We all moan and groan about the loss of the quality of life through the destruction of our ecology, and yet every one of us, in our own little comfortable ways, contributes daily to that destruction. It's time now to awaken in each one of us the respect and attention our beloved Mother deserves.
Interpretation
We often complain about environmental issues while unknowingly contributing to them.
This quote highlights the hypocrisy in our attitudes towards environmental degradation. While we lament the declining quality of life related to ecological destruction, we often fail to recognize our individual roles in perpetuating it. Ed Asner calls for a collective awakening to the importance of respecting and caring for our planet, which he personifies as 'Mother', emphasizing the need for personal accountability and activism in the face of ecological crisis.
In practice
In a speech about climate change at a local community meeting, you can use this quote to highlight personal responsibility.
Never stand still. Only stand still enough to learn, and once you stop learning in that stance, move off. Always keep yourself engaged, in theater, in whatever job you can get. If you can't get an acting job, then go backstage. Or take tickets. But be around actors because that is where you will primarily learn.
As they used to say 'What if they gave a war and nobody came?' How worthwhile if they declared a day of peace and everybody came.
Morning drew on apace. The air became more sharp and piercing, as its first dull hue: the death of night, rather than the birth of day: glimmered faintly in the sky. The objects which had looked dim and terrible in the darkness, grew more and more defined, and gradually resolved into their familiar shapes. The rain came down, thick and fast; and pattered, noisily, among the leafless bushes.
It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature's gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.
Today we're seeing that climate change is about more than a few unseasonably mild winters or hot summers. It's about the chain of natural catastrophes and devastating weather patterns that global warming is beginning to set off around the world.. the frequency and intensity of which are breaking records thousands of years old.
Unfortunately, nature is very much a now-you-see-it, now-you-don't affair. A fish flashes, then dissolves in the water before my eyes like so much salt. Deer apparently ascend bodily into heaven; the brightest oriole fades into leaves.
The Everglades is a test. If we pass it, we may get to keep the planet.
No longer conscious of my movement, I discovered a new unity with nature. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt existed.
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