As acre after acre of Brazilian Rainforest goes up in smoke or falls victim to an axe, my heart is breaking. Many of the natural wonders and vistas here are also prey to the greed of big corporations who have been given license to pillage and rape them until they lie barren. I find it very difficult to understand this perspective, but perhaps mine is skewed?
I am a child of the wild, an Earth Warrior, striving to break the bonds of the culture that raised me; a culture which excised humanity from the chain to set us above and apart. We have lost sight of our role in the planetary ecosystem, placing ourselves outside it as conquerors rather than caretakers.
Around the globe humanity continues to abuse the planet for convenience and profit, despite evidence we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Corporations are selling our future and fueling climate change for the sake of convenience and profit; most of us blind to the hidden costs we are paying.
Hidden costs? Wait, what?
Of course, hidden costs, you know, the fine print. This isn’t a new issue, nor is the pursuit of profit. Western culture, in particular, has been dictated by corporate profit based on consumer loss wrapped in brightly colored paper while we remain steadfastly ignorant of the resulting damage. We don’t see it, because we aren’t looking. Focused on convenience we rarely ask where things come from, or how they are made. We have chosen not to peak behind the curtain to see things like monocultures developed to feed our Dorito habit, or waste heavy services like pill packs and bottled water.
Protected lands are being sacrificed on the altar of big oil for electricity and mobility, despite the proliferation of alternatives. But, we can break the chain if we can shake ourselves out of the bright, shiny dream Corporations sell to us every day. Though we may feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of climate change, we each can make a difference.
How can we do that? By choosing to make a few environmentally friendly changes. Recycling is of course a well known environmentally-friendly habit. But we can do more. We can support recycling by buying products made from recycled products. We can practice waste reduction, using glass and stainless steel containers, We can reduce plastic by using reusable shopping bags and were using a water filter with a reusable water bottle. These are all ways of making a significant impact. They may also save you money.
Any step towards reducing your footprint will make a difference in slowing down climate change. If everyone takes that first step and then another, we can save our future, one step at a time.
Broomstick Musings 