Let’s save Earth for her children
Here is a baby rhino and his/her mother. She had her own parents, and they too had their parents.
People forget other animals have their lives, their breakfast, their fears, their passions, their love, and their joy and suffering, too.
We tend to think only about our human children in these terms.
When we say let’s save the Earth for our children and our children’s children this frames a big problem in solely human terms. What might be the reason we would not wish to save Earth (and rhinos) in their own right?
Let’s not get this wrong, you can do the right thing for selfish reasons. We could move to a green world for the sake of green jobs, healthier human homes, less pollution, more justice and diversity, and more innovation and technological leaps in sustainable cities and suburbs.
We could frame it that way and still help, but it ignores something important.
Framing it in terms of what is good for humanity is often bad for Earth.
Let’s frame it this way: what is good for Earth is best for humanity.
It always has been, but we disconnected and forgot. When we separate nature or frame anything as nature versus human we get it wrong.
The continued existence of this baby rhino, and indeed, any rhino at all, will take a million miracles to happen if they, and their habitat, are to survive the age of man.
The importance of an ‘us’ that is more than human
Many people still look at the world as something for the west to conquer. They see wilderness as something to exploit. They see minerals, and people, to mine them. They see forests and grasslands as places for livestock and development. They even see colonial powers as bringing civilization and enlightenment. They see everything natural as rather backward and threatening.
Further, a growing number of people do not have kids. The world is not a place where having kids is affordable anymore. With our present habits, we know the world could not comfortably sustain them. The world is also in much greater need of us to turn our attention to the supporting biosphere and let go of worn notions of humanity versus nature. Again, there is no separation of humanity from the air, soil, and water. It is what we are.
If we allow monoculture to dominate, it dominates us. If we don’t allow all diversity of living organisms to thrive, we are deprived of their resilience, their wisdom, and their beauty.
We are the world
If there is a great cost to seeing ourselves as more deserving or special than the rest of the creation, it is that some people have so internalized their chosen, or “special” designation as something akin to being made into a projection of God’s image. But, we, spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally, are made in Nature’s image. The Creation/Creator of something much larger than ourselves is called many things; however, God is definitely one of them.
In accordance, science and all we have learned from nature, have taught us that there is only one living planet we know of. Its many endless forms are all related by DNA. We are related by the cycles and systems we depend upon, as well. We are all related more closely to our Earth kin than we are to the closest Goldilocks planet we could find.
This should help us feel humility, but also an insane amount of privilege to be given all we are given by life-supportive life. Indeed, believers in Intelligent Design use our special status as some evidence of a designer. Even without the need for a designer, Earth will still need reciprocity to thrive.
This is a good reason for human beings to be aware, grateful, and protective.
They say consciousness is the universe becoming aware of itself, something that can happen without homo sapiens, but not without biodiversity.
The last rhino, in this sense, is your sibling, and your kin. As is the moon, the seasons, the cycles, and the warmth of the sun.
Therefore, although we love our kids, and we love our children’s children enough to protect the Earth for their sake, let’s also remember that even if they were never, ever to exist — an entirely plausible possibility — Earth for the miracle of Earth should exist for Earth’s own sake.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: redcharlie on Unsplash
