Who me? An environmentalist??? Mental maybe. I'm not going to claim that title. Let us just say I am one of those individual stewards here on a temporary basis. Doing a caretaker's job in my own, personal way. Nothing big or memorable, just humbly doing my best not to worsen the situation.
Gaia. I first encountered that word in one of my RPG games. Yes, kids. I still play video games at my ripe p;d age of... never mind.:) Laugh all you want, but I enjoy those games especially the Final Fantasy Series, so there. Gaia , by the way, is the name of the Greek Goddess of the Earth. And the Gaia philosophy speaks about how the nature of living things affect the environment to make it more beneficial to life. It's about the survival of species and how they are necessary for the survival of other species, or that everything in this world, both living and non-living is an interacting system that could be considered as one single organism.
I haven't research the philosophy all that much. I think a Doctor Lovelock did an extensive study about this. But based upon what I remember when I first looked up the word when I watched Final Fantasy The Movie, it's all about interrelation between everything on earth.
Seeing how people are becoming more concerned about the ecosystem, I suddenly remembered that movie. Their planet was dying, and to restore the balance, the lead characters set off to find answers and were called upon to make sacrifices. Our planet is slowly dying, too. Okay, I said slowly, but I'm not encouraging anyone to take it easy. It has given so much to us for thousands of years. Maybe it's calling us to give something back in return. Like respect and concern for our environment.
I'm not so sure about the truth in everything that is called the Gaia Hypothesis, but I do believe that God created the world with a balanced system. A balance that makes it possible for the human race to survive. Hmmm...I remember my daughter asking me all sorts of things when she was growing up. The endless Mommy, why are there... you know, when you have to explain why things exist in the world. Like why are there cats? - well they are there to make sure the rats don't overrun us. The rats will feed on humans if the cats don't kill them. And why are there frogs- so they will eat the flys and mosquitos which gives us malaria and dengue fever. Think about them buzzing everywhere, they would be so thick in the air you won't see where you're going. Aww, as I slipped on a wet spot on the floor. Didn't see that. And there weren't even flies or mosquitoes around. You may laugh at my answers, but try finding answers to endless questions from a two year old when you are doing the wash, making lunch and trying to stop the kid from grabbing everything with her tiny hands while her mouth rattles off a string of why, what and where. All at the same time. Hey, not the words, but my chores, her questions and her lightning speed grabbing. But what I was trying to show her was that everything that God put in this world is here for a purpose. Except the cockroaches. Darn, I can't understand why they are in this world at all. They are so yucky and scary. And think about them being the only ones able to survive a nuclear holocaust. Rather inexplicable.
Okay, back to the serious matter. What I'm trying to say here is that we have disturbed the balance that God has set up so carefully. We are depleting the resources, not only resources that are necessary for our existence, but for the existence of other living things necessary for our survival. We have poisoned our world in the name of progress and materialism. Maybe we should take stock of what is happening now, and how the future will be if we don't take heed.
For goodness sake, let's leave a better world to our children.
