Environmentally Disconnected
In our world, the age of technology has caused revolution
on the scientific front and devastation on
the environmental front, and yet we continue to foster the gap between
ourselves and nature even wider. This detachment from nature has been going on
for thousands of years and it seems only natural to most people to assume that
this is the way it's always been... although that is the irony... it is the
most unnatural. (1)
It is the instinct of all species to do whatever necessary
to survive...although humans have found what it takes, the initiative, to take
survival one step farther. So from the first arrowhead fashioned to the first
fields planted, it has been mankind's goal not only to stay alive but to be
dominant. From this dominance stemmed our control of the land and thus,
detachment from what we see as inferior. As we have progressed from early
humans to the modern culture we have you can only imagine what has happened to
how we view the world around us. Industrialization, globalization, urbanization
and our advancement in technology, agriculture, and most of what we see in our
everyday lives are all in the name of progress and controlling the environment
around us to best accommodate our needs. (2)
Everything living thing is dependent on a healthy and
working ecosystem in order to survive, despite this we view the natural world
as 'resources' to be used at our disposal instead of the intricate self-regulating
web that it is. Unlike other species, we take more than we need and don't give
back in the ways that we could.
Our fatal flaw is our success. Humankind is capable of
unimaginable and wonderful things, but when left unchecked we are also the most
destructive... wreaking havoc on the world we have forgot we're a part of. "Nature
is everywhere. You are nature. You belong to this Earth, you just need to find
your place in it." -Margaret Emerson (3)
As you read through
this you probably noticed the underlined numbers... these represent the species
going extinct while writing this... Approximately one every 5-10 minutes.
"Scientists estimate that between 150 and 200 species of
life become extinct every 24 hours."
Lauren Holtz
No comments:
Post a Comment