Our environment is
degrading; there’s no denying it. With deforestation, pollution, and other
forms of abuse, this planet is not as green, clean, or biodiverse as it once
was. While it deeply saddens me that endangered species are driven to
extinction and old growth forests are being erased for their valuable timber,
many believe the economic gains from exploiting the land justify the loss of
the natural world. And this stance can be valid, to each their own, I guess. In
the world we live in today, I don’t blame the government or corporations for
operating the way they do. If this is the road to what is considered success,
by all means follow it. And it’s not just our capitalist system that encourages
this exploitation; look at how bad the commies are ruining the environment too.
“The ecological crisis cannot be resolved
by politics,” because it extends beyond any system and is rooted in the values
of people themselves (Williams 944). I mean, sure it would help to not withdraw
from the Paris accords or shrink national monuments or repeal dozens of other
regulations *cough cough* but that won’t matter anyways because people have
lost their appreciation for nature. There’s the old Native American (maybe??)
proverb my sister told me when I was young that states, “ We do not inherit the
earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” This mentality, that
is the key to preventing WALL-E from becoming a reality, has been lost in the
modern day. Maybe we’ve already reached the point of no return. In that case,
let’s go to mars man.
