I guess Aborigine, Maori or other indigenous peoples of "under-developed" regions would make the connection between natural disaster and dramatic changes in the equilibrium of the world's resources? I have to ask if there is a connection between today's earthquake and tsunami and the speed of the North's consumption and abuse of our finite world.
Maybe this question is conceived in my belief that blame for the world's failings can be mostly laid at the feet of capitalism (there are instances of the combination of nationalism and socialism having similar failings!) However the unity of nature, the Earth at peace with itself, the sort of allegory which the film Avatar portrayed, these are long-held traditions of animist belief ... that the gods must be assuaged if pestilence and disaster are to be minimised.
So where do BP and the supranational companies stand? What of the increasing influence of the political right? How about the domination of the media by Murdoch and his friends? Will these groups question our trusteeship of this world? Or will they continue to spout ideological platitudes about trickle down, ending poverty, the development cycle and the morality of the market?
Meanwhile nature confirms its ambivalence about when and where it challenges humankind; and the West has been asked the question more in the last year or so than for some time ...... from New Orleans to New Zealand, from Queensland to Japan.
Like the gentle breeze, my words are lost in the ether, but we have to answer the question, not simply ask it!
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Our dear mother Earth has been coughing for years and years now because we pollute the air with toxic smokes, the water with our waste and the soil with our garbage. We spill oil, cut down the rainforest which can’t absorb carbon dioxide produced by pollution and which cause the extinction of some endangered species and very precious plants…We are not that far from the world of Avatar. And on top of that, we release toxic chemicals which we don’t even know the names of: nuclear vapour they say… What a joke !!! Then, the polar ice cap has shrunk by more than 20% since 1970 because of the rise in the Earth’s temperatures; the rise in sea level is thus unstoppable; this has already caused floods like in Vendée and could destroy cities like New York and even London !
Where are we going ? Why do we do such things ? When will our consciences come back ?
Why don’t we all get involved ? The future should be in our hands as humans to be , but not as consumer to be.
Me and my quoting of the good book... maybe in the gentle breeze we can hear the voice of one calling in the wilderness?
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