Cecil and our environmental conscience

The recreational killing of Cecil the Lion may have a positive side. The worldwide outrage and anger are reminders that we have an environmental conscience, sometimes in spite of ourselves.

Occasionally a sad, single incident like this can become symbolic of our relationship with our world. It may be time for a little reflection and soul searching about how we treat our little blue planet and all of its inhabitants. Our Earth is not the vast wilderness, land of plenty or paradise it once was.

There are now 7.4 billion humans (according to info@worldometers.info) living on the Earth. Demands on space, resources and the environment have had serious impacts on our planet. We all know it's true but can never seem to reconcile our needs with the Earth's ability to accommodate us.

Sometimes we forget our entire existence depends on a narrow zone of conditions favorable for life. If you travel more than a mile down or more than six miles up you will die without special equipment. You could say we live in an onion skin thickness on a big space-bound rock. Our planet may seem big but our world is really quite small.

Our world is also a closed system. Not much except helium and satellites escape our gravity. Only occasional asteroids and radiation get in. Everything we have or will likely have is here and everything is limited. There's only so much fresh water, just so much oil, only a bit of gold, only a few lions. We're on strict rations whether we like it or not.

Wikipedia claims each person produces about 2 pounds of waste every day (Americans produce about 4.5 pounds). That's a lot of tons of trash in a year. Some gets recycled, some becomes more toxic and some lasts virtually forever.

According to the Energy Information Administration, humans also emit over 30 gigatons of CO2 (a gigaton is equal to one billion metric tons) every year from power plants and factories, cars and airplanes, agriculture, and other activities. We forget what we do on the Earth stays on the Earth.

Our ability to see what is happening has been clouded by religions and loud voices telling us not to worry, everything is just fine. Beliefs desperately denying the reality of our situation do not serve us well. The loud voices are coming from those with a vested interest in maintaining power and profits. They shout because they don't want the truth to cut into their incomes, not because they care about us or the planet.

The Earth is an active, dynamic system. It doesn't respond to beliefs or care about profit margins. It does however, react to changes in its delicate balance of life and chemistry. It would be foolish to think 7 billion people and their activities wouldn't have an impact on the Earth.

It's time for humanity to pull up our big people pants and admit we have a planetary problem. Time to realize advocating for more unchecked depletion of resources and repealing environmental protections are counterproductive and self-destructive. Instead of eliminating our environmental laws, they should be strengthened and enforced.

It's time to stop supporting the antics of businesses intent on cannibalizing our world. They would be as successful obeying laws as they are ignoring them.

It's time to shout down politicians who deny the damages we do. Their policies are intended to please the wealthy and privileged at the expense of everyone else. They want you to be afraid of change because the status quo is so rewarding for them. They want you to keep consuming so you won't notice what they're doing.

Cecil the Lion was more than a beast, more than a trophy. He was a representative of a dying environment and should become a symbol of our failure to realize it is happening.

' Russ Bennett is a retired farmer, conservation worker and prairie ecologist. Comments: rhbennett66@yahoo.com