“I, I can’t lie
I’m scared to open my eyes…
What is the point
Of my lips if they don’t make noise? Uh
What is the point of doing nothing at all?
Watching it fall…
You know the time is runnin’, runnin’ out…
I won’t stay quiet, I won’t stay quiet
‘Cause staying silent’s the same as dying
I won’t stay quiet…”
—- Dua Lipa, Swan Song
These are some of the lyrics of Dua Lips’s Swan Song that I heard for the first time this week and I find myself listening to it over and over.
It captures some of the intensity that is building into a blazing crescendo within me, as this administration has the audacity to undermine the Endangered Species Act and the Amazon rainforest is burning down. Every minute the size of a football field of land is being destroyed in the Amazon rainforest.
“What is the point of my lips if they don’t make noise? Watching it fall… you know, the time is runnin’, runnin’ out…”
“I won’t stay quiet, I won’t stay quiet, Cause staying silent‘ s the same as dying, I won’t stay quiet”… our earth is on fire!
What do we do with our sense of powerlessness as our hearts are breaking?
We are not able to stop other humans from raping, violating and destroying millions of animal, bird, fish, insect lives. We can not protect them from experiencing disorientation, terror and suffering in the dying process that humans are causing them.
How do we go on with our daily lives as so many endangered lives are on the verge of extinction and the lungs of our earth are on fire?
When I visited the rain forest in Costa Rica, I was witness to the abundance of wildlife and the intricacies of their interwoven lives that exist in just one tree. I think of all of the millions of lives being destroyed as fires rage in the most diverse ecosystem in the world and it is beyond horrifying.
The Amazon is identified as the lungs of our globe because it produces twenty percent of our oxygen on our planet.
Since the start of the year, Brazil has recorded more than 76,000 fires across the country, most of which are in the rain forest. This is an 84 percent increase over the same period in 2018.
The Brazilian government, until very recently, has been taking the stand that the fires are just too big for them to do anything about. Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing, climate-change-denyingBrazilian president, started to weaken environmental and indigenous protections, and cut approximately $23 million from the country’s environmental agency as soon as he took office.
He has encouraged loggers, farmers, and miners to seize control of and profit off of the Amazon. Bolsonaro’s blatant prioritization of business interests over everything else has emboldened farmers and ranchers to start illegal fires to clear land for cattle. Just last month, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, saw a 278 percent rise in deforestation in the Amazon.
There is a scary overlap between the U.S. government undermining the Endangered Species Act and making it legal to drill in previously protected land and the cattlemen and farmers in Brazil setting fire to the Amazon rainforest. Greed. Irreverence. Stupidity. And a severe loss of humanity.
Climate crisis is our number one issue. We won’t survive without the rainforest. We won’t survive as the rain forest is replaced with cattle raising. The entire business contributes immensely to the greenhouse gas effect — from cows themselves producing methane gas in their digestion process, to the fertilizers that generate huge toxic amounts of nitrous oxide, to the transport of feed for the animals, to the milking machines. We won’t survive as we kill millions of species and pretend we are not one eco-system.
“What is the point of my lips if they don’t make noise? Watching it fall… you know, the time is runnin’, runnin’ out…”
“I won’t stay quiet, I won’t stay quiet, Cause staying silent‘ s the same as dying, I won’t stay quiet”… the earth is on fire
What do we do with our outrage? What do we do with our despair? What do we do with our sense of powerlessness?
Compassion for ourselves that we feel so intensely and we have limited impact.
Yet, don’t stay quiet! Speak out for the wildlife who can not speak out for themselves! Go out on the streets and have our voices be heard. Let’s only elect representation in our government who are sane and know that we are all in this together. Let’s donate to organizations that are fighting for the animals and earth. The Sierra Club, the NRDC, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Defense Fund are just a few that are fighting to protect our wildlife and earth in America.
Rainforest Alliance, Rainforest Action Network’s Protect An Acre program, Amazon Watch, World Wildlife Fund are some of the organizations fighting to preserve the Amazon’s indigenous people and wildlife. Support businesses who are not giving money to our government’s exploitations. Buy products that help protect against deforestation.
Look for products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and/or the Rainforest Alliance (RA). They put a green frog on products as a symbol of environmental, social, and economic sustainability.
Let’s behave in ways that demonstrate that we know we are part of the whole. Let’s live as if we claim the globe as our home. Let’s make choices that reflect knowingness that all lives are literally interwoven as one eco-system.
“What is the point of my lips if they don’t make noise? Watching it fall… you know, the time is runnin’, runnin’ out…”
“I won’t stay quiet, I won’t stay quiet, Cause staying silent‘ s the same as dying, I won’t stay quiet…”