The Earth And Us
We’re more alike with our planet than we dare dream
Bluefooted booby - resting on plastic pollution on the Island of Clipperton - 900 miles from the nearest shore 2017
Reflecting on us vs. our planet. We watch what we eat, we take breaks and go to vacations, we give ourselves breaks and attend shows and concerts. We do what we can to keep our heads clear, to keep our bodies clean and clear.
Whatever our choices are we go to the doctor every now and then, for checkups or to understand a condition. Say we felt dizzy and went to get it checked. Let’s say the doctor tells us we have a diabetic tendency, blood sugar levels came up a tad too high, enough to worry the doctor. We’re advised if we don’t take precautions now we can prepare to never be able to enjoy cakes and chocolates ever again. Watch all the others savor that 7 layer mega chocolate cake at your birthday party, while you enjoy a hummus dip. So we take our measures. We give up all the sugar that we added into our diet. We avoid the things we love to eat for now, because we know it’s for our best and for our family. We take care of ourselves, perhaps we exercise a little more too. And just a few short months of avoidance is enough to reverse the damage done in years of our careless habits. We realize nature’s forgiveness. We wonder if we were to take care of ourselves regularly, how much better our health and bodies would be for our future birthdays.
And so I reflect on Earth. Our parallels with Mother Earth. Our planet. Just as our bodies, it is also 70% water. We have lungs, she has forests, trees and corals. We have veins, she has rivers. We have cycles, she has seasons. Our earth's nature parallels to our nature. She has a condition at the moment. (Ok, she has a few conditions but lets focus on just one here). She’s begging us to stop forcing her to ingest the waste we create and the practices that are killing her good cells - cetaceans, sharks, elephants, lions, trees, reefs, forests(!) etc.- that help keep her system in balance.
She’s not asking us to stop what we’re doing, just to be considerate of her. We are so connected. Our systems are practically identical.
Harmful habits kill us, careless acts kill our environment. It’s all in our hands to make a positive change. We don’t need the government to decide for us or order us to do something a certain way. We know.
When the doctor tells us we have diabetes, we don’t expect the government to ban sugars. We stop ingesting it. If we know our child has diabetes, we don’t wait for the cities to ban sugars, we guide our child to make better choices.
Our effort with plastics is similar. The sick child is our Earth. The condition is plastic pollution. The harmful sugar is plastic. Governments can ban, might not. People might stop producing, likely will not. It’s like smoking. Cigarettes are still around. It hasn’t been banned. People still smoke. But most of us don’t. You get where I’m going with this. The point is - with proper knowledge and information we are empowered to make the right choices. We are intelligent enough to use what we know and learn.
Don’t let the context overwhelm you. It’s the opposite. With diabetes or smoking you might think the context is contained. It’s harm to just one person or a group who has a habit. Plastics is everywhere and it’s the entire lifecycle that is problematic. True, and I say that only gives us more power. Not the other way around. Let’s go back to sugar again - some people don’t like the taste and they avoid it. It’s not because they are diabetic, it’s that they don’t like sweets. Avoiding that for them is just avoiding an unpleasant taste experience - it does have a long lasting effect of keeping their bodies sugar free too. But if the person has diabetes and avoids sugars the impact is much bigger - their blood glucose level drops, their pancreatic functions ease up, their metabolism gets more efficient among other physiological responses - they might even lose weight quicker. The action is the same - avoid sugar. But two different levels of impact due to the severity of the condition.
Yes it’s a very simplistic and linear way of comparing perhaps, but I hope you can allow yourself to see the point.
There is an open tap of sugar (plastics) that is literally being pumped into earth every moment. It’s like a sugar IV being given to a diabetic. Crazy isn’t it? That crazy can be the difference between life and death. Thankfully our very strong patient is still conscious. There is no point in exacerbating the situation. Be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem.
Instead of arguing over whether the patient could have chocolate, our efforts are much better spent trying to figure out how to stop the sugar IV.
Thank you for reading, please leave a comment if you have any specific questions and suggestions. Stay with love with mother nature and our beautiful blue and wishing you a plastic free day! 💙🐬💙
#noexcuseforsingleuse#awaveofchange#beinconvenient #sustainability
