The Day Before....

I eagerly look forward to beholding and enjoying beauty like this. I suppose most of us would love to see such beauty around us. 

I imagine this must have been the picture in the Garden of Eden, too—the day before. The day before, humanity decided to take control of the earth. The day before, we were to be stewards. The day after, it became free for all - anarchy. 

 

This week, while travelling to a nearby city, we saw these pictures: beauty being destroyed for the sake of perceived new beauty and "development" that supposedly helps humanity move upward socially and economically.  

But isn't this what we've done for centuries? First, it was the hydroelectric projects. Most rivers were blocked by dams. A few decades later, rivers dried up, green land diminished, droughts became a regular occurrence, and at times, flash floods forced the opening of dams, flooding lowlands. 

 

Then came thermal power plants, supported by coal mines, which destroyed millions of hectares of pristine forests. 

Now, we ransack mountains and hills for minerals and stone. The atomic energy that was supposed to replace hydroelectric and thermal power brought its own disasters, with accidents claiming thousands of lives. Gas and oil exploration, meanwhile, has ravaged mountains, forests, seas, and marine life. 

 

Now, it is the season of alternative energy. Solar panels are everywhere, and EVs are everywhere, hailed as the ultimate answer to all our problems. And tunnelling mountains as the fastest way to reach communities far away. 

But then, every technological development was once seen as the ultimate solution. Only decades later did we recognize that those "ultimate answers" left us with a destroyed nature. Will the next generation witness the ruin we leave behind with today’s so-called solutions?  

 

We are living in the "day after" season, where humanity's economic and social upward mobility takes precedence over everything else, at the cost of destroying the only home we have, the earth. 

But that's about tomorrow. Today, we want to live in the moment, enjoying everything we can, as we live by the YOLO principle. And then we cry about "AQI" and "a climate we can no longer depend on."  

 

In The Lord of the Rings, the Ents are mentioned. The Ents, also known as Onodrim (Tree-host) by the Elves, were an ancient race of Middle-earth. They were created at the behest of Yavanna after she learned of Aulë's children, the Dwarves, knowing they would want to fell trees. The Ents became "shepherds" of the trees, protecting certain forests from Orcs and other perils.  

 

In ‘The Two Towers’, the Ents—usually very patient and deliberate beings—finally became angry with Saruman, whose army had been cutting down a large number of their trees. They convened an Entmoot, a meeting of the Ents of Fangorn Forest at Derndingle, to discuss the possibility of going to war. After a lengthy deliberation of three days (which was quick by Ent standards), they decided to act. Led by Treebeard, the oldest Ent, and accompanied by the hobbits Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, they marched to destroy Saruman’s works. They trapped him in the Tower of Orthanc, destroyed his dams, and flooded the area. Following this, the Ents intercepted Orcs invading Rohan and drove them away.  

 

Perhaps something similar is happening today. As the Good Book says:  

 

Listen now, listen to God:  “Take your stand in court.  

If you have a complaint, tell the mountains;  make your case to the hills.  

And now, Mountains, hear God’s case;  listen, Jury Earth;

For I am bringing charges against my people. I am building a case against them.”  

 

I wonder if I can live in the day before today and the day after, too.