I happened to have watched the documentary 11th Hour (hosted by Leonardo DiCaprio love <3), and I wrote an entry about it on Multiply last year (posted Nov. 20, 2008). Here is the entry…
Have you ever stopped for a while and think about your impact on the environment as an individual? Have you ever wondered how you as a single creature can contribute on the large-scale changing of the environment? Have you ever felt responsible for the conceivable decline of our mother nature? More importantly, have you ever thought that you, even as a single person ought to take an action to appease even for a little the ever-increasing disharmony between the environment and us?
It is no longer a query that the nature is indeed being exploited and destructed. And it is no longer a question whether we contribute in the decline of nature or not, because we do. In fact, we are the ultimate reason for the rapid alteration of our environment. Our different capabilities and our intelligence have led us to abuse nature. It is believed by many that humans are superior to any other living thing on the face of the earth. We think that we are at the top. So much so that it has caused us to neglect the one thing that provided us with a comfortable and in fact, the only place to live in.
With the advent of industrialization, agriculture, modernization, economic pursuit, and many other things that fill our desires, we are forgetting one important thing, the environment. We would do all sorts of things just to live comfortably in our modern world without realizing, or if it may be said, we ignore the grievances of the environment. Our negligence of the needs of the nature has brought us to the brink of an environmental crisis which is believed not to have existed in the history of the planet earth.
Several natural calamities are occurring at short intervals. These natural calamities that strike us in different forms are brought about by our own doings. The occurrences of these natural calamities are just one way by which nature gets back to us. And we can’t blame nature for that. We can only blame ourselves. In the first place, we are the ones that have caused the great changes in our nature. One scientist has once said, “We’ve forgotten the ancient truth that we have to treat the nature more gently, and because of that, we’re paying the price.” Our own actions are just coming back to us. When we exploit the nature, who pays the price? It’s us. We are the ones experiencing the rage that nature brings every once in a while. We are the ones experiencing the great climate changes. We are the ones that will be in the losing end once we battle with the nature. When we continue to do what we are doing at the moment, we will come to a point where nature could no longer contain the exploitation that we are doing. Enormous changes, those that may not have been seen on the face of the earth may be brought to us. And when they are in front of us, are we ready to face them? Are we armed enough to deal with nature? Before you answer those questions, you answer this first: can’t you do something to avoid that certain confrontation with nature?
At this stage, it is safe to say that it is not too late to take actions. We still have the time to reflect back on ourselves and think about how we can contribute in the pursuit of harmony with the nature for a sustainable future. We still can do something from the individual level to the global level. If we start from the very beginning and ask ourselves, what is wrong? What am I doing that in a way may contribute in the abuse of nature? If you know how to answer that question, then it can be said that you have already done something to avoid the eventual destruction of human civilization if we don’t take actions.
In the documentary, there are a lot of factors mentioned that may lead us to the one thing that all of us would not want, when our only home stops being a home to us. One factor mentioned is ultimately our human mind. In the first place, it is what has enabled us to be so inventive and to create innumerable things that made our life more comfortable, and at the same time, compelled us to destruct nature. Another thing which is actually linked to the first one is the way we think, our mindset. The problem, according to several personalities in the documentary is that most of us think that we are not part of nature, that we are separate from it. From that line of thinking, it can be said that it may be the reason why we remain negligent of the demands of the nature from us. We are confident that we could not be directly affected once we destruct nature. That is a big mistake. When we destruct nature, we must also prepare ourselves for our own demise. Kenny Ausubel said that “saving the environment” is misstated because “the environment is going to survive. We are the ones who may not survive or we may survive in a world where we don’t particularly want to live in”.
Another problem lies with the fact that the environmental crisis does not seem to be so much of a problem compared to the economic and political crises. Human beings concentrate on being wealthy and all but they are forgetting the more important thing. We are forgetting that we must first attain a sustainable environment before we could be economically well-set.
Industrial civilization is one product of our inventiveness and it has caused “irreparable damages, and the impact is only accelerating”. But with the onset of all this things that make our life comfortable, but which are the reasons why nature is grieving, how do we balance it? How do we find harmony between nature and us, human beings? The answer is actually in us, in each of us. We have to have the initiative, the vision to make changes. We should not remain apathetic with the ever-increasing exploitation of our environment. We should act responsibly. In finding harmony, we have to “recognize that nature has rights too”. When we do that, our actions towards nature will be more controlled and responsible. And change can start with that. If we do it in a global scale, then having a complete harmony with nature is not impossible.
If we just increase our level of awareness and from that, we take necessary actions, then we’d achieve what we all want. If only everyone would do something, if only everyone would be aware of how great we change the nature and take actions from that in every scale possible, then we can live in an environment which is friendly and in fact, even friendlier than as it is now. Not only will it provide us with a sustainable environment for the future generations of human kind, but it will also enable us to protect the other species that are continually becoming extinct because of our doings as well.
Yes, we do not only affect nature. But because we affect nature and nature affects things on this planet, all other things are also ultimately affected by human. Several species are said to have become extinct because we have made them so. It is a sad fact really that we are causing that. Many animals and vegetations are destructed because of us, because of our irresponsibility. If we would just change our ways and begin to be involved, then things would really be different. We can create a home that is really a home for every one of us, not only for us humans, but for all living or non-living things in this world.
Living in a place where we are in balance with the nature is not a far-fetched dream. We can make it a reality if we reflect back on ourselves and think where could have we gone wrong. And when we know the answer, let us do something to make it right. If we do it in the individual level, in the societal level, in the global level, then we would succeed in living harmoniously with our mother nature.
