Est. 2018
"O, brave new world
that has such people in it!"
— William Shakespeare, The Tempest
The awareness that modern mankind's activities — particularly since the widespread 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 1930s and '40s.
Certainly by the close of the Second World War and the use of nuclear weapons, Homo Sapiens' ability to destroy much of the planet no longer remained in doubt — for all except perhaps the most deeply dogmatic.
As we shall experience through the eyes of writers, scientists, educators, songwriters, philosophers, conservationists, ecologists, filmmakers, linguists, anthropologists, and even paleo-geneticists — the growing urgency in the need for change to protect the natural world seems to have focused and clarified exponentially beginning in the late '60s and early '70s.
Not merely iconic, groundbreaking works like Rachel Carson's Silent Spring or Marvin Gaye's Mercy, Mercy (The Ecology) — but also lesser-known expressions like the song by Dino Valenti with Quicksilver Messenger Service highlight the natural world's plight at the hands of the human race.
Featured Song
What About Me?
Dino Valenti / Chester William Powers Jr.
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 air's 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?
— Lyrics: Chester "Chet" Powers Jr. (Dino Valenti) · Performed with Quicksilver Messenger Service
What About Me? — 1st Verse
Dino Valenti · Quicksilver Messenger Service
About Dino Valenti
Chester William "Chet" Powers, Jr. was an American singer-songwriter who, under the stage name Dino Valenti, became one of the lead singers of the rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service. As a songwriter, he was also known as Jesse Oris Farrow.
Dino Valenti also wrote the iconic Peace & Love anthem Get Together, made popular by The Youngbloods in 1967.
The writer seems to express not only his personal anguish, but also pleads the case of Mother Earth:
What are you going to do about me, Earth?
Framework
With New Eyes, Can We See Five Aspects
of Mankind's Situation Upon Which We Must Agree?
As our Human Species enters the era of Covid-19 and beyond, perhaps clarity around our global priorities will emerge.
What Matters Most to Our Species?
We well may ask what truly matters most — and then challenge ourselves to answer honestly, confronting the gap between what we say and how we act as a civilization.
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?
The Natural World can and will thrive WITHOUT the Human Species.
The reverse is NOT true.