Author Archives: Jaimi

Preparedness vs Readiness

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Contemplating death has historically been a depressing activity associated with the finality of life. It’s difficult to think about death, while simultaneously holding onto the idea that we are still full of life. To create a healthy relationship with death, it’s important to understand the difference between being prepared and being ready to die. 

Preparing involves organizing your life so that those you care about can continue to live without you: getting assets in order, planning events following your passing, thinking about a future without you. Being ready is different, and it’s doubtful anyone is ever ready. There is always a life left to live. 

Understanding that you are going to die, and making preparations for it does not mean that you have nothing left to give the world – the opposite is true. Being prepared opens up the space for action where death anxiety would normally reside. Watching Albatross was the catalyst for my comparison of readiness versus preparedness. I’ve always been horrified by the rate at which we produce plastics, which was why I chose the Beyond Plastics group to work with for our action project.

Our group partnered with Zero Waste Washington – an organization that works to make trash obsolete. From this project, I learned the most from my group mates. Our task was to create a social media presence for a bill, but none of us had the skills needed for such a project. However, we were able to lean on each other to fill the holes in our abilities. Our finished product wasn’t perfect, but it was significantly better than what we would have accomplished individually. I learned that even if you don’t have the tools, a group can still create something great by supporting each other. If we are going to succeed in bettering the Earth, we have to come together, accept that we are not ready for death, and combine our strengths to find the solutions that will benefit us.

From this class, I have understood what it means to prepare for death, but more importantly, what it means to be ready to live. There are obstacles facing us, but when we come together and accept that we aren’t done living, that we aren’t ready to give up on helping the planet, we can find the answers to the problems before us, and leave the Earth a better place when our time eventually comes.

An albatross from the film Albatross to remind us what we have done, but more importantly, what we can do

We are Social Creatures

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I’ve always found contemplative practices to be a frustration that I endure rather than something beneficial. No matter how hard I try, I often can’t even fully register what is being said by the person guiding the practice, and my thoughts will jump everywhere except where I want them to be. I find myself having not a single helpful thought when it’s just me by myself trying to look inwards.

 For our contemplative practices specifically, I wonder if my lack of connection with them is my own personal TMT come to life. Our practices are often heavy and full of mortality and death. Perhaps I am subconsciously choosing not to engage with them so I don’t have to face my own death anxiety? On a similar train of thought, maybe I just don’t like being alone with my thoughts. Maybe the topics we cover in this class are simply too heavy and big to bear alone. By nature, we are social creatures, and I personally value group discussions and group learning when faced with the monumental challenges we’ve covered in class.

The one contemplative practice that did really work for me was one we did in a group of three taking on different perspectives (everything is great, everything is terrible, and everything is as it is). After each perspective we shared about what we were feeling. It was interesting to me how the thoughts that I was so firm on in my own head were drastically changed and shifted by my group mates when they shared their ideas. I discovered that we all have deep rooted anxieties and fears about death and the state of the world, but that we all think about them differently, and all come to the same conclusion: we want to do something about it.

This contemplative practice made me realize that we all inherently fear death and for the future of our civilization, but it’s not as heavy of a burden to carry when you talk about it with others. At the end of the day, it’s important to be able to sit with your own thoughts, but it’s equally, if not more important, to talk about them and experience them with others. We are a social species, and so contemplating the problems that we face shouldn’t be a solitary experience.

A rather cheesy, yet appropriate graphic from Ben & Jerry’s

The Most Important Keystone Species

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Since the first week of this quarter, I have been considering the question: “What are people for in terms of the basic ecological functioning of the Earth?” There isn’t an all encompassing answer to this question, but there is a definition that we fit into.

Keystone species are often defined as a group of organisms that hold an ecosystem together, or have a disproportionately large effect on the system compared to their abundance. When the keystone species is removed, the system will collapse.

A demonstration of the importance of a keystone species (sharks in this case). Find it Here

It’s easy to make the argument that humans have an immense effect on the entire planet – it’s in the news everyday. But how are we holding the ecosystems of the planet together? We are unique in this world because we have the awareness and the ability to want to save the biodiversity that we are quickly killing. We can take a collapsing ecosystem and prop it up with resources and breeding programs so that it lives on. We put patches and glue over cracks in our failing global ecological system in the hopes that what we fix will ripple and stave off extinction in other parts of the world. It’s a valiant and necessary effort, and without it, the biodiversity on our planet would collapse and disappear much faster.

However, humans have created a culture around the death of species that makes it hard to make the most logical decisions as we try and patch our ecosystems. More often than not, if a species is seen as cute, cuddly, or ‘good’ (the giant panda, tigers, blue whales) we pump resources into trying to save them. If a species is seen as dangerous, scary, or ‘bad’ (sharks, tuna, rhinos) then we turn a blind eye as their numbers dwindle further. This is often the case even if a group like sharks or tuna are proven to be much more ecologically important compared to something like pandas. In our culture, we are conditioned to want to save the things that we are emotionally attached to and that provide value on a surface level.

A sign found in Cape Cod warning of the dangers of sharks. Find it Here

As the Anthropocene continues, and the number of species on the Endangered Species List rises, it will be important to remember that what we need to save may not be what we are conditioned to think needs saving. We are the most important keystone species on our planet, so we need to wield our power carefully.

A graph of the declining shark populations for eight species. Find it Here

Further Thought:

Sharkwater from Rob Stewart following themes about the necessary conservation of misunderstood species.

How to Triage Humanity

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As we look forward into the Anthropocene, and our estimated trajectory within it, I find myself thinking about the morality and judgment of humanity.

On Tuesday, October 4th, we discussed as a class the very real possibility of a mass die-off event in regards to our species. The prevailing idea was that it would be caused either by our own nuclear destruction, or by a serious lack of resources to sustain our still booming population.

The UN published a statistic that the world population will reach 8 billion on November 15th, 2022. The Earth has a maximum carrying capacity of 9-10 billion people, and the UN has estimated that the world population will reach at least 10.4 billion in the 2080s if current patterns continue. I find this to be a terrifying thought. Before I die, the Earth and its resources will no longer be able to support the entirety of humanity, let alone the other species on this planet. 

So then what? Let’s assume the current models are correct and we run out of resources to harvest. What do we do then, when we still have 10.4 billion people to keep alive? The short answer is that not everyone will survive, and that’s where the morality of humanity will come into play.

This diagram is the current system from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for medically triaging adults.

The basic definition of triage, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is ‘the sorting and allocation of patients according to a system that will maximize the number of survivors’. Triaging is a subjective activity that is heavily influenced by a person’s morality, and there is never a ‘right’ answer. So how do we decide on a system when it comes time to distribute our limited resources? Who gets to decide? Who gets to play God with not only humanity, but with all life on Earth? Do we choose the youngest to live? Do we choose those with the skills to help us survive in the future? Do we choose based on economic class or profession? Will this become a genocide of a people or culture? Will minorities or those with disabilities be further exploited and abused and left to the side to die?

To be brutally honest, however this triage of resources happens, it won’t be fair. One group of people will have the power to decide and the rest will just have to hope they are chosen to live. And that thought is terrifying.

Inspirations and Citations for this post:

The UN article “World Population to Reach 8 Billion on 15 November 2022”

The diagram for triaging adults

“Playing God” a podcast by RadioLab released in 2016

DON’T PANIC by Hans Rosling