I saw this article in the news recently and it caused me to pause and take stock. The article was in The Guardian and it was called “Our natural world is disappearing before our eyes. We have to save it.” by George Monbiot. Some of the comments in the article that had the most impact on me were;
The swift decline of the swift (down 25% in five years)- I have lived long enough to witness the vanishing of wild mammals, butterflies, mayflies, songbirds and fish that I once feared my grandchildren would not experience: it has all happened faster than even the pessimists predicted.
- The cause of this acceleration is no mystery. The United Nations reports that our use of natural resources has tripled in 40 years.
- The great expansion of mining, logging, meat production and industrial fishing is cleansing the planet of its wild places and natural wonders.
- What economists proclaim as progress, ecologists recognise as ruin.
- the rush to carve up the last intact forests; the vanishing of coral reefs, glaciers and sea ice; the shrinkage of lakes, the drainage of wetlands. The living world is dying of consumption.
- We have a fatal weakness: a failure to perceive incremental change.
- Watching the cutters being driven at great speed across the field, he realised that any remaining wildlife would be shredded… he went to investigate, he found her fawn, its legs amputated.
- The merger between Bayer and Monsanto brings together the manufacturer of the world’s most lethal pesticides with the manufacturer of the world’s most lethal herbicides.
- We forget even our own histories.
It’s definitely true that the Natural world is disappearing rapidly during our lifetimes. However, we can always make excuses about it and pretend that it’s not our fault. What can we do about this gradual, persistent and thoughtless destruction of the Natural World that we are all part of?
The most immediate thing we can do is use less.
Let’s not be fooled by all the advertising that tells us that we need this and we need that. The truth is that we don’t need much. Stop for a second and think about it, and you’ll see that we don’t need that much.
The Natural world is disappearing but, if all us (the consumers) used less right now, that would have an immediate effect on the corporate conglomerates who hide behind institutional anonymity to rape the world in search of profits. Let’s say “no” to the advertising and assert that we don’t need so much stuff. If enough of us do this, the Natural world might just be able to take a breath and begin to recover from the wounds we’ve inflicted.
- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/29/natural-world-disappearing-save-it
- Don’t forget to avoid plastics that haven’t been recycled – Plastic Not Currently Recycled
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