Paradise and Philosophers – © John Neel
A photograph is not the world. It can’t take its place. It produces no air, water or life.
Once nature is gone, there will be no earthly reason to photograph anything.
We are killing what we love. We are killing life. We are killing ourselves.
“Reality check – an occasion on which one is reminded of the nature of things in the real world” – Dictionary
I offer the following as a reality check.
We are living in a time of amazing technologies. Digital has given us a world where it seems anything is possible. All appears to be great and good until we begin to see the fallout and devastation caused to our environment due to our senseless depletion of vital resources. We are rapidly consuming the very source of life.
Ignorance, power, greed and irresponsibility are major contributors to environmental disasters.
Whether toxic waste, nuclear power, or oil there are ignorant and uncaring offenders at every level. Each accidental or deliberate act at any scale reduces the Earth’s ability to sustain life.
When the Earth dies, we all die. In the end, our own stupidity and greed for stuff will have killed us all.
“Wars of the future will be fought over water as they are over oil today, as the source of human survival enters the global marketplace and political arena. Corporate giants, private investors, and corrupt governments vie for control of our dwindling supply, prompting protests, lawsuits, and revolutions from citizens fighting for the right to survive. Past civilizations have collapsed from poor water management. Can the human race survive?”
Ignoring the problems and burying our heads will not create positive change. We must pay attention. Awareness, education, concern and caring are what might save us all. Intelligence is what will win the environment back
Corporations are not interested in the environment. They have caused our environmental problems. Exxon (Alaska oil spill), BP (Gulf oil spill), Tepco (Fukushima), and countless other calamities in recent times have been entirely caused by corporations. Not to mention all of the devastation caused by war and military weaponry.
Corporations are only concerned with resources, production, money and power. Consumption is what they are all about. Clean air, clean water, clean food, our health are not on their agendas. Corporations are not people. Corporations are not life.
Life should not be about the accumulation of things. It should not be about money. There has to be a better way. We need to find it soon.
We all need to see your world for what it is. It is a very tiny ecosystem for the support of life. It is our only livable environment. It is our home. As far as we can determine, it is a unique place in the entire universe. Either we understand that it belongs to the future of all the life we know, or… it will be sacrificed to our greed, our stupidity and our inaction.
“ecosystem |ˈekōˌsistәm; ˈēkō| noun Ecology a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.” Apple Dictionary
Once nature is gone, there will be no earthly reason to photograph anything.
Yes! This is about photography. A photograph is a means of appreciating our situation. A photograph is simply a mirror of our existence as life forms on a tiny rock in the middle of space. It shows us for what we are, where we have been, and where we are headed.
A photograph is not the world. It can’t take its place. It produces no air, water or life. What it can be, is a medium to help us see our predicament before it is too late to turn ourselves around. At some point soon enough, no technology on this planet will be able to save us from ourselves. Not even photography.
If you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Think of the EARTH! Nothing else matters more to life.
Think life! Think green! Think fast!
I cover many photographic topics and techniques in my book. – Great Photography Gift Idea for any Photographer.
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