Your planet needs you: Show a little love

Mother Nature, I feel, could do with a little help right now in keeping a sense of balance. Although we are challenged by one thing after another, in the ‘nature’ of cyclones, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, famine, pestilence, and disease, they are all hallmarks of nature’s strength, her power and dominance over us, and mostly perhaps, as with an errant child, that occasional ‘smack,’ to remind us that we are not yet properly grown and matured.

I know, war and conflict, even political intrigue have, for thousands of years, been used by our societies and cultures to ‘lord’ over one another with a cavalier disrespect for ourselves, each other, our foes, and our societies.

We have all known and felt the might and power of strength and dominance, and too many of us have fallen victim to its temptation, its promise of more, and more, until, as Ian Fleming so adroitly observed for his alter-ego James Bond, “the world is not enough.”

You know I’m no long-haired hippie peacenik, or as others have written, no tree-hugging, dolphin-stroking, salad-eating, anti-fracking, vegetarian malcontent. They have their ‘things’ and I have mine, but in learning more recently of the extent to which some of our environment lacks genuine care and affection, I have grown more adamant in my opinion that what we can do, on a community basis, would be a great way to develop societal and generational responsibility for nature, around us.

I think what happens sometimes is that we all do have what I will term a ‘conservationist’s conscience,’ but when we look at what’s happening around us, and what needs doing, it simply gets too big for us, and we can’t see how what we can do, can do any good. It’s a drop in a bucket thing, and while we don’t want applause or recognition, we just don’t want to see our efforts wasted.

We don’t want oil and gas exploration to stop. We are not so short-sighted, but we do want to see the planet, our environment protected. I mean, why would we want to cut our nose off to spite our faces? The oil and gas industries have made billions of lives easier, surely saved lives, why would we want to turn our back on it now, when technological advances promise even greater benefits for mankind? What we do want is the industry to be more open.

Now that may be a bridge too far, but it would have greater possibilities than a concerted global reaction against the illegal arms trade, which does much more harm. The arms trade is a proper curse, yet we don’t see any comparable protests against them, with the profile or ferocity of gender discrimination activists, currently a ‘dime-a-dozen,’ which surely speaks to the morality of the liberal elite.

Nor can I ever recall seeing protests about the illicit drugs trade, which appears to have almost reached acceptance levels in many societies. In Philadelphia US, over 90 illicit drugs outlets trade with the city’s acquiescence, feeding a city-wide drug problem that’s spiraling out of control, and that is just so wrong! Yet, America’s focus is on BLM, when surely, all lives matter?

But that’s what we, as a human race do isn’t it? We abuse our rights, and certainly don’t meet our responsibilities, and sell our fellow man ‘down the road,’ for a few shekels! So, why am I saying we should help Mother Nature, even though she ‘slaps’ us now and again? I feel that in the greater scheme of things, more of us need to demonstrate a duty of care for our planet, our Earth, and trust through our faith, that we will be rewarded.

In our small way, picking up litter left by others is a good start.

We can all do it, it’s not difficult, and it may inspire others to do the same... to care. Whether it’s in towns, villages, or cities, on beaches, up mountains, or on the sea... show a little love for nature, as omnipresent as our faith.