Often we’re like fish in water. Because it’s continuously all around them, there are stories about how fish aren’t able to recognize the environment in which they live. For us, rather than not seeing the water all around us, we’re often unable to see the assumptions that shape our lives.
How we see the world affects everything. It influences what we do, what we value, and how we define a good life. It is also the basis of our cultural institutions, including our economy, our medical system, and modern sciences like biology. Like fish in water, we’re swimming in a sea of assumptions that are everywhere and affect all parts of our lives. Because they are all around us and permeate throughout our culture, we often accept without question our shared beliefs.
As you’ll read throughout The Yin and Yang of Climate Crisis, it is these assumptions and our views of the world that are the deeper causes of our rapidly warming planet. Virtually everything we hear about climate change is from our usual, Western perspective. Most of the discussion about the crisis of global warming focuses on external issues: calls to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase carbon sequestration, buy and eat locally, and challenge continuous economic growth. These remedies are undoubtedly important, but if we were to look at climate change from a different vantage point, we can see how what is happening in the environment around us is also happening within us. In particular, we can understand that the severity of climate change speaks to deeper and more wide-reaching philosophical and spiritual issues.
The essential importance of stepping outside our usual view of the world to look at the climate crisis is that the transformation we now need requires us to see clearly the consequences of our personal and cultural beliefs. Maintaining the usual perspectives about what signifies a life worth living, how we view nature, and how we treat sickness will continue to lead us down the same path we’re on. As we’ll discuss with the chapters to follow, this path has not only led us to a place of dramatic climate destabilization, it has also had similar, deep-reaching effects on all aspects of our lives.
For thousands of years, Chinese medicine has understood the world holistically. From this Eastern perspective, all of our organs are interconnected, and the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of our lives are linked together. Developed over millennia, Chinese medicine recognizes that this holism within us is a reflection of interdependence in the world around us. Not only are we connected to other people and to our culture, we are inseparably connected to nature.
The chapters that follow blend the external focus of environmentalism—Western science, policy issues, and regulations—with the internal focus of Chinese medicine—personal health, balancing Qi, and diet. From this new, combined perspective, climate change and its literal realities, such as melting ice caps, dying forests, and floods, can be understood as a symptom of deeper issues—both within us as individuals and within our country and culture.
When treating conditions like headaches and back pain, acupuncturists and Chinese herbalists attempt to understand the source of the symptom rather than solely addressing the symptom itself. In the treatment room, it is important to look below the surface to diagnose and treat root causes because symptoms tell us that something is out of balance. To use the nature-based language common in Chinese medicine, symptoms are the branches that extend to the physical, surface level; the underlying causes, however, are internal, stemming from roots deeper below the surface.
The Yin and Yang of Climate Crisis unfolds Chinese medicine’s stance on symptoms: they are messengers trying to get our attention. Symptoms of all kinds and severity—within us or the climate—communicate that something is out of balance. The more severe the symptom, the more urgent the message. In my ten years of clinical work as an acupuncturist and herbalist, I’ve found that it’s common to see patients who have multiple symptoms. Rather than look at each of these issues in isolation, Chinese medicine treats symptoms as interconnected. Applying this diagnostic perspective to our planet, the chapters that follow discuss climate change as a form of sickness and offer several interconnected, deep-reaching remedies.
The big-picture perspective that Chinese medicine offers readily lends itself to not only addressing issues with our own personal health but also the condition of our culture. A crucial aspect to the holism of Chinese medicine is that the big picture and the little picture are very similar. In other words, what’s happening within us individually is a reflection of what’s happening in our culture, and vice versa.
Extending this view to the scale of the planet, it’s clear that Chinese medicine has much to offer to the discourse surrounding our rapidly warming and destabilizing planet. As has been written about extensively, the climate is warming due to greenhouse gases and burning fossil fuels. Given its well-developed and insightful understanding of sickness and root causes, an Eastern perspective on the Western science of climate change helps us see patterns in the vast amount of global climate data.
In the treatment room, a practitioner of Chinese medicine looks for patterns and connections of different symptoms and diagnoses. Similarly, when we look at the data on climate science through the lens of Chinese medicine, we can see a clear pattern of what is happening to the planet. In particular, the planet is warming rapidly as its ability to maintain a cool and stable climate is decreasing.
Chinese medicine’s ability to see clear connections that might otherwise appear separate comes from being a medicinal tradition based on nature. As we’ll discuss throughout the rest of the book, major aspects of diagnostic and treatment traditions in Chinese medicine are based on the seasons and weather. The Five Elements tradition, also known as the Five Phases, provides an extremely well developed understanding of how the effects of the seasons in nature are mirrored by similar effects within us. Part of this tradition includes how each of the phases correspond to different seasons and how health is maintained from both increasing and decreasing these seasonal effects. In addition, the condition of our internal climate—the balance of hot, cold, damp, and dry—also moves us toward health or sickness.
Chinese medicine also helps us see that the root causes of climate change are affecting our lives in other ways we may have not considered. On a personal level, this manifests in the things we choose to value and how we communicate with one another. Along with these mental and emotional issues is the reality of our physical health. The very significant rates of cancer in our country and the number of people who are estimated to die from the condition—both of which are projected to increase yearly—also indicate how the serious imbalances of the climate are mirrored in our own internal environment.
When viewed through Chinese medicine’s holistic perspective, it’s not surprising that the state of the climate—severe storms, floods, and droughts globally—and our internal condition—the projection of over 120 million cancer diagnoses—is also being mirrored in our country’s culture. How we’ve structured our economy, how we practice and receive medicine, and how we view nature are all a reflection of these deeper issues.
