Today we live in a thousand miles an hour, bombarded by information from all corners of the planet and constantly feeling that humanity is about to collapse. Since the environmental crisis which is imposed on our daily lives with days of 28 degrees in the middle of winter, droughts, floods and forest fires a repetition; passing through the growing mental health problems (especially anxiety and depression) that people suffer, often in silence; to the explosive tension that we witness in the streets, public transport and traffic in large cities and the conjunctions and squares of the stars that tempt us to justify everything in that Mercury is retrograde.
What’s going on? Why is the world in such turmoil? This is what we ask ourselves in this article and we want to answer. With this objective, we called on 4 experts in ecology, psychology, sociology and astrology to help us understand where our current revolutionized world is heading.
Hyperconnectivity influences us in a positive way because we only act on what we know and often learning about problems in different parts of the country or the world inspires us and makes us get involved. However, the negative side of this is overstimulation and the feeling of helplessness, stress, anxiety and tiredness in the face of the bombardment of information and in the face of issues on which we feel we cannot intervene. What are the main consequences of hyperconnectivity?
While it is true that the most general response is a retreat into the private sphere, a search for individual protection and a desire to enjoy life, there is also a passage to action. Ultimately, it is a tension between the world in a broader sense and the more personal one, between things that work well or badly and what influence we have in changing them. The fundamental question to ask ourselves is… how much can we do to change the world?
– The world economy is going through 2024, the 5 years with the lowest growth of the gross domestic product in the last three decades, according to the most recent edition of the World Bank’s “Global Economic Prospects” report.
– 600 million people will suffer from chronic malnutrition by 2030, according to UN projections for agriculture and food.
– 2.2 billion people still do not have access to safe supplies of drinking water and 3.5 billion do not have access to sanitation services, according to UNESCO’s 2024 report published on behalf of UN-Water.
85%
Uncertainty about the future.
42%
Social inequality
60%
Insecurity
55%
Recession and inflation, lack of consumption power.
90%
Environment/sustainability/future of the planet
** According to studies carried out by the YOUNIVERSAL consultancy.
“In 2025, several astrological milestones will occur that will change the way we see the world,” forecast the astrologer Sol Lisdero.
There are several astrological reasons why we feel that we are experiencing a collapse or change of era. This is completely synchronous with the sky: Uranus, which is the planet of change and uncertainty, entered the sign of Taurus in 2018/2019 and made us work during these years on things related to resources, the economy, the relationship with the Earth, with our body and with pleasure.
In turn, Pluto, the ruling planet of Scorpio and the planet of transformation, comes to purge dead energy, to free us from attachments and traditions that no longer serve us. It also comes to teach us how to live with people who think differently than us, since it has been in Aquarius since January. All this is exacerbated, so we see the dark side of everything, the B side of science, of political discourses, and for this to happen, there has to be a crisis.
Astrology is simply another path. Also, more and more people are connecting with energies that exist beyond the visible, opening themselves up to – and accepting – other ways of seeing and interpreting reality.
What can we do about climate change? wonders Marina Aizen, author of Recalientes.
Once again, a record high temperature. And the world on fire seems to be devouring the future. Who is to blame? It is not human beings as a species but a group of powerful industries that dominate the economy, politics and even thought. They are the owners of oil. For more than half a century, science and fossil fuel companies have known that the burning of hydrocarbons (oil, gas and coal) releases carbon dioxide. This travels silently through the air and is deposited in the lowest part of the atmosphere (the troposphere), where it will remain for centuries. There, it will begin to retain the heat of the sun and, consequently, the temperature will increase on the entire earth’s surface.
Are we doomed? No. Today there are technologies to replace all dirty fuels. They are cheaper and more efficient. The problem is the resistance of a polluting industry that obstructs the energy transition. In 2018, scientists convened by the UN said that if the temperature rose more than 1.5 degrees, the consequences would be irreparable: loss of the Arctic ice cap, death of corals, loss of glaciers, droughts and floods, disappearance of ecosystems, sinking of coastal cities, heat waves, spread of diseases, death of all living beings.
The Secretary General of the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed reducing fossil fuel use by 30% by 2030. It is feasible, but it is also necessary to stop deforestation, another major contributor to global warming. When quebracho and carob trees are cut down in the forests of the Gran Chaco, millions of tons of CO2 stored in their trunks and roots are released. And once the gases settle in the atmosphere, they cannot be removed again. And it is not fixed by planting pines or eucalyptus (combustible and dangerous species in a context of high temperatures and droughts). The only way to stop it is by cutting off the sources of gases.
Once emissions are cut, the temperature will stop rising. There is hope. What can we do? Incorporate this issue into the public debate and demand a systemic change; recycling is not enough. And we must begin to adapt. Do we know what to do when days of 40 degrees come? How can we make our cities and homes habitable? There are very practical questions that we must begin to answer.
4 – Retreat vs. Engage
Retreat vs. engage, by Patricia Liberati, psychologist and writer.
How did we get to the current stress levels?
We live in times when desire is standardized and pre-shaped by the outside, and following it without reflection distances us from our own, generating stress and anxiety. To improve our health, doctors recommend that we return to real food and get rid of packages. The same happens with psychology: running after “ultra-processed” goals, for the false concepts of success and well-being, distances us from ourselves, from our own desires and dreams.
How do I hear myself in this world with so much noise?
Silencing the outside world. Getting in touch with myself: meditation, yoga, physical activity, nature, conscious breathing and, of course, therapy. Also, asking ourselves questions like: Who am I in this game of life? Who do I want to be? The wealth of humanity lies in the possibility that each person can express themselves through their own desire. No one is happy fulfilling other people’s expectations.
What solution can I provide if the world is worrying me too much?
The world is now inside our homes through screens and this, while on the one hand is very functional, on the other hand acts as a flood of all kinds of information that reaches us constantly. With some things we can get involved and it will be within our reach to try to solve them and others, of course, will be totally unmanageable. Choosing our battles, making the possible changes and understanding that there are others that we cannot fight, will bring us peace.
Why do some people, faced with reality, need to retreat into the private sphere, while others choose to get involved?
The way we respond to the impact of conflicts is the same as how we respond to internal conflicts. Some prefer reflection, analysis of events, dialogue with people close to them, therapy. Others go for action and get involved from another space. Everything is necessary. Modifying what is internal modifies what is external and vice versa.
What are the consequences of feeling in constant conflict?
The degree of stress and anxiety that is generated by what we cannot modify is a measure to determine whether we have acceptable or excessive levels of both responses. Stress and anxiety are logical, expected and healthy at the right levels. We need them to be operational. But if everything affects us, then the consequences will begin to manifest themselves in various symptoms.
