Aion-Uranus and Tellus with four children, perhaps the personified seasons, mosaic from a Roman villa in Sentinum, 200-250 CE, Munich Glyptothek
The war is really against
Terra
The so-called "War on Terror" that we keep
hearing about in the media would be more aptly named the War on Terra because
there are constant attacks on all parts of the environment and Terra is another
name for Mother Earth.
According to Wikipedia: "Terra Mater or Tellus was a goddess personifying the Earth in Roman mythology. The names Terra Mater and Tellus Mater both mean "Mother Earth" in Latin; Mater is an honorific title also bestowed on other goddesses."
Just think about how many forms of destruction to
natural habitats and the flora and fauna you can think of!
Habitat destruction
There is an ongoing attack against the forests, the
countryside, the oceans and the air. Trees are being felled, the land is being
given increasingly over to mono-culture genetically-engineered crops, the
waterways, wetlands and oceans are being polluted and so is the very air we
breathe.
Animals and plants are becoming extinct daily with
many species not even yet known destroyed before they have been discovered.
Destroy a rain-forest or a coral reef and many species dependent on these
habitats are gone, and some for ever if these places were their only habitats.
In the UK, once common animals and plants are now
becoming rare or endangered. It is shocking to think that the European Eel that
I used to see in their millions as elvers climbing up river weirs are now
vastly down in numbers.
Once-common moths like the Garden Tiger Moth are
vanishing fast. The Common Lizard isn't common any more, and even the Starling
that used to form flocks that blackened the skies is way down in its numbers.
Many butterflies that were commonly seen are becoming
scarce. The wild flower meadows and food plants of many species have
disappeared from the countryside and so too have gone all the insects that
depended on them.
And that is just the UK. This pattern is emerging all
over the world. There is what has rightly been called a "mass extinction
underway" (see link in links section below to see how really serious this
is).
The Great Extinction
Imagine what it would be like if there were no
song-birds! This terrible scenario was predicted by Rachel Carson in her book Silent Spring but it is becoming a reality.
Honeybees are dying off from what has been termed
"Colony Collapse Disorder." Many people feel that pesticides are to
blame.
In America, the once commonly seen Monarch Butterfly is
vanishing fast too. It is known that pollen from genetically engineered crops
created by Monsanto are killing caterpillars of this beautiful insect. The
pollen is blown onto the MIlkweed food plants of the Monarch caterpillars and they die after eating the leaves.
The oceans are being filled with plastic and it is
killing turtles, sea birds and whales that swallow this rubbish. Of the 22
species of albatross, 18 are now seriously endangered, and most of these birds
have eaten plastic they mistook for sea creatures.
Large jungle animals such as the Tiger, and Great Apes
like the Gorilla and the Orangutan are also disappearing fast. Habitat
destruction is killing off animals and plants worldwide.
The oceans are being over-trawled by fishing boats
that throw away a lot of the unwanted catch and rip up the sea-beds as they
work. Acidification of the water is killing off species fast. "Dead zones"
are becoming more and more common in the once teeming seas.
And if all of that wasn't bad enough we have now got
the BP oil spill catastrophe that
has killed most of the life in the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes that border
it, as well as bringing ruin to the once-thriving fishing communities there.
Meanwhile the media bombards us with news stories
about police hunting for "terrorists" and more and more laws and
regulations are drafted to "increase security" because of the
"War on Terror" that politicians parrot!
How many terrorists do they actually ever catch? Who
are the real terrorists?
Isn't there a very real war against our Mother Earth and her children?
Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.
War on Terra links
4 comments:
A great post yes I wish government and every one else was more concerned about our environment the war against our mother earth and her children.
Why do they get so hooked on war against terrorist , probably because if they were to focus on the war against mother earth , they just might actually have to do some thing, I think they would rather go around like ostriches and bury their heads in the sand. Here in Australia our current government has brought in carbon tax where companies that pollute are taxed hopefully this will force them to cut down polluting. The opposition wants the tax payers to pay, then what would stop big companies polluting.
Warm Regards
Sherrie
Thanks for your excellent feedback, Sherrie, and sorry for my delay in replying!
Awesome blog Steve! I agree with you about the 'war on terror'. It's doublespeak for perpetual warfare for the sake of perpetual warfare. I think soon the earth will shake us off like a bad flu if we don't get it together.
Thank you, Pam! I have been thinking that the modern human way of life is incompatible with nature, and not only that a lot of it has no part of the natural world involved. Even plants in buildings are often plastic! What flora and fauna live in an airport? Not a lot! Or a shopping mall?
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