Carlos Philip Glover Of Earth Wisdom Teachings: 5 Things We Must Do To Inspire The Next Generation About Sustainability And The Environment
An Interview With Martita Mestey
1. Deepening our relationship with the Living Earth
2. Co-creating the future with the Universe
3. Supporting our emotional intelligence
4. Opening the heart-mind
5. Teaching that Happiness comes from within
As part of my series about what we must do to inspire the next generation about sustainability and the environment, I had the pleasure of interviewing Carlos Philip Glover.
Living in South America in the early 1980s. Carlos was deeply touched by indigenous Earth Wisdom and by witnessing the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Returning home to UK he became a passionate campaigner on rainforests and climate change while deepening his self-knowledge through Earth Wisdom. He is the founder and director of Earth Wisdom Teachings and lives with his wife and dog in the hobbit country of South Devon, England.
https://www.carlosphilipglover.com
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
Thank you! My mother was a story-teller and my father a historian, and I grew up in the outskirts of UK’s second city, Birmingham. It was a conventional childhood in a big city, but I had contact with nature: tall trees to climb in our garden and plenty of green spaces to explore on my bicycle. One of my grandmothers had been brought up in the church of Emanuel Swedenborg, and that probably influenced my interest in mysticism and personal development.
You may wonder how a middle-class white male with plenty of privilege came to be involved in ecology and ‘indigenous’ wisdom. It was still the cold war when I was a teenager, and I remember my teachers at school talking about the threat of nuclear war. I didn’t feel secure about the future when I realized what nuclear war meant! After school I lived in Venezuela and Ecuador and found that rainforest destruction was also a huge danger to us. I started to wonder how we humans could evolve to solve these global challenges, and when I came across the Earth Wisdom Teachings I felt they offered answers.
I’ve been studying that wisdom ever since, growing myself as best I can and sharing with interested people. And now through the book I’ve published, ‘Earth Wisdom for Our Global Crisis’, my intention is to inspire people to access the wisdom to meet the challenges of our time.
Was there an “aha moment” or a specific trigger that made you decide you wanted to become a scientist or environmental leader? Can you share that story with us?
It was on Christmas Day, 1980. I had time off from my job and I’d travelled down to the edge of the Amazon rainforest. I started walking along a road that led to an oil camp. It had only just been finished. On either side there were a million emerald leaves, and at one point I was surrounded by a cloud of shimmering blue butterflies.
Then I got to the oil camp, and it was such a contrast. There was an oil derrick and buildings in the middle of a clearing. They were doing the ‘logging’ to measure the oil they’d found, and this meant that every so often there was an underground explosion. The ground would shake, and there’d be an eruption of animal shrieks in the ancient trees around the edge of the clearing.
Of course, oil had enabled me to travel there, but I couldn’t help but feel that this was way out of balance — on the one hand the awesome majesty of the forest and on the other this ugliness and destruction. In Greta Thunberg’s words, “This is all wrong.” So when I came back to UK, I joined Friends of the Earth and started campaigning, particularly on deforestation and climate change.
Is there a lesson you can take out of your own story that can exemplify what can inspire a young person to become an environmental leader?
I think it’s important to ‘feel’ nature. We need our sensitivity to appreciate the beauty. We need to know our relationship with the Universe — with plants and animals, rocks and rivers, mountains and even the stars. Intellect is great, but we need to go beyond it to know our essential self.
As a kid I remember my dad taking me outside to wonder at the winter stars. He showed me the constellations and how to find the north, but he also told me this was my home. It was in moments like this that I began to get a feel for the mysterious spirit that pervades everything.
It’s love for the beauty of our Earth that inspires us to defend it. And knowing that we’re part of the Earth is a great resource that we can draw on. Defending the planet gets tough at times, and we need courage. When we bring our passion to the heart it gives us the courage to stand as environmental leaders. Speaking passionately from the heart is very compelling too.
Can you tell our readers about the initiatives that you or your company are taking to address climate change or sustainability? Can you give an example for each?
We’re not working directly on external policies or lifestyles but on the internal transformation. My colleagues and I are dedicated to the evolution of human consciousness. This is fundamental. It changes everything because when we come into relationship with the deep self we don’t feel so much need to go out and get more stuff. Getting more unnecessary stuff is a cause of the crisis, and for humanity to reach sustainability means we come into a less extractive mindset.
