Dear Nature
Dear Nature,
I know you’re watching us and you must be wondering “What are these humans up to? What in the world are they thinking?” I understand your concern, and I know you’ve got your eyes on us because you’re befuddled by our actions. I don't blame you for feeling that way.
We humans like to call ourselves the most intelligent form of life on Earth – but as you've surely observed, we don’t always do what's in our own best interest, let alone in the best interest of the rest of the planet.
A report from the World Wildlife Fund says human activities have caused the world’s wildlife populations to fall by more than two-thirds in the last 50 years. Many of my fellow humans think this doesn’t affect us, but it does. As UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay warned, “Protecting biodiversity amounts to protecting humanity.”
So to return to your question, “What in the world are these humans thinking," I would venture this by way of explanation:
We’re not really thinking at all. Or, perhaps more to the point, we’re not thinking about the future.
Like a starving lion gorging itself on fresh meat from a kill, our need for instant gratification drives us to be obsessed with satisfying our current wants and needs. As you well know, our wants and needs are voracious, particularly when it comes to fossil fuels and other natural resources. I wish I could give you a better reason for our lack of concern about global warming and climate change, but that's the only explanation I can muster: We're too concerned with what we want right now.
It's not like we haven't been warned about the dangers. Our scientists can trace earth’s climate and temperature trends back 485 million years – and they say that what we’re experiencing right now isn’t normal at all. An overwhelming 97% of the world’s scientists now agree that humans are the cause of global warming; some more recent reviews of climate-related studies have put that consensus at over 99%.
I don’t have to tell you what the recent climate changes have done to the planet; you’ve experienced the results all across the globe. The UN has reported that Nepal’s mountains lost close to one-third of their ice in just over 30 years due to global warming – which increases the risk of catastrophic avalanches, landslides and floods. Global sea surface temperatures are now higher than at any time in the last 12,000 years, fueling powerful storms and hurricanes.
In the end, I know that you'll be fine, Dear Nature – you always find a way to carry on. You've evolved and survived through ice ages, meteor impacts, floods, droughts and everything else that's been thrown at you. It's in your nature (no pun intended) to be adaptable. I wish I could say the same for us humans, but I fear we're not nearly as enduring as you are.
Oh well. That's all I really wanted to say. As I mentioned earlier, I know you're watching us closely. I hope with all my heart that you'll see much more responsible actions coming from our species soon.
Most sincerely,
Paul
Photographer's Footnote: The alert pair shown above are part of a family of deer that wanders through our neighborhood. As I photographed them, moving one step closer after each successive click, they stood frozen in place and watched me intently, providing the inspiration for this reflection.
