If you caught the previous post on Endamgered Species condoms, you'll want to watch this video of one volunteer handing out condoms in varying locations on the street. It is both funny and illuminating in that it shows the disconnect that many people have between over-population and depletion of resources, habitats and species.
This is a splendid book, both visually and informationally. You will come away from it with a renewed appreciation for the Great Plains and the treasures that abound there.
by Gregory Mayse
Photographer
The debate rages on… Right versus Left, Greenies versus Corporations, Tree-huggers versus Profiteers. Which data - or adjusted data - are we to believe? One thing is for certain - Earth needs our help.
I have heard my share of passionate discussions, both in the national media and in the workplace. I really do not care where each person reading this chooses to stand on the subject of Global Warming, Climate Change or whatever you choose to call it.
As a photographer, I choose to look at the BIG picture on most things in life, and the question raised by looking at the Big picture is simple - Are we doing things to improve our environment and to protect the creatures who share our little rock that rotates around the sun?
What should matter to all of us is that if we do not continuously make a focused effort to preserve what we have, it will be increasingly difficult for us to survive on Earth. I am not talking about the sudden end of the world according to the Mayan calendar in 2012. I am talking about the continual destruction of our natural resources that we MUST have in order to survive. Do not turn your back on Mother Earth. Her natural ReSources are our only Sources.
When all of the rainforests have been logged, when our water is no longer safe to drink, when we have taken away the habitat and culture of all indigenous people as well as wild animals around the globe, then we may look back and ask “What were we fighting about back then?”
Is this really a political discussion? NO. It is simple. Do you want your children, grandchildren and their descendents to be able to appreciate the things in their lives that we may take for granted? Do you want your great-great grandchildren to grow up and look back at our generation and ask, “What were they thinking?”
The native cultures that were here in what we now call America held strongly to the belief of respecting the sustainability of Mother Earth for seven future generations. What if we dare to take on that philosophy once again? Do you believe we can survive with the global environmental damage being done by some of the planet’s major corporations and governments?
So next time you see an photograph of a polar bear leaping between floating icebergs, or the surviving indigenous people standing in a clear-cut area of their rainforest, don’t just brush it off as another one of those “environmentalist global warming photos.” Instead, let it remind you that everything is interconnected, that the planet as a whole, is a living organism that needs all of its parts to function healthily – there is value in every creature – every habitat – every culture.
We humans hold the power either to make our planet better or worse for future generations. The responsibility was somehow handed to us over the other animals of this planet. I’m not sure if this was the right decision. All I ask is that all of us FOCUS on the BIG PICTURE. If we don’t work hard to preserve our planet now, who will…and when?
“As we watch the sun go down, evening after evening, through the smog across the poisoned waters of our native earth, we must ask ourselves seriously whether we really wish some future universal historian on another planet to say about us: "With all their genius and with all their skill, they ran out of foresight and air and food and water and ideas," or, "They went on playing politics until their world collapsed around them." ~U Thant (Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971), speech, 1970.
It is the last sentence of that quote that reverberates in me like the finely tuned strings of a guitar. Day after day, month after month, year after year, I watch with increasing alarm – and shame – as the environment continues to be a pawn in a great political game of chess. As the very board we are playing on decreases in size, disintegrates with pollutants from “industry” and it’s goon, “warfare.”
I have friends on both sides of the political spectrum. Those who call themselves “liberal” and those who call themselves “conservative.” Most of my friends agree that we must conserve our natural resources, that we are stewards of the environment, that we must protect endangered species. Just like we can all agree that SOMETHING has to be about our failing health care system. But like a husband and wife who can’t agree on the best way to arrive at their destination, we end up bickering and lose sight of our mutual goal in a sick battle of “he said, she said.”
The stakes are high in this political game we are playing. As my friend is fond of saying, “Follow the money.” Unfortunately, she is only able to see the food chain on one side of the political chasm. There are special interest groups on both sides, and the sooner “we the people” realize that we are being pitted against each other in a battle from which “we the people” will emerge as losers, if we emerge at all, the sooner we will be able to set aside our petty differences and work together.
Call me a Utopian, or a Polly Anna, call me naïve or just plain stupid. I still believe firmly that we have it in ourselves - as a community, a country, a continent, a world of people – to sit down at the proverbial table and find our commonalities and work toward those goals together. As Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” But I also know that there are forces out there who stand to profit from our divisiveness. As my friend says, “Follow the money.”
Kate Dardine is the Marketing Director for Art for Conservation and Fine Print Imaging, as well as a professional artist. (www.katedardine.com) Lately she's been quoting Rodney King: "Can't we all just get along?"
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