The Circle of Life is Broken

The Circle of Life is more than the food web. It’s a self-organizing system of global life-cooperation and energy dissipation. Its balance and stability have been taken for granted for millennia. But in the age of the climate crisis, the Circle is breaking down.

From the 1960s onward, philosophers, artists and spiritual teachers promoted the idea of the ‘Green Self’ to help us understand how the Circle works, and how we harm ourselves when we damage it. But in all that time, the climate crisis only got worse. The Greening of the Self didn't happen.

Using the science of ecology and a deep dive into human nature, this book explores what the Circle of Life really is, and what becomes of us when we face it in different ways. The exploration reveals a deeper eco-spiritual perspective, in which the Immensity of the Earth, and the breakdown of the Circle, are calls to action: to heal the Circle, and to create a better world.

Brendan Myers is the author of seventeen books in philosophy, environmental ethics, history of ideas, spirituality, urban fantasy fiction, and game design. His ideas have been featured by the Pacific Business and Law Institute, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, the BC Civil Liberties Association, and the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. He's run three successful fundraising campaigns on Kickstarter, chaired a labour union, presented a TED talk, and hunted for fairy tales in seven European countries. Originally from Elora, Ontario, Brendan now serves as professor of philosophy at Heritage College, in Gatineau, Quebec. Brendan also plays guitar, brews his own mead, and sometimes still reads children's books. He lives in a library, next door to a forest.