Peter d'Errico: Nature needs to speak with an indigenous voice

Jonathan Schell died recently. His legacy starts with a 1982 book, The Fate of the Earth, which galvanized awareness of the "unthinkable" consequences of nuclear war. In a conversation with Bill McKibben just before his death, Schell recapped the limited response to his warnings about nuclear dangers and compared them to warnings about climate change.

Schell said the same dynamic was at work: "despite ample scientific warning … we [are] headed toward catastrophe." While we may understand individual and group loss, he said, "When it comes to extinction we're left with a kind of blank." He added, "The essence of the matter…is what religious people say about taking care of creation."

Schell probably knew the Hopi prophecies about taking care of creation, delivered to the world via the United Nations on several occasions, starting in the 1940's. Hopi prophecies about the natural balance of the world predate the anti-nuclear and climate change movements by millennia. The Hopi speak from deep experience and spiritual tradition, not just recent scientific data.

Thomas Banyacya, interpreter for the Hopi hereditary Kikmongwis, explained in a message to the 1976 United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, "We have seen this destruction … before, we do not want to see it happen again, when mankind had put more emphasis on material rather than spiritual things, when laws of nature were interfered [with] and ignored and the world was destroyed."