The Cries of the Earth

BY SOFO ARCHON

For millennia, we humans have seen Earth as our mother.

Mother Earth provides us with everything we need to sustain ourselves—and she does so unconditionally, asking nothing in return. She gives freely of all that she has, without hesitation, just as any loving mother would to nurture her children.

And we, like children dependent on their mother, take from Earth whatever we need. In fact, at our current, rather immature stage of development, we take far more than we require—and at her expense.

Mother Earth’s boundless generosity has never led us to consider the sacrifices she makes to provide for us. So we keep taking and taking, never pausing to question the consequences of our childish behavior. If we did, we would be shocked to tears.

Can You Hear Earth Crying?

The damage we’ve inflicted on our common mother is beyond measure.

Deforestation.
Soil erosion.
Pollution.
Climate change.
Biodiversity loss.

And the list goes on and on.

The other week, I read a report on Earth’s declining biodiversity, which found that about 60 percent of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and aphibians have been wiped out by human activity since 1970.

And just today, I read a story about a whale that was recently found dead in the Philippines after swallowing over 40 kilograms (approximately 88 pounds) of plastic bags. Mind you, that’s just one whale—one of hundreds of thousands of whales, dolphins, seals, and turtles killed by ocean plastic pollution each year.

Nearly every day, I hear such heartbreaking news. That’s because we are constantly harming our Great Mother. And although she cries out in pain, most of us are so absorbed in ourselves that we don’t hear her. All we care about is maximizing what the founding father of modern capitalism, Adam Smith, called our rational self-interest—how to acquire more possessions, increase our bank accounts, and turn natural resources into products.

Having said that, most of us don’t consciously choose to harm Earth. Rather, we are mindless of our abusive behavior. But as the damage grows and spreads, we gradually begin to feel its consequences in our own lives. We feel it in the water we drink, the food we eat, and the air we breathe. Because of this, more and more of us are starting to realize that what we do to nature, we do to ourselves.

A Change of Heart

For decades, environmentalists have been shouting from the rooftops about the urgent need to protect nature. They warn that if we don’t, we will suffer—and quite possibly die. Yet despite their relentless efforts to persuade us to change how we treat the biosphere, they have largely failed to achieve their goal.

Over the last few decades, the core focus of the environmental movement has been ourselves, not Earth. The implicit message it sends is: “Don’t care about Earth because she is inherently important and deserves our love and protection; care for her only because your survival is at stake.”

Here’s how the cunning mind thinks: “Help others not for their sake, but because you want something in return. And if they stop helping you—or you no longer need their help—there’s no point in continuing to help them.”

It’s like saying: “Care for your mother only as long as you need her. Once she grows old and has nothing left to offer you, why waste time and energy caring for her? There’s absolutely no point—she’ll die soon anyway.”

If you heard someone speaking this way about their mother, you’d think there was something terribly wrong with them—or with their relationship with the very person who brought them to life. Yet this is exactly how we treat Mother Earth.

It’s no wonder that the environmental movement has failed. To succeed, it needs a completely different approach: inspiring love for Earth. That’s because, to genuinely care about nature, we must connect with it through our hearts. Otherwise, our care won’t be sincere, and insincere care cannot be effective.

Until now, fear for our own survival has been the primary motivator for caring about Earth. But fear is a poor catalyst for lasting change. Real, enduring change comes from love. When we love someone, we care for them genuinely—not for selfish reasons, but simply because we wish to see them thrive.

Giving Back to Mother Earth

When we were children, we took, took, and took from our mother. But as we grew older and became adults, we began to understand that a healthy relationship can’t be built on receiving alone—it requires both giving and receiving.

We fully realized this when we fell in love for the first time—usually in our teens. When we’re in love, we don’t just want to receive affection from our beloved; we also want to give our love in return. We find immense joy and satisfaction in both giving and receiving. And if a relationship ever becomes unbalanced—if receiving isn’t matched by giving, or vice versa—we quickly discover that it has turned toxic.

Humanity is currently transitioning from “childhood” to “adulthood.” Until now, we have been taking from Mother Earth without giving nearly anything back. But as we grow and mature, we begin to recognize how imbalanced our relationship with her has been because of our unwillingness to reciprocate her gifts.

Once we enter “adulthood,” we will want to give back to Mother Earth for everything she has generously offered us. Only then will our cold, distant, and exploitative relationship transform into a loving one based on sharing and mutual support.