In just twenty-three hours on my
Facebook feed I’ve seen a
bloodied orangutan hands raised in an
attempt to protect its
face, savagely beaten or
trampled underfoot by logging machinery –
I’m not sure which as the caption on the
picture didn’t say. Bloodied to
death or thereabouts because it
happened to “get in the way.”
Small wonder when in the last
twenty years we (as in homo
sapiens – the human race) have
single-handedly
destroyed ninety percent of the
orangutans’ home – for what?
Palm oil. Ruthless destruction of
ancient rainforests with an unparalleled
diversity of life so we can have
margarine, soap and packaged
bread with palm oil in. Really?
Me, I’d rather have the
rainforests and their biodiversity
intact instead.
A dog with some German Shepard
in it stretched out on the highway,
its eyes – now that the spark of
life is gone from them – as dark
as the tarmac it lies upon. Its
companion – fur matted in the
rain – keeps vigil at its
side, licking the stiffening
body of its friend. Is this
grooming a mark of love and
respect, a leave-taking? Or
an endeavour to revive, to
lick the life back into
him? I’ll never know, but
either way the cars speed
by unheeding, uncaring;
oblivious to the
dogs and their pain.
A polar bear a sack of
skin and bones, chronically
enfeebled from weeks without
sufficient food, suffering the
discomfort of an injured leg –
and what slim hope does she
have of finding food in the
weeks to come when we (homo
sapiens – the human race) have
elevated the temperature of the
planet so much that the sea ice
where she and her companions
find their seal prey has
diminished so rapidly that
it’s been at a record
low for the past eight years?
I see these things and
I am grieved, sick to
my heart. What monsters
of destruction, what
harbingers of death
we have become.
And what strikes me in all
of this is not just the blatant
disregard for the planet, for
animal life, for any
life except that of our
own; but also the fact that
both the rainforests and the
oceans are largely enigmas
to us, huge swathes of land and
water that we have hardly
set foot in, full of a
multitude of life forms yet
unknown.
Do you know of any other
animal with a hand so
far-reaching that it somehow
manages to destroy habitats
and ecosystems it has
barely explored, bestowing on
them such irreparable harm?
Do you know of any other
animal that has left such
deeply imprinted footprints
on our planet – the echoes of
which will resound for
hundreds, maybe
thousands, of years?
When did we forget that
we are one with nature?
When did we lose our
sense of awe, appreciation
and respect for the other
animals, for the miracle of
life all around, for our
life-sustaining Mother Earth?
When did we lose
respect for ourselves –
become marauders, destroyers,
the poisoners of our planet –
instead of the custodians our
ancestors and the indigenous
peoples knew to be?
Have we, in our single-minded
race for ‘progress,’ lost sight of
the fact that we, like all the
other animals, are only
granted the gift of
life through the upholder of
all that breathes on this planet, our
beautiful, sustaining Mother Earth?
Can we really imagine
that our bank accounts, our
cars, our jobs and our kitchen
refurbishments are going to
save us when the forests are
gone, taking with them the trees
that breathe out the life-
giving oxygen we breathe in?
Can we really believe that
our smartphones, our degrees,
our encyclopaedias full of
knowledge, our modern conveniences
and our pensions will do
anything to deliver us
when the temperature of the
planet rises above a level that is
bearable for human life, and the
melting sea ice results in such
high sea levels that ocean
waters cascade into our homes?
When we ruthlessly
routinely destroy
the trees, the air, the
water, the soil – the very
ecosystems of our planet, how
can we hope to save our
fellow species? How can we
hope to save our own?
When are we going to
stand up and accept the
responsibility for trying
to put right some of the
devastation we have done?
Are we, in fact, going to
do something about it
while there’s still time;
while we still can?
References:
http://www.idealistrevolution.org/save-the-orangutans/
http://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/which-everyday-products-contain-palm-oil
https://www.facebook.com/363725540304160/videos/977958852214156/
or
https://video.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xtp1/v/t42.1790-2/11139048_977959258880782_480352605_n.mp4?efg=eyJybHIiOjU2NSwicmxhIjo1MTN9&rl=565&vabr=314&oh=c0e2aa83b5e8fda3e079d94b19beede5&oe=55DCABD5
http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/about-polar-bears/climate-change#Affect
http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/373/2045/20140171
Where The Soul Dances With Light 
