I remember breaking my arm in the fifth grade. I had been skiiing a Big Boulder with my sister and some family friends of ours when physics defeated me- resulting in a radial split. The doctor had to rebreak my arm to set the bone straight. The cast was applied, my wrist bent at a fourty-five degree angle.
After the bone had healed enough for the cast to be removed, I remember the the total conflict and weakness I experienced. My skin was thin, flaky, and yellowed from lack of sunlight. The muscles were weak and shrunken from inactivity. To top it off, no matter how much I willed my wrist and fingers to move within their flexibility, they simly would not respond accordingly- they couldn't beacuse the nerves needed to wake up.. a stuggle of a proccess.
Why am i mentioning this injury? It didn't kill or traumatize me- a fairly common occurance..
...because I wanted to talk about how the planet must feel like a handicapped veteran.
Think about this. We as a species alter the natural habbitat beyond what any other animal does to comfortably live. Sure everyone is becomming more concious about their carbon footprint, more sensitive to our skies, the ozone, and global warming alike. But with all this looking up, I feel everyone has forgotten to look down.
How much of the earths surface is covered in concrete at this point?
Abandoned parking lots, roadways, foundations of buildings, landing strips and so on... and it isn't like we ever retract the alterations we've made once we've decided something is going to exist on that particular patch of surface. And what does this do? It creates a "cast" on the surface of the earth. It blocks sunshine and keeps out the rain and snowmelt which it is so very thirsty for.
And people wonder why buildings and roadways have collapses here and there. Let me make mention of what is hapening beneath your feet. There are underground waterways along with dirt. It's part of the complex drainage system nature provides. When we stop the moisture from penetrating the surface, over a period of time the underground waterway will start to "dry up", leaving a larger pocket of air, rather than a comfortable measure of water ressure which helps maintain the surface. So the weight of the surface can sometimes collapse in on these various pockets of air, causing a slight shift to the ground on which we walk and build.
I live in a city, and frequent others (which seem to be getting larger). I am not saying that our systems of habbitating are completely wrong, but they are somewhat unreasonable as we try to micro-manage the ecosystem.. which I'm pretty sure worked perfectly fine until we decided to run amuck all over it. Even farmland is generally sprayed with pesticides- affecting the insect, animal, and plantlife- poisioning the ground that is beautifully exposed.
I can't even voice a possible solution to help our broken planet.. because like when I had my cast removed- it is easy to imagine that the thirsty ground beneath our abandoned shopping malls and highways is dry and weak. One of the reasons floods are commonplace after the dry season in Africa, is simply because it is difficult for the ground to absorb the water it is exposed to after so long a time without.
In the same way we are making advances in reducing pollution, conserving energy, and utilizing green roofs, and natural energy souces like wind and solar.. I hope we are also looking ro regulate the concrete armor we are bestowing upon the green and blue face of this world.
After the bone had healed enough for the cast to be removed, I remember the the total conflict and weakness I experienced. My skin was thin, flaky, and yellowed from lack of sunlight. The muscles were weak and shrunken from inactivity. To top it off, no matter how much I willed my wrist and fingers to move within their flexibility, they simly would not respond accordingly- they couldn't beacuse the nerves needed to wake up.. a stuggle of a proccess.
Why am i mentioning this injury? It didn't kill or traumatize me- a fairly common occurance..
...because I wanted to talk about how the planet must feel like a handicapped veteran.
Think about this. We as a species alter the natural habbitat beyond what any other animal does to comfortably live. Sure everyone is becomming more concious about their carbon footprint, more sensitive to our skies, the ozone, and global warming alike. But with all this looking up, I feel everyone has forgotten to look down.
How much of the earths surface is covered in concrete at this point?
Abandoned parking lots, roadways, foundations of buildings, landing strips and so on... and it isn't like we ever retract the alterations we've made once we've decided something is going to exist on that particular patch of surface. And what does this do? It creates a "cast" on the surface of the earth. It blocks sunshine and keeps out the rain and snowmelt which it is so very thirsty for.
And people wonder why buildings and roadways have collapses here and there. Let me make mention of what is hapening beneath your feet. There are underground waterways along with dirt. It's part of the complex drainage system nature provides. When we stop the moisture from penetrating the surface, over a period of time the underground waterway will start to "dry up", leaving a larger pocket of air, rather than a comfortable measure of water ressure which helps maintain the surface. So the weight of the surface can sometimes collapse in on these various pockets of air, causing a slight shift to the ground on which we walk and build.
I live in a city, and frequent others (which seem to be getting larger). I am not saying that our systems of habbitating are completely wrong, but they are somewhat unreasonable as we try to micro-manage the ecosystem.. which I'm pretty sure worked perfectly fine until we decided to run amuck all over it. Even farmland is generally sprayed with pesticides- affecting the insect, animal, and plantlife- poisioning the ground that is beautifully exposed.
I can't even voice a possible solution to help our broken planet.. because like when I had my cast removed- it is easy to imagine that the thirsty ground beneath our abandoned shopping malls and highways is dry and weak. One of the reasons floods are commonplace after the dry season in Africa, is simply because it is difficult for the ground to absorb the water it is exposed to after so long a time without.
In the same way we are making advances in reducing pollution, conserving energy, and utilizing green roofs, and natural energy souces like wind and solar.. I hope we are also looking ro regulate the concrete armor we are bestowing upon the green and blue face of this world.
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