The Scale of Life

When I got an assignment in my nature science class to do a piece of work about something that could be connected to nature, I didn't know what to write about at first. But I remembered hearing about a beautiful region in South America once, called the Pantanal. It's supposed to be lush savannas combined with wetlands, and a heaven for ecologists and biologists because of it's wide array of species and fauna. So, off I went to the library, and grabbed all books that I could find about Brazil and the Pantanal.

Now, I've started to read about it. I've seen pictures as well, and I think it's safe to say that one day, I'll be setting my foot in the beautiful paradise known as the Pantanal. That is of course, if it's not gone before my time.

Because, you see, the threats to the Amazon rain forest are bad enough. But there is also a threat towards the Pantanal. And this is not just Brazil being a corrupt nation where dough matters more than Mother Nature's gifts to us. No, no. Here in Sweden, I see the same thing - we give up more and more of our wild nature, to get more and more energy, to support a growing society that soon won't be able to support itself any longer - and Mother Nature is groaning from the weight of it.

I don't believe in the Global Warming at this point. But I still believe in heavy metals, chemicals, poison, diminishing species due to poaching and hunting, poisoning of rivers and other raping of Nature. These threats are very real. If the Global Warming is true, at best it will raise the temperature a few points, but this... This is where our real threat lies, not only to Nature, but to ourselves as well. If we poison Nature, pretty soon there won't be anything that can help us support ourselves, that we have not poisoned.

I believe life on this planet was meant to develop as it has, including us. But I also believe that someone somewhere in the skies made a mistake when he planned this. I think that humans were meant to walk in a constant balance with Nature - our industrial capability, versus Mother Nature's needs and wants. And right now, on that scale we humans are obese, and Mother Nature is starving. The balance has been disrupted, and if it continues as it does, then pretty soon, we will fall through the floor and we as a human race will be completely wiped out because of nobody but ourselves.

In other words,
We as the next generation of leaders, businessmen, and coincidentally, adventurers, must take a step backwards, see what we've done to our planet. And then it's our job to restore the balance on the Scale of Life. Only after that can we begin to make a better world for ourselves and our fellow humans.

Never sacrifice your home out of greed for money - because what is money worth when you have nowhere to live, nothing to feed on, no pure water to drink? What is money when your entire race collapses because of your need for it? Let me answer that question for you.

It's a curse.



Henrik