Articles on Ecology

EARTH MEANDERS
Happy Holidaze Earth Scream
In the spirit of pointing out year-end holidays epitomize the
forces killing the Earth, let me share this vulgarity laced
appraisal of the state of being

Earth Meanders by Dr. Glen Barry


December 20, 2007

Earth Love

Wondering at the smell of wet Earth as the sun warms the tent.
In awe and a bit frightened of all things that crawl, run and
fly upon the Earth.

Practicing organic gardening and animal husbandry, knowing
where you food comes from even if your parents have to do the
killing. Squirting my little brother with goat's milk.

Earth. Lying on the beach watching meteor showers.
Experiencing the awe of wilderness. Primal. Scary. More than I
can handle. The way it has always been. And always should and
can be.

Simple rich living, this is my youth. And though I now "own"
this very same land, my awareness of the Earth's imminent
demise makes it very difficult to know peace and find the way
home.

Holidaze Destruction

How many ecosystems were destroyed to make your christmas
gifts this year? How much greenhouse gas was released and
violence done to workers, women and children for the designer
clothing and electronics that will be waste in a year?

Do your care that our crass consumerism -- yours, mine and our
neighbors -- destroys the Earth and all life? That we neither
know, nor belong to, ecology should trouble you, yet you have
turned your back, embracing inanimate things over creation.

Haughty, self-righteous super-sized consumers are a disease
upon the Earth. And frankly I am sick and fucking tired of it.
Why does beautiful, sacred creation have to end because of
sacrilegious, narrow-minded, self-serving and deadly economic
and religious dogma that grants the Earth little worth other
than when liquidated for resources?

Take your resource wars, intolerance, false superiority and
ill-gotten wealth and shove it up your asses. Go ahead and
worship the great pumpkin in the sky or whatever you want, but
only if you do not let millennia old hogwash stop humanity
from addressing nearly 7 billion humans devouring their
habitat.

Piss on false profits of all creeds. Strange how many faiths
teach to destroy creation for senseless consumption to
celebrate their messiah's birthday -- living in a manner that
assures their prophesies of an end of the world come true.

The root cause of humanity’s malaise is our inhumanity towards
the needs and suffering of other humans, life and the Earth.
How much longer can we pretend there are no limits to
humanity’s consumption, human numbers, and no imperative to
share the Earth's wealth?

As you eat delicacies from all corners of the world these
holidays and unwrap a pile of presents; think of those
starving and killed to satiate your insatiable appetite for
more of the Earth's bounty. Contemplate how your consumption
served up by corporations feeds this violent suffering and
destruction.

There has been a complete breakdown in humanity’s relationship
to the Earth, understanding of what it means to be alive and
our responsibilities to the ecological systems that make it
possible, and action equal and sufficient to achieve
solutions.

The human enterprise has expanded beyond its land and energy
base. The only way forward is to dramatically cut resource and
energy use, yet by doing so we will feel the full implications
of reduced consumption.

The alternative is to just ignore the situation and let full
collapse hit -- resulting in global death, mayhem, rioting,
murder and plunder. Like a cancer, unsustainable energy and
resource use must be excised now, before it kills the Earth.

Consume less or die. We will live more simply and reduce our
numbers or we will all die a horrific death. I am not overly
optimistic given global heating is destroying being and the
best human nations can do at Bali talks is agree to talk
some more.

Earth Scream

Fat politicians and the middle class sit with the Earth's
grizzle streaming from their chin this holiday season, selling
our children into hell on Earth for a few gifts. Where is the
outrage? And the action?

The world is dying. Humanity is a disease upon Gaia. The human
sickness fills natural ecosystems with our pus. Humanity is
already dead. It is just that the ecologically illiterate,
pleasure seeking rabble have not figured it out yet.

Scream. Of pain. As the Earth's water, air and land sources
are laid to waste. Where is the outrage? What shall we do?
Have another cocktail and open a present, or work tirelessly
to bring humanity back into the global ecological system?

There is a dearth of Earth leadership. Everything is dying.
Toxics pervade our very cells. The wind, rain and sun are no
longer assured, nor beyond human control.

The amazing hairless ape with the opposable thumbs that walks
upright does not even know not to shit where it lives. Its
civilizations and holiday rituals are built upon the slaughter
of life and the ecosystems that make life possible.

All of the Earth's ancient life is ripped asunder. There is
not a chance in hell that humanity can have a future when its
population continues to skyrocket and each human wants more
than the others. Where is the outrage? Where is the action?

Fuck civilization. Fuck you. You are the problem. So am I.
What to do? Where is the outrage?

Obsequious sycophant disciples of consumption daily drain the
Earth of her wondrous life juices. Will you and 7 billion
others change, and if necessary fight, to save creation and
stop the slaying of the Earth? Is there any hope or will
fleeting comfort win out over our needs from the Earth?

Happy Holidaze Earth Scream.