WWGD?

What Would Jesus Do? This is a powerful question for Christians. You’re about to scream as some guy cuts you off on a busy highway. Or a homeless man asks you for help, or your church leader pleads for yet more of your time. You pause, swallow your scream, your no, your ‘sorry’, and replace it with a kindness, an acceptance, a yes.*

I wonder if there’s something Gaians can learn from that.

WWGD?

What Will Gaia Do? (Note: not would, but will.)

When faced with how humans are living, how we’re abusing the web of life, WWGD?

We know the answer. Gaia will change. Adapt to the new reality of doubled CO2 emissions, of the chemical shifts, of the novel food source of microplastics spread across the oceans and soils, and find a way to move forward, to sustain life, with or without us.

Most likely without us.

It’s not as positive a sentiment as WWJD?, but it’s just as important, as it’s a reminder that if we don’t get our collective act together, Gaia will move on from conditions that are comfortable for and compatible with humans, to new ones that we’ve forced Gi to adapt to.

Of course, as a bumper sticker, it’s not a good one, as most folks would probably assume the G is for God, though it’s short enough that we could spell out the whole thing.

I thought of this today as I was crafting my EpA testimony for tomorrow’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program webinar. I thought of asking EpA staff this question (several are present during the webinar), but thought better of this, as they certainly don’t care!

But it might be something that we ask ourselves in difficult times.

As greenhouse gas emissions grow in the atmosphere, WWGD? Well, Gaia will generate massive, city-rending storms to redistribute the heat. WWGD? as oceans acidify at an alarming rate? Well, those creatures with shells will die, creating ecological space for other species, like jellyfish, who will thrive. Over and over, Gaia will transform Gi’s self to adjust to new conditions. Many species will not adapt with Gi, but to sustain life, Gaia must roll with the punches—even when they’re thrown over and over by a species that should know better. As the saying goes, Gaia will get the last laugh. Though in truth Gi won’t laugh at all, but mourn for the lost beauty that millions of years of playful experimentation provided. But while Gaia will suffer for thousands or even millions of years, Gaia will endure, even as humanity does its darnedest to undermine Gi. WWGD? Persevere. More importantly, What Will Humanity Do?

That is still to be determined.

Endnote

*I remember WWJD? from the 2000s, in part because of a Christian campaign soon after I joined the Worldwatch Institute asking the question: What Would Jesus Drive? (cleverly still WWJD?). But who knew the phrase started in the early 1900s after one of the best selling novels of all time (because of an unfiled copyright enabling its free printing by many publishers) published in 1896 popularized the term! Isn’t Wikipedia great?