You Are a Part of the Environment, Not Apart from the Environment

Whether or not we identify with those who call themselves ‘greens’, all of us are becoming increasingly aware that our natural world is hurting and that all are responsible for its care and health. The current discussions on how to reduce carbon emissions is an indication of the fragile relationship that exists between humans and the environment. I am certain that, like me, you too are becoming increasingly aware that you are a part of the environment not apart from it.

 

We often act with no thoughts of the consequences of our actions. We are creatures of habit and convenience. Our busy lives and indulgent life styles often create blindness to the adage that ‘every action has an opposite reaction’. Actor and environmentalist Ed Asnor described it like this:

 

"We all moan and groan about the loss of the quality of life through the destruction of our ecology, and yet each one of us, in our own little comfortable ways, contributes daily to that destruction. It is time now to awaken in each one of us the respect and attention our beloved mother deserves.”

 

We are increasingly realizing the impact that the accumulated consequences of hundreds of years of industrialization, is having on the environment. If we are aware of our relationship with the environment, we will actively change our lifestyle and habits to protect the fragile world we live in. 

 

In the past, the ancient indigenous cultures of our world learned how to live in harmony with the environment. They learned to use its resources for their needs and not their greed. They learned to protect its resources and live in harmony with the seasons by only taking resources for personal needs at a time when those resources were naturally in abundance. They lived in harmony with the environment and the environment lived in harmony with them. 

 

Somewhere in time, we lost the concept of being a part of the environment and not apart from it. We, as a human race, began to see ourselves as somehow separate to it and our lifestyles focused on what we could take from the world around us and forgot what we should give back to it. The price of our actions is not only the destruction of the environment that we are a part of, but also potentially our own destruction.