U.T.H.R.T. Mother Earth Has Rights Too!

When God decided to create, his masterpiece called “Mother Earth”, it took him six days according to the bible in Genesis 1:1 to 2:3. There were light, the earth with its lands; water, the sun, moon and stars; and various species of plants and animals. Amongst the animals, God chose humans and made them in His image which is love. He provided our needs and asked us to live in peace on earth despite our differences.

There were beauties in the world, the water's source of life was cleaned and free; the fresh air purified our days and nights; the animals were our neighbors and shared their joys and songs with us, and we learned to see God through the beauty of trees, rivers, and mountains. We woke up with the sun and went to bed with the moon; we live together as a family. We took from Mother Earth what was needed. Algonquian legend says that "beneath the clouds lives the Earth-Mother from whom is derived the Water of Life, who at her bosom feeds plants, animals, and human". As result, Mother Earth and humans lived as one and in harmony.

One day, a day, historians couldn’t date, one of our ancestor got blinded by fear, went on to fence a piece of land and trees, and told his neighbors that they belonged to him. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau put it on his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality “The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society.” A new society based on fear was born, and since then our relationships with Mother Nature have been unhealthy. We have discarded God’s instructions of living with love and harmony, and have chosen the path of self-destruction in the name of progress and profit.

Furthermore, humans went on to misinterpret Mark verse 12:31 which says ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”. Some believe that “loving your neighbors” means loving only people of same race, sex, or religious group, yet others believe that their neighbors could only be humans; therefore, they overlooked nature and other animals, and acted towards them in unloving manners.

For so long, Humanity’s relations toward Mother Earth has been destructive; As a result, she has contracted many diseases such as deforestation, soil degradation, and air pollution. Today, wherever you go, you see the impact of unhealthy humans’ behaviors on nature. In Latin America, home to the largest rainforest, people have been witnessing the destruction of the Amazon Forest. Considering to Rhett Butler’s article entitled “Amazon Destruction” and published on January 26, 2017, over 750,000 square kilometers (289,000 square miles) of the amazon rainforest has been destroyed since 1978 across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana. Further, Mark Kinver a BBC environmental reporter attested to this destruction in his December 4, 2014, article entitled African Soil Crisis Threatens Food Security. “Neglecting the health of Africa’s soil will lock the continent into a cycle of food insecurity for generations to come.” And in Asia, China, the most populated country in the world has been covering her population health under a blanket of air pollution -even in the summer time. In 2007, an article about China's Pollution Problem, a New York Times explained that "Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party."

Therefore, it is time to overcome our fears and accept a new interpretation of Mark 12:31 which views the world as a whole, where people, animals, and nature must live in harmony as neighbors, and love each other. Global warming is real, it is causing both North and South poles to melt, and waters to rise. We must break the silence, accept the truth of our unbalanced relations with nature, and redeem ourselves before it is too late. God created Mother Earth with love and under fear, we created a society of consumerism without consideration of our eco-system.

The road to redemption can be long, but a step must be taken to build a better healthy relation with Mother Earth. Countries have been coming together to construct a legal framework, but unsuccessful. The bridge connecting the Rio Conference on Environment and Development (June 3-14,1992); to the Earth System Governance Tokyo Conference (January 28-31, 2013), and to the Paris Climate Change Conference (2015) has been long and shaky. The bridge was not built by architects and construction workers, but by politicians who most of the time defended campaign donors’ interests, enjoyed free meals, drinks, and hotel rooms, and disregarded the common good. Therefore, I will advise you not to drive your car on that bridge until they get their acts together and accept Mother Earth has rights, or you will drown. As Evo Morales said “Sooner or later, we will have to recognize that the Earth has rights, too, to live without pollution. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans.”

As a result, you cannot effort to leave this matter in the hands of a group of people. We, humans, must redeem ourselves by accepting Mother Earth has rights too. In Africa since the beginning of times, people have always had deep spiritual connections with nature and its surroundings. For example, in Casamance, Senegal, there were locations the Jolas called Sacred Forests which were protected and venerated by them. It was forbidden to cut trees or hunt animals in these areas, and it was the duty of each member of the community to protect the Sacred Forests. Studies made by Rukarivo Tatsande on “African Totems, Kinship and Conservation”. Indicated over 100 plant and animal species are considered totems among Batooro, Banyoro and Baganda tribes in Uganda. Today, the benefits of these relations affect the preservation of Mother Earth and the “raison d’etre” of safari.

In Chicago, I recalled on Friday, April 24^th ,2009, at the Stella Maris Chapel of Loyola University Chicago from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, activists, musicians and nature lovers came together to celebrate International Mother Earth Day under a synchronized sound of music, prayers and good wishes. The initiative of celebrating International Mother Earth Day was established in 2009, by the General Assembly under Resolution A/RES/63/278, to provide an opportunity to raise public awareness around the world to the challenges regarding the well-being of the planet and all the life it supports. Since 2009, Chicago has been slowly redeeming itself. Lady Michigan has been a blessing for the city, some roads have been shaped for bikers to ride freely and in some stores plastic bags are no longer free. Chicagoans are more self-conscious on climate issues and in touch with nature through urban gardening, recycling and parks. These small transformations around the city are a stone in the ocean, but it is a stone. The International Mother Day theme this year has been "Environmental & Climate Literacy".

On April 22, 2017, the Windy City was on its April’s moods, I decided to celebrate Mother Earth Day with the world by having a solitary walk near Lake Michigan. She was beautiful on her gold and blue dress, and I was not alone enjoying the view. I felt hopeful because, whenever, there is love, there will be hope. In Bolivia, Mother Earth was baptized as a “Collective subject of public interest” and has been given a legal personality. The law 701 of the Rights of Mother Earth was passed by the Bolivian Plurinational Assembly in December 2010, it enumerates seven specific rights to which Mother Earth and her constituent life system are entitled: Right to life, to the diversity of life, to water, to clean air, to equilibrium, to restoration and to live free of contamination. I hope the world will follow Bolivia’s footsteps, or at least, humans will make the effort in their daily life to recognize and respect those rights. There is a Cree Indian prophecy that says: “Only after the last Tree has been cut down, only after the last River was been poisoned, only after the last Fish has been caught, only then will you find that Money cannot be eaten.” I wish you Happy International Mother Earth Day 2017, Love Your Neighbors!

Sincerely,

Alpha