Wild Australia, just like I would like to see every place
10. September 2020
Don’t underestimate our ability to adapt
8. October 2020
A stingray approaches me in Hamelin Bay, Australia.
Love the Animals
What has led us to the point of causing the second great mass extinction of our planet's species? Why have we reached the point where iconic species such as the elephant and tiger are on the verge of extinction? My conclusion may sound brutal: we humans do not love animals. It is clear to me that if we really do love them we would not cause their extinction, we would not endanger their natural habitats. A few years ago I was convinced that most people loved animals and suffered a great fascination and emotion. I then happened to confront society about this issue, in the artistic field for example. How many famous works of art have an animal as the absolute protagonist? Have you ever been to an art fair? In the one in which I participated, for example, I was the only one exhibiting works depicting animals among hundreds of artists. I happened to compare myself with others discussing sustainability and I realized that animal welfare issues are indifferent to the most. What is important is the health and well-being of people as the reasons behind sustainable choices. There must be a change, of course, if there ever will be, it will not be because a sustainable revolution would save millions of animal species, but because it would save us.
Palm oil crops destroy thousands of hectares of rainforest a year and will cause the extinction of the Orang Utan in about ten years, yet it is a source of income for local populations. This last argument moves the conscience more than that of quickly finding an alternative for the populations in order to save animal species. Traveling in Indonesia and getting to know the people of the territories around the rainforest, I realized that there is a lack of love for their animals. If protecting animals means supporting the local families, fine, for example by establishing ecotourism, but otherwise their wildlife becomes just a faded side character in their lives. If we really loved animals, we wouldn't exploit them and kill them in every possible way to do business at their expense, would we? I thought maybe it's not totally a fault. Perhaps nature has not endowed us with empathy towards animals. Our ancestors certainly could not be softened by a deer that could feed their village. They had to fear wild predators because they could be a danger to the safety of their people. Perhaps nature has not endowed us with pity and compassion towards animals, because it would have been counterproductive for our species.
Yet, few things excite us like suddenly seeing a wild animal in its habitat. This is why so many would love to go on a safari in their life. This summer, I spotted dolphins on the ferry returning from Giglio Island in Italy, in the Tyrrhenian Sea. I immediately called the other passengers around, who came quickly, euphoric and excited to see them. Children go crazy in zoos seeing lions and rhinos. Sometimes our desire to see animals with our own eyes results in even greedy selfishness: young and old are amazed at the circus when wild beasts appear. How does all this wonder about the animal world vanish? When does it turn into cynicism and indifference?
6 Comments
Its a sad state though.. the love for animals ends with categorising them into IUCN redlist from Least concerned to Extinct 🙁
Thanks Prathiba for your intervention! You gave a very interesting example, which underlines how even certain words like “extinct” are now indifferent to us, they don’t give us a shock, they don’t make us feel shame.. Or maybe just because we are ashamed of it then we ignore it as a reaction, so as not to feel responsible…
I think that you are talking about 2 different problems, but strongly related. The first is indifference, the root is bad education, there is no time for compassion anymore and humans are spoilt, somebody told them that they are the centre of the Universe. This problem is related with the second, the overpopulation: too many humans to be fed. 8 billion people that eat the planet. Animal farming is devastating. Farm animals eat a lot of cereals and grains, that have to be grown destroying vergin forests. There is no more space and habitat for the wildlife, The stag is not crossing the road, the road is crossing the forest! Being vegan is the only one solution, the real and only one revolution we can do to save the Planet.
I totally agree with you Margherita! Education can do a lot: since ours is a particularly “intelligent” species, education could fill in the shortcomings that nature may not have given us, such as compassion for other species. What does not make me very optimistic is the fact that society has already failed many times to educate against racism, the discrimination against other “colours” in our own species. We are still far from a non-racist world, what should make us believe that we could learn to love and respect living beings of a completely different form? As you say, eating vegan would be the most sustainable choice in our future (even in our present ..) and I wanted to talk about this in the next article, you anticipated me! 🙂
XXX
No one person can fix this it will take a collective of conservationists, don’t get down find your tribe. I too fear the disconnect I see and not only for animals but also our environment. Your artistic gifts give you a great advantage in get your point of view heard because our eyes tell us more than our ears can hear. Tell someone the reefs are dying and they hear you but show them the dead reef in a way they can see it with their own eyes and you’re in their head. Keep going!
Dear Daniel, thanks for the encouragement. The great consideration you have for the role of the artist fills me with gratitude, I find it beautiful! For centuries, indeed, for millennia, we have been placing hope in the visual arts, because they speak to the spirit and also to future generations. We now hope that people will always remain with their eyes and hearts open to receive the messages that artists send to the world.