The few trees in the town . . .
I saw this posted on FaceBook. I often copy pictures, quotes, etc., that strike me or I may use later. Normally I have something that tells me the source. I evidently failed to note my source in this case. If I had to guess, I would guess the FB group "Human Overpopulation and the Environment." Nevertheless, it kept catching my attention whenever I was looking through my notes. Every time I would read "had the melancholy air of zoo animals, as if they yearned for the dense forests that had once existed there before the tide of concrete swept in" I found myself saying "I know that feeling".
Have you ever looked at a parking lot, shopping mall, a hotel, golf course, four-lane high way, or even someone's finely manicured yard and wondered what it had replaced. What trees, plants, wildlife was torn up, paved over or pushed out? Is this wave of concrete more important? Is it providing oxygen or food? And when you answer the questions, do you find yourself beyond sad?
We could have our comforts without destroying the planet, but we're obviously too selfish. Also, people still listen to three thousand year old priests who had questionable motives; "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it." Of course we can't forget the corporations that grow richer and more powerful with ever inch of nature destroyed, covered with stuff for which they charge great amounts of money.
Even if trees can't have emotions, we should have a conscience because, no matter how much we deny it, we know that we are overpopulating the world and destroying it with our greed, filth and pollution. Deniers try to convince themselves and others that the march toward irreversible destruction is not our fault, and those struggling to stop our out-of-control spiral toward annihilation try to console themselves and others with the belief that nature will ultimately survive us. But what if it doesn't? What if the death and destruction we bring is so total that our legacy is a dead ball circling the sun? Perhaps unlikely, but not impossible.
The quote actually comes from a 2020 novel entitled "10:59" by Niki R. Baker. (i) Amazon describes the story, "A deadly virus. An over-populated world. An impossible decision. The clock is ticking to the end of the world; and we're already at 10:59. When teenager, Louis Crawford, is asked to come up with an idea that will change the world, his answer is both shocking and simple. And it is a solution that will change everything, forever. Louis finds himself thrust into the middle of an organisation that has the power to save the world. But are its motives pure? And can he live with the price that humanity must pay?" Could fact and truth be scarier than fiction?
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