Evolution or Extinction

I saw a fascinating program on one of the less popular TV channels the other night ...an interview with a chap called Dr Robin Wood.   The central theme of his chat was that humanity is facing a simple choice ... evolution or extinction !  I was caught by the fact that there was a TV program  bringing up such profound questions and wondered how many people around the globe also feel that not only are we are facing such a critical turning moment in history  ... but that we have a part to play in influencing the outcome.  Robin is pioneering something he calls Renaissance 2, and asks us to imagine living in a Solar Civilisation powered completely by renewable energy, with people living in resilient habitats in tune with nature, operated by enlightened enterprises, wise culture and conscious, integral leadership aligned with a full spectrum of healthy values. He believes that crisis catalyses evolution through creativity and that this is the best time ever to be alive. He likens the time we are in today to the extraordinary fertile flowering of art, literature, music, science and learning which began to blossom around five hundred years ago and is very much looking at the practicalities of new business models, new ways of living which will not only have economic success but which would incorporate the fundamental values of humanity and spirituality.

There is a lot one could debate about this, but there was one feature which I found very significant...which is that thoughts and ideas which began as philosophical and perhaps a little flowery, idealistic and very 'fringe' back in the sixties are now being translated  into very practical ideas about pioneering a new culture - a new civilisation. Only 50 years later!  It made me ponder just what does it really take, to make that next evolutionary leap and just what might be achieved in another fifty years !