Ark Builders...

Once when chatting with a very nice young lady about some of the ailments that our Earth is living through, she reminded me that some see us environmentalists, conservationists as ones who loath humanity, acting against the interest of our own species...

I answered that quite the contrary and based on the argument of "caring about our own species interest", then we are the ones who love our own species the most. We care about a world where our children have enough food to eat, where they can breath without falling sick, where they can live respectfully with all the other species under the light of whatever spiritual entity or religious god they chose to worship. If we were the people loathers that they think we are, then we would not put up with a fight but rather let the boat sink, let our support systems collapse (which they are doing). At the end and at this pace, we won't prevail but Nature in whatever battered form will. Us (homo non-sapiens)? we'll loose fully responsible as a species of what was done and about what we inflicted to all kinds including our own. We won't go in a pretty way, we won't go peacefully... It won't be without pain and suffering...

In truth, I will admit that I think that the ones who refuse to help, who vehemently act wastefully, toxically, knowingly over consuming, over exploiting, over killing, over-expanding, over-eating - all that hiding behind false pretenses, fake ignorance - these people are the ones who are the people-loather, the world-loather and primarily self-loathers... I feel sadness for all and a deep pity for these lost souls who yes are joyfully taking all of us down. At least I'll depart knowing that I tried as hard as I could to be a moral being...

This reminded of what Scott Russel Sanders wrote about the Ark Builders of our times. I don't like labels, I don't have all of their virtues (yet) but I realize that somehow I fit the profile. We come from every background, every race, every religion and political parties. We work steadily at trying to conserve rather than consume. We are "bound together by a certain joy and boldness in seeking to preserve the diversity of living things and the essential of human knowledge and art". What we "share is a moral vision, one informed by an understanding of ecology and a reverence for life." Sanders's Ark-builders maybe driven by Hope. As "building an Ark when the floodwaters are rising is not an act of despair but an act of hope. To build an ark being about creating a space within life and within which life in its abundance may continue". I will say though that for me Hope is not a driver. I am an Ark builder because we have no other choice: this is the right ethical to do and be, at all times, and now more than ever. And my work is to get more ark builders along with me if I can... 

No, I am not in despair: building this ark and fighting for Life makes me appreciate it more each day. Life is truly a wonderful place to be, one that I want to be able to pass to our children... How about you?