It is beyond disheartening to witness environmental destructions throughout the globe. From Shell’s oil drilling in the Arctic, the Canadian Tar Sands, Indonesian rampant forest destruction and our own country’s overwhelming forest and ocean destruction, to many more environmental massacres.

“The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. Scaling to 46 years, humans have been here four hours, the industrial revolution began 1 minute ago, and in that time, we’ve destroyed more than half the world’s forests.”

Earth is not a platform for human life. We’re not on it but part of it. Hence, it is incomprehensible for humans to destroy the environment because ultimately, what we are destroying is ourselves. Why are we still on this path of destruction? Is it ignorance? Are we unaware of the damage we are doing?

Closer to home, in recent news, not only our forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate, even our forest reserves are being pawned in the name of development and “economic gains”. With a heavy heart, we can’t help but to ponder on our reckless actions. What might be the root of this inhumanity?

The problem lies in every government in every nation. It all began with the intention and ambitious desires to develop and advance as human race as well as to build a stronger economy without the presence of innovation and perseverance.

Why do we say this? Because we seem to think that the only way to attain mankind’s advancement is to exhaust our natural resources. We believe in taking the shorter route and expedite our so-called human evolution at the expense of our mature nature and inevitably our own selves. We believe in getting rich faster, developing through unsustainable methods.

The small groups of people we have appointed to take the lead and protect our rights have convinced us that this is the only available method to reach our utmost human capacities. The people with great faith, trust in these small groups that the general welfare is taken care of.

However, we fail to realise that these riches and advancement only benefit a certain group and not all. Furthermore, the ones who will face the bigger threat when our world inevitably collapses are the citizens who make up the majority of a nation.

These small group of so-called leaders and intellectuals on whom we have appointed our trust are not ignorant as we have assumed. They are not acting out of nobility to protect us. In fact, these small groups of people know very well about sustainability.

The problem is greed

The problem here is not ignorance. It is GREED.  

So how do we solve this problem for the sake of humanity and our beloved planet?

Do we change the authority? Do we appoint better leader candidates? Changing the small groups of people who lead us is not the solution. This will not bring a difference if the mentality remains the same. Leaders will all eventually be the same. Power and greed will eventually consume any individuals.

We can’t recall one politician on either side(s) who has conservation of nature as part of their manifesto. It seems as though environment irrelevant to the current issues. No talk on policies of global warming, climate change, or anything relevant to the environment.

Look at the current issues we are reading in the media. It is an insult to our intelligence. The issues are recycled, outdated, has no focus, direction, vision, love, intelligence, ethics or moral.

So what is the solution?

Awareness is great. Knowledge is power. However, to overcome this oppression that we have brought upon ourselves is unity. Unity of the people’s voices is pivotal in attaining in changing the system that rules the world.

There must be some form of compassion, at least for the future generations who deserve a lot more from nature. When we lose that compassion and love as human beings, and allow greed to take over, we are no longer fit to be called human but remain as a biological creature in this earth whose task is just to bring more harm and ruin the eco-system and at the end ruin us all.

HASBE ZURAIHA is an exco member of Pertubuhan Pelinding Khazanah Alam (Peka). Website . Facebook .