It was a strange week on the Mantanani island, far from civilization. Without Internet, electricity between 6pm and 6am, signal in the phone only in the jetty and even that didn’t help when we run out of credit. Food is delivered twice a week, every order needs time and nothing can be done now, immediately, especially if the weather doesn’t allow boats to reach the island. However, all of those make a perfect condition for deep conversations and thoughts. For new ideas, decisions and conclusions.
Here they are.
Our planet is dying. We don’t have much time. If we are lucky, our children, maximum grandchildren, will still have a chance to live on the Earth. Most probably, though, already our generation will witness the destruction. I’m not sure if it is the nature to destroy us first or rather wars which have to happen as a consequence of luck of food, resources, climate changes which make millions of people to lose their houses. What’s happening now in Europe is just the tip of the iceberg. Soon more and more people will migrate, just because they don’t have choice. Big changes are coming and they won’t be changes for better. Every (EVERY) day 105 species die. Some years more and all of us become vegetarian just because there will be no other option.
Earth is dying. We have less time than most of us think.
It’s not the first time I’ve heard about those things. Although I’m not specialized in ecology or climate changes, I have enough people around which are updated and speak about those things as loud as possible. Why only now I’ve really got the point? Probably because, besides speaking with people who are specialists in those areas, I’ve seen it. I’ve seen dying ocean. Oceans are source of 70% of oxygen in our planet. Trees, about which we learn at school, are just a small part of oxygen production. Death of the ocean means death of all of us. And the ocean is dying incredibly fast. For a week I was walking on the beach under the sun and beautiful palms, I was swimming in the ocean. Everything full of rubbish. Starting from plastic bottles and packages, through clothes till electronics and batteries. There are more coral reefs on the beach than in the water. Around those which you can still see in the ocean there are even some fish, but rather few than few hundreds as it should be. And everything is going to be worse. More and more tourists, more rubbish, local community is pushed out by Chinese investors. And Mantanani is not exceptional from those points of view.
Earth is dying. It’s enough to check scientific date.
In that situation we have two solutions.
First is to continue to live in matrix and believe that it’s not my problem.
Second is to open the eyes, check, read, listen, understand and accept that –if we want it or not – this is our reality.
If you choose first option – I still wish you a beautiful life.
If you consider second option to be more reasonable, in my opinion there are two things which can be done in that situation:
Quit everything and be happy. Now, right away. We don’t have much time. Leave everything you have to do and start doing things which you want to do. Love, experience, feel, follow you dreams, live every, EVERY moment of your life
Quit everything and start to change the world having hope that it can still help. Think carefully what is worth to invest your time, energy and resources in. Which actions are crucial and will truly change something. Which changes have to happen right now, immediately. Decide also if you want to start your own initiative or rather join the movement which already exists. The most important is collaboration. Using the knowledge and experience which as human kind we already have. We need huge, massive movement, which will lead us to the global change. It’s not enough to stop using plastic bags or start recycling rubbish. It’s nice and right to do that, but it will not change the real situation. We need all people to start to change the world, now. This will not happen just like that. This is not something other people can do for us. It’s not the issue for politicians. It’s our life. And life of our children.
Both options include change. I always believed that life has sense only if we follow our own path, trying to leave this world a little bit better than we found it. Considering that we may be (we are…) one of the last generations on this planet, this thought is more important than ever before.
Live.
Too late can come sooner than you think.
P.S. Thank you Mark and Fred for important and inspiring discussions.