My workflow for the column is top-down, where the top is that literal top. What this means will remain unexplained.
Anyway, I wanted to write this week after noticing that I had turned in two separate articles covering nearly extinct things. One is a fish, the other a plant, and both are recipients of conservation-slash-preservation efforts.
I wonder, if animals and plants could speak and comprehend what we are doing, would any of them be outraged that we only seem to preserve actively that which benefits us?
There is, of course, a subset of the populace that would argue and, to some extent, fight for the preservation of all, but I think it isn’t a stretch to generalize and assume that the majority of the populace only care about the environment and the wildlife to the extent that they can engage with.
In a vacuum, we can say that we are for the conservation of everything. However, let’s engage in a silly little flawed thought experiment here: If you are for the conservation of the environment, does this include the unsavory bits like poisonous bugs and the like?
Especially when we consider that as a species, we have driven more things to extinction than we have pulled away from the brink. Dodo birds come to mind.
We are that, the destroyer most of the time.
The march of progress leaves devastation in its wake, and it is our responsibility to mitigate and minimize that devastation.
Sometimes I wonder what that alternate branching timeline where humanity never industrialized would look like. What would a global society of humans living off of the land look like? Would it even be possible with the population growth across generations?
Is there a way of life for humanity that allows for the preservation and flourishing of the creatures we share our world with? Well, yes.
The question is: Can we find that way of life, and can we implement it into the system and the world we’ve made for ourselves?
Part of the preservation efforts for portions of the Cordillera are like this. Apayao as a biosphere reserve is, in part, based on the indigenous communities’ old wisdom that allows for growth and progress in tandem with the health of the world.
Can that be replicated outside? Can it even exist in tandem with this consumerist hellhole of excess that we built our world around?
