Things would be so different now if only there was something or someone out there that would have told us this would happen. If only we had known this was our future, we would have prevented this. The planet is in peril and if something is not done it will correct itself and we, the ignorant animal, will no longer be of it’s concern. If only we had known.
If only we had known that plastic does not degrade and floats in the ocean for ever in small little pieces for fish and birds to eat.
photo by: Tim Zim
If only we had known that the ivory handled spoon passed down for generations came from an elephant that did not die of natural causes, but was slaughtered only for the sale of its tusk.
photo by: ENOUGH Project
A ranger examines the carcass of a young elephant, one of 22 killed by poachers in Garamba in March 2012. The elephants, including 18 adults, were all shot in the top of the head by a sharpshooter’s rifle fired from a helicopter. Many were killed with a single shot. The poachers flew away with ivory worth more than $1 million (US).
If only we had known that what we pour down our drains eventually ends up in the ocean.
Photo by:NOAA’s National Ocean Service
If only we had known that if we decimate an animal population it has a ripple effect…animals extinct in the last 100 years
The Eastern Cougar (Puma concolor couguar) just deemed extinct in 2015.
How much more has to happen before we all decide to face it and refuse to remain ignorant? I admit, I ignored it for a long time because pictures like these (these are nothing to some I found) call up an emotional response that is extremely difficult to handle; tears are automatic. I chose to remain in my little bubble because it “hurt” too much to see it; do not let it hurt, let it piss us off to the point of action…I am there.
Here we are facing the sixth mass extinction because so many of us decided not to heed our own inner calling, our innate responsibility to care for the planet. “A superpower to predict the future”… we already have that dominion; we are the human race, the apex predator able to kill a whale with a boat and spear; the future has been staring us in the face for years, yet we have done nothing. “Lose a day if you use the power”; everyday that we do NOT use our power to save our home and our charge is a day lost.
And so it begins…
featured image:duncan
7 Comments
All true and interesting. But I wonder if “we” had known…would we do things differently? Hard to know. But if it had to do with money, I’d guess not. The same way we are now doing little for air pollution.
no, had we known before we did anything it wouldn’t not have changed…but we do know now and these things are still an issue…that is what I was trying to convey…good writing practice/lesson for me
Yup…
This is sad, thanks for addressing the hard truths…
Thank you for reading…I am just trying to find my way into some sort of “action” that can make a difference…I am hoping that answer comes to me soon. As you talk about in your posts, you have to feel the pain sometimes…
You have put an interesting and terrifying slant to the prompt. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that even if we had “known” we would have pursued the same course. Men overlook the biggest dangers if they interfere with their luxuries and ease of ifestyle. Too too sad. http://judydykstrabrown.com/2014/09/06/present-in-the-present/
You are right, had they known in the beginning, it would not have changed. My point is we do know now, everyone does, the evidence is all around and have known for a long time, yet still it is only the few who try to do anything. Money and greed and ease of lifestyle still out trumps it all because it is easy to just look away… Thank you for the comment and the dialogue!!