Philosophical Café Sneek: We are the earth: a call to humility.

And yet that never really seems to have dawned on modern Western man. Unabatedly, we have continued to see ourselves as something opposite and even above the earth, treating it as mere mute matter for limitless exploitation, pollution and destruction. Resulting in the growing climate crisis and growing ecological catastrophe.

Certainly we must now take many practical measures, especially to control CO2 levels in the atmosphere. But we also face the challenge of relating to the earth in a different way internally and emotionally. It is high time to recognize that we ourselves are the earth from head to toe - so that the essence of the earth also shows itself in the human being. Then our pride can finally give way to humility.

This lecture consists of 2 parts: first a philosophical part in which we look at what Teilhard de Chardin and Ortega y Gasset teach us about the relationship between man and earth. Then, with some beautiful pictures, we look at how microbiology further interprets this in interesting ways.