On The Death Of A Planet
“The Amazon may attract more fame and glory, but the Pantanal is a better place to see wildlife. In the Amazon, the animals hide in the dense foliage, but in the open spaces of the Pantanal, wildlife is visible to the most casual observer. If you like to see animals in their natural environment, the Pantanal – with the greatest concentration of fauna in the New World – should not be missed.” —- Lonely Planet
In the itinerary of any Brazil trip, Pantanal, even though drastically off route from the sand and sea, features as one of the distinct draws. That pull was strong enough to get us out of Salvador De Bahia, and make the trek into its depths, not just to witness the exotic marshlands, but also for some close encounters with beings other than humans and machines. Living in a big city, one tends to forget about the existence of other beasts. In fact, our interaction with the wild has diminished so greatly, that we tend to often forget the fact that we share this round green orb with 5 million other species.
From a variety of birds, fishes, to hundreds of caimans, iguanas and, if you are lucky, anacondas, the biodiversity of this place jolts the animal inside of us, witnessing nature up close inspires us to understand its mechanics, imagining solitude in its depths at nights brings new exciting fears, Pantanal is perhaps one of the very few places left on this planet which should be saved and nurtured, and not just through the label of a UNESCO world heritage site, but through conscious acceptance of the fact that our future generations may never get to see any life beyond the cities and its walls.
Yet, the sad realization dawns that end might be nigh - every year, 500,000 animals disappear, killed for conversion into luxury goods - the market created for the garment industry of the west: alligator belts, exotic furs, you name it. From the gorgeous jaguar to a piece of fur, it is how we are slowly killing off this gorgeous green planet.
Let’s face this fact once and for all: the death of the planet is triggered not by the producers, but by the consumers, by us. It is the inherent flaw of a capitalistic system - when everything is valued through a monetary system, it all reduces down to a number; and yes, a jaguar is more expensive to maintain as an object of tourism, than as an exotic fur traded through illegal markets. Thus, to feed the decorative needs of wealthy living room, a jaguar’s death is necessary. Similarly, to show off an alligator belt to a few friends, its necessary to farm and kill alligators.
Some say, its just how our planet works.
But is that really so? Or is it simply an excuse we hide behind? Wasn’t a similar excuse used for justifying slavery once?
Well, lets not get too idealistic here - for moral reasons don’t really work in a monetary system (as history has taught us time and again), the debate is actually very simple - given that we exist in a system that’s largely capitalistic, how do we create enough value around a living jaguar that it justifies not only keeping it alive, but alive and well, instead of poaching and killing it, that’s what we really need to figure out. Its not impossible - consider the fact that tourism has already managed to revive economies and help preserve cities, we have possibilities staring right at us.
Also, there is another way - if the consumers of alligator belts, exotic furs, were really viewed as pathetic wannabes whose stupidity stands to harm the planet, we all just need to see them as such. For trying to appear ‘cool’ to one’s immediate society is at the very root of this behavior. As more of their own social circle tells them directly that they are just sheer ‘stupid’ and ‘uncool’ and ‘pathetic’, the urge for such unnecessary consumption reduces, and we are all happy.
Which is why this post - the topic is a cliché, the subject is discussed often in ecological debates, but we just need to discuss this more, so much so that the media attention (which includes social media) grows to a point that the death of a jaguar or alligator is seen exactly as such - a form of murder that is no different than the murder of another human being.
For the last thing we want to sacrifice the planet to, is for the wardrobe or the living room of an idiot and a half.
