Since the early ages of European colonization, our relationship with the Earth has been tenuous and disconnected. If your parents don’t show you love and care for who you are. Then you naturally develop a mentality and behaviors that are rebellious and lack concern for their point of view. Similarly, imagine how people feel when Mother Nature and the sun, the providers of elements essential to live a balanced healthy life, appear to have neglected us or harmed us. For those of us with less melanin, the sun can quickly become hurtful to our skin versus life giving. Additionally, those from northern regions may experience a scarcity of natural resources, making it difficult to appreciate their relationship with the sun and nature.
Yes, there are many cultures of all shades of people who have wanted to rule or dominate others and the available resources that exist. However, there are also numerous indigenous and aboriginal cultures that have demonstrated advanced abilities to work harmoniously with their environment. These cultures have honed their knowledge of how Earth’s ecosystems function, cultivating the areas they inhabit to grow crops and utilize the earth’s mineral nutrients. They do so while ensuring the preservation of the earth’s ability to continue providing for future generations. They extract only the resources they need, without overexploiting the environment for control and consumerism. Their love and appreciation for the Earth are well-founded since the planet and the sun offer all the necessities for an enjoyable and healthy life.
Still to this day all over the planet, we can visit parks, beaches, forests, deserts, and valleys and witness the beauty of earth. But since the birth of colonization many have lost the appreciation that the earth provides all that we could want and need and that we should be loving it back. Instead, we want to control it. Capitalize from it. Even own it if you may. The question arises why?
A lack of resources forced us from the northern region to seek out what other regions of the planet had to offer. The need for resources to be sent back to the northern regions sparked ideas for production and trade channels to be developed. In themselves, these inventions and processes were helpful if not harmless. These channels and methods could have been used to make sure that people worldwide share in the abundance of resources nature provides. Then why is the planet in turmoil and why are we hurting people inhabiting regions that have the greatest wealth of resources. It seems pretty self-destructive to harm the planet that sustains us. It goes against every spiritual and religious teachings. Causing self-harm without being provoked to do so is often regarded as mental illness. To cause harm in order to dominate and go against spiritual laws is not a sign of balanced mental health.
European colonization took the idea of domination to a new height. Using capitalism and this idea of ownership of land and resources is the mental illness that plagues this world. The idea of owning an orange tree that creates nutritious and tasty fruit for us to eat would be foreign to indigenous people. Indigenous cultures would not consider such a thing. That does not make them weak or less worthy of sharing in what the orange tree provides. Capitalizing the earth’s resources means prioritizing money and resorting to actions to harm the tree to maximize its productivity for our benefit. Once again harming us. When it doesn’t produce as much as we greedily consume, we make artificial flavors of harmful chemicals taste more like orange than the produce itself (after our chemicals have reduced the flavor of the fruit).
We strip mountains and seas of their minerals, and distribute these elements in goods for profits. We take lands that were beautiful parts of nature to make strip malls, and factories. We manipulate nature by using products that are harmful and then mask the harm and advertise the perceived benefits of convenience. Do you see the disconnection? Could it be that colonizers do not care as much for the planet because our reduced melanin created an adverse relationship? And rather than see how we can benefit from those willing to share with us, we didn’t even give them a chance. We wanted to control and consume no matter what the costs of making things work to fit our desires. Maybe it is time to hug a tree and realize that we are still worthy of the love that Mother Nature provides.
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