“If we were truly moved by the beauty of the world about us, we would honor the earth in a profound way. We would understand immediately and turn away with a certain horror from all those activities that violate the integrity of the planet.
“That we have not done so reveals that a disturbance exists at a more basic level of consciousness and on a greater order of magnitude than we dare admit to ourselves or even think about.”
Thomas Berry

To the extent that each of us is truly moved by the world’s beauty, we are conscious of its rapidly deteriorating environment. As Berry indicates, that we do not turn away with a certain horror from all that violate the planet’s integrity reveals a basic failure of consciousness.
It is an admirable politeness to say that violating the integrity of the planet, destroying the systems that maintain its environment, poisoning the home and source of all life as we know it is a disturbance of consciousness. A more ungracious if colloquial term is craziness.
Is man crazy?
Some would say Berry and others who view the state of the earth’s environment as a threat to all life are alarmist Chicken Little fantasists. Is Berry just assigning moral values to the dirty practicalities of human survival? What is the moral value of integrity, planetary or personal? What are the true costs of integrity? What are the costs of its unraveling and are some of them moral costs? Where on a list of man’s priorities falls the environmental health of the planet? We hear arguments that many people cannot be concerned about the environment because their energies are occupied with finding a job and making a living. The underlying message in this argument is that environmentalism, turning in horror from all those activities that violate the integrity of the planet, is an effete, elitist pastime for those who do not understand and perhaps do not need to deal with the dirty physical constraints of the real economic machinery of the world.
This argument reveals a disturbance of consciousness worthy of Nero or, currently, Trump. It hovers above the current and future consequences of the polluted practicalities of the real economic machinery of the world being modeled on unlimited growth on a finite planet. It avoids what is clear to basic consciousness, disturbed as well as integral: all economics, no matter what the model, are completely dependent upon and sustained by the integrity of planet earth. One turns in horror from that which violates the integrity of the planet, as one would turn in horror from an ax murderer, a poisoner of the community well, or those who sell children to sex traffickers or separate them from their parents.
To ignore or deny the evidence of the unraveling of the earth’s environmental integrity is both a basic failure of consciousness and a violation of personal integrity. Donald Trump personifies both failure and violation in just two of his many moronic quips about human caused climate change: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” And “When will our country stop wasting money on global warming and so many other truly “STUPID” things and begin to focus on lower taxes.” Everything is connected, the personal with the universal, the individual with the water he drinks, the air he breathes, the soil from which he garners food, as well as all the chemicals and compounds in that water, air and soil. At a level so basic that even the most disturbed consciousness is present, everything (and everybody) living on earth is composed of the same earth, water and air and all their disturbances, additives, pollutants, synthetic compounds, radiated cells, mutations and genetic manipulations that daily compound and unquestionably violate the integrity of the planet.
Environmentalists and others who care more about Earth and its inhabitants than the standard of living (not to be confused with quality of life) that can be wrested from them, must continue to address the practical issues of which industries, practices, chemicals and land uses are destructive, and what are better ways of living on the earth. The disturbance at a more basic level of consciousness to which Berry refers needs addressing. This disturbance needs discussion, exploration and the light of day on a planet with integrity Why are we so reluctant to admit to ourselves or think about that disturbance?
A good place to start seeking answers and subsequent action is to ask. “Am I truly moved by the beauty of the world? Do I honor the earth in a profound way?
If the answer is ‘yes’ your actions will be motivated by beauty and guided by honor.
If the answer is ‘no’ there are no words, no action, no integrity.