We all moan and groan about the loss of the quality of life through the destruction of our ecology, and yet every one of us, in our own little comfortable ways, contributes daily to that destruction. It's time now to awaken in each one of us the respect and attention our beloved Mother deserves.
Interpretation
We often complain about environmental issues while unknowingly contributing to them.
This quote highlights the hypocrisy in our attitudes towards environmental degradation. While we lament the declining quality of life related to ecological destruction, we often fail to recognize our individual roles in perpetuating it. Ed Asner calls for a collective awakening to the importance of respecting and caring for our planet, which he personifies as 'Mother', emphasizing the need for personal accountability and activism in the face of ecological crisis.
In practice
In a speech about climate change at a local community meeting, you can use this quote to highlight personal responsibility.
Never stand still. Only stand still enough to learn, and once you stop learning in that stance, move off. Always keep yourself engaged, in theater, in whatever job you can get. If you can't get an acting job, then go backstage. Or take tickets. But be around actors because that is where you will primarily learn.
As they used to say 'What if they gave a war and nobody came?' How worthwhile if they declared a day of peace and everybody came.
Why make so much of fragmentary blue In here and there a bird, or butterfly, Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye, When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?
That is all the National Parks are about. Use, but do no harm.
The healing of the land and the purification of the human spirit is the same process.
Probably the most visible example of unintended consequences, is what happens every time humans try to change the natural ecology of a place.
Some global hazards are insidious. They stem from pressure on energy supplies, food, water and other natural resources. And they will be aggravated as the population rises to a projected nine billion by mid-century, and by the effects of climate change. An 'ecological shock' could irreversibly degrade our environment.
I want to get out in the water. I want to see fish, real fish, not fish in a laboratory.
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