I am dying: In some ways I am already dead. Let not my fertile and glistening layer, my rotating stride, my huge presence deceive you. Take a closer look, beyond your Birkenstocks and stunning locks and you will witness a being eating itself from the inside out.
I absolve myself of all responsibility for my demise: My downfall stems solely from your recklessness and despicable indifference.
As I run the race of existence and my grasses stand on end in anxiety, as beads of sweat crawl out of an infinite number of pores, you stand with pointed gaze, lips pursed and pluck the grasses that fit your fancy, scrape the fertile soil from my outer layer to quench your insatiable thirst for self-pleasing superficialities.
You neither hate nor love me. You fight your neighbor over what I have to offer as if you are my champion in a world of hopelessness, then turn and exploit my kindness. You consume more of me in order to intimidate your enemies and invoke jealously in your friends.
You measure your success by the number of whip marks cut into my back, by the number of flagged stakes you plunge into me. You ignore my cry, yet call on your God(s) when I rage in my desperate plea for recognition.
My inhabitants, my creatures of reason, I am no man! I am the Earth: the planet on which you strut, the rock on which you lean, the fields from which you gain sustenance. I call out to you from my deathbed, and yet you do nothing! You choke me with noxious gases and expect me to breathe life into your lungs.
You countries of exploding population ask too much. You countries of unbridled affluence assume the moral high ground, but are drowning in greed and the blood of the wars you have caused. I am in my 4.5 billionth year, but never have I encountered a people more concerned with their own self-worth than that of their neighbors.
But in my wise old age, on the eve of an approaching (though not inevitably soon) death, I sometimes cannot help but shake my head in disgusted laughter for your excess consumption and the racial, cultural and nationalistic barriers from which you derive pride are doing nothing but hurting yourself. Oh, man! Open your eyes: The people that are suffering are not statistics, but individuals who pay the price for your indifference.
I am becoming increasingly hot with the emission of greenhouse gases and hot with anger at the disregard with which you treat some of the protocols that aim to stem the tide of environmental degeneration. If you refuse to listen to Kyoto, listen to me as I make my final appeal.
Action is critical in stemming the increasing environmental degradation of our planet. You are setting a standard of passivity. To care nothing for the source of all we have is to be inhuman, for all that we have stems from some element in the natural world.
The age of the superpower is over as countries' and peoples' survival will become increasingly interdependent on each other. The only way to truly gain power is to empower others and bend in deference to the amazing planet with which we are blessed.
In order to stem environmental damage, we need to begin to consider ourselves an extension of the Earth, and not just as temporary, foreign residents. Every time we choose to ignore our environmental impact, we hurt another individual. The loss of one man is a loss for all mankind,-and as you go into your life looking to effect change, you can start by looking at the fellow people who are suffering around you.
Like planets, humans are not replaceable. If you have no other motivation but to help someone in need,-put the brakes on your fast-track to personal achievement, on your jaunts to the Cambridge Galleria Mall and recognize that your excess is another person's lack. It is this consideration, this recognition of the humanity of all and resulting action that will ultimately save our planet.
The process of effecting change in the commodity-hungry culture of the United States can seem daunting, but we can take a few simple steps to get ourselves thinking about the environment in our everyday lives. If we don't realize how much damage each of our actions causes, how can we do anything about it? Here are a few things I have noticed that we in the Tufts community can do:
Food Waste: Try to take only small amounts in many intervals when going to the dining halls to prevent getting more than you can eat; in 2005, almost 12% of garbage came from food waste.
Water Usage: Take shorter showers; turn off the sink when shaving. Water shortage will be one of the most pressing issues in the 21st century.
Electricity Usage: Buy wind power for your dorm room to offset emissions; turn off lights in your room and bathroom when you are away; shut down your computer when not using it for a long duration of time, especially during the night.
Recycling: Make use of the recycling containers in your dorm.
Educate: Educate yourself. As much as we want to be passive, the planet belongs to all of us, and it is our job to learn about what we are doing to it. You can start by watching Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and making use of online resources.
Reduce Consumption: This is probably the most important thing we can do, because excess consumption of things, such as clothing, appliances, cars, etc. affects the environment on multiple levels.
In the words of an ancient Native American proverb, "Treat the earth well: It was not given to you by your parents; it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children."
Emeka Nwabuzor is a freshman who has not yet declared a major.
