Miracles of Hope

Today my book arrived from the printers. I was so overcome with emotion that I stood in the doorway and wept. Seeing my tears, the poor delivery man thought that I didn’t like the book - however he soon realised that I was crying because I was esctatic about it!!! It’s beautiful and everything I had hoped for. I just can’t believe that it took such immense effort, sacrifice and perseverence to create it. It seems that it should be something huge like a vast structure of some sort. Anyway it houses a huge amount of information, which it was intended to do. Now starts the third phase - the marketing of the book. Please wish me luck.

It seems to me that writing about oneself is an extremely difficult thing to do! However I will not err on the side of caution. I will be open and honest, trusting in your compassion for a fellow member of the human race.

Professionally and by inclination I am a wordsmith with an equal affinity for both the written and spoken word. I love words. I love savouring the resonance and meaning of a new word or phrase. I love research and am humbled by knowledge, for with the accumulation of knowledge comes the realisation of how little I know and how much there is still to learn. As a journalist, speaker and trainer I love imparting knowledge and I hope that I will be learning and writing and speaking for the rest of my life!

I have a great love for nature, with my happiest moments being spent out of doors. I love the aquamarines, turquoises and deep blues of the ocean and I love the majesty of mountains, especially those of the beautiful Cape Peninsula. I love the heat and smell of bushveld shimmering under a wide, blue South African sky. I love rain and cool, misty Cape winter days. I love traveling to new places and meeting fascinating people. I love good food and great companionship. I love discussion and debate. I love laughter and high jinks. I love colour and richness and plenty.

What I don’t love is meanness of spirit or cruelty of any kind. I don’t admire cynicism in other people and I guard against it in myself. I try hard to live my life with as much integrity as I know how and I get disappointed when others don’t do the same. I know that I am gutsy and have “balls”, sometimes flying in where others fear to tread. I am cheerful and optimistic and genuinely try to make the best of every situation. I am a loyal and caring friend. However I often don’t “get” movie plots and take the longest route to get anywhere. I can be impatient, wanting things to happen yesterday and I have been told that I can be stubborn (although I believe that’s only knowing one’s mind and not changing it!). I have high standards for everything and don’t take short cuts or employ half measures. I enjoy my life and want it to count for something.

“The contents of ‘Miracles of Hope: Surviving and Thriving in the 21st Century’ clearly and comprehensively reflect on key issues in modern biodiversity and environmental conservation and offer food for thought to address these issues in an attempt ‘to leave our children a living planet’.”

Dr Rob Little
Director: Conservation
WWF South Africa

In the Greek story about Pandora’s box, Pandora is overcome with curiosity despite being warned not to open the box. She does so and all the evils in the world fly out to plague mankind. Only one bee is left and it is the bee of hope.

Carole Knight’s book brings our attention to all the problems of “blackness and despair” that prevail in the 21st Century. We ignore them at our peril but we must hold onto the bee of hope. Carole Knight deals with both and in bringing information from a huge field of research; the book makes us ponder about the fate of the earth and all its inhabitants including ourselves. This is a book that all people can profitably read – both scientists and lay people alike.

Ecology has always been the central science and in the materialistic haste of the Western world we have shut our eyes to the long trail of disaster that has followed in the wake of what can only be described as the greed of modern man. With a critical and analytical approach Carole Knight highlights our successive failures in not coming to grips with ecological thinking. She writes in an easy to understand style but chooses her words carefully. The stupidity of our species is plain to see for those who care about the earth and our future.

Doom and gloom has become the stock in trade of the modern environment and with good reason. The decline of the world fisheries alone is more than enough to send us into the slough of despond. I recall how after returning from the 2nd World War at the age of 19 and with no skills I went to the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal and earned my living catching fish with rod and line. Today 56 years later, I would starve to death. It is a story repeated worldwide on a massive scale. But Carole Knight’s book does not dwell on the dismal. It reminds us of our potential to tackle problems and solve them in new ways. She brings a balanced perspective and after reading about all the problems she provides an antidote to the tendency to sink into negativity. Again I am reminded of my own experience in the late 1950’s when we faced the challenge of the White Rhino becoming extinct. We overcame the technical and political problems and from a small number of 437 White Rhino in 1953, there are now 12 000 in the world. A small team of dedicated people made the difference.

Given a chance and a rest Nature responds with amazing rapidity and this is the central message of this fine book. Listen to Nature, work with her and she will respond. The bee of hope in Pandora’s box is brought to life by Carole Knight and becomes a beacon of light and a clarion call to the collective unconscious of mankind, to wake up and do what Nature expects us to do. Work towards a better understanding of where we have come from and how bright a future awaits us if we put our minds, hearts and souls into our work for the Earth.

Ian Player D.M.S.

Miracles of Hope: Surviving and Thriving in the 21st Century

There is no more important issue of our time than that of global survival. It is a subject that is engaging the deep concern of the majority of world citizens, for our existence on this planet is determined by a finite set of boundaries. The Earth’s mean temperature, the composition of its atmosphere, the quantity and quality of its available freshwater, the health of its sea and soil – these are some of the crucial factors that will determine whether we are able to survive as a species on this planet or not.

We do not know the boundaries of our survival. We do not know how much pollution the Earth’s atmosphere can absorb before a greenhouse effect of blistering proportions makes the Earth uninhabitable for its entire species. We do not know at what ratio of Net Primary Productivity a global Malthusian famine will result. We do not know what human population figure will exceed the carrying capacity of our planet. And yet with many of our activities and technologies we are pushing the envelope of our survival towards a catastrophic point of no return. We are seemingly hell-bent on playing Russian roulette with our future.

However all is not blackness and despair. Underlying the negativity is a significant shift in human consciousness that is taking place in the hearts and minds of people everywhere, providing a miracle of hope for our universal tomorrow: with every quantum leap of intelligence, every decision of grace and unselfishness, every act of compassion and human kindness, every undertaking of vision and determination that is taking place in human affairs across the globe providing a beacon of hope for the future and it is this miraculous transformation that is what this book is about. It is about our capacity to rectify things if we can just have the time, wisdom, knowledge and will to do so.

Sigmund Freud stated, “Human character is now Earth’s destiny”. If we are to survive as a species the boundaries of our survival may not be breached. It is up to us now. There is no more time left. Our ecological backs are against the wall. The decisions and actions we take in the time ahead will determine our future. Hopefully this book will play a part in becoming a one-stop human wake-up call so that we CAN survive and beyond that, thrive, in the 21st Century. Please read the book and tell your friends about it in order to “spread the word”.