22/10/2021
“There is no environment "out there" that is separate from us. We can't manage our impact on the environment if we "are" our surroundings. Indigenous people are absolutely correct: we are born of the earth and constructed from the four sacred elements of earth, air, fire and water...
Earth's our home, but it's also home to ten to thirty million other species that keep the planet habitable...We are utterly embedded in the natural world and dependent on nature, not technology, not economics, not science, we are dependent on Mother Nature for our very well being and survival.
If we don't see that, then our priorities will continue to be driven by man-made constructs like national borders, economices, corporations, markets. Those are human created things. They shouldn't dominate the way we live. It should be the biosphere.
Our identity includes our natural world, how we move through it, how we interact with it and how it sustains us. The environment is so fundamental to our continued existence that it must transcend politics and become a central value of all members of society.
To me, the real challenge is the human mind, which is driving our actions: our beliefs and values shape the way we see the world, which in turn determines how we will treat it. So long as we assume that we are the centre of the universe and everything revolves around us, we will not be able to see the dangers we create. To see those, we have to recognize that our very lives and our well-being depend on the richness of nature.”
~David Suzuki