reading over the facts about the recent bp documents, it sort of re-affirmed something that I've thought, especially in regards to our environment.
people are growing more and more disconnected from they're environments and are getting lazier and lazier about gathering information for themselves. people are more and more content to just take the information given to them and run with it.
some people seem to have even gone as far as not thinking at all. they work, they get home, eat, go to the mall, go to the bars, repeat. every day, thats what they need to be "happy". I meet these people, and they feel hallow, they aren't interesting. there's nothing to talk about other than accidents they had when drunk, the dirty looks someone gave them, or new clothes. they don't develop their skills, they don't have hobbies, they just exist at the minimum.
people are so content living vicariously through people who seem to have something meaningful to they're life, as apposed to taking it as an example of what they're capable of achieving and following.
which leads me down to my main point. people don't have a sweet clue whats going on around them, because they are looking somewhere else. and especially about the environment.
for example, people think, oh, we need to plant trees to restore our forests.
has anyone else here ever been to a place where a forest has been replanted? they plant all one species of tree, in neat rows. usually pine trees. they grow quickly.
full healthy trees in about 20 years! good! right? no. they choke out everything that tries to grow up underneath it. and with no other plants for food, or fertilizer for that matter, nothing can survive. from the air, it looks like a large dark patch in an otherwise healthy forest. inside, its open, with no habitat, quiet, and dark. it buggers up the ecosystem worse than if it was just left alone. and really, it just tree farming, under the guise of doing something good.
a forest has a natural cycle that takes about 60-100 years to renew itself. sounds long, but it really isn't in the grand scheme. meanwhile, as the forest renews itself through natural means, it moves through different phases of habitats that animals can actually use.
anyone would be able to tell this just by walking through one of these forests. for instance, alot of keji used to be clear cut as early as 50 years ago, but has been maintained properly, and now is one of the most biologically diverse places in Canada.
a lot of people don't know that only 2 percent of forests in Nova Scotia haven't been logged. 60-70 percent of the province is currently clearcut. we've completely changed the face of this province in a few hundred years. old growth forest in Nova Scotia is some of the most beautiful, diverse and bountiful forest in this hemisphere.
eventually, with minimal knowledge of a handful of trees and plants, you can read a forest and know what used to be there, for instance, knowing what used to be old farmlands, the age of a forest etc.
the point is, people are making environmental decisions based on the first thing they hear, and because of discovery channel and such, they know more about the amazon than whats 10 feet from their back door. with that knowledge, people can make the right decisions, or direct others to the right decisions.
i think it is vital to our survival to firstly understand everything that is around us with a clear mind, before we start taking action elsewhere because someone else told you to. this means understanding everything from our new computer and technology, the people around us, our role in the world, and our role on this planet (the environment). if everyone took an active knowledge in sustaining whats immediately around us, we wouldn't need to worry about other area's.
humans have a superpower that has dominated all else on this planet, and that's our our capacity to gain complex knowledge, and apply that knowledge. why would we just stop?
