Treading softly on the Earth

Our beautiful Mother Earth is in great peril. Climate change is making itself ever more noticeable and only the most willfully ignorant can continue to ignore the devastating effect it is already having. The rise of temperatures brings with it a host of related issues, from migrating bugs that are moving further north as conditions become more suitable for them, to out of control forest fires, melting glaciers and ever more maverick ‘weather incidents’, freak storms, each of which can not be directly attributed to climate change, yet their increasing occurrences clearly signals that something is seriously going wrong with our climate.

Climate change is the most dramatic environmental disaster that is threatening our planet and all life as we know it, right now. But it is by no means the only one. We are in danger of drowning in plastics, we are poisoning the air, the soil, the water…all of which we directly depend on for our survival, just as all other species do with which we share this planet. We now find plastics and all kinds of pollutants in the food we eat. After having spent years waging chemical war against insects we are suddenly waking up to the fact that they play an important role in our ecosystems – our crops are inadequately fertilized and their disappearance also diminishes bird populations. And what’s more those pesticides are showing up in our own bodies and lo and behold, are causing havoc there too.  Industrial farming is feeding the masses, but it is a path fraught with danger that could spell total disaster in just a few years unless we urgently rethink food production.

The young people who are currently demonstrating, demanding to be heard on the issues of climate change and diversity loss, can see their futures going up in flames and they are rightfully outraged. Sadly, adults respond the way adults always respond to such calls for urgent action – with complacency. Their priority is to maintain their jobs in order to pay the bills. Climate change and environmental disasters are not only inconvenient, but they are also a threat to their life dreams and career paths. No time for that, mate!

There is deep denial at all levels of society. Let’s not panic on the Titanic, but party until the ship sinks. It is probably inevitable, so why worry? We don’t know what to do, so we don’t do anything except bury our heads deeper in the sand, so long as there is still sand that has not been washed away with the waves.

And then, there is ‘disaster fatigue’. The daily news broadcast is full of stories, one more daunting than the next. Recent media manipulation has cast doubt on what we can really believe – but to claim it is all fake news is just lazy and willfully ignorant, for the signs of change are everywhere and easy to see and to hear if we were only willing to actually take note.

But this blog is not about doom and gloom. While it would be wrong to ignore all these very real and very dangerous impending disasters, it is not helpful to dwell on them or to let them disempower us. Instead, I want to use the crisis as a call for action and spread ideas about how we can affect real change in our own lives. Caring for Mother Earth is not just some hippy fantasy. It is a wake-up call, for we are children of the earth and it is the only planet we have. 

I am convinced that what it takes for us to change things around, to save ourselves and our beautiful planet, is to wake up to the love and connection everybody feels deeply within their hearts and soul with the mother that gives them life, and to sensitize ourselves to hear her cries, to feel her pain, and to care enough to commit to being the change.

I dare you to love Mother Earth and to take a stand, for life’s sake.