Nature
It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement, the greatest source of visual beauty, and the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are totally dependent on the natural world. It provides us with every mouthful of food we eat and every breath we take. It is the most precious thing we have, and we need to defend it. Our future depends on our ability to act now.
This is our planet
Here is the bad news. Planet earth is our planet, and we humans are running amok, killing its wildlife and trashing its life support systems. But inside the bad news lies the good news. For if we finally recognise the peril we are in, then we have the chance to redeem ourselves – to begin a great restoration of nature on our planet. And the best news is that we can.
It is cleat that we have not been good tenants of our home. The fridge is poorly stocked. The furniture is broken. The plumbing is no longer works and there have been floods. There is a hole in the roof. Someone has been playing with the temperature controls. And the garden has been concreted over. You get the picture. We need to grow up. We need to get house-proud, write ourselves a clean-up list and get on with the job.
Surveying Planet Earth is not an overwhelmingly happy experience. Wars, starvation, human degradation and environmental depredation are commonplace: man’s inhumanity to man, and man’s vandalism of his natural environment, seem to know no bounds. One cannot help by wonder how it is that the human race can commit acts of appalling barbarism on the one hand, yet have the vision and tenacity to explore the planets, compose symphonies, invent the printing press and discover DNA on the other.
There is reason enough to pontificate on the state of the world and to shake our heads in despair. But let us also remember that the world is an awesome place, life is an extraordinary experience, we are making progress – and the future, for most of us, is an exciting and positive prospect.
But only if we take care – of ourselves, our natural resources and the planet we have inherited from previous generations. Time to recall the words of TS Eliot:
“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future”
Humans
The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it.
If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore.
If a forest is a sacred grove, not timber.
If other species are biological kin, not resources.
If the planet is our mother, not an opportunity.
Then we will treat each other with greater respect.
This is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective.
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