Cornerstone for Change

Why do we continue to engage in activities that are destroying our way of life and ultimately our planet? Modern society has placed more value on economics than life itself. We continue to justify ecological genocide and war in the name of quality of life. Unfortunately the quality of life ideal we continue to strive for is incompatible with the long term survival of the very planet that gives us life.

Our world is filled with problems and yet at the same time, great potential. It becomes quite overwhelming when one considers the sheer magnitude of all the problems created by our species. I believe that this overwhelming impression is what prevents so many from acknowledging their ability to impact the situation. What is important is the ability to compartmentalize and use selective attention as your coping strategy. You have to take in enough information to fully understand a problem but not so much that you cave in under all the pressure. If we break the problems down and focus on what we can do as individuals, change begins. It has been said that things we do as individuals matter but things we do that others see, matter even more. Several individuals working on the same problem become a group. Several groups becomes a movement. A movement initiates global change.

With all the problems facing our world today, I feel the cornerstone issue is the environment. We have completely lost our way and disassociated ourselves from what is truly important. Our basic needs for survival have been taken care of for so long - food, water, air, clothing, and shelter - that we have forgotten how important they truly are. Now, in the name of materialism, we are destroying the earth’s ability to continue to provide us with these basic needs. Not only are we attacking our own ecosystem in this pursuit but we are also attacking our fellow man. We have lost our ability to empathize and relate with one another. We continue to choose to take care of our own personal immediate wants without seeing how everything, and I do mean everything, is interconnected.

I believe by acknowledging our place in the ecosystem of the planet, we will begin to once again understand our place in the world. We are not lord and master with the right to rule over it all. We are an integral part of our own ecosystem and as such we are dependent upon the balance and support of other species to ensure our long term survival.

Now if we can begin to empathize with a micro-organism and understand how we are dependent upon it for our own survival, can our ability to empathize with our fellow man be far behind? If we make the environment our priority, our overall empathy will develop to a point where the catastrophic global problems created by mankind will begin to be resolved.

"There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed."
- Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869 - 1948)