One of my favourite places, the main beach at Augusta, clean, pristine, and great for everyone. There are dune protection programs, a series of specified paths, signs about protecting the Sand Pipers who breed there, and also for the possums too. The State govt recently imposed a ban on plastic shopping bags, and the community are supportive of that goal. The problems are few here, mainly the threat of bushfire, or the one or two people who flout the accepted behaviour for using the beach, river, or the forest trails.
I may not be fully conversant with all things environmental science, but I do feel conversant with nature, for me there is a sentience, a relationship with all beings. The result of that sense of relationship is more than just awe for nature, I have a respect for and desire to engage with nature. The interdependent relationships we survive with and thrive on are finely balanced and require care and attention. Any loss is more than just regrettable, it is permanently damaging, and in some cases, cataclysmic. Plastic islands in the ocean, plastic sand (grains of plastic) in the Mediterranean, marine and terrestrial creatures bound or damaged by fabrics, salinity, air pollution, and more, are a major concern.
As we continue to battle human rights and have made sweeping changes in some areas of human rights, it seems that we are not yet conversant with the rights and needs of nature across the world. Time is short, and nature needs us to be conversant with its needs now and its future. The irony is, the UN are in dialogue over space law, especially the treatment of the Mars environ by the Mars One team, yet we haven’t really ironed out a binding agreement on earth that gives nature a voice of its own. Ecuador has already stepped up (in 2014) and shown the way: “We the people assume the authority to conduct and Ethics Tribunal for the Rights of Nature. We will investigate cases of environmental destruction, which violate the rights of nature.” (Prosecutor for the Earth at the first International Rights of Nature Tribunal in Quito, Ecuador, January 2014). A sign of hope.
Paul,
pvcann.com
Nice thought, we only have one earth. But we easily overlook the fact. We are too selfish. We only think about us.
I wasn’t aware of Space Law. I do watch a lot of space documentaries. It could be because I am more concerned about stars and planets than the organizations that looks space. 🙂
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Yes, I too love the stars, but I have contacts with people in research looking at space law so it made me aware. But, yes, only one earth, and I agree, we are way too selfish, but that will impact on us. Thanks for those thoughts.
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You’re welcome 🙂
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🙂
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Beautiful conversant with nature and photo!
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Thank you for those kind thoughts.
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Yes we all are conversant with nature who nurtures us yet we seem to the main reason for creating all the imbalance. We are so ignorant of the fact that the most vulnerable species is us.
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Yes, and we behave as if we’re ‘acting out’ rather than living in conversation.
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Yes but not every understands that.
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True
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I think you know my opinion – and I hope everyone gets on board to save the only blue planet in this solar system. Our home. Because even if they do find ways to get ‘out there’ to other planets, to escape the mess here, who will go? Who will be able to afford to go? And therefore, who will take the same problems and issues to the next locale?
Isn’t there an old saying: you can’t fix anyone else’s problem if you can’t see your own.
And that’s my rant for the day. Thanks for the opportunity.
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Nice rant there. And so say I. We live in lunacy as far as dealing with nature, always projecting, always living in the past or the future, always living in denial. It’s like we’re an addicted family who are codependent and cannot approach the underlying problem.
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There sure are a lot of violators out there! Much more needs to be done!
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Sadly so Tom, but we plug on.
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well said Paul and especially your point about laws to protect Mars when we have no effective ones for our own environment … the hypocrisy!
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Totally so, thanks Kate
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Totally agree and resonate with this same sense of inter relationship with all things bound by a spiritual force – for me this is the spirit of God others call it by another name but I think we are all talking about the same thing
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Absolutely so
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