Every day, calls for the salvation of nature are heard from TV screens, and newspaper headlines scream about the monstrous consequences of environmental destruction. Why do smart, educated, kind and principled people allow such disgraceful things to happen in the world, or even participate in them themselves? What are the reasons for such a thoughtless abuse of nature?
A couple of centuries ago, man was still a part of nature and lived in harmony with it, because the main population lived in villages. And the villagers have always perceived themselves as part of the world around them. Hunters killed the beast when it was necessary to get meat for food and skins for clothing. Animals have never been exterminated for fun. The land was treated with respect and care, because it is the main breadwinner. No factories were built in the villages, no forests were cut down, no poisonous waste was dumped into rivers. But environmental problems on the planet did not start suddenly or yesterday. Think of the whales, which almost all were exterminated due to the fact that the Europeans needed materials for the manufacture of corsets. And without them, not a single self-respecting woman left the house. And the overwhelming majority of men had a noble posture not because of strong, trained muscles, but thanks to the same corsets. And what did the gentle young ladies and gallant officers in rainy London or hot Madrid care about some distant and unknown whales? Over the past centuries, the population has increased dramatically. Cities with a population of one million have grown up. The volume of industrial production has grown hundreds, if not thousands of times. Forests are being destroyed, animals are dying, the water in rivers and lakes is polluted, in order to breathe clean air, townspeople have to travel far out of town. This is the payback for the benefits of civilization. Who wants to grow bread today, heat the oven in winter, walk tens of kilometers and sew clothes by himself? There are eccentrics who build eco-villages and try to maintain an almost primitive communal system. But how many are there compared to the rest of the world's population? People want to live in comfort, and therefore turn a blind eye to many things. Life is already full of stress to think seriously about ozone holes. Who really cares about the problem of extinction of some animals in the Ussuri taiga or the death of the Aral Sea? Here you need to pay off the money faster for the mortgage and change the tires on the car. What kind of tigers or whales are there? Not up to them. And the official sitting in a huge office on the top floor of a building made of stone and concrete, and giving orders to cut down several hectares of forest, does not consider himself a criminal and destroyer of nature. He has not seen this forest and will never see it. What difference does it make to him that several species of animals will die there, because their natural habitat will be destroyed. But a personal bank account is close and understandable. And such people are not monsters with hooves and tails. No, they are often loving fathers of the family and witty interlocutors. Most likely, they have a favorite dog that they love to run with in the morning or an affectionate cat. And in general they love animals. But they love themselves and their comfort more. No matter how detached a person is from nature, he still remains a part of it. Destroying nature, humanity is slowly and systematically destroying itself. People suffer from diseases that few knew about 50 years ago. Allergies, stress and phobias have become a real scourge of modern society. What will happen next? No one can predict. One thing is clear - you need to change your attitude to the world around you. If it's not too late.
