Why should we care?

After one of my iconic rants about conservation and world affairs, a previous coworker once responded with “But why should we care?”. The question caught me off guard. How do you explain to someone why they should love their mother, or care about people they don’t know, or protect the species we share this planet with?

The easy portion of the answer is to point out that our own existence depends on it. The plants are our fresh air, the pollinators are their reproduction, the birds are their dispersers. The entire ecosystem web keeps these balances healthy. I could go on about clean water, food security, the climate, resource depletion, but these answers don’t quite get to the heart of it for me. If science solved the problem of relying on nature for these things, if we had machines that cleaned our air and our water, would that then give us the go ahead to bulldoze what’s left?

Personally I feel a connection to animals and nature as a whole which simply makes me care. As a member of the ruling species of the planet, I don’t feel a right to rule them, I feel a responsibility to protect. I realise now not everyone has that internal experience, and I believe that comes down to exposure.

Language cannot reach far into the corners of many concepts, and I believe nature is something you need to experience for yourself. It’s a personal connection that means something which there are no words for. It’s the drop in temperature as you enter a dense fern forest, it’s the butterfly that lands on you for a moment, the bird that stops to listen as you talk to it. It’s the lush moss that covers the rocks, the trees whipped by strong winds, the gentle flow of a stream. It is the realisation that animals in the wild have just as much personality as your pets at home, many would argue more so. It is peaceful, dramatic and emotional. It is replenishing and rewarding. It has been bilions of years in the making, and it goes on, and on, and on, and on, and we have no right, standing on the edge of this present moment, to delete the rich histories that have created such a deep and beautiful world.

So what would I say now, if asked that question again? First off, Gary, you need to get out more. Walk along the Grand Canyon track and tell me you don’t feel it. Look up at Wentworth Falls and tell me you don’t feel it. Camp at Dunn’s swamp, and tell me you don’t feel it. Very soon, you’ll understand it for yourself.