By Max Wilbert
We are living in an ecological catastrophe. Our world is being killed before our eyes. This hurts. And so for many people, their response is either apathy, complete emotional shutdown, or a nihilistic embrace of powerlessness.
There is another option. While our power to change the course of ecological collapse is indeed limited, limited is different from non-existent. The truth is, we do have power. And we can change the world. No, our power is not limitless. No, the world will not change easily. And no, we cannot fix everything. Some things are broken beyond fixing. But these difficulties do not absolve us of responsibility.
There is an old warrior’s saying that “duty is heavier than a mountain, and death is lighter than a feather.” The duty of humans with moral conscience in this era is heavy indeed. And yet, what would we be if we abandoned this world to its fate? If we abandoned our forests, our oceans, our mountains? If we abandoned our non-human relatives? If we abandoned our communities and future generations of children? What would we be, then?
Some people argue that humanity is simply a cancer. That we will destroy ourselves. That our nature is fundamentally destructive. That our actions have proven us unfit to survive in the long-term, unfit to participate in the community of life, which we are destroying.
But if human destructiveness is one part of our potential, then humans defending the land is another. Those who defend the land are part of the immune system of the world. We are defenders of wholeness. We bring balance. We are the consciousness of the Earth, our bones like mountains, our blood like rivers. We are an evolutionary force, an outgrowth of the planet itself, taking action to defend our community.
And we will not give up, because ultimately, to abandon responsibility is to abandon our own souls. There is only one way we can guarantee the worst possible outcome for the future: if we take no action at all.
And so today, I wish to thank the activists and land defenders of the world. Your hearts are the conscience of our society. Your tears are our prayers. Your dedication is the salvation of life. Your effort is not in vain. You are valuable.
Thank you.
I appreciate the pep talk, Max. But if “we are an evolutionary force,” why are we in the middle of a mass extinction?
The fact is that humanity as a whole has been on a downward spiral since the Sumerians. As a species, our most notable characteristics are greed and self-righteousness. And on balance, “we the people” continue to treat the planet as if it were a resource to be used up as soon as possible.
If this were not true, why are extinctions continuing to increase? Why is human population growing? And why are vital resources rapidly diminishing?
Yes, we who know better have a responsibility to keep fighting, and to try to reverse the course of history. But it is obscene to say that we, as a species, are anything but a cancer. The world’s entire economic system is based on perpetual growth in a finite environment, which is the working definition of cancer!
If I’m wrong, why is our collective use of raw materials ten times what it was in 1900 — and why is two-thirds of that annual use now in non-renewables, when in 1900, two-thirds of it was renewables?
The fact remains that WE ARE THE ONLY SPECIES THAT HAS EXTRACTION INDUSTRIES, THE ONLY SPECIES THAT PRODUCES INORGANIC WASTE, AND THE ONLY SPECIES TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND THAT CONTINUOUS GROWTH IS A FORM OF MASS SUICIDE. Get back to me when the above is not the dominant behavior of homo sapiens.
Yes, the total number of human environmentalists is growing. But the percentage of increase is still greater among capitalists, or fresh water, healthy soil, and clean air and oceans would not continue to decline. The hard truth is that while the number of those fighting for survival is growing, the number seeking profit — and the number taking more than they give — is growing faster.
And unless this changes, we as a species continue to be a wildfire, destroying the planet. And the planet would still be far better off if humans, as a whole, ceased to exist.
As Earth First! cofounder Dave Foreman said, we should look at ourselves as antibodies fighting the humanpox. The vast majority of antibodies die before the infection is driven out of the body, but if they didn’t fight the infection, it would have killed the body.
It’s not that humans HAVE to be a cancer on the planet. There are hunter-gatherer societies that focus or focused (most have been killed by civilized humans) on expanding their consciousness instead of obsessing on unnaturally and very harmfully manipulating the physical/natural world, and these people are shining lights on the planet, not cancerous tumors as the human race as a whole is. This is a CHOICE, not an inherent part of human personality, and it clearly doesn’t have to be this way. This is the real battle here. If we don’t reverse the wrongful attitude of humans as a whole, we will continue to be a cancer. If we do reverse it, we can become a shining light on the Earth instead.
As to not giving up: 1) I’ve learned from playing sports that if you keep trying, you never know what might happen, regardless of how bleak it seems. There are many variables in life, some unknown and/or unpredictable; and 2) to paraphrase Chris Hedges, I don’t fight for the Earth because I think we’re going to win, I fight for the Earth because it’s the only right thing to do. Fighting for the Earth is fighting for life, of which we’re a part. We should no more give up fighting for the Earth than a parent should give up fighting for their child.