Wishing you a measure of the peace the world can't give

National Post, 28 December 2019

As we chronicle the activities of the great and the powerful and the humble and the afflicted, it is sometimes difficult to see progress in the world.

The history of humanity is a history of movement. Families, tribes, nations, armies, pilgrims, explorers, conquerors, liberators, traders, missionaries — all on the move, along with their chattels and goods for trade, sometimes even their gods.

All that moving about, until the day before yesterday in historical terms, was thought to be a sign of progress. Citius, altius, fortius is the Olympic motto, but swifter, higher, stronger might well describe the history of transportation on our blue planet. And it was all judged to be better too — the faster the better, the higher the better.

Not this year. Travel itself, especially by the progressive jet-set who travel most, was called into question as a measure of progress. Carbon emissions and so forth.

Indeed, one of the big stories of 2019 was the enviro-pilgrimage of Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who captured global attention with her apocalyptic climate activism. Thunberg, on her way to the holiest shrine of climate politics, a United Nations conference, decided to sail across the ocean to New York and back rather than fly. Fewer carbon emissions.

Modern travel has made pilgrimages easier — pilgrims fly to Jerusalem, to Rome, to Mecca in hours where previously it had taken months on foot, by horse and camel and ship. Thunberg’s Atlantic sailing was a genuine hardship, like it was for the pilgrims of old. She spent 14 days at sea on the way over, sailing in a racing yacht with pails serving as bathroom facilities. On the way back it was 20 days in a 48-foot catamaran, facing 40-knot winds and five-metre high waves in a winter crossing.

Pilgrims travel to advance spiritually on the path to salvation. The Thunberg pilgrimage was for salvation of an earthly sort, to save the planet.

Continue reading at the National Post:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/raymond-de-souza-wishing-you-a-measure-of-the-peace-the-world-cant-give