There are encouraging signs that this evolution of human consciousness is taking place. You don’t hear about it in the news because it’s unseen. Human beings aren’t only individuals: we’re also a collective consciousness, like a great big flock of birds. Where I live, you sometimes see these murmurations of starlings, vast gatherings of birds swirling around in an amazing dance. We humans are like that, and when one person awakens they help draw the whole ‘murmuration’ of humanity towards awakening.
One way an individual can awaken is by going on vision quest. We support people to spend several days alone in nature. It enables them to drop deep and come to know the deep self. It’s wonderful work because people emerge feeling revitalized, inspired and clearer about their direction.
I also hold training programs for people to learn Earth Wisdom Teachings and carry them into the world. One example is an amazing journey of transformation called Evocative Leadership Mastery, which we’ve been holding in Spain. We’ve had managers, CEOs, coaches, teachers — all kinds of professionals — and they’re now carrying this wisdom into the world.
And then there are ripples of evolution flowing out through interviews like this, talks and films. One example is my book, which has already touched many hearts and minds.
Can you share 3 lifestyle tweaks that the general public can do to be more sustainable or help address the climate change challenge?
Three obvious tweaks would be to work from home more (travel less), eat more vegetarian food and use less plastic. All of those would reduce your carbon footprint. But I’d like to choose three that would help your internal sustainability: go and be in nature more of the time (with your phone switched off); cultivate presence by meditating, just sitting in the garden or simply pausing between activities; take time to contemplate the good things in your life and appreciate what you have.
Have I just cheated and mentioned six? Sorry, it’s too late now.
Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview: The youth-led climate strikes of September 2019 showed an impressive degree of activism and initiative by young people on behalf of climate change. This was great, and there is still plenty that needs to be done. In your opinion, what are 5 things parents should do to inspire the next generation to become engaged in sustainability and the environmental movement? Please give a story or an example for each.
1. Deepening our relationship with the Living Earth
2. Co-creating the future with the Universe
3. Supporting our emotional intelligence
4. Opening the heart-mind
5. Teaching that Happiness comes from within
How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?
Businesses that practice sustainability and environmental awareness have a more attractive atmosphere. Customers want that, and attractive energy attracts more attractive energy. The staff are happier and so are the customers. Quality matters at least as much as quantity. Obviously the numbers matter, but it doesn’t have to be all about growth, though. If a business can cut its costs to the planet, it’ll be well placed as environmental awareness grows.
There’s a business that started near me in the 1980s with a single person growing and selling organic vegetables. They were more expensive, but customers wanted them because they were better for the health of people and planet. Of course, it’s needed great organization, but the revenue of that business has grown to over £100 million a year, as well as winning ethical awards.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There are so many I could choose from! I’m very grateful to my old friend Andy. When I was becoming aware of the environmental crisis he was like a mentor, and whenever the going got tough he helped me find the courage to carry on. It was his idea for us to publicise the rainforest campaign by dressing up as rainforest animals, and thousands of us walked through London thus attired. I dressed as a toucan. It turned out to be painful on my nose because I was wearing a very large beak and the wind kept blowing it around.
Over the years Andy’s been utterly dedicated to the cause. He must have inspired a great many people. He’d probably say he was only doing what obviously needed doing, but I think he’s one of the unsung heroes of the environmental movement.
You are a person of great influence and doing some great things for the world! If you could inspire a movement that would bring the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I dream of a world in which each person learns that they are responsible for their inner state and that they have power to change it. It means training our attention to rest in the present moment and not simply let subconscious thoughts dictate our experience. I dream that our schools will help students to train their attention. And that some lessons will take place outdoors, under trees. Nature is a great teacher: let it be the greatest of all.
This would mean realizing our interrelatedness with all of life and realizing that happiness comes from within. To ‘realize’ means to make real or make it part of our reality. And if we make these things part of our reality we create a foundation for regenerating nature and creating a sustainable world.
Do you have a favorite life lesson quote? Can you tell us how that was relevant to you in your own life?
Einstein is quoted as having said, ‘No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.’ Sometimes I find myself stuck with a challenge, but when I shift to an expanded level of consciousness, a solution appears … or the problem disappears. And for us to meet the challenge of our global crisis we need to expand to a new level of seeing and awareness.
What is the best way for people to follow you on social media?
https://www.facebook.com/carlos.glover.98
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46qx9J3Gs50
This was so inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Carlos Philip Glover Of Earth Wisdom Teachings: 5 Things We Must Do To Inspire The Next Generation… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.