Humankind is orphaned from nature and its billions of years of evolution. This disconnect from nature is harmful to both humankind and the planet in general. Nature is our natural parents. Connect with nature and you go home to your roots. That’s why it is beneficial.
The disconnect from nature came about because of short-term thinking, self-interest and a world economic model built on ‘economic growth’ which inevitably means commerce destroying nature through exploitation.
The world needs sustainability not the increased and perpetual exploitation of the natural world. The current economic model is built on using the Earth’s resources until they run out and despite the fact that burning them causes global warming.
This economic model is still the default but outdated. At one time it worked but no longer. Economists constantly write about the need for economic growth. There is rarely any reference to the simple fact that this model played out in the normal way is unsustainable and leads to the destruction of the planet.
This economic model is also built of the need for an ever-increasing human population which is also unsustainable. Fundamental change is demanded if we are to protect the planet that sustains us. It is nihilistic to destroy that which sustains you.
It almost seems like an act of global suicide by the world’s human population but this catastrophe is uncoordinated and a byproduct of self-indulgent greed and humankind’s inability to live in harmony on a country-to-country basis.
And the world’s countries have developed at vastly different paces which creates tensions and entirely different goals.
Frankly it is a mess. Humans historically and currently still, in general, consider animals as assets to be exploited. As the good book says, we have dominion over animals and by God we are going to use that to our commercial advantage.
Sir David Attenborough boldly said that humans are a disease on the planet. It is going to be karma which shocks the wayward human into action to change their ways as nature strikes back with global warming and the poisoning of millions of humans by microplastics entering their brains and other organs after ingesting fish and other animals.
Plastic is literally everywhere. But as it is normally in the form of microplastics the human can’t see it and naively believes it does not exist and carries on as before. Humans live in a visual world and place too much credence on what they can see.
I have always said that if carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide gases were coloured bright pink, we would have taken urgent steps to curb their production ages ago.
Here is a quote from William Hague, whose article in The Times is the inspiration for this post.
“We can at least hope that in 2025, instead of scratching our heads at rising anxiety, depression and unexplained illnesses, we realise that such problems might be connected with laying waste to the ecosystem of which we are part. And while the implications of that slowly sink into the thinking of governments, we can all act on it. I will be spending as much of Christmas outdoors as festivities and daylight hours permit. The evidence shows that all need the connection with nature that we have so nearly lost.”
William Hague tells us that there is still hope. I agree with him. It’s not too late to change the fundamental way in which we live. But it does need a dramatic change from the exploitation of nature to a sustainable model. William Hague writes that “examples exist of good governance that combines a healthy ecosystem with a thriving economy such as in the Galapagos Marine Reserve. And when we allow nature to restore itself, it does so rapidly.”
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