The land

If the human race is to survive the hardships of the 21st century, much less prosper, then it will have to reconsider its relationship to the land.

History teaches that from its earliest beginnings, civilization has gone hand-in-hand with the quest for more land and resources. Empires built themselves up in various river valleys, only to be eventually conquered by more powerful empires.

Our own time is no different. Even today, nations send their militaries across vast distances so as to control the land and take the resources of others.

Central to the relationship between humans and the Earth is the notion of exploitation. Trees turn to ships, homes, firewood and paper; soil is converted to agriculture; the oceans are harvested for their fish; and today, oil is sucked from the land and then used to power the tremendous inventions of the last two centuries.

In all these undertakings, humans have seen the Earth as having a bounty of almost endless duration. Little thought has been given to the fact that the Earth can give only what it has; that when it runs out of resources, there will be nothing left for humans to take.

Now, we are already beginning to witness the consequences of this relationship with the planet. Both the unquenchable thirst for oil (a primary factor of the Iraq War) and the phenomenon of climate change are the result of a mindset which treats the Earth as a never-ending source of natural wealth. Today, humanity is quite literally polluting itself into seeming oblivion with no thought of recourse.

It is difficult for many people to comprehend the scope of the abuse leveled against the planet because it is so integral to our daily existences. Most of us wake up each day, pollute our way to work, aid businesses and corporations in their taking of the land, and then pollute our way back home where we get a few minutes of much needed rest before repeating the process the next day.

What does a person really need? Basically very little — food, water, shelter, and the psychological space necessary for cultivating healthy relationships and self-knowledge. In modern life, we have come to worship the means to these ends as opposed to the ends themselves. By constantly seeking more material wealth, we have condemned ourselves to a futile existence of greed and perpetual thoughts of inadequacy; meanwhile, the precious little left on this planet stands to be voraciously consumed.

This century, the land will either be humanity’s greatest friend or worst enemy. It is a choice that we must make, for the land can only reflect the intentions we bring to it. If we continue to approach the land with thoughtlessness in our hearts, then, when we have done enough damage, it will be similarly thoughtless to us and we will struggle to survive. But if we approach the land in peace, and with the intention of living in harmony with the resources that remain, then the land will extend peace back to us.

Even to the last moment, the Earth will not forsake its most gifted creation. But the choice is ours and ours alone, and there is not much time left for us to change our ways.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 5th, 2006 at 10:17 am and is filed under A Changing Planet, Alternative Living, Climate Change, Freedom and Democracy, Resource Depletion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.