Nature cries for our undivided attention

Recently I watched a cartoon movie with my kids about a talking tree that has been neglected and not listened. It inspired me in a sad way to write this article. I started to imagine if only humans can hear nature' s voice then we’ll understand how selfish we have been to our very existence.

We must reconnect our minds to what nature has to say to us. In Sierra Leone, we used to hear the voice of nature and that was the era of no mudslide, landslide, flooding, etc.

Nature has been so patient with us, but we have just been stubborn to read between the lines. We take its children, relatives and loved ones (trees, sand, stones) to build our houses and make infrastructures to make our families comfortable. If we could look at nature's face, we could see how sad and miserable we've made it become. Natural disasters are just one way they show how miserable they are.

We make bridges and other infrastructures and redirect how nature was meant to be, what a sad thing to do. And here we are talking about human rights, they have the same rights too because of their breath, move, collapse and die just like us. Isn't that the same thing humans do? So why do we think we should have all the rights but infringes on nature's right?

I guess we were taught in school that plants are living things, they inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen that we breath in to survive. That just shows that our very existence depends on how healthy they are.

Naturally, as humans, if our existence depends on how we treat someone or something we always tend to take that thing or person seriously. So why are we still taking nature for granted? Have we not witnessed nature's rage before? I have, and it not pretty. The same thing that was meant to protect us, is killing us.

Because we have forced it to act negatively.

My boss said something the other day, he said nature is getting tired of us and if we keep depleting it at the same pace we are doing now, it will get tired and pop us somewhere else. Then other worthy species will come and occupy our space on Earth. Trust me no one including me want that to happen, do we? So, let’s start with reconciling with nature again.

First thing first, it’s time to take nature's concern at heart. We must realize that its resource is not unlimited. For quite some time now it has been complaining and we have not been a good listener.

Secondly, let's allow nature to heal itself. While we allow the healing process, let us also realize that we do have a role to play in its healing process. Let’s start by being good nature’s listeners. Let’s take an affirmative action to do reforestation and allow nature to flow in its right path.

 According to 1 million women, Costa Rica in just 30 years doubled their rainforest cover by safeguarding it, introducing financial incentives for landowners to reforest and conserve land, which eventually reduced poverty and strengthened Indigenous communities. Logging permits were also restricted and a commission was created to monitor forest activities. The investment in rainforests helped the county’s economic success and created a booming ecotourism industry. This proves that reforesting is valuable to us and the planet.

Then thirdly, we must rethink the issue of non-biodegradable waste disposals especial the plastics. Presently, they are natures biggest problem at hand. They kill ocean species, rendering their environments inhabitable. And here we are complaining about homeless caused by natural disasters, they are just returning the favor.  

As nature focuses on healing itself, we should start looking at how we can adopt ethical living which is a lifestyle revolution to fight the climate crisis. We need to start a climate journey from apathy to action that profoundly changes any lifestyle that has any possibilities of affecting nature. According to Pete Seeger - “If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production.” We don’t have a lot of time left to fix this problem and we need everyone involved to make a change.