Last year was a really freaky one. Weather-wise, 2010 was a disaster. I had never seen nature react so violently to the things that we humans do here on this earth. It leaves me feeling that perhaps there is a “Mother Nature,” and her fury is being seen. You didn’t even have to go far from home to see it. In Tennessee alone there was quite serious flooding.
Birds falling from the skies, fish showing up dead on beaches from ingesting all the oil spilt in the Gulf.
Earthquakes took place all over the Caribbean and South America; the most prominent of which was the Haitian earthquake that heralded the start of 2010.
Heavy monsoon rains created intense flooding in Pakistan, which left up to 20 million people either dead, injured, or homeless.
Then, of course, the Eyjafjallajokull (what a mouthful!) volcano in Iceland erupted, blanketing Europe in its ash. And we all know that Florida was the only state in the nation that didn’t get some major snow over the Christmas break.
Think nature’s trying to tell us something?
All the crazy weather we have been having is the earth’s reaction to the way that we are exploiting it. I do believe that 2010 saw a lot of global warming skeptics shaken (sometimes, quite literally) into becoming “believers.”
I know there’s a lot of people out there who like to dilly-dally about the planet’s current condition, but we can’t afford to do so much longer.
The consequences of the spill in the Gulf are going to resonate for a long time. Is it only when problems end up on our plate or we’re up to our elbows in flood water that we contemplate taking the action that is so seriously needed?
I think that, with everything that happened the past year to the planet, we should be even more driven to fulfill our role as stewards.
Instead, we have allowed ourselves to be frightened into inaction, which is natural in times of distress, but we have to go beyond and really work to try and fix things.
Of course, if the world really is ending in 2012 (before I graduate, just my luck), then perhaps the planet is just getting an early start.
But if not, wouldn’t it be nice if in the aftermath of all of the worry we had a healthier, better planet to continue our lives in?
It seems that, with the advancement of modern technologies, we have invested more into machines, and forgotten the importance of nurturing a relationship with the natural world.
This has affected our spirituality, our health; I will even go as far as to say that it has killed our humanity. We must do our best to revive that which is being lost and listen to the cries of this world.
The world that bore us.
Philippa Hatendi can be reached at phatendi@spartans.ut.edu.