Ubuntu is an African humanistic philosophy that essentially says that we can only become fully ourselves through others, and that we need each other to be who we really are.(1)

From the perspective of Ubuntu, the solutions to our environmental and other problems lie in our connections with and

feelings for others - not just our friends and family, but all of humanity, including those many billions who are yet to be born but who, when they exist, will be as real and as alive as any who live today. We have to feel a connection with our fellow human beings, our decendants and our ancestors, and with the other life on this small, blue dot that we live on for such a short time. Because if we don’t, we can never be fully human.

A life that is disconnected from the world, from the past and from the future, and from our fellow human beings is not much of a life. It is difficult to feel connected to those that you hurt just as it is difficult to hurt those to whom you feel connected. So the beauty of it is, by feeling more connected to others - all others - we cause less hurt and do less damage, and at the same time become more human.

Many of our denials and rationalisations and other avoidances when faced with the biggest problems of the world are attempts to escape the pain of our disconnection from those we hurt - wherever and whenever they may live. But by changing our behaviour so that we don’t hurt others we are able to connect more, and thus become more open, more meaningful and more human.

In other words, just by changing our behaviour we can start to feel better about our world and our place in it - just by starting, by doing something. Regardless of what others do, just by taking a step in the direction of a survivable and sustainable future we prove that change is possible and that we are together in this improbable miracle of existance - you, me, George Bush, the child in the slums of Calcutta, the person who will be born a thousand years from now, even the birds and the animals.

Because all of us, together, are so much, much, much more than we could ever be apart. In fact, our very existance depends on our connections with other people and with the natural world. We already are connected. We just have to feel connected.

(1) see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28ideology%29 for a brief explanation and further links about Ubuntu