A Beauty Spot, or a Pimple?
One day while travelling to work, I found myself looking out the train window and pondering…
The part of the UK I live in is a mix of both urban and countryside landscapes. The train track cuts right through both kinds of environment on its way in to the city centre of Leeds where my office is.
Some of the sights are grubby and industrial, some are green and luscious. Sometimes I see busy roads piled up with traffic, sometimes I see fields full of sheep or cows basking in the sun… often I see the whole range in a single journey.
This one morning the sight of a new little collection of houses being built in the middle of some fields caught my eye. I found the sight pleasing as I romantically imagined the resources to build the houses being taken from that very spot and being used to “upgrade the space” – turning open land to a habituated human home.
Now I know that all the resources to build the houses will have been shipped in from miles away, the image in my mind was more one of a time-lapse camera, watching the space change from above.
Zoom Out
I thought to myself… imagine if the Earth could see itself from space… imagine that time-lapse camera view of human development. Paying attention to how we have modified the Earth’s surface and ecosystems.
An analogy popped in to my mind:
As the first human settlement appeared on the Earth, the Earth may well have been proud of the achievement of its children. Wearing the settlement like a badge of honour, with the other planets regarding the Earth like Marylin Monroe and her beauty spot.
As time has progressed and humans have advanced to consume increasing amounts of natural resources, modify practically with entire surface of the Earth, and have affected nearly every ecosystem on Earth… at what point may the Earth decide that this beauty spot has indeed become a pimple and that it is time to begin to wash its face?
Home
It is the natural resources of planet Earth that have provided us with the atoms needed to construct our human bodies.
The cycle of life and death which perpetuates to drive evolution, progression, and development of the rich biodiversity of life on planet Earth; is something that humans depend on to survive.
It is what created us.
We all need to remember to respect that planet that gave birth to our species. In time, who knows we may develop technology which enables humans to spread out and populate other parts of our solar system or even galaxy…
I for one though would rather do this out of choice and with an optimistic outlook of growth, rather than out of necessity because we have been banished by our creator planet which no longer wants or can support us.
You have respect for your mother, and love for your child.
The planet Earth gives you both and deserves the same.
Enjoy, for now.
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