“O, brave new world
that has such people in it!”
― The Tempest
The awareness that modern mankind’s activities, particularly since the widespread use and exploitation of fossil fuels and the age of Industrialization has had ever-more impactful consequences for Planet Earth emerged gradually, perhaps beginning in a significant way in the 1930’s and ’40’s. Certainly by the close of the Second World War and the use of nuclear weapons against Japan, Homo Sapiens ability to destroy much of the planet and the species therein { including mankind} no longer remained in doubt — for all except perhaps the most deeply dogmatic.
As we shall experience through eyes of writers, scientists, educators, songwriters, philosophers, conservationists, ecologists, filmmakers as well as linguists, anthropologist, and even paleo-geneticists, the growing awareness of an urgency in the need for change in order to protect the natural world (including Homo Sapiens themselves) seems to have focused and clarified exponentially beginning in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s.
Not merely iconic, ground breaking works like those of Rachael Carson’s ‘Silent Spring,’ or Marvin Gaye’s ‘Mercy, Mercy, (The Ecology)’ but also less well known expressions like the song by Dino Valenti with Quicksilver Messenger Service — the opening lines of which appear below — all highlight the natural world’s plight at the hands of the human race.
These creative outpouring of alarm and concern for planet earth each appeared just as the 60’s merged and pushed forward into a new decade of the 1970’s — fully 50 years ago.
Dino Valenti
What You Goin’ Do About Me ?
Lyrics By: Chet Powers
and under the stage name Dino Valenti one of the lead singers of the
rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service. As a songwriter,
he was known as Jesse Oris Farrow. Dino Valenti also wrote the Iconic ‘Peace & Love Song:’ ‘Get Together’ made popular in a recording by ‘The Youngbloods’ in 1967.
What About Me ?
You poisoned my sweet water
You cut down my green trees
The food you fed my children
Was the cause of their disease
My world is slowly fallin’ down
And the airs not good to breathe
And those of us who care enough
We have to do something
Oh, oh, what you gonna do about me?
Oh, oh, what you gonna do about me?
The writer seems to express not only his personal angst, but also pleads the case of ‘Mother Earth:’
What are you (HomoSapiens) Goin’ to Do About Me (Earth)?
As our Human Species
enters the era of Covid-19, perhaps clarity around our global priorities will emerge.
With new eyes, can we see
Five Aspects of mankind’s situation upon which we must agree:
PLANET
PEOPLE
PROFITS
PROPHETS
PRIVILEGE
We well may ask: ‘WHAT MATTERS MOST to OUR SPECIES ?’
But Much More Importantly:
WHAT MATTERS MOST to OUR HOME:
The Place we inhabit in the Natural World, of which we are a tiny but very destructive element ?
Is the human species ready
to grasp & effectively deal with
this reality ?
The Natural World can & will thrive
WITHOUT
THE HUMAN SPECIES.