. . . .
"Humankind does not stand above or outside of Earth's life system. If the planet is telling us the problem is the way much of our kind is living, it seems arrogant and unproductive to continue to want to change everything but the way we live. Yes, the world is changing, and it is time for us to pay attention — for humankind to find value in our lives as they are intrinsically related to the other-than-human life of Mother Earth. Let us do so, for like our ancestors before us, we may learn something about ourselves. We may find insights in our oldest indigenous traditions and activities. It is also likely that if we demonstrate respectful attentiveness to the world we live in today, we will find new techniques, songs, practices, and even ceremonies for life enhancement. This Red Alert expresses a desire for urgent action based on respectful attentiveness. This Red Alert is about hope, not fear."
