This Memorial Day mourning, as the rain falls outside my window, my heart is very heavy, yet my soul is light. My heart aches for the man-made devastation being heaped upon our Gulf of Mexico specifically, but our Earth in general. The ongoing bloodletting deep under the water, paired with a violent chemical assault from above has forever altered life as so many of us know it. It’s been six weeks since the Deepwater Horizon buckled under the weight of BP’s blatant safety violations and disregard for the consequences of its cost-cutting measures, in pursuit of profit-generation at all cost.
Six weeks later, and still not a day goes by that I don’t pause in disbelief at the immeasurable loss we have and will continue to sustain. When I say “we” I am not referring simply to residents of the gulf coast, but to our global ecosystem. Many of those in Tony Hayward’s generation possess a very perverse way of measuring success in life. When we conduct analyses in our business to determine the dollar value of human lives and decide that saving money today is worth loss of someone else’s life tomorrow, we have veered so far off the path of humanity that there may be no recovery.
When “damage-control” means that hiding the truth (and quickly destroying our oceans) is worth more than the fine that might be incurred if we clean up after ourselves in a way that would preserve our ecosystem, and the health of us all, we are heading straight for global disaster. For all these reasons my heart weighs as heavy as the clouds above, swollen with their toxic precipitation.
And yet my soul is light. When I rise up and look above those clouds, and all things ethereal, I know that I am not alone. I know that the coming generations have both the desire and the ability to change things. And I know that through this kind of utter devastation these will be called to action, will stand up and say “enough”. It is time we earn back our place at the top of the food chain – by recognizing we cannot remain there if we destroy all life below us on that chain. Every person on this planet can do something today about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
To all the like-minded individuals across the world – join me, stand together in unified message: we do not own this planet; She is not here for the taking. She simply is; She allows and She gives, but She does not owe us this life. We need only look back over the millennia to know that She will take care of Herself, even if that means wiping the slate and starting again.
The decision to restore Mother Earth is not a daunting one. Every day we make a choice between our greed and our Earth. Individual choices combined will change this course of events. Will we create less waste today? Will we recycle? Will we drink from reusable bottles and eliminate plastic waste? Will we compost? Will we walk or bike to work? Will we carry reusable bags along with us to the store? Will we turn up the A/C or turn down the heat? Will we choose to consume more fresh products and fewer packaged, prepared meals? Will we choose to “sail” rather than “motor”? Will we choose a fraction less personal indulgence or consumption every day in order to save our Earth?
Decide today that you will take action right where you are to heal the gulf, to heal our Earth. No decision made in favor of our planet is small. Your actions combine with mine to create global and immediate change.
These choices, made individually, consistently and on a global basis, will move to heal our planet. No matter how corrupt or far reaching large corporations are, or how entwined they become with governments who cater to them, if consumers simply eliminate the need for their products, then there will be no profits to use in the sale of our lands and waters. We must unite and agree that change begins at home. Simple choices every day will save our Earth.
Will you join me? She’s counting on us. What will you change today, tomorrow, every day?
Do all that you can, with all that you have, in the time that you have, in the place where you are. – Nkosi Johnson