This is a report commissioned by the United Nations. Wikipedia has an outline that’s worth reading. One sentence leapt off the page at me and it goes like this …‘The total biomass of wild mammals has decreased by 82%, while humans and their farm animals now make up 96% of all mammalian biomass on Earth…’
And then there’s this bit …‘humanity has rendered 23% or Earth’s land ecologically degraded and no longer usable’. On a planet where only 29% of it’s entire surface is land.
Are you angry yet? Is there a sick feeling in your stomach yet?
The UN SDG (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) website has a much more in-depth breakdown, and it’s just as horrifying.
All those facts and figures aren’t what’s coming, they’re what’s here, they’re real, and they’re going to get worse because politicians will tweet and squeak and blame the ‘other’ side. Their willfully thoughtless followers will do the same. Corporations will continue to use ‘jobs’ and ‘profits’ and ‘shareholders’ to justify their actions.
Others will use the good old standby of ‘no-one else is stepping up so why should I?’
Others will trot out their ‘sustainability’ credentials as if that absolves them. ‘Unwilling to comprehend that ‘sustainable’ is no longer enough.
There are men and women, and children, all over the world, millions of us, who resolutely face how things are, and are doing what we can to change this catastrophic trajectory, but right now in this moment, it’s not enough.
It’s not enough. This I believe.
More and more people will take action over the coming years, and perhaps that trajectory will be swayed. This I hope.
Right now, I’m going to take my tea and sit in my garden and I’ll probably have a good cry because my heart is hurting … and then … and then … I’ll watch the newly awakened bees, along with all sorts of other creatures, pollinate our strawberries, and the dandelions and buttercups.
This too, is where I find my hope.
Strawbs and Co
Widdershins Worlds 
It is an appalling situation… and no-one in power seems to be worried enough.
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Short-term ass-covering seems to be the only frame they have for anything.
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Yep…and a lot of that is about covering their asses with fat wallets…
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I’ve spent years trying not to be too obsessive, but turns out I was right all along! From Big Bully Companies destroying land and water to little people concreting over their gardens, it affects all of us and all life. Yes, in my little slug pellet free garden with bees buzzing and birds singing I feel good.
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When the Earth Herself is at stake, it’s necessary that we sit in our gardens on a regular basis, and cry, and laugh, and heal, and then go back out into the world renewed, stronger than ever. 😀
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Whatever else we need to hope and believe we can get to a better ‘there’. I believe it. It’s in my nature to. But I recognise we must do it even if it feels like no one else is and we must even if people say it’s not necessary or not going to make a difference. I do prefer project hope rather than project fear because fear tends us to stop being cleared sighted and rational and boy do we need lots of both those.
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Agree entirely. Fear is useless. We do however need to give ourselves permission to grieve. I think that makes us stronger. 😀
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I’m glad a few still have hope. I gave up on us (Homo destructor) a long time ago. Every now and then I say things like, “Well, the rock will survive, and new life will evolve upon it once we’re gone.” But then, I’m a pessimist and a misanthrope, so my views are probably too grim. I hope so.
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I don’t thin you’re too far off the mark actually. We’re only STARTING to be effected, in an in-your-face kind of way, now. Wait ’til the consequences of what we’re doing today start showing up. It ain’t gonna be pretty.
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We older folks may be the lucky ones; we’ll be safely dead when things get really bad. ☹️
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Indeed. 😦
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Horrifying – with a ray of hope
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Precisely.
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I knew the situation was bad but I didn’t think it was that bad. It feels like a critical point. A bit more, and things will blow over, and nature will strike back. And I’m afraid, it would be horrific.
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It doesn’t look like it when you first glance out of your window, does it? It’s the second glance that the cracks start to show. I don’t think Mother Nature will have to strike back, this is a battle we’ve already lost. What we must do now is learn to live with the consequences of our actions, both in the present and the future.
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It’s amazing that our leaders aren’t concerned about this. It’s terrifying because it’s all connected. We are part of this ecosystem, not separate from it. The beauty and diversity of nature that is lost through carelessness breaks my heart.
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Perhaps when enough hearts are broken they will take action. By then, of course, all the broken-hearted will have left them far behind and they will be extinct, by their own hand.
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We can each do our parts, but really, this problem needs the collective commitment of governments – a Green New Deal is a good start.
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I love that the ‘Green New Deal’ is taking off … but there’s a part of me that wants to shout that the Greens have had this as their platform for decades … and then there’s another part of me that suspects that saying ‘better late than never’ is too late … and finally there’s that part of me that still has hope, and the irony does make me smile. 🙂
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I have all those parts too. But any step forward is better than sitting around and ignoring it, which too many politicians seem to do.
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Yes, I regularly want to cry, especially for my poor darling son’s future… I fear we have had the best of Mama Earth…
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Yep, 😦 … but I think that because they don’t have the memories we do, that perhaps they will not be as burdened with the sorrow and regret that we carry, which, may make their Path a little easier to walk.
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Oh so true Widds!
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Thank god there are still some bees around. There was a huge die-off for a while.
Monsanto, anyone?
As for change–hopefully not too little too late.
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There is hope, not a great deal, but it’s there. 🙂
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