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Written by Herman Greene
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The Great Work
(The Task of Bringing into Being the Ecozoic Era)
We are about the Great Work.
We all have our particular work—some of us are teachers,
some of us are healers, some of us in various professions,
some of us are farming.
We have a variety of occupations.
But beside the particular work we do
and the particular lives we lead,
we have a Great Work that everyone
is involved in and no one is exempt from.
That is the work of moving on from a terminal Cenozoic[1]
to an emerging Ecozoic Era[2] in the story of the planet Earth…
which is the Great Work.
- Thomas Berry
Centre for Ecology and Spirituality
Ontario, Canada, 1993
[1] Our current geo-biological era, the Cenozoic Era, began 65,000,000 years
ago following the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and many other species. Now Earth is undergoing a mass extinction of plant and animal species of similar magnitude, this time caused by the impact of human activity on the community of life systems. The Cenozoic Era is ending.
[2] That another geo-biological era will follow the Cenozoic Era is not in
question. What is in question is whether humans and other forms of life as we know them will continue. Will we achieve a viable mode of human presence on the Earth? The "Ecozoic Era"-a time of a mutually enhancing relationship of humans and the larger community of life
systems-represents the hope that we will.
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