Most people don’t pay much attention to the world around them. You see folks walking down the street with headphones on oblivious to the e-bikes whizzing past them, the bus that nearly hit them and the rain that is about to fall.
But most people do have a little patch of the world that they care about. It’s usually a backyard, patio planter, balcony flower pot, or a nearby pocket park. Many of us care about the larger expanses: those big beautiful groomed Olmstead parks or bird sanctuaries that are a five-minute drive from home. And real environmentalists care about vast open mountain ranges, savannas, native forests or shorelines that have not yet been trashed by humans.
Many environmental groups push to defend wildlife areas that have been deemed “public lands.” These are often in the Western U.S., but the concept has spread around the world and now there are many wilderness areas designated for protection on all continents. Many of these lands have minerals, water, lumber and possible food sources that investors want to extract. This creates a challenge: do we want the products more than the wilderness? Is there a sustainable way to extract from wildlife areas? Or do the investors simply see a quick profit from lands and wilderness that has not already been exploited?
Worst of all is the devastation of war. Are wars really necessary? Over the centuries many kings and tyrants have led their people into war. If the war takes too long, it drains the economies of both nations. Farm fields are blown up, people are killed, forests are burned with fire or chemicals. Nothing is accomplished through war that benefits the common people.
Environmentalists who claim to care about the Earth should be among the first to oppose war and the destruction of the Earth. Hiding behind a claim that you only focus on basic environmental issues is a weak-kneed explanation to cover cowardice and exposes the idea that only some areas of the Earth are of value—not the entire Earth. What kind of protection will the Earth have with such a lame defense?
We need to get into the war of sustainability. The war against those who would destroy wild places for profit. And from those who would destroy just for the purpose of power and control. Something that has been nearly endless since two families fought over the same small food source thousands of years ago.
Ron