The year is 2007. Since 2004 I have sent my views below to the editors of University Newspapers and Daily Newspapers in North America, but still, Earth’s agonizing moans and groans are largely ignored around the globe. Environmental issues are making headlines more often though, but still, real help to save the natural environment for mankind is not yet on the horizon. The Human Species continues to wage its vicious war on nature. The stakes are getting higher. Is it time to unleash student power?
Every politician, every CEO, every labor leader, every religious leader, every academic leader and millions of others aggressively pursue growth to attain their “success” in today’s competitive world: more mines and oil rigs, more factories and power plants, more multi-lane highways and airport runways, more SUVs and giant motor-homes, more luxury hotels and manicured golf courses, more sparkling mansions and office towers, more churches and schools, more hospitals, more super-malls and fast-food outlets, more huge animal feedlots and factory farms, more clear-cut logging, more mega-scale fish harvesting, more deadly pesticides and toxic chemicals, more weapons to kill efficiently, more workers and students, more followers of the faith, more voters, more consumers, more sales and profits. When, oh when, will mankind realize that this path will lead to the eventual irreversible soiling of our nest – the eventual destruction of our existence on Earth. We simply need to be jolted into a serious environmental reality check. We simply need to be jolted into recognizing the true magnitude of the environmental catastrophe being created by man. We simply need to be jolted into a fundamental paradigm shift – a shift in both attitude and action concerning growth, nature and survival on Earth.
Religious and political leaders dare not speak out to halt the population growth that is overwhelming vast regions of Planet Earth. Insufficient food, poor nutrition, poor eating habits, substance abuse, lack of clean drinking water and lack of exercise weaken body and mind and perpetuate the spectacular growth of our global disease-illness misery systems. Our insatiable demand for more and more comforts and toys, our obsessions with possessions, our blind reliance on dangerous chemicals and drugs and our wasteful and reckless ways, compounded by overpopulation, have led to the tremendous growth in killer-pollution and the unprecedented growth rate in global warming, habitat destruction and species extermination. When, oh when, will it register that we must treat nature with far more respect?
Not everyone agrees that an environmental problem exists, or if it does, on whether or how to address it. Status-quo economists see population and consumption growth as absolutely essential to continued prosperity. Many Christian fundamentalists and warriors of the religious right believe that environmental destruction on Planet Earth is not an issue since the prophesied apocalypse is near. The so-called liberal democratic capitalists continue to lobby for the removal of all controls and regulations so that free enterprise and humanity can thrive. In their view ideological environmentalists are simple-minded, unscientific and unrealistic alarmists who promote eco-myths and stifle human progress and prosperity. With glee they point to the doom and gloom predictions by environmentalists that have not yet materialized.
With endless statistics, with proud reference to the success of the great green revolution’, and with specifics of some environmental cleanups they make the case that, in fact, it is in our own best interest to continue the cycle of plunder planet earth – pursue growth at all cost, accumulate wealth, apply that wealth and human ingenuity to solve those environmental problems for which scientific proof is indisputable.
Difficult choices, especially by you, the younger generation, have to be made. What sacrifices and permanent lifestyle changes will you make to give nature a fighting chance for recovery? What action will you take, starting today, to nurse Planet Earth back to health and sustainability?
Klaus Keunecke is a resident of Ontario, Canada