The future...

At some time in our distant past the human mind invented an abstract concept - the future. Of course the future doesn't exist, except as an idea, as the hypothetical extension of the present. However by inventing a future, we created choices or options from which to select the best strategy to ensure our survival. This tactic has enabled us to survive to the present.

We think we no longer need nature. We create economic and religious worldviews that put man's enterprise at the center of the universe and layer it with sacred truths that we are slowly recognizing are neither sacred or true. But the point is that nature does not need us. There are those who mourn the loss of nature, a loss of the natural beauty we see around us. In fact the real loss may be us. 

Nature will survive as it has over hundreds of millions of years. Civilization or "modern man" on the other hand is a very recent arrival. James Lovelock in his "Gaia" theory explains how the earth may be functioning as living whole with all the life forms and natural process interconnected to form a single living organism we call earth. Such an organism may simply "tolerate" the presence of parasites (such as humans) until they get out of hand.

In biological terms, humans provide no essential function for the survival of other large communities of life forms (or indeed for the planet as a whole) save for our own domesticated animals, plants and parasites. If we disappear, it is probable that wheat, rice, cattle, camels and the common cold virus will not survive in their current forms for very long. But the vast majority of the Earth's organisms can do perfectly well, indeed perhaps thrive, without us or our biological associates. 

Likewise there is nothing we can do to the earth that nature will not be able to remedy over a few hundred million years. So it is really not the planet that needs protecting, it is us. Our irresponsibility is not towards nature but towards our children and their children. It is our legacy of destruction and obliteration that may well leave them a life of unimaginable pain and suffering. 

And yet the choices and options we have to prevent such a sequence of events are so simple. They are within our grasp. They save us money and give us more time to enjoy the world that surrounds us. They build community and foster peace. Recognize that to make life better for your children does not mean leaving them a huge wad of cash or a 4000 square foot house. It realy means leaving them old growth forest, oceans, fresh air, clean water and the health and vitality to enjoy them.

(Includes Excerpts Quoted and paraphrased from the book "Its a matter of Survival"
By Anita Gordon and David Suzuki)

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