Many people are becoming aware that this industrial society has done terrible things to our earth mother.  And, to be clear, essentially all of us (myself included) have promoted environmental contamination with our purchasing and use of modern products.  This issue is highlighted in the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) phenomenon.  As this point, based on our desire for comfort and convenience, the rivers throughout much of the United States are contaminated with these endocrine-disrupting, cancer-causing, and long-lasting substances.  Please allow me to be a little more blunt than usual as forever chemicals necessitate it.  Because we don’t want to use effort to clean our cooking pans or fabrics or upholstery, the fish in many of our rivers are severely contaminated to the extent that a single meal translates to increased PFAS in the blood serum of humans (and any other organism that eats fish; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935122024926?via%3Dihub).  Because we don’t want to get wet (i.e., be uncomfortable for any length of time), our clothing is now a major source of PFAS contamination that is making food that humans eat unsafe for consumption.  And, we could go on (such as packaging in the fast food industry).  Many of the significant sources of PFAS are based on our need for unprecedented comfort and convenience—they are not necessities.  Therefore, we have to contend with the fact that our population is so lazy and so fragile that we are filling up the soil, air, and water with chemicals that cause cancer in living beings.  That’s quite a privilege (one we never discuss)—the privilege to use completely unnecessary and harmful objects, devices, and coatings for the simple reason that they make life easier.  That is a freedom worth examining critically.

Now that the snows have blanketed the northeastern United States, I sometimes hear in my circles a wish that certain plants had been collected during the growing season for medicine.  Of course, the often-voiced solution these days is to purchase medicines from natural food stores and online shops.  From within the consumer culture, this seems like a perfect remedy for an apothecary that is wanting for specific medicines.  And while I would voice that supporting herbal medicine has immense advantages over supporting pharmaceutical companies, there is still a level of nature disconnection, a reliance on long-distance transport, and information that is missing when we consider the winter landscape devoid of healing teachers.  All of this contributes to a willingness to allow trauma to the land (because we rely on land elsewhere for food, medicine, clothing, etc.).  It isn’t until we directly interact with our local landscapes for necessary items that this society will (finally) critically examine how it uses (read:  exploits) the environment.

I recently had the opportunity to watch your latest documentary titled “A Life on Our Planet” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11989890/).  I am grateful that you have committed your life’s work to sharing the natural wonders of our planet with viewers and trying to instill wonder for life within multiple generations of people.  Your witness statement is a clear and unmistakable call to action.  Your voice and expressions are clearly pained by what you have observed over your lifetime.  I deeply appreciate that you understand what is occurring to the earth (not just intellectually, you feel it within you as well). 

The approximately first ⅔ of the documentary is a must-watch by every single human living within agricultural and industrial societies.  The case you have made is compelling.  However, the approximately final ⅓ of the documentary, where you lay out a vision of the future, will not achieve your goals (as I interpret them).  It is the final portion of your vision that I am writing about to you.

You make a strong argument for the rewilding of our planet but leave out of this vision the key species that is causing catastrophic harm to worlds biota—Homo sapiens. 

I read the following article recently (“OK boomer” isn’t just about the past. It’s about our apocalyptic future; URL:  https://www.vox.com/2019/11/19/20963757/what-is-ok-boomer-meme-about-meaning-gen-z-millennials?utm_source=pocket-newtab).  It makes some really salient points about the current situation regarding Baby Boomers (now in their 50s, 60s, early 70s).  Of course, it also discusses the “rage” presented by Generation Z (now single digits through early 20s) and the world they have inherited.  But it misses several major points that I believe need to be made.

I wonder how many folks reading this post have watched videos of people hunting dangerous game (i.e., animals capable of wounding or killing humans) with bows and noticed there is usually an armed contingent of people in association with the bow hunter. Sometimes this is a single person, sometimes more, who are armed with high-caliber firearms.  The bow hunter, who is almost always using a pulley bow, a weapon with much greater arrow speed, accuracy, and lethal distance than a hand-made wooden bow, is essentially protected by one or more armed bodyguards.  In fact, if the animal comes too close or charges prior to the arrow shot, it will be dispatched with the firearms.