By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
“When we heal the Earth, we heal ourselves.” - David Orr
Healing the Earth, our Mother, is something that is more urgent than ever and, hopefully, it is not too late. It is, however, very much true that by healing Mother Earth we will also be healing ourselves and society.
No society that is in constant combat with the natural world can every be a happy one and it will be one that, in the end, loses, and more than just the battle. Should we ever win this battle, and we are making the best of efforts, against Nature than we are dead, in the literal sense of the word and all other senses of it too.
We cannot fight against Nature but we must work with Her, with our Mother, the Earth. Only that way can we ever have a harmonious society where everything is in balance, more or less.
The Earth is in the trouble that it is in because of the way that modern man has treated Her and for some reason it seems that much of it has to do with human arrogance rather than ignorance.
Man has decided that he is master of the universe and master of Creation and thus treats the Earth and Creation as something for him to conquer. But we conquer Nature at our very peril for, should we succeed, it will be our death and the death of, more than likely, every living thing on Earth.
In order to change this approach serious reeducation of the great majority of people is needed. Only that way can we bring about the changes that are required in order to change the course on which we are sailing at this very moment. Unless I am mistaken we are headed for the abyss and that in a rather serious manner.
Modern man, as a majority, has lost all affinity with the Earth and Creation and with his fellow man also and while there have been wars for as long as it is possible to go back and probably even beyond that only modern man has decided – and modern man here is from about the Middle Ages onwards in Europe and derivatives – to fight Nature and make Her do as he demands.
Man has gone in for wholesale destruction of species, often because some were interfering with his activities, while others were exploited to the brink of extinction or to extinction.
The same has been done with the Earth's resources, whether it be wood, minerals, etc. and in the pursuit of profit from those sources entire areas have been clear felled and otherwise destroyed and/or poisoned.
The destruction of the rainforests for hardwoods and farming and the destruction of the Appalachian Mountains for coal where entire mountain tops are blown off are but two examples.
The overfished seas and poisoned oceans are another. The former for our needs and often for greed, and the latter due to greed with oil spillage, sewage and chemical dumping, etc.
Wholes have been dug into the Earth to take our effluent in the form of various types of garbage, none of which is doing any good in those places. On top of that they now – in the UK for one – are intending to place (low level) radioactive waste from power plants into those very same holes in the ground, called landfills.
Never before in the history of humanity seem people have to be so stupid and conceited as they are at this moment in time. Things that should not be done are being doing “just because we can do it” whether it is playing with a dangerous energy source – in this case nuclear power – or that collider thing in Switzerland where they attempt to recreate the “Bing Bang” which, if we are unlucky, could also spell then end of the world if they succeed.
The same is with genetically modifying plants and animals. Just because we can does not mean that we should. There are a lot of things that we can do but would or should we do it?
The thing that we must do is to do a full 180deg turn and start on a new course. A course that will reduce the pressure on the Earth and which, ultimately, will lead to healing the Earth and healing us at the same time.
It can be done... So, let's do it! The job need to be begun now...
© 2011
