Human Consumption and Greed is Hindering the Earth and Leaving it Destitute
The Earth and its health is our fundamental right as human beings, but the health of the Earth is being seriously undermined.
And I wonder, have people become so ignorant that they have sacrificed their own intelligence?
The Egyptians and their Connection to Nature
It seems the ancient world understood much more than we do today. The Egyptians invented the calendar and were some of the first to write, but this did not distract them from nature. In fact, the whole structure of a pyramid, which is much unknown even today, was a depiction of the relationship between the Earth and the stars. Some even say the exact point of each pyramid coincides with the sky and the stars that line it. The pyramids that do align with the astrological constellations of the sky are Giza and Orion’s belt.
The Egyptians believed that our earthly time upon this planet was but a journey to the afterlife and the eternal fabric of the universe. The Egyptians depicted this journey by using the shape of the pyramid, from its earthly base, all the way to the pinnacle point of transcendence to map out the souls journey, whether in this life or the next.
Their calendar was based around major earthly events, such as The Nile overflowing each year, and they based the seasonal calendar around it. The Egyptians were, like many ancient civilisations-in tune with the Earth. It was their home after all and the keeper of their carriage. So important was the bodily vessel, they devised a science to preserve it, which we now call ‘mummification’.
Our Wayward Fall From Grace
Unlike the Egyptians, we have fallen into the folds of science, which governs our reality and forgets the very connections it must contain. Science is about the relationship between the Earth and the universe but we seem to have settled upon its nature as mechanical in origin.I feel this is the root of human ignorance and the essential fallout between man and earth. We have deemed ourselves separate to our earthly realms and in doing so, have forgotten the Earth as our home.
All Commodities Mean Profit
We have become so obsessed with profit that ‘anything’ is for the taking. Including the rainforest-only the ecosystem of the planet, which operates like a CO2 manufacturer: keeping the balance in tact. We eat meat every single day of the year, sometimes for all three meals. The amount of land needed to graze cattle is 26% of the worlds surface, and a third of its surface is needed to grow the crops to feed it. This must stop.
We do not need to consume meat every day and we cannot because in doing so, we are literally consuming the Earth. It reminds me of the Japanese anime ‘Spirited Away’.
Life Imitating Art
In ‘Spirited Away’, the main character, a young girl moving home with her parents, comes upon a transcended spirit world—unbeknownst to them. Her parents, on coming across a mountain of freshly cooked food, divulge themselves in the availability. Subsequently, their actions have consequences and they turn into pigs. The young girl must leave them to figure out how to reclaim them all, before they all become ‘Spirited Away’.
The same dangers face the world which we live in, for we are taking advantage of it.
The Water we are Wasting
Every day, we use 142 litres of water per person. Can you imagine emptying 142 bottles of water straight down the sink? This does not include the clothes on our back, which take rivers to produce. A single t-shirt takes 2700 litres of water to produce; cotton is heavily reliant upon the commodity. Not to mention the aesthetics that grace the front. Ink usage alone is highly water consuming, and then there are all the mechanisms in place to deliver what is needed to produce it.
Yet, we only have 1% of the world’s water available to us, and we use it so flippantly. When last weeks top is no longer ‘current’, what kind of world are you living in, when your only thought is to throw it in the bin? That’s 2700 litres of water straight in the trash.
Is Veganism Eco-Friendly?
Fast fashion is killing us, along with our meat consumption and even the so-called eco-friendly movement: ’veganism’. Almond milk, a non-dairy alternative to milk is extremely consuming of water. It takes 74 litres of water to produce one glass. And even though this is not nearly as consuming as cow’s milk, the crops needed to produce vegan alternatives to meat and dairy take a lot of arable land. And there is not a whole lot of that. As the article explains: much of the land available can only produce grass for grazing, but a vegan diet cannot use this land to grow the multitude of crops needed to produce its alternatives.
When the amazon is being burnt down, mainly for the production of soy, is veganism environmentally friendly? Perhaps not as much at first glance.
Much of our life gives no thought to the consumption we set upon on a daily basis. How much of that do we give back?
