To the Editor;
What happens when we hear the word ‘environment’? Our face probably takes on a somber look, we may raise a warning finger, and we speak with mournful voices about the doom and the gloom that awaits humanity, indeed, the whole planet.
Of course, we have reason to be concerned about what is happening to this world of ours, but we still have much to be excited and hopeful about.
We constantly interfere with the workings of natural forces, but until now, we have not succeeded in bending nature entirely to our will.
This fact is the basis for the hope that our environment may yet recuperate from the outrageous attacks on its well being.
There are those who tell us that we must “repair” the environment. Perhaps that is one of the worst misconceptions we hold dear.
The natural world has much greater recuperative powers than we understand at present. What we must do, is give it a chance to heal itself.
Our part in “saving” the environment is to draw back and stop the greedy exploitation we have practiced for too long. Nature will do her part, once the heavy burden has lessened.
As long a Spring follows Winter with new life busting forth everywhere, we have untold natural wealth in which to revel.
The environment is still as beautiful, powerful and splendid as it ever was – undereath the degradation we humans have inflicted on it – and, if we allow it, it will become whole and healthy again.
“We cannot manufacture new heaven and earth in our laboratories… or re-invent the eagle or the dolphin, … or simulate water out of empty molecules … or create energy out of nothing. We can only rearrange, preserve, or destroy what’s already here … in this battlefield … this mission field … called Earth. (Marcia Schwartz – from ‘Alive Now’).
Elli Kohnert
Barriere. B.C.
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