By examining and addressing these root issues, we have the opportunity to treat the underlying causes of climate change. In doing so, we have the opportunity to heal the people and the institutions that have most contributed to the condition, namely those in the United States. Specific case studies from my clinical work are presented to make clear the connection between the condition of the individual, the country, and the climate.
In chapter 1, we’ll look at the recent severe storms in Vermont—where I live and practice Chinese medicine—as one example of what’s happening globally. We’ll also look at one common Chinese diagnosis as a small-scale example of what’s happening in the climate and in our country. Chapter 1 gives a brief background of Chinese medicine’s development over thousands of years, especially its understanding of Yin and Yang and use of inductive thinking. Finally, the chapter discusses how the imbalances between the cooling and warming aspects of the climate also appear in our own lives.
In chapter 2, we’ll dive into the Western science of climate change, including some of its history. The studies and statistics in this chapter are necessary to investigate the patterns found in Western science from a Chinese medicinal view. Through this Eastern perspective of Western science, a clear pattern emerges of what’s happening to the climate.
Chapter 3 looks deeper at the reflection of imbalance within us, both individually and collectively. We’ll talk about how consumerism, our values, and our stories all speak to the underlying causes of our warming planet. The chapter concludes with suggestions for how we can internally address the causes of climate change.
In chapter 4, we’ll discuss how the amount of heat we create internally through our overconsumption of coffee reflects the rapidly overheating climate. We’ll also look at the long list of physical, mental, and emotional symptoms that result from drinking coffee, as well as cooling substitutes.
Chapter 5 begins the discussion of the Five Phases tradition of Chinese medicine—this chapter focuses on Water, in particular. This chapter introduces the Chinese medicine concept of jing, which are our deep, concentrated reserves of energy passed along to us by our parents. Roughly analogous to the Western idea of DNA, jing is what makes us the unique individuals we are. This chapter looks at oil as the jing of the planet, as well as how continuing to burn oil contributes to the lack of generation foresight we urgently need to address the root causes of climate change.
Chapter 6 discusses the next phase—Wood—and how our belief in continuous growth speaks to another root cause of climate change. In particular, we’ll examine how basing our economy on the idea that it can grow forever not only has severe ecological consequences but also promotes an excess of Wood within us and our country. This chapter also presents the Chinese medicine concept of wind, which is what creates change and movement within us, and the concept of the Sheng cycle, also called the Nourishing cycle. The Sheng cycle describes how different parts of nature feed and support other parts, and how this same nourishing dynamic appears within us as well.
In chapter 7, we discuss the Metal phase, which includes a sense of deep meaning and an experience of something greater than our individual lives. In Chinese medicine, this includes an experience of the sacred in all aspects of our lives, including what we value. In this chapter, the Chinese medicine understanding of the K’o cycle, also called the Control cycle, is introduced. Unlike the Sheng cycle, the K’o cycle limits and controls.
In chapter 8, we’ll discuss the Fire phase, burning too bright and too hot. Mirroring the heat in the climate is an excess of fire within us, exemplified by our dissatisfaction with how we communicate with each other. In particular, the amount of emails, texts, and tweets we send and receive each day often creates too much stimulation and too little satisfaction. A lack of satisfaction means not only a lack of meaningful connection with the people and the world around us but also a lack of understanding of who we are. Finally, we discuss how the excess of the Wood contributes to the issues of the Fire, as seen in the Sheng or Nourishing cycle relationship between the two phases.
Chapter 9 makes the link between the extraordinary rates of cancer in the United States and climate change. Looking at both conditions through the lens of Chinese medicine, a clear connection appears—namely, the diagnosis of heat. Taking a big-picture view of cancer, we look at how our quest for continuous economic growth is reflected in the growth of unhealthy cells within us. We’ll also discuss how the Western approach of waiting for a problem to occur before we attempt to address it—both with our rapidly warming planet and the overgrowth of unhealthy, cancerous cells—speaks to our cultural imbalances.
Next, Chinese medicine’s use of tongue diagnosis as a tool to understand our internal condition is introduced. Chapter 10 provides the well-established logic behind tongue diagnosis and what the size, shape, color, and coating of the tongue says about our internal condition. You’ll be encouraged to look at your own tongue to understand more clearly how the global climate is a reflection of our internal condition. In particular, tongue diagnosis makes it clear that the warming climate is similar to the warming of our internal environment.
The last chapter, chapter 11, reimagines the potential catastrophe of climate change as an opportunity. Part of the remedy for climate change is slowing down, which naturally occurs during the harvest—the Earth phase. Here, we see how Chinese medicine helps us recognize that increasing temperatures and melting glaciers can be good news. According to Chinese medicine, when something realizes its full expression, it transforms into something else. It doesn’t require a belief in change to understand that the underlying causes of climate change are, in fact, leading us toward sustainability. The chapter concludes that what we need to do now is to allow these changes to occur and not attempt to stand in the way.
Rather than being separate conditions, our health, the health of Western culture, and the well-being of the planet involve similar issues happening on different scales. The holism embedded in Chinese medicine allows us to see that the dramatic changes we’re experiencing in the climate are mirrored in the imbalances of our own individual lives and in the United States. What an Eastern view of the climate crisis offers is the opportunity to understand the root causes of our rapidly warming planet. Rather than being like fish that can’t see the water all around them, in applying Chinese medicine to climate change, we have the opportunity to examine clearly the imbalances arising from how we view the world. This is good medicine not only for the well-being of the climate but also a potent remedy to help lead us back to health.