Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a brilliant paleontologist and Jesuit priest who wrote “Earth is infallible” in his book What I Believe.

“Infallible” is a word thinking beings use sparingly. However, since childhood, many know when nature is sending signals we ignore them at our own peril.

If weather experts, climatologists and oceanographers translate their scientific findings into language children can understand, why do we persist in denial? 2012 was a year when hundreds of records were broken. 2014 will be the hottest year on record (Los Angeles Times, 4/December/14).

Thomas Berry (1914-2009) is a protégé of Teilhard who served as president of the Teilhard Association for nearly twenty-five years.

Teilhard and Berry were spiritual beings who believed in signs emanating from Earth or “Gaia” as a living being. We are one with Earth. It should be regarded as “subject” not object to be exploited.

If these two prophets were present today both might ask why we are so blind to reality. They would point out two major global conferences on climate were accompanied by powerful storms that struck the Philippines. As 190 nations gather in Lima, Peru this December, another typhoon is heading towards the South China Sea, just as one did last year during the world climate conference. As an impoverished, underdeveloped nation, residents of the Philippines who died and lost their homes are hardly to blame for climate issues that afflict Earth. Powerful nations are “rolling the bad dice” of our future.

We persist in ignoring Earth’s signals, but our ocean is a more powerful teacher. Three facts should gain our rapt attention:

  • Carbon dioxide levels from fossil fuels have risen over twenty percent since the Industrial age. Carbon dioxide coming into contact with water becomes carbonic acid. As the level of CO₂ went beyond 400 parts per million in 2010, our ocean has become more inhospitable to living creatures. The human future is interwoven with a healthy ocean.
  • Plastic is a byproduct of fossil fuels and has proliferated globally. If we check www.5gyres.org, the evidence is undeniable. Plastic is the biggest oil spill in history.
  • What could possibly thrive in an ocean that is becoming warmer, more acidic, cluttered with plastic?

The simple answer is JELLYFISH, some as large as pool tables. Please read STUNG! by Lisa Gershwin to find out in great detail how we are ignoring the ocean.

Earth and ocean are our most powerful teachers in history. Their signals are without doubt – infallible.