It's easy for people in an air-conditioned room to continue with the policies of destruction of Mother Earth. We need instead to put ourselves in the shoes of families in Bolivia and worldwide that lack water and food and suffer misery and hunger.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the disconnect between those who are comfortable and the suffering of those affected by environmental destruction.
Evo Morales highlights the issue of environmental neglect by contrasting the comfortable living conditions of people in wealthy, air-conditioned spaces with the dire circumstances faced by families in impoverished regions like Bolivia. He calls for empathy and a recognition of our responsibility towards those suffering from the consequences of our policies, urging a shift in perspective to foster greater awareness and action against environmental degradation.
In practice
In a speech on climate awareness, use this quote to illustrate the disparity between privilege and suffering.
Bolivia's majority Indian population was always excluded, politically oppressed and culturally alienated. Our national wealth, our raw materials, was plundered. Indios were once treated like animals here. In the 1930s and 40s, they were sprayed with DDT to kill the vermin on their skin and in their hair whenever they came into the city.
The peoples of the Andes believe in the concept of 'living well' instead of wanting to 'live better' by consuming more, regardless of the cost to our neighbors and our environment.
In nature there is no such thing as waste. In nature nothing is wasted; everything is recycled.
The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.
It is the preservation of the species, not of individuals, which appears to be the design of Deity throughout the whole of nature.
I think Nature's imagination is so much greater than man's, she's never gonna let us relax!
What if you have seen it before, ten thousand times over? An apple tree in full blossom is like a message, sent fresh from heaven to earth, of purity and beauty.
We have a responsibility to protect the rights of generations, of all species, that cannot speak for themselves today. The global challenge of climate change requires that we ask no less of our leaders, or ourselves.
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