Devouring the Earth

The artwork of Goya during his Dark Period is particularly moving, to me as he made severe and harsh judgments about his environment, political statement,s and eventually painted his madness for his own personal viewing. That said Saturn Devouring One of His Children is a painting that I come back to time and time again. Partially out of pure morbid curiosity, but also because the painting reminded me of something.

I couldn't quite put my finger on it, until recently.

It's the act of devouring something that belongs to you, you have authority over, and yet there is a madness involved here. A true wild eyed beasty obliterating life in front of your eyes. SO what, pray tell, could this possibly remind me of?

Humans.

That's right, I said humans. Mankind. Societies and cultures. Particularly rich countries, like America. It was brought up somewhere, at some point, that unlike all other living things on the earth, human beings do not adapt to their environment anymore, we force the environment to adapt to us. We have been told, by someone, that our job is to consume. Consume food, products, energy, natural resources.

Often times you hear a person use the bible to defend the right to factory farming, animal testing, and consumption of natural resources be stating that "We were given dominion over the land and animals". Hmm, I don't think that is what the Judeo-Christian God had in mind, folks.

In any case, we humans, particularly Americans, consume everything in our path. And we seem to feel we are entitled to it, too.

Well let's just drill, drill away for more oil! Let's cut down more forests and continuously develop the landscape so we can crawl across it like cockroaches across a kitchen floor, scouring for food!

What have we become? Do you have any idea how much we waste? And for what purpose? Convenience? Is it so hard to wash a dish that you have to use paper plates? Is it really that tough to use a cloth napkin? Do we really need to buy products that are designed to be tossed in the trash after a few uses?

I mean, from a business perspective, I get it. Make products that don't last, and the customer will have to constantly buy the products. It's brilliant, actually. It is also however, massively wasteful. And I'm not just talking about the overflowing garbage bin, either.

How much money do you waste every week, on products that could be reused? How much money do you think you could save if you spent a little more initially, but the product lasted you for 15 years or longer? I'm not just talking household products, either. How about cars? They are designed to lose value, and stop running well after just a few short years. Not to mention the fact that they are designed so that the average Joe can't work on it themselves, or alter the car when more fuel efficient or energy efficient technology becomes available.

Nope, you have to buy a new one!

And energy, oh goodness gracious. The push to continuously drill for more oil is ridiculous. The only people oil production will actually benefit is the oil companies. We, on the other hand could be using things like hydrogen on demand technologies, and not paying a dime for electricity, heat or even fuel to run your car.

Hello!

I mean, just who do we think we are, anyway? What gives us the right to use everything up, or attempt to? I've got news for people, the Earth is only so big, and it contains only so much in the way of resources. This is not rocket science, people.

And to think that what we do has no effect on the planet? Are you kidding me? We have no idea what the long term effects of drilling up all of the oil has on the planet. But rest assured that when you remove something from it's habitat, and remove a lot of it, it does do something.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Folks, are we Saturn? Are we devouring the very planet and resources that our children and grandchildren will need t live a healthy, happy life? Even if the effects are generations down the line, who are we to hoard and gouge in a manner os that others may be denied, even in the distant future?

What is wrong with us?