“Oh Devi, who has the ocean as Her garments and mountains as Her bosom,Who is the Consort of Sri Vishnu, I bow to You; Please forgive me for touching You with my feet.”
Yesterday was Earth Day 2017! It’s always struck me how different cultures personify the Earth. As Hindus, we view the Earth as Dharti Mata, or Prithivi Mata — Mother Earth — nurturing, caring, like a mother. The Greeks used to view the Earth as Gaia, personifying the Earth as a giant connected ecosystem working to maintain balance and harmony within the environment.
But how do we Western-oriented folks view the Earth today? We certainly don’t treat the Earth as reverently as we once did, that’s for sure. We cut down trees, burn fossil fuels, and spray insecticides like there’s no tomorrow. We clear massive swathes of trees to build factories, to plant specific crops, or just to do landscaping to make the place ‘prettier’.
Thinking about these things, my mind always drifts to that speech Agent Smith gave in the Matrix, comparing humans to viruses because of the way we move to an area, use up all of its resources, and then just move on to another area. I think it’s always stuck with me because it is what we do: We dig up all of our gold, all of our bauxite, we drill up all of our oil. We pump copious amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, never minding the consequences.
But we can’t just decide to shut down our factories, stop driving our cars, stop constructing buildings. Can we? As a species, we’re continuously trying to move forward, trying to make discoveries; it’s not realistic to think that we could just shut down and go back to the Stone Age. But this drive does not have to translate itself as destroying the Earth.
At the individual level, we could try to do the little things, which in my estimation would result in a ‘big thing’ — a shift in the paradigm of how we view the Earth. If we really see her as our Mother, we wouldn’t dump on her. Would we? One of our biggest problems, for instance, is that many of us seem to have absolutely no problem with littering. Without compunction, most throw wrappers out of car windows — like confetti, to celebrate their don’t-give-a-damn attitude and utter disregard for the appearance of their surroundings.
Respect the Earth, respect your surroundings. Hold onto that soda can for just a few minutes, until you find a bin.
In the movie Tomorrowland, Hugh Laurie’s character had really great monologue: “Bees and butterflies start to disappear, the glaciers melt, algae blooms. All around you the coal mine canaries are dropping dead and you won’t take the hint! In every moment there’s the possibility of a better future, but you people won’t believe it. And because you won’t believe it, you won’t do what is necessary to make it a reality. So you dwell on this terrible future. You resign yourselves to it for one reason, because *that* future does not ask anything of you today.”
Let’s not resign ourselves to that future; let’s actually start making some changes today.
Like when you’re choosing a car to buy, do you really need that giant gas-guzzling Humvee? By buying more fuel-efficient vehicles, you would be able to do your part in slowing the depletion of our fossil fuel reserves, and also you would be reducing the amount of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide produced by the combustion of fuel in your engine, since you would be burning less fuel overall.
And turn off your lights when you leave a room! The Earth and your electricity bill will be thankful for it. These are supposedly little things, but little things can add up; that’s probably the first thing we learnt in math.
The world around us is changing, and many of these changes aren’t for the better. And these aren’t abstract, inconsequential changes. These are real, physical changes we can track and measure and see with our own eyes. Global sea levels have risen 8 inches within the last century, and the planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century.
Countries like Guyana, which are below sea level, will be greatly affected, especially since most of our population is concentrated on our coast. As I look through my back window at the sea wall at high tide nowadays, I see the waves ominously lapping over.
So, this Earth Day, think about the Earth. Think about what small part you can play in helping to preserve the Earth.
The Earth won’t be ‘saved’ by some superhero swooping in to fix all of our problems. It’ll be saved be normal people like me and you getting our act together and being more conscious about the way our actions can affect the world around us.
And we do need the Earth to be habitable for quite a while, seeing as we can’t just pack up shop and move to the Moon or Mars just yet — as Mr Trump seems to believe.
