Why can’t we deal with the environmental destruction we
are causing to the planet? I'm beginning to think we are hardwired to find humor and belittle major life
and death events in order to stay sane.
While we have the ability to grasp major threats to our own body
and mind, we laugh at funerals. We act like insane people
towards the obvious unsustainable and exponential paths to destruction – like smokers and
addicts who know they are killing themselves but live with the knowledge –
hey, we all gotta go sometime…
If we’re a unique species aware of our own death and bad choices
along the way that hasten this inevitability, then this is magnified to an
almost insane level by our awareness that our collective impact on a global
scale threatens not just our species but thousands or millions more with
extinction – it’s like entering a world war knowing that by the time its over,
countless millions will be dead and cities and infrastructure ruined…all for
the cost of freedom and dignity?
The Earth will recover and become green and healthy again,
unless we pulverize her to death with all the nukes we have. The Earth has lots
of time, we don’t. When our backs are against the wall of change and our
existence is threatened, like it was in the second world war with the Nazi madmen
of Hitler and his henchmen, we will dig deep and find a way to survive.
We have already started this most exciting and profound
journey. I may live long enough to see the world turn the corner, but I won’t
see the stabilization and eventual harmony that is still possible. Tipping
points are a scary reality because they are only really evident in hindsight. This
experiment of humanity and the massive short term change and impact we have
inflicted on Earth may be too late to change but only if we give up on hope.
Somehow we will muddle through all the shit we have created and inflicted on
Earth and her ecosystems and find a way to survive, mentally and physically.
I have seen enough of the big picture to seriously
disappoint and depress myself, I must now move away, take a rest and a back
seat to the change that is now needed by young and fertile creative minds and
bodies that can do the heavy lifting. All I can do is live frugally, enjoy what
time I have left, take a rest from this heavy reality I have witnessed firsthand through my environmental work.
Like a wartime reporter, I don’t know how prominent environmentalists can endure a
lifetime of working in the environmental trenches and remain positive. I will try to heal myself and learn to
love what nature I am fortunate to have in my back yard, like I have done most
of my life. I am lucky, I am wise to understand and act on this, and I guess I
am a real deal environmentalist because I fully live it.
I have made some important transitions over the last few
years of my life as I realize its not too late for me to embrace the change and
optimism that I need to live and feel for others. Maybe with time, I will find
my voice and courage, and find a way to communicate what I have learned and
taken to heart from my own experience. I have been fortunate to have chosen
this career, to have fallen into this lifestyle that has provided me a front
seat on this monumental change confronting Earth and humanity.
I guess I'm lucky that I have retained an open mind and gratefulness for the
blessings I have been given. I may have reasons to be bitter and
disappointed that my career in the trenches of environmental warfare never really
went anywhere, that I never made much money or even made much difference in my
ideals, but somehow I have retained a sense of hope and optimism for our shared future.Hard to talk about and even harder to explain when no one seems to care to listen, but I'll keep trying. In the meantime, I'll take canoe and let myself go.